Suey's Top Tens: Childhood Favorites: Novels

Early this week Melissa from One Librarian's Book Reviews posted some of her favorite kid books, both those from the past and more recent ones. It made me think I should do another Top Ten list here! One of my first Top Ten lists was Childhood Favorites: Pictures Books (books from when I was a kid.) This list is similar, but will be novels that I loved as a kid (where kid here means elementary school age.)

Suey's Top Tens: Childhood Favorites: Novels

1. Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield
2. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
3. Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
4. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
5. Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'dell
6. Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. Fifteen by Beverly Cleary
8. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
9. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
10. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Did you read any of these? What are some of your favorites from elementary school?

A Look Back on Required Reading

A couple of weeks ago, Angie from Angieville, did a post where she listed her favorites and not-so-favorites from her high school English required reading. I thought this sounded fun to look back on, and so I found a file that I've saved all these years that lists all the books I read for all three English classes in high school, complete with the essays I wrote for most of the books. Very fun to look back and remember.

Anyway, so here's what I thought of them:

Books I Loved:

• The Odyssey (mythology has always been a favorite)
• The Scarlet Letter (we watched a movie adaptation and I was completely in love with Dimsdale)
• Tess of the D'urbervilles (the book where I fell in love with tragedy)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (loved this story)
• The Good Earth (one of the first books that I remember being teary at the end)
• Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff got to me even back then)
• The Grapes of Wrath (I think the re-read of this one later made a bigger impression)
• Crime and Punishment (I learned this one inside and out and used it on every essay I could!)
• Hamlet (oh the drama!  I memorized lots of passages.)
• The Mayor of Casterbridge (I decided I really liked Thomas Hardy...)
• The Return of the Native (.... so I did my paper on him and read even more of his books.) 
• Julius Caesar (March 15 will never be the same for me and I remember "the Ides" every year!)
• Huckleberry Finn (what's not to like?)
• A Tale of Two Cities (we read this in 9th grade and I didn't understand a thing, but loved the discussion on it. Later, it was on PBS TV and once again, I completely fell for the dude playing both Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, though I loved him as Sydney Carton the most. I wish I could figure out which version and actor that was....though I'm quite sure it's not this one below.)

Books I Hated:

• The Great Gatsby (I just didn't/don't get it.)
• The Old Man and the Sea ( boring)
• The Secret Sharer (much fogginess)
• The Heart of Darkness (there was a dude on a boat in the Congo and I think he was scared.)

Books I Can't Remember What I Thought:

• Of Mice and Men (It's sad I remember, but nothing that overly moved me.)
• Arms and the Man (I don't remember reading this one, so whatever.)
• Tender is the Night (It was okay, I think.)
• This Side of Paradise (Yeah, okay again.)
• Main Street (Another one I don't even remember reading, but it's on the list.)

What books did you love/hate from school days?

Review: The Golden Spiral by Lisa Mangum

Book: The Golden Spiral by Lisa Mangum
Genre: YA Paranormal
Rating: B+
For: ARC for Review
From: the publisher (Shadow Mountain) Thanks!

This continuation of Abby and Dante's story (which came out this week) follows Dante and his "friends" through the hour glass door spoken of in the previous book. Dante gets stuck in time, Zo gains control of time, and it's up to Abby to figure out how to fix things.But before she does that, Zo has managed to mess with her past to the point that her life is nearly unrecognizable.

I must say I was a little disappointed in this, the second book of the trilogy. The first book introduced a concept that, while familiar in general with other teen paranormal romances, still had a unique plot that I enjoyed and couldn't predict. However, during most of this second book, I felt like I was in a fog. Perhaps our main character, Abby, was feeling this way too and so maybe this feeling was how I was supposed to feel! Much of the descriptions of the river of time and the bank, and the magic door were hard for me to visualize. Also, I didn't really understand what the characters were trying to do.... maybe I'm just being very dense, but most of it didn't make sense to me.

But still, I do like this whole time theory and I like the characters quite well. I do think they need some more development. I feel the need to get to knew Dante much much better!  :) Hopefully we'll see that in the next book!

Bottom line: It was awright for me, just awright! 

Lisa Mangum's website.

Other reviews:

Bookworm Nation
There is Always Something to Read
Fire and Ice

Listful Monday: My Library Layout

... as in my personal at home library... not my public library as I thought this meant at first!

Back when I got my new bookshelves, I had a blast organizing books in what now truly felt like a real library corner. However, I stopped before I really got finished, so it's sort of organized and sort of not. Here's what sections I have in my very own personal library:

Pretty hardback books
Christmas books
YA hardback series
Yearbooks
Paperback picture books
Hardback picture books
Non-fiction picture books
Non-fiction
Several shelves worth of classics, alphabetized by author
Several shelves worth of contemporary/literary/ general fiction, alphabetized by author
Award winners
Newbery winners
ARCS/Unbound manuscripts
Children's Classics
Children's series
YA and MG all mixed up together (here's where I really need to organize a bit more)
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys shelf
Orson Scott Card shelf
Dr. Suess shelf
Old books
Church books
College books
Magazines
Photo Albums
An entire bookcase of TBR books waiting ever so patiently
Misc. weird stuff that I'll probably never read and/or I don't know where it came from!

How are your shelves in your own library organized?

Listful Monday brought to you today by Julie at A Small Accomplishment. Be sure to go check out her list too!

Review: The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman

Book: The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman
Genre: YA
Rating: A
For: Fun
From: The Library!

This is a fun book about an ordinary boy, his two "original" friends, his new friend who also happens to be a boy that is sorta almost not quite invisible, a plastic mannequin, a crotchety old man and his granddaughter, 14 huge dogs, a missing mom, and a set of fighting parents.

Our main boy, nicknamed Antsy, spends much of the book trying to figure out is going on with is strange new friend, The Schwa. And what secrets The Schwa is holding back about his past. Turns out, Antsy learns more about himself than he does anybody else, as is often the case with these stories.

I don't have a whole lot to say, except I totally enjoyed it. It's a simple, fun coming of age sort of story, told in a unique creative way.  I think I've found a new author to add to my favorites list. I will continue figure out how to add all his books to my "in the near future" TBR pile and hopefully get all caught up soon!

Bottom line: I really liked it a lot.

Neal Shusterman's website

Other reviews:

One Librarian's Book Reviews
Reading for Sanity

The Sunday Salon: Wrapping Up the Week

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and potential moms! I hope you all have a wonderful day. For me, it means we spend the evening  going "home" to visit both mothers in our lives. And I think my grandma might even be at my mom's house too, so that would be cool. It also means I get a phone call from my son who has been gone on a church mission now for one year! Wahoo! Very excited to talk to him, but a little nervous too. Funny how that happens. He's been speaking Spanish (in Ohio of all places), so I know we will get a kick out of his new Spanish accent. And I can't wait to hear his goofy laugh.

Anyway, I just had to say, guess what happened this last week?! No, I'm not talking about the bookish evening out, or about the post I had a blast writing, or about the fact that I bagged a book and started a much buzzed about one, or even that we are getting lots of suggestions for  the latest bookword!

No, what I'm talking about is that four posts ago I passed my 1000 post mark! What is up with that!? That's a little bit scary, I'm thinking, that I can come up with that much to say, mostly about books ( a little music, a little movies, a little Josh Groban here and there!)  and yet still feel like I have so much more to say too. Weird.

Did I say I started The Passage? Yes, last night I did. And ho-boy, it's already creeping me out a bit. I knew it would. It has elements of several other creepy books about it that I can't quite put a finger on yet. But I'll let you know when I do.

Hopefully, sometime this evening I'll be able to watch the Amazing Race finale and cheer on those cowboys. Dang, they better win! Ah, but they are the coolest ever.

Okay. So I think that's all I wanted to ramble on about today. Have a wonderful day moms and everyone else!

(Just a nice tiger we took a picture of at the San Diego Zoo last month!

I liked it a lot, so I'm posting it just for the fun of it!)

A Not-Review: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

Book: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas
Genre: Classic
Rating: n/a Did Not Finish
For: The Classics Circuit
From: bought LONG ago


For those of you that play Wii Fit, you know when you do really lousy at something, then at the end your Mii hangs its head in failure and shame? Yeah? Well, that's how I feel about my accomplishment detailed in this post.

Once upon a time, I read The Count of Monte Cristo and loved it. (Granted, it was probably the abridged version which perhaps helped a bit.) And then later I read The Three Musketeers and loved it! Way back then I learned it had a sequel of sorts and decided that "some day I will read that!" I even got the book which promptly sat on my shelf for years.

Fast forward to just last month when Alexandre Dumas was voted in as the the feature for The Classics Circuit this past month. What a perfect time for me to dust off Twenty Years After and read it once and for all. I was ready! I was excited! I knew I could do it... all 800 pages worth.

Sadly, it was not to be. I tried. I got to page 170 and I'm still thinking "when is something going to happen?" Every time I read it, my mind wanders, like really really bad. Or I fall asleep, or I read and read and don't realize at all what I'm reading. I hate it when that happens.

So either this book is just not for me... or at least it's not for me right now. Or I'm just going through a low concentration moment. Or something.

I did gather enough info to know that it's about the four boys (who are now in their forties) finding each other again. There's lots and lots of political talk that goes right over my head, but I gather there's something afoot that has instigated this musketeer reunion. They've all been leading quite different and interesting lives. In fact on of them (Athos perhaps?) appears to even have a son. For a glimmer there, I felt that this boy's story could be interesting, but instead of following him, it suddenly went back to... I don't even know what. I'm sure it will get back to that kid eventually, but I wanted it NOW! Ugh!

So anyway, I gave up. (Head hanging and swinging in shame... just like your sad Mii.) But, I decided, it's okay. I don't do this very often. I'm entitled.

Besides, I have The Passage waiting for me and I hear that I probably won't be sleeping during that one!

So if you are interested in a Dumas read, I say start with The Count. It's one of my all time favorites.