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 Quit.

Daily Dose /

It’s day 7 of NaBloPoMo and I’m officially calling it quits – even though this post means I’ll still have a post every day for the month, lol. Weird to write a post saying you’re quitting Nablo when the post itself keeps you in the game but there you have it.

I just don’t have the time or the energy to push myself to write a blog post every day and enjoy it. Or have it mean something (to me or to the six people still reading this blog.)

At some point I have to be realistic and draw the lines that need to be drawn.

This… it’s my line.

I just can’t do NaBloPoMo right now and still do all of the other things that I have to do – or want to do.  Something has to give. And this is it.  I guess I knew I’d never manage it before we ever got started. Maybe that’s why I didn’t add myself to the blogroll.

Now excuse me while I go lay in bed with my book, and TW – and talk about time capsule houses or Armenia or outlaws of the wild west.

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Siunik Armenian Grill

Daily Dose /

We have been mourning the loss of Fredhot’s & Fries for quite some time… and when we saw the signs saying a new restaurant was going to open in that spot, we weren’t super enthusiastic. We miss our fredhots. When the signs got an update telling us that an Armenian grill was opening there, we got a little more interested. An Armenian grill? What’s that? And will people go to such a thing in whitebread Glenview? Hmmm.

The Siunik Armenian Grill has been open now for a few weeks and we’ve all peered inside and quietly wondered about it as we drove by. But nobody ever really said – let’s stop there.

Today, was TW’s mom’s 75th birthday. We went to Elly’s circus performance and planned to go out for birthday dinner – but where were we going to go for birthday dinner. The choices were uninspiring (to me) because nobody really offered up any ideas. The only suggestion was Booby’s (from Elly) and while we all do like Booby’s… I just wasn’t in to it. That’s a long drive from Evanston on a school night after one of the longest, most stressful weekends in a long time – when some of us are sick (or flaring… yea, you know who I’m talking about…)

So I quietly suggested we try the Armenian grill. TW was game but we weren’t sure they’d be open for dinner on a Sunday night in whitebread Glenview. I called and checked the hours – bingo, they were going to be open.

So we stopped.

As everyone on Yelp has already said, the owner is super nice and helpful. The other folks on staff were equally nice and helpful. They kept offering us more food, though our table was covered with food. Elly ate pretty much every bite of her steak wrap. RJ did eat every bite of her veggie plate. None of the rest of us could completely finish our plates, though TW’s mom ate the rest of Prine J’s eggplant because there’s one thing we don’t get a lot of here – eggplant (we don’t allow eggplant in the house – long story.)

The food was excellent. I think we might all have our favorites. Prince J really liked the buckwheat pilaf but didn’t love the eggplant. Everyone who ordered the steak raved about it. RJ enjoyed whatever sauce Prince J got (it wasn’t the spicy… it was something else) and dipped her bread in it until it was gone. I really liked the onion sumac and the hummus was excellent as was the cabbage salad.

(Oh, if you’re wondering – the prices are excellent. Steak wrap is $6.90, steak plate is 8.90 (the most expensive items on the menu, by the way.) 

We’re still mourning the loss of Fredhots but Siunik is fabulous – we’ll be back.

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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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