Tag: awards

Freezing temps ` blowing snow `

It’s another snow day here in Iowa; a good day to get caught up.  With all the bitter cold weather we’ve heated up the kitchen a time or two with some great recipes. 

German Pancakes ~ delicious, a good mix between a regular old pancake and a French crepe.  We covered ours with berries, syrup, and a little dusting of powdered sugar. Groovy Girl and I made it, baked it, and ate it in short order.

{NYT version}

Rhubarb Pound Cake ~ I made this for a small birthday gathering for our new minister’s wife.  Baking is not always easy for me as you have to follow the directions perfectly. Unlike making dinner where a little of this and a little of that can work even with changing out key ingredients; baking not so much. I had rhubarb in my freezer so right away that changed the recipe and how it baked but really it turned out…better than expected!  I will definitely make this again, maybe even in the summer time when I can use fresh rhubarb.

{my cake~half eaten}

Lentil white bean Chili ~ By the way it has been a very cold winter so my slow cooker is living on my countertop. I whipped this chili up last weekend to keep us warm. I specifically looked for a chili that had lentils and bless the internet this one popped up.  This was a delicious recipe with lots of flavor ~ I opted to make this meatless and it was still great!  My family, used to eating many meatless meals,  didn’t feel like anything was missing.

Brown Rice Risotto ~ I made this for book club because I wanted something new and different for a beautiful butternut squash I had.  I would make this again but I would alter it a bit by roasting the squash first and adding it in after the rice has cooked through. The squash was pretty flavorless after soaking with the rice. I’d also add in more goat cheese.

I got up early this morning, even though it was a snow day for us, because it was the BIG American Library Association award announcements at 8am (Pacific time) only to realize that meant 10 am our time. I curled up and went back to sleep for a little bit before watching the official webcast live. I always just look at the announcements after because it takes place while I’m teaching so this was a treat. I was happy to note that I had quite a few of the award titles already and will order the few that I don’t have over the next few weeks. Good books, good food – this is how we survive winter.  Plus a roaring fire helps.

Peaceful Reading…

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

I picked this book up from Scholastic about a year ago.  Published in 2010, it is on an award list for Iowa this year and the premise had me intrigued. Also I was fascinated by the fact that the author wrote it as part of her doctoral program.

It proved to be as interesting as it’s synopsis led me to believe.  Written as a letter to her captor Gemma pulls us directly into her story.  Frustrated with her parents as they prepare for an international flight,  Gemma takes off to buy herself a cup of coffee and gather her thoughts.  While searching for the right change to hand the barista a stranger comes to her rescue offering to pay for the coffee with the right currency and fixes her cup up with a packet of sugar.  By taking charge of the situation he wins her over with a few soft words and a drug in her drink.  She is swept literally off her feet by Ty to a lone cabin in a remote Australian location.  Gemma attempts to escape several times only to be brought back by Ty because nothing is near.  He has the cabin stocked up with food and he plans to hide away from the world with Gemma by his side.

She’s never had a boyfriend and is not real close to the few friends she had back in London so Ty is able to pull her in because she’s not sure of her own emotions.  There are parts of him that she is attracted to and yet she never fully forgets that he is her captor.  I thought Lucy Christopher did an amazing job of portraying this precarious relationship with glimmers of kindness mixed with Gemma’s true reality of being stolen from her life; bad or good it was still her own life.


“So I followed you.  I don’t know why really.  I could say it was because I had nothing else to do except stare at four walls, or that I wanted to try escaping again, but I think there was more to it than that.  When I was trapped in the house, it felt like I’d already died.  At least when I was with you, it felt like my life mattered somehow…No, that’s not really it; it felt like my life was being noticed.  It sounds weird, I know, but I could tell that you liked having me around.  And that was better than the alternative, that feeling of emptiness that threatened to drown me every hour of being in that house.” (96)

The cover for this book and even the few inside illustrations that lead into the story are really well designed and make perfect sense once you turn the last page. My copy of Stolen has a nice award sticker on the front for the Michael L. Printz ALA honor book. If you haven’t picked this one up yet I recommend it.  At 299 pages it won’t take you long…

Click her name to find her website:  Lucy Christopher and see news about her new title, The Killing Fields.

Peaceful Reading…

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

Name recognition works because as I scanned the new book section at our library Clare Vanderpool’s name popped out at me like it had bright lights flashing around it.  Remember the wonderful historical fiction Moon over Manifest?  See my review here.  She won the Newberry medal for her debut novel.  Now she’s written another amazing story featuring two new characters,  Jack Baker and Early Auden.

From the inside panel:

After his mother’s death at the end of WWII, Jack Baker is suddenly uprooted from his home in Kansas and placed in a boys’ boarding school in Maine.  There he meets Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as an unending story and collects clippings about sightings about sightings of a black bear in the nearby mountains.


Feeling lost and adrift, Jack can’t help being drawn to Early, who refuses to believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the great Appalachian bear, timber rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as the Fish, who was lost in the war.  


When Jack and Early find themselves alone at school, they set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for the great black bear.  Along the way, they meet some truly strange characters, several of them dangerous, all lost in some way, and each a part of the pi story Early continues to reveal.  Jack’s ability to be a steadfast friend to Early will be tested as the boys discover  things they never knew about themselves and others.  

Like Moon over Manifest Vanderpool combines plucky characters with an amazingly tale that contains both historical fiction with magical realism.  My library copy was filled with sticky notes as I marveled over her magical way with words.

Quotes:

“Monday morning came like a cool Kansas shower on a hot, humid day.  In other words, it was a relief.  Because now at least I had a schedule.  I knew that history came first, followed by Latin, English, and math.” {14}


“Finally, I pulled the Sweetie Pie along the dock with a scraping noise that sounded like a cat on a midnight prowl.  Preston, Sam, Robbie Dean, and the others all watched with pained grimaces on their faces, waiting for the boat and the noise to come to a stop.  I stood up and felt the evil Sweetie Pie pitch left, then right, and before I could say Jack Tar, I was upended in Wabenaki Bay.” {43}

“We walked a ways in silence.  Early looked up at the night sky as the clouds cleared and found the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear.  We followed it into the darkness, in search of another great bear-this one on the Appalachian Trail.  My feet were heavy, and the woods closed in around us.  There was only darkness and danger in front of us.  And now there were dogs and pirates behind us. Early’s quest had gone on long enough.  It was time to turn back.  I opened my mouth to say so, but Early spoke first.” {187-188}

I can tell you Early does not plan on turning back…

Vanderpool can turn a phrase, can’t she?  I feel like there’s a little Bluegrass music playing in the background as Early and Jack explore the Appalachian Trail finding more than just adventure.

NY Times article about Navigating Early
Clare Vanderpool’s website.

Peaceful Reading…

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!

Peaceful Reading…

Kreativ Blogger Award

My very first…blogger award…I am so excited!! Thank you so much to Natalie at This Purple Crayon, which is a beautifully unique blog so I’m happy she thought of me!  Thank you Natalie!

 
Here’s how the award works:

 
•Thank the person who gave this to you.
•Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
•Link the person who nominated you.
•Name seven things about yourself that no one would really know.
•Nominate seven “Kreativ Bloggers.”
•Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
•Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated   them.

 
I have to try to find seven different traits of mine  not listed on my list of 21, over on my left sidebar so here goes:
  1.  I stick my foot in my mouth often; (example) I went to a visitation tonight and told the family “Thank You” instead of “I am so sorry for your loss.”  I’m not insensitive just tongue-twisted.
  2.  I am easy to live with-(the opposite of a high maintenance woman) or so my husband says. 
  3.  I am a vegetarian who eats locally-raised meat (odd, yes) so if I’m eating at a restaurant I will only order veggie options but in my own home I might have bacon from a local farmer’s market.  My switch to part-time meat-eater came after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral plus I had several blood tests done, showing that I have a serious anemia issue.  Does this make me high-maintenance?-luckily, my family doesn’t think so!!  
  4.  As a young child I had open heart surgery on my mitral valve twice…thus the wide gap between my two naturally-born children.
  5.  Both  of these sweet children were premature (3 lbs, 4 ozs, and 4 lbs, 4 ozs) yet fully developed and healthy!
  6.  I am an eternal optimist, generally happy and try to see the good in all. 
  7.  I was a bartender and worked for years in the restaurant business before I went to graduate school to get my degree in Library Science.  People are generally surprised by this.   Oh, and I have a tattoo of Winnie-the-Pooh! 

Okay, that wasn’t so hard.
Here are my 7 favorite bloggers where I try to read everyday! 
Please check out  these marvelous blogs!  Happy Reading!
Thank you again to Natalie of This Purple Crayon for thinking of me!!
Now I have to stop blogging so I can watch a movie and eat popcorn with my night owl husband.
Peace.
Peaceful Reading…