Because of Winn-Dixie

I just finished reading this to Natalie, and we both thought it was a really lovely book.  I described the last book as lovely as well -- what does that mean?  Well its a sweet story, well written, about love and family and friends.  In this one, a young girl finds Winn-Dixie, a beat up old dog, but having the dog helps her make friends, be bold, and come to terms with the loss of her mother, who ran away from home years before.  It has a deserved Newbery Honor and makes a good book to either read alone or read aloud.  Better if you can get a little southern lilt into your reading voice, though.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Of all the books that were hyped last year, that were supposed to be SO wonderful, many left me cold.  This one did not.  This is a lovely tale of a widower finding love again, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, etc.  This is a tale of a lovely man, with a very dry sense of humor (perhaps what I liked most about him - but that again it's what I like most about all writing) and the lovely, yet "inappropriate" woman he falls in love with.  It is a tale of all the people surrounding them, the judgmental, the self-centered, the sanctimonious, and what happens when you pay attention to them, vs when you ignore them.   I am glad a bought this one on paper so that I can share it at my next coffee klatch.  

Colin's (Partial 2010)

                                                  


Enjoy!


This is only a partial list of what Colin read this year.   These are the books that he took AR tests on, plus a couple I could remember.   This does not include any book he read over the summer or any book that didn't have a test.  Still there are 54 books here, and only 2 are picture books.   The rest are chapter books, some very long.  


He read all the Percy Jackson series, and really enjoyed them, as well as both of Rick Riordan's new books, The Red Pyramid and The Lost Hero.  These, however, were not his favorite series.  That would be the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer.  He notes the most recent of these, The Atlantic Complex, as one of his favorite books of the year.  


He was also a big fan of the Heck books, and is anxiously awaiting the fourth circle in the spring.


It is clear from going through this list that he tends towards the fantasy - or I tend towards handing him the fantasy.  Which do you think it is?  At least 2/3 of this list is fantasy, although there are a few he really enjoyed that were reality based.  These include The Fast and the Furriest, which he just read and got a huge laugh out of and Oggie Cooder, which he enjoyed much as he did the Hank Zipzer books.


Arthas, well, what can I say, the boy likes WoW.  He  read this one faster than I did, and keeps asking me for more of the same.  We decided he should read The Hobbit first, get straight to the source of all the madness.


I got him to read a couple of classics this year as well, as you can see.  He enjoyed them all, although I have not been able to get him to read any of the sequels.   These include:  A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs Frisby, The Enormous Egg, and The White Mountains.  In addition he read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at school.  


What he is really enjoying at the moment though, are comic strips.  He keeps wanting the Sunday Comics to come to door on Sunday, based on promotional delivery.    He doesn't like that the New York Times that comes every week does not have comics in it.  He has read through all of Calvin and Hobbes, loves Foxtrot, and tries to understand The Far Side.  These have  led him to draw his own comic frames and comic strips, emulating those that he admires.  


I have provided links to all the books if you want to know more about them.  Maybe your 8-12 year old will find something among these that he or she wants to read.

2010 - 40 Books.

According to my accounting, although there are still a few days left in the year, in which I might finish up a book or two, to date I have read 40 books this year.  That is both good, very few people read that many, and actually not that many at all.  I try to shoot for more like one a week, although it has been several years since I got there.  Here is the list:

They are from every genre, every style, from a quick mystery read, to serious non-fiction.  I also have three books still in progress, probably only one of which will be finished this year.  What can I say about these books....

Only a few would I actively push into someone else's hands. 

  

I love Allende's writing, and this was a lovely book, although not her best overall.  I would still recommend it.  I feel the same way about Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna.  It is not her best book, but still quite an interesting read.

With everyone else on the planet, I read Stieg Larsson's books this year.

These I did really like.  I ran across the first one summer 2009 when we were down at the beach and I finished my book.  Somehow, at Seascape there is no place to buy a book (someone should remedy that - they should at least carry a dozen or so titles in the grocery store!) and I ended up two exits up the freeway at another grocery looking for something, anything to amuse me for the next couple of days while we were there.  Snob that I am, after dissing the James Pattersons and the Danielle Steeles on the grocery store display, I noted that this one had been translated from the Swedish, so I figured it must be better than the other books on the shelf.  I was pleasantly surprised and devoured The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over the next couple of days.  The next two I read practically back to back this spring.  I found them a thriller well worth sinking a few days into, and thats all they really need.

Cutting for Stone is an interesting book.  It gets rave reviews and yet for the first 2/3 or the book or so, I wondered what the big deal was.  Then things changed, the pace picked up, and the last 1/3 of the book makes the whole thing worthwhile.

  

Everyone, it seems, has read The Help.  It spent forever on the NYTimes best seller list.   It seemed for a long time that it NEVER was going to be released in paperback (has it even yet?).  It is actually a surprisingly good read for something that has spent forever on the NYTimes best seller list, without even being an Oprah pick.    Read this one if you are one of the few who hasn't.  It deserves it.

This is the fourth, I think, in the series, starting with The Spellman Files.  These are fluff, but fun fluff, about an odd family of PIs in San Francisco.  None of them will take you very long, but they are a quite fun diversion.

Finally, I'll recommend The Lost City of Z.  A non-fictional tale of an ancient civilization in the Amazon, that no one thought one did or could exist, and the men (yes, all men) who over the past two centuries went looking for it.   Fascinating story of explorers, adventurers, treasure seekers, and archaeology. 

And finally, here is what is currently on my bookshelf - in some state of progress:

Arthas

I read this book as part of my duties as a good mom.  Colin desperately wants to read the WOW books, so I dutifully sat down and read this one for him, to make sure there was nothing "inappropriate."  Final call, not a great book, but nothing inappropriate for a ten year old.   My first impression was that science fiction as a genre uses a huge number of adjectives.   Everything is well described.  My second impression is that there are only a few stories in the world.  There is so much of this story of Arthas's turn to evil that parallels that of Anakin Skywalker.  Arthas was a good boy, on the side of right, then showing a temper and having a great loss (Arthas, a horse (really!), Anakin, his mother), he turns to the dark side.  All his friends are, of course, in his mind, against him, and he continues this path, mostly as the pawn of the greater evil.  Eventually he merges with that evil, and becomes the "Lich King" himself.   It reminds me of Propp's analysis of Russian fairy tales, that said that all stories were built up of the same elements, just perhaps in a different order and of a different number.  This analysis has extended to an anthropological analysis,  with Star Wars being a retelling of the Wizard of Oz.  

Overall, this is not a terrible book.  Neither is it a great book.  But if it pleases the WoW fan in your house....let them read it over break when they aren't reading for school.  I handed this to Colin this morning.  He complained that he already KNEW this story because of Warcraft 3, and could I get him a different one.  There is no winning.  Even when being a good mom.

Jackson Jones

Just picked this one up for Lauren.  It looked really good.  Free right now for Nook - no longer free for Kindle.  I'll post more when I have actually read it!

The Finkler Question

I guess I must agree with the Amazon readers more than the Booker Prize voters on this one.  I didn't care. I couldn't care.  The end made no sense to me, although I was glad to be done with it.  Maybe I was missing something.