It's Monday 3/28! What Are You Reading?

Monday already?  We spent the entire weekend working on our tax return (and still haven't finished) - doesn't feel like we really had a weekend at all!

I had to take a little break from blogging the second half of last week - just too far behind in too many things and feeling overwhelmed.  So, I apologize if I didn't get a chance to visit your blog last week.  I'm hoping this week will be better, in many ways!

We did manage some reading last week, though:

• I am still reading Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, a fascinating and compelling story about an Olympic runner who was a POW in World War II Japan.  Besides being captivated by the tale, I'm learning a lot - I really knew very little about Japan's role in WW II.
• I finished listening to 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Gralik on audio.  I really loved this book and hope to review it here soon.
• My husband is on a sci fi run lately.  He first read an old favorite, Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer.  He told me a bit about it - a world of resurrection, where every person who has ever lived goes after death - and it sounds interesting.
• He's now reading a new sci fi release we found at the library, Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova.  This was just a spontaneous pick from the library's new release shelf, but he says it's pretty good so far, a classic life-on-another-planet sci fi story.
• Jamie, 16, read Goldstrike, the teen techo-thriller sequel to Icecore by Matt Whyman, and loved it.  I'll have to check that one out, since I enjoyed Icecore, too.
• He's now reading Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull, a new release from a favorite author (author of the Fablehaven books).
• Jamie is also reading The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane for his American Lit class.
• Craig, 13, is reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for his English class - now there's a school assignment anyone could love!  We've listened to some great audio books of Tom Sawyer, but this is the first time he's read it on his own.

Before I went into overload and had to take a blogging break, I posted a review of Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran and my list of Top Five Bookish Pet Peeves.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  Thanks for giving me something to look forward to on Mondays, Sheila!)

Fiction Review: Cleopatra’s Daughter

One of the things I enjoy about book groups is that they often result in reading books that I normally wouldn’t pick up myself.  Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran is just such a book.  I guess I still have this idea in my head that I don’t like historical fiction (probably left over from not enjoying history class in school!), even though my book groups have now introduced me to plenty of it that I have enjoyed.

Cleopatra’s Daughter is, quite obviously, about the only daughter of Cleopatra.  It takes place just as Marc Antony’s rival, Octavian, captures Egypt, and Antony and Cleopatra take their own lives, leaving their twin 10-year old children, Selene and Alexander, orphans.  Octavian takes the twins as prisoners and brings them back to Rome with him.

Once he has paraded them through Rome in his victory celebration, they aren’t treated as prisoners, though.  It’s really quite fascinating.  The children lived in Octavian’s sister’s (Octavia) home and were raised alongside her children and Octavian’s and treated mostly as equals to them, attending school together, eating meals together, and becoming friends.  The story, narrated by Selene, continues through their adolescence.

The novel feels very much like a Young Adult novel, since it is narrated by a young girl, focused on the details of her daily life, her hopes of returning to Egypt someday, her fears of what Octavian might do as they grow up, as well as the concerns of every teen girl: boys, clothes, love, and her future.  Selene and Alexander are both very likeable characters, as are most in Octavia’s household, and the historical details are fascinating.  Moran must have done meticulous research.  In fact, we learned in the author’s notes at the back of the book that truth really is stranger than fiction!

My only problem with this novel was having trouble following it in the beginning.  There are many characters to keep track of, often with similar names (Octavia and Octavian aren’t the only ones), plus the Romans of the time tended to divorce and remarry multiple times, with children resulting from each partnership so it was tough at first to remember which children had which parents – lots of mix and match.  Moran includes some helpful references at the start of the book – a historical timeline, two maps, and a list of characters – which I found myself flipping to constantly during the early chapters.  Once I got further into the story and more familiar with the characters and events, it got easier.

Everyone in my book group enjoyed the novel very much, and it sparked lots of great discussions on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the history of divorce to the role of religion in ancient cultures to foods and other details of daily Roman life.  If you enjoy historical fiction (and maybe if you think you don’t), you’ll enjoy this engaging look into growing up in Ancient Rome.

416 pages, Crown Publishing Group, Random House

 

Top Five Bookish Pet Peeves

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's theme is Bookish Pet Peeves.  Since I only thought of five, my list is my Top Five Bookish Pet Peeves:

• Cover art that doesn't match the book.  Confession:  I read this one over at Books Kids Like, but it's been a peeve of mine ever since I read The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue, a novel where the cover picture had absolutely nothing to do with the novel itself - that really annoyed me.  Can't the publisher be bothered to tell the artist what the book is about??
• Poor editing.  This should really be #1 and now that I think about, it covers peeves #6 - 10 since lots of problems result from it.  Sometimes, you can just tell that the book wasn't well edited, and it really bugs me.  I once read a memoir about hiking the Appalachian Trail.  It was interesting but was so filled with horrible, obvious grammatical errors that it made me grimace through the whole book.
• Everything has a sequel now.  This bugs both my husband and I.  It seems there are few stand-alone books anymore.  Everything is now part of a series.  I just don't have the time to commit to reading a whole series every time I pick up a book!
• Plot inconsistencies.  This just happened to me recently, though I can't remember exactly what it was.  Sometimes, you read something and know it was different earlier in the book.  How could both the author and the editor miss this??  (see #2 again)
• Using $1 words when 5 cent words would work just as well (or better).  My husband contributed this one.  He says Dean Koontz often does this - tends to use big, flowery words that no one understands.

How about you?  Do you have any Bookish Pet Peeves?

It's Monday 3/21! What Are You Reading?

Happy Spring!  Pouring rain here today, so it sure feels like spring.  And the thunder last night woke us all up and shook the house.  At least the weekend was nice and sunny.

Busy week here (aren't they all?), but we enjoyed some good books:

• I finished Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card, his latest sci fi novel for teens/YA.  Jamie and I both LOVED this book!  Even though I finished it a few days ago, I keep thinking about it.  I cheered when I read in his acknowledgments that there is a sequel!
• Now I'm reading one of my Christmas gifts, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  She's a hero to me, since she has written her two amazing books while completely disabled by the same chronic illness I have.  She is a remarkable, inspiring person, as is the subject of her latest book.
• My husband, Ken, read a nice, lightweight paperback last week since he was traveling: Indigo Slam by Robert Crais, one of his favorite authors.
• Jamie, 16, is rereading Icecore by Matt Whyman, in preparation for reading its sequel.  He and I both enjoyed this teen techno-thriller.

Last week, I posted a review of The Three Weissmanns of Westport, an audio book I enjoyed.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

A sure sign of spring spotted in my neighborhood yesterday:

Fiction Review: The Three Weissmanns of Westport

After hearing multiple positive reviews of Catherine Schine’s novel, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, I was intrigued.  So, when I saw the audio book sitting on my library’s new releases shelf, I checked it out, figuring I might not ever get around to reading this book, but I might find time to listen to it.  I’m glad I did.  This is the sort of book that grew on me; the longer I listened, the more I liked it.

It’s the story of a mother, Betty Weissmann, and her two grown daughters, Miranda and Annie.  Betty’s husband – and the girls’ beloved stepfather – has left her after almost 50 years of marriage for the clichéd younger woman (though Betty doesn’t know about Felicity yet).  Miranda, who runs a successful literary agency, finds herself in dire straits when one of her memoirists turns out to be more of a novelist and is exposed on national television (sound familiar?).  Annie, who is divorced, lives a quiet, monotonous life working in a library.

When Betty is turned out of her fancy Manhattan apartment and Miranda can no longer pay her own lease, all three women take up a cousin’s offer to move into his beach cottage in Westport, CT.  The girls are, in part, trying to be supportive during their mother’s crisis, but all three are in need of a place to hide out and lick their wounds.

At this point, it sounds like a pretty depressing book, right?  That’s how I felt at the beginning, and though I felt sorry for Betty, her daughters seemed a bit whiny to me.  But I stuck with it, and I began to appreciate the subtle bits of humor and irony in the story, sometimes laughing out loud.  I also began to care about all three of the main characters, as they each struggled with loves past and potential and with trying to put their lives back together.  The novel also brought me to tears with its surprising warmth.

All of the reviews explain that Schine’s novel is a clever modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, but I can’t really comment on that, as I’ve never read the famous novel…or for that matter, anything by Jane Austen (I know, I know…it’s on my list.)  Perhaps The Three Weissmanns of Westport will serve as the impetus to finally drive me to read an Austen novel, just so I will be able to see the parallels.  In any case, I enjoyed the novel very much, without benefit of this background, so I imagine it will be even more satisfying to fans of Sense and Sensibility.

Where Are You Reading 2011:   Finally, an easy book location to figure out - it's right in the title!  This novel takes place in NYC and, primarily, in Westport, CT.

 

It's Monday 3/14! What Are You Reading?

Ugh...I hate Spring Forward.  And my husband is out of town today, so it was a double-whammy for me:  I had to get up at 6 am to get the kiddos off to school AND it felt like 5 am!  I don't like getting up when it's still completely dark outside!  On the other hand, I did enjoy a walk yesterday at 5 pm with the sun still shining...

Well, my older son returned to school last week, and my younger son ended up missing the whole week because of a severe case of bronchitis and a sinus infection!  Today is the first time in weeks that they've both been in school (hurray!) - I am really looking forward to life returning to normal this week (or as normal as it ever gets...)

• I finished reading Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran and enjoyed a very lively discussion with my book group last week.  Everyone enjoyed it.
• I am now reading Pathfinder, Orson Scott Card's latest release for teens/YA.  So far, it is just as good as Jamie told me it was!  It's a time traveling story with lots of secrets and twists from one of our favorite authors.
• I just started listening to 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Gralik on audio.  I'm only on chapter 2, but it has already grabbed my attention.  I'm a big fan of gratitude :)
• My husband, Ken, finished Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.  This was Crichton's last published novel; the manuscript was discovered after his death.  Ken said it was good but different than the typical Crichton approach of taking some new scientific tidbit and building a story around it.  Instead, this novel is an old-fashioned pirate story.
• Jamie, 16, continued reading some old favorites with The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Three: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud.  He loves this series.
• Craig, 13, was very sick all last week but started working on make-up work this weekend.  He's reading an O. Henry short story, A Retrieved Reformation, for his English class.

With another sick week here, I didn't have much spare time for either writing or reading blogs last week, but I did manage to write two reviews:  Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson and  an excellent teen/YA audio, Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay at Great Books for Kids and Teens.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

The only good thing about turning the clocks ahead?  It means spring is on the way, as do these snowdrops blooming in my neighborhood.  Now can I go back to bed??

Nonfiction Review: Stones Into Schools

I recently read Greg Mortenson’s second book, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for my library’s monthly discussion group.  I previously read Three Cups of Tea, his first book, and although I was fascinated by the subject matter, I didn’t think it was very well written.  That first book had been written with a co-author, a journalist, while Stones Into Schools is written solely by Mortenson and is a much better book, as everyone in the book group agreed.

Here’s some more insight into why this book is better, in Greg’s own words:

In addition to being a profoundly bewildered man, I am an incorrigible introvert.  I am awkward, soft-spoken, ineloquent, and intensely shy.  I do not enjoy speaking in public, posing for photographs, or asking other people for money.  I dream of privacy, I revere silence, and I loathe any action that involves drawing attention to myself.  (Even creating these pages was painful: It took a supreme effort on the part of my wife, Tara, and my editor, Paul Slovak, to force me to agree to write it in the first-person – an approach that is emphatically not my cup of tea.)  In the Christmas pageant of life, the characters I admire most – and the only roles for which I would ever consider auditioning – are the ox and the donkey.

As this single paragraph showcases, Mortenson writes with intimacy, warmth, and wit, and the decision to write from the first-person was absolutely the right one (nice job, Tara and Paul!).  As with Three Cups of Tea, the subject matter of the book is riveting and enlightening.

Mortenson describes his continuing efforts to build schools for children, especially girls, in the most remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan through his non-profit group, Central Asia Institute (CAI).  He tells of their efforts in a very engaging way, focusing on stories of individual people who have been involved with or helped by CAI, as well as the often-fascinating paths that led to building schools in the most remote regions.  His tales are heartwarming (sometimes heart-breaking) and inspirational, especially the lengths that he and his colleagues are willing to go to provide education to children that have long been forgotten by the rest of the world.

This wonderful book provided excellent fodder for discussion among the diverse attendees at my library’s book discussion.  Its stories are enhanced by many maps and photographs (I especially enjoyed the photos of schools and children).  Stones Into Schools is engaging and instructive, illuminating a world that is completely different from our own but is linked by the same human longings for education, wellness, and a better future for our children.

379 pages, Viking Penguin

NOTE:  Interestingly, at the same time I was reading Stones Into Schools, I was also listening to a fictional teen/YA book set in rural Afghanistan about two young girls attending a new school built for them by an American non-profit.  I highly recommend Thunder Over Kandahar for a fictional perspective of the same region.

To learn more about CAI or to donate, you can visit the CAI website.

Where Are You Reading 2011:  Although CAI has built schools all over Pakistan and Afghanistan, I chose to put my pin on Bozai Gumbaz, Afghanistan, site of the most remote school built to date (what they had to go through just to get building materials there is awe-inspiring!) and a story thread that flows throughout the book.

It's Monday 3/7! What Are You Reading?

Happy Mardi Gras!  Well, Mardi Gras Day is actually tomorrow, but we're in the midst of the height of the celebrations.  We used to live in New Orleans, so Mardi Gras is one of our favorite holidays.  We had a small party Saturday night, including several friends who used to live in New Orleans when we did, and have been enjoying jambalaya, red beans & rice, shrimp, bread pudding, and King Cake all weekend!

All the party preparations (plus two kids home sick most of last week) didn't leave much time for reading, but we did manage some:

• I am reading Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran for my neighborhood book group this week.  I struggled with it a bit at first because I couldn't keep the characters straight (lots of similar names and lots of changing partners!), but I am enjoying it very much now.
• I finally finished Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay, a teen/YA audio book that I've been listening to for quite a few weeks, about two young girls in Afghanistan.  It was absolutely wonderful, one of the best teen books I've read/heard in years.
• Jamie, 16, finished The Awakening by Kate Chopin for his American Literature class.  He said it was terrible - I guess a passionate story of female awakening just isn't his style!  He also said he didn't like the ending.
• While home sick, Jamie turned to some comfort reading - re-reading one of his all-time favorite series, The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.  He read Book 1: The Amulet of Samarkand and Book 2: The Golem's Eye and is moving onto Book 3.
• Craig, 13, prefers TV to books when he is sick!
• My husband, Ken, is reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.  He says it's good but not the typical type of Crichton novel (the back cover says the manuscript was found after his death, so who knows what his plans for it were!)

Last week, I posted a review of Between Home and School: Letters, Notes and E-Mails by Bill Harley, a slim but wonderful book about a boy growing up and a review of Blank Confession by Pete Hautman, a teen/YA suspense novel at Great Books for Kids and Teens.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Fiction Review: Between Home and School

As soon as I heard about Between Home and School: Letters, Notes, and E-mails by Bill Harley, I couldn’t wait to read it.  Bill Harley is a favorite at our house.  We are huge fans of his performances where he is a cross between a singer, a storyteller, and a family-friendly stand-up comedian.  We have listened to/watched (we have both the CD and DVD) his Yes to Running! a dozen times, and we still laugh hysterically each time!  Harley has a special talent for capturing exactly what it’s like to be a kid.  His picture book, Dear Santa: The Letters of James B. Dobbins, is also one of our favorite holiday books.

Harley’s latest achievement is a tiny book (I read it cover-to-cover in less than 30 minutes) that is written for adults rather than kids.  With his trademark warmth and wit, Harley tells the story of a young boy, Tyler, growing up, solely through a series of letters, notes, and e-mails that pass back and forth between the boy’s mother and the teachers he has over the years, from kindergarten through high school graduation. 

As always, Bill Harley injects some humor into this story, but he also manages to tell a very touching coming-of-age story in a unique and succinct way.   Yes, I really did laugh and cry during that half-hour that it took me to read this slim volume!  I felt as if I could have written some of these notes (actually, I think I have).  For example, here is a note written by Tyler’s first-grade teacher, in response to some concerns Tyler’s mom expressed:

Dear Mrs. Bennet,

I appreciate your observations.  I know you are worried.  Tyler is doing fine.  He is performing exactly as expected at his grade level.  It is normal for a child to confuse sounds at this age and also typical that he guess, rather than really read.  We all guess, most of the time.

If you would like to talk to me, please come in on Tuesday, directly after school.

Yours,

Althea Elliot

I remember worrying about the same things when my oldest son was in first grade!  Would he ever learn to read properly?  (This is the same boy who reads non-stop now, at 16).  Most of the notes are examples of excellent, heart-warming communication between teachers and parents, though there is one less-than-stellar example (who I also recognized as one of my younger son’s teachers!) 

Between Home and School is a creative and appealing way to tell a story by a writer who excels at being both creative and appealing in all media formats.  This little story would make a wonderful end-of-year teacher thank-you gift, a way of telling your child’s teacher that you acknowledge and appreciate the significant role she or he plays in your child’ life.

Round River Productions

Where Are You Reading 2011:  The header on some of the letters from school indicate that this story takes place in Viewcrest, Massachusetts (Viewcrest is a fictional town, so I just picked a random point in MA!)
         

Books Read in February 2011

Wow, March 1.  February sure is a short month.  The good news is that spring is definitely on the way, which is good.  I've had enough of snow days and sick kids.

It was also a very busy month for us, with two weekends in a row away.  I'm building up to an excuse for only reading five books this month!  Well, it IS a short month, right?  Those missing 2-3 days really make a difference.

In February, I read:

• Between Home and School by Bill Harley
• Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson
• The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
• Blank Confession by Pete Hautman
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Well, in my defense, February did include two books over 500 pages!  That's three nonfiction (one of which was a memoir), one grown-up novel, and one teen/YA novel.  That's a lot more nonfiction than I usually read and a lot less kids/teen books than I usually read - an unusual month.

I would have to say that my favorite book of February was probably The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb, though Stones Into Schools was a close second.

And, embarrassingly, I haven't written a single review yet of the books read in February!  Yikes.  I knew I was behind, but I didn't realize it was that bad.  Well, I plan to catch up a bit this week since some of these are due back to the library!

Hope you had a good February - I'm ready for March!

It's Monday 2/28! What Are You Reading?

Wow, the last day of February already?  Spring is in the air around here, where the temperatures have been in the 50's, and we're getting rain instead of snow this week.  I'm ready for it!

We had a great reading week here last week:

• I finally finished the 700-page The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb which was complex but very well-written.  My book group meets Wednesday to discuss it.
• I took a break from the hefty epics to read a new teen/YA mystery/thriller, Blank Confession by Pete Hautman.  It was fast-paced and suspenseful, just what I was in the mood for.
• Last night, I finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, a much-lauded memoir about the author's first year after her husband of 40 years dies suddenly that I've been wanting to read for years.  The only problem is that I got it out of the library for an online book discussion, and now I can't remember which blog it was for!  Anyone??  This could be a sign that I am involved in too many book groups!!
• Today, I will start Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran for my neighborhood book group.  I must admit I've been procrastinating on this one just because it's not usually one of my favorite genres, but everyone has said it's good.  I promise to start today!
• My husband, Ken, was determined to finish Under the Dome by Stephen King before his business trip today because it's too big to travel with!  He finished it at 11 pm last night, just in time.  He said it was classic Stephen King.
• He's taking Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton with him on the plane today.  It was a Christmas gift from our oldest son to him, and he's been saving this paperback for a trip.
• Jamie, 16, continued reading voraciously this past week, mostly because he's still not feeling great, though he did make it to school for a few days.  He read Pathfinder, Orson Scott Card's latest teen/YA novel.  He and I have both been drooling over this one ever since it arrived because we are both huge fans of Ender's Game.  Jamie says that Pathfinder had all of his favorite fictional elements in it.  I can't wait to read it next!
• Jamie is also reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin for his American Literature class.  I've never heard of this one, but the back cover says it shocked audiences in 1899 with its passion and "honest treatment of female marital infidelity."  OK...not sure Jamie will like this one!
• Unfortunately, he's home sick again this morning and re-reading a favorite, The Roar by Emma Clayton, a recent middle-grade science fiction release.
• Craig, 12, is reading The Last Hunt, the final book in Bruce Coville's The Unicorn Chronicles.

I did manage to post two reviews last week:  Room by Emma Donoghue, one of the best novels I've read in years,  and on Great Books for Kids and Teens, a review of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Fiction Review: Room

Room by Emma Donoghue is hard to classify because it is an utterly unique novel.  It deserves all the praise it has received and all of its appearances on various Top Ten and Best of 2010 lists.  I read this novel in record time, scarcely able to set it down.  It’s one of those books that you can’t wait to finish and then you feel sad when it’s over.

Room is narrated by five-year old Jack who lives with his Ma in an eleven-foot by eleven-foot room.  Although Jack doesn’t realize it, he and his mother are prisoners, held captive by a man he only knows as Old Nick who kidnapped his mother seven years ago.  Jack was born in this single room, so it is the only world he knows, and his mother has protected him – wonderfully, endearingly, achingly – from knowledge of their situation or of the bigger outside world.

Her strategy has worked – Jack is intelligent, kind, and full of life, completely unaware that he’s missing out on anything more.  This is how the novel opens, on Jack’s fifth birthday:

Today I’m five.  I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra.   Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero.  “Was I minus numbers?”

“Hmm?” Ma does a big stretch.

“Up in Heaven.  Was I minus one, minus two, minus three - ?”

“Nah, the numbers didn’t start till you zoomed down.”

“Through Skylight.  You were all sad till I happened in your tummy.”

“You said it.” Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he makes everything light up whoosh.

I shut my eyes just in time, then open one a crack, then both.

“I cried till I didn’t have any tears left,” she tells me.  “I just lay here counting the seconds.”

“How many seconds?” I ask her.

“Millions and millions of them.”

“No, but how many exactly?”

“I lost count,” says Ma.

“Then you wished and wished on your egg till you got fat.”

She grins.  “I could feel you kicking.”

“What was I kicking?”

“Me, of course.”

I always laugh at that bit.

Just from this brief opening passage, you learn so much, about Jack’s sweet innocence, his intelligence, and the love that he and his Ma feel for each other.  Telling this story from Jack’s point of view is absolute genius because we are learning about an atrocious, horrible situation from a very innocent, unknowing perspective.  It is gripping and entrancing from this very first page.

Jack’s five-year old questions and eagerness to learn, combined with his mother’s growing desperation, lead her to conclude that Room just can’t hold the two of them for much longer.   Their story is warm and sweet, yet also frightening and tense.  I loved Jack and his Ma from the very first page and was rooting for them.  There are plenty of surprises in this book, as well as thought-provoking situations and suspense, but to explain any more of the plot here would ruin it.  You’ll just have to take my word for it.  Room is one of the best, most unique novels to come along in a long time.  In fact, just writing this review makes me want to read it all over again.

NOTE:  You may find Jack’s habit of referring to objects as proper nouns – Room, Wardrobe, Bed – a bit awkward at first, but when I realized why he does that, it made me smile.

321 pages, Little, Brown

Where Are You Reading 2010:  I can’t add a pin to my world map for Room because it is – intentionally, I think – set in a no-name place that could easily be just about anywhere, maybe even right in your town.

 

It's Monday 2/21! What Are You Reading?

Happy President's Day!

I had another rough week last week (no new reviews posted!), but this one is starting out better.  My son had a severe flare-up of his chronic illness last week, I had a moderate flare-up, and it was another hectic, overwhelming week.  I spent Friday marshaling my limited energy to pack for another weekend away, which I was dreading.  Then things turned around.  We drove to my mom's house to spend the weekend with her and her husband.  Jamie and I still felt crummy, but there was nothing to do there but rest and relax.   Craig got to go snowboarding, and my husband, Ken, went skiing for the first time in 22 years!  We all had a nice time, and now I feel rested and ready to face another full week.

Most of us are still working on the long books we were reading last week, except for Jamie.  While he was sick last week, he read four books!  That's my boy...

• I am almost finished with the 700-page novel, The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb.  It's a good thing last week's book group was postponed!  It's quite an epic, starting in the 80's and going forward to the present and backward to the Civil War.  I always enjoy Lamb's writing.
• Ken, my husband, is still working his way through the 1000+-page Under the Dome by Stephen King.  He's enjoying it, though he's getting sick of carrying such a huge brick around with him!
• Craig, 13, has finished reading for his upcoming book presentation and now gone back to The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville, the final book in his favorite series, The Unicorn Chronicles.
• And then there's Jamie, 16.  He finished reading The Books of Umber 3: The End of Time by P.W. Catanese - he really enjoys that series.
• Next, on his first sick day, Jamie spotted an old favorite on his book shelf, The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell, one of his favorite authors, and decided to re-read it.  The equivalent of comfort food for him.
• By now, clearly too sick for school, he piled up a big stack of books he's been meaning to read and started in!   He read Closer, Book 4 of the teen/YA Tunnels series by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, about a hidden, underground world.  I've only read the first book so far, but Jamie says it's one of the best series he's ever read, so I think I need to catch up.
• Next, he read Sabotaged, Book 3 of The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Both he and I have been enjoying this fast-paced middle-grade time travel series.
• Now, he's reading The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.  He recently bought it with a Christmas gift card.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.)

It's Monday 2/14! What Are You Reading?

Happy Valentine's Day!  My wonderful husband, Ken, asked me to marry him 23 years ago today (this photo is from about that time).  I can't imagine sharing my life with anyone else - we've been through so much together, good times and bad, and he's always there to support me.

One of the many things we share together is our love of books and reading.  We had a very busy week (yes, again), including a whirlwind trip back to my hometown of Rochester, NY, this weekend for my great-aunt's funeral.  We all enjoyed some good books this week:

• I finished reading Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson for my library's book discussion last week (I read the last page and the epilogue right after the meeting ended!), a follow-up to his first book, Three Cups of Tea.  Everyone in the book discussion was fascinated and impressed by what Mortenson has achieved, though we all agreed we wouldn't want to be married to him!
• Just as I was hurrying to finish Stones into Schools for the library book discussion, I realized that another of my book groups is meeting THIS Wednesday, leaving me only 7 days to read the 700-page The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  I can't usually read in the car, but I made an exception this weekend.  It's an excellent, gripping novel so far, about a couple who worked at Columbine High School at the time of the shootings.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Under the Dome by Stephen King and enjoying it very much.
• Jamie, 16, didn't have much time for reading this week, between school, homework, and the trip (he drove part of the way), but he has started The Books of Umber 3: The End of Time by P.W. Catanese.
• Craig, 13, is re-reading Nick of Time by Ted Bell in preparation for an oral report for his English class.
• On audio, I've been listening to a new teen book, Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay.  Ironically, since I was reading Stones Into Schools last week, this new audio is about two young girls in a rural Afghanistan village who are eager to attend the new school recently built by an American charitable organization.  It's excellent so far.
• On the way to and from Rochester, our whole family listened to The Story of Cirrus Flux, a fast-paced middle-grade novel about two orphans in 1783 London, on the run from various evil foes who want to steal a magical token.  Now that we're back home, we need to find time to finish it!

Last week, I posted a review of Musicophilia by Oliver Sachs and a tribute to beloved children's author Brian Jacques who passed away last week.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Nonfiction Review: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

My neighborhood book group finally met last night, after a two-week storm delay, to discuss Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks.  I’ve long been intrigued by Sacks’ other books, including the renowned The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but this is the first one I’ve read (though I did see the movie adaptation of Awakenings).

At the start of the meeting, everyone in my book group was complaining about various aspects of the book – that it’s sometimes overly technical, a bit repetitive and disjointed, and at times simply over our heads – but once we got further into the discussion, we found plenty to talk about and realized it was also quite fascinating.

Sacks, as is his standard approach, presents various anecdotes of neurological injuries or illnesses that cause some very strange phenomena; in this particular book, those anecdotes all have something to do with music.  I struggled with the first part of the book, where the stories focus mainly on people who suddenly developed (or lost) extraordinary musical talents.  The problem was that I have no musical background at all, so much of the terminology used in these early chapters – minor and major keys, chords, perfect pitch, etc. – was completely meaningless to me, though I was still impressed by the wonder of these incidents (for instance, the man who, when struck by lightning, suddenly developed an amazing talent to play piano).

I was more interested, and more able to understand, some of the later chapters.  Everyone in my book group agreed that some of these stories were fascinating, such as the effects of music therapy on those with severe dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, and Tourette’s Syndrome or the extreme cases of amnesia that responded to music or the people that see colors when they hear music.

Overall, most of us agreed it wasn’t an easy book to read, but it was intriguing.  I wish I has read this book years ago, when my mother-in-law was struggling with the earlier stages of Parkinson’s (she died this past June) – maybe music therapy could have helped improve her quality of life back then.  Anyone interested in neurological disorders or with a strong musical background would probably enjoy this book.

347 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

(Where Are You Reading 2011 - unfortunately, I don't think there's any location associated with this book to add to my map since it includes hundreds of anecdotes from lots of different places - bummer.)

It's Monday 2/7! What Are You Reading?

Getting a late start today, after a late Superbowl night.  We just had a little family party - the four of us, plus a last-minute addition of two friends of our sons - with lots of yummy junk foods!  The kids have a day off school today, so we all slept in a bit.

We had another hectic, busy week last week, with a death in the extended family, a bit of a health crisis with my older son, plus a 2-day trip to Washington, DC, for Jamie and an all-day Academic Bowl for Craig.  The good news is that my computer is still running, so that's progress!  The week passed in a blur, though we did find time for reading, as always:

• I finished the middle-grade novel, Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary by Jerdine Nolen and posted a review.
• I read and thoroughly enjoyed a tiny volume, Between Home and School: Letters, Notes, and E-mails, by Bill Harley, a warm, tender little story of a boy growing up, told entirely in letters and notes sent between his mother and his teachers.  Bill Harley is a favorite entertainer/storyteller of ours.
• Now I'm reading Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson for my library's book discussion this week.  I really enjoyed his first book, Three Cups of Tea, and this follow-up is just as fascinating and inspirational.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Under the Dome by Stephen King - he figures this one may take a few weeks!
• Jamie, 16, decided to set aside The Islands of the Blessed by Nancy Farmer, the last book in the trilogy that began with The Sea of Trolls, because he didn't remember enough of the second book (he often re-reads earlier books in a series before moving on).  So, now he's re-reading The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer.  This is one of his favorite fantasy series. 
• Craig, 13, also changed books this week in order to re-read one.  He has an assignment for English to do an oral presentation on a favorite book, so he's re-reading Nick of Time by Ted Bell and keeping an eye out for favorite quotations and a good passage to read aloud to his classmates.

I tried to do a bit of catching up on my reviews last week.  In addition to the review of Eliza's Freedom Road I mentioned above, I also posted a review of the teen novel, Gone, by Lisa McMann on Great Books for Kids and Teens.   Here, I also posted a long-overdue review of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, as well as a summary of what I read in January and a list of Top Ten Best Debut Books.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Books Read in January 2011

I'm not too sad to say good-bye to January.  Between non-stop storms and snow days and terrible computer problems, it was a rough month for me.  The best part of January?  I read some really great books this month!

All in all, I read 7 books in January, which seems to be fairly average for me.  Three of those were middle-grade or teen/YA books and the other four were grown-up books, with a mix of fiction and non-fiction:

• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
• Gone by Lisa McMann (teen/YA)
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (teen/YA)
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary by Jerdine Nolen (middle-grade)

It's tough to choose a favorite.  I absolutely loved Room by Emma Donoghue, but The Lovely Bones was excellent, too.  As for kids/teen books, Shiver was my favorite this month.

You can read my computer woes in the lack of links to reviews above.  That week without a computer really put me behind in writing reviews, though I'm trying to catch up.

At least my reading month was a good start to the year!  What were your favorites read in January?

Nonfiction Review: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey has been attracting a lot of attention for a slim volume with a rather narrow-sounding focus.  It is a memoir about the author’s illness but also, as the title suggests, a treatise on the life of a small snail.  That may sound dull at first, but the author is a very talented writer who brings her subject to vivid life on the page with captivating results.

Elisabeth Tova Bailey (a pseudonym to ensure the author’s needed privacy) has a very debilitating illness with no known cure nor any effective treatments.  I was especially interested in her book because I have the same illness, though not as severe as hers (it is an immune system disorder known in the United States by the euphemistic misnomer Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).  Having been struck ill very suddenly, as most of us are, Bailey found herself abruptly ripped from her normally active life and confined to her bed, unable to perform even the basic tasks of daily life. 

A friend brought her a pot of violets with an unexpected surprise: a small snail from the woods stuck in the pot that her friend thought she’d enjoy.  Her initial reaction was bewilderment:

Why, I wondered, would I enjoy a snail?  What on earth would I do with it?  I couldn’t get out of bed to return it to the woods.  It was not of much interest, and if it was alive, the responsibility – especially for a snail, something so uncalled for – was overwhelming.

But the snail gradually wins her over, providing a tiny slice of living nature right at her bedside, engaging her mind and, as strange as it may sound, providing companionship.  She writes of the snail’s fascinating habits and compares its life with her own:

After being transported from the woods, the snail had emerged from its shell into the alien territory of my room, with no clue as to where it was or how it had arrived; the lack of vegetation and the desertlike surroundings must have seemed strange.  The snail and I were both living in altered landscapes not of our choosing; I figured we shared a sense of loss and displacement.

Her observations of the snail, fortified with facts she learned during later research, are presented in beautiful, poetic language alongside observations of her own restricted life.  It’s hard to describe, but the effect is fascinating and lyrical.  I was absolutely stunned by the loveliness of her prose, especially knowing intimately the limitations she was living with while she wrote.  She is an inspiration, not only to those of us also living with chronic illness, but to anyone who appreciates excellent writing and a good story.

170 pages, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you. 

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Top Ten Best Debut Books

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's topic is Top Ten Best Debut Books.  This took a little research, since I didn't always know whether a book was an author's first or not.  I made a list of some of my favorites, then looked on amazon to see if they were debuts.

Here we go, my favorites, in no particular order:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - the best-ever one-hit wonder - I bet this one will be on everyone's list!
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - I always found it fascinating that these two books (The Help and Mudbound), both by first-time authors, both set in early Mississippi and dealing with race relations, came out in the same year and were both so well-written.
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - one of my favorite novels of all-time - I was blown away by it but less-than impressed with her second novel.
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova - I'm looking forward to her recently released second novel
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - with a first novel like this, who needs a second?
• She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - another novel that blew me away
• Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Glidner, a fabulous memoir everyone in my book group loved

There were plenty of others I could have included, but those were all at the top of my list!

How about you.  Which debut books are your favorites?

It's Monday 1/31! What Are You Reading?

Well, I am very glad to say hello to a new week!  As you may have read in my last post, I spent every waking moment last week trying to resolve computer problems, so I was unable to do any blogging - reading or writing - or anything else, for that matter!  It was an exhausting, stressful week.  I think (she says hopefully) that everything is OK now - it took a 4th trip to The Apple Store on Sunday.  So far, so good, but I'm still holding my breath a bit.

Reading saved my sanity last week!!  I kept my book with me while I was sitting at the computer desk for hours at a time and read while I waited for various things to load, erase, and re-load.  Here's what we read last week:

• I finished Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, the novel about teens who turn into wolves and vice-versa, and ended up loving it!  A very pleasant surprise since I don't usually like paranormal romance.
• Next, I read one of my Christmas presents from my husband, Ken: Room by Emma Donoghue.  WOW.  What an amazing book.  One of the best I've read.  I finished it on Saturday, and I'm still thinking about it.
• Now I'm reading a middle-grade novel, Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary by Jerdine Nolen.  It's very good so far - fascinating.
• I just moments ago finished an audio book, The Three Weissmann's of Westport by Cathleen Schine.  It really grew on me; I enjoyed it.
• My husband, Ken, read Gone by Lisa McMann, the last book in the teen trilogy, Wake and Fade.
• During one of my 4 trips to the mall to fix my computer, I stopped into Borders and treated myself to some new books with my Christmas gift cards - that cheered me up a bit!  I also browsed the BOGOF clearance rack and got two for me and two for Ken.  He started one of them this week, Golf Dads by Curt Sampson, a book of essays about fathers, sons, and golf (right up his alley!)
• He has also started Under the Dome by Stephen King, a big undertaking at 1074 pages!  We've both been wanting to read that one.
• Jamie, 16, read The Books of Umber 2: Dragon Games by P.W. Catanese, a series he is really enjoying.  He wanted to re-read Book 1 first but couldn't find it.  Could it be we have too many books in this house??   He thinks he read another book this week but can't remember what it was.  Besides the computer problems, we had several snow days last week - things are just in turmoil around here!
• Today Jamie started The Islands of the Blessed by Nancy Farmer, the last book in the trilogy that began with The Sea of Trolls.
• Jamie is also reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class.  Definitely an American classic.
• Craig, 13, is reading The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville, the fourth and final book in one of his all-time favorite series, The Unicorn Chronicles.

I guess that about covers it.  No reviews last week since I was without a computer for most of it, though I did have fun posting Top Ten Books I Wish I'd Read as a Kid on Great Books for Kids and Teens during a brief hiatus in the internet black-out.  Hopefully, I can get back on track this week and catch up on some reviews (after I finish the 400 unread e-mails waiting for me!).  Wow, this post ended up being really long.  Sorry I was so chatty - I missed you guys!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)