2011

Spilling Ink

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

When TW read Spilling Ink, it made her want to write so badly that we had to dig around in the car to find a piece of paper and a pen so that she could write RIGHT THAT MOMENT. When I read Spilling Ink, it didn’t really make me want to write. It did make me want to pull out my altered book, though. So it definitely does something to spark creative juices.

I was hoping it would be a good book for RJ but it’s a little young for her – or she’s a little too sophisticated for it. Or … she’s too “something” for it. That’s ok, it did cause me to think of another book about writing that I think she will appreciate…

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Under a Red Sky

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I put off reading Under a Red Sky because I thought it was going to be boring. I thought it was going to be something other than what it was – which means I didn’t know it was going to be more of a memoir than a historical look at Romanian Jews after WW2.  (The darn sub-title that says it’s a memoir of a childhood in communist Romania is missing from the cover of the book.)

Because it was a memoir, it wasn’t boring at all. It was interesting and just a little sad and scary. The only thing I wish was that we had a few more chapters – what was it like to finally reach Israel? But then I’d probably want a few more chapters about heading to America.

I’m very glad I read this one and I’m sorry I waited so long.

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Holiday Readathon

3 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed /

I’m going to do it, the Holiday Readathon. I have no idea how I’m going to do it now that I’ve looked at our schedule and also noticed that it’s the same weekend as the Renegade Craft Fair… but… I will do it!

I’ve pledged to donate 1 can of food to a food bank for every 100 pages I read. I think I’ll up the ante a bit and say I’ll pledge 1 can of food for every 100 pages anyone in my household reads. That could be a lot of cans of food since we all know TW reads a lot and her mom reads even more. And RJ has been known to read at least as fast as her mother. And if I load Elly up with graphic novels, she could be in for 500 pages or so.

Yea, we’re doing this thing!

Join us!

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The Kneebone Boy

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Maybe it was me but… The Kneebone Boy was slow. I had to fight to keep reading it. At the point in the book where the storyteller (Lucia, is my guess, lol) tells us that we would be stupid to put the book down now… I had a hard time agreeing with her.

I didn’t hate the book, not by any means. I even liked the ending. It was just too slow for me and I never quite managed to get attached to any of the characters – except maybe Haddie and the Sultan.

TW, on the other hand, read it straight through and really liked it.  Weird how that happens sometimes.

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Scrawl

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

The last of the YA Cybils. Hurrah! Even better – I really liked this one. After the first “chapter” aka journal entry of Scrawl, I didn’t think I would. It starts off with a boy writing about bullying another kid and leaves off in the middle of a sentence. The beginning of the next chapter aka journal entry does not pick up where the last chapter starts. I was confused. I thought maybe there was more than one kid writing. A couple more pages into it and I was hooked.

The first three pages though – rough, and if I was a woman who quit books early, I might have quit.

If you’re a woman (or a teen, since this IS YA fiction after all) and tend to give up early – don’t. Stick with it. The pay-off is worth it.

I don’t suppose this won the Cybil … nah, couldn’t have. Too bad. I’d have voted for it. 

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Doc

2011, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I always say I’m a Mary Doria Russell fan but have decided that maybe that’s not the most accurate thing to say. I am a fan of Children of God and The Sparrow. Her other books… they’re ok but they always let me down because they just aren’t as good as Children of God and The Sparrow.

Take Doc, for instance.

TW read it first and she said it was ok but the narrator’s voice was wrong.

I thought about that for awhile and tried to forget it.

But I couldn’t forget it. TW was right – the narrator’s voice was wrong.

There were moments when I really liked some of the characters – Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, even Bat Masterson. And Kate. But, the narrator’s voice got in the way. I’d have liked this book better with no narrator at all.

Darn it.

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I’m on a Cybils Roll!

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

Four more children’s books from the Cybils list and I can just barely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, I think the end of the tunnel will appear sometime in January of 2012. Behind schedule – but I’ll get there. Eventually.

Non-fiction first, since there are three of them:

First, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped.

Next, Bones: Skeletons and How They Work. I liked it more than I thought I did. Some to scale images of bones of different creatures. Other smaller scale images of bones. Lots of different animals (and fish and birds and reptiles) represented here. Nice contrast between the bones and the background colors.

And, Dinosaur Mountain was fabulous. I’ve read a lot of dinosaur books in my time, for all ages, and this is one of the best. It was the narrative that did it. Forget the gold rush, think about the BONE rush. You’ve got Americans excited by the first dinosaur display, you’ve got Andrew Carnegie with an empty dinosaur room telling you to go find something big and here’s the money to do it… how do you find that big something? And just when you’re about to give up hope, you find it… but winter is coming and you’re in Utah. Gah. Imagine living in a tent next to the bones of a brontosaurus all winter long and not being able to get in there and dig those fossils out? Fabulous story. Loved it.

From the children’s fiction list, Shark vs Train. For some reason the two little boys reminded me of my nephews. Well really they reminded me of one nephew. That kid should have been twins, heck on wheels… heh. So two boys are playing. One has a shark, one has a train – who will win! Depends on the competition, now, doesn’t it? Cute book. Not my thing but I’m guessing there are a lot of kids who would get into this who would win type of game.

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Three More Cybils – Children’s Poetry

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry /

And with these three, I finish up the Poetry category from the 2010 Cybils Shortlist.

Sharing the Seasons was a nice enough book of poetry. It seems like there’s a new seasonal poetry book every year, doesn’t it? This one is pretty much just like those. Some poetry that you’ve seen in other places plus some new poems. The illustrations are nice. I didn’t love the book or hate it. It was nice.

Next, a book I really liked. It reminded me a wee bit of another book from the short list that I didn’t like… (Ubiquitous). You might remember that I didn’t like that one because I didn’t like the poetry. I liked the science-y descriptions but the poetry bored me. Dark Emperor of the Night was similar in that it had a page of poetry and then it had factual discussions that were related to each of the poems. The poetry was excellent. The discussions, equally excellent. The kicker was the artwork. I kept running my fingers over the images – Rick Allen’s prints were amazing. I would buy one of his prints, it doesn’t matter of what, and hang it on my wall. Beautiful work. Beautiful choice for this book.

Finishing it up, Switching on the Moon. Very nice book of bedtime poetry. I even liked how it was sorted into sections and I liked the poems chosen to end/start each section. Nicely done. No complaints about this one.

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The Quest of the Warrior Sheep

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction /

KitCat was the first person I saw talking about The Quest of the Warrior Sheep. The minute I finished reading her post, I reserved the first book. Who cares that I’m behind – I have to read that book!  A few weeks later, Sassymonkey talked about the Warrior Sheep and I gazed longingly at my library book cart where the book has been sitting for ages. I thought I’d never get around to reading it!

But I did, last night.

Super fast read. Amusing, because sheep mysteries always are, aren’t they?

Sheep in a tube.

Sheep on a plane.

Sheep on a train.

How damn amusing is that?

And, oddly enough – I didn’t see that bad guy coming!

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Mama Ruby

2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

I picked Mama Ruby from the shelf at the library because I thought it looked interesting. I didn’t think I’d get to read it because I’m so far behind on my stacks – but TW said it was good so I decided to deviate from my plan and read it.

It was… ok.

I’ve never read The Upper Room, which this was a prequel to. Maybe I’d have liked Mama Ruby better if I’d read it and been wondering about the history of the characters in that? I don’t know. I just didn’t find myself liking any of the characters.  

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