Everyday Reading: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

One Down, Three to Go

I won't lie, 2010 has been my best reading year so far in terms of numbers; I've read 74 books since January 1st, for a total of 18,979 pages.

As far as quality of books though, well, it has left something to be desired. Who knew so many terrible books could find a publisher?

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Willow by Julia Hoban

Trudy by Jessica Lee Anderson

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsburg

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

The Great and Only Barnum by Candace Fleming

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look

Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Lost and Found by Andrew Clements

Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti

The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

For Keeps by Natasha Friend

Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Korsoczka

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson

Frankly, Frannie by A. J. Stern

The Get Rich Quick Club by Dan Gutman

The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

The Mark by Jen Nadol

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

My Life in France by Julia Child

The Wild Wild West by Geronimo Stilton

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski

The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children by Po Bronson

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

January (Conspiracy 365) by Gabrielle Lord

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer

There's A Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar

The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt

Lunch Money by Andrew Clements

The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck

Well Witched by Francis Hardinge

The Eternal Ones by Kristen Miller

What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson

The Hole We're In by Gabrielle Zevin

Conspiracy 365: February by Gabrielle Lord

How it Ends by Lauren Wiess

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

9 of 10: Birthmarked just was begging for me to like it. Strong heroine, dystopian world, mystery and intrigue, and a little romance. Of course I loved it.

I've read a lot of advance copies YA fiction so far this year (most of it from ALA), much of it from debut authors, much of it HIGHLY hyped. And book after book has completely disappointed me. This is one of the few I've read that I really enjoyed.

The inside of the cover of my ARC of this book has a letter from the executive editor of Roaring Brook Press and she could have pitched this book as The Hunger Games meets The Handmaid's Tale, but she instead likes to tell people what happens in the first chapter. Since I haven't read The Handmaid's Tale, I'd say it's more like The Hunger Games meets The Giver.

Like the editor, the most convincing argument for this book is what happens in the first chapter - Gaia Stone is sixteen years old and helps her mother in her role as midwife. On the night the story begins, however, Gaia's mother is elsewhere delivering another baby, and Gaia ends up delivering a baby on her own for the first time. Things go, happily, without incident and both baby and mother are fine.

And then Gaia takes the baby from its mother and takes it to the walls of the Enclave. The law is that each midwife must turn in the first three babies she delivers each month and this is, of course, Gaia's first.

The book is set in the future, about 300 years. The world has been fairly desolated by famine, war, climate change, etc., and the outside world is pretty bleak. The Enclave was begun by a group of people who figured out how to raise food even in these ugly conditions and they built a wall around their city to protect themselves. Other people settled just outside the walls, looking for some bit of protection and have scraped out an existence since then, giving up their children as required by the quota.

The children are raised by their adoptive families within the Enclave and, when they are thirteen, are allowed to decide if they would like to return to their original families outside the walls, but of course none ever do because life inside the Enclave is so much better.

When Gaia returns from her first baby hand-in, though, she discovers that her parents are gone, taken inside the Enclave for questioning, and that a soldier is waiting in her home, anxious to find out what she knows (although she has no idea what it is she's supposed to know anything ABOUT). As the weeks go by without the return of her parents, Gaia begins, for the first time in her life, to question the purpose and goodness of the Enclave. How could they have taken her parents, especially her mother, who has served the Enclave, delivering her quota of babies every month, so faithfully throughout her life?

It's hard for Gaia to be very inconspicuous as she begins making quiet inquiries, though, because of a large burn on her face, the remains of a childhood accident. She'll have to be even more careful than she might have otherwise.

One of the things that made this book really work for me was that it was all so realistic. The revelations about the Enclave weren't huge, mind-blowing things; rather they were the types of issues that you could see really coming up in such a society. I've read a few reviews where people have been a little disappointed in these revelations, but I thought it really worked.

And of course there was a smidge of a romance, but it developed slowly, which I liked.

I will say right off that this is no Hunger Games. It doesn't have that "oh my word, I cannot put this book down and as soon as I finish, I will force all my friends to read it" quality, but it is a really solid, well-written book. I enjoyed every moment that I spent reading, and I think it will have a solid fan base, but I doubt it will have the raging popularity The Hunger Games or The Giver have enjoyed.

Apparently there is going to be a sequel, which I'm excited about, but this book can stand alone too, which I appreciate.

Advance copy of Birthmarked from publisher at ALA Midwinter 2010.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Tell Me What to Read: Round 10

Last month, when I'd read two extra books suggested by you fine folks, I said, "Never expect such awesomeness from me again."

Oh, but you should have. Because this month I have basically outdone myself. Not only did I read (before the month was even half over) Jackaroo, but I also read Tuck Everlasting, suggested by Chrissie, The Help recommended by, well, everyone (RA, Em and Trev, Yankee Girl, and Mom), There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom suggested by Jessica, The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman suggested by Mary, and The Rag and Bone Shop suggested, every month without fail, by Angela Noelle.

AND, as if that wasn't enough, I read Zen And The Art Of Faking It which Katie recommended in January and Conspiracy 365 January which Mary recommended in January. AND What Dreams May Come which Kayla has suggested several times.

This time I mean it when I say NEVER EXPECT SUCH AWESOMENESS AGAIN.

Instead, tell me what to read in April. You know, that month when I'll be on spring break for a week, lounging in Mexico. You hold the power.

Here's how it goes:

1. Comment with the title of one book you think I should read (any book you want). One title only, please, lest my brain explode.
2. I'll select one comment at random and announce it on the blog later next week.
3. On the off-chance that I've already read the book you select, I'll contact you and ask for a follow-up suggestion (make sure there is a way to contact you either by blog or email).
4. I'll get a copy of the book and read it by the end of March.
5. I'll write a review of it here. Even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

9 of 10: It seems very likely that you've seen or heard of The Help; it's been a huge bestseller. Let me be one more voice in the "This is really a delightful book" crowd. This story about the Civil Rights Era in the South, on a micro-level, is terrifically readable and full of great characters. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll go home happy.

You know what makes me paranoid? When people talk about how you can't give any summary of a certain book without spoiling it. Because, what I'm going to say about this book, I don't feel like is a spoiler.

I am going to call that last paragraph "fair warning." (Also, I just went and read some professional reviews of the book and they all gave plenty of plot summary, so I forge onward guilt free).

The story is set in Civil Rights-Era Jackson, Mississippi, which, as you can imagine, is an excellent time and place to be black. Or not. Most of the white people are pretty darn committed to making sure that they stay the ruling race and any attempts by others, black or white, to change that are going to be crushed in a quick and likely cruel way.

There are three main characters, each of whom you hear from alternately. One is an older black woman named Aibileen who has been a maid/nanny for a number of families over the course of her life. She's a little bit quiet, but she's observant and she has a lot of years of dealing with being a black woman raising a white woman's children.

Minny is Aibileen's dearest friend, a younger black woman, who is a tremendous cook but has a hard time keeping a job because she can't often resist the urge to talk back (a trait which is not exactly desired among white families looking for help).

And there's Skeeter, a white girl just graduated from college and still unmarried. Her mother takes that to mean her four-year education was a complete waste. Skeeter's family had a black maid/nanny for most of her growing up and was extremely close to the woman, but when she returns from college, the nanny is gone and no one will tell her why or where she has gone.

Most of Skeeter's best friends from high school are married and settled down in their hometown, and Skeeter spends a great deal of time with them, but is a little distressed when her closest friend starts really pushing a petition to get white families to put in separate bathrooms for their black help. This event, combined with the mysterious disappearance of her nanny, gets Skeeter thinking about the relationships between blacks and whites, especially when so many white children are raised, primarily, by their black nannies.

Could she possibly get some black women to talk about their experiences working for white families? She has dreams of being a writer anyway, and this seems like something that, just maybe, she could start a career with.

(I admit, I had to go back and look up all their names - I am terrible with character names, always).

There is a lot to like about this book. It is easy to be drawn in by the storyline and the characters and it's a pretty fast read (I finished the whole thing on my way to Phoenix a few weeks ago). It's a historical time-period I've been really interested in since high school, and I thought the portrayal of the events and the relationships were pretty accurately done.

The characters are really well done - they're all pretty different and easy to tell apart (it is one of my most enormous pet peeves when there are multiple voices that all sound exactly the freaking same and I have to keep checking the chapter heading to see who is even speaking), and they're all so likable in their own real, sometimes prickly ways.

And I was impressed by the fairly even-handedness of the topic that Stockett managed. She didn't make one group out to be saints or one group demons. There are good and bad and goodish-baddish people on every side of the issue, and each has different motivations and reasons for being where they are on that side - hate, pride, naivete, personal experiences.

It's not a perfect book - there were several revelations that I felt like got strung along FAR too long or that when they were finally revealed, I felt were rather anti-climatic.

I'm sure there will be people who hate it because it's popular (are you the same ones who haven't read Hunger Games yet?), and some people who just genuinely don't care for it, but I thought it was definitely worth reading. Plus, you know me. If it's popular, I want to have read it.

Also, is it just me or do you feel especially virtuous when you return a highly-requested book to the library WELL before it is due? Oh, just me?

Copy borrowed from local library

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Citations

As the librarian, I don't give any grades (a fact over which you will never see me shedding tears, although I do not point this fact out to the students, since I am happy for them to think I wield great power). However, part of the district's report cards include citations and bibliographies for the older grades and many of the teachers simply expect me to do the majority of the teaching on that subject.

But. . . citations are boring. And I speak as a history major who has done hundreds and hundreds of them. It's nit-picky, it's tedious, and, for a fourth or fifth grader, it's kind of hard to see the point, I think.

And I don't like teaching boring things because it makes for a class management nightmares, as the kids get restless, loud, and difficult. I suffer more than they do if they don't like the lesson. And, this may shock you, but I try to avoid suffering when possible.

Which is why this week, in fifth grade, we're playing Citation Jeopardy. I set the whole thing up in PowerPoint, with the slides linked to each other (why, yes, I am stupidly proud of the whole thing - you can check it out here if you happen to be a giant nerd, although the internal hyperlinks appear not to work on the Google Doc version, which is tragic) and even some Daily Doubles.

The questions asked things like "What kind of citation is this" and then had an example, or showed a citation that was missing some sort of punctuation or a whole part and asked them to identify what was missing. Some questions, I gave them a book and made them find the publisher or the copyright year.

I was worried it might be kind of lame, that they'd get antsy, but instead they were on the edge of their seats. While one team was figuring out the answer, the other teams would be conferring, so that if the question got to them, they'd be able to answer correctly.

I even had prizes (who knew fifth graders would lose their minds over "Hungry Little Caterpillar" stick-on tattoos?), thanks to Penguin.

I don't know that the popularity of the game quite made up for the last two weeks where we've been doing citations by hand, but I think it may have come close.

Monday, March 22, 2010

In-town Touring

Bart was working this weekend, so it could have been lonely and pathetic. Happily, my dad was in town and so it was anything but.

On Friday afternoon, I drove north of Boston to meet up with him and we had a delightful evening, part of which involved a ridiculously tasty dinner at an Italian restaurant.

It was a well-timed visit, because Saturday was beautiful - seventy degrees and sunny - and we got up fairly early and headed to Lexington and Concord. We saw the movie "Road to Revolution" at Minute Man National Park (we were the very first people to see it this season, since we hit the first showing and Saturday was the first day the park was reopened), stopped by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, walked across the Old North Bridge (nearly flooded due to the recent rain), and went to the Village Green in Lexington (preceeded by my humilitating exhibit of how not to parallel park, while my dad probably internally sighed and wondered how I had forgotten all the skills he'd carefully taught me nine years ago when I was getting ready to take my driving test (answer: because I've never really lived anywhere that required any significant amount of parallel parking. And also because I make Bart do it if the need arises)).

Afterward, we drove down in to Boston (one of those moments where you realize a real map is much better than a Blackberry one because the digital ones do NOT LOAD FAST ENOUGH and also, streets are never well marked in Boston) and met up with one of my dad's best friends from elementary and middle school, along with his wife and son, and had a nice lunch at Durgin Park (established before you were born).

And then, on to the Freedom Trail. Because, when it's seventy degrees outside in Boston, well, you get outside. And I think all of Boston was out there. We toured Paul Revere's house, visited the Old North Church, and went aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, and then up to Bunker Hill.

My dad asked what sounded good for dinner, and I said "a chair," which is how we ended up in a little Tex-Mex (don't worry, Texas, I didn't believe for a minute that it was REAL Tex-Mex) restaurant, downing fruit smoothies and chips and salsa as if we might never eat again. Also some coconut shrimp which is, at this moment, waiting for me in the fridge.

And then, after a nice breakfast the following morning and a few hours of church, we discovered that my dad's flight was cancelled, which required him to go the aiport a few hours early to try and get on another flight.

But the fun was not over. . . oh, not even close. RA was in town for the weekend, visiting NPW, and the two of them came over for dinner. We made some incredible cookies (most of which those two unkind women saddled me with) and then had chicken gyros and had some excellent fruit, courtsey of NPW, for dinner. Not to mention the talk, talk, talking that went on.

And, I promised not to tell, but RA did all the dishes afterwards, and then, while I was showering this morning, I could hear her putting them all away. You want her to come visit you, don't you? You do.

If THAT wasn't enough, RA brought each of us some lovely hostess gifts, which you can see in all their glory on her blog.

Today it's cold again, and threatening three days of rain, but I have coconut shrimp and chicken gyros and Italian pizza in my fridge, plus a month's supply of cookies, so I really can't complain at all.

Especially not after I found out this morning that after NPW left last night, her battery was dead and she stood out in the cold for thirty minutes waiting for it to be towed.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Food

I have always cared about eating well and taking care of my body. I remember when when I was seven or eight asking my dad to explain the nutrtion labels to me, and then being fascinated by looking at them on all different foods.

Some times I care more about it than I do at other times. Sometimes I eat really well and sometimes I eat five granola bars in day and call it good. So, you know, there's my life.

I look back at what we were eating three or four years ago, and we've definitely made big progress. We eat less processed food, more fruits and vegetables, fewer calories, and an overall better balance. We've switched to whole wheat pasta and natural peanut butter and whole grain bread. Our fast food consumption has dropped to nearly nothing. We don't drink soda and we eat a fairly small number of desserts.

But I still wonder where we can improve and what things make a difference and what things I could just let slide?

Is it better to eat a higher calorie yogurt than a yogurt that has food dyes in it? Is it okay to microwave plastic? Is rice syrup any more nutritious than corn syrup? At what point does the higher cost of natural foods outweigh the benefits? Should I be making my own yogurt? My own jam? Less meat?

What do you think? What makes a big difference and what doesn't matter all that much?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I Hope. . .

Things I Hope My Children Inherit from Me:

My love of reading
My brown eyes (at least one of them! Some of them can have Bart's blue eyes)
My fierce sense of family
My love of school
My fear of getting in trouble
My metabolism (thanks, Dad, for handing that one down)
My nice fingernails
My faith
My ambition
My total lack of wisdom teeth (thanks, Mom)
My frugality (I've inherited this from both my dad and his mom)

Things I Hope My Children Do NOT Inherit from Me:

My insane competitive streak
My tendency to get mad when I get hurt
My thin hair (er. . . "fine" hair)
My discomfort in new social situations
My nose
My fiery temper
My bad eyesight (Bart's hitting thirty this year, still holding on to his perfect vision)
My sad little anemic blood
My lousy posture

Things My Mom Really Hopes My Children Inherit:

Bart's curly hair

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt

8 of 10: Jackaroo was a bit of a slow read, but I should have expected that, knowing what I do about Cynthia Voigt, and the character development was superb. You couldn't ask for a better heroine. A very satisfying read.

I was a late boarder on the Cynthia Voigt train. I'd meant for years to read Dicey's Song (because it was a Newbery winner), but I knew it was the sequel to a book, and I felt like I should probably read that one first.

Finally, in the fall of 2008, my library was closing for a month due to renovations, so I needed some books on CD to get me through that whole time and I buckled down and checked out both Homecoming and Dicey's Song. And I loved them both.

However, both of those books are really about character development, rather than a fast-paced plot, and I should have remembered that when I read Jackaroo, suggested by Alison K. Because I was expecting high-adventure and swash buckling swords, and that's not exactly what I got.

The book is set in medieval . . .some country, similar to England, following Gwyn. She's sixteen and the daughter of a somewhat prosperous innkeeper, although most of the country is experiencing extremely difficult times, with food scarcities and the general civil unrest that often accompanies hunger.

Gwyn is smart and independent, which is frustrating for her in a climate where women have very few rights. She's very capable of running the inn, but of course it will all pass to her younger (spoiled) brother when her dad names an heir. She doesn't fancy the idea of marrying one of the fluffy-headed boys that inhabit the town, and she doesn't really like the idea of being a spinster either, although, frankly, it seems like the best of a bunch of bad options to her.

Jackaroo is a local legend, sort of a Robin Hood, helping the poor, etc, and when a highway robber is caught and held during the winter in order to be paraded through the towns before being hanged, whispers of him possibly being Jackaroo begin to circulate, although Gwyn doesn't think she believes he really exists.

As the winter drags on, a duke and his young son come to the inn, asking for help as the duke makes a map of part of the kingdom. Gwyn and the servant, Burl, are volunteered to help. Gwyn has a commoner's healthy dislike of royalty, but she's compliant enough, until a snow storm endangers them all. With only two horses, Burl and the Duke ride together, while Gwyn and the son take the other, soon getting separated. Gwyn and her charge stumble on a hut, not far from her father's inn, but the snow is so bad that they are trapped there for several weeks. In that time, she learns more about the kingdom and, even against the law, learns to read, thanks to the boy's tutoring.

I have to say, I totally did not see the second half of the book coming, mainly because I am not very smart, but I choose to blame it on the fact that I was reading it on the airplane the day of daylight savings time AND jet lag of two hours, plus two very short nights of sleep.

Either way, I really enjoyed this book, and my love for it grows the more I think about it. And I'm definitely remembering that I need to read more by Cynthia Voigt.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Away from the Weather

We decided that the weather forecast for Boston this past weekend was just too ugly and thus, we decided to spend Saturday in Phoenix where it was sunny and 70 degrees. You know, because we could.

Of course, it was far more complex than all that and involved Bart's work travel schedule, riduculous amounts of driving and time at the airport, and some very late nights.

But it was all worth it to spend an entire Saturday with Kayla and Aaron and Wes. Also, to not have to wear rainboots or a coat or carry an umbrella.

Despite my getting in at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning (Kayla clearly really loves me to get out of bed at that time and drive to the airport to pick me up), we got up fairly early, had a fabulous breakfast of french toast (will be hiring Kayla to come cook for me when I am super wealthy and also have a guest house), and then headed out to hike.

Which is the only place we took pictures the whole weekend. And in most of them, I look like such a huge nerd, I will not share them with you.

Did we take any pictures later in the evening when I had actually SHOWERED and had makeup on? No, of course we did not. I know for a fact that there were no less than FOUR cameras on the premises.

As Kayla said (um, don't go look at that link because she posted the ugly pictures too, curse her), besides the hiking, mainly we ate. Because it's what we do. Lunch at Taco Tote (hello, Mexican food. How I miss you here on the east coast where people don't really seem to know what you are) and dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger (don't you just like saying that?). Where we ate outside. Because it was not freezing or pouring rain. Does it get better than that? No, it does not, when your standards have sunk as low as mine clearly have.

Even the fact that three of my four flights were delayed by 90 minutes or more (and the fourth flight was overbooked) couldn't get me down.

I'm guessing this Saturday's adventures won't be quite as globe-trotting. On the other hand, my dad is coming in to visit from Las Vegas, so, you know, SOMEONE will be doing some globe-trotting.

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

8 of 10: I have really come to enjoy Nancy Werlin's books. They tend to be a little dark (this one vaguely reminded me of a Robert Comier novel), and so well-written. I can't stop reading them and I can't stop thinking about them afterward. The Killer's Cousin is a mystery with a hint of the supernatural to it. Just brilliant.

David should have just graduated from high school. Instead, he spent the last few months on trial for killing his girlfriend. He is acquitted (the jury deems it an accident), but the trial was national news and David Yaffe is something of a household name.

His parents arrange for him to go live with his aunt and uncle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, enroll in a private school and complete his senior year. David isn't particularly wild about the idea, but he isn't crazy about staying in Maryland either, so he agrees.

And yet, once he's there, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that things are not all quiet and calm in his aunt and uncle's house either. His aunt and uncle don't speak to each other at all and their eleven-year-old daughter, Lily, appears to absolutely despise David, for reasons he can't quite determine.

Part of the issues in the household could possibly be attributed to the suicide of their older daughter, Kathy, some four or five years earlier (she was eighteen).

David slips into the daily routine fairly quickly, trying to shake off the events of the previous year (which are revealed bit by bit), but as Lily becomes more and more hateful towards him, and the living situation becomes less pleasant, David finds himself consumed by worry about what to do, what to say, and how to deal with this new set of problems.

And on top of that, he thinks he's seeing Kathy's ghost in his attic apartment, which was Kathy's until her death (in fact, she died in that apartment). It's a lot to handle right on the tail of standing trial for murder.

The ghost thing makes it sound like a supernatural kind of book, but it doesn't really feel that way. The book feels so realistic, and the ghostly appearances are just the kind of thing that might happen when you're staying in a drafty attic apartment that just happens to be the site of a suicide and you're alone and wound up.

I love books where information is doled out a little at a time, where you don't ever quite know when you'll suddenly find out some new and important detail that brings everything into a little clearer focus. And I particularly enjoy it when you have no idea where the plot is going. This book fit both of those criteria.

Although I liked Impossible, I've found that I prefer Nancy Werlin's non-fantasy books. This and The Rules of Survival are both really well-written with horrifying situations, but characters you can't help but really empathize with. Sometimes you just need something a little dark and tense to break up the teen romance books. Time for another Sarah Dessen, I think.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Right, Left, Right, Left, Right

I have no sense of right and left at all. If you're like most normal people, you probably just feel right and left. I have absolutely no such feelings. Even that "L" trick doesn't work for me. I stare at my hands and develop sudden dyslexia, wildly thinking, "THEY BOTH LOOK LIKE Ls."

When I first told Bart about this, I think he didn't realize just how serious I was about this. Now, five years later, when I'm giving directions, he'll always say, "Which right?" so that I point in the right direction. It really is that bad.

Last week, I ordered new contacts. They were a different brand than my last set because this brand was about half the price, so I was little anxious to see if they'd work out okay. When they came, I quickly popped them in. One of them was really giving me issues - inside out, making my eyes burn, etc - so it wasn't until about five minutes later that I realized I really couldn't see very well.

I was getting dinner ready and I could not focus very well on the recipe. I just couldn't see it. I went into the living room and stared into the mirror for a while, trying to focus. Still no luck. I double checked the prescription on the new boxes against the old boxes to make sure I'd actually ordered the right prescription.

I wondered if it would just take me a while to adjust to a new kind of lens. I panicked about how I would POSSIBLY be able to drive to school the next day when I just couldn't see that clearly.

And then, as you've probably already guessed, but had NEVER occurred to me in that 30 minutes, I realized I had put them in the wrong eyes. Because I really do not know my right side from my left side.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Nutureshock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

8 of 10: Interesting if you have children or frankly if you're a human being, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children is full of information about how people react to different events and situations, particularly in ways that seem counter intuitive.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon this article (probably thanks to someone mentioning it on their blog) about how praising children can backfire in a major way. I read it to Bart, who said it exactly described much of his childhood attitudes toward school and other pursuits.

When I saw a number of positive reviews of this book online, I requested it from the library but I didn't realize it was by the same authors as the article until I read the back of the CD case.

The idea of the article (and the first chapter of the book) about praise is that children who are praised for being smart are far more likely to rely on their natural abilities and less likely to make an effort when things don't come easily. Instead, they reject new things, feeling that any failure proves they aren't "smart."

Kids who are praised for effort, on the other hand, tend to be far more willing to try new things and to put in effort to succeed.

The stories they share and the research they present are fascinating and often surprising. Each of the ten chapters is about a specific part topic related to children (sleep, lying, racial attitudes, sibling rivalry, etc) and what research suggests about how children naturally act on these topics, as well as how parents can deal with the issues.

I particularly appreciated that it talked about how to deal with these issues, rather than simply pointing out that, "hey, children naturally gravitate toward people like them, rather than being completely colorblind as we once thought. Good luck raising some non-rascist kids!"

The audiobook is narrated by one of the authors, Po Bronson, and he's an excellent reader (reminded me of Malcom Gladwell). He has a child of his own and tested a lot of the research on his own son and talks about it when it's relevant, which I loved.

This book is definitely worth reading if you have children of your own, but even without them, I think it's all very fascinating, especially as you see your own experiences reflected in the research.

I'll admit it wasn't quite as gripping for me as Outliers was - some chapters were less interesting to me than others, and occasionally I found the research a little overly long, but overall it's a great book.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Spring, Spring, Spring

It really was breathtakingly beautiful on Saturday.

We'd been planning to go to the aquarium, but when we saw the weather forecast, the idea of wasting such a day inside was too horrible to entertain.

A quick scrounge on the library website informed us that there was a pass for the DeCordova Scuplture Park available for that day. We'd meant to go in the late summer, but ended up not going and then it got too cold. But now the idea of being outside was more than a little appealing.

The pass admitted four people for free and since Bart is a trained accountant, he calculated that this meant we could invite two other people with us. Happily, the couple (and their under-5 and thus free child) we called were instantly amenable.

Bart and I packed a lunch, picked up the library pass, and we were all on our way.

Grass! Not covered in snow! (who cares if it is dead as a doornail?)

And it was a lovely day. The end.

After which, full of sunshine and peanut butter sandwiches, we drove to Rhode Island, found out we were having a girl, and then came home.

And then, as if this hadn't been a terrific Saturday already, we had Bethany and Casey and Noah over for dinner. I've read Bethany's blog for a while (we have a number of friends in common), so now that they've moved to Boston, I am intent on forcing our friendship on them.

They brought chocolate cake with them - you'd think they would know better than to encourage us.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

The Best Saturday

Yesterday was a glorious spring day - the weather was in the fifties, which, after months of winter, feels like heaven. We did some really fun things and I'll bore you with the details tomorrow, but I'll tell you the highlight of the day right now.

On Tuesday morning, while brushing his teeth, Bart said, "I think we should find out the gender of the baby this weekend."

And so, today, we drove to Rhode Island and found out that we're having a . . .

I was fairly certain it was a girl going in (I really would have been shocked if they'd announced it was a boy), but I was amazed how exciting it was to really know one way or the other. It's a girl!

Now to switch to using "her" instead of "it."

Friday, March 05, 2010

Words, Words, Words!

The other day, I was editing something Bart was writing and I said, "I'd like to take out the phrase 'short and sweet.' It just bugs me." (This might be why you don't want me to edit things for you - my own personal quirks will start shooting out my ears).

Bart said, "You know, I don't really like it either. Take it out." (This is why I married him).

I have a lot of words I'm sensitive to - words that make me cringe.

Sometimes it's only certain circumstances that I cannot tolerate a word or phrase: "Lol" in an IM conversation is fine; "Lol" in a blog post makes me want to die. Smiley faces in IMs and emails don't bother me, but I am a cruel editor of them in any blog posts. They never ever make the cut.

The phrase "mani/pedi" makes my skin crawl, although not as much as the term "prego." (I feel as if my blog is defiled just by writing those two things on it. Shall have to bleach my computer screen tonight). The list, my friends, is never ending.

And I know I'm not the only one. It seems to me that most people have some words or phrases that are absolutely grating to them.

My college roommate could not stand the word "mate."

Landen wants to vomit when she hears "moist." (I am 100% with her on this one).

What words make you cringe?

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Sunshine

Before Christmas, I told myself that once we got back from vacation, it would be January, which would certainly fly by, and then February was a short month already, not to mention the week of vacation tossed in there for good measure, and then it would be March. And March is when you are truly allowed to start thinking about spring.

Oh, it is finally finally March. And I am thinking about spring. But who am I kidding? I've been dreaming about spring since before Thanksgiving.

I was born in Wisconsin and we lived there until I was about 6, so I do remember a few very snowy days, but the vast majority of my growing up was done in Las Vegas, where it just simply does not get THAT cold. Sure, it freezes overnight during the "winter," but that lasts for about six to eight weeks.

Then there was the brief three years I spent in Provo - just long enough to remind me that winter is not for me - before we headed to Texas where the weather was, at least in my book, pretty much perfect.

I distinctly remember coming back to Texas after Christmas 2008 and waiting outside the airport for Ralphie to pick us up. We'd dressed that morning in Utah, and now, a few hours later, I was stripping off my sweater, and pushing up the long sleeves of my shirt, and anxiously awaiting the cool AC inside Ralphie's car. Bart and I said, "This is what January is all about."

Today at lunch, some of the teachers were talking about how they can't imagine living somewhere without seasons. I know many many people who feel this way, but I have lived away from them too long to care anymore. No spectacular colored leaves in the fall or heart-stopping joy at the first warm days of spring can make up for the months of cold, bone-numbing winter. No turtleneck sweater or peacoat is worth spending a full quarter of the year devising every possible way to avoid venturing outside.

Keep your seasons - I'll take year-round summer.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

8 of 10: Dealing with Dragons was all you could ask for in a children's fantasy - funny, clever, fast-paced, and a strong, terrific heroine.

This was the book Smalldog proposed last month for Tell Me What to Read. I put it on hold and when I went to pick it up, the librarian at the children's desk (who is everything you could ask for in a children's librarian) said, "Oh, have you read this?" When I replied that I had not, she smiled and said, "You're in for a treat!"

Isn't that what you want to hear when you pick up a book you know nothing about? (Yes, yes, it is).

And she was right - this book was delightful. Just the kind of book I'll be handing to my children to read or possibly reading aloud to them if I can figure out how to pronounce ANY of the names in the book (which is highly doubtful).

The story follows Princess Cimorene (see? how would you pronounce that name?!) who is not particularly interested in the etiquette lessons she's forced to endure. She makes do by convincing various staff to teach her to fence, perform magic, etc, but of course she's always caught and told such pursuits are "not proper."

The final straw comes when she is to be married to a prince who doesn't particularly care for her and whom she thinks, predictably, is a total bore. And so Cimorene runs away, finds herself in a dragon's lair and gets herself hired on as a dragon's princess, responsible mainly for cleaning and cooking and running errands.

Cimorene is delighted and her dragon is very smart and seems to like her a great deal, so this is a good scenario all around, except that princes keep showing up in order to defeat the dragon and rescue Cimorene who is decidedly uninterested in being rescued.

And then it suddenly becomes fairly apparent that the wizards, whom the dragons have an uneasy accord with, are plotting something and Cimorene is determined to find out what it is, whether it's by venturing into the forbidding caves the dragons rule or pretending to be an empty-headed princess when the wizards come snooping around.

And it doesn't take her long to discover that something is definitely afoot.

Oh, this book was so delightful. I keep remembering all the clever things that happened, like the princes who are turned into stone, and the jinn that tries to kill off Cimorene, and the other dragons' princesses who are constantly comparing how many princes have tried to come and rescue them.

I'm determined to read the rest of the series. Even if it's not until my kids are old enough to have me read it outloud to them.

Monday, March 01, 2010

What I'm Going to Read: Round 9

And the winner is Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt, suggested by one of my lovely Texas friends, Alison K. And just in time, too, as I finished Dealing with Dragons just yesterday.

I also put several of the books you suggested on hold, so we'll see how many I can manage to get through this month. Cross your fingers for me.

Other non-winning bids:

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas (Tootie)
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (Chrissie)
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff (P)
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (Jle122)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Shelly)
Beauty by Robin McKinley (Suey and Merry)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (RA, Em and Trev, Yankee Girl, and Mom)
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth (Carly Jane and Deborah)
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois (Jenny)
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Melanie)
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy (Kayla)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Smalldog)
Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger (Katie)
It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong (Crafty Ashley)
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins (Kimberly)
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar (Jessica)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (Sherry)
The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science by Todd Tucker (Poodle)
Matilda by Roald Dahl (Abby)
The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (Angiegirl)
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (Saskia)
The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer (Mary)
The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier (Angela Noelle)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Miri)
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (Peaceful Reader)
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (Laurie)

Of these, I've read:

Matilda by Roald Dahl
It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy (although Kayla tells me it doesn't count because I didn't read it in the original Russian, so you know, take it for what you will)
Beauty by Robin McKinley

and, a new category - books I might possibly have read but cannot actually remember because I am suddenly becoming old and probably can't remember my own address anymore:

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois