Bookword Game: Winner and New Word!

Congratulations to Julie from A Small Accomplishment. Her pick A History Mystery is the new bookword to describe a book where the characters from the present are researching the characters from the past.

Now let's find a word to describe this scenario:

What should we call a book that makes you interested enough in its topic that you are inspired to go and do some more research on it?

Suggestions in the comments!!

Weekly Geeks 2010.12: Checking Out Libraries

Weekly Geeks this week is all about libraries. I have lots to say!

First, I don't really remember a whole lot about going to the library when I was really little, though I'm sure I did. What I do remember was visiting my grandma, who lived on a farm and thinking that visiting the bookmobile when it rolled around was the the coolest. thing. ever! Even though I was from a city and had a "real" library!

I remember loving to just browse the shelves and pick whatever looked good. I miss doing this. Once, my dad was doing this with me, and he picked one for me called The Enchanted Cup by Dorothy Parker. We knew nothing about it. But I took it home, read it, and LOVED it! This was the first I'd heard of the Tristan and Isolde story. I've never forgotten how cool it was to just randomly pick a book from the shelves, then love it so much.

When I was first married and we only had one car, I would walk several miles to the library because when I needed to go, I needed to go right then! It wouldn't wait until I had the car. That library at the time had the paperbacks all separated out from the rest of the fiction section. I loved just picking through those and seeing what I came up with. It was during that time that I discovered The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. Wonderful book!

When I had little kids, I'd haul them to the story time at the library every week. Hopefully, they now have early memories of those first library days! 

Just a few years ago, whenever I went to the library, I'd always think... how cool would it be to work here! I'm here all the time anyway, might as well earn a little money! One day, a job dropped into my lap and now, three mornings a week, I get to go to the library to earn a little money. It never fails to amaze me, really.

The library is the first place my kids learn to drive to all by themselves when they first get their driver's license. I've always thought that was an interesting tidbit. We've gone to the library once or twice a week for their whole lives. We've supported the summer programs for years and years. I truly can't imagine a world without libraries and when there's talk about getting rid of them, it makes me physically sick. 

Here's a couple of pictures of "my" libraries. The first two are from the one I work at. The first one is part of the famous stained glass window, and the second one is of the children's wing that was added to the original building several years ago. The bottom picture is of the the "other" library, where I check out most of our book club sets. It's in a restored building that once upon a time was completely falling apart. Seeing how beautiful it is today never fails to make me happy!

And the picture on the Weekly Geek post of a famous library? My guess is that's the Reading Room at the British Library in London. I was lucky enough to walk around that library and stick my head in this room, but there wasn't time to really soak it up. Some day, I'm going to go again!

Review: My Double Life by Janette Rallison

Book: My Double Life by Janette Rallison

Genre: YA
Rating: A-
For: ARC Challenge
From: the author/publisher for review (Penguin Young Readers Group)
Release date: May 2010

It was such a fun surprise to see this one show up in the mail awhile back. I was so so excited! Love Janette Rallison and all her books. Clean, funny, fluffy, happy teen romances.

So I expected the same from this one. However, it took me by surprise and was quite different! Still very good, very fun, but different.

It's the story of a girl, Alexia, who gets discovered by the people of pop star Kari Kingsly because the two girls look so much alike. The singer's manager wants to get more out of the singer, so she thinks it would be a wonderful plan to hire Alexia as Kari's double. That way, Kari can work harder on her next album yet still be making money as Alexia goes to appearances and lipsyncs at small performances.

You can see how this set up could be the basis for some funny situations. And there are a bit of those, but mostly, it's about Alexia coming to grips with her mother's past, her father's abandonment of them both, and her own feelings about who she is. In fact, the underlying story is quite a serious one indeed.

In the end, even though I was a bit surprised by this serious turn, I still enjoyed the characters, the situation, the writing and everything.

Bottom line: I really liked it.

For more about author Janette Rallison, check out her website here.

The Sunday Salon: Reading Plans

This week it's Spring Break around here. For us, it starts out with a bang tomorrow evening at the Muse concert. Then we've made plans for a fun getaway. Which means I won't be around for the readathon Saturday, BUT that does NOT mean I won't be reading! So, I've taken a lovely picture of the books I plan on reading this week, well the books I'm hoping to read this week, as we have our adventure.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to check in a bit here and there and see how things are going. Maybe I'll even have time to get a couple of posts scheduled, but I'm not sure even that will happen! So it might seem kind of quiet, but maybe I'll get ALL those books above read! :)

Today, I'm reading, actually almost done with, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. I'm really liking it but I must say, it's not AT ALL what I expected!

I started Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas for the Classics Circuit, but it's not grabbing me yet. As you can see, it's not in the above stack. That means, it needs more concentration than this week will allow!

I got some fun books in the mail this past week. One of them is HUGE and looks really really creepy. The Passage by Justin Cronin. Anyone else get it? Are you going to read it?

We all got a bunch of new books in our Easter baskets this morning. I'm excited about Devil's Food Cake by Josie Kilpack, and My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite... both of which I've seen blogged about quite a bit lately. Can't wait.

Meanwhile, don't forget to vote for the new bookword here. I'll hopefully get a chance to post the results on Wednesday as normal.

And now, since it's been awhile, I'll end with What The Family is Reading:

Mr. Stuey: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (for book club, which he seems to be taking quite an interest in lately)
JJ: Emma by Jane Austen (for school and because we stayed up late watching the new version the other day)
Moder: 1984 by George Orwell  (because we think Muse wrote some of their new songs based on this book)
Toto: Pendragon #7 by D.J. McHale (because she gave the series a good break and couldn't wait to get back to it)

Have a lovely week people! Happy Easter to all who celebrate. And have a blast all you readers next Saturday!

Review: We The Children by Andrew Clements

Book: We The Children by Andrew Clements 
Genre: MG
Rating: B
For: ARC Challenge
From: the publisher (Simon and Schuster)
Release date: April 6, 2010

I got this one awhile back, but I've managed to read (and now review) it before its release date! Yeah for me!

I love Andrew Clements so I  jumped on the chance to read this one. This is the first book of a series called Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School. Ben goes to this old school built near the beach, and the bad guys want to come in and tear it down in order to make a resort. Well, Ben has been commissioned, in a curious and unusual way, to make sure that does not happen! He ends up going on a sort of treasure hunt, gathering different clues about the school, its founders and history, and what he can do to help.

It's cute story that appears to be a fun start to great new series that elementary kids will enjoy, especially if they like the mystery of treasure hunting. It also has the added elements of parental stress, romantic issues, and bullies to deal with, all the fun things that make a middle grade book interesting.

I must say though, that it didn't grab me and make me smile near as much as some of his other books, ( I loved No Talking, for example) but that's mostly just because I'm a big, boring person, you see. Still, it's going to be a fun series and one I'll recommended to my little friends.

For more on author Andrew Clements click here.
From more about Keepers of the School, click here.

Other Reviews:

Books and Movies
2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Bookfoolery and Babble

Michael Buble: A Concert Review (and Rant)

I'm hoping someone is interested in hearing my thoughts on last night's Michael Buble concert, 'cause I'm interested in writing them! :)

First of all, Michael was wonderful! Very personal, very funny, very good, very cute, very bubbly. He was a blast to listen to and a blast to watch. He started out with a bang (literally), slowed it down a bit in the middle, then pumped it up again towards the end. I loved it when he walked through the audience, and climbed up on a little platform stage in the middle of the crowd where he sang "Home." He asked for the lights to be turned up so he could see everyone. Wow, what a feeling that must be to suddenly feel yourself stand in the middle of a sea of 10,000 screaming people! I think I would faint!

Then, at the end, the curtains came back down in front of the band. One loan trumpeter suddenly appeared in the crowd with a spotlight on him, and one on Michael. Then the trumpet faded away, at which point Michael stepped away from the microphone and just sang... and his voice filled up the arena without the microphone. It was the coolest thing. The crowd got so quiet and still, and it was just him singing and in an instant it felt like it was just us and him in a room, not a huge venue with thousands of people. Very cool. And then he ended it and shook a few more people's hands and then quietly walked off the stage. (You can see that moment someone filmed and posted here if you are interested.)

Now my rant and a question someone maybe can answer. Why why why do people pay literally hundreds of dollars for a concert such as this, then once they get there (late of course) all they can think about is drinking? Why? The people next to us, first climbed over us when they were late. Climbed back over us to get their drinks. Then one climbed back over us to get more drinks. Then the other one climbed back to pee I'm guessing, then AGAIN to get more drinks! THEN... they proceeded to put their drinks under their chairs... and instead of drinking them, spilled them all over the place. Suddenly, at one point, I realized my brand new purse that I'd stashed under my chair was sitting in puddle of beer. And my jacket that was hung over my chair was dragging in it also. Oh and our umbrella was completely dripping.

Now Michael is singing his current most popular song "I Just Haven't Met You Yet" (link to video someone else took last night) and I'm standing there (feet sticking all over in the puddle of beer) fuming because of these people, who totally didn't even look like they were listening to the concert at all. Besides all the up and down and back and forth, the girl was WAY more wiggly than any of my kids are. She looked like she couldn't concentrate on the singing no matter how hard she tried. Why do people go to concerts if they don't LOVE the singer? They are dragged their by their significant other? Their friends? And why do they realize people around them have spent a major amount of money to be there to see and listen to (there were lots of people talking throughout the concert too, just just my neighbors) someone that they LOVE!!!???

I guess when I pay so stinkin' much money for an event of this magnitude, I expect to be able to sit back and enjoy it without worrying about restless bored people all around me. I'm not saying for people to not drink, but to at least get it all taken care of before the main star starts singing, and then be a grown up about it, and actually sit there and listen to the show and not act like little kids begging for more food and drinks for the whole show. And if you do get the drinks, plan on HOLDING IT until after the show! Better yet,  if you have a peeing problem, skip the drinks people!

What do you think? Is it too much to ask? Am I missing a key part of the whole experience?

Whew... I haven't had such a good rant for a long time! I feel so much better!

Bottom line: Michael... YOU rocked! People next to me.... YOU acted worse than my kids and next time... stay home!! And thanks for ruining my purse!

Here's video of his entrance and "Cry Me A River" from someone who had major good seats:




Monday, we see Muse at this very same location, in nearly the very same seats. I really hope the people sitting around us have actually come to see Muse, and to scream and dance, and clap and cheer, and that their main concern isn't about the drinks/food/toilet.

March Monthly Recap

It's been a lovely reading month. I've been enjoying it all. I think some of my top tens of the year will end up coming from this month. I don't know. I guess we'll see!

Here's what I read:

Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein: A mom tries to deal with the death of her son by running away to Alaska and getting wrapped up in its local legends.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: The story of a space exploration mission and it's tragic end.

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It by Adam Selzer: Vampires are so full of themselves. Zombies are were it's at!

Unwind by Neal Shusterman: Three kids destined to be "unwound" bond together as they figure out how to escape their destiny.

My Double Life by Janette Rallison: Because Alexia looks so much like pop singer Kari, she is hired to be her double and goes of on a Hollywood adventure

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Alice falls down a rabbit hole and has a wild, weird adventure.

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan: Rand and his friends search for the horn and the dagger, while he meanwhile, discovers more and more about his uniqueness.

We the Children by Andrew Clements: Ben embarks on a quest to save the school!

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld: As WWI starts,  Alek runs for his life, while Derwyn joins the Darwinist army.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett: (re-read):  A group of party goers, who have gathered to hear a famous opera singer, end up as hostages instead.

Favorites of the month: The Sparrow, Unwind, The Great Hunt.... and Bel Canto held up as a re-read.