It's Monday 3/30! What Are You Reading?

Ah, Monday morning - my quiet spot of sanity in the midst of chaos! Actually, last week was a good one - no extra illnesses, no last-minute trips, no emergencies for a change. I got a lot done, including a lot of blogging. This week will be less productive but still very busy. My mom is coming into town for a couple of days, and we are going to my neighborhood book group Wednesday night - yup, she travels for 3 hours to go to book group with me! Should be lots of fun. Then, of course, Friday is a holiday and the start of my son's spring break. So, don't expect to hear much from me this week!

Lots of great reading at our house last week:

• I am still reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for my neighborhood book group. I read it about 5 years ago for another book group and didn't love it, but so many people who have similar book tastes to me have told me over the years that this is their favorite novel that I decided to give it another try. I am enjoying it much more than I did the first time.
• I finished listening to Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt, a middle-grade audio book about a boy whose best friend has cancer. It's set in 1970, and I loved it - it is heart-breaking, yes, but also funny and spot-on in its portrayal of middle school kids and the era.
• I am now listening to Mosquitoland by David Arnold, a teen/YA novel about a quirky teen girl named Mim who takes an impulsive road trip from Mississippi to Ohio to visit her mom. It's a little confusing at times (one reviewer described Mim's narrative as kaleidoscopic!) but absolutely captivating and filled with interesting characters.
• I started a new graphic novel that I've heard great things about - Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley. It's a combination memoir and cookbook, all told with a wonderful sense of joie de vivre. I am loving it so far.
• My husband. Ken, finished Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and says he is looking forward to our local racetrack opening for spring!
• Ken is now reading First Wave by J. T. Sawyer, a post-apocalyptic novel, on his Kindle.
• Jamie, 20, has been working his way through the 10 books of the Dead series by T.W. Brown, in between classes, parties, and his new (first-ever) job. I doubt he will read much this week because he is in Florida for spring break with 8 of his friends!
• Craig, 17, is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class, using my old copy from high school filled with my scribbled notes which he says is "just like the Half-Blood Prince!"

Blog posts last week:

Top Ten Books from My Childhood/Teen Years I'd Like to Revisit, including some I loved sharing with my own sons

Review of The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod, a teen/YA audio book

Review of Here by Richard McGuire, a unique and fascinating graphic novel

A Day in the Life, a fun event last week, with a summary of my day - and lots of pics!

2015 Audiobook Challenge First Quarter Update - I'm on my 8th audiobook of the year

Saturday Snapshot - winter? spring? The weather changes are making my head spin!

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 Unleashing Readers. 

 

From my Day in the Life post (I'm not very good at selfies!)

Saturday Snapshot 3/28

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Spring? Winter? Spring? Winter? The changing weather is making our heads spin here in Delaware! Here's a little taste of what we've seen in the past week...keeping in mind that it is back down in the low 30's today with snowflakes in the air again!

Heavy snowfall last Friday that postponed our trip!

Bird prints in the snow

Back home on Monday...and all that snow we got on Friday is gone!

Dozens and dozens of robins all over the neighborhood

Savoring a brief respite in the 60's Thursday, before it got cold again

Hope you are enjoying a lovely - and warm - weekend!

(If you would like to see more photos of my world, check out my Day in the Life post)

2015 Audiobook Challenge First Quarter Update

 

One of my reading challenges this year is the 2015 Audiobook Challenge hosted by The Book Nympho and Hot Listens. 

I signed up for Binge Listener level, 20-30 audiobooks.

So far, I have listened to and finished 7 audiobooks:

1.  When Marnie Was Here by Joan G. Robinson
2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 
3. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
4.  I Was Here by Gayle Forman
5. The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall
6.  The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod
7. Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt

And I am currently listening to Mosquitoland by David Arnold. So, I am definitely on track to meet my goals this year!

A Day in the Life

Trish over at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity is hosting A Day in the Life Event today at her blog. I spent all day yesterday taking photos throughout my day, and now I will try to share them with you in a way that doesn't bore you to tears! I present...yesterday...

I started my day the way I always do, with a quick wash-up and then some gentle yoga stretches in front the the Today Show. I try to time it so that I catch the top stories summary, but it doesn't always work out that way. Then, I got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Ready for the day!

I love the total silence of the house on weekday mornings when I am home by myself. I made my usual breakfast - scrambled eggs with lots of veggies (onion and zucchini today, plus crumbled bacon) while singing along to the radio at the top of my lungs (another benefit of being in the house alone!). We switched to a Paleo diet (no dairy, sugar, or grains) about a year ago due to mine and my son's chronic immune disease. It has definitely helped us, and I actually enjoy it now.

After breakfast comes my favorite part of the morning: I settle into the sunny spot on the loveseat (though it's gloomy out today) with my laptop and a steaming mug of Tangerine-Orange Zinger tea next to me. We recently switched to family room furniture where every seat is a recliner, which works out great for us because keeping my feet elevated gives me more stamina. I take a quick peek at blog comments and Facebook, then close them both so that I can focus on writing. I finish an essay I started the day before for the website The Mid and submit it. Fingers crossed!

I reluctantly leave my favorite spot and my favorite job (writing) for more mundane tasks - today is errand day. I pull together a quick grocery list, fill out deposit slips, and make a list so I won't forget a stop. Finally, about 10 am - later than I'd hoped - I head out the door. First stop is Walgreen's to pick up prescriptions, then into town to the dry cleaners, through the bank's drive-through, and finally to the grocery store.

Normally, I would stop at the library while I'm in town, but it's closed on Thursdays - so sad! I can't pick up my holds today, but throughout my morning errands, my iPod keeps me company with my latest audio book, Mosquitoland by David Arnold, a quirky teen/YA novel about a girl making an impromptu bus road trip to visit her mom.

Yup, our local grocery store chain is called Acme...but, no, they don't carry rocket-powered roller skates or magnetic birdseed, alas. Grocery shopping has become much simpler and quicker since we switched to a Paleo diet - loads of fresh fruits and veggies, a few meats (organic or grass fed), eggs, coconut milk, and just a few items from the center aisles, like chicken broth and herbal tea. I do grab a few extras for my 17-year old son and his friends, like tortilla chips with salsa and queso sauce - he is decidedly NOT Paleo! Before long, I am finished.

Back at the car, I encounter the one thing I don't like about my beloved '92 VW Cabriolet: trying to stuff a whole cart of groceries into the tiny recessed trunk! It definitely makes grocery shopping a challenge. Somehow, I manage to squeeze it all in and pop my iPod back into the dock and listen to more of my book (I just upgraded from my old cassette stereo to a new one with an iPod dock last summer - I feel so modern!).

I arrive home as the rain starts to fall - doesn't that always happen on the day you go to the grocery store?? I carry in the stuff that needs to be refrigerated or frozen and leave all the rest for my son to bring in after school - there are benefits to having teen boys.

That was actually a LOT of activity for me to tackle in one day, so once I get the urgent grocery items put away, I collapse back into the recliner loveseat and try to get through my e-mails as quickly as I can. I also sneak another quick peak at Twitter, my blogs, and Facebook, though I generally try to leave social media for the end of the day - that one habit has given me a lot more productive time.

Lunch time! Another favorite time of day for me. I make my favorite Chocolate-Banana-Sunflower Butter Paleo smoothie. It tastes like a thick chocolate milk shake but is very good for me, and the whey powder in it helps my poor mitochondria create more energy. My older son and I love these smoothies and ate them every day while he was home during winter break. I have some veggie chips on the side for salty, crunchy goodness.

Best of all, I usually watch a TV show at lunchtime - something that my very male-centric family would never watch with me. Recent favorites are Parenthood, Glee (both of which just wrapped up for good - sniff, sniff), The Amazing Race (which we used to all watch together, but eveyone else got sick of it), and The Mysteries of Laura. I have also been making my way through season 1 of the Gilmore Girls, inspired by this awesome Rory reading list, and enjoying it very much. That's what I watch today.

After lunch, I am more than ready for my daily nap. People always tell me how lucky I am to "get" to nap every day, but it's not nearly as much fun when it's necessary - I feel like an over-grown toddler! Still, I do appreciate the required downtime in one way because it gives me a break in the middle of the day to read a little bit. I am currently reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for my neighborhood book group and enjoying it. I read for about 20 minutes and then fall asleep for an hour or so. During my nap, I vaguely hear my son come home from school, run up to his bedroom, and slam out the door again a few moments later.

After my nap is my designated blog time. I settle back into the recliner to write a review of the graphic novel Here by Richard McGuire, which was unique and absolutely fascinating. My favorite sunny spot is actually sunny now!

My husband comes home which signals that it's time to put away the laptop and make dinner. This is my lowest time of day, energy-wise, so he comes into the kitchen to help me. Since our younger son is taking his girlfriend out to dinner tonight for their 6-month anniversary (and our older son is at college), it is just the two of us, so we make something the kids would hate: Red Curry Shrimp and Asparagus over Coconut-Lime
Cauliflower "Rice" (basically grated cauliflower with some extra flavors added in that makes a pretty good rice substitute). We cook the meal and then sit down to eat at the kitchen table. It's delicious!

After dinner we clean up together, but then I feel all that standing catching up with me and head back to put my feet up again. It has miraculously turned into a nice day, with temperatures actually in the 60's! This is amazing, since we got a big snow storm last week and predicted temps in the 20's this weekend. So, I take my laptop and a reclining chair out onto our back deck to soak up that warm air while it lasts! This is the time of day when I finally forget about the to-do list and being productive and just play a little. I check Twitter and some blogs and catch up with my family and friends on Facebook.

OK, this is going to make us sound really old, but...at 7:00, we watch Jeopardy! It's actually a new habit, since our sons are rarely around now in the evenings, and it's a lot of fun. We have the daily calendar of Jeopardy questions, too - yup, total geeks.

At 7:30, I put the laptop away - another new habit that has worked really well for me. I actually aim to put it away by 7 pm, but tonight I was running late from the busy day. The evening is family time, and I also feel better physically if I stop all computer work and lie down by 7 pm. I settle into my evening spot - lying down flat on the longer couch, with a cup of Raspberry Zinger (or sometimes Mint Medley) by my side and a square of dark chocolate - ahhhh! The reward after a long day. My husband and I choose our two TV shows for the night - this time, we catch up on episode of The Good Wife and Perception.

We head upstairs at 9:30 and get ready for bed, when our son again runs into the house, grabs some stuff from his bedroom, yells through the door that he's spending the night at a friend's house, and runs out again. I haven't actually laid eyes on him all day! Normally, he's home for dinner and the evening (no homework tonight since he has the day off tomorrow. We settle in to read in bed until about 10:30. We both love to read, so with this routine, we get some shared time with our favorite TV shows and also some reading time. We try to turn the lights out by 10:30 pm because he has to get up early for work, and I need a lot of extra rest. Tomorrow is another full day. Good-night!

So, that's it. A Day in the Life...albeit a rather busy one. I'm not always able to do so much in one day, but I've been feeling pretty good this week. I hope I didn't bore you!

Graphic Novel Review: Here

I kept hearing rave reviews of the graphic novel Here by Richard Mcguire from a wide range of sources, including my favorite podcast, Books on the Nightstand, so I requested it from my library. It’s going to be hard to describe this very unique, fascinating book, but I will try to do it justice.

Here is not a typical graphic novel. In fact, it’s not typical of anything but is a wholly unique creation. The entire book is made up of 2-page color spreads showing one corner of a house over different periods of time, ranging from 3,000,000,000 BCE to 22,175, though most of the pages fall somewhere within human history (and obviously, there was no house on that spot for some of those years!). I had expected the book to be in chronological order, but the time periods jump around throughout the book, though there are a few pages that show a sequence in a particular year. So, within the first ten pages of the book, we see that corner of the house in 2015, 1957, 1942, 2007, and 1623. Sometimes, there are small insets of a different time period layered on top of the base picture of the room in another year.

On each two-page spread, the view is of the corner of a ground floor living room in some unmentioned location (but East Coast, given the colonial goings-on in the 1770’s). We see the house go through all sorts of different styles in interior design but also its varying inhabitants carrying on their normal daily lives. Sometimes, when there are a few pages in sequence, we even see those inhabitants growing up or growing older. As I mentioned, the pages are not chronological, so you might see a 1950’s living room on one page, Native Americans in a pristine forest on the next, a futuristic scene on the next, and a present-day view of the living room on the next.

Sample 2-page spread from Here, showing multiple years - click to enlarge

The book is an absolutely fascinating history of the world as seen from one small spot. There is plenty of nostalgia in the 1950’s furnishings or the 1970’s fashions, and it is interesting to peruse the changes in human history from one century to the next. It may sound impersonal, but some years are returned to multiple times, so there are some recurring “characters,” even if we don’t know their names, and on those sequential pages that follow the same scene, we get glimpses of little human dramas.

You can’t just read this book from the beginning to the end and then set it aside. It just begs to be picked up again and again and studied intently. I found myself flipping pages back and forth to remind myself of what had been shown for a certain year or where a person had showed up before. It is endlessly fascinating. The beautiful hardcover book would be perfect to keep out on your coffee table for people to peruse, except they would probably keep walking off with it, unable to tear themselves away from the history and drama playing out on its pages…all within one corner of one house.

Pantheon Books

Teen/YA Review: The Law of Loving Others

I recently listened to the audio book The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod and enjoyed this emotionally charged, realistic novel about a teen girl dealing with her mother’s diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Emma is in her junior year at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, heading home to the metro NY area for winter break with her boyfriend, Daniel. Emma doesn’t have a lot of close friends at school, but she and Daniel connected at the end of September and have been inseparable ever since. Emma is looking forward to a fun break split between time with her parents, time with her best friend, Annie, and trips to visit Daniel in Manhattan.

When Emma arrives home that day, though, something strange is going on. Her mother is acting oddly, first thinking that someone somehow snuck into her closet and swapped out all her clothes and later, that damaging rays are bombarding the house. Emma is freaked out because her mother has always been a calm, rational force in her life, always there for Emma. She tries to talk to Daniel, Annie and her father, but they just reassure her everything will be fine.

Within days, her mother has been taken to the hospital, and Emma learns a startling secret: that her mother has had schizophrenia since she was a young woman (normally controlled by medications) and that she is now suffering a schizophrenic break. Suddenly, Emma’s whole world feels like it is spinning out of control. Not only is her mother very sick, but this is the first she’s heard of her diagnosis – or even that there was a problem at all. Is her whole childhood a lie?

The rest of the novel is focused on Emma’s response to this crisis and her attempts to try to make sense of it all. She worries that Daniel won’t understand, that he won’t be there for her. She worries about how much to tell other people. And, she worries about the cute boy she meets at the mental hospital, a young man named Phil whom she vaguely knows from Annie’s brother. Phil is in the hospital visiting his twin brother, and he seems to be the only person in the world who truly understands what Emma is going through. She is also worried that she might develop schizophrenia herself, once she finds out there is a genetic component to the illness.

Coincidentally, this is one of several teen/YA audio books I have listened to in the last few months dealing with mental illness, and they have all been very moving and educational for me. In this case, Emma doesn’t always make good choices or select healthy coping mechanisms, but I thought it was a very realistic portrayal of how a teen girl might respond in such an unthinkable situation. The Law of Loving Others is an emotionally powerful novel about a teen trying to cope with a life-changing situation.

Listening Library

NOTE: This novel is best for older teens or young adults, as it includes plenty of drinking, drug use, sex, and adult language.

 Other teen/YA novels dealing with mental illness:

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Top Ten Books from My Childhood/Teen Years I'd Like to Revisit

It's Tuesday and that means it's Top Ten day over at The Broke and the Bookish! Head over there and join in on the fun. I love top ten lists and used to do my own Tuesday list, even before this meme began, but I haven't had enough time to participate lately, so I'm enjoying this today.


Today's topic is Top Ten Books from my Childhood/Teen Years I'd Like to Revisit. Great! I loved reading when I was a kid. Only one problem: I have already revisited almost all of my childhood favorites as an adult, many of them to share with my own two sons.

So, I am splitting my list into two parts - first, those old favorites that I have already reread and then a shorter list of those I still want to revisit:

Childhood Books I Have Enjoyed Revisiting:

• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - one of my all-time favorites when I was a kid. Who didn't want to be Pippi? I read it aloud to my sons who loved it just as much as I had.
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - My 2nd grade teacher read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe aloud to us, and I was hooked - I ran to the school library and read all the rest of the series! As soon as my boys were old enough, my husband and I read the entire series out loud to them, and of course, they loved it!
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - my all-time most favorite childhood book. I read it over and over again and even starred as Meg when our 4th grade class put on a play of the story. I was so excited to read this to my sons that I started too young, and they got scared, but a few years later, they each read it and loved it and read the rest of the series (all of which I still have!)
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton - Again, what kid didn't want to be a Borrower? I also read this one aloud to my sons, and they liked it just as much.
• Harriet the Spy by Louis Fitzhugh - another favorite of mine when I was in elementary school, but when I excitedly read it to my sons, they didn't like it much. They thought Harriet was mean to her classmates, which just goes to show they are much better people than I was at their age!
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - No, I didn't read this one to my sons! But I loved it as a teen and re-read it a few years ago, after March by Geraldine Brooks peaked my interest. Just as good as I remembered.

Childhood/Teen Books I Would Like to Revisit:

• Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene - oh, the hours I wiled away with Nancy, Bess, and George! It's been decades since I've read one and would love to revisit them. I have a few here somewhere. My youngest son loved to read the Hardy Boys and developed a serious obsession with the 70's Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys TV show!
• The Rest of the Series That Starts with A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - as I mentioned above, I read the whole series when I was a kid, as did my oldest son years later. I still have all the books on my shelf and would love to revisit the rest of the story.
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - This was my first Dickens' novel, read for 9th grade English, and I remember enjoying it but only vaguely remember the plot and details.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - Read for my 10th grade English class, with one of my favorite teachers. I remember I loved it and have been meaning to reread it - again, it's right upstairs on my shelf!

How about you? What books from your childhood or teen years would like to revisit or have you enjoyed rereading?

It's Monday 3/23! What Are You Reading?

Whew, what a whirlwind week. I posted almost nothing on my blog last week - nor did any other writing. I had a long to-do list that I ended up totally ignoring when several emergencies came up. My grandmother died last week - my last remaining grandparent - so we quickly planned a last-minute trip to Rochester, NY, (my hometown) for the funeral this weekend. I dropped everything else and focused my energy on creating a memorial DVD to celebrate her life. I was fighting off bronchitis most of the week, too - and was actually successful, thanks to my new best friend, the inhaler. Bronchodilators rock. Meanwhile, our 17-year old son was less successful - his cold turned into a nasty sinus infection, and we ended up having to leave him at home for the weekend.

Then, Delaware got hit with a big snow storm on Friday, so we cancelled our plans to leave that night and instead drove up Saturday...which means we spent 14 hours driving and only 20 hours actually in town for our visit! It was a quick trip but well worth it, both to honor and remember my grandmother and to spend time with my family. I also got to spend a little time with my dad, who is fighting cancer.

So, here I am, back home, ready to get back to normal life! Here's what we've been reading this past week:

• I continued reading Personal History by Katherine Graham, an autobiography of the Washington Post owner and this month's selection for one of my book groups. I missed the book group discussion last week because I was sick, but I was only about 2/3 of the way through this very dense, long book anyway. It's as much a history of the Washington Post as it is her personal history, and I'd prefer more personal stuff and less about the newspaper, politics, and all the famous people they hung out with! However, it has been interesting, and I think I will pick it up again and read more after I finish my next book group pick...
• I started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon this weekend for my neighborhood book group. I read it about 5 years ago for another book group. Honestly, I didn't love it, but so many people who have similar book tastes to me have told me over the years that this is their favorite novel that I decided to give it another try (besides, I hardly remembered anything about the plot!). Sometimes, you just read a book at the wrong time or in the wrong mood. I'm enjoying it so far.
• I am still listening to Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt, a middle-grade audio book about a boy whose best friend has cancer. It's set in 1970, and I am loving it - it is heart-breaking, yes, but also funny and spot-on in its portrayal of middle school kids. I will probably finish it today.
• I also started and finished Here by Richard Mcguire, a unique graphic novel. It shows an inside corner of a house across vastly different time periods, from many hundreds of thousand BC to 2200's (obviously, there wasn't actually a house on the spot in BC!). I'd heard great things about this unique book, and it held up to those high expectations - it was absolutely fascinating, and I still find myself studying its pages.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, part of his goal to read some nonfiction this year. Hillenbrand is a favorite author in our house because she is not only a brilliant writer but also suffers from the same disease as my son and me. What she has accomplished is absolutely amazing. Ken is almost finished with the book now and says he is  looking forward to the local racetrack opening this spring!
• Jamie, 20, has been on a zombie kick in honor of The Walking Dead. I finally had a chance to ask him about his reading during our many hours in the car this weekend, and as I suspected, he is still working his way through the 10 books of the Dead series by T.W. Brown, in between classes, parties, and his new (first-ever) job. I doubt he will read much this week because he heads to Florida for spring break on Friday!
• Craig, 17, is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class. I asked him if he wanted to borrow my copy from high school, apologizing for all the scribbled notes in it and offering to buy him a new one if he wanted. He said, "Are you kidding? This is just like the Half-Blood Prince in Harry Potter!" His teacher has been impressed by my notes, but credit belongs with my fabulous high school English teachers.

And, since we were visiting Rochester, I took bags of books with us to give to my young cousins and my nephew - they were all grateful and enthusiastic! I typically pass along teen/YA novels that I've enjoyed to my teen cousins, and we do tend to like the same sort of books. My 9-year old nephew was thrilled with so many books that had been his older cousins' favorites. He immediately sat down with me to look through one of the Wimpy Kid books and took one of our all-time favorites, The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy by William Boniface to bed with him. I just love sharing good books!

Only one blog post last week, about my new essay, Celebrate Everything, Big and Small, that is featured on the Mamalode website this month. It's about finding joy in every day. Check it out and let me know what you think!


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 Unleashing Readers. 

Our wedding in 89 - my grandmother, Ruth (blue dress) passed away last week

Celebrate Everything, Big and Small!

My essay, Celebrate Everything, Big and Small, is featured today on the website Mamalode for their March Celebration theme.

You can add joy to any day with a celebration, whether for a major holiday or for any small reason.

St. Patrick's Day was yesterday, but we still have the First Day of Spring coming up on Friday and Easter just around the corner. We can always find excuses to celebrate!

I hope you enjoy the essay and that is inspires you to celebrate everything, big and small, in your own way and embrace those moments of joy!

It's Monday 3/16! What Are You Reading?

Started the new week with a busy morning but now sitting down with a hot cup of herbal tea to write my Monday post. Last week was a good reading week at our house:

• I am still reading Personal History by Katherine Graham, an autobiography of the Washington Post owner and this month's selection for one of my book groups. It's not only long but very dense, so it's been slow going. I'm not usually a fan of celebrity autobiographies (I'd rather read memoirs about "regular" people), but it is interesting so far...just too long. It's as much a history of the Washington Post as it is her personal history, and I'd prefer more personal stuff and less about the newspaper, politics, and all the famous people they hung out with!
• I finished listening to The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod, a teen/YA novel about a young girl who comes home from boarding school for winter break to find that her mother has schizophrenia. It was excellent - a very moving story about how a teen tries to cope with such devastating news.
• Now, I am listening to Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt, a middle-grade audio book about a boy whose best friend has cancer. It's set in 1970, and I am loving it so far - it is heartfelt, yes, but also funny and spot-on in its portrayal of middle school kids.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, part of his goal to read some nonfiction this year. Hillenbrand is a favorite author in our house because she is not only a brilliant writer but also suffers from the same disease as my son and me. What she has accomplished is absolutely amazing.
• Jamie, 20, has been on a zombie kick in honor of The Walking Dead. I honestly have no idea what he's been reading since he went back to college last month, but I am guessing he is still working his way through the 10 books of the Dead series by T.W. Brown, in between classes, parties, and his new (first-ever!) job.

Busy week here at the blog:

 Order of Books Website - a fun and very useful bookish website!

Review of The Danger Box by Blue Balliett, a middle-grade novel

Review of The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, a teen/YA thriller

Saturday Snapshot - we transitioned from winter to spring in one week!

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 Unleashing Readers.   

The snow is all gone!

Saturday Snapshot 3/14

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Happy Saturday! We went from winter snowstorms to warm spring rain in just one week. We ended up with over 8 inches of snow on top of a thick layer of ice...and now it's all gone! Here's how much things changed:

Our back deck last Saturday

Our back deck today

View from our front door last Saturday

View from our front door today

Sunset from our deck

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

P.S. Happy Pi Day!

Teen/YA Review: The Conspiracy of Us

Debut author Maggie Hall’s The Conspiracy of Us is a fast-paced teen/YA thriller with plenty of romance. I recently listened to the novel on audio and easily got caught up in the suspense.

Sixteen-year old Avery is the new student – again – at her high school. She is sticking to her Plan not to get involved or too attached because she knows that sooner or later (probably sooner), she and her mother will be moving again. Her mother is a military contractor and something called the Mandate dictates where and when she has to go somewhere new, though Avery doesn’t really understand exactly what it is or what her mother does.

This time, though, Avery isn’t the newest student at her school. Jack just started last week, and though Avery is trying to stick to The Plan, she finds herself attracted to him. He asks her to go to the prom with him that night, but Avery declines, saying she doesn’t go to school dances. She gets home that afternoon to discover that she and her mother will be moving again, this time to Maine, and impulsively, she decides to go to the dance with Jack. After all, she’ll never see him again, right?

The prom doesn’t quite go as planned, though, and some surprising events lead to Avery suddenly being whisked off to Paris. Things happen fast from there, as Avery discovers a whole world she knew nothing about – family she didn’t know she had and an international conspiracy that rules the world behind the scenes.

Most of that action all happens in the first few chapters. Once Avery is in Europe, the mystery and suspense pick up even more. This is a fast-paced international thriller, with some elements reminiscent of the mysterious secrets and codes embedded in The DaVinci Code, as the teens rush across Europe to solve clues and find answers. There is also a good bit of romance in the novel.

I enjoyed listening to A Conspiracy of Us and was immediately pulled into its suspense. It’s a compelling story with a unique theory at its center. Avery was a likable main character, and the audiobook narrator, Julia Whelan, did a great job with all the characters in the novel and with the nonstop action. My only complaint was that the novel ended rather abruptly – I actually checked my iPod to see if it inadvertently switched to Shuffle and skipped ahead to the credits! My personal preference is for series books to resolve somewhat, rather than ending with a cliffhanger. I guess I’ll have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens next!

Listening Library

Middle-Grade Review: The Danger Box

I read my first Blue Balliett novel last year – Hold Fast – and absolutely loved it. Balliett has another hit with The Danger Box, another story about a unique, very likeable kid who helps to solve a mystery and save the day.

Zoomy is a twelve-year old boy who lives in the small, quaint town of Three Oaks, Michigan, with his grandparents. He was left on their front porch as an infant, with a note that he was their grandson, though they hadn’t seen their son, Buckeye, in a long time. Zoomy and his grandparents are happy together, with their little family of three, and Zoomy helps out in the family antique shop in town. He is something of an odd boy (from the way he’s described, it sounds like he has a form of autism), but he manages with the help of notebooks, purple pens, and lists – lots and lots of lists. The lists help him feel more in control.

Zoomy also has a Danger Box, a small wooden cherry crate filled with old shotgun shells, pieces of blown-up firecrackers, and other treasures. One day, their peaceful life is shattered when Buckeye unexpectedly shows up after more than a decade away. He brings an old wooden box into the garage and asks his parents to hold it for him. Inside the box are a tattered old blanket and a very old notebook with a leather cover. Given Zoomy’s own collection of notebooks, he is fascinated and tries to decipher the old-fashioned handwriting in it, eventually adding it to his Danger Box.

Meanwhile, Zoomy makes his first friend, an energetic girl bubbling with enthusiasm named Lorrol. Zoomy and Lorrol are very different, but they are both lonely and love the library and find that they get along well together. They start a newsletter filled with clues to a mystery person and soon the whole town is trying to guess who it is.

Like Hold Fast, this is a complex plot with a mystery at its center and plenty of family drama. The reader goes along for the ride as Zoomy and Lorrol try to unravel the mystery, all while they become good friends and try to save Zoomy’s family. In a puzzle within a puzzle, the reader also gets to read the friends’ newsletters and try to solve that mystery as well. It’s a gripping, compelling story that pulls you right in and doesn’t let go. The old notebook that Zoomy finds is actually a real historical artifact that was stolen many years ago, and it adds to the thrill to know that parts of Zoomy and Lorrol’s mystery is real.

301 pages, Scholastic

Order of Books Website

I recently discovered a new bookish website and have already used it several times!

Ever wonder in what order the books in a series go? Or want to know in what order an author's books were published? Welcome to OrderofBooks.com!

At this awesome website, you can look up a book series by author or by the series name and see a complete list of the books in the series, in order of publication. It even shows in what year each book was published.

I've already found this website to be very useful.

For instance, I was buying books for my Dad's birthday (he goes through them faster than I can buy them!) and had heard that the Charlie Hood series by T. Jefferson Parker was a good mystery/thriller series. It sounded like something he'd like, but I couldn't tell which was the first book on Amazon. A quick search for Charlie Hood on Order of Books and I knew to order him L.A. Outlaws (which he loved, by the way).

Then, last week, I was writing my review of Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult. I knew it was one of her earlier books, but I didn't know how early. A quick search on Order of Books told me it was Picoult's 3rd book, published in 1995. Picoult's books were listed even though they aren't a series. How cool!

I noticed the site even includes some children's and YA authors and series, too. Go ahead and check it out - have some fun!

Do you know of any other useful book websites? I have been searching for years for one that lists books by location/setting, so I'd love to hear if you know of one - or anything else useful!

It's Monday 3/9! What Are You Reading?

Struggled to get up this morning - not a big fan of Spring Forward. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to adjust. Glad it is Monday, though, with a fresh start to a new week. I must be feeling better because I am filled with motivation and writing ideas - always a good sign!

Last week was a great blogging week and a good reading week, too, for all of us:

• I finished The Danger Box by Blue Balliet, a middle-grade novel, and loved it just as much as Balliet's Hold Fast. I love how she creates quirky characters that you want to root for!
• Now I am reading a hefty brick of a book: Personal History by Katherine Graham, an autobiography of the Washington Post owner and this month's selection for one of my book groups. It's not only long but very dense, so I was dreading it. I'm not usually a fan of celebrity autobiographies (I'd rather read memoirs about "regular" people), but I have to admit that it is interesting so far...just too long.
• I finished listening to a new teen/YA novel, The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, a thriller & romance. I enjoyed it, though it ended so abruptly that I thought my iPod had been switched to Shuffle by mistake and skipped ahead to the credits! Apparently, it is the start of a series.
• Now I am listening to The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod, a teen/YA novel about a young girl who comes home from boarding school for winter break to find that her mother has schizophrenia. It's excellent so far - very moving.
• My husband, Ken, finished Joyland by Stephen King, a novel I bought him for Christmas. He really enjoyed it.
• Now he is reading Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, part of his goal to read some nonfiction this year. Hillenbrand is a favorite author in our house because she is not only a brilliant writer but also suffers from the same disease as my son and me. What she has accomplished is absolutely amazing.
• Jamie, 20, has been on a zombie kick in honor of The Walking Dead coming back to TV recently. I assume he is still working his way through the 10 books of the Dead series by T.W. Brown, though he's been busy at school.

Lots of blog posts last week:

Review of Wool by Hugh Howey, a unique & compelling novel

Review of Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult, a novel about a difficult topic

Summary of Books Read in February

Saturday Snapshot, with photos of ice and snow (hopefully the last of them!)

Weekend Cooking - Movie Review: Chef, highly recommended!

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 Unleashing Readers.   

Every pine needle coated with ice