It's Monday 4/30! What Are You Reading?

Monday already?  The weekend went by in a flash - very busy!  In fact, I've had almost no time for writing reviews the past few weeks, so my backlog keeps growing!  My family and I have been reading, though:

• I finished the middle-grade novel The Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley and enjoyed it, though it was different than I expected.
• Next I read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, a novel which was short-listed for the Man Booker prize.  I'd heard it mentioned on several of my favorite book podcasts, so I requested it from the library.  It was very good, a literary novel but surprisingly engaging and even a bit suspenseful.
• I am now reading Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson for one of my book groups that meets this week.  I love this book!!  I hate to set it down, have been staying up way too late reading (promising myself, "Just one more page..."), and even trying to squeeze in 5 minutes of reading time wherever I can.  It's hugely suspenseful, about a woman who's lost her memory, so she wakes each morning having no idea who she is or who the man sleeping beside her is.  The bulk of the novel is her journal, where she is trying to put together the puzzle of her past and how she came to be this way.  Fabulous!
• I am still listening to Liesl and Po, a middle-grade audio by Lauren Oliver which is very good so far.
• My husband, Ken, finished Black Hills by Dan Simmons, a historical novel set in one of our favorite places, the Black Hills region of South Dakota.  He said it was very good.
• He is now reading The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman on his Kindle, a novel set during World War II.
• Jamie, 17, hasn't been reading nearly as much as he usually does because he has just one month left to finish all his school work in time for graduation (he missed over 70 days of school this year due to medical problems), so he's been concentrating on that.  He and I were reading some ancient Persian poetry for his World Lit class last week (it is just as exciting as it sounds).  For fun, he is still re-reading one of his all-time favorite novels Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy.
• Jamie finished An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina, the autobiography that inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda, for his World Lit class.  He said it was an excellent book, fascinating and stunning, and that I have to read it!
• Craig is reading Attack of the Fiend, Book 4 in The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney.  He loves this series!

So, lots of good readings last week, but no blog posts other than my Monday summary! I am hoping to get back on track this week.

What are you and your family reading?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

It's Monday 4/23! What Are You Reading?

Busy week!  And it's only going to get busier over the next 2 months...my oldest son is graduating from high school, my youngest "graduates" from middle school and is playing the lead in his school musical, soccer season is in full swing...whew!  We had house guests this weekend, too (my mom and her husband), so none of us had much time for books this past week, but here's what we are reading:

• I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and loved it.  I went to hear the author talk on Wednesday (the book was our County Reads selection for this year), and he was wonderful - very entertaining, with a great sense of humor!
• I am now reading a middle-grade novel, The Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley, a favorite storyteller and entertainer of ours.  It's very good so far but different than I expected.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Black Hills by Dan Simmons and enjoying it.  We are now planning to visit the South Dakota Black Hills this summer (he has family there), and he says the novel is making him excited to visit again!
• Jamie, 17, is still re-reading one of his favorite novels, Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy.  He hasn't had much reading time lately because he has been back in school most days and trying to catch up so he can graduate on time.
• Jamie is also reading An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina, an autobiography by the man who inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda, for his World Lit class.  Jamie says it is an eye-opening, fascinating book.  I think I will have to read this one, too!
• Craig, 14, is reading Book 4 of The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney, Attack of the Fiend.  He really enjoys this series!
• I am listening to Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver on audio, a middle-grade novel about a girl who befriends a ghost.  It's very good so far.
• And, since my mom is staying with us for a few more days, I will include her in this week's overview.  She borrowed and just started reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, based on my recommendation.  She is laughing already!

I posted a review of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid last week but didn't have time for any other blog posts.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

So many gorgeous flowering trees in our neighborhood last week!

Nonfiction Review: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

My husband and I have enjoyed many of Bill Bryson’s books, especially A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, but I think I have a new favorite now: Bryson’s memoir of growing up in the 1950’s, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.  I bought it for my husband several years ago and have been meaning to read it myself.  I finally tackled my TBR shelf (thanks in part to my 12 in ’12 Challenge), and laughed my way through this amusing and engaging memoir.

Bryson’s memoir is an interesting mix of observations of the time (the 1950’s) and remembrances of his own childhood.  He is well known for his ability to find the humor in any situation, and this book is no exception.  Right from the first pages, I was laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband (even though he’d already read the book himself!). 

Bryson describes the 1950’s as a time of happiness and prosperity, post-war and pre-hippies, in central Iowa where he grew up in a classic Midwest American suburb.  He uses fascinating facts and figures to complement his first-person narrative, like this passage:

(In 1951…) Americans owned 80 percent of the world’s electrical goods, controlled two-thirds of the world’s productive capacity, produced more than 40 percent of its electricity, 60 percent of its oil, and 66 percent of its steel.  The 5 percent of people on Earth who were Americans had more wealth than the other 95 percent combined.

In many cases, he combines these sorts of observations of the time with hilarious tales of his own adventures, often laced with Bryson’s trademark exaggeration, as here where he is talking about what it was like to be a kid in the 50’s:

Life in Kid World, wherever you went, was unsupervised, unregulated, and robustly – at times, insanely – physical, and yet it was a remarkably peaceable place.  Kids’ fights never went too far, which is extraordinary when you consider how ill-controlled children’s tempers are.  Once when I was about six, I saw a kid throw a rock at another kid, from quite a distance, and it bounced off the target’s head (quite beautifully I have to say) and made him bleed.  This was talked about for years.  The kid who did it was sent for about ten thousand hours of therapy.

He reminisces about the freedom and joys of being a kid at that time and in that place, pokes fun at his father’s eccentricities (that passage about his habit of wearing nothing from the waist down at night is hilarious!) and his mother’s cooking, and recounts all sorts of adventures he and his friends had.  The book is just plain fun.  It is also surprisingly informative.  I really enjoyed this delightful trip down memory lane with Bryson, laughing all the way.

268 pages, Broadway Books

P.S. If you enjoyed this book, you might also like another humorous memoir of growing up in the 1950’s, Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Glidner, which my neighborhood book group overwhelmingly enjoyed.

 

It's Monday 4/16! What Are You Reading?

We are back home from spring break, after visiting my father-in-law in Oklahoma last week.  It was a good visit but a loooong drive home (mostly in the rain) this weekend.  The weather was so bad, we weren't even able to camp; we had to stay in hotels on the way home.  But now we're home...and facing lots of unpacking and catching up today.

We enjoyed some good books while we were away:

• I have been reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.  I absolutely LOVE this novel about two children separated by the Japanese internment during World War II.  I just want to keep reading and hate to set it down!  The author is speaking here in my town this week, so I am hoping to attend his talk (this is our County Reads selection).
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Black Hills, a historical novel by Dan Simmons set in one of our favorite places, where he has family.
• After finishing The Farsala Trilogy by Hilari Bell, Jamie, 17, re-read one of his all-time favorite novels, Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy.
• Craig, 14, is reading Book 4 of The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, Attack of the Fiend.  I read some of it with him during our trip.  He loves this series!
• In the car, we finished listening to Ship Breaker by award-winning author Paolo Bagicalupi, a  teen/YA dystopian novel (and a Printz honor winner) that we all enjoyed.  It was dark, action-packed, and gripping.
• And I read a big stack of magazines in the car.  That's my guilty pleasure for long car rides!  I never have time to look through magazines normally, so they just stack up.  I can't read books in the car without getting sick, but I can manage flipping through magazines, so I enjoyed that little break.

On vacation last week at my father-in-law's, I had plenty of time away from my to-do lists, so I wrote two book reviews:  the audio book Falling Together by Marisa De los Santos and the wonderful middle-grade novel Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood.  I also posted a discussion of the movie The Hunger Games which we finally had a chance to see while we were on vacation!

What are you and your  family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.)

Enjoying a campfire in Tennessee

Fiction Review: Falling Together

Last year, I read Love Walked In by Marisa De los Santos and enjoyed the novel, so I was eager to read her latest book, Falling Together.  I listened to it on audio, and I enjoyed the story and the narration, though I felt that it sort of rambled and lost focus at times.

Falling Together tells a rather complex story of three best friends who met in college.  Pen, Cat, and Will (yes, unusual names) were inseparable throughout their college years and felt they had a unique, unbreakable bond that would last a lifetime.  But, after college, they agreed to split up and have no contact with each other, for reasons that are explained later in the novel.  Six years later, Pen and Will each get an urgent and mysterious e-mail from Cat, asking them to come to their college reunion to meet her.

The novel switches back and forth between the present and the past, gradually filling in the story of how the friends met and, eventually, why they parted.  In the present storyline, the reader learns what Pen and Will have each been doing since they said good-bye and how their lives have changed in the intervening years.

It’s a good story, unique and well told, with likable main characters.  At times, I felt that the narrative wandered a bit and lost focus, occasionally straying off on a tangent.  This could have been in part due to the way I listen to audio books; I rarely have more than 15 minutes at a time to listen, so I hear the story in short increments.  But overall, I liked Pen and Will, and I wanted them to reunite with Cat and work out all of their problems.  It’s a story not only about friendship but also about love and family. 

HarperAudio

It's Monday 4/9! What Are You Reading?

Happy spring break!  I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  We were camping Easter morning (but the bunny found us!) and arrived in time for an Easter dinner with my father-in-law in Oklahoma.

Not a lot of time for reading last week, between packing for our trip and several days spent driving (I can't read in the car, unfortunately), though the road trip gave us a chance to listen to audio books.  Here's what we read last week:

• I just (this morning!) finished The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart.  I was only about halfway through it when my book group met last Wednesday, so I excused myself to the bathroom while they discussed the ending!  I really enjoyed this unique British book about love and relationships with a fabulous sense of humor.
• My husband, Ken, is reading and enjoying Black Hills by Dan Simmons, a historical novel set in South Dakota's Black Hills, a favorite vacation spot of ours where some of my husband's family lives.
• Jamie, 17, has no problem reading in the car, so he reads nonstop on road trips!  Before we left home, he read Book 4 of the Tunnels series by Roderick Gordon, Closer.  He loves this series and can't wait for Book 5's release in May!
• During our drive, Jamie reread one of his favorite series, The Farsala Trilogy by Hilari Bell.  He read Book 1: Fall of a Kingdom, Book 2: Rise of a Hero, and Book 3: Forging the Sword.  This is one of Jamie's all-time favorites; he really wants his brother to read it.
• Craig, 14, is reading Book 4 of The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, Attack of the Fiend.  This is the furthest he's ever read in a series, so it must be pretty good!
• And...our audio books!  We finally found our own copy of our family's all-time favorite audio book, Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater, so we started our trip by listening to that...again!  This is probably the 5th time we've listened to it, and we still laughed like crazy.  Many lines from this book have made it into our family lingo.  It's a silly little middle-grade novel, but Daniel Pinkwater is just hilarious - both his writing and his reading of the audio.  Classic.
• We also started a new teen/YA dystopian audio, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bagicalupi, which won multiple awards.  It is very good so far, a unique story of a grim future on the Gulf Coast with a likable main character.

No time for reviews last week, but I did post my summary of Books Read in March.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.)

Easter Morning at Wooly Hollow State Park, Arkansas

Books Read in March

Wow, March seemed to go by in a flash!  And, oddly enough, it came in like a lamb, with 80 degree weather, and went out like a lion this week, with temperatures in the 30's at night and high winds.  I love seeing the bursts of color everywhere and am looking forward to April.

In March, I read:

• Irises by Francisco X. Stork, a teen/YA novel.
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, a unique novel I read for our library's book discussion.
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, a teen/YA novel and my first John Green, finally!
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a hilarious childhood memoir by Bill Bryson.
• Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood, a middle-grade novel set in Mississippi in the 60's.
• Falling Together by Marisa De los Santos, a novel listened to on audio.

So, a total of six books - that seems to be my usual monthly achievement!  I read/listened to 2 adult novels, 1 memoir, 2 teen/YA novels, and a middle-grade novel so that was a nice mix. I'm a bit behind in reviews but hope to catch up over spring break.

My favorite?  Tough call, but I think I enjoyed The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid the most, though The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake was a close second.

As for my 2012 Reading Challenges, I added 5 new states to my Where Are You Reading list: California, Texas, Mississippi, Iowa, Pennsylvania and added a second book set in Tennessee.  I didn't read any new dystopian novels this month, but I did read my first memoir of the year for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge.  For the 12 in '12 Challenge, I added one more book (for a total of 3 so far) from my TBR shelf, all 3 recommended by my husband.  It's clear I should have listened to him and read these long ago!  And I finally added one title to the What's In a Name Challenge: something you'd see in the sky (thunderbolt).  I was starting to wonder if I'd ever make progress on that one!

How was your reading month in March? What were your favorites?

It's Monday 4/2! What Are Your Reading?

Wow, April already.  Funny thing is that it felt like spring in early March and now it feels almost wintry again!  March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion this year!

Very busy week with school stuff, soccer starting, spring break preparations, plus dealing with my younger son's knee injury (still waiting for MRI results to hear how bad it is).  As always, though, our books provided a little respite from the chaos.  Here's what we're reading:

• I finished - and thoroughly enjoyed - Bill Bryson's memoir of growing up in the 50's, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.  Interesting and very entertaining.
• I also finished (finally) my audio book, Falling Together by Marisa De los Santos, and enjoyed that one, too.
• I started a new audio, the middle-grade novel Leisl and Po by Lauren Oliver.  So far, it is reminding me a bit in tone and story of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (which is obviously a compliment!).
• Next, I read another middle-grade novel, Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood, set in 1964 in Mississippi.  It's a young girl's view of the civil rights battles going on in her small town; it was very good.
• I am now reading The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart for my neighborhood book group.  It's very good so far, quite amusing.  I waited too long to start it (again!), so I have a lot of reading to do before Wednesday!
• My husband, Ken, is reading Black Hills by Dan Simmons, a historical novel set in the Black Hills region of South Dakota.  Besides being a good novel so far, this book has special significance for Ken because part of his family lives in that area, which he has visited frequently since he was a kid.  We are thinking of going back this summer.
• On his Kindle during our son's many medical appointments this week, Ken has been reading The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.  I may have to borrow his Kindle so I can read this one!
• Jamie, 17, finished re-reading The Books of Umber trilogy by P.W. Catanese and moved onto re-reading the Tunnels series by Brian James Williams and Roderick Gordon.  He has read Book 1: Tunnels, Book 2: Deeper, and is now reading Book 3: Freefall.  These are each over 600 pages long!  I read - and enjoyed - Tunnels but have never found the time to tackle the rest of the series.  Jamie says it just gets better and better.
• For his World Lit class, Jamie is reading An Ordinary Man, an autobiography of Paul Rusesabagina, the book that inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda.  I really want to read this one when he is done with it.  
• Craig, 14, is reading more than usual because his injury is keeping him off his feet (but he is still going stir-crazy!).  He finished The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen.
• With the end of the marking period behind him, Craig went back to continue the longer novel he'd started a few weeks ago, Night of the Soul Stealer by Joseph Delaney, Book 3 of The Last Apprentice series.

I posted one review last week, the teen/YA novel An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.  I also posted lists of the Top Ten Books I'd Like to Play Hooky With and Top Ten Kids/Teen Books I'd Like to Play Hooky With.

And, finally, I am looking for audio book suggestions for our upcoming family road trip and would love to hear your recommendations!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)