It's Monday 6/17! What Are You Reading?

Ah...I love the peace and quiet of Monday mornings, after the hectic weekend! I am out on the deck right now with my laptop, and all I can hear are birds. A little bunny just hopped through the backyard, enjoying a buffet breakfast on our lawn!

My older son just left for his college class, and my younger son is still asleep, so all is quiet for the moment. We had a nice family weekend together. And we read a lot last week:

• I finished Book Two in the middle-grade series Infinity Ring, Divide and Conquer by Carrie Ryan. I am really enjoying this fast-paced middle-grade time travel series.
• Now I am reading The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh for my neighborhood book group this week. Despite all the rave reviews, I wasn't sure I'd like it just because the topic didn't sound interesting to me, but it is a wonderful novel. I have been reading much too late every night!
• I started a new audio book, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. I don't usually have much time for audio books during the summer because I'm never alone, but I put this one on my iPod and have been listening to it a lot (while walking, cooking, weeding, etc.) I'm completely hooked on this novel, too!
• My husband, Ken, set aside Gone for Good by Harlen Coben (saving that small paperback for an upcoming trip) when The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson came back in at the library for us. Now, he can finish it.
• My 18-year old son, Jamie, is having a blast finally having some time for pleasure reading! He flew through several books last week on his Kindle. He is on a Medieval kick at the moment. First, he read A Quest of Heroes, Book One in the Sorcerer's Ring series by Morgan Rice, and enjoyed it very much.
• Next, he read A Circle of Iron by Greg Benage (Eldernost, Book 1), a free e-book he downloaded last winter (he loves the idea of free books!), and he liked that, too.
• And now, he is reading another Medieval e-book, ALTDORF, a Historical Novel of Switzerland, by J.K. Swift (The Forest Knights, Book 1) - looks like kind of a Robin Hood type story.
• Craig, 15, is recovering from knee surgery and playing Xbox games all day long! He does have some required summer reading, but for now, he is just enjoying no stress and no responsibilities. He's actually feeling pretty good (other than knee pain) and recovering more quickly than we'd anticipated.

Being home all last week taking care of my son gave me plenty of time for blogging (for a change!). I wrote the following posts:

Review of Blue Asylum, a unique historical novel by Kathy Hepinstall.

Review of Infinity Ring, Books 1 and 2, a middle-grade time travel series by multiple authors.

Books Read in May monthly summary.

Weekend Cooking post - CSA season has begun!

Young Book Bloggers, including a fun article from BEA, plus links to the highlighted blogs.

 Don't forget, it's only mid-June, so there is still plenty of time to sign up for the Big Book Summer Challenge! It's super-easy and relaxed, as summer should be, and you only need to read one book of 400 pages or more to participate. So, join the fun!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)    

Weekend Cooking 6/16

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

Not a lot of time today for blogs, since it is Father's Day, but I haven't written a Weekend Cooking post in a couple of weeks and wanted to share my joy in the change of seasons. Specifically, it is now officially CSA season! That's Community Supported Agriculture, a wonderful program available all over the country (and maybe overseas, too?) where you buy a share of a local farm. Then, each week during the season, you stop by to pick up your share of that week's fabulous harvest. Our local CSA is an organic farm run by the local nature center, and you just can't beat those just-picked, super-fresh, organic veggies!

This was our second CSA week of the season - the shares are relatively small so far (we only get a half share) and heavy on leafy greens, which I love but my kids aren't thrilled about! My cooking style changes when it's CSA season. Instead of planning meals around the grocery store's weekly specials, I see what's in our CSA pick-up on Tuesday and then look for recipes to use the yummy fresh produce. This week, we got snow peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, spring onions, radishes, sorrel (still trying to figure out what to do with that one!), and even a few ripe strawberries. The fruit is a new addition.

So, with my non-green loving teens in mind, here are a few of our dinners from this week (I'm no fool - I sauteed the kale and ate it for lunch by myself one day!):

We had the snow peas (plus some from last week) alongside Pork Piccata and Whole Wheat Noodles. My whole family loves Chicken Piccata, but I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer, so I used this recipe with pork - it was delicious!

Lettuce is always a challenge because my kids are just not big salad eaters. I made another Cooking Light recipe, Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette, which was a hit last summer. Of course, my sons still complained when they saw we were having salad as a main course, but even they had to admit this was good. Or in their words, "Well, if you have to eat salad, then this one isn't that bad." Believe me, that's high praise!

To make it up to them, I made one of their favorite meals the next night, Penne with White Beans, Sausage, and Spinach. This is one of my own creations - pretty much exactly how it sounds, a very simple dish with a base of sauteed onion, bell pepper, and spinach, with diced tomatoes added along with the whole wheat penne, beans and some sliced Trader Joe's sun-dried tomato chicken sausage. This is one of the few dishes with spinach in it that they actually love!

Tomorrow night, I will attempt to hide more spinach in an easy frittata, with shredded potato, pancetta, and spring onions along with finely chopped spinach. Wish me luck!

Hope you are enjoying your food and cooking this week!

Snapshot Saturday 6/15

Mid-June already - wow. But there is still plenty of time to sign up for my annual Big Book Summer Challenge! It's an easy-going challenge - you only need to read at least one book 400 pages or longer by September to participate. So, check it out and join in the fun!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I am normally terrible with houseplants. I have a couple of hardy ones that have survived for years but most die of neglect. For Mother's Day this year, my mom gave me this gorgeous pot of orchids. Why give someone with a black thumb such fragile and delicate flowers? She says these are fool-proof! You "water" them by putting 3 ice cubes on the soil once a week. Even I can handle that! So far, so good. They still look beautiful, and I've had them for a month now!

My gorgeous "Ice Cube Orchids"

 Hope you are enjoying this beautiful weekend!

Fiction Review: Blue Asylum

 I belong to two book groups, but I also try to join in on book discussions at my local library when I have the time. This month’s pick was Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall, and since it was a short book, I decided to read it. I’m so glad I did! I’d never heard of the book or the author before, but the story was engaging and set against a fascinating historical setting.

During the Civil War, a young woman named Iris is convicted of insanity and sent to a mental institute on Sanibel Island, off the Gulf coast of Florida. Her crimes? Disobeying her cruel husband and having compassion for their slaves. The full story of the events that led to Iris’ committal is slowly revealed as the novel proceeds.

The doctor who runs the asylum has good intentions and fully believes that he is helping the patients there, but his ideas about insanity, treatment, and recovery align with those that were common at that time, as he explains to Iris:

“Do you know the definition of insanity? …It is a state of mind in which an excess of feeling – a hysteria if you will – causes a man or woman to fall out of step with their roles, their purpose, because without that purpose all of s are diminished. Sanity is the degree by which you serve your society, your community, and your household. I am of the opinion that with the right medicines, structure, counsel, and guidance, one can arrive upon, eventually, a cure. And a cure, in every sense, both is proved by and results in a reintegration.”

By that definition, I think that most modern women would be considered insane!

Against this backdrop, the novel follows Iris and her fellow patients as the doctor tries to “cure” them. Some of the patients clearly have serious mental illnesses, some have odd problems that serve to lighten the mood of the story, and some are soldiers suffering from what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. One of the latter (and more serious) is Ambrose Weller, whose story – like Iris’ – slowly comes to light as the novel evolves. Iris and Ambrose become friends, playing checkers together and sharing happy childhood memories as they slowly get to know each other and gradually become more comfortable sharing more recent (and more frightening) details of their lives with each other.

Besides the patients, other characters include the employees of the asylum – some kind and some cruel – and the doctor’s wife and young son, Wendell, who are almost as much prisoners on the island as the inmates. Wendell is an especially endearing character in the novel, as he yearns for his father’s attention, worries about his own boyish sins, and develops a bit of a crush on Iris.

This was a great book for discussion, with so many interesting facets to talk about: the historical background of the Civil War and the treatment of slaves, Iris’ and Ambrose’s slowly developing relationship and their individual nightmares of horrifying experiences, the doctor’s own problems with patients and his family, and the fascinating (though appalling) perspectives of that time with respect to women, their roles, and insanity. In addition, the island itself is more than just setting – it is like a living, breathing entity defined by wildness and isolation. All in all, everyone in our book discussion thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel and was intrigued by the questions and situations it presented.

270 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

 

Books Read in May

May was a lovely but hectic month here. I read fewer books than usual but included a couple of long (and very good) novels. Here's what I read in May:

• The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson, a middle-grade adventure novel (Vermont)
• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, which recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (North Korea)
• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, a middle-grade audio book (Georgia I think)

• American Pastoral by Philip Roth, a classic American novel (New Jersey)
• Tommysaurus Rex, a middle-grade graphic novel (location not specified)

So, it was an all-fiction month - two adult novels and three middle-grade reads, one on audio. My favorite of the month - and maybe of the year so far! - was The Orphan Master's Son, a gripping, fascinating novel set in North Korea.

2013 Reading Challenges Update:

I added 3 new states and one country to my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge - making good progress there!  I read just one book off my TBR shelf (The Game of Sunken Places) for the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge- lots of library and review books last month. I added one more audio book to my 2013 Audio Book Challenge, bringing me up to 4 for the year so far. And, finally, I added one more book (American Pastoral) to my Those Books I Should Have Read 2013 Challenge because I've been meaning to read a Roth novel for ages.

What was your favorite book read in May?

It's Monday 6/10! What Are You Reading?

I'm running late today - actually, just running around like crazy! My 15-year old son had knee surgery on Friday and can't move around much by himself yet, so my days are filled with fetching food, lifting his leg, helping him to the bathroom and back, bringing extra pillows, etc. Poor kid is in a lot of pain, but the good news is that he will have a shorter recovery time than first anticipated because the surgeon was able to use a simpler procedure than he'd originally planned. So, that's all good, but these first couple of weeks are the toughest.

Thank goodness for books and their ability to carry us away to distance places and times!

• I finished Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall for my library's discussion group this week. It was interesting and engaging - about a woman during the Civil War who is committed to a mental institute on Sanibel Island. Her crimes were basically disobeying her husband and being compassionate toward the slaves on their plantation. I'm looking forward to the discussion - that's my treat to myself this week!
• I also finished listening to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne on audio. I loved it - it is an amazing, heart-breaking story of friendship during the Holocaust. I haven't started a new audio yet because I have no time to myself for the foreseeable future! I will have to download one onto my iPod.
• With the sleep deprivation and stress this weekend, I was looking for a quick, gripping read, and Book One of The Infinity Ring, A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner, fit the bill perfectly. A middle-grade book with under 200 pages, it quickly grabbed my attention. Besides, it's a time travel plot which is my favorite theme! I should be starting my next book group pick now, but I think I will squeeze in Book Two of The Infinity Ring first.
• My husband, Ken, got about a quarter of the way through The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (which I recommended), and we had to return it to the library. Looks like word finally caught on about how amazing this recent Pulitzer Prize winner is! I've requested it for him again so he can finish it.
• In the meantime, Ken finished The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, another novel I recommended to him. I'm not sure he loved it as much as I did, but he did find the premise intriguing (the earth's rotation slows down, causing longer and longer days and nights).
• Being in the same exhausted, stressed state of mind as me, Ken chose a fast-paced suspense novel next, Gone for Good by Harlan Coben.
• Jamie, 18, spent the weekend with friends at the beach, so he didn't read much last week. He is still reading The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller.
• Craig, 15, is done with school and on heavy painkillers right now, so he is spending his time watching TV and playing video games!

Not a lot of time for blogging last week, but I managed a few posts:

My Top Ten Travel-Related Books

Top Ten Travel-Related Books for Kids/Teens/YA

Review of American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Review of Tommysaurus Rex, a graphic novel by Doug TenNapel
(my reviews were written while waiting in the hospital, so I don't know how coherent they are!)

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)    

Fiction Review: American Pastoral

I have wanted to read a Philip Roth novel for years – after all, he is known as one of the great American authors of modern times – so I was glad when my book group chose American Pastoral for our selection last month. It took me a while to finish this Pulitzer Prize winner because Roth’s prose is so dense and full, but I enjoyed it overall. Not everyone in our book group agreed, though – this novel inspired one of our widest ranges of reactions ever!

Seymour “the Swede” Levov is the All-American boy who grows up and seems to have the perfect life. A triple sports hero in his high school, the Swede goes on to serve in the Marines, then returns to his New Jersey hometown to take over the family business (glove manufacturing) from his father and marry the former Miss New Jersey of 1959. From the point of view of his brother’s best friend, Nathan, who meets him for dinner 40 years after high school, the Swede is still the sports hero of old, living the perfect all-American life. But appearances can be deceiving.

The novel begins from Nathan’s outside perspective, reminiscing about his high school years and the Swede’s glory days. The rest of the book is a story within a story, as Nathan (who is an author) tries to piece together his best guess as to what the Swede’s life was really like, from the Swede’s own point of view, after he learns some startling facts from the Swede’s brother at their 45^th high school reunion.

American Pastoral is all about the challenges inherent in every person’s life, behind the scenes. It’s about the differences between how the world perceives you and your life and what is really true, as Nathan explains here, after meeting the Swede for dinner:

“You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and steel plating half a foot thick; you come at them unmenacingly on your own ten toes instead of tearing up the turf with your caterpillar treads, take them on with an open mind, as equals, man to man, as we used to say, and yet you never fail to get them wrong. You might as well have the brain of a tank. You get them wrong before you meet them, while you’re anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you’re with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again. Since the same generally goes for them with you, the whole thing is really a dazzling illusion empty of all perception, an astonishing farce of misperception.”

From this passage, you can see some of that dense prose I was talking about (this is only half of the paragraph!) but also some of the thought-provoking philosophical musings Roth provides through Nathan. Behind the façade of his perfect life, the Swede deals with some horrifying events, things related to children, politics, marriage, and war. We see his perfect life fall apart and know that he somehow tries to put it together again.

The people in my book group who didn’t like the book (or didn’t finish it) were mostly put off by the dense prose and lengthy descriptions. While I’m not a fan of page-long paragraphs – which are common in this novel – I found that the effort of reading and thinking about this in-depth story were worthwhile, as I found its themes thought-provoking and universal. The story certainly resulted in some good discussions in our group. It’s a novel about the minutiae of family life and the cultural and political revolutions of the 1960’s and 1970’s, about love and war, about real life, with all of its ups and downs.

423 pages, Houghton Mifflin

 

Top Ten Travel-Related Books

It's Tuesday and that means it's Top Ten Day over at The Broke and the Bookish. I haven't had much time for participating in Top Ten Tuesday lately, but I just had to jump in on this one because I love to travel and I love books that are about traveling. We usually take a long road trip each summer, and I absolutely love to read a book about a road trip while we are traveling.

So, here are My Top Ten Books with Travel Themes:

• Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo, one of my all-time favorite road trip novels.
• Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen - we used to live in NOLA, and it's one of my favorite places...and the food is amazing!
• Roastbeef's Promise by David Jerome - a light and humorous novel about a man who travels to all 48 contiguous states to scatter his father's ashes.
• Blood, Bones, and Butter: the Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton, a memoir that includes some incredible scenes set in the countryside of Italy.
• Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée, another food memoir that takes place mainly in New Orleans (see above!) and France.
• 12,000 Miles in the Nick of Time: A Semi-Dysfunctional Family Circumnavigates the Globe by Mark Jacobson, a memoir about traveling around the world with two teens and one pre-teen - makes me want to pack my bags!
• All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India by Rachel Manija Brown, about a girl who grows up on an Indian ashram with her hippie parents - doesn't really make you want to visit India but still fascinating!
• Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire, a memoir that won the National Book Award and has a magnificent sense of place.
• Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor, a memoir which made me want to visit Jordan.
• The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper, a memoir about growing up in Liberia - not really someplace I want to visit after reading this book, but the book made me feel as if I had been there myself and witnessed its transformation.

You can see that many of these are memoirs and some are not necessarily about traveling per se but have the ability to transport the reader to a different place as an armchair traveler.

I would love to hear about your favorite books with a travel theme - anyone know of other great roadtrip novels for me??

(I listed favorite kids/teen/YA travel-themed books over at Great Books for Kids and Teens.)

It's Monday 6/3! What Are You Reading?

Chaotic and busy here last week!  My college son came home from school, along with all of his friends, old and new. Our house has been filled with college kids all week (not that I mind). My high school son has final exams this week and is still trying to finish up make-up work from his last surgery by the end of the week...when he will have yet another (hopefully last) knee surgery. So, busy, busy here and no more alone time for mom!

And it's June already! So, be sure to check out my annual Big Book Summer Challenge so you can enjoy a book-ish summer. It's super low-key - you only have to read one (or more) books of 400 pages or more by September to participate. So join the fun!

I did a lot of blogging here last week due to Armchair BEA...but then had no time for writing reviews! Anyway, we all had a good reading week:

• I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (my second time) for my online family book group this month . It was just as amazing as I remembered - I cried as I read the last pages last night. It counts as my first Big Book of the summer! 
• I am still listening to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne on audio (almost done now).  It's been weird reading/listening to two different books about children set during the Holocaust at the same time. This one is also excellent, told from the unique point of view of a young boy who is completely ignorant of the horrors that are going on around him.
• Today, I will start Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall for my local library's book discussion next week.
• My husband, Ken, finished reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, book 3 in his A Song of Ice and Fire series.  Woohoo!  He deserves a round of applause for that one at 1200 pages! That's HIS first Big Book of the Summer.
• He took my advice and is now reading The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson which blew me away. He says he's having trouble getting into it, so I hope he likes it.
• Jamie, 18, is thrilled to be home for the summer and to finally have some time for fun reading! He finished Book 3 in the Heroes of Olympus, The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan. He and a college friend were reading the series together, and they both loved it!
• Jamie is now reading The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller. He says it's great so far!

No reviews last week but lots of posts about books and more:

Armchair BEA Posts:

• Introduction (all about me)
• Discussion of Genre Fiction and favorites
• Nonfiction reading habits and favorites

Snapshot Saturday - my purple irises.
Weekend Cooking - feeding hungry college students and a couple of Rachael Ray recipes.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)   

Weekend Cooking 6/2

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

I haven't written a Weekend Cooking post in about a month - just too busy, especially on weekends!

Our house (and our kitchen table) has been filled all week with college students home for the summer! Our oldest son came home from his freshman year of college last week and has been getting together with old friends from high school, as well as new friends from college. So, I've been cooking in bulk all week! Last Monday, I made a quadruple batch of strawberry-chocolate chip pancakes for a group of hungry college students who'd spent the night, my son had a couple of old friends over on Tuesday who stayed for dinner, and we've hosted his new girlfriend for dinner twice. I'm having a blast seeing all these "kids" who've hung out at our house since they were kindergartners, now all (mostly) grown-up and also meeting his new friends from school.

And, for a change, I used a couple of Rachael Ray recipes this week, instead of all Cooking Light recipes as usual! Many of her recipes are too high in fat for my taste, plus she douses everything with cheese, and I am dairy-intolerant, but she has a few recipes that we love.

On Memorial Day, I made Rachael's Adirondack Red Wing Burgers (basically buffalo chicken burgers) which are a favorite here. They have all the flavors of buffalo chicken wings in a tasty burger. I just leave out the cheddar cheese on my burger.

Later this week, I made another of our favorite Rachael Ray recipes, Chorizo-Tortilla Tortilla. This is basically a Mexican-style frittata, very quick and easy to make for a weeknight dinner...and delicious! I mostly follow her recipe but cut back on the eggs and cheese (do you really need a dozen eggs to feed 4 people?).

Tonight, we are getting together with old friends, a group of friends we met when we all lived in New Orleans over 20 years ago. We were all young engineers and scientists then, most of us just out of college, living in New Orleans - we had a blast and bonded for life. Now we all live here in Delaware (not really a coincidence - we all met when we worked for DuPont and this is its headquarters), and we all have kids, and we are still close friends. My contribution tonight is one of our all-time favorites from Cooking Light, Mocha Pudding Cake. This is a super-easy dessert and oh-so-yummy! It's also like a magic trick - you pour hot water over the batter and in the oven it separates into cake on top and pudding on the bottom.

Well, I have another big batch of pancakes to make up (I'm thinking blueberry today)...whenever these late-nighters finally get up! Hope you have enjoyed your food and cooking this week.

Snapshot Saturday 6/1

Happy June!  I'm not actually thrilled that it's June. Summer here is hot and humid and uncomfortable (mid-90's already this week) - I much prefer spring and fall.

But, summer does mean it's time for my annual Big Book Summer Challenge! It's an easy-going challenge - you only need to read at least one book 400 pages or longer by September to participate. So, check it out and join in the fun!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

My purple irises finally bloomed this week and were beautiful! The blooms don't last long, though, and they are now fading. I never got out to take a picture until yesterday, so they are a bit past their prime here but still pretty:

Hope you have a great weekend!

Armchair BEA - Nonfiction

Today's topic at Armchair BEA is nonfiction. Ten years ago, I probably would have just said that I rarely read nonfiction (because I did), but joining book groups changed all that. Through the varied selections of my multiple book groups, I discovered that nonfiction does not equal boring, dry facts. I also discovered that I absolutely love memoirs.

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite nonfiction titles:

• The Anatomy of Hope by Jerome Groopman - I read this book about a year into my chronic illness, at the depth of misery and mourning, and it truly restored my hope.
• River of Doubt by Candice Millard, about Teddy Roosevelt's journey up the Amazon.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - gripping, fascinating, and thought-provoking.
• The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Tim Egan, about the formation of the national parks.

And some of my favorite memoirs - do I have to choose? I love them all!

• 12,000 Miles in the Nick of Time: A Semi-Dysfunctional Family Circumnavigates the Globe by Mark Jacobson - travel AND family in one memoir - what more could I want?
• Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire - a fascinating historical backdrop told from a child's perspective and one of the summer reading selections at my son's high school this year!
• The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper - a chilling, compelling story about growing up in Liberia.
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique-Bauby - inspirational and emotionally powerful story of a paralyzed man.
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson - we love all of Bryson's memoirs, but this one about his childhood is especially good...and hilarious!
• The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein - fascinating historical memoir about growing up in England in the 1910's on a street inhabited by Jews on one side and Christians on the other. Can't wait to read the sequel.

See? I told you I couldn't pick. I could go on and on.

What are your favorite nonfiction books and memoirs?

Armchair BEA - Genre Fiction

Today's topic for Armchair BEA is genre fiction. My book tastes and reading habits have changed dramatically in this regard over the past 30 years. When I was younger, I read ONLY genre fiction - mostly suspense, thrillers, horror, and some mysteries. In high school, I got hooked on Stephen King and read everything he wrote, along with my mom and dad. The latest Stephen King novel would be released, and we'd pass it from one of us to the next. I got married at 24, and my husband liked all these same types of novels, so we carried on my family tradition of trading books. He also re-introduced me to science fiction. In high school, I'd read every single Ray Bradbury book on the shelves at my public library but had forgotten how much I enjoyed some of that genre. My husband introduced me to The Hobbit and Ender's Game (and the rest of Orson Scott Card's series).

Fast-forward to about 10 years ago, when I joined my first book group. Suddenly, my reading horizons were broadened! That first group dissolved after a few years, but then I discovered my neighborhood book group and another book group hosted by the local Unitarian church. I still belong to both of those, plus try to go to the monthly book discussion at my public library when I can fit it in and just recently started an online family book group! All these book groups did amazing things for my reading habits. I read historical fiction for the first time ever and loved it. I read nonfiction for the first time ever and also discovered that I loved reading memoirs. I now read a very wide variety of books, still mostly fiction. These days, the genre doesn't matter so much as the quality of the writing. As I was thinking about today's topic, I first thought that I no longer read genre fiction, but I do read some thrillers/suspense/mystery and some science fiction...but only if it is really good (which I judge mainly by what reviewers, fellow bloggers, and friends recommend).

So, here are some of my favorite thrillers and mysteries read recently:

• Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian - perfect for Halloween last year!
• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson, a creepy and very suspenseful novel.
• Blind Descent by Nevada Barr - though I don't read many classic mysteries anymore, I love Barr's Anna Pigeon series because they take place in National Parks.
• Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich - her Stephanie Plum novels are my guilty pleasures!

And I was surprised to look back and realize that I do still read some science fiction. You can see from this list of favorites that I particularly love time travel plots! I find them very thought-provoking:

• Time and Again by Jack Finney - a classic time travel novel that is more historical fiction than science fiction.
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - one of my favorite books from last year that I passed onto my husband and son - we all loved it!
• Breathless by Dean Koontz - I used to read all of Koontz's horror novels, but my husband told me I'd love this unique sci fi, and I did - it fills you with a sense of wonder.
• The Passage by Justin Cronin - reminded me of my old love for Stephen King - fabulous suspense, horror, and science fiction all rolled into one - I can't wait to read the sequel this summer.
• Replay by Ken Grimwood - my favorite book of all time. While often categorized as science fiction because it's about a man who keeps replaying a portion of his life, it's just about life and how the decisions we make affect our lives - fascinating and thought-provoking.

Huh. So, I guess I do read genre fiction after all!

What are your favorite genres?

Armchair BEA - Introductions

The Book Expo of America (BEA) kicks off today in NYC. It is the ultimate conference for book lovers. Even more enticing, they now offer an entire program at BEA just for Book Bloggers. I would love to be there in person to meet my fellow bloggers, listen to favorite authors, and talk books non-stop for days. Since I can't do that, I thought that this year I would try participating in Armchair BEA, where book bloggers can network in the virtual world while our lucky colleagues get to network in person.

The first topic is simply an introduction, so here we go:


Who Am I?
I am 47 years old, married to another book lover, and mother of two sons, ages 18 and 15 (one who is another rabid book fan and the other who is not). I have always been a book lover, from my earliest days flipping pages of Go, Dog, Go! while sitting on my potty seat (seriously, we have photos) to the present where I write two book blogs and belong to four book groups. I began this book blog over seven years ago in 2006 and within a couple of weeks added a second one, Great Books for Kids and Teens. Outside of blogging, I am also a freelance writer; my reviews of books and other media for kids have been published for the past 8 years in Family Fun magazine. I also write about food, health, travel, and family topics.

Where Am I?
We currently live in Delaware, the second-smallest state in the U.S.   We moved here about 20 years ago when my husband and I were transferred (we both used to work for DuPont; now only he does). I am originally from Rochester, NY, and my husband is from Oklahoma. We met when we were both living and working in New Orleans, and that city holds a special place in our hearts.

One Non-Book Related Thing About Me
I have a chronic illness, an immune system disorder known in the U.S. by the silly term Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), though it is a very debilitating illness. I write another blog about living with chronic illness, Learning to Live with CFS, that has a very positive focus (writing this post, I am beginning to see why I never have enough time for everything I want to do...).  Check it out if you or someone you care about has a chronic illness...or just stop by on Mondays for my movie reviews!

Previous Armchair BEA?
This is my first time participating in Armchair BEA, though I have wanted to do it in past years and just didn't have time - we'll see if I can make the time this week! I would love to visit BEA in person and only live 2 hours from NYC, but right now, that would be a bit too much for my limited stamina. Armchair BEA is perfect for me - I like things I can do from the comfort of my couch.

Favorite Posts
Oooh,,,,that's a tough one because there are 520 of them (plus another 400 on Great Books for Kids and Teens). Let's see, here are some favorites:

• Welcome to My Reading World, my first blog post, from 2006, that tells you about my relationship with books and how it's changed over the years.
• Top Ten Favorite Novels, my first Top Ten post, before I even knew what a meme was! I like looking back at old Top Ten posts because sometimes we forget our older favorite books and only remember the more recent ones.
• Meeting with Author Rachel Simon, for 3 reasons: I love my book group, I love The Story of Beautiful Girl, and I loved meeting one of my favorite authors.
• 2013 Big Book Summer Challenge - I started my first-ever challenge last summer and had so much fun I am doing it again this summer. Although you only need to read 1 book over 400 pages this summer to participate, I have several big books I've been saving up for the challenge. Join the fun!

 So, that's me - now I need to visit some other Armchair BEA posts and meet YOU.

It's Monday 5/27! What Are You Reading?

Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the U.S.! My grandfather was a proud Marine who served in World War II and was at Iwo Jima, so he is on my mind today. He died a few years ago.

My big news today is the kick-off of my annual Big Book Summer Challenge!  I love using the long days of summer (and the break from my book groups) to tackle some of the bigger books I never seem to have time for. You only need to read a minimum of 1 book over 400 pages long between now and September to participate, so check it out and join in the fun!

I hope you've all enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend - we've had a very leisurely weekend. Our younger son has been visiting his grandparents, helping them get their sailboat ready for the season, and our older son is home from college but has been out with friends much of the time, so Ken and I have enjoyed lots of quiet time together, a nice dinner out with friends last night...and lots of reading!

• I finally finished American Pastoral by Philip Roth. It is a long novel with very dense prose, but I found it very thought-provoking and interesting and am glad I read it. Reviews from my book group were widely varied - some really disliked it; others loved it. I will post a review this week.
• I am also still reading (a bit at a time) The Art of Nonconformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau, which was recommended by a friend of mine.
• I have just started The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (my second time) for my online family book group this week. It is just as good as I remembered...and also counts as my first Big Book of the summer!
• In some spare minutes, I read a middle-grade graphic novel, Tommysaurus Rex by Doug Tennepel. It is a fun, imaginative story sure to appeal especially to middle-grade boys.
• And, finally, I am listening to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne on audio. It is just as good as I'd heard from everyone.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, book 3 in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. At over 1200 pages, this novel definitely meets the criteria of a Big Book! He is almost finished with it now.
• Jamie, 18, is thrilled to be done with his first year of college and taking full advantage of finally having some reading time! He finished The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, Book 1 in the Heroes of Olympus series, moved onto Book 2, The Son of Neptune, and is now reading Book 3, The Mark of Athena. A new friend from college loves reading as much as Jamie does, so they are both reading this series right now. He told me he is planning to start a book club with his friends in the fall - I'm so proud!
• Craig, 15, is very busy trying to finish up all his work for the school year, including some make-up work still left from his last surgery in February. He is reading Romeo and Juliet for his Freshman Lit class this week.

I posted one review last week:

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, an amazing novel that just won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for fiction - highly recommended.

And I launched my Big Book Summer Challenge this weekend. Like summer itself, it is a low-key, easy-going challenge, so check it out. I also posted my own list of books to read for the challenge.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)    

Thinking of my Grandpa today who served as a Marine in World War II.

My 2013 Big Book Summer!

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have just announced the second year of my challenge, Big Book Summer Challenge, so I guess I should be the first to sign up!

I really enjoyed tackling some big books the last few summers, and I'm looking forward to doing it again and finally reading some of these bricks that have been collecting dust on my shelf (NOTE: for this challenge, a Big Book is defined as anything with more than 400 pages).

I don't know if I will get to all of these, but I like to have some options to choose from.  These are all currently on my shelves, waiting patiently to be read:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 552 pages
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, 479 pages
• Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, 743 pages
• Defending Jacob by William Landay, 421 pages
• The Twelve by Justin Cronin, 564 pages

The first two are YA novels - I like to alternate between grown-up books and kids/teen books. I've actually read The Book Thief before, but my online family book group is discussing it soon, so I thought I'd re-read it. The rest are all books I've been meaning to read for a while. It was so hard to choose! I have many more big books on my shelves, but I also have 3 more book group reads coming up in June before my book groups take a break for the summer. We'll see how many of these I get to!

How about you?  Are you up for tackling a Big Book (or two) this summer?  Join me and sign up for the Big Book Summer Challenge!

2013 Big Book Summer Challenge

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few years ago, I came up with the idea to use the relaxed freedom of summer to tackle some of the biggest books on my TBR shelf that I'd been wanting to read but never seemed to have the time for.  Both of my book groups take time off during the summer, so with no interfering commitments, I declared it The Summer of the Big Book and really enjoyed delving into some hefty tomes, like The Passage and Pillars of the Earth.

It was so much fun that last year, I created this challenge so that YOU can join me! And here it is Memorial Day weekend again and the official start of summer 2013. So join in on the fun!

The Details:
Hey, it's summer, so we'll keep this low-key and easy!

• Anything over 400 pages qualifies as a big book.
• The challenge will run from Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May) through Labor Day weekend (first weekend in September).
  
• Choose one or two or however many big books you want as your goal.  Wait, did you get that?  You only need to read 1 book with over 400 pages this summer to participate! (though you are welcome to read more, if you want).
• Choose from what's on your shelves already or a big book you've been meaning to read for ages or anything that catches your eye in the library - whatever peaks your interest!
• Sign up on the links list below or on the Big Book Summer Challenge page.
• Write a post to kick things off - you can list the exact big books you plan to read or just publish your intent to participate, but be sure to include the Big Book Summer Challenge pic above, with a link back to this blog.
  
• Write a post to wrap up at the end, listing the big books you read during the summer.
• You can write progress posts if you want to and/or reviews of the big books you've read...but you don't have to!  There is a separate links list for big book review posts.

That's it!  Go check out your shelves and your TBR list and sign up below!

(Don't have a blog?  No problem!  You can still participate in the challenge - just leave a comment in the Comment section, stating your goals for the Big Book Summer Challenge.)

Check out my own list of books to read for the challenge.

Be sure to include a link to your kick off blog post (not your homepage):

Come back to this page during the summer to add a link whenever you review a Big Book or post a progress report:

Fiction Review: The Orphan Master’s Son

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was recently awarded to The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. Normally, I wouldn’t run right out to read the latest winner, but this one was familiar to me. Ann and Michael, the hosts of my favorite book podcast, Books on the Nightstand, had loved this novel, and I remembered hearing them both praise it in a podcast earlier this year. So, I requested it from the library and must have been ahead of the crowd because there was no wait list. I am so glad that I read it right away because this novel blew me away.

First a word of warning: if all I’d heard of this book was a plot summary, I probably never would have read it. In fact, I was only a few pages into the novel and had learned that it was about a young boy in North Korea who is forced to join the army, and I wondered whether I was going to like it or if this would be one of those literary novels that are just plain boring. I needn’t have worried. Adam Johnson has created a fascinating world and an intriguing main character, and his writing just pulls the reader into the middle of the story. I never wanted it to end.

So, I’ll tell you about the plot, but there is so much more to this story than meets the eye. Pak Jun Do has been brought up in an orphanage (aka children’s labor camp) in North Korea by his father who runs the orphanage. He spends his whole life explaining to people that no, he is not an orphan, but no one believes him because he has an orphan’s name and grew up in an orphanage. His mother, a singer, was taken away – as are most beautiful women in North Korea – to the capital city of Pyongyang when he was very young, and his father was physically present but emotionally absent, wracked with despair over his wife’s absence.

At fourteen, Pak Jun Do and the orphans are conscripted into the army to save them all from starvation during a terrible famine in North Korea. From there, his life continues through many different stages, from a tunnel fighter as a teen to a kidnapper to eventually, through an amazing twist of fate, working alongside Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader himself. The details of Pak Jun Do’s various horrible jobs and of daily life in North Korea are both captivating and terrible.

The entire novel is absolutely gripping. It probably sounds depressing from this plot description – and parts of it are sad – but its overall tone is optimistic because Pak Jun Do is a wonderful man who never loses hope of a better life. In fact, at one point, his wildest dreams come true. Certainly parts of his story are horrifying and violent, but one part of the novel – when a group of North Koreans visit Texas – had me laughing out loud.

This is an emotionally moving story, and you soon find yourself rooting for Pak Jun Do and hoping he can somehow escape to a better life. I was even talking out loud to the book (always a good sign!), alternating “Nooo!” with “Oh, good.” The ending is both happy and sad at the same time. Johnson is a masterful writer who pulls the reader into the center of the story and never lets go, until the final word. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to Pak Jun Do and also never wanted his story to end. A novel this good is a rare find.

443 pages, Random House

Listen to a funny, fascinating presentation by Johnson at Booktopia Santa Cruz.

Here is a list of all of the Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction since 1948 - I've read 9 of the 59 novels - I better get busy! 

It's Monday 5/20! What Are You Reading?

Ahhh...the quiet solitude of a Monday morning after a busy weekend. But this is the end of the peace and tranquility for me for a while! My oldest son comes home from college this week, my youngest son has two weeks of school left, then finals, and then another knee surgery. So, I am trying to make the most of this last bit of quiet, productive time!

Good reading this week:

• I finished The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson and was blown away by this recent Pulitzer Prize winner! The story completely pulled me in, and I never wanted it to end. I'll try to review it this week (before things get hectic!).
• I am now reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth for my neighborhood book group, but I waited too long to start it because I was so engrossed in the Orphan Master's Son! There is no way I can finish it before Wednesday - it is over 400 pages of very dense prose - but I am giving it my best try. It's a strange story with a strange format, but I am enjoying it so far.
• I am also still reading (a bit at a time) The Art of Nonconformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau, which was recommended by a friend of mine.
• I finished listening to an amazing middle-grade audio book, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Its Newberry Medal was well-deserved. I posted a review last week.
• And I started a new audio book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. I know, I am way behind on this one! I can see why it got such great reviews when it first came out.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, book 3 in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. At over 1200 pages, this novel definitely meets the criteria of a Big Book. It's almost time for my annual Big Book Summer Challenge! Look for details this weekend.
• Jamie, 18, is still reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, though I suspect he had little reading time this week, in the midst of final exams.

Not only did I not have time to post much on my blogs this week, but I just realized this weekend that I never even posted my Monday update to my Great Books for Kids and Teens blog - oops!

I did write two reviews:

A Short Guide to a Happy Life and Being Perfect, two slim nonfiction books by Anna Quindlen, perfect for graduation season.

The One and Only Ivan, an award-winning middle-grade novel by Katherine Applegate that I listened to on audio.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)    

Snapshot Saturday 5/18

At Home with Books hosts Saturday Snapshot.

Crazy, stressful week this week (with pockets of joy!), so I didn't take any new photos. I thought I'd share a few from last weekend, when we spent Mother's Day in Connecticut  with my mom and her husband and my sister and her family to celebrate both Mother's Day and my mom's birthday (an annual tradition). Don't worry - I won't bore you with family photos (well, maybe one). On Sunday, we went to the beach, along the Long Island Sound, and enjoyed the beautiful day, as well as a fun scavenger hunt!

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Norwalk Beach on Long Island Sound - lovely day!

One of the locals

My family after our scavenger hunt!