Review

Book: Going Coastal
Finished: April
Pages: 301
Challenges:
** Spring Reading Thing** A-Z **Rainbow Connection ** Reading From My Shelves ** Read & Review** TBR 2010

Plot:
Jody's life is falling apart. Her first and foremost problem is the fact that she works in a diner and feels her life is wasting away. She thinks she hates her job. But does she really? This little chick-lit story is written in a breezy style, full of family tough love, the finding of oneself and what brings true happiness. Jody's small town life is full of wacky supporting characters which add a little levity to the book and I found myself snickering out loud in many places at Wendy French's snarky sense of humor.

I picked this one up when I felt the need for something a bit lighter after reading several heavier novels (mostly set during the WWII years) and I just needed something different. Although parts of it were a bit predictable and everything is tidy by the end, this book did not disappoint nor fail to lift my mood a bit!

Book: The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein
Finshed: April
Pages: 303
Challenges:
**Spring Reading Thing** Memorable Memoir** New Authors** Read & Review** Reading From My Shelves** tbr 2010 ** The Rainbow Connection **

From Publisher's Weekly:
"Bernstein writes, "There are few rules or unwritten laws that are not broken when circumstances demand, and few distances that are too great to be traveled," about the figurative divide ("geographically... only a few yards, socially... miles and miles") keeping Jews and Christians apart in the poor Lancashire mill town in England where he was raised. In his affecting debut memoir, the nonagenarian gives voice to a childhood version of himself who witnesses his older sister's love for a Christian boy break down the invisible wall that kept Jewish families from Christians across the street. With little self-conscious authorial intervention, young Harry serves as a wide-eyed guide to a world since dismantled—where "snot rags" are handkerchiefs, children enter the workforce at 12 and religion bifurcates everything, including industry. True to a child's experience, it is the details of domestic life that illuminate the tale—the tenderness of a mother's sacrifice, the nearly Dickensian angst of a drunken father, the violence of schoolyard anti-Semitism, the "strange odors" of "forbidden foods" in neighbor's homes. Yet when major world events touch the poverty-stricken block (the Russian revolution claims the rabbi's son, neighbors leave for WWI), the individual coming-of-age is intensified without being trivialized, and the conversational account takes on the heft of a historical novel with stirring success. "


This book made me thankful to be living in the decade in which I live. In the country where I live.
Where children are not dragged off to work in factories at the age of 12, where there is some kind of help for underprivileged children, especially for those who are abused by the adults in their life. And by teachers too, for that matter. Yes, poverty is still around us, and abusive parents are in the news far more often than I like, but even so, we have so much to offer the masses than was available during the author's childhood. We have come so far. This world will never be perfect---but there is hope.
The theme that ran through this book that just spoke to me over and over again, is the love of a mother for her children.
The hope of a mother for a better life for her children.
The determination of a mother to do all that she could to provide for her children.

This book is above all else, a beautiful tribute to the author's mother.

Review

Book: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Finished: April
Pages: 117
Challenges:
**Once Upon a Time 4** Read & Review**Support Your Local Library**

From Amazon:

"In this inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel inspired by traditional Norse mythology, Neil Gaiman takes readers on a wild and magical trip to the land of giants and gods and back.

In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he's had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy.

Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle—three creatures with a strange story to tell.

Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined—a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it.

It's going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter.

Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever . . .

Someone just like Odd ."

This was a fun little book, aimed at about 3rd through 6th graders. It is based on Norse Mythology but it definitely had a folk tale feel to it also. I have not read any of Gaiman's books which are aimed at older audiences, but the ones I have read, aimed at the younger set: Coraline, The Graveyard Book and now this one, I have found to be very entertaining and worth reading. Such a talented author this is!

Frozen....?

Once again--I find myself almost too overwhelmed to write a blog post. I catch myself wondering what I am so overwhelmed with and this is what I come up with:

1.Work.

My job duties are in flux right now and even though I know change can be good, change is still stressful. It doesn't help that with the change I feel like I am not able to be as efficient as before. Realistically I know that with time, the new schedule will become second nature and I will find that good work flow again.

2. Book reviews.

I have posted 2 in the last couple of days, have 1 more ready to to, but still have3 more to write. I think I feel that I can't write other fun blog stuff until I am caught up?

3. Senior in the house.

Yes, my son Austen will be graduating from high school in June. Graduation time is a busy time. There is a our church's recognition dessert which I still need to create a picture board for. Then there is prom, which we need to help with. After prom, the next weekend is the actual graduation ceremony. The next week after that, he will play his senior recital which we are combining with his open house. Oh, and I have started a tradition with the oldest two, to present them with a scrapbook at graduation, which I have NOT started yet. In fact, all the pre-digital photos are in a 50 gazillion gallon rubbermaid container I have yet to sort through. I am planning his book to be a shutterfly.com book, which means copious amounts of scanning needs to be done. And of course as I work through all this, I get to deal with my mama emotions.
Good grief! WHAT am I doing writing this post?? I need to get busy!

(but first I really feel the need to get another review written)

To Dance

Book: To Dance: a ballerina's graphic novel by Siena and Mark Siegel
Finished: April
Pages: 56
Challenges:
**Graphic Novel** Support Your Local Library** Read & Review**

This was a delightful little story. It tells the story of the author, Siena, and her life of dance from the very beginning as a young child to the bittersweet end at age 18 due to a severe ankle injury. It also tells the story of the stress and pressure the world of dance put on her family as she was growing up.
The illustrations were very expressive and added immense depth to the simple storyline. I really enjoyed the colors used and the graphic layout. This is one that I can highly recommend to anyone--even people who don't think they like graphic novels!

Book: Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Finished: April
Pages: 336
Challenges:
**Spring Reading Thing** A-Z Challenge** Book Awards 4 ** Read & Review** Reading From My Shelves** What's In a Name 3**

From Publisher's Weekly:
An ugly murder is central to this compelling historical, but the focus is on one appealing family, the Strouds, in the backwater town of Ellis, Colo. Soon after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government rounded up all the Japanese residents of the West Coast and shipped them off to "internment camps" for the duration of the war. One of the camps is Tallgrass, based on an actual Colorado camp, as Dallas (The Chili Queen) explains in her acknowledgments. The major discomforts and petty indignities these (mostly) American citizens had to endure are viewed through the clear eyes of a young girl who lives on a nearby farm, Rennie Stroud. Rennie's obvious love of family slowly extends itself to the Japanese house and field helpers the Strouds receive permission to hire. The final surprise is the who and why of the murder itself. Dallas's terrific characters, unerring ear for regional dialects and ability to evoke the sights and sounds of the 1940s make this a special treat.

Another great offering from Sandra Dallas. I would classify this as historical fiction, and one that deals with a topic which has gotten a bit more coverage recent years than in the past....that of the interment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The previous books I have read dealing with this topic have been written primarily from the point of view of the detainees. This one is different in that the main point of view comes from the townspeople who have found themselves living right by the Tallgrass camp. I found myself pretty engrossed both in the development of the characters as well as the mystery of the murder.
This book won the 2008 Spur Award.

Challenged!

Finally!
I have completed my first two challenges of 2010.

1. What's In A Name 3
This is one of my favorite yearly challenges and I was so pleased when Beth Fish took over hosting it when the previous blogger was unable to continue. I enjoyed all the books I chose and read, but I must say that La's Orchestra Saves the World and Tallgrass were my top 2 favorites.
Click here to see all my reviews.









2. The Rainbow Connection
This was another fun challenge hosted by SueFitz. Once again, enjoyed all he books I read for the challenge, but The Invisible Wall and Benny and Shrimp were my top 2 reads. You can see all my reviews by clicking here--( there are 2 reviews to be written as of this posting)

Monday Tidbits

What's In Your Mailbox Monday is hosted each week by Marcia over at The Printed Page.


I did not have a very busy mailbox this week. I received one by mail, and one via a store cart at Target!


























The last Picoult book I read was My Sister's Keeper, which I loved. I saw that this one by her did not get great reviews, but I am interested in the subject matter and decided to go ahead and purchase it. I hope I am not too disappointed!

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What are you reading on Mondays? is hosted each week by hostess, Sheila from One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.


Well--I posted sometime last week that I was reading The Glass Harmonica, but after about 30 pages of it, I just put it down. I was not in the mood for it and decided to pick up a light hearted chick-lit story. So, I am reading Going Coastal by Wendy French. I am finding myself laughing out loud in places and am glad I took time out to read it--the last few books I have read have been about war, and poverty and impovrished childhoods--I definitely needed to lighten things up a bit.

Up next will be one of the following:

1. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
2. Snow Falling in Spring: coming of age in China
3. Fanny and Sue by Karen Stolz

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Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the war books With yesterday being Anzac Day, I thought I’d ask a theme question this week. Are you a reader of war books? And if so, do you have any favourites?

My answer is yes! Stories set during WWII especially fascinate me. Some are memoirs,and some are historical fiction. It used to bother me that I found them so interesting and was drawn to them because the topic is morbid. But then I started thinking about why I wanted to read them and I realized that one of the reasons is that I feel it is important that we don't ever forget. Especially the Holocaust and Hitler's quest for world domination. Another reason I read them is for the education I have received from them---my public school education did not spend much time on the two world wars--and when they did it was in brief overview form. I had never heard of the Japanese Internment Camps in America until I was an adult. I also am fascinated by the war stories that feature a country or community coming together for survival. I have not read much about the Vietnam war, and have often thought that is an era I should begin to investigate--seeing as how I was growing up during it, and watched it on the news during our dinner hour!

Some of my recent favorites have been: Snow Falling on Cedars, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Sarah's Key, In My Hands, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Thief, Tallgrass, The Song of Survival, and all of the Maise Dobbs series.

Monday's Mail

What's In Your Mailbox Monday is hosted each week by Marcia over at The Printed Page.


I just received two books this week--both from Amazon--and both I find very exciting!














From Amazon:
Adorable hand-knit playthings, featuring clever twists on classics and enchanting reversibles and interactive toys.

Kids love toys, and toys you make yourself are extra-special. If you could buy these imaginative playthings in stores, they would fly off the shelves! This book features stuffed animals, including a luscious lamb and a gigantic giraffe, and finger-puppet fruits that will delight babies and toddlers. With step-by-step directions, clear diagrams and drawings, and gorgeous photographs, knitters of all levels will find it easy to make the Pull-Toy Mama Duck and Ducklings, the set of Russian nesting dolls, and the Princess and the Pea Set. Even older kids will enjoy these, as well as the Felted Bouncy Ball, a felted version of a Super Ball that's perfect for indoor play. A series of five reversible toys—a frog that turns into a turtle, a mouse that changes into a cat, an egg in a nest that transforms into a blue bird, and so on—showcases the creativity that makes Susan B. Anderson a rising star in the knitting world.














From Publishers Weekly:
Small wonder that the weekly installments of these endearing letters purportedly written to a friend at the front were eagerly awaited by the British during World War II. For the vignettes of "coping" in Devon are often so hilarious that you are surprised to find yourself wiping away a tear. Henrietta is an engaging character, with a son and a daughter in the services and a doctor husband who gives lectures about the digestive system and snores through air-raid alerts. There's also rotund, indomitable Lady B, ready to plunge into the ocean in pursuit of what looks like a mine; siren-like Faith, growing masses of geraniums to pat on her cheeks in the wartime absence of rouge; Mrs. Savernack, fainting dead away in a first-aid course and nearly killed in the crush of students avid to practice on her. The author's Hokinsonlike illustrations, her gentle wit and her concern for the sensibilities of all around her should guarantee as many delighted readers today as there were 45 years ago.


What gems did you find in your mailbox last week??

Sunday ramblings:

Was it really a week ago that we were all recovering from the read-a-thon? As usual the week flew by at an alarming speed. I had just a normal work week, no extra boys' activities in the evening, (although baseball starts up in May), and a very quiet slow day yesterday. This is the first weekend since late February that hasn't been crammed full of commitments.

It took me a week to finish a book, but finish I did. The book I read this week was The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein. It was excellent and a review will follow shortly. I have decided to write my reviews for the books I read during the read-a-thon all up, and then schedule them to post throughout the week, rather than posting them all at once the same day.
Today is a beautiful sunny warm spring day and I am off to get the grocery shopping done so I can sit and enjoy all this lovely sun before it disappears later today. We are in for a soggy week I am afraid.

I just started a new book last night--one that has been sitting on my shelves for probably 4 year. It is called, The Glass Harmonica. I spotlighted it last year here on an A-Z Wednesday post. I am not normally into time travel/paranormal/ futuristic type of books, but decided to give this one a try.

Have a great day everyone!

I need to write some reviews.
Four, almost five, to be exact.
Why I put these off sometimes, I do not know. It isn't like I am some profound book analyzer who cranks out deep meaningful book reviews. But for some reason I am procrastinating.
Maybe this weekend I will get caught up?
I also want to write a post for Beth Fish's weekend cooking event.
And I was all set to do a Friday Finds Post. But didn't.
I also finished my first challenge of the year, and haven't mentioned a peep about that either.

I guess, after writing all this down, I have come to the conclusion that I am very bad blogger!

I am off now.
To read a book.
:)

Wordless Wednesday: Molly

Molly, soaking up the sun in my bedroom window sill.
read-a-thon day

The Letter J

Hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach


Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!

To join, here's all you have to do:
Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

This week's letter is : J

My :J: book is Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchette

From Booklist
Taylor Markham isn’t just one of the new student leaders of her boarding school, she’s also the heir to the Underground Community, one of three battling school factions in her small Australian community (the others being the Cadets and the Townies). For a generation, these three camps have fought “the territory wars,” a deadly serious negotiation of land and property rife with surprise attacks, diplomatic immunities, and physical violence. Only this year, it’s complicated: Taylor might just have a thing for Cadet leader Jonah, and Jonah might just be the key to unlocking the secret identity of Taylor’s mother, who abandoned her when she was 11. In fact, nearly every relationship in Taylor’s life has unexpected ties to her past, and the continual series of revelations is both the book’s strength and weakness; the melodrama can be trying, but when Marchetta isn’t forcing epiphanies, she has a knack for nuanced characterizations and punchy dialogue.

Monday, Monday....

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What's In Your Mailbox Monday is hosted each week by Marcia over at The Printed Page.

In the mailbox, I received the following:
This is the sequel to a book I spotlighted a few weeks ago, called Hens Dancing.













She's All Eyes













Not from the mailbox, but via my car and Barnes & Noble and a gift card:
I have been waiting for the release of this one for a while and am waiting for the perfect time to tuck into it.














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What are you reading on Mondays? is hosted each week by hostess, Sheila from One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.





Wow!
Well.
After just coming off the read-a-thon, I haven't really decided yet what to read. I think it will be The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein













Last week, I finished:
The Marriage Bureau For Rich People
Tallgrass
Odd and the Frost Giants
To Dance: a ballerina's graphic novel

Reviews of all to come!

My wrap up post....

How can something I look so forward to for 6months of the year, fly by so quickly? Sadly, the read-a-thon has come and gone for now. October is a long way off from here-there is a lot of life that will happen before the next one rolls along, and it seems that I often feel a bit melancholy after the event.

Sam and I had a great day--even though it was different from the past two we have participated in. The biggest change was the fact that I was an hourly co-host on the official website for 6 hours. Boy--let me tell you--that was a lot of fun, but a whole lot more work than I thought it would be! I did no reading in between the posting times each hour. Even though I had written my posts up in a template before hand, some things had changed by the morning of, and there were lots, and lots of winners to draw! So, while I did not read during that time, except for a brief time when we ate our breakfast, Sam read alone. And, our start time was officially 5:00 AM and I am sorry folks, me getting out of bed at that time on a Saturday just isn't happening! I tried, but I failed. I was up and stumbling around by 5:40 and officially awake enough to start reading by 6:15! I roused Sam at about 6:30, as you will see on the clock in the not so flattering photo of him below! :)

Because I basically spent from 8:00 AM until 2:30 PM on the computer, I did not have the energy to be on it much more after that. Thus, I didn't even post hardly any personal updates, cheerlead or participate in any but the first mini-challenge. That is what felt so different for us--as Sam and I usually spend time together on those mini-challenges. Plus, but early evening I was not feeling real well and only had the energy to lay down and read.

So the official stats for us are as follows:

I read from:
6:15 AM until 8:00 AM
2:30 PM until 1:00 AM (Sadly, neither one of us made it later, even though our goal really was to make it to the 24 hour mark.) I think if I had been feeling better I could have got us up and motivated to keep on.

I figure I read for 12. 25 hours or 720 minutes (very little time was taken off during our afternoon/evening stretch from reading--our snacks were all laid out and my husband brought Chinese food home for dinner!)

I read a total of 3 books, all of which I enjoyed:

1. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (117 pages)
2. To Dance: a ballerina's graphic novel by Siena Cherson Siegel (56 pages)
3. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas (336 pages)

Page Total: 509


Sam was a reading machine compared to me!

He read from 6:30 AM until 1:00 AM, almost non-stop. He took little breaks to take quick showers and let the dog out, but for the most part, that kid read straight through!

He finished 3 books and started a 4th-

1. Fablehaven #4 by Brandon Mull (the last 40 pages to refresh his memory before starting the 5th)
2. Fablehaven #5 (588 pages)
3. What Will Happen in eragon IV by Richard Marcus (208 pages)
4. Chosen #1 by Ted Dekker (260 pages)
5. The Hobbit by Tolkien (50 pages)

A grand total of 1, 146 pages! Way to go, baby boy!

Barely up but ready to go!

Early morning fortifications

Dad took this early morning photo before he left for work. All cozy on a cold early morning!

Molly was thrilled to have us home all day and was more than willing to camp out with us~

Still looking pretty fresh in the afternoon!

Sam getting ready to start book #4--he ended up abandoning it pretty quickly and picking up the Hobbit. This was around 11:30 PM

Fresh as a daisy? Not so much!

We did have a blast and can't wait until November.

And now for the official end of the event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?--late afternoon again--around 5:00 PM

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I liked having those graphic novels in my bucket to know I could fall back on--they are quick and give your eyes a break from the all written page in a regular novel.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope! I thought we all did a great job!

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I like the official homepage/blog--2 times ago when I participated it was a much more confusing home page. This seems much easier to navigate.

5. How many books did you read? I read 3, Sam read 3.5 (almost 4)

6. What were the names of the books you read? See my answer above.

7. Which book did you enjoy most? I really enjoyed Tallgrass. Sam really loved Fablehaven 5.

8. Which did you enjoy least? I liked them all!

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Wasn't one.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Oh, you know we will!