Peaceful Reader

Marc Aronson's Race; A History beyond Black and White

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here’s my three teasers:

From Race; A History beyond Black and White by Marc Aronson:

“And to many Black Americans, saying that racism is fading or that race is no longer important is either silly or blind. Anyone can see, whether in images of blacks driven out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the troubling statistics of the persistent “achievement gap” in our schools, that the deep racial divisions in America remain real, and present. Even as I write these words, racial thinking looms behind the latest headlines, whether they are debates over legal and illegal immigration or analyses of wars that seem to pit Muslims against Christians and Jews”. p. 4-5

I do not read very much nonfiction but this book has captured my attention and I would read more by this author. I don’t know if I will read the whole thing as it is 269 pages long but I’m going to keep going for now. I love in the bio information I looked up it says that Dr. Aronson is a committed internationalist…wouldn’t it be great if we all thought on those terms!

What’s teasing you this week??

The Opposite of Me

Sarah Pekkanen

(2010)

With my Kleenex box next to me and a little Vicks Vapor Rub doing its thing, I finished Pekkanen’s first book. Wow.
I am blown away by talent. I follow Sarah through her newsletter, distributed neatly in my inbox and one day I clicked on it and she was drawing readers in, offering a chance to win something if we would only preorder her new book. I was drawn in and even though I’m supposed to be on a book-buying hiatus, I preordered it. I don’t even know what it was she was giving away nor do I care because I liked her book and it was worth it.

Usually I take a few days to ponder the book or I don’t have time to write a review right away but this time since I’m still laying in bed, breathing in the Vicks, I thought I would share the book love spontaneously! I’m going to be somewhat brief just because it is brand-new and I want you to read it fresh and if I tried to explain all the intricacies of the plot I may fall asleep due to symptoms of the common cold.

Summary:

Two sisters, twin sister to be exact, grow up with out ever having that deep connection so many other twins or even siblings feel toward each other. Linsdey is the smart one, having done well through grad school, now works at a very high powered NY ad agency. She’s in line to take over as the new VP of Creative blah-blah big wig job. Meanwhile, Alex, the beautiful sister is modeling and about to get married in their hometown, Washington D.C. Their paths are destined to cross and they do and it’s fun to be there, peeking in.

My Thoughts:

The book is told through Lindsey’s view point and I have to admit the first section I was worried-Lindsey’s character made me all jumpy and I didn’t enjoy the feeling but later I realized Sarah had done her writing job well by making me feel part of Lindsey’s hectic NY lifestyle. I just wanted to slow down. Little flecks of humor emerge between the twins verbally-sparring with each other but the real comedic wit comes from their parents. Woo hoo-what wonderfully-funny parents (embarrasingly funny-yes) but heck what are other people’s parents really for except to help us see our own parents more humorously! Through all the relationships in this book it has a lot to say about families and relationships and how we live our lives altogether, without seeing each other fully.

See great characters+ great plot=easy read and Sarah Pekkanen achieved this on her first time! Of course, like Hollywood fame she didn’t just whip this out I’m sure plus she has tons of other writing credits to her name. According to the interview in the back of the book, she is already working on a new book and I’m so glad!! Once it has a title I can put it on my to-read list.

Buy the book or ask your library to purchase a copy-it is worth it.
Julie P. at Booking Mama’s review and another great one can be found here-S. Krishna’s Books.
Watch the You Tube trailer-nice without giving it all away.

Highly Recommended-Adult Fiction

5/5 peaceful stars

Happy Reading!

A week past

Wow-a whole week and no blogging! It has been an extremely crazy week and I am so happy to have reached Friday. My computer was missing its power cord (or was it me that was missing it…) for a few days at the beginning of the week as I (mercilessly) left it in Indiana at my friend Barb’s house. She nicely mailed it to me even though she is coming to town this weekend. I got the cord on Wed afternoon and still couldn’t even think about blogging. I’ve also had a wicked cold which has had me crawling into bed soon after getting my peaceful girl to bed.
Just so you know the week wasn’t a total loss here is a list of all the other things I did get accomplished in my absence:

1. I emailed author, Jeanette Hopkins,who is planning a visit. This was long overdue as it was dumped in my lap by the early retiring TAG teacher. I don’t mind having the assignment but was a little behind in all the arrangements.

2. I worked steadily on report cards for two days only to find out they are not do today as I was once told but next week, which (ha, ha) puts me ahead for next week! We are just required to do a number grade (1,2,3) but it still takes a huge brain process to call up each sweet face.

3. I had a book club meeting on Monday evening. Speaking of Monday night, here’s how it went down: I left work right at 4:00 so I could run home and charge my dead phone, grabbed a bottle of wine from my very small stash-I was going to need it later. I picked Japhy up from school for her gymnastics class, arranged with another mom/friend to bring Japhy home, watched her tumble and stretch for 30 minutes (and while my phone was charging, (thanks to the gym for having available outlets) then left to go to book club. Our book this week was The Help, which I love but read quite awhile ago. My book club read it on my suggestion so I felt the need to be there even though I missed my first second series of yoga! I fell in bed right after book club ended! The treats were delicious and the conversation was deep.

4. Tuesday was my husband’s birthday yet we had a 4:00 funeral to attend and then my husband’s drama youth group met so he did not get home to celebrate until 8:30.

5. Wednesday my mom (mostly) with me picking up the slack (me scrubbing potatoes) after I arrived home from school. We made my husband a lovely birthday dinner. She made him a pie for desert and he (needing some much needed quiet time)asked to eat dinner while watching a movie. My mother agreed but I could tell in her heart she was disappointed. It was an odd choice of my husband’s but it was his birthday celebration.
5. Thursday was pretty similar to Monday’s schedule but involved two long appointments with teenage angst son. Luckily my mom was still in town to help so my husband and I both could attend appts. with young son. We ate dinner on the fly at Jimmy Johns between appts.

6. I created and uploaded to our server file three lesson plans for my ongoing project with other librarians in my district.

7. I received three boxes of brand new beautiful books from Titlewave, which I compare to going to the grocery store: 3 boxes of books=$2,000+. I am so excited to inventory them and get them out on the shelves. Because of all other things occuring at work I had to hold myself back from opening them earlier in the week and just immersing myself in the happiness new books bring to me. Today’s the day though so picture me, in my very brand new back room, luxuriating with new books all around me as I read.

8. I also worked with my principal to fix a huge crisis-I was denied a personal day to attend the Dalai Lama’s speech on education at my alma mater. I’ve wanted my whole life to hear him speak and I have the tickets so I was crushed and mystefied as to why I was denied. We worked some things out but I’m not going to go into detail just yet.

9. In the midst of all this craziness I’ve been reading The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen, which I preordered from Powell’s. Yes, I know I wasn’t supposed to buy any new books until I read all the books from my shelves but life is full of exceptions. The last two days I’ve been reading in spare moments because I’m so interested in this story. I also have to write reviews for Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Operation Yes by Sarah Lewis Holmes.

10. I am so happy the weekend is here (almost) never mind that I have guests coming for the weekend. I plan to make it a stress-free weekend-after I scour my house.
p.s. my mom gave me a head start-she cleaned my microwave, refrigerator and my oven. Thanks mom!!

Hope your week has been peaceful!
Happy reading-

Link to local article about our school yoga project.

Wildwood Dancing

Juliet Marillier
(2007)

If you do judge a book by its cover…this one would live up to it. The cover shows us so much of what you will find inside. If you look closely you can see the frog, Gogu resting on Jena’s shoulder.
Inside the front cover lies a simple blurb:

Five adventurous sisters…

Four dark creatures…

Three magical gifts…

Two forbidden lovers…

One enchanted frog…

Cross the threshold into the

Wildwood, and enter a land of magic, daring, betrayal…

and true love.

I already love fairy tales and this is tale is brilliantly written and inspired by The Twelve Dancing Princess, but mixed into the pot is a baba yaga /witch of the forest, an enchanted frog and a little bit of Sleeping Beauty thrown in.

Let me share two quotes:

I suppose the secret was not completely ours; Gogu knew. But even if frogs could talk, Gogu would never have told. Ever since I’d found him long ago, crouched all by himself in the forest, dazed and hurt, I had known I could trust him more than anyone else in the world. ( p. 1)

and

It made no difference that we had done this over and over. The sense of thrilling strangeness had never gone away. Every Full Moon, our bodies tingled with the magic of it. The lamp shone on the blank wall. One by one, we stretched out our hands, and the lantern light threw the silhouettes onto the stones. One by One, we spoke our names in a breathless whisper:

“Tatiana.”

“Jenica.”

“Iulia.”

“Paula.”

“Stela.” ( p. 9)

Can’t you just hear the whisper of their voices as they cross over into the Wildwood for a night of dancing among the creatures of the forest. Find this book at your local library and fall in love with the adventurous tale of Jena, her sisters and her friendly frog. I now want to read Juliet Marillier’s follow-up book, Cybele’s Secret. If I trust the cover-it looks just about as good as the first!

***2010 Reading from my Local Library Project***

5/5 peaceful stars

Highly recommended for middle grade/YA/adult readers

Reading on vacation

I had a lovely Spring Break. I finished Wildwood Dancing before we left for Chicago (review to come), I read Just Listen by Sarah Dessen on the trip and on the ride home yesterday I got half way through Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes. It isn’t a massive amount but I did also enjoy my children, see my step-daughter in a play (She Loves Me) at Northside College Prep and visit with one of my oldest friends, Barbara and her lovely family. Barbara gave me back Jitterbug Perfume, which I had lent her and now I think I might need to go back and reread it as she said she needed a dictionary to read it…

We got home yesterday after picking up the dog at the kennel (which was not the doggie retreat it advertised and unpacked the car from out four day trip. You would have thought we had the kitchen sink in the station wagon. There is something about driving that makes our family pack anything we think we might need in that four day period. I love pulling out the bag of activities my daughter took along but never bothered to use. I love that we carted along Elizabeth, her AG doll, who spent the entire vacation in the car. I made some comment to peaceful girl about Elizabeth not having a very exciting road trip-never leaving the station wagon-her retort is “She’s a doll, mom!” Mmmhmmm…a doll who needs her own wardrobe, bedroom set and accessories, interesting!

I think I’m excited about Health Care Reform passing although I’m not sure. Yes, I do want health care reform but truthfully, I wish I could have written the bill myself. It would have said something like this …”If you do not have quality, affordable health care for you and your family then you may purchase health care from the US government public option. Public Option just gives us a good alternative to the rip-off insurance companies out there who keep upping the price of insurance with no extra benefits involved. I would have thrown in something about small businesses using the public option as well because they need to be competitive in today’s market.” It would have been about a paragraph long instead of the 100 page long document I researched online. Part A, Part B, Part C…to much filler.

In other current news I have been listening to The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, which is 17 discs long. I love the story and am anxious to get back to listening to it on my drive back and forth to work. I’ve had to renew it 3 times from the library (an ipod would help) so that both my husband and I can finish it.

How is your first day of Spring?

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
~Grab your current read
~Open to a random page
~Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~Be careful not to give away to much-you don’t want to spoil the book for others.
~Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teasers:

The danced. All by themselves, beyond the farthest fringe of the crowd, they circled and swayed, met and parted, turned and passed. Even when the steps of their dance drew them apart, their heads turned to look, and look, and look, as if they would drown in each other’s eyes. p. 75 ~Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I love this book. It is has a connection to The Twelve Dancing Princesses and is very well-written. I’m on chapter six and have to get back to reading…
ta ta for now.

What’s your teaser for the day?

Peaceful Reading~

Picture Books

Peaceful Girl and I have read 5 fantastic picture books recently.

Our rundown in no particular order:

1. Front Porch Tales & North Country Whoppers (2007) by Tomie DePaola: This is a homegrown book just waiting to be read aloud. The language is fun and sleepy little girl was begging for more as we made our way through the 10 little folk tales and tall tales. Her favorite was “Big Gertie and Love at First Sight” which begins: If ya are ever in Weston, Vermont, and ya drive north through the village on Route 100, you’ll come to the Greendale Road on yer left. The beginnin’ part is paved, but as soon as ya git to the unpaved part, you’ll be drivin’ into the Green Mountain National Forest.
Once you there you meet the lumberjacks and their cook, Big Gertie, who is “BIG and TALL and BIG-BONED and is a distant cousin of the Bunyon family. Big Gertie is a good cook but overworked and the lumberjacks find a great way to help her. Fabulous pictures add to the tales as well.

2. A Young Dancer; The Life of an Ailey Dancer(2009) by Valerie Gladstone, photographs by Jose Ivey: This book followers a beautiful young dancer, Iman Bright, an Ailey student. Iman balances dance with school work and violin lessons. Easy-to-read so young readers will love discovering all it takes to be a well-rounded dancer. The photos are often full page spreads, giving the feel of being right there with Iman. Alvin Ailey Dance site.

3. Budgie and Boo (2009)by David McPhail: I love David McPhail’s The Teddy Bear and always enjoy using it as a read aloud at the library. Kids really relate to this very compassionate tale. This new one has two fantastic characters, Budgie is a bear and Boo is a bunny. They both love to garden; Boo grows vegetables and Budgie grows flowers. This one’s message is simple; isn’t it wonderful to have a special friend!

4. Imogene’s Last Stand (2009) by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter: This is the cutest elementary historical fiction book with a very high-spirited heroine. Imogene has always loved history and works hard to clean up the Liddleville Historical Society so others can come and visit. Instead, the mayor decides to raze the historical house and Imogene fights back. Full of spunk, Imogene teaches the whole town a lesson is what’s really important.

5. Fancy Nancy; Poet Extraordinaire! (2010)by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser: Peaceful Girl has told me a few times that she is “beyond” Fancy Nancy and has moved on to other reading materials. Hmmm, that is until her grandmother brought her this one! See little girl loves poetry, thanks to her amazing 1st grade teacher. This one brought out all the stops as the other Nancy books do with all that wonderful word play focused on creating poetry. I think come April I might have to create my own Palace of Poetry in our library! Fancy Nancy has her own website-click here!

All 5 picture books rate

5/5 peaceful stars

Highly Recommended-Elementary

Manly Man Award

Jana from Milk and Cookies; comfort reading and Adventures in the Library bestowed upon me a manly award.
I’m supposed to answer some questions about the manly side of myself. Here goes:
Tell a couple of things about yourself, the name of your favorite guy book, your favorite sports moment, favorite MANLY MAN movie, favorite manly music, and your Favorite Food With No Nutritional Value.

1. I never liked pink or glittery things, until I had a girl and she is a glittery, pink and purple kinda girl. Now its a bonding choice.
Along life’s journey I’ve had quite a few male best friends, truly great guys, even though my husband claims technically young men and women are not really able to be best friends. I think he is implying something about my guy friends but I choose to ignore his innuendo.

2. My favorite GUY book is probably The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

3. My favorite sports moment is way back in time when the Twins won the World Series and I was right there, waving a Homer Hanky.

4 Manly Movie: Troy–Brad Pitt is manly to me. Lots of sword play!

5. Manly Music: Nirvana, Guns n Roses.

6. Manly food: Cheetos, movie popcorn and potato chips, on occasion.

I’m passing this Manly Man Award to:

Jim at TeacherNinja
Julie at Turning the Pages
Mr. H. at SMS Guys Read

To those of you I passed this along to you can pass along if you’ d like, or just accept and post your answers on your blogs! Thanks so much for the award guys!!

Thanks for playing along!

An Unfinished Angel

Sharon Creech

(2009)

Synopsis: In the ancient stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember. Until Zola arrives, a determined American girl who wears three different skirts all at once. For neighbors who have been longtime enemies, children who have been lost, and villagers who have been sleepily living their lives: hold on. Zola and the angel are about to collide. Figs start flying, dogs start arfing, and the whole village begins to WAKE UP. Zola is a girl with a mission. And our angel has been without one- till now. (from jacket flap)

My thoughts: It took about a chapter to let yourself get into the mind of the angel as she is the narrator and talks in an unusual speech pattern but the tale is wonderful. Through Zola, the angel learns of a band of children, all living in an abandoned shack. Zola’s constant refrain of “you have to do something” is one to be reiterated over and over in our own lives. Slowly the village wakes up long enough to see the common good. Like Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin this book would make a great read-aloud for elementary students to show empathy. How can we each help the world, whether in our own neighborhood or on a larger scale to DO SOMETHING! Creech demonstrates how, within each one of us, lives an unfinished angel that bears listening to.

A quote:

“Angel!” Zola says. “We’ve got to get busy!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Are we telling anyone about the children? And then what? What if someone takes them away to an orphanage? That’s where they were, Paolo says. A bad orphanage. But not in this country. And then they lived in ditches. Ditches! What’s the plan?

“Plan?” She is expecting me to have a plan?

“What’s next?”

“Next?”

“Angel! Are you having a hearing problem?”

And she goes on, “When should…” and “What time will…” and myself is woozy sleepy and I want to go lie down in the pasture of the goats. p. 86

The angel and Zola are enduring characters and I easily related to both sides (what is the plan?) and the pastoral setting of the Swiss Alps are lovely. I could easily list quote after quote because once you get adjusted to angel-speak:

First, I tell you that I am in peace with the birdies and the froggies and the toads and the kittens and the puppies and the lizards, all of those creatures, just like I am in peace with the mountains and the trees and the flowers, but let’s not get too mushy. I tell you that so you know that I am not like the peoples who hate everything and complain all day short or long. Those peoples are sad. p. 39

You can’t help but love this exquisitely crafted tale of getting out of our own comfort zone!

5/5 peaceful stars

Highly Recommended for all living beasts

Sharon Creech’s blog

Kids Reads.com review

Becky’s Book Reviews

Ooh-La-La-Spring Break

Okay, this is where I would like to be spending Spring Break. It looks relaxing. I would have a book in my hand, of course. Instead we are heading into Chicago-still exciting-but not a pool with real palm trees! I have a stack of books in front of me to review so I guess I should start there.

I started reading gossip of the starlings by Nina de Gramont one morning at the breakfast table. I was riveted…didn’t want to go to school (rarely happens) and I continued to read long after my granola was gone. I tucked it into my school bag and headed off for the day, hoping to read a few more chapters over lunch.

The story:

As soon as Catherine Morrow transfers in to Esther Percy School for Girls, Skye Butterfield
chooses her as her friend. Even though Catherine is at Esther Percy to turn over a new, clean leaf, she allows Skye to take control. Catherine has the connections and Skye has the typical burning desire to try it all. Skye’s father is a famous senator and even though, she loves her father, she can’t help but see all the hypocrisy surrounding their family life. This mixture of feelings pulls Skye in all different directions and seems to steer her down the continual wrong path. Catherine introduces her to coke but its Skye who needs to keep doing it and who discovers a variety of other drugs along the way. She also gets several teachers in trouble and has an affair with her English teacher.

My thoughts:

After the initial thrill of reading I was disappointed in the overall topic. I got tired of Skye running the show. I got tired of Catherine constantly accepting and excusing her friend’s behaviour. Catherine, in this same, drug-filled year, is attempting to place at the National Horse Show and hold on to her own friends and family. There were parts of the book I enjoyed and while I see it as probably pretty accurate boarding school behaviour (any high school for that matter) I found it to be too over-the-top, which made me just want to shake Catherine-hello-can you just say NO, just once. I enjoyed the relationship between John Paul and Catherine-good young romance but beyond that I found nothing to connect to in the story.
Confessions of a bibliophile review

2.5/5 peaceful stars

YA Fiction