GAME: Bookword Game

Hello, it is still Wednesday and time for the results of the latest Bookword Game. Hold your ears for the cheer you will hear from Korea as our winner is bybee for her suggestion of

Misunderbook for a word for a book that you LOVE, but everyone else (well, almost everyone) HATES.

Well done, bybee! And thanks to everyone who voted.
Our next definition that we need a book word for is:

a book you read after you've seen the movie

I'll take suggestions in the comments, and then we'll vote next week at Sueys
Let's have lots of suggestions this week. Sometimes one idea will trigger another idea in someone else, so all suggestions are welcome.

a book you read after you've seen the movie

BOOK: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, 294 pages

Orange Prize Winner; 1% well read

Very poetic, beautiful language, I enjoyed reading it even if I didn't necessarily know what was going on. It's not really a good sign if you have to check wikipedia or sparknotes after finishing a book to find out what exactly happened. I guess the main idea is about survivors and the guilt they live with. I liked the first section in the story of Jakob but was completely bewildered in the second section. Who was the narrator now?

The orphaned Jakob is taken in by Athos, a paleonbiologist, providing metaphors about unearthing things and looking below layers, and the fact that there can be a whole world buried beneath us that we can't see. They arrive in Canada from Greece each with a past they are trying to deal with.

I couldn't turn my anguish from the precise moment of death. I was focused on that historical split second: the tableau of the haunting trinity - perpetrator, victim, witness.
But at what moment does wood become stone, peat become coal, limestone become marble? The gradual instant.

I wasn't expecting a book about world war two, and I didn't realize that the Germans were in Greece too. Their reach was far and the after effects many, sometimes lasting generations.

But each time a memory or story slinks away, it takes more of me with it.

I'm not a fan of books told in metaphors, but this book is highly honored - Orange Prize Winner of 1997, so for the more literate of you, I recommend. And to be clear, I enjoyed reading the words, even if I didn't really understand the story, and I saw all the references as they floated over my head, I just didn't catch them. And yet, it was compelling and beautiful.

Here's the back cover testimonial:
Sensual, vivid, utterly spellbinding, Fugitive Pieces is a novel about loss, the process of memory, and the redemptive powers of love, which resonates long after the final page.

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

Don't forget to vote for the latest Bookword. I'll have the results of the latest game tomorrow and then we'll take suggestions for a new word during the next week. Try to stop by and throw out a suggestion, the more that play, the better.

We are planning to take the kids to see Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail at out local art theatre this week. The idea of watching with a whole room of people should be fun and the kids are looking forward to it. They love the silliness of the whole movie. Got any good quotes to get me in the mood?

I am back and forth between Toronto and Greece, a Jewish orphan from Poland, trying to piece my life back together, hoping that love will be the cure. (Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels)

Where is reading taking you today? Leave a comment, write a post, spread the word.

BOOK: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, 352 pages

Celebrate the Author; Herding Cats; Dewey Books

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, and her family decide to spend a year eating only food from their area, mostly on the farm they move to. This book is the chronicle of their journey, and was a real family affair - daughter Camille adds recipes and short essays to the end of chapters and husband Steven Hopp adds some more technical and fact-driven sections. I was worried that this book would make me feel guilty for every banana that I eat, or every package of granola bars I buy. And while I certainly will think twice about the food that comes into my house, Kingsolver keeps the story low-key and simply her families journey. She doesn't preach and the book is a gradual awareness of the fuel necessary to bring me watermelon in April and lemons whenever I want them.

I think more people are aware and tend to eat local that live in more rural areas. If I lived in the city, there would be less options for me to get my food, but the rural area I live in, and the suburban lot I live on, provides me with access to local and fresh food. And in some ways, we do eat by the season, when we can. We gorge ourselves on strawberries when they are ripe here, and freeze bags for later in the season. We plant a garden and live on our tomatoes and green beans and peas in the summer. My inlaws plant a sustaining garden, and always have, and provide as many vegetables and apples and raspberries as we, and their neighbours want. So I spent much of the book thinking - I try to do a lot of this, just on a very small scale.

The plight of the local farmer has been a topical issue in my province, and a farmer group has opened up a small store with local products, including a meat market. It's mostly root vegetables this time of year that are local, and they bring in some vegetables, but lots of meat and cheese and dried herbs and beans. I won't be growing turkeys and gathering eggs from chickens anytime soon, but buying most of my meat from these 'neighbour farmers' is the best I'll be able to do in this regard.

Kingsolver and her family tried an extreme situation for a year, and she doesn't advocate that everyone do this. They prepared for several years to be able to live on their land, and it wasn't an impulsive decision. Her point was to see how much they relied on food that had travelled far distances. Awareness and thinking about the food we eat is the first step. Great book, with some neat looking recipes to try.

BOOK: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, 384 pages

the end of the world II; young adult challenge

I was trying to write a little review of this page-turning, young adult dystopian novel, but I got distracted by Survivor because they just voted out Tyson! It was an awesome blindside! Although actually, there are some similarities between Survivor and The Hunger Games - trying to survive until the end, and documented on television. Unfortunately, in the book, it's real survival of young kids, two from each of twelve districts in a futuristic America fighting to the death. It's not pretty when it's described like that, but the story telling is excellent as is the writing, and the main character - Katniss, a young teen who has been keeping her small family alive, is a wonderful narrator. She is not perfect and she makes mistakes but she tries and she is smart. Haymitch, the mentor to the District Twelve candidates, was a particularly fun character.

The only bad part of the book was that is was To Be Continued at the end. I understand that this is a proposed trilogy. The main story finished up nicely as a stand alone book, but there are still relationships to explore and this future world to see. I don't usually find books at the beginning of their run, so it'll be a while until the next one is released, but I'll be looking forward to it.

GAME: Bookword Game

It's almost spring here, all the snow is gone, so let's have a more colorful version of the bookword button. Some suggestions were made at Suey's blog this week for our newest definition:

a word for a book that you LOVE, but everyone else (well, almost everyone)HATES.

Our nominees:
Misunderbook by bybee
Fav-or-not book by raidergirl3
A Fab-u-less book by alyce
A Loved Loner by joy

Now it's time to vote:

poll by twiigs.com

Come by my blog to vote and join in the game. I'll have the results next week and another bookword to name.

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

It was announced yesterday that Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year. I know some readers who quite enjoyed it, so I bopped over to my online library and requested it. I remember waiting in line three months to get The Road at the library, but that may have had as much to do with Oprah picking it for her book club as for winning the Pulitzer. Are you more or less likely to pick a prize winning book to read?

In reading, I just volunteered to join the Hunger Games in a futuristic world. It's a televised survival game meant to keep the colonies down. (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)
I am still harvesting my crop in Appalachia with Barbara Kingsolver as well (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver)

Where is reading taking you today?Leave a comment, write a post, spread the word.

BOOK: Skellig by David Almond

Skellig by David Almond, 182 pages

young adult challenge; herding cats

Slim little book that I first read about in Shakespeare Wrote For Money, by Nick Hornby. Rather mystical, with angels and a mysterious man living in the garage. Michael, feeling left out and worried about his sick baby sister, makes a new friend, Mina, and they have great faith and trust in the creature they find in the garage. Eleven year olds are still young enough to just accept what they see, and yet old enough to deal with grown up issues too.

Not the book for you if you like traditional plots, or stories fully explained at the end, but if you believe in miracles, or have faith in the characters, and are able to just 'be' a part of the story, this one might work for you. My nine year old daughter was intrigued by the owls on the cover and is planning to read it. I'll add her thoughts if she gets through it.

other reviews:
where troubles melt like lemon drops
Valentina’s Room
Working Title

BOOK: Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, 250 pages

young adult challenge

The inside flap has only the following on it:
Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.

Tyler, newly buff after a summer of labor and working off his punishment for his vandalism, is the narrator of this dramatic teen book. He is dealing with high school, his father, his probation, and the attention from the cool girl who noticed his development over the summer.

The atmosphere in the book was dark, and some bad things were happening. Tyler's life is out of control, or at least he feels it is. He was a good kid going through some really tough times, and I felt fear for him, especially after a party got out of hand and accusations were made. There were many bad ways this book could have ended, but Anderson showed how good choices, even in bad situations, can be made. Tyler was a great character, facing situations in school and at home, that many teenagers are dealing with - bullying, fights, suicide, depression, and drinking. It certainly made me glad I wasn't a teenager anymore, but glad that books like this are around for teens to read.

There is a page at the beginning that explicitly states: Note - this is not a book for children. I would agree for this book. Young adult literature spans a big age range, and the younger young adult readers, 12 - 15 year olds, don't necessarily need to be reading the books that the older teens are reading. But the books around older teens eventually get close to the younger ones. This has come to my attention as my 11 year old told me he was reading Twilight at school, brought in by one of the girls in his grade six classroom. Really, he's reading Twilight. I haven't even read it yet.

BOOK: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, 232 pages

Once Upon a Time Challenge; young adult

I won't embarrass myself and admit how long it took me to realize that this was a version of Cinderella. This was a very cute story, with a strong heroine who faces a difficult dilemma - she has been cursed with obedience by a fairy at her birth. There are fairies, ogres, elves, gnomes, all the little and strange people that should be in a fairy tale. And there was a prince charming, who admired Ella's independence, and intelligence, and humor. It seems that most of the rewritten fairy tales I've read have had this trait - the male admires the strong qualities of the female lead, which is so different from the classic fairy tale where the female was just a beautiful person and the male comes along to save her. Bravo for the modern take on this.

I was enchanted with this short tale and finished it quickly, and now I am off to look for the movie, which looks to be excellently cast.

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

After a 4 day weekend, it is nice to get back into a routine, even if it is a bit difficult to get up in the morning. I've never been a morning person, I'd much rather stay up late watching television or reading a good book.

I just moved back to my farm in Appalachia and am planning on changing my family's eating habits completely. (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver)
I am also in a fantasy land where I must obey every order given to me, a terrible spell put on me by a mischievous fairy (Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine)

Where is reading taking you today? Leave a comment, write a post, spread the word.

Don't forget about the Bookword Game, taking place each week here or at Suey's. We are voting this week at Suey's for last week's word, and look for the result and a new definition tomorrow at Suey's . The more that play the better, and we need lots and lots of suggestions. Don't be shy, come by and stretch your brain.

BOOK: A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard

A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard, 240 pages

themed reading challenge: epistolary

Nice mixing up of the gender roles and identities in this novel of letters between Chas and Jock, a long married couple. The recession (the last one, not this one, but how timely!) has forced Chas from his architecture job in Vancouver and his wife, Jock into a legal position on a Royal Commission in Ottawa. So she's got the high powered job and is away from home, and he is dealing with the furnace and the neighbours and the teens at home.

They decide to write letters to stay in contact, along with some phone calls and visits, but their evolving relationship is described by what they say, and what they don't say. It's easy to see how their changing roles and new experiences lead to misunderstandings, but they are helpless to do much about it, living across the country from each other. Lots a great Canadiana, including Winnipeg, the weather, politics in Ottawa, bilingualism, and the Royal Commission on Female Poverty. Lots of great symmetry within the stories and the characters, often they were sending similar letters to each other the same day. I wish I hadn't read the Introduction by Blanche Howard first, as she mentions several key plot points, so if you don't like to know big details, save that for after you finish the book.

Well written novel, with interesting characters and fast moving story. Two Canadian authors - Carol Shields and Blanche Howard, collaborated together which adds to the letter writing between two people aspect. For readers looking for a quick, high interest read for the Dewey Read-a-Thon, you might consider adding this one to your list.

BOOK: Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison,
247 pages

young adult; themed reading: epistolary

Bridget Jones junior
boys, school, friends: being a teen
laugh out loud funny

BOOK: The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg, 192 pages

herding cats challenge; themed reading challenge: epistolary

Nan, turned fifty and began having a noticeable crisis: she was aging and she didn't know what her life amounted to. She gets in her car and goes on a little vacation away from her life and herself. She writes letters home to her husband about what she is doing and what she wishes they could say to each other. She also writes in a diary about her journey.

Nan discusses many of the pivotal points in a woman's life and talks to a variety of women on her travels. As she says, 'women are filled to the brim", and there is so much just busting to get out. She recognizes that in some ways, she is being indulgent. Nothing bad has happened to her in her life and yet she is still unsettled. I can't write unhappy, because Nan herself admits she wouldn't change her life, her husband or anything she has done. But she has this spiritual journey she needs to take to get to the next point in her life.

This was a lovely book, and many people will relate to parts of it. And I should have written 'women' but it bothered me that this book should mostly appeal to women. It's where the label chick lit comes from, right? - for women, about women and 'their' problems. But I just finished De Niro's Game, a book about a man, and war, that was a prize winner (IMPAC Dublin 2008) and suggested as a book that had a meaning for everyone. Why is a book about men and their journey and experience a book for everyone to read, while an equally enjoyable book about women only really thought of as for women? Maybe I'm hypocritical as well though. I read Gilead, an introspective journey about a man and I couldn't identify with it at all. I was thinking about the difference between men and women and the books they read and write after this discussion at library thing about the maleness of the nominees for the IMPAC Dublin 2009 shortlist. Then reading these two books in a row (De Niro's Game and The Pull of the Moon) really highlighted this disparity. I don't have any answers yet, just the observations. I'm just glad I can read and appreciate both.

BOOK: DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage

DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage, 273 pages

Orbis Terrarum: Lebanon; IMPAC Dublin Prize, 2008

I shouldn't have liked this book, but I couldn't help myself. Set in Beirut during the civil war of the 1980s, the main character Bassan and his friend George are teenagers, trying to be big men in the neighbourhood. They carry guns and try to intimidate people, they carry out petty crimes - petty during a war situation is all relative though, and try to take advantage of the fighting rather than getting involved. Lots of testosterone which doesn't usually appeal to me. But the descriptions and the writing kept me hooked, as well as the ability of the author to make me care for the main character.

I pulled out my gun and shot at the hills, and at the birds, and the echoes of my shots bounced on stones, and lamented and boomeranged treacherous syllables back to me. p 134

Like that. While I usually don't like paragraph long sentences, I found myself rereading long passages to appreciate the similies and images Hage brought together. And while some sentences felt like a lesson on how to write different similies for the same situation, I liked how he was able to go in a full circle with his metaphors descriptions and lull me along.

Ten thousand bombs had landed, and I was waiting for George. first line

George and Bassan are like brothers, but gradually the situation pulls them apart. George goes to work for the militia, fighting, and gets more involved in the war. George's nickname is De Niro, after Robert DeNiro, and the title of the book comes from the scene in The Deer Hunter where the soldiers play Russian Roulette with a bullet. That's what made me so sad/angry about the war: that boys grow up and playing this game is no more dangerous to them than walking down the street, and the outcome is just as random.

War and the effects are the main theme. Bassan can't stay in Lebanon. His family is gone and if he stays, he will have to fight. How he has learned to live to survive makes it too hard to live any where else. The effect on one person of living in a war zone is shown and it made me very sad. This book won the IMPAC Dublin prize in 2008 and I can see why, as in a quiet beautiful way, one person's story is told within the larger context of war. There is lots of violence and sex and drugs, since the story is about young men and war, but the writing is so beautiful against this horrific backdrop, that this contrast becomes a part of the story.

Bombs fell, warriors fought, people ate, and the garbage piled up on the corners of our streets. Cats and Dogs were feasting and getting fatter. The rich were leaving or France and letting their dogs roam loose on the streets: orphan dogs, expensive dogs, potty-trained dogs, dogs with French names and red bowties, fluffy dogs, well-bred dogs, china dogs, genetically modified dogs, and incestuous dogs that clung to one another in packs, covered the streets in tens, and gathered under the command of a charismatic three-legged mutt. The most expensive pack of wild dogs roamed Beirut and the earth, and howled to the big moon, and ate from mountains of garbage on the corners of our streets. p. 31

BLOGGING EVENT: Midweek Morsels

Kristina wants to know what recipes remind you of spring for Midweek Morsels. That's easy: rhubarb! The garden right now is better called Lake Garden, so the rhubarb isn't peeking up yet, but soon. And then I'll be getting out my rhubarb recipes - salad dressings, slushes, muffins, pies and squares. I've got so many good rhubarb recipes, I don't know where to begin. Rhubarb is so tart, it has to be tempered by lots of sugar, hence the yummy recipes. These squares taste like Rhubarb Cream Pie, but without the pastry.

Rhubarb Squares
base
2 C flour
3/4 C icing sugar
1 C margarine

Blend together with a pastry knife, press into a 9 X 13 rectangular pan. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Cool.

4 C diced rhubarb
Layer on the cooled base.

filling
4 eggs, beaten
2 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix well together and pour over the rhubarb and base. Bake 20 - 25 minutes at 350 F or until rhubarb is cooked.

WEEKLY GEEKS: Be a kid!

April 2nd was International Children's Book Day, so the suggestions was to :
Option A: Be a kid!

You could read a picture book (or two or three) and share what you read.
Write up a post sharing your favorite books from childhood
Write up a post about reading together with your child(ren) I just did that!



Hooray for Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold

Any fans of Huggly out there? The little monster that lives under the beds of people and periodically venture into our world and are baffled by our everyday items: snow, hotels, camping, to name the few from the books we have. The stories are simple, but our kids have loved them.

Arnold has written a new series of books starring Fly Guy and they are adorable. We picked one up at the school book fair tonight, and I'm sending some money to pick up another one tomorrow. They are published in the same style and hard cover binding as Dr Seuss books, and while the writing is pretty easy, they are divided into small Chapters, which is so perfect for beginning readers who don't want to read baby books and really aren't ready for chapter books. The Fly Guy character is particularly popular at our house because the youngest is a huge fan of Shy Guys from Mario Kart - she even went as a Shy Guy for Halloween.

The illustrations will be familiar to Huggly fans with the big eyes. We've already had a comparison of pictures in our author study. The story was cute and humorous and I am officially a fan. It's so much fun to find a new series of books that kids like to listen to (or read) and parents can enjoy too.

BOOK: Dear Mr Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

Dear Mr Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, 136 pages

themed reading challenge; Newbery Winner 1984

A lonely little boy, new at a school after his parent's divorce, begins to write letters to his favorite author. The author writes back and encourages the boy to write, and keep a journal. Through his writing, Leigh works through his problems - the divorce, his anger at his father, making friends, and finding who is stealing from his lunch. It never goes too deep into Leigh's life, but it shows how perspective can change you view, and gives a nice progression of Leigh's development.

My 9 year old daughter read the book after I strategically left it lying around. When she finished, I asked her opinion:

It was, wait, did you read it already? yes. OK, well the ending was sad. why? When his dad came back and then left again and called him Leigh and he didn't tell him to keep his nose clean. Was he still mad at his dad? No, it was happy-sad ending. And they found the dog, but he knew the dog would keep his dad company. It was okay.

now Rachel saw me writing her words out and is about to take over the keyboard:

And Leigh had a diary to pretend he was writing to Mr Henshaw.
I thought the person they were going to have lunch with would be Mr Henshaw and I didn't know that the girl copied the poems out of a different book or Leigh would get to have lunch with Mrs Badger. by Rachel make sure you say that was by Rachel



Beverly Cleary was born April 12, 1916 and the author of the Ramona books and all her friends. Over the years, many Beverly Cleary books have been read by myself and now my children.
Our family book club: RAchel, MOm and NAna have named our book club the Ramona book club.

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

We are having so much fun with our new Wii Fit that we finally found. As each person finds the games they like, they unlock new areas. I like the step class and the tilt table and am beginning to like the Yoga quite a bit too. Daughter likes running around the island and boxing, son is amazing at balance games and skiing - slalom and jumping. For me, it's good to start getting moving again and now that the snow is just about melted here, getting moving outside will hopefully become more of an option.

In reading, I am in Lebanon during the civil war and it is a dangerous place, partly because there are so many boys running around playing war with the grownups that you never know who will be a potential killer. War books are so sad at how they destroy the lives of the citizens just trying to make a living and get their supper ready. (DeNiro's Game, Rawi Hage)

Where is reading taking you today? Leave a comment, make a post, spread the word.

BOOK: Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Specials by Scott Westerfeld, 372 pages

It's the End of the World; third in a series; young adult challenge

Tally and Shay and Zane are all back living in New Pretty Town and being rebellious. The story is a continuation of the Uglies and Pretties books, and shouldn't be read out of order. It completes the story of the future, where beauty is desired and the population must be controlled so they don't ruin the world again like the Rusties did several hundred years ago. Nothing new here, just more awareness for Tally of her actions and how her world is run. The population is gradually breaking away from the rules imposed on them, since as in all good dystopian books, while everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. This eventually causes problems.

This series has been enjoyable and I'd compare it to cotton candy: easy and light, enjoyable, but nothing too deep. Fun while you read it, especially all the neat future gadgets, but gone quickly.

BLOGGING EVENT: Midweek Morsels

hosted by Kristina at Kristina's Favorites
I made these for my kids a few weeks ago, and, even though they weren't chocolate chip cookies, they thought that they tasted good. Very high praise, because when I said I was making cookies, they only wanted Chocolate Chip Cookies. We make very good chocolate chip cookies here, and maybe someday I'll share that recipe with you all. For now, these are pretty good substitutes.

Butterscotch Almond Cookies

1 C butterscotch chips
1/2 C butter (margarine) softened
2/3 C brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 C crushed corn flakes cereal, slightly crushed
1/4 C almonds, slivered

Melt about 1/2 the butterscotch chips in a small saucepan on low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Combine butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl and beat until well blended. (I never use a mixer for cookies, but you could) Stir in melted chips until thoroughly combined.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt to creamed mixture. Mix well. Stir in remaining butterscotch chips, corn flakes, and almonds. Shape into balls (or be lazy and drop by rounded spoonfuls) Place on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten slightly with fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 375 F for 8 - 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from sheets while warm and cool on wire racks.

GAME: Bookword Game

Results from last week's poll: a book that continually gets moved to the 'next in the pile', but never gets read?
With 33 % of the vote: Wait-listed, as suggested by Serena. Well done, Serena. Does everyone have a wait-listed book? Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth has been my wait-listed book so far in 2009. Soon, soon.

On to the next game:
Have you ever found a book at the used book store and it's one you've heard of, for me it was Oliver Twist, and the book looks pretty short? Score! You pick it up for $0.75 and excitedly pick it up to read when you get home. Suddenly, your arms are too short, it takes two days to read the first chapter, and you can't figure out why it is so hard to read. Oh, yeah -

a book with very little space between lines (likely, it's a public domain book/classic) giving deceivingly few pages to read

What shall we call this margin missing book? Leave your suggestions in the comments and then next week we'll vote at Sueys.