books, books
i know you’ve been on the edge of your seat. “what is she reading?” you’re wondering. it’s been months, hasn’t it?, since i gave you the big book update. well, take a breath, here we go.
i finished sarah willis’s newest novel, the sound of us. verdict: utterly disappointing. everything charming and delightful about her first novel was missing. and, to top it off, it had one of those here’s-what-happens-in-five-years and everyone is unbelievably happy and doing really well endings. too easy. i hate it when it’s too easy.
next, i tried to read some karen joy fowler. i met her at the imagination conference last summer and found her writing tips profound and her sense of humor keen. i picked up a few of her books. couldn’t get more than fifty or so pages into sweetheart season. the second book must have been equally forgettable. i find this frustrating because i really really wanted to like her books. but i haven’t given up. i’m going to try something else, like the jane austen book club or sarah canary.
i finished listening to the prydain chronicles read by james langton. brilliant brilliant brilliant! it’s a wonderful audio production. these are perfect YA fantasy thriller adventure novels and james langton does all the voices with wonderful flair.
wallowing in booklessness, i did something i never thought i would do. i picked up the massive lord of the rings trilogy. i tried reading it in high school, but plodded my through part of the two towers and gave up. i found it utterly ponderous. but some family prodding gave me renewed vigor. i attacked these books, starting with the introduction. and now i can’t believe that i ever found them boring and difficult to read. i have to admit that the movies gave me that little imagining boost–i finally had enough setting that i could actually picture what tolkein was describing. and i’ve been flying through! i’m nearly finished with return of the king and i am stunned. the characters have so much depth and each scene is so beautifully rendered. (i’m so in love with these books that i’ve even read the songs!)
if you haven’t ever tried to tackle this 1000+ page masterpiece, hesitate no longer. it’s worth it.
Filed under children's lit, classic, fiction, young adult lit | Comment (1)9 days to Christmas
loganberry books is tucked up off the street on the edge of cleveland’s trendy shaker square. i discovered it quite by accident.
i was trying my best to rustle up a copy of the elusive and long out-of-print children’s book pudding is nice when i cyber-stumbled on a used book store that will track down vintage, out-of-print children’s books. i think i jumped up and down and clapped my hands when i realized that this amazing book store is not only in ohio, not only in cleveland, but just a few minutes from my apartment!
for those biblioholic, feminist mothers out there, loganberry books is ambrosia for the heart and soul.
[ps - i’m on an eternal hunt for pudding is nice. let me know if you find a copy.]
give thanks!
thanksgiving day! what a month of delicious reads.
and i haven’t even scratched the surface of my violent and crazy love of books. if you asked, i wouldn’t admit to a favorite book. i wouldn’t want any of my other books to get jealous: for crime and punishment to crawl off its shelf or for death is a lonely business to wait for me by the jar of mayonnaise in my refrigerator. but when it’s dark and the lights are out and i’m by myself i might whisper “you’re my favorite” under the covers to leo lionni’s frederick.
it’s a small story about a tiny mouse. over the summer and fall all the other mice are busy busy busy gathering nuts and seeds and berries to store up for the winter. they think frederick is a nutcase. he sits instead of hurrying from one bush to the next.
fie on him, you might say, he isn’t getting any of my christmas pudding, the lazy lump. but, then when the sun pulls behind the clouds and winter descends, it turns out that frederick was busy gathering something else. he saved words and colors and stories and songs for those long winter months and pulls them out one by one, drawing a hush over all the mice who scolded him.
i won’t argue that the pantry needs filling, but there are needs that go deeper than maslow’s bare bones hierarchy. i think frederick got something right. we are built of something more than food. we come from stories. and words. and memories.
so be thankful, my friends, and store up the harvest around you. remember the single sharp laugh, the taste of friendship, the smell of bathwater, the feel of an afternoon, the texture of puzzles, the silk of pumpkin, the down of hair, the deepness of a voice.
store it up.
give thanks for life by remembering it and passing it on.
Filed under children's lit, life, thankfulness | Comments (2)the funny little woman
here’s to very small women with magic rice paddles!
the magician’s nephew
[thankful for a book-a-day advent to thanksgiving: 6 days left]
of course c.s. lewis’s chronicles of narnia must make this list. these books worked their way so deeply into my imagination that i still check for hidden worlds at the back of wardrobes.
of the series, i found the magician’s nephew the most startling. this is the context for narnia–and though the new-fangled boxed sets have you read this one first, i still prefer it at the end of the series as a delicious, delicious surprise.
[ps - i hope you’ve all started housekeeping by marilynne robinson for our book group, the book trail.]
Filed under children's lit, thankfulness | Comment (0)
