Book Club Report: The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

A couple of evenings ago we had an awesome Christmas book club gathering complete with a pile of yummy treats and a great discussion about The Wednesday Wars, a book that I think everyone in the group who read it, totally loved and enjoyed.


Here are some random group thoughts:

• As is often the case, we had a bit of genre discussion... again. Is this book middle grade? Or YA.. or could it actually be considered an adult book? We pondered the fact that it's an adult narrator looking back on his childhood, much like To Kill a Mockingbird, yet it is actually marketed and shelved as middle grade. We found that interesting.
• Most of us are regular readers of YA books, but we have a new book club member who is accustomed to reading adult books about strong female characters. When she started this book and realized it was about an obnoxious 7th grader boy, she nearly gave up... that is... until she discovered it was just as much about the teacher's character and growth, as it was the boy's. I thought that was a great insight!
• Many book club members compared this book to the popular TV show The Wonder Years. It has a nostalgic feel to it. It takes place in a simpler time, yet covers many complicated topics.
• We thought it was an awesome book for refreshing our American history especially for the year 1967... some of us even googled and did research!
• We also loved the way this book fosters a love of Shakespeare. It's a great way to get kids interested.
• We wondered about the Micky Mantle incident described in the book and if the author experienced something like this, or heard of something like this happening.
• The author's new book, OK for Now, is about the "friend" Doug featured in The Wednesday Wars. It's getting much buzz and I think we all left want to read it, and others by this author.

Bottom line: Everyone seemed to really enjoy this one!

Other books we talked about:

Jenni really enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake and now wants to read more about ghosts. She cautions that is has pretty harsh language though. She also finished To Kill a Mockingbird and now understands why people are naming their kids Atticus.

Jessica read A Christmas Carol and said it was awesome. She also read Three Cups of Deceit by John Krakaur which led us to discuss both the original book and this book and why? Why for both... the whole thing is very sad and confusing and strange.

Jenny read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi and said it was okay. She also read and enjoyed 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

Kim read and really liked Divergent. She also read On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker, a ghost story, The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke and Pope Joan by Donna Woofolk Cross, which we though maybe should be a future book club pick.

Julie read Making the Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa, the one about a cat that could tell when the rest home patients were dying and went to be by their side. It sounds fascinating.

Karen read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver after hearing that she was a good author for learning more about small town America. She liked it a lot.

Suey mentioned her love for The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and tried to describe it but it just doesn't work.

Stuey reported on Jesus, my Father, CIA and Me Ian Morgan Cron, which he reviewed on this blog, and also his current read called Laughing at Wall Street by Chris Camillo, which he's not liking so much.

Sam read Buddha by Deepak Chopra and said he's converted! (But he followed that up with a big JK.) He also read Endurance about that Shackleton dude (can't link since there are two found on Goodreads and I'm not sure which one it is!), and Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. He said it was good.

Bethany read Divergent and LOVED it.

Tessa listened to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand on audio and loved it too. She said it was 55 cds long! Whew.

And that was book club this month!

Virtual Advent Tour: I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas!

One of my favorite blogging events that we do this time of year is the Virtual Advent Tour. This is where bloggers take turns sharing different Christmas traditions and post them on their blog. This year is my fifth year participating! Which means, I'm having a hard time thinking of something new and interesting to post about!

Here are links to my past years' posts in case you are interested:

2007: Christmas Eve Traditions (including a movie the year the nativity reenactment went to pieces!)
2008: Decorating the Tree (including a yummy cinnamon roll recipe)
2009: The Advent Box: (with a time elapsed video that was a blast to make)
2010: My Love for the Grinch

So this year, after much pondering, I've decided to keep it really simple, especially since I've found it's hard to spend a lot of time reading blogs and hopping back and forth to see what everyone's been posting (in fact, I've been really lousy at this!)

I don't really know how this tradition got started. It must have just been that my dad's family had this song on an old 78 record (I hope someone out there knows what that is!) and played it all the time during the holidays... played it enough that my dad memorized the thing... accent and all! Every year as we were growing up, he would recite/sing this silly song for us kids and we thought it was so so funny! Now that we are all grown and gone, when we do get together for our party, we make our dad do this song, just like he has every year.

Now, I really wish I had a video of him doing it, and I probably do somewhere, but I'm feeling so lazy these days that I'm not going to search for it and spend the time editing. (Besides, he'd probably rather not be featured on my blog I'm guessing) so instead, I give you this original version that my brother found on YouTube for us last year, which we all thought was pretty cool.




So.... anyone heard this song before? Does it feature in your holiday traditions at all? Doesn't the idea of my straight laced conservative dad singing this crack you up? It does me!

Be sure to check out the posts of the other participants! (All listed at the main blog here.) Thanks for dropping by!

Surrounded by Authors!

Today we had an awesome event at the library....  a last minute author signing before Christmas for all those who really wanted to give away a signed book! The difference for me this time, instead of just stalking the authors, I actually got to work at the event and "host" a couple of them. And by host, I mean, sit with them and talk when/if they didn't have a signing line.

On one side of me was the famous Brandon Mull. His line was constant and steady, so we didn't get to chat much, but it was a blast to hear him interact with his fans and be so very personable and asking them questions and such. What an cool guy he is.

Brandon Mull

On my other side was a brand new author whose first book just came out in September. He didn't have much of a line and was excited for each and every person who came to him! Especially if they had already bought the book before the event! His name is Eric Patten (writing under E.J. Patten) and his book is called Return to Exile, a middle grade adventure that will, he hopes, end up being a six book series. Of course I bought it! So I will get back to you on my thoughts for the book itself. I will have to bump it up the pile.

Dan Wells signing, Eric Patten along side.
Rob Wells and Tyler Whitesides in the background.

I was also able to chat a bit with Rob Wells (whose book Variant I loved and plan to give a nephew) and Dan Wells, who had an ARC of his next book Partials sitting there very temptingly. I begged him for info on how to get my hands on one and he said, hey, I gave one to the library! So I tracked down which co-worker currently has it and said, I'm next!! Yay! Very excited for a turn with that one!

I didn't get a chance to mingle much more than that, though we all know that I'm terrible mingler anyway. But Ally Condie did request that I get a Beyonders book signed by Brandon Mull for her. So that was fun. And I did say hi to Bree Despain.

We managed to get all the authors together for a picture, and mine turned out very dark, but I tweaked it and hopefully this one isn't too bad and you can kind of see them all.

Eric Patten, Tyler Whitesides, Ally Condie, Rob Wells, Jessica Day George,
Brandon Mull, Dan Wells, Nathan Hale, Jed Henry
Rick Walton, Kristen Chandler, Bree Despain
(I linked to them all in this post, so I'm not taking the time to link again!)


And here are some more candid type shots:

I only saw a couple other bloggers there. Jenny came to say hi to Dan Wells, and Diana was there doing a very good job at mingling. Holly from Book Harbinger was working at Rob and Tyler's table, so hopefully she'll blog about anything interesting she learned from them!

Anyway, I had a blast. Hopefully we can do it again sometime!

Review: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

Book: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Newbery Award 1962)
Genre: Middle Grade historical fiction
Rating: A
For: a read along with my 7th grade daughter
From: the library

My daughter's 7th grade English class just read this one for their December book and my daughter begged me to read along with so she could better understand things. I'd never heard of this book before even though I'm sort of familiar with the author (Witch of Blackbird Pond.)

This is a great story to introduce kids to what it might have been like to live during Jesus' time, during the years he went about teaching and meeting with people. This boy, Daniel, has big reasons to hate the Romans who have taken over the country and killed his parents. His sister was emotional damaged by this incident and so he now has her to deal with along with his grandmother who takes care of them. He actually can't handle things so he runs away from home and meets up with a band of ruffians who live in the caves outside the city and are plotting to strike back against the Romans.

He meets some friends from the city and together they become spies for this rough rebellion. Meanwhile, he has several different encounters with a man named Jesus who everyone is talking about. He sees how  people come to him to hear teachings of God and to hopefully get healed of their many ailments. He feels wonderful when he sees this Jesus and wonders if he can perhaps help his sister some day.

Even though he feels so good hearing Jesus' message, he is still driven mostly by his hatred of the Romans. It is this issue that in the end, may be his family and friends undoing.

I really enjoyed this sweet and powerful book about this time in the world's history. It's very interesting to get a glimpse of how it may have been like back then. Not an easy time, that's for sure. But it's a great book with a great message that is especially meaningful this time of year, without being overly preachy.

Bottom line: I like this one a lot.

Other Reviews:

Educating Petunia
What KT Reads

As Seen On Twitter: An Intro and a Question

I'm staring something new around here! I'm not sure I'd call it a feature, but sort of I guess. Whatever it is, it's going to help me with discussion ideas, and I'm calling it As Seen on Twitter. (I tried to make a button. It'll do I think.)

First of all, let me restate (because I think I've said this before) that I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. This particular idea has bloomed from one of the things I love about it, and that is the stuff I see there oftentimes makes me think and ponder about an issue or question or idea which makes me want to expound on it, something not so easily done over there on Twitter.

But I can do it here!

And over here I'm hoping, of course, that you will comment and talk with me about whatever it is, which doesn't necessarily happen over there (one of the things I dislike about Twitter... trying to make myself "heard").

This is all assuming that ideas that are thrown out over on Twitter are free for the taking. Right? Am I right? Perhaps this should be a topic for discussion in and of itself? Is there such a thing as "stealing ideas" if you tweet them? If someone ponders something over there, can I take it and ponder it further over here? I've decided yes.

My plan is to use Twitter's favorite button much more often if something peaks my interest. Then I can easily link back to whoever gave me an idea... whether it be someone I know and follow, or someone I've never heard of before. This will also let me know which tweeters seem to always be saying interesting things! I would find that fun to track. Doing all this will make me interact more too, force me to click around on new blogs and get to know my followers and followees better! That's a good thing too.

So here's my first As Seen on Twitter, just for example!

This  morning @LizB (A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy) asked a question that we pondered at length awhile back in book club. What's the difference between the genres paranormal and supernatural?  Yeah I say! What IS the difference anyway?

Here are my very very simplified definitions:

Paranormal: a story about characters who are NOT normal... they are creatures who do not exist in our world such as vampires, werewolves and such.

Supernatural: a story about characters who are "normal" but have a supernatural power.... so they themselves might be found to exist in our world, but their powers would not such as Odd Thomas or the girl from Inkheart.

I think most books in these genres cross over a lot, thus the confusion. Someone replied on Twitter that paranormal has romance. I say, they both do. And usually they both have normal people with powers, and the paranormal creatures. So, the two really can't be separated.

So, how would you define them? Do you think I'm close or completely off? Ready, set, discuss!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Give

I'm not quite sure how to approach this list today. The Broke and the Bookish are asking us to list books we want to give for Christmas. So... are the books I want to give and the ones I'm giving one and the same? I'll just leave you guessing on the answer to that! And I'm not saying WHO I'd give them to, because what if I really DO give them to that person, and that person happens upon this list? Hmmmm??? What then?

Top Ten Books I Want To and Perhaps WILL Give for Christmas

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
2. Variant by Robison Wells
3. Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie
4. The Clockwork Angel and Prince by Cassandra Clare
5. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
6. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
8. Wimpy Kid ... the latest... whatever it's called by Jeff Kinney
9. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
10. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Whew!  I could go on and on with this one!

What books would you like to give?

Up next week: Books we want to GET for Christmas! Ha! That just makes me laugh!

Orem Library Author Event!

I just wanted to do a quick shout out to bloggers and readers in my area about another fun author event happening this week, on Saturday at the Orem Library (the one were I work in case you haven't been paying attention!)

They are coming for a last minute signing for local books you might like to get for people on your Christmas list. So come out and support our wonderful local authors, buy their books, get them signed!

Here's who's coming:

Ally Condie (Matched and Crossed)

Brandon Mull (Fablehaven and Beyonders)

Jessica Day George (Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass, Snow and Moon, Ice and Snow.. and a bunch more)

Kristen Chandler (Boys, Wolves and Other Things That Might Kill Me)

Bree Despain (The Dark Divine series)

Dan Wells (I Am Not A Serial Killer series)

Rob Wells (Variant)

Tyler Whitesides (Janitors)

E.J. Patten (The Hunter Chronicles)

Rick Walton (tons... TONS of picture books)

Nathan Hale (Rapunzel's Revenge with Shannon Hale and other picture books)

Jed Henry (picture books)

So if you've missed them when they've been at the Provo Library, or when they've come to Barnes and Noble's Authorpalooza, now is your chance! Their books will be available that day at the library for 20% off. 

This will be on Saturday, the 17th, from noon to 2:00 p.m. at Orem Library. I'll be there as soon as my daughter's violin concert is over, so find me and say hi!