work, life, spinning plates
blog plate getting wobblier
will get to it soon

picture borrowed from diggingalot.org

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

I’ll be ordering this for our middle school library. I really liked the main character, Lucy, and her very supportive foster parents and friend. I spent three straight hours finishing this book because I HAD to see if they could do the three impossible tasks to break the ancient curse placed on Lucy’s family. Interesting tie-in with Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair”… Did y’all know it was based on an old Scottish ballad called “The Elfin Knight”?

The story contains some topics that aren’t typically included in middle school fiction (spoiler alert:  a teenage pregnancy resulting from date rape by a possessed young man who then is involved in a fatal car accident) but it’s not as bad as it sounds.  The details are limited and these unsavory events are actually germane to the plot.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I think I like book series almost as much as my students.  I bought this sequel to Hunger Games the day it came out and finished it in four days.  I was worried that this second book might not live up to my anticipation but it was actually better than I expected.  My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending was just cruel.  How many days until the third book comes out???

I do think it’s interesting that Katniss, the main character, remains torn between two incredibly great guys, as she was in the first book.  Although her two romantic interests are very different from each other, they are both devoted to her.  Does this sound familiar?  I’m looking forward to introducing my library’s Twilight fans to this great series.  I know they’ll love it!

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

This is a strange story about a young teenage boy, Todd, who was born on a recently settled planet where all of the men’s and animals’ thoughts are audible (ugh).  The women of the settlement did not survive long, so only men remain.  Todd’s guardians, determined to save him from an upcoming manhood ritual, force Todd (and his dog) to run away.  Todd’s escape and his discovery of a girl in hiding with the whole town in hot pursuit results in a gripping, gut-wrenching read.

I’m not sure what else to say about this one… I picked it up because, after enjoying those last two books, I was looking for another fantasy/science fiction type YA series that I might could order for our collection.  I almost immediately realized that this was not the type book I could put in our middle school collection.  I didn’t particularly like the story or the fact that it was full of profanity and near-profanity but at the same time I couldn’t put it down…  …I just had to find out what happened to the characters.  It was sad, tragic, and occasionally disturbing.  I may change my mind later, once the story fades a little, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of this series…  (LOVED the dog, though.)

Keep reading and keep learning!

September 19th is, ye guessed it, International Talk Like A Pirate Day!  I wasn’t plannin’ t’blog about it, but those swashbucklin’ buccaneers o’er at Libr-ARR!-yThing made me bring a spring upon me cable.  Blimey!  Come around and go smartly, matee!  Go check out LibraryThing in pirate-speak.  If ye miss it, t’is shown below.  T’is handsomely done! Arrrrrr!

Shiver me timbers,  me pirate name is Calico Anne!

Stay yer course, heartie!  Keep readin’ and keep learnin’!

Check out my life story… …so far, anyway.

Keep reading and keep learning!

I don’t know if I mentioned that I finally got an iPhone. The 11 month wait was worth it. I’m addicted. I was a little disappointed, though, when I tried to include a picture in a text and found that I couldn’t. The phone was willing but AT&T wasn’t able. That’s evidently going to change on September 25th. Hurray! I read about this on the Read Write Web blog.

Download

Download

Techno Tuesday (Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts…) – a blog about integrating technology into classrooms and libraries.  Cathy Nelson has been a school library media specialist for more than 20 years and is well respected in the blogging community.

Dorman High School Blog – Cathy Nelson’s high school library blog.  A wonderful example of a school library blog.

A Library By Any Other Name – a varied collection of timely resources by Vaughn Branom, a public school librarian and a self-described “digital immigrant”.  I especially like that each post is assigned its appropriate Dewey Decimal number.  Fun!

Hey Jude – Judy O’Connell is an educator and library professional interested in the latest technology and how it can be used to advance our students’ education.  Great perspective.

The Shifted Librarian – is written by Jenny Levine, the Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide at the American Library Association.  This blog focuses on the “shift” of libraries to meet a new generation’s information expectations.  This is heady stuff.

Likely Stories and Bookends (both are Booklist blogs) – great resources for information about books and publishing.

Please comment and let me know your favorites!

Keep reading and keep learning… …and keep sharing.

How We Decide by Jonas Lehrer

I try not to buy books on impulse (unless I’m on vacation).  I first heard about this book on NPR and thought it sounded really interesting but talked myself out of it.  (We really can’t read EVERYTHING, now can we?)  But then I picked the book up when my daughter had to read another Jonas Lehrer book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist.  I can resist one book purchase impulse but not two.

Mr. Lehrer manages to make the inner workings of the human brain as it analyzes data and makes decisions quite relevant and humorous.  He uses examples from sports, television production, world series poker, and more mundane daily tasks to show how we use rational analyses and emotional instincts to make decisions.  When should you gather and study data to make a decision and when should you “trust your gut”?  The results of Mr. Lehrer’s research may surprise you!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

As you might guess, I read this book because the movie is coming out in a couple of weeks.  I might have skipped it but a good friend mentioned that she wanted to name her son “Henry” after the main character.  She didn’t, but it’s awfully hard to pass up a book that would inspire that level of affection.

I did enjoy the book.  Here’s the problem, though… I’m fairly certain that I will be disappointed in the movie because I liked the book so much.  This raises a question that has plagued those of us who love both books AND movies.  Is it better to read a book before seeing the corresponding movie or see the movie first, then read the book?  Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

This was a vacation impulse book purchase.  It was recommended by the book store staff and has won a number of awards in France.  I guess I should mention that I didn’t read it in its original French but an English translation.  (Ha!  I’m not sure why I felt I needed to mention that.)  I also should probably mention that I didn’t understand half of it… even in English.  It’s full of philosophical references that went right over my head.  I tried to use context clues so I wouldn’t have to stop reading to look things up and, for the most part, that worked.  It was worth the effort.  The story is written, alternately, by a fifty-something concierge and a twelve-year-old troubled genius who lives in her building.  Both feel isolated and nearly invisible to others in the building but each tells her story with wit and a keen sense of the beauty and irony around her.  I just finished it tonight and I feel smarter…

Keep reading and keep learning!