Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Touch Blue
Monday, August 30, 2010
With Friends Like These
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday Salon
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday Finds
I tried to do a better job this week of keeping track of things I had read on different blogs, instead of trying to remember them after days had passed.
1. Once again I must be in the mood for cookies. This great recipe was posted a while ago on Coffee Tale Reviews. Since I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate together this one looked awesome to me. I tried making it on Thursday night and absolutely love them. I sent some to school for my girls to give to their teachers, and then froze the rest so I don't gobble them all up right away.
2. I always find myself checking the Indie Bound website. Now the Autumn 2010 Kids selections are posted and my wish list is growing longer.
3. The Reading Ape has written a post about The Textually Diseased. The comments people have made make me laugh out loud - and know I am not alone in my book obsession.
4. Ti at Book Chatter writes about her poor planning on the day Mockingjay was released. Looking at the picture of Mockingjay loaded on her Kindle made my day. I was lamenting not having pre-ordered the book myself, never even thinking of just having it delivered to my Kindle!
5. Travis at 100 Scope Notes posts a video clip of Beverly Cleary talking about Beezus and Ramona. I love the Quimbys!
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Water Seeker
Blogger Hop!
This week's question:
Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?
This is something I have thought a lot about and have considered it several times. However, the teacher in me sees attaching a number/grade to anything as rather subjective. What makes a book 3 stars instead of 2.5? Or 4 instead of 5? I still like seeing how others rate books, but it doesn't seem like there is any real way that the points awarded can be justified - it's just based on your own feelings about a book. With reading for pleasure that is fine, but I recall the one time I filled out report cards for my first grade class (before I was a teacher librarian I spent seven years in the classroom). I ended up re-doing one of the report cards because I couldn't find it even though I had filled it out. Eventually it resurfaced and I had the two report cards to compare. While many of the "grades" (in first grade there are no letter grades, just E, S, N and I) were the same, there were some that were different. It made me realize how arbitrary grades like this can be. Much like rating a book. Part of it depends on your mood, the time you had to think about it before writing a review, if you were in a rush, if it is about a topic you are interested in, etc. There are certainly books that I didn't love, but that I knew were very well written, or that I thought about a lot after finishing and grew to appreciate more and more as time went on. The point value I give a book may or may not influence someone else to read a book or not, and I would just rather give my thoughts on what I think are a book's strengths/weaknesses than attach an arbitrary number to it. I also think that as a person who reads many, many reviews on books, I don't usually pick books that are awful. By the time I have done some research about a book I generally have some idea about this book and whether or not I will like it. I don't read many books that I would attach a "1" or "2" rating to - those books would probably be ones I abandon long before I finish them.
Who knows? Someday I may rethink my feelings on rating books, and I do look at other bloggers ratings, but right now I won't be jumping on starting a rating system on my blog.
Check back later today! I still need to link some of the new blogs I have found via the Hop and add them to my blog roll. I will also be writing a review of The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt later tonight- a book I started this summer and couldn't really get into, and then started again yesterday and just can't put down. Not sure what changed for me in that time, but I am loving this one!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Dog in the Wood
Yet another extremely interesting young adult historical fiction account of a population affected by World War II. An amazing story of survival and resilience.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Waiting on Wednesday
The Bear Makers
Teaser Tuesday
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Monday, August 23, 2010
A Fierce Radiance
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Same Kind of Different As Me
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday Five -on Saturday
I had such good intentions of participating in the Friday Five hosted by Kate at Kate's Library, but with school starting, working at the library on Saturday, and doing a last minute shopping trip to buy a birthday present for a party my oldest daughter was invited to today, I ran out of time. My other excuse is my own fault: lack of organization. I see and read a lot of great posts during the week, and will bookmark them if I remember to, or will write down the URL on a random piece of paper. When Friday rolls around and I want to share these great finds, I can't find them again! ARGH!
Here are some of the great things I've come across this past week:
1. As a librarian, I enjoyed reading the Huffington Post article sharing eleven famous librarians from movies. After looking through the list, I realize how very out of touch I am in this department. I rarely watch movies unless it is with my kids.
2.Here I have been trying to eliminate sugar from my diet - some days I do better than others- and have run across a yummy looking cookie recipe. Breakfast Cookies look like something my daughters and I would love to try out!
3. This is a fun game to play- at least for book lovers! See how many titles you can name by seeing a portion of the cover.
4. This article in the New York Times addresses how e-readers have once again made reading cool.
5. I'll be starting my library classes on Monday, and while the first few visits will be taken up with learning rules and routines, I have been looking ahead to find some new things to try. I am planning on reading The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Anglebergerto my fifth graders, and found this great website about the book.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Book Blog Hop
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The First Day of School
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Waiting on Wednesday
Monday, August 16, 2010
Neighborhood Watch
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday Salon - Our Last Hurrah!
Sea Escape
Friday, August 13, 2010
Amazing Faces
Book Blogger Hop
Thursday, August 12, 2010
My Life With the Lincolns
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Waiting on Wednesday
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Sunday Salon
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
I wavered between fascination and disgust, and also between finding ways I am like a hoarder, and then ways where I certainly could tell that my idea of clutter was nowhere close to that of the cases presented. I could also recognize some behaviors in others that was documented in this book, yet I cannot say those people are true hoarders. It seems the difference is that hoarders are unable to lead a normal life because their things get in their way.
Father of the Rain
Beginning during Nixon's presidency, this novel spans several decades, ending with Obama's election, and following the life of Daley and her relationship with her father. At the novel's beginning, Daley is eleven years old and her mother is leaving her father. Her mother asks Daley to go away with her for the summer, and despite Daley picking out a puppy with her father just days before, she does not tell her father of her mother's plan for them. The two leave, and when they return, her mother has rented an apartment in town. Thus begins a very complicated relationship with her father. Perhaps Gardiner felt rejected by his daughter or betrayed. His feelings are never fully revealed, as the story centers around Daley. However her father may have felt, his outright rejection of his daughter upon her return is evident. Already by summer's end he has found a woman to replace her mother, whose daughter has already moved in to Daley's bedroom.
Friday, August 6, 2010
New To Me
Book Blog Hop
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Backseat Saints
"I'd thought Clarice's smile was both too dim and friendly and too wide and white, so that she looked to me like the love child of a cannibal and a Labrador retriever (157)."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Waiting on Wednesday
April 12, 2011