What I'm reading...and want to read

What I’m reading now:

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness- the third book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy.  I like the series a lot but I'm finding it hard to hit my stride with this book.  I am on pages 350 of 600 and I still have a hard time reading any more than 25 pages per sitting.

What I’m listening to now on audiobooks:

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann---the National Book Award Winner for 2009 and for good reason.  Parts of this book are so well written it is like reading eating chocolate or skinny dipping in champagne. Yum.  And the audiobook is read by a cast of actors, my favorite so far is the voice actor from Ireland.  Love it.

What I recently finished reading: 

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood---a fabulous and frightening dystopian novel written by an absolute writing master.  See my review for more on this book.

What I will be Reading Next:

Chasing Fireflies: a novel of discovery by Charles Martin---I'm in two book clubs and this book is for one of those clubs.  Everyone who has finished it says they like it.  I've got a week.  Better get to it.

What I Wish I Had Time to Read:

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper---my whole family has read this book and talks about it all the time.  I'm on page 200 of 330 so you'd think I could try to finish it sooner than later, but other reading always gets in the way.

 I will be out of town for a few days so I won't have a chance to post this on the usual WWW Wednesday post.  Thought I'd post early since I am stuck without a book to review.

What are you reading right now?  What have you recently completed?  Wish you had time to read?

The mountain is out today.....and it is Friday!

The mountain has been out for the past three days here in the Puget Sound.  If you live in the shadow of the mountain (Mt. Rainier) you know what I mean when I say this. Kim Derting, a local author of the wonderful YA novel, The Body Finder, told me that she referred to the mountain being out in her book and her publisher asked her to explain what she meant before publication.  I guess it is a local idiom.  Often Mt. Rainier is obscured by clouds for weeks on end and then on a clear day, there it is again.  It is a gift to receive the mountain's beauty every time.  I have a wonderful view of the mountain from my library and I've been blessed this week.

The photo of Mt. Rainier was taken from just outside my library last year.  But you get the idea of what a wonderful view I have when the mountain is out.

Since this photo is so tiny I thought I'd share a photo that I found that is very close to what I see while I'm driving home on Sunrise Blvd.  Honestly, it is this big and domineering.

Pretty spectacular, huh?  See why those of us in the Puget Sound Region of Western Washington are quite smitten and love it when the mountain is out? 

(While I am writing this blog I have on the Evening News in the background and the meteorologist is forecasting rain.  Bummer, the mountain will be hidden tomorrow!)

Witness   by Denise Levertov

Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.

                                           -Levertov, Denise. Selected Poems. New York: New Directions, 2002.

Happy Friday!

=Anne

Ten Books that Made Me Cry

The meme of the day over at The Broke and the Bookish is 

What are the Top Ten Books that Made Me Cry?

This was both an easy and a hard list to complete.  Easy because I cry often when I read books so I had no trouble coming up with my list.  Hard because I cry so often when I read that it was hard to remember which books from previous years made me especially cry and why.  For this reason, my list is rather fresh and has lots of YA books in it.  It doesn't represent my top ten cry-worthy books, it just represents the ones I have read most recently that made me cry. Injustice and death seem to be the issues that really get the tears flowing for me.

1.  The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (YA, c. 2010, read 2010)- When Lennie's sister dies, she is left alone in the world with her grief which is so palpable.  I cried throughout.

2.  Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick (YA, c. 2010, read 2010)-Amber Appleton lives with her mother on a school bus and has no food or money  but she refuses to give in to despair until her mother is killed.  Very poignant with brief moments worthy of tears.

3.  The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (c. 1990, read 2009)-Tim O'Brien writes a fiction book about experiences in the Vietnam War. Some of the scenes are horrifying, others funny.  I cried the most at my husband's reaction to this book and the cathartic effect it had for him.

4.  The Summer of My German Soldier (YA, c. 1973, read 2010)-About a lonely Jewish girl living in Arkansas during the early 1940s.  I wept for all the injustices in this book.  In fact, I was weeping and reading it at a dealership while my car was being fixed...very embarrassing.  I warn you, this is a several-hanky book.

5.  Deadline by Chris Crutcher (YA, c. 2007, read 2010)-the main character, Ben, only has a year to live.  The reader knows it.  Ben knows it.  No one else does.  Intermittent crying throughout.

6.  The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (YA, c. 2007, read 2008)-When D.J.'s boyfriend, Brian, treats her unjustly some raw nerve in me snapped and I wept and wept.  I can still recall the feeling today two years after reading it. This is the second book of the Dairy Queen trilogy.

7.  Blankets by Craig Thompson (c. 2003, read 2009)-This graphic novel relates the story of an awkward teen who always feels like a misfit.  I cried a little as I felt for him and for all misfits here at the high school.

8.  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni (c. 2007, read 2008)- War, death, injustice to women, you name it, I cried about it while I read this book.

9.  Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes (YA, c. 2009, read 2010)-Karl's dad is dead and his mother is drinking all the time.  Karl tries to hold everything together in life with his family and his friends.  At one point a teacher finally figures out what is going on and his kindness still brings tears to my eyes as I recall the story.

10. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (c. 2002, read 2002)- This is really the only book on my list that I read a long time ago.  I won't spoil the story for you but suffice it to say that I cried for the first 72 pages solid. I think it related to the fact that I had young teenage daughters at the time.

What are some other good cry-worthy books on your list?

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Every time I've hopped into the car to go anywhere for the past two weeks I've listened to Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood .  I would even listen to it when I was driving a very short distance.  I had to!  I was compelled to consume this book as fast as I could. Margaret Atwood's writing is so strong she can make a failing world seem compelling. As far as audiobooks go this one is quite unique with three different voice actors reading the parts of Ren, Toby, and Adam1.  There was also singing.  All of Adam1's goofy hymns were put to music. But more on that in a minute. Apparently, the book is a sequel or an addition to her earlier book, Oryx and Crake, which introduces a dystopian society on the brink of apocalypse.  That story was told from the aspect of the elites and CorpSeCorp, their corrupt paramilitary security force, that rules the world...what's left of it. This one covers the end of civilization mainly from the point of view of the "have-not" people.

Ren and Toby are members of a religious sect called God's Gardeners.  Adam1 is their leader. He preaches that a waterless flood is coming and that God's Gardeners must prepare themselves for its eventuality.  They do so by eating only a vegan diet, growing or gleaning all their food, using only recycled products, and setting aside food to be used once the flood hits. All of the hymns that they sing are related to extinct animals, or fungus, or vegan diets...weird stuff to sing about.  Prior to the cataclysmic event that ushers in the beginning of the "flood" both Ren and Toby are separated from Adam1 and the Gardeners.  For a time after the "flood" they think themselves to be the only survivors.

I didn't read Oryx and Crake before I read The Year of the Flood.  In fact, I didn't even know that the books were partners until I was well into the story.  I never felt like I missed something from the earlier story that was necessary to understand this one.  I don't consider myself to be a Sci-Fi fan yet would put this book way up on the list of books that I will recommend to others.  Margaret Atwood can write.  Her characters are multifaceted, her settings fully flushed out, and her storyline is compelling. What more does one want from a novel?

As I read, a thought kept popping into my head.  That nagging, pesky thought that sometimes keeps me awake at night.  What if this book comes true?  Oh please, oh please, oh please, do not let this book come true.  Read it and see what I mean!

Happyface by Stephen Emond

Somehow I neglected to review Happyface by Stephen Emond after I read it this summer, which is really a shame since it is such a good book and worthy of a shout-out.  To begin with I should tell you that I have placed this book on my 2011 Mock Printz reading list. Students are just now starting to make their way through that list so I don't really have any feedback from others about this book yet. You will have to be satisfied with my thoughts for now.

The style of the book defies categorization.  One reviewer called it an illustrated diary, which seems to be just about the best description I've heard so that's what I will call it, too.  This illustrated diary belongs to Happyface, an otherwise unnamed sophomore boy, who is trying to make his way in the world while his family is crumbling.  After a move across town, Happyface tries on a new persona with his new classmates, one of a carefree, happy boy who won't be fazed by anything, though inside he is anything but happy. This persona intrigues and mystifies his new friends but also leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings as Happyface tries to hide information about his past.  All of this is revealed in the illustrated diary which is funny, sad, and insightful in turn. 

I think that teen readers will be able to relate to Happyface's dilemma and to his hidden insecurities.  The ending is very satisfying and it shows us the capacity teens have to show compassion and forgiveness.

Comic illustrator Stephen Emond's drawings in this book are amazing. Many of the drawings are simple line sketches where others are fully shaded and very detailed illustrations.  One is left with the feeling that this diary is exactly what one would expect a very artistic boy to possess. Readers are let in on the "mind of a teen-age boy" and you will immediately recognize that Emond got it "just right."

In the acknowledgment section at the end of the book Emond shows us the process he went through to create the pages with the combination of handwriting and illustrations.  I found that to be fascinating and instructive. I definitely want to read/see more from this author/illustrator and I recommend that you do the same. 

Friday. Friday. Friday!

Happy Friday.  Happy hopping.

Question of the week:

"Where is your favorite place to read? 

Curled up on the sofa, in bed, in the garden?"

My answer:

I pretty much love to read.  So where ever I am, I enjoy it, but if it is nice weather outside I really, really enjoy reading in the hammock in the shade under our Mountain Ash tree.  That is heaven for me.  This time of year, you'll usually find me snuggled up in the overstuffed chair by the gas fireplace.  And I always read in bed before going to sleep, but these days my bed is likely to lull me to sleep before I get too far in the book.  

How about you?

Meme 2:

Friday's Finest is a new meme from A Bookful of Thoughts.

Rules:
~Post a quote that really stuck to you after reading it in a book.
~Make sure it isn't a spoiler!
~If you'd like, expand on what you think it means and why you chose it.

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything."  -The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, pg 1.

The story takes place on a planet where all male thoughts can be heard aloud, even male animals.  So begins this marvelous novel, part one of the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness.  I am just a few pages into the third book and I want to put everything aside and just read.  In fact, I think I will!  Happy Friday!

WWW...Stuck in Slow Books

Should Be Reading

What I’m reading now:

Old Filth by Jane Gardam ---I have been reading this book for one and a half months.  I like the story fine. I like the writing style.  I have no idea why it feels like drudgery to read it.  But I am within 40 pages of the end and I WILL FINISH IT TODAY.

What I’m listening to now on audiobooks:

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood---a dystopian novel in a very Atwood-ish style, which means that it is a rather joyless story with brilliant writing.  I’d probably do better reading this book than listening to it since I've been listening to it for a week and I'm not even half way done.

What I recently finished reading: 

They Called Themselves the KKK by Susan Campbell Bartoletti---very factual, interesting, and disturbing book about the genesis and evolution of the Ku Klux Klan. It is immaculately researched and has lots of illustrations and photos.

What I will be Reading Next:

The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam---the companion book to Old Filth.  This is this month’s book club selection so I definitely need to finish it by next Wednesday.  Best get right on it.

 

What I Wish I Had Time to Read:

Monster of Men by Patrick Ness---It is sitting right here, right next to me, calling out to me.  I am anxious to dive in to this book, the third book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy.

What are you reading right now?  What have you recently completed?  Wish you had time to read?

Highlights of WLMA Conference

This week-end was the annual Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) conference.  It is my one chance all year to rub elbows with other librarians, authors, and book distributors. I get to hear what other librarians are doing to enhance reading, get lists of good books, and actually meet and talk to YA authors.  As in past years, I had a wonderful time.  Here are five highlights from this year's conference:

1.  Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, was the guest speaker at the Friday night banquet. He teased us by saying that he was drunk on estrogen since the audience was over 80% female.  He also pretended that he was reading a lost and found notice, "Lost: a pair of reading glasses...as if you guys care about a lost pair, since you all have about 10,000 pairs."  Once he got done teasing us, he talked about the effects of banned/censored books. When someone in Missouri recently wrote him to complain about Absolutely True Diary and how it was so anti-American he quipped that he wrote back asking the complainer to start a national campaign since efforts to ban a book always seem to increase sales.  Last of all, he read us the first chapter of his sequel to Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  I can't remember what he said the title will be but it was thrilling to hear him read.  Once again he writes with equal amounts of humor and poignancy. Guess we'll all have to hold our breaths until this one comes out.

2.  Alyson Noël, author of the Immortals series, was the highlighted "high school author" breakfast speaker. Girls adore her books and I found her personal story to be very moving.  She came to writing via a very unconventional route but one that I think many students would find reassuring.  I am a new fan even though I haven't read any of her books yet. Her book Evermore (first book in the Immortals series) has zoomed to the #1 spot on my TBR pile.

 3.  Carl Deuker, author of many books for male reluctant readers, such as Runner and Gym Candy, held a session on how to encourage male readers through appropriate selections. Deuker, a 6th grade teacher in North Shore School District (North of Seattle, Washington) said that he always feels a little uncomfortable in his role as author/presenter as he is more used to being a member of the audience, collecting Clock Hours, a requirement for teachers in this state. He had lots of great suggestions to help us get boys to read.  The main idea that I took away was to not judge boys selections and don't make them feel like they aren't reading "real" books.  One thing is for sure, this guy is onto something.  Boys love his books, as do I.

4.  Lunch with the other librarians in my district at Sharp's Roasthouse, across the street from where the convention was held.  I'm not really meaning to pimp a restaurant, though the food was wonderful (I had a turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread), I am thankful for the time spent with my colleagues sharing what we've learned at the conference and discussing issues back in our schools.  Collaboration is a very important way to stay current and nourished (pun intended) as a professional.

5.   The presentation about Alex Award books, or adult books that cross over well for teens.  My friend Paige and her husband, both librarians, book-talked over 25 great books from this list and I got tons of suggestions for books I want to push with my students or read myself.
Here are a few of my favorite Alex Award winning books:
a.  Stitches: a Memoir by David Small (2010)
b.  City of Thieves by David Benioff (2009)
c.  Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (2008)
d.  The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (2007)
e.  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2007)
f.  Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (2006)
g.  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2006)
h.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (2004)
i.  Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (2004)
j.  The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2004)
k.  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (2002)
l.  A Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks (2002)

Three books that Paige and Ira suggested that may be on the list of 2011 Alex Awards I definitely want to read:
aa.  The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni  (See about book here!)
bb.  The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Didn't Have To by D.C. Pierson
cc.  The Unlikely Disciple: a Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose 

My other highlights from the WLMA conference:
-A presentation on how to do high school book clubs with phenomenal numbers of students participating.
-Meeting Kimberly Derting, the author of The Body Finder.  She lives very close by in Bonney Lake, Washington.
-Visiting the Exhibitors and getting a few free books from Orca Publishers and several half-price books at Scholastic Books.Winning the silent auction bid for 20 Orca books (Hi-Low.)

They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Cambell Bartoletti

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is an amazing writer.  She is a master at culling down all the information on a specific subject  and reporting this information to the reader in an attractive, easy-to-read format.  Her book, Hitler Youth, contained information that was a revelation to me, yet I was not bogged down with heavy, hard-to-understand text.  Her books also contain lots of images, photos, illustrations, and historical documents which add to the reading enjoyment and to understanding the text.

Her book, They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, is her next masterpiece.  Scrupulously researched, this short book carries a wallop.  After reading it I understand the genesis of the terrorist group, The K.K.K. (Ku Klux Klan), and it's evolution.  Six disgruntled young men, who didn't like what was happening in the South after the Civil War, said, "Boys, Let us get us a club." So began the secret terrorist group that took root in America.

The book is filled with chilling, and vivid personal account unearthed from old oral histories, congressional documents, and other primary resources, this is a book to read and remember. The idea for the book began when the author saw a statue commemorating Nathan Bedford Forrest, the infamous Confederate cavalry general who became known as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. "As I looked at the statue," writes Bartoletti, "I asked myself: Where are the statues commemorating the victims of Klan violence?" When she learned that no such statues existed, she turned to historical record poring over 8,000 pages of congressional testimony...2,300 Slave Narratives...and memoirs in order to uncover the lives of Klan victims. -From Book Jacket

 The book is truly amazing, disturbing, but amazing. It is also very instructive. Americans today often look abroad at terrorist groups and act as if nothing like that could happen here.  This books shows that not to be true. The K.K.K. operated very openly for over 100 years and terrorized not only African Americans, but also Jews, women, and homosexuals. It is disgusting the acts that they committed with a seeming lack of remorse.

For obvious reasons I do not recommend this as light reading, but if you are looking for information on this topic, or want to become more educated on US history this book is an excellent choice.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I really didn't expect to like Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater as much as I did.  It is a love story between a girl, Grace, and a werewolf, Sam.  If that doesn't sound hokey, I don't know what does.  But somehow it works and the story has some really magical and surprising moments. I listened to this in the audiobook format and it was delightful.  Jenna Lamia read the part of Grace and David Ledoux read Sam's chapters. I always enjoy it when the reader doesn't have to read opposite sex parts causing them to use a funny voice to pull it off. Both Jenna and David made credible teen voices, too.  Nothing worse that having a teenager sound like an old man or woman.  Ha!

In alternating chapters Grace and Sam tell their story of emerging love. In Shiver werewolves aren't the horrid creatures who emerge on moonlit nights and run around trying to bite everyone, rather they are human during the warm month and wolves during the cold months. At the point in the story when Sam and Grace meet as humans the temperature is dropping daily and both of them know that they are battling time until Sam changes to his wolf form.  They have to work pretty hard to keep him warm to prevent that change. Their story gets more complicated when another boy from school is bitten and one of Grace's best friends and his sister get involved in all the drama that ensues. Get out your hankies, though, there are some very touching, sad moments in the tale.

Maggie Stiefvater said, in the interview on that last track, that she set out to write a tear-jerker!  She certainly had me in tears at several times.  She also identifies herself as a musician and definitely incorporated music and poetry into the storyline.  I always like those little touches when I'm reading a book.

Since several of you have told me that you are eager to read my review because you have to book on you TBR pile I don't want to spoil anything but I think I would be remiss if I don't put up a mild word of caution. This book is for older teens and there is some mild sexual situations.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!