Reading – Page 8 – Peaceful Reader

Time flies…

It seems absurd to me that I’ve not written since the beginning of the month. I feel like I’m in the middle of about a hundred projects both at school and home.

And so quickly two weeks sped by…

I’ve been reading A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and it is taking me forever. I’m enjoying the story and I’ve read other Irving titles yet I can’t help but feel I’d like to cross out a couple of hundred words for him. Excellent story though and I constantly feel a little anxious worrying about Owen.

I’ve been reading it seriously since the beginning of the month which is making me feel a bit book-backed up. I have a 6th grade group reading Prodigy by Marie Lu and I’ve fallen way behind them. Two students have already finished and I’m on, like, the 3rd chapter. What kind of discussion leader will I be? Hmm.

I also finally got a new copy of The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen that I’m anxious to get back to and finish. {If you’re wondering why that’s important read here } I have three books I need to read and be ready to discuss with two friends in Arkansas by the time Spring Break rolls around. I have quite a few still checked out from the library and even more recently downloaded from Net Galley. I also need to read Ghosts of Graylock to see if it is too scary for some of our students. See what I mean by book-swamped! I can see the headline: Librarian found buried alive under mountain of her own books!

Reading is not a chore; it’s one of my greatest pleasures. I just need more real time to do it in. I’m grateful for the books that surround me, the stories they share with me, and the true joy it brings me to discuss books with kids and adults alike. The laundry and recycling will just have to wait. I’ll be spending my day with Owen.

I hope you find time for all your favorite pleasures on Valentine’s Day!

Tough beginning to December

My kid’s favorite month has had a tough start for me. I’ve been sick for about 4 weeks with a cold that turned into a sinus infection. I finally took myself to the doctor (which I’m always slow to do) and am now on an antibiotic (which I really dislike) but I am beginning to feel human again.

I watched copious amounts of Parenthood, making me cry, and read several books (The Wednesday Wars, The secret life of bees, The invention of wings). In all that sick time I just didn’t get any blogging done-I blame it on a the snot. Really though I was just so tired. It took all the strength I could gather just to finish a day at work.

I wasn’t writing but I did do all this:

I made this lasagna from Martha Stewart. Good flavor but a bit dry. It tasted much better the next day.

I hosted my husband’s work Christmas party so we had 11 people over for a potluck dinner; I made bread and the lasagna. We cleaned house for 2 days. It was dusty.

I went to my school Christmas gathering hosted by my principal. It was lovely and I made this artichoke dip from Paula Deen. It doesn’t have any butter in it but it was a huge hit.

I made a second artichoke dip for book club (The invention of wings) which happened on the exact same night as aforementioned school party.

I also hosted a reception for my husband’s Christmas play (A Coney Island Christmas by Donald Marguiles.) The play was a huge hit and Groovy Girl even had a good role.

In between but mostly just the last two days I’ve been able to finish Christmas shopping and prepare for our two oldest to come home. We picked up the oldest, Kaylee, yesterday in Iowa City. Tomorrow the second, Tristan, flies into Mpls/St Paul airport. Last spring for Kaylee’s graduation is the last time we’ve been together and we are so excited to be together.

You can see from my list why the writing drops off the list so easily unfortunately. Too tired, too much to do. I hope your list isn’t as long!

Literary list from Groovy Girl

Today is a little like the first day of summer for the two of us. The first real part of summer was all about cleaning up Highland Library, planning our trip out west, and summer arts camp that now we are truly in the state of RELAXING. I read in bed for 45 minutes before emerging from my bedroom. We lazily watched two shows on her favorite HG-TV. I’ve folded a little laundry and we cleaned out the dirty pond that needs a new pump but it has been essentially a lazy day.

So she pops this question off to me as she is eating her noodle lunch:

“Mama, what’s your favorite kid books-

chapter books only-like books that people my age read?”

She asked me for my top three which quickly became five.

The quick list off the top of my head was

1. From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
2. The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
3. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
5. Wonder by R.J. Polaccio

I quickly added Maggie Steifvater’s The Raven Boys series even though it is YA. Too old for now she says. Just books I would have read.

And once I listened to her list I wanted to add some of hers on as well such as The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle-I had to really push her to read that book which was a school assignment and then once she got into it she couldn’t stop.

Then I asked her for her choices:

1. 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
2. Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
4. Wonder by R.J. Polaccio
5. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
6. Crash by Jerry Spinelli
7. Pegasus series by Kate O’Hearn
8. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
10. The Quirks by Erin Soderberg
11. Runaway Twin by Peg Kehret
12. The Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman

And her 13th title is one we cannot remember title or author. It involves a troupe of traveling actors, a crow as her spirit animal and when she cannot kill her spirit animal she is banned from her community. For some reason I do not have it listed on my Goodreads account. If this synopsis rings a bell to you please let me know!

Happy reading and maybe our lists will inspire you to read one of our favorites.

Gregor and his last bite

I finished book five in The Underland series, Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins. This has been quite an accomplishment as I read the whole series with 3 fantastic 5th grade boy readers. They’ve loved this series, reading each one in a quick span of about 2 weeks, which is an excellent triumph. Along the way each young man created a plausible character would they be lucky enough to exist in the Underland world. At our last meeting they were so animated about discussing the series and that there is not a sixth book that I charged them with appealing to Suzanne Collins to continue the series with just one more book. Like a dying man to water they all agreed how it would help them to know how Gregor is faring and if Luxa and Ripred are holding to their bond.

As a teacher and a reader I am overjoyed by their display of emotion over the book. I love that they get to know Suzanne Collins through this work as well as The Hunger Games. We’ve discussed such deep topics through this series; war and peace, what it means to be a warrior, how does this compare to our war-plagued world today, and the mind-set of a soldier during battle and after. Whew. These conversations have spilled over into guns and why we need to have guns in our homes. One of my three shared that his mother almost shot him one night as he came in late through the front door of their trailer. Guns. But this blog post isn’t about guns so much as it is about cookies. Not to {ever}make light of guns but honestly we need cookies more.

In one poignant scene as Gregor is preparing for battle, one in which he believes he is doomed to die, he eats one last cookie made by his kind neighbor Mrs. Cormaci. It’s an oatmeal raisin cookie and that cookie got me to thinking about last bites. Not a last meal, mind you, but just a taste of one last thing-what would it be? For Gregor he was very excited to have that cookie in hand.

I’m going to make these oatmeal cranberry cookies (cuz if it were my bite I would prefer cranberry over raisin) and Martha does it best. I’m going to bring these to book club this week as we have our final conversation about The Underland Chronicles, we find a way to mail our letters to Suzanne Collins and we pick our last book of the year.

The quote:

“They settled themselves down to wait. Gregor passed Ares (his bat bond) a cookie and ate the other. If he did end up dead, he was glad the last taste in his mouth came from Mrs. Cormaci’s kitchen.” {339}

Happy Saturday! This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Cold Day~No School Day!

The temps have dropped to an alarming number of -11 degrees. It is super, super cold. The dogs don’t want to go out to potty and the wind whistles through several of our old windows.

Our traditional snow day breakfast is chocolate chip pancakes with all the toppings and hot chocolate. Today we substituted hot cider leftover from the holidays. There were no complaints…

Yesterday Groovy Girl went to the video store with my husband. He was on a quest to find the next Game of Thrones and she was “just looking.” She came back with 2 games; an olympic event game and Little Big Planet 2 so we’ve spent some of our morning pretending to be Olympic athletes in archery, swimming, and gymnastics. The results tend to be hilarious as the only true gamer at our house is the teenage boy and he slept until it was pancake time.

I have two books I’m trying to finish today; an ARC of Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint, which is excellent and one of my favorite authors Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello. I’m trying to finish it so I can pass it on to my friend Jen in Colorado. Teenage boy can take it to her tomorrow when he leaves us again for the balmy state.

I love a day off yet I have a lot of work to get done at school plus I feel like it can be a hard day for many of our students who are left unattended and don’t have delicious pancakes for brunch or even a bowl of cereal. What’s the temperature in your neck of the woods?

My life in books; 2013

{source}

2013~gone. It was an exciting year though and I read some excellent titles!

One child turned 21 and another turned 18. One child starred as literary children’s favorite Junie B. and is in her last (sob) year of elementary school. Next year at this time she will be half way through 7th grade.

I’ve spent another year working and reading my way through my teacher-librarian job. I want to read and discover even more fantastic books this year and desire to stay on top of what’s new and plus do more writing. Here are my stats for the past year.

2013

I read 62 books (chapter and nonfiction). My blog total is different from my Goodreads total (68) as I added a few excellent picture books to my lists. My highest reading months were January, June and July and December with 7 books each. I never read more than 7 in a month. My lowest month was September-I only read two books-which makes sense as it was the beginning of school and I was probably doing a lot of lesson planning and deep thinking!

I can never pick just one.
Here are my absolute favorite 5-star books for 2013:

The Snow Child
Ender’s Game
Room
I am J
Wonder
The Humming Room
Angry Housewives eating bon bons
The light between the oceans
Boy still missing
Strange but true
Code name Verity
Rose under fire
Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore
Navigating Early
Eleanor + Park
Bud, Not Buddy
Between shades of gray

I love looking back at my list and remembering all those great stories. My two favorite authors of the year would be John Searles (Boy still missing, Strange but true) and Elizabeth Wein (Code name Verity, Rose under fire). My favorite elementary fiction was Bud, Not buddy; an old one but I hadn’t read it and had the opportunity when one of my 5th grade book clubs picked it. My favorite YA title was Eleanor + Park and I am J. Best historical fiction was Between shades of gray and Wein’s companion books about WWII female pilots.

I read several great titles with Groovy Girl this year like One White Dolphin and Patrick Carman’s series The Dark Hills Divide. And I read a few great titles over my lunch time as well-Wonder tops the list, a book everyone should read as well as The one and only Ivan.

I read 18,100 pages, down from last year, which totaled 19,759. And I love that Goodreads configures all this for me! I wonder how many words that is?

What were your favorites in 2013? What goals have you set for 2014?

For the LOVE of reading.

Last night I was sitting on the quiet side of the dance studio where my daughter gracefully dances and I was reading a book. I’d brought two books with me; The Light between oceans by M.L. Stedman and Donalyn Miller’s book The Book Whisperer. I’ve been trying to read Miller’s book for the last two years as I’ve had many people recommend it to me. I’ve even had one friend tell me that the book sounds just like me! With that said and after only reading the first few pages I came upon this quote which DOES describe me to a T!

“I am a reader, a flashlight-under-the-covers, carries-a-book-everywhere-I-go, don’t-look-at-my-Amazon-bill reader. I choose purses based on whether I can cram a paperback into them, and my books are the first items I pack into a suitcase. I am the person whom family and friends call when they need a book recommendation or cannot remember who wrote Heidi. (It was Johanna Spyri.)

My identity as a person is so entwined with my love of reading and books that I cannot separate the two. I am as much a composite of all the book characters I have loved as of the people I have met. I will never climb Mount Everest, but I have seen its terrifying majestic summit through the eyes of Jon Krakauer and Peak Marcello. Going to New York City for the first time, at forty, was like visiting an old friend I knew from E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale. I wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hide in the bathroom until it closed, and look for angels. I know from personal experience that readers lead richer lives, more lives, than those who don’t read.”(10-11)

I’ll stop there but I could even go into the next paragraph which furthers her (and my) LOVE of reading! I was crushed when we visited this summer and never made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but in fairness I was there years ago as a teenager. I ask my children to take a book with them wherever we go-you never know when you might be stuck in the car or an elevator or in line and have just a few minutes to read a page or two. I can’t wait to finish typing this post so I can read my school lunchtime book, Ungifted by Gordan Korman. What has you inspired?

Picture Book Frenzy

In between road trips Groovy Girl and I have spent a lot of time at the library this summer. It is one of our favorite places in our quaint downtown area. We love to browse and talk to the librarians about what we are reading or plan to read or are thinking of reading. It is a great thing to surround our children with this book talking, especially over the summer.

The last time we were browsing I went crazy down the new book shelf of titles. While Groovy Girl searched the new chapter books I picked up picture books galore. I even added one into the pile that i thought my handsome husband would enjoy.

1. The True Stories of an amazing all-brother baseball team; Brothers at Bat by Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno (2012) :

This is a great family story with very retro artwork. The book shares the story of the Acerra brother; 12 brothers, 1 baseball team during the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s. We love a good baseball story and through this text we learn more about life during this era. The 12 brothers played ball for years; their high school team had an Acerra on it twenty-two years in a row! The story shares the troubles the family experienced as well as the many good times they had together. Eventually the 6 older boys get pulled away to WWII. The very lucky thing is that they all come back alive! This is the book I brought home thinking my husband would like it; and he did! I found him one morning, eating his breakfast, reading through the pages.

2. No Ghost Under My Bed by Guido Van Genechten (2010):

While not so new this is a charming little book that reminded me exactly what it was like to have a little one struggle with bedtime. Jack is ready for bed, all tucked in but he hears a sound coming from under the bed. Dad comes each time to calmly check it out, assuring Jack that ghosts do not exist. The father penguin is calm each time and checks to make sure that all is secure. Very sweet story with beautifully subdued pictures in tones of gray and peach.

3. The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson and Eleanor Taylor (2012):

I adore Peter Rabbit and think Emma Thompson would be the perfect person to imitate her in person or in writing. This story takes Peter on a new adventure to Scotland where he meets Finlay McBurney, a large black rabbit, and his clan. This book also included a CD with Ms Thompson reading the tale to us. Very, very sweet!

4. If waffles were like boys by Charise Mericle Harper and Scott Magoon (2011):

A very simple book that takes me back to my own dear son, now a teenager, and definitely not the rambunctious young lad he once was. Now more shy than bouncy I remember easily how he went from activity to activity and that inanimate objects were incorporated into play. This book celebrates that which makes boys, well boys.

5. Hello My Name is Bob by Linas Alsenas (2009):

Bob is a bear. He thinks he is boring. He likes to sit. He likes to hum or count toothpicks. He is quiet. Lucky he has a friend, Jack, who is a bit more thrilling, according to Bob. Jack likes to do wacky stuff like surf, and paint. This story is endearing and brings out the best part of friendship; it is often the differences in each of us that bind us together. This one was a Groovy Girl favorite and really the only one in the stack she was interested in.

What are you picking up at the library?

My Vacation Reads

We just spent 15 days traveling and I can chart our journey by the books that I read. First up Strange but true by John Searles. I sat in the back of our Vue and loved the heck out of this thrilling book while I mentally thanked my husband and son for doing such a fine job of driving. Before leaving on our road trip I’d finished Boy still missing (his first book) which made me steal Strange but true right off my husband’s to-read book pile. I’m impressed with Searles’ creativity. His stories lean toward the bizarre and twisted yet are believable and oh, so crafty. If you have not picked up any of his books yet please do-you won’t be disappointed. He has a new book coming out in September, Help for the Haunted. I want an ARC of this book so much I would jump up and down to get one as I would be the perfect person to read and review it. Who do I have to beg…?

Next I read the historical fiction story The Sandcastle Girls so I could participate in my mother-in-law’s book club which gave me a reason to see Donna’s beautiful house. My review of Sandcastle Girls.

On the trip from DC to NYC I listened to my Audible downloaded copy of Tina Fey’s BossyPants. The last weeks of school I listened to this in my car and then summer hit and I let it slide. I’ve got to get used to working around my house holding on to my phone as I listen but as I’ve yet it’s more of a car activity for me. My son looked at me with his pitiful teenage eyes, shaking his head at me because I laughed out loud on the bus, subway, and street corner as we waited, rode, and walked. Laughed Out Loud. Now I want to go back and watch more 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live segments that feature her and Amy Poehler. I learned a great deal and found Fey’s life stories energizing and of course hysterical. Also she narrates which makes all the difference! I successfully clicked the finish button as we drove through Ohio on Monday.

College Boy read Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan while we lounged in Silver Spring. He read it quickly because he was engaged (a challenge…) and turned it over to me. This amazing tale combines the love of books with 21st Century technology and stirs them together with a great story. Clay Jannon, main character extraordinaire, finds a job at Mr. Penumbra’s book store where things are a bit weird and not many books are sold. Clay takes a closer look at the books in the back of the shop to discover why and with his quirky cast of friends ends up shaking up poor Mr. Penumbra and his bookstore! Excellent story!

Random Quote:

“To run Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore around the clock, one owner and two clerks divide the circle of the sun into thirds, and I get the darkest slice. Penumbra himself takes the mornings-I guess you’d call it prime time, except that this store doesn’t really have one of those. I mean, a single customer is a major event and a single customer is as likely to show up at midnight as at half-past noon.” (21)

I finished Sloan’s book and moved quickly into Sara Gran’s film noir mystery Dope. We swap books in this house like others share toothpaste. My husband read it on the way out to DC while College Boy drove, College Boy read it from DC to Penn Station and I read it on the car trip home. It’s only 243 pages long but packed with a slew of interesting characters and a gritty, intense story that takes place in 1950 NYC.

It begins like this:

“Josephine,”
Maude said my name flatly, like I was dead or she wanted me to be. I sat across from her at a booth in the back of the bar, where the daylight never reached and the smell of stale beer and cigarettes never cleared. Maude had been the mistress of a gangster back in the thirties and he’d bought her this bar to set her up with something after he was gone. It was on the corner of Broadway and West Fourth, and if you’d never been there before it would take a minute to notice that there wasn’t a girl in the place, other than Maude. {1}

And that’s it! This is why it is important to have good, long, wonderful vacations-to READ lots of great books (and to see a few amazing sights).

Ahhh, the bookstores…{NYC}

Of course we ventured into a few bookstores in the city and bought a couple a books but mostly we just loved the comfort zone of books surrounding us.

{G.G. @TheStrand}

The Strand; Oldest daughter spent last summer in NYC working as an intern and loved pretty much everything about being a New Yorker. Her favorite book shop was this one. Groovy Girl and I met up in the children’s section and picked up the exact same picture book, read it, set it down minutes from each other and laughed about it when we realized we’d been reading the same book. I ended up buying the picture book as this was a pretty significant moment and later in life or even tomorrow I can look at this picture book, Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer, and remember that we had this “in sync” moment.

Shakespeare and Co.: Big Daddy saw this bookstore just two blocks away from The Strand and we ducked in to see what we could see. It might have been a quick {ish} stop if he hadn’t found the downstairs script area. I think he bought about 8 plays to review for this coming year. They had a lovely selection of children’s book as well and we loved just browsing.

{G.G. @Shakespeare&Co.}

We could have spent hours at both bookstores just for the respite in-between walking. I’d wanted to find Books of Wonder but we never made it there, which means there must be another trip.