Juliet, Naked

I read Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornvy when I should have been reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It was quite the reading weekend (over a week ago now) and I am still trying to play catch up after all of that novel excitement!

Juliet, Naked was another great story from Hornby. Even though his books are about modern relationships and quirky characters and obessions, usually with music.

Juliet, Naked 406 pages
Wuthering Heights 357 pages

don't judge a girl by her cover

The third book in the Gallager Girl series by Ally Carter was still delightful although the series isn't progressing as fast as I would like. Cammie Morgan continues her adventures at her spy girl school where her mother is headmistress. This book introduces her aunt Abby, who is also a spy, and Cammie and her roommate Macey (who has famous influential parents) get involved in a kidnapping plot.
I listened to it - 7.5 hours.

reading and listening

Last of the Mohicans for book group -- mostly read on my phone, was better than I anticipated after pulling an all-nighter to finished The Deerslayer in a single night in high school.
350 pages

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King I listened to it, 16 hours

Don’t let the fact that the last three words of this book are “To Be Continued” prevent you from reading and enjoying it. In the latest installment in this series, instead of “to be continued” being implied, it is an outright promise at the end of the story. And if you are a fan of mystery author Laurie R. King, this is an excellent ending indeed…

Don’t let the fact that the last three words of this book are “To Be Continued” prevent you from reading and enjoying it. In the latest installment in this series, instead of “to be continued” being implied, it is an outright promise at the end of the story. And if you are a fan of mystery author Laurie R. King, this is an excellent ending indeed…

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King continues the story of Sherlock Holmes and his young wife Mary Russell. In this new addition to the popular historical mystery series, the grown son of Sherlock Holmes, a Bohemian artist named Damian Adler, is introduced. appears before Holmes at his home in Sussex to humbly beg for his estranged father’s assistance in locating his missing wife and daughter. Holmes leaves abruptly with his son and Mary is left at home to piece together where they have gone and how she can help. When Yolanda Adler’s body turns up just after Damian Adler goes missing, Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russel must solve the crime without letting their involvement be known to Scotland Yard and while fervently hoping that Damian is not as involved in the murder as it seems. While the mystery comes to a conclusion, the excitement of introducing new characters into the lives of Holmes and Russell will clearly continue into future books in this series.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jenny Sterlin, whose familiar and talented voice is always a treat for my ears.

Love off limits by Whitney Lyles teen halloween romantic comedy 268 pages

I also got caught up on parts of Psych and Eureka tv shows. :)

My Most Excellent Year

First off, let me say that I loved every single word, phrase, character, page, scene, entry and chapter in this book, and because of that, my review does no sort of justice. I laughed out loud even when I was reading next to a sleeping spouse, or worse, holding a sleeping baby. I giggled uncontrollably in front of my inlaws at passages I couldn't begin to explain. I put the book down for almost a week because Ted Kennedy passed away in real life while I was reading about it, and I was so enthralled with these characters who were obsessed with the Kennedys that I was too sad to keep reading. One of the most thoughtful readers advisors I know (Michelle) recommended this book to me, telling me "It definitely had Lissa written all over it." and she was soooooo right.

My Most Excellent Year: a novel of love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
Let’s Start at the Very Beginning…T.C. Keller and Augie Hwong have been “brothers” since they were six years old and met on the playground of their Boston school. They understand each other completely even when they don’t agree. T.C. loves the Red Sox and gets into trouble starting quirky projects with his Pop, but he doesn’t remember much about his mother. T.C. is one of the coolest kids in school, but he doesn’t even realize it. Augie loves his parent’s bookstore and singing show tunes but he might be falling for fellow athlete Andy Wexler. Augie idolizes Broadway divas and is well on his way to becoming a drama queen himself.
Alé Perez is new to school, a stuck-up snob with distinguished political parents. At first, she has no trouble resisting T.C.‘s romantic advances, especially because he asks her out with a form letter. Before long though, T.C. befriends an adorable little boy, which makes him look more sensitive. Augie tricks Alé into auditioning for the school musical. T.C.‘s father is getting called into the school counselor’s office almost as often as Augie is quoting lines from old Bette Davis movies. Alé has found fast friends in Augie and T.C. whether she likes it or not, but if T.C. keeps taking romance advice from his widowed father, his future with Alé is less likely than a post-season Red Sox victory.
The title says it all. As these three juniors reflect back on their freshman year of high school for an English class assignment about “My Most Excellent Year” you won’t be surprised when they come up with something transformative and magical. Some stories get better in the retelling. This narrative is pieced together from journal entries, emails, phone calls, chat logs and letters between T.C., Augie, Alé and their families as they look back and celebrate a year than changed everything.
As an adult, I enjoy reading novels written for teens, because I like to remember my own most excellent growing-up years through these funny and heart-breaking coming of age stories. My Most Excellent Year is one of the best books I have read this year and I highly recommend it.

I checked it out. 403 pages.

buy buy baby

I finally finished the super-scary book about consumerism and marketing targeting infants and toddlers. Buy Buy Baby is a few years outdated already which doesn't make the information it contains any less alarming. The main things I am taking away from the book are that there is no research to support the educational claims on products for infants and toddlers. Information on marketing in school, including preschools was disheartening. And there is no reason for kids under 2 to watch TV or videos in the foreground or the background. And licensed character stuff teach the kids to recognize the characters, not anything else. And advertising is everywhere and it will be almost impossible to avoid indoctrinating my kid with it, but it is still worth the effort to try.
230 pages


I am also watching the documentary "Consuming Kids" which is shocking both because of the information it presents and because I haven't watched television in so long that the commercials are sort of overwhelming.

And for fun I read - Ransom my Heart by Meg Cabot 396 pages

Sovay

In 1783 England, Sovay Middleton is not a typical young lady, although she is wealthy and beautiful. To unmask an unfaithful fiance, she dresses as a man and robs his stagecoach at gun point. To protect her father, she robs a mail coach. She makes enemies in England, especially when she interferes with a scary spy-master who is taking advantage of the tense situation between England and France. When her father and brother go to Paris during the Terror, Sovay follows, even though she risks her life for her love of family and freedom.
In this thrilling adventure tale, Sovay stars as a striking young woman who defies expectations in pursuit of justice.
I listened to the audiobook, 12 hours, narrated by Bianca Amato. At the end of the CD, there is a traditional ballad about Sovay, sung by the narrator, which sent me to wikipedia and eventually these lyrics to learn more. Celia Rees takes th

Publish Post

e traditional ballad and expands it into a wonderful adventure story about the Terror in France. Very cool!

too many pirates

For the last several weeks, I have been struggling to read a paperback romance "High Seas to High Society" by Sophia James 277 pages and also listen to an audiobook Sovay by Celia Rees (I'm about 6 discs in). Both are great escape stories but both are about girls masquerading as boys, one as a pirate and one as a highwayman, and both have father issues (one pirate dead, one escaped to Paris to avoid arrest) and it has been very very confusing. But delicious adventure, and the whole dress like a boy to accomplish your goals ploy is always a good one.

Also, in the middle of all that pirate goodness. I read Gone with the Wind for book group, 1000 pages and about 200 pages of criticism, mostly from the new book Frankly, My Dear, which was excellent. And what is a blockader if not practically a Southern gentleman pirate.....

vacation reads

Crafty Mama: makes 49 fast, fabulous, foolproof (baby and toddler) projects by Abby Pecoriello
I loved this book for the inspiration it gave me, and for the light vacation reading it conveyed. I only made one project from the book, but that made it all worthwhile -- FAIRY SKIRTS (and Kate, if you are reading this, we made one for each of your girls, I just haven't mailed them yet).
I was disappointed that the "no sew" instructions sometimes made the fabric projects much more complicated than if the author had just bought a cheap sewing machine and tried an inelegant straight stitch on her project, but overall this was a winner! I'm also sad to realize that my baby is more of a toddler (she actually took her first steps the same day I read this book) so some of the projects in this book were too "young" for our family now. Since Leigh Anne and I both had crafty-baby-showers (scrapbook pages at hers, drawing on fabric squares at mine), the many ideas that gave instructions for how to adapt it for a baby shower were definitely of interest! I don't feel up to this right now, but they also have ideas for crafty mama play groups, to find fellow crafters and get together to craft!
255 pages

Tourist Trap by Emma Harrison was thicker than my regular teen romance paperbacks, but the extra pages weren't filled with anything special, just teen angst self doubt and tired plot lines. At least I was on vacation when I read it.361 pages.

scary beautiful

Scary Beautiful by Niki Burnham - a fun romantic comedy about a gorgeous and recently dumped girl who is insecure about the new school year and her role in her group of gal pals, especially when she realizes she likes a geeky guy from the local pizza place. Cute fun. 264 pages.

How weaning happens by diane bengson (la leche league)
Of course this book says that weaning happens a bunch of different ways and there is no one way it happens and gradual is better, etc. Still not sure what Kivrin and I have in store for us, but nursing is still going okay for us so we will continue for now (while offering whole milk in sippy cups a lot too!) The book claims it "reassures parents that weaning is a natural process and does not have to be a stressful event for mother or child" but I didn't actually get that impression from the book. Much like childbirth itself, you can't predict it or control it, you can let the kid sat their own pace for it but you might decide to intervene if they take too long, and everyone else will offer you critical advice the closer it gets to the big day....156 pages which I read several times and am tired of looking at now.

finger licking good

Have you read the latest installment in the Stephanie Plum series yet?

In the opening pages, Stephanie's friend and coworker Lula witnesses a grisly decapitation. The killers are on the loose, and trying to hunt Lula down. To save her own skin, Lula decides to solve the murder herself and she enters a barbecue contest to get closer to the murder victim's associates. Of course, Stephanie, her Grandma Mazur, and Connie from the bail bonds office are drawn into Lula's scheme to create an award winning barbeque sauce.

At the same time, Ranger has hire Stephanie to snoop around his security business. A series of break-ins at the homes of residential clients appear to be an inside job and while Ranger doesn't want to suspect one of his men, he is losing clients and street cred as more burglaries occur.

Joe Morelli is irritated to see Stephanie wearing black Rangeman uniforms, even though Joe and Stephanie are taking a break in their relationship after an argument about peanut butter.

The romantic tension between Stephanie and Joe and Stephanie and Ranger in the last few Janet Evanovich's novels has really been getting on my nerves. I felt like she was stringing them both along and I was ready for her to settle down with someone already. Evanovich really got the balance right in this book though -- Stephanie is still attracted to both guys, but by taking some time to be single, sort of, Stephanie's ongoing relationships with two men didn't bother me nearly as much. Always bumbling, chaotic and hilarious, Stephanie Plum is the best version of herself in this newest book in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed her newest adventure and I hope that you will too!


Finger Lickin Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

308 pages

teen fiction

30 guys in 30 days by Micol Ostow



Claudia is starting college as a single girl, after several years of dating her first and only boyfriend. After some spectacular screw-ups, she realizes that she doesn't know how to talk to guys, and especially doesn't know how to flirt! Her roommate Charlie challenges her to talk to 30 guys in 30 days as target practice to overcome her lack of experience and get comfortable talking to boys again.

While Claudia's nervousness around guys seems believeable, her easy access to alcohol as a college freshman seemed less realistic. This fun romantic comedyfeatures a great feminist older sister role model (via email at least), who is balanced out by Claudia's kind and fun-loving beauty-pagent-winning sorority-rushing roommate.

282 pages.

Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell
Vassar Spore is a 16 year old girl who has her whole life planned out, right up to her Ph. D. and Pulitzer Prize. Her father is a time management consultant and her mother used to be a life coach but has been devoted to helping Vassar plan her life for the last 15+ years. Vassar was even named after the pretigious college, in the hopes that such a name would help secure her acceptance to the ivy league school, in addition to her years of planning and academic acheivements.

Her plans change when a mysterious package arrives from her equally mysterious Grandma Gert, and somehow her parents are blackmailed into sending Vassar on a summer backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. As they journey from Malaysia to Cambodia to Laos, Vassar is faced with many challenges to her planned and organized life -- including a cute Malaysian cowboy bodyguard, and the truth behind the family secret that her Grandma used to make Vassar go on the trip in the first place.

The story is told by Vassar herself, who is also writing a thinly-veiled version of the events as a novel to fulfill an AP English requirement over the summer. She is also emailing chapters back home to her friends, who send back hilarious comments critiquing the actions and decision of her "characters." I recommend this as an all-around delightful book for a teen summer adventure with some romance, college goals and family issues thrown in for good measure!

I listened to the audiobook. 9 hours.

The Lit Report

While this novel doesn't really seem like it is written for teens, and the narrator, Julia, is WAY too smart for her supposed age of a senior in high school, there were still parts I enjoyed quite a bit. Julia's friend Ruth gets pregnant, but since Ruth's parents are very strict conservative Christians (her dad is known as Pastor Pete around town) Julia helps Ruth hide her pregnancy and eventually delivers her baby. The ties to literature are mainly at the beginning and the end -- while Julia is establishing her voice as narrator and beginning the book, and then tying up her loose ends at the end of the story -- but she seems to worship Austen and Vonnegut, so it's not all bad. I'm not reviewing this for the library site because I don't know that teens would like it very much.
The Lit Report by Sarah N. Harvey
197 pages.

the new audiobook test

If I am not interested after the first CD, it gets returned.

I tried John Green's "Looking for Alaska" but all of his books sound the same and I just listened to Paper Towns -- both are about boys questing for mysteriously unattainable cool girls. I listened to about 3 hours.

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs - probably a lovely story, but with three women's viewpoints on the first two CDS, I can't keep their stories straight with the scattered listening time available to me. I got over an hour in.

The Annotated Wizard of Oz

This centennial edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum with pictures by W. W. Denslow and with an introduction and notes by Michael Patrick Hearn is worth reading. Whether you have read the story before, viewed the popular 1939 MGM movie version, or simply because you hear references to Oz and wonder what all the fuss is about.
The introduction is lengthy, about 100 pages, but well illustrated with photos, line drawings and reproductions of books and artwork from Baum's life and time. Placing Baum both within a historical context (he wrote the book in 1899) and a literary context (the children's fantasy Alice in Wonderland had been popular since 1865), the biographical essay provides details about the variety of Baum's jobs before writing the Oz books, and the partnership with W. W. Denslow, the original illustrator of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
What a treat to read the original text and illustrations together! I was surprised by how young Dorothy looks, how large the lion looms over her, and how friendly the Winged Monkeys' smile at everyone. If you can only picture the Judy Garland movie when you think of the Wizard of Oz story, these illustrations will certainly expand your imagination!
The annotations of the original text are referenced using small numbered notes in the margins. Readers who prefer to enjoy the original text and illustrations may do so easily, but those who are intrigued by the explanations, expansions and discussions of various topics will be drawn into the interspersed annotation pages as they read. Not only did I read all of the annotations for myself, I read some of them out loud to friends and family. For example, did you know that "According to the 1902 musical extravaganza of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lives near Topeka"?

Treat yourself and give the Wonderful Wizard of Oz a close reading with help from the special edition The Annotated Wizard of Oz!

I read 450 pages.

Summer Blowout

A fun summer ready by Must Love Dogs author Claire Cook, Summer Blowout is about a beautician with an eccentric family business who is interested in an entrepeneur she meets at the neighboring table a college fair. Lovely audiobook, entertaining, not too serious. Too much about a dog that she steals from a wedding where she is doing the bridal party make up, but I dealt with it. 6 hours

lighter notes

Sea of Love by Jamie Ponti
The formula for a teen romantic comedy book (only slightly more complex than a teen romantic comedy movie, frankly) seems to be -- girl's parent(s) move to a remote and interesting place (or alternately, girl goes for the summer to an interesting place) and meets a guy very different from her norm. She isn't sure about it, then is sure about it, then suddenly a boy from her past reappears to ruin everything with his sudden interest in her again, then everything works out for the best in the end. Sea of Love is set at a small Florida coastal tourist hotel which Darby's parents buy after leaving their Wall Street jobs in New York City. The story takes place in the off season, and everything else follows the formula mentioned above. That said, the writing was witty and made me laugh frequently. A book can have a lot more good lines of dialogue than a movie, and more "good moments" as well.
236 fluffly pages

I also read The Perfect Waltz by Anne Gracie, who is a wonderful and witty Regency Romance author that a library customer recommended to me a few months ago. 341 pages.

too heavy

I'm giving up on Billie Letts "Made in the U.S.A." After the teenage girl and her elementary school age brother ran away to find their father, who died in prison, and are stranded in Las Vegas, she turns to modeling for child porn photos to pay for illegal paperwork so she can work while they live out of their car. After she is raped while working as a hotel maid, she starts snorting coke, needs more money to get an apartment so her brother can attend a really nice grade school, and so is about to star in a porn movie for a very smooth man who "helps" her. This is where I am stopping. It seems unlikely that things will get better right away, and this story is way too intense for me right now, especially on audiobook where I can't skip ahead. The only bright spot is that there is someone who is watching over the two kids and leaving them little presents, an apple, a flashlight, a note about where the local shelters serve food, and I am going to have to just imagine a happily ever after ending involving a fairy godmother....
I listened to 4 hours out of about 9.

The Sound and the Fury

I read The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner for Lit with Lunch this month. I really liked it, even though it was one of the more challenging books I've read, ever. I loved the wikipedia summaries of each section, both because they helped me figure out what in the world was going on and because they offered such helpful encouragement. This was a statement about section one: "Readers often report trouble understanding this portion of the novel due to its impressionistic language, necessitated by Benjamin's retardation, and its frequent shifts in time and setting." This was a statement about section two: "While many first-time readers report Benjy's section as being difficult to understand, these same readers often find Quentin's section to be near impossible." Luckily, section three is hard to read only because the narrator, Jason, is a big jerk. And section four is not told in the first person and is more like a traditional novel, although all of the sections before it are present in the reader's mind, shaping the perceptions in this section.
Reading a book about dysfunctional families and the complexities of family relationships right around my own dysfunctional mother's day was an experience all-it's own.
It is unlikely I would re-read this book for fun, but it is an experience I will appreciate and reflect upon in the future.
321 pages.

B is for Beer

As a long-time Tom Robbins fan, I will happily read whatever outlandish adventure he cares to write. His new book, B is for Beer advertises itself as “A Children’s Book for Grown-ups” and “A Grown-up Book for Children.” I tried reading it aloud to my young daughter with little success. Not enough lift-the-flap and pop-up illustrations to amuse the baby, although the occasional line drawing are lovely for adults. Robbins hints within the story that reading the book to a child might have gone better if I had already been drinking a nice cold one.
The characters includes a 6-year-old girl, Gracie Perkel, who idolizes her Uncle Moe. He is a part-time philosopher and full-time beer drinker who delights and disappoints those arond him in equal measures. Uncle Moe certainly appreciates Gracie’s free spirit more than her parents do. Her mom is distracted by grown-up concerns and her dad is focused on his career (and his secretary.) As Gracie learns more about the mysteries of life and beer, we are drawn along on a hilarous adventure through this world and into another.
Tom Robbins is one of those writers who can turn a phrase and make you laugh out loud at the most mundane observations. Even if you aren’t much of a beer-drinker, this short novel will still make you wish you could recapture that free-spirited imagination of childhood.
125 delightful pages

teen reads

Suite dreams by Rachel Hawthorne, 273 pages

Airhead by Meg Cabot -I'm listening, if I finish it will be 7 discs.

Seriously. a brain transplant princess and the pauper story. completely unbelievable yet sort of starting to by addictive for the snarky sarcastic narrator's voice (which is now coming out of the sexy lip-glossed mouth of a teen supermodel)

my first library patron

Upstairs in the cafe, I just ran into my first ever library patron from my first day on the job here at TSCPL almost 8 years ago. I have been priveleged to help this same gentleman several times over the years, and we have both remembered that he was the first customer I helped on that very first day here. (He was an audiobook listener at the time, but has since retired.)

Librarianship is a funny business. We protect people's privacy, their right to read, their individual choices, their reading history, but we also connect with them, learn about their preferences, their personalities, their histories.

I treasure the interactions I share with my customers. While libraries are often thought of as being about all about the stuff you can get, the human connection is still what makes us different from a free pile of books and movies.

And yes, I know this is completely nerdy. But someday when I am less enamored with my job, I'll re-read this and remember that patron, and feel better about the time I have spent here.

Paper Towns

John Green had me at "This Machine Kills Fascists", and then almost lost me with a Woody Guthrie insult. And then he had me again with a Billy Bragg Mermain Avenue reference, and he kept me through to the end.


Quentin Jacobsen has lived next door to Margot Roth Spiegelman for a long time, and he has loved her from afar for an equally long time. When she invites him on an all-night revenge caper around Orlando, he is drawn into a crazy and risky adventure that includes dead fish, spray paint and Sea World. When Margot disappears the next morning, Quentin realizes that the adventure is only beginning. As Quentin and his quirky friends follow the bizarre and complicated series of clues that Margot has left behind, he worries about her mysterious disappearance. Margot has run away before, but she is just so awesome, so popular, so ...Margot...that everyone assumes that she is pulling some sort of amazing prank before graduation. Is this one of Margot's dramatic runaways, or are the clues she left for Quentin trying to tell him something more?

In his fabulous new novel, Green combines equal parts of mystery, adventure, comedy, and drama for an end-of-senior-year road trip that is chock-full of obscure cultural references. Highly recommended!

I listened to it -- 8 hours.

Labor of Love

While I don't think this is her best work, I enjoyed Rachel Hawthorne's teen romance "Labor of Love" which was about teenagers helping rebuild houses in New Orleans post hurricanes. In the Author's Note at the back, Rachel explains that she got the idea for the novel while attening the ALA conference in June 2006, when she was out to dinner and observed a table of teenagers who were in town to volunteer. The main shortcomings of this book were that the rebuilding efforts did not seem believable or well researched compared to other similar books I have read (Dana Reinhardt's "How to Build a House" for example) and that the plot replied on a psychic to help the characters address their feelings, and that is a personal annoyance for me as a reader, especially when the psychic is not later debunked, etc.
298 pages.

Readaholic

Fiction being my drug of choice when I need an escape, I have devoured several titles this week.

So Inn Love by Catherine Clark-- predictable teen romance about kids spending their summer jobs at a Maine resort. 327 pages

The Finishing Touches by Hester Browne
London finishing school on verge of bankruptcy is revived by adopted daughter of founding family using modern approach to refined and elite life skills. This is the second book I've read this year that addresses the practical topics that well rounded girls should be taught. The first was "Everything Nice"
416 pages

Peeled by Joan Bauer - GREAT teen audiobook. 5.5 hours

And some nonfiction parenting stuff:

Wonderplay from the 92nd St. Y Parenting Center 118 pages
First Foods by Bryan Vartabedian 231 pages

Birthday roundup

65 total books
90 hours of audiobook listening
And 15170 Total pages

Not really that much compared to previous years, but I had a baby, so my reading time declined as well as my ability to remember what I have been reading. I've left more books unfinished this year than at any other time in my life, and it seems like I only blogged about them if I abandoned them on purpose because they made me mad, not if I just got distracted and returned them to the library when they were overdue.

I look forward to another great year of reading and I'm going to start right now!!
What better way to spend my birthday than with a good book (and my wonderful spouse, who is reading as well. Of course, for Dan to total what he read in the last year, just look at what has been posted on slashdot, engadget, etc. and then add it up because he has read it all!)

natural born awakening

I listened to SEP's Natural Born Charmer, which I had read before. It was narrated by the late great Anna Fields. 12 hours.

I read The Awakening by Kate Chopin for my book group. People at the discussion were very mixed/confused/conflicted by what they thought about it, what they were supposed to think about it, and whether or not they found Edna inspiring or disgusting. I read most of it while holding the baby, which made it hard and easy for my to sympathize with a woman who didn't want to be defined by her children and family. 190 pages.

Dan and I read aloud to Kivrin for 30 minutes at a booth for National Library Week yesterday, but it was all board books which I traditionally have not counted here.

I feel like I have read more things lately, but I can't seem to find any evidence of them lying around the house so this will be my last post for this year.

Snowed In

No, I don't wish for more snow. Or any snow. But Rachel Hawthorne's Snowed In was a nice little escape during this week's cold snap. Ashleigh and her recently divorced mother move to a small island off the coast of Michigan to run a bed and breakfast. The guest rooms are being redecorated over the off-season and the tourists are all visiting some place warmer, like the Texas city that Ashleigh just left behind. Coming from a huge high school with over a thousand kids in her class, she is very worried about enrolling in a school where the junior class has only 6 students. Also, dating might be a big problem. Ashleigh doesn't believe in having a boyfriend, and likes to just date a guy a couple of times before moving on. What will she do with such a limited selection? The first few guys she meets are all very cute, but all of the girls seem to have steady boyfriends. What is a girl to do when she is new in town and the snow is falling?
Rachel Hawthorne is the best teen romance writer I've ever read. Funny and light-hearted stories with occasional laugh out loud dialogue. She creates characters that I would want to hang out with and get to know better, and puts them in situations that are different from my own life, but still believable. Her novels are first-rate fun!

261 pages.

raising bookworms

obviously I hope to be raising a little bookworm at home. I am an avid fiction reader. Her dad is a non-fiction and tech-website reader. We hope she will like to read also.

Raising Bookworms: getting kids reading for pleasure and empowerment by Emma Walton Hamilton

The premise of the book is that children begin life being read to, hearing inspiring stories, and generally enjoying the experience. When children are sent to school, a shift to learning to read independently may place a focus on pressure, deadlines and responsibilities instead. The purpose of this book is to help kids read for pleasure.

In the section for Babies and Toddlers, Hamilton recommends reading aloud while nursing or cuddling together, to associate reading with pleasurable feelings of warmth, joy and love.

For each developmental age group, fun and practical suggestions are included for "In the Home" and "Beyond the Home" as well as ideas for what your child will enjoy reading at that level.

I skimmed the library's copy - 156 pages.

Schooled by Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman was one of my very first favorite authors. Sometime late in elementary school, I discovered his Bruno and Boots boarding school adventure series, and I was hooked. His classic comedy-of-errors A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag remains on my best-books-to-read-again list, and amazingly, he has continued to write excellent books for middle school readers ever since he was a teenager.
I happened upon one of his new releases - Schooled - as a full cast audiobook from Recorded Books and I really enjoyed it.
The premise is straightforward enough - Capricorn Anderson has been raised on a hippie commune by his grandmother. Over the years, everyone has left the commune and returned to the real world, except for Cap and his Grandma. When she breaks her leg, Cap is sent to live with a social worker and attend public school for a few months until she has completed rehab and can return to their community. Cap has never seen television, never held money, and has been raised to believe in peace, justice, fairness and selfless sharing of resources. The school lockers are a mystery, the school bullies are confusing, and the school lunches are disgusting. Within a week of his arrival, he's been elected 8th grade class president as a joke, and then things get really crazy. Cap's gentle hippie outlook is strange to the 21st century teenagers, but who will really get schooled?
I listened to it - 5 hours

3 willows

3 Willows: the sisterhood grows

3 willows: the sisterhood grows by Ann Brashares
Sometimes, they speak of the older girls – the sisterhood – as of mythical local heroines. Those girls, who shared a pair of pants, have been much emulated, but no other friendships can compare to the stories about the sisterhood. Those girls are all in college now, 20 years old, and the stuff of legend in the hometown of Polly, Jo and Ama. Polly, Jo and Ama have been friends since the first day of grade school when they were the last three kids to get picked up. They sneaked out of an empty classroom and off into the woods by Pony Hill to begin their adventures. Since that day, they have been together almost every day. Now, the summer before high school, the girls are not as close anymore. They have grown apart, found separate interests and made new friends. Do they even still need each other anymore? Polly lives alone with her eccentric artist mother. She is staying home this summer while her friends go away. She wishes her family was larger, and when she finds out about a relative who was a popular model, Polly will do whatever it takes to become a model herself. Jo is working as a bus girl this summer at a restaurant near her parent’s beach house. Her family has never been the same since a tragedy a few years earlier, and Jo’s dad isn’t coming to the beach with Jo and her mom this summer. After Jo meets someone new on the bus, she finds a pleasant distraction from the confusion of home. Ama is focused on her grades. Her sister has excelled, gone off to college early, and Ama wants to do the same. When her scholarship to prestigious summer camp assigns her to an outdoorsy hiking trip instead of a research lab, Ama is horrified. Author Ann Brashares has given a wonderful gift to fans of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by extending the world of Lena, Tibby, Carmen and Bridget to include another story from their community. If you liked the Sisterhood books, or the movies, you will probably enjoy this story also. Meet three new girls who are embarking on their own summer journey of growing up and enjoying their own unique sisterhood.
I listened to it about 8 hours on CD. Excellent story.

creative play for your baby

Creative play for your baby by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

I checked out this book because it has a cute picture on the front of a litle girl playing with little rag dolls in wooden boats made from tree limbs, all sailing on a river of folded blue fabric. Creative play sounded like a great concept, but what I didn't realized until I started reading more closely is that it is actually a craft instruction book masquerading as a parenting book and contains "step by step instructions for over 20 natural, home-made toys". It's cool, and if I could just buy the toys, I would, but otherwise....Kivrin's getting storebought toys. (Although I did buy her a natural wooden spoon at the grocery story and she loves it) 125 pages.

Books a million

Not really, but I'm trying...

I read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for book group-- 578 excellent pages and very timely in the current economic situation and also the current trend towards locally grown produce.

I'm judging the booksellers best romance contest again this year, all Harlequin/Sillouette serials-- I had An Ideal Father and The Single Dad's Virgin Wife and Heart of a Thief so far. 245, 212 and 214 pages.

I reviewed As Sure as the Sun by Anna McPartlin for freshfiction.com - 384 pages

I listened to the H2g2 primary phase radio show adaption, 3 hours., and the secondard phase, 3 hours.

And I read Sex for busy people: the art of the quickie for lovers on the go, which has been the subject of much discussion in Topeka lately. I wasn't impressed by the book, mainly because I didn't learn anything new (except something about a trenchcoat for quickies in public). The images are cartoon drawings and brightly colored, and I thought they were more funny than instructional. Also, the book didn't address safe sex or condoms, which I find unforgiveable in any modern sex instruction book, no matter what the premise. The book reads like half-page articles from Cosmo magazine and is less titilating than a racy romance novel and less graphic than many of our graphic novels. If this book is the gold standard for harmful to minors in Topeka, we are in BIG trouble. 79 pages.

anathem

When is a carrot not a carrot?

While this is not the driving question of Neal Stephenson's new book, Anathem, the answer to the question provides a decent summary of the story. In short, a carrot is not a carrot when it is grown on the planet Arbre, which is similar to Earth in many ways, but distinctly different in others.

In this book, you will learn more about Arbre, including the historical timeline of events and rich cultural traditions of their academic (or "mathic") world.
You will get to know Fraa Erasmus, a young man who has lived for the last 9 years in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, studying and pursuing a life of research and contemplation.
Just when you start to enjoy the idea of life without technology and material goods, Erasmus will be evoked -- sent out from the Concent into the Extramuros world. Erasmus and his friends will go on an adventure beyond their wildest dreams ...an adventure to save their world.

Why I loved listening to the audiobook:
The audiobook features great narrators, several different voices, all working to create this story in my mind as I listened. Because Neal Stephenson makes up words like he's J.R.R. Tolkein trying to cheat at Scrabble, having a narrator pronouncing everything for me was a real blessing.





Dan and I listened to the 28 disc, 34 hour sound recording of Neal Stephenson's book Anathem, mostly together, or at least in the same 6 week period.

Boyfriend League

The new teen romance from Rachel Hawthorne (author of Thrill Ride) was a nice spring-training kind of baseball novel, although it was actually about the summer leagues of a small collegiate team in Texas. 315 pages

I'm giving up on Plum Spooky, the newest Janey Evanovich between the numbers book about Stephanie Plum. The THIRD guy she is romantically involved in is just too much for me, especially since he has oddly unexplained supernatural powers. I've checked out a 14 day copy twice now and I just can't make myself pick it up.
I hate to admit it, but I'll probably still make an attempt at Fabulous Fifteen or whatever the next Stephanie Plum book is in the series. Stupid fiction addition. I probably read about 70 pages.