scaifea's thread #4

Welcome to thread IV!



Below you’ll find an explanation of my reading habits, which, I warn you, is a bit crazy. Usually I have about 10-15 books going at once, one each from the following groups (and occasionally other books slipped in there, too):

1. A book from the 100 Banned Books book (at least currently. As soon as I finish this list, I'll replace it with another, and oh, I've got tons of lists).

2. A children's book, for Charlie's library. I'm trying to collect books from various award lists, and I like reading them before reading them to Charlie or deciding to add them to Charlie's shelves. For this category, I’m currently working through three lists:
a. 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Die
b. The CYOA books
c. The Newbery Honor books

3. A book from the Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy List, in chronological order.

4. A book for the Presidential Challenge. Books for this category are read in chronological (presidentially) order.

5. An audio book, which I listen to as I knit/sew/otherwise craft/drive.

6. A list I'm working through together with my best friend, Rob: The Hugo/Nebula/WFA/Bram Stoker (and other) lists (combined, in chronological order)

7. For this category, I cycle through 7 different stacks:
a. A book from my shelves which I haven't yet read
b. Agatha Christie's bibliography (in chronological order)
c. Neil Gaiman's bibliography (in some order other than chronological (don't
ask)).
d. Christopher Moore's bibliography (in chronological order)
e. Stephen Fry's bibliography (in chronological order)
f. The NEH Timeless Classics list
g. The National Book Award list (in alpha order by title)
h. The Pulitzer list (in alpha order by author)

8. A read-aloud-to-Charlie-at-bedtime book.

9. An unread book from my shelves.

10. A book from my Classics shelves.

11. A book from our Science Shelves corner.

12. A book on Buddhism or from the Dalai Lama's bibliography.

13. Book-a-year challenge: Two years ago, along with a few others in this group (*cough* Paul *cough*), I made a year-by-year list to see how far I could go back with consecutive reads. I've decided, again, to follow Paul's lead and try to fill in some of those blanks, and so I'm adding an entry here to my lists.

14. An audiobook for the car.

15. This slot is reserved for books that just grab me and shout that they need to be read Right Now.

And on top of these, there will be a multitude of picture books and easy readers, which Charlie and I read together. I've decided again this year also to list our re-reads, but I'll just list them each day and not number them.

So, now you've got a glimpse of just how neurotic I am.
Please feel free to post comments, recommendations, or whatever else strikes your fancy. And Happy Reading, everyone!



What I'm reading now:
-Black Boy (Banned Books)
-The Midnight Dress (Blind Date with a Book)
-Water of the Wondrous Isles (The Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy)
-Zachary Taylor (Presidential Challenge)
-The Brilliant World of Tom Gates (audiobook)
-The Crystal Cave (Mythopoeic)
-Dandelion Wine (NEH Children's Classics)
-The BFG (Charlie's bed-time book)
-Don Quixote (an unread book off of my shelves)
-The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (from my Classics shelves)
-Introductory Astronomy & Astrophysics (from the Science Shelves)
-The Light of Asia (Buddhism list)
-Far from the Madding Crowd (books by year, 1874)
-Books Can Be Deceiving (series that my mom wants me to read so we can chat about it)
-Five Days at Memorial (from the Read Soon shelf)
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (everyday audio book in the car)
-The Spoonflower Handbook (just because)

In addition to these, I have some classics-related texts that I'm working through (quite slowly):
-Asinaria by Plautus (reading in Latin)
-Iliad by Homer (reading in Greek)
-Latin Literature by Gian Biagio Conte
-The Cambridge History of Classical Literature Volume 1 Part 1

Books Read:

JANUARY

1. The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot (Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B+
2. Slaves of Quentaris (audio book/1001 Children's Books) - 7/10 = C
3. Runner of the Mountain Tops (Newbery Honor book) - 7/10 = C
4. The Blue Cat of Castletown (Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B+
5. Princess Academy (Newbery Honor book/ audio book) - 8/10 = B+
6. Olive's Ocean (audio book/Newbery Honor book) - 7/10 = C
7. The Wanderer (audio book/Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B+
8. The Terrible Two (potential Charlie book) - 9/10 = A
9. The Puppy Place: Scout (Charlie's bedtime book) - 8/10 = B
10. A Daughter of the Seine (Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B
11. Roller Girl (Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B+
12. Abe Lincoln at Last! (Charlie's school library chapter book) - 8/10 = B+
13. How I Live Now (audiobook, 1001 Children's Books list) - 8/10 = B+
14. The Terrible Two Get Worse (loaned to me by a school librarian) - 8/10 = B+
15. Ella Enchanted (audiobook, Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B+
16. Echo (Newbery Honor book) - 9/10 = A-
17. Bone Gap (Printz award winner) - 9/10 = A
18. The Ghosts of Heaven (Printz Honor book) - 8/10 = B-
19. George (Stonewall Award winner) - 9/10 = A
20. The Return of the Native (audiobook for the car/book-a-year challenge, 1878) - 9/10 = A
21. Hoot (audiobook, Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B
22. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (1001 Children's Books) - 9/10 = A
23. Magic Tree House #17: Tonight on the Titanic (Charlie's school library book) - 8/10 = B+
24. The War That Saved My Life (Newbery Honor book) - 9/10 = A
25. Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln (public library book) - 8/10 = B+

FEBRUARY
26. Crenshaw (public library book) - 8/10 = B+
27. Noah Barleywater Runs Away (Charlie book) - 9/10 = A-

The Charlie, Mario & Tuppence Toppers:

And the Bonus Question:

We're scheduled for some freezing-rain-turning-to-snow later today, apparently, and of course the east coast has had a bit of, um, weather over the weekend, which makes me think of the Snow Days I had when I was in school: any time we had a day off from school because of snow, my mom would make doughnuts (glazed yeast, of course), and I've carried on the tradition with Charlie. I'm wondering if I'll be whipping up a batch later today, if they let school off early. So, here's my question: do you/did you have any Snow Day traditions of your own?

Happy fourth, Amber.

No tradition as such but as a boy we had a double bay window that looked out into the street on in the dark I used to love turning off the light and have the room glow with the reflected light of the snow.

Happy new thread, Amber, an welcome home! No Snow Day traditions here.

>4 PaulCranswick: Paul: Oh, that sounds lovely! And reminds me of how we used to turn off all the lights in the kitchen, turn *on* the outside light and watch the snow fall at night, when I was a kid.

>5 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie!

Small-town middle America--when it snowed, the town would block off two blocks of Bridge Street and every kid in town would show up with their sleds--it was wonderful!

So, here's my question: do you/did you have any Snow Day traditions of your own?

I grew up on the Mexican border and now I live in Houston.

>3 scaifea: No particular traditions, though I do love a big snowfall! The snow ice cream we made for the first time during this storm was so good that it's liable to become a tradition, however. :-)

>7 ronincats: Oh, that sounds excellent, Roni! I grew up in the middle of cornfields, so no sledding with the neighborhood kids for me...

>8 luvamystery65: Roberta: *snork!* You don't know what you're missing, I'm telling you!

>3 scaifea: When we had snow days, my siblings and I would have to help our parents with farm chores and cutting/loading/delivering wood to customers. We'd usually be able to convince our dad to hook up sleds to a tractor and drive us around the hay fields, which was SO MUCH FUN! Sometimes we'd say with our grandparents and do some baking. The year I was in 2nd grade, we had so many snow days in a row, that combined with our Midwinter Break, we were off school for over a week - and of course we had made dozens and dozens of cupcakes for me to take in as my birthday treat. We were pretty sick of cupcakes for a while after that!

>9 harrygbutler: Harry: We made the sugar snow candy mentioned in the Little House books on occasion, but never snow ice cream! Neat!

>11 aktakukac: Rachel: My dad used to pull my sled with his tractor, too! So fun. And he took me down to the little creek on our land a few times ice skating, too, but not as often, as it didn't stay cold long enough in Indiana for that to be safe.

Happy New Thread, Amber. I've no chance to keep up with your pace. I love all your photos. Wow, Mario has grown up.
BQ: We never would cancel school here in Switzerland even if we get lots of snow. So there is nothing special here. Normaly the pupils bring their sledges at school so we go sledging or just playing in the snow. But not all the time there is 'proper' lessons too.

>12 scaifea: It's not too different, but it does use (sweetened, condensed) milk. We just made vanilla this time (I posted a photo and the ingredients over on the kitchen thread), but I think we'll try some flavors the next time we get enough snow.

Happy new thread, Amber! Charlie and the gals look as cute as always. I love that green colour in Charlie's glasses frames.

No snow for me as a kid, as I grew up in Auckland. But they *did* have some a few years ago, which was billed as a "once in a lifetime event". My father wasn't that impressed as he could remember it snowing in the 1930s, and he's still going strong...

Happy New Thread, Amber! It is turning out more pleasant today, than I anticipated. B.A.G.

>14 Ameise1: Barbara: Oh, how wonderful! Charlie's school has a Winterfest day every year (it's coming up this Friday, in fact), when they spend most of the day rotating through various stations, which include sledding (the grounds behind the building include an excellent sledding hill), 'painting' the snow, trying out snow shoes, and indoors there's hot chocolate and cookies, story-time with the principle and some winter-related crafts. I usually volunteer to help out with the HoCho and cookies station!

>15 harrygbutler: Harry: The candy we made didn't use the snow as an ingredient, but only as a freezing agent (you pipe the candy onto the snow and let it set).

>16 susanj67: Hi, Susan! Aren't his new glasses sassy? Green is his favorite color, so no surprise that he picked these frames.
I can't imagine growing up without snow! I remember the year I was in the Macy's Parade (as part of my high school marching band), it was the first time it had snowed for the parade in something like 15 years and it was crazy cold. There was a band there from Hawaii, and it was fun to watch their excitement being in the snow, although they did look a bit on the cold side, too...

>17 msf59: Hi, Mark! I know, right?! We were supposed to get freezing rain, but they've changed their minds about that now, apparently. I'm very okay with that, although it looks like the doughnuts will wait for another day...

Apparently our snow day tradition is shoveling... :)

PSA The FF thread is up!

Fantasy February

I was homeschooled in grade school, so no snow days for me. By the time I started private school in high school, it was much less exciting. They always waited to cancel at the very last minute, so I would just be getting out of the shower and couldn't go back to bed because my hair was too wet.

We didn't have snow days, because we very rarely had snow - so no snow day traditions.

Holy Guacamole! I could've sworn you started a new thread just a couple of days ago, Amber.

Congratulations on this new one.

Nice classics shelf. What does it say about me that I first read "The Egyptians" as "The Eggplants"?

Nice toppers of Mr. Charlie, Mario and Tuppence.

>19 drneutron: Jim: Ha! Good one!

>20 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta!

>21 casvelyn: Oh, that makes me sad a little...

>22 humouress: Nina: Again, sadness for your lack of snow.

>23 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! That's my piddling little Folio collection. Lovely, aren't they?

Hi Amber, I remember a few Snow Days from when we were living in Ottawa. My Mom would make Apple Fritters for lunch and my sister, brother and I would gobble them up! Ha! I also remember the 20 minutes it took to get ready to go outside or come back in - snow pants, extra socks, boots, mittens, scarf etc. ;)

Four threads already, Amber? You are an over achiever. :)

Hi Amber, happy new thread my dear and the thread topper photos are awesome my dear. Glad you had a good trip and got back ok and hope you are having a good Monday, we have had a good day and Seven books appeared to have followed us home, would you credit that, don't know how it happened ha ha.

Ooh, you have the complete Dorothy Parker. I was looking at two different versions of this today in the bookshop, trying to decide my position on deckled edges (have I got that right? When they're rough to the touch?).

Didn't snow enough to have a tradition as a kid. When it did, we dug out all the trays in the house and drove across to the next county that had the nearest/ only big hill - with the rest of Cambridge (it's very flat). It got quite busy!

>25 DeltaQueen50: Judy: I'm happy to see that you had a sweet treats tradition, too! Apple fritters sound pretty amazing right now...

>26 BLBera: Ha! Hi, Beth!

>27 johnsimpson: John: Seven books?! That IS a good day!

>28 charl08: Charlotte: Oh, yes, deckled edges are wonderful things!

Happy New Thread, Amber! We had plenty of snow days growing up in the NYC and Philadelphia areas, but no specific traditions when my brother, cousins and I were kids, other than celebrating madly when we received word that school was closed.

Happy New Thread! I didn't have any snow day traditions of my own, but I had a neighbor who built snow sculptures whenever we had enough snow. The best way to describe them is caricatures in snow. The whole neighborhood enjoyed looking at his creations.

>30 kidzdoc: Hi, Darryl! Those Snow Days always held such promise, didn't they?

>31 cbl_tn: Carrie: Cool! Kind of like Calvin's snow creations?

No snow day traditions as such, but my brother and I did love to go sledding if we lived somewhere with even a bit of a hill! (We moved a good deal, so that was sometimes not the case.)

>33 foggidawn: we didn't have any good sledding hills nearby, hence dad and the tractor, which was just as good, especially since it didn't require trudging back up the hill!

19. George by Alex Gino (Stonewall Award winner, 195 pages) - 9/10 = A
George is a fourth grade girl trapped inside a boy's body, and this is the story of how she struggles with who she really is and telling her friends and family about it. It's a wonderful book and a very important one, too, I think. I have to say that I'm woefully uninformed when it comes to whether books with a similar theme exist for young readers, so I don't have anything else to which to compare it, but it well written and a good story, and I need no other book as comparison to know that much. I will be buying a copy for Charlie's shelves, because I want him to know that there are kids out there who struggle with this and it would be wonderful for him to be prepared to be supportive in the right ways should someone he knows share their struggles with him as a friend.

Also Read Today:
-Oh No! Not Again! by Mac Barnett (public library book, picture book) - 8/10 = B+
-Chapter 1 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 5 of Tonight on the Titanic
-Chapter 8 of The BFG

>32 scaifea: The closest thing I can think of for comparison are nutcrackers. They were more square than round.

Another new thread, Amber? No wonder I can't keep up. Snow days - I don't remember school being cancelled just because it snowed and it snowed a lot because I grew up in the 'burbs of Montreal. I do remember ice storms and the tradition there was sitting in the dark freezing. It was ok, at first but it got old pretty fast (we were without power for a week.)

>2 scaifea: What cute pictures!

California girl here, so no snow days growing up. For my daughter, the tradition was sledding with her pal for hours. Sometimes they had sleds, sometimes garbage can lids.

>36 cbl_tn: Carrie: I think it must just be too early in the morning, but I can't make heads nor tails of that sentence... Nutcrackers? Wha?

>37 Familyhistorian: Meg: *snork!* A week?! Whoa.

>38 banjo123: Rhonda: Even with my dad pulling the sled, I didn't last hours. Minutes is more like it. As fun as it was, I've never been an outdoorsy thing and was always soon ready to curl up with a HoCho and a book.

On the agenda for today:

A bit of book fair work, then maybe some Latin book work, then maybe a tiny bit of sewing before heading in to school for my Tuesday afternoon library volunteering. Taco Soup for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I listened to more of The Return of the Native in the car, which is still winding down. I dislike these mp3 disks - the entire book is on one disk so I have no idea how much is left. I really don't like that. But the book, of course, is still excellent. I also started reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and it's really too early to tell, but it seems pretty good so far, at least.

The calendar book for today is a real-life business thriller (?): The Billionaire's Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian-American Elite and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund by Anita Raghavan. Nope, not interested.

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Jane Leslie Conly (Crazy Lady!, 1994 Newbery Honor book) finished Z for Zachariah at the request of her father, Robert C. O'Brien (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, 1972 Newbery Medal), who knew he would die soon. Conly's mother edited the manuscript.
I've not read Crazy Lady! yet, nor Z for Zachariah, but Mrs. Frisby is one of the few Newbery winners that I did in fact read as a kid, and I love it to this day.

>39 scaifea: The snow sculptures my neighbor made looked a bit like the nutcrackers you see at Christmas - the squarish, tall and skinny men usually dressed like soldiers. Only the snow sculptures weren't soldiers.

>41 cbl_tn: Carrie: Aha! Now I get it! Sorry for being a dingaling!

Morning, Amber! Sorry to hear about the snow. Bummer. We avoided it completely. Just a light freezing rain.

I am off today, so of course I will enjoy every minute.

>24 scaifea: I may not have had snow days, but I did study Latin. The joys of a classical education. (Actually, I loved every minute of it.)

Morning, Amber!

Good morning! Enjoy that taco soup today! Mmm...

Morning, Amber! Happy 4th thread!!
No snow day ritual here. It's always been seen as a jammie day, cartoons and games etc.
Hope the weather wasn't to tricky by you.

>43 msf59: Morning, Mark! Oh, I'd rather have the snow than freezing rain any day. I can drive in snow just fine, but nobody can handle that freezing rain business - I'm glad to hear that you have the day off!

>44 casvelyn: Preaching to the choir, sister.

>45 Crazymamie: Morning, Mamie!

>46 dk_phoenix: Morning, Faith!

>47 Carmenere: Morning, Lynda! Your snow days sound pretty good to me! We got 3-5 inches, but up here that's kind of nuthin'. There will most certainly be school.

I agree with you about the freezing rain, but this was light enough and temps were warm enough, that it didn't cause any problems.

>48 scaifea: I may be the only person who prefers Latin to snow days... What can I say? I'm just a nerd with a linguistics obsession.

>49 msf59: Mark: Oh, that's good!

>50 casvelyn: Well, we don't have a snow day today, but I do plan on working on writing the Latin book, so,...

Hiya, Amber!

Just trying to make sure i get in at least one appearance before you are off to another thread!! Can you say Prolific? LOL.

>52 jnwelch: Morning, Joe!

>53 Berly: Ha! Hi, Kim!

The first finished sewing project of the year - it's not anything big or impressive, but it's finished and it felt good to get back into the sewing room. It's a plastic bag holder (or a bag bag, as I like to call them, because, well, why not?) for one of the kindergarten teachers at Charlie's school, whose current bag bag, as I noticed the other day, is being held together by a safety pin. So, I decided to surprise her with a new one:



And while I was in the craft room, I made myself a couple of bookmarks out of a Christmas card that I just couldn't get myself to throw away (I love Gorey):

>55 scaifea: Nice work, Amber!

In the Philadelphia tri-state area (definitely PA, and I think NJ and DE as well), school districts were assigned a three digit code, and on particularly snowy school days the local news stations would announce these numbers and whether the district was closed, open, or opening one or two hours late. On those days my brother and I would wake up early, turn on KYW 1060, and listen to see if school was closed; I still remember the number for the Neshaminy School District: 752. We would listen, excitedly and anxiously, for that number to be called, similar to someone watching TV to see if they won the lottery. When our number was called we were either deliriously happy (closed) or crushed (open, or opening late). We were bitterly disappointed if we heard, for example, that 751 was closed but 752 was opening late: "Damn those Pennsbury (or Council Rock) kids!!! How come they get to be off today?" Life could be cruel and unfair in those days.

>56 kidzdoc: Darryl: Ha! I did the same thing, only we didn't have numbers - they just read off the school names. It's funny because I loved school and hated when I had to miss because I was ill, but there was just something about a snow day that was magical.

>55 scaifea: Oh my, I love those Gorey bookmarks. Smart idea.

>57 scaifea: That would have been impractical in the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia metropolitan area), which has over 5 million residents, hundreds of thousands of students, hundreds of primary and secondary schools, and dozens of colleges, universities and technical schools. It took what seemed like forever to us kids to announce all of those numbers, but it would have taken much longer if the school names were announced instead.

I liked school for the most part, but a snow day meant a day spend reading under the covers and blankets, tackle football in the snow, and epic snowball fights (once we finished shoveling, of course). It didn't get any better than that.

>58 jnwelch: Joe: I know, right?! I'm glad I've found a way to keep greeting cards that I like!

>59 kidzdoc: Darryl: I think for me, part ofthe difference was that you weren't really missing any school on a snow day, because everyone had the day off. If you were ill, school went on as usual and you missed stuff!

Snow day traditions? Making snow cream!

Snow day traditions, from my childhood, my sister and I would build a snow fort. Nothing sophisticated, just a pile of snow we would burrow into and make a tunnel or igloo. The neighborhood kids would build snow forts on the tree lawns and then have snowball fights across the street between them. This was the 60s and every house had 2-5 kids.

We would also go sledding occasionally, but this required my parents to drive us to a hill; there were none by our house.

My kids grew up in Peoria and we had far less snow in the 90s than in the 60s, plus the fact Peoria is about 140 miles south of Cleveland. So they didn't really have a snow tradition, although we did go sledding occasionally.

>61 thornton37814: Lori: Another snow ice cream maker, eh? Nice!

>62 jjvors: Jeff: We never had enough snow in Indiana to make forts and such, really. I remember making an occasional snowman, though.

What We Read Today:
-Earth Science Rocks! Soil by Chris Bowman (Charlie's school library book, easy reader) - 8/10
-The Ox-Cart Man
-Chapter 2 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 7 of Tonight on the Titanic
-Chapter 9 of The BFG

On the agenda for today:

Laundry, a bit of Book Fair Business, work on the Latin book and possibly a bit of time in the sewing room. Tomm left early this morning on a business trip, so Charlie and I have decided to go out for dinner tonight - there's a new A&W restaurant in town, so that's where we're headed.

On the reading front:
I finished The Return of the Native yesterday! More on that later. And I read a bit more of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which is good so far, but I fear may turn more troubling than I'd like. We'll see how it goes...

The calendar book for today: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I've never heard of either the book or the author - thoughts?

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "As a child, Donna Diamond, illustrator of Bridge to Terebithia (1987 Newbery Medal), enjoyed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Her illustrations helped Bridge to Teribithia win the 1978 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award."
I did like Bridge to Teribithia, even if it *did* tear my heart right out, although I don't really remember the illustrations. Also, I now need to investigate the Lewis Carroll Shelf Awards...

Also, Happy Birthday to Lewis Carroll! Born on this day in 1832.

Morning Amber! Hope the week is going well. Have you read Richard Russo?

Good morning, Amber! AKA My Supreme Motivator! We rec'd a beautiful Christmas card a few years ago, sent to us because the kitty looked so much like our Mittens. Sure hope I can find it and make a bookmark out of it.
Have a wonderful day!

I am in the midst of bookmark shortage so will give your card art a try. Great idea.

>66 msf59: Morning, Mark! I have not read any of Russo's stuff...

>67 Carmenere: Morning, Lynda! I'm excited about the card bookmark idea, because I always want to keep cards but also really dislike not-useful clutter.

>68 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte! I saw the idea somewhere, but don't remember where now. At any rate, I'm not clever enough to have come up with it on my own!

Morning, Amber! I love your bookmarks, and how sweet of you to make that bag for the teacher - she is gonna LOVE it!

>70 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie - she *did* love it! I even got a hug!

20. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (audiobook for the car/book-a-year challenge, 1878) - 9/10 = A
Oh my goodness, I didn't think I'd ever say that I love a Hardy novel, but I love this one! And I don't think it completely has to do with Alan Rickman reading it to me (but don't get me wrong - that was *wonderful*). The plot actually thickened and got interesting in a way that his other sleepy novels (the ones I've read, at least), well, don't. Recommended, especially the Rickman-read version!

Next up in the car is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I read and re-read and loved as a kid, and have recently purchased as an audiobook so that STEPHEN FRY can read it to me! I'm such a pampered thing in my car...

Oh, Stephen Fry reading you THGTTG sounds awfully good, Amber. You may find yourself driving around all day . . .

>73 jnwelch: Joe: Ha! I know, right?!

>55 scaifea: Hi Amber! What a cute, practical gift for a teacher! And great idea to make the bookmarks. I will have to remember that! You can never have too many bookmarks, right?!

>75 aktakukac: Rachel: Never!!

>72 scaifea: That's an encouragement! I'm listening, but now started also eye-reading because I miss too much of all the nature descriptions (a mix of unsufficient vocabulary in that area and Rickman's voice).

>77 Deern: Natalie: Yeah, I sort of zoned out during the natural descriptions - I can never get into those anyway, it seems.

21. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (audiobook, Newbery Honor book) - 8/10 = B
A young boy has a chance encounter with another boy, whom he sees running down the street at incredible speed with no shoes on. His quest to discover the identity of the boy leads him to make new and unlikely friendships, fight for a good cause and helps him in his struggle against the school bully.
Meh. S'okay but not spectacular.

No snow traditions, and Mario looks like an adolescent now :-)

>80 FAMeulstee: Anita: She sure is - she's so big!

What We Read Today:

-My Cousin Momo by Zachariah OHora (public library book, picture book) - 9/10 = A-
A fun, silly book with cool illustrations about making new friends and how it's okay to be a little different.
-The Book with No Pictures
-Chapter 3 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 7 of Tonight on the Titanic

On the agenda for today:

I need to do the menu planning for next week and get my grocery list ready for tomorrow's shopping, then I'll work a little on book fair stuff and then a little on etsy shop business before heading in for my Thursday afternoon volunteering at school (with a quick stop at the library on the way). Leftovers for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I started listening to The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy in the car and it's as perfect as I remember it being, plus, of course, Stephen Fry is amazing as the reader. I also finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas last night - more on that little powerhouse later...

The calendar book for today: Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 by Brenda Wineapple. Anyone read this one? Thoughts?

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Paul Fleischmann (Joyful Noise, 1989 Newbery Medal), grew up listening to his father, Sid Fleiscgnab (Whipping Boy, 1987 Newbery Medal) read his books-in-progress to the family."
Neat! I didn't realize that they were father and son, and how cool is it that they won the award so close together!

Morning, Amber! Have a super duper kind of day!

Morning, Amber! I also enjoyed The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy on audio, but never read any of the other books.

And this WILL be the year, I finally read Thomas Hardy...

>84 Carmenere: Morning, Lynda!

>85 msf59: Morning, Mark! Oh, you haven't read any of the others in the series?! Seriously, Mark, you need to do something about that. And I think you'll like Hardy, too.

Morning, Amber! I am about half way through the audio of Return of the Native and really enjoying it. Surprising because I really didn't care for the only other Hardy I have read which was Mayor of Casterbridge. And I LOVE that audio of Stephen Fry reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Birdy loved that one, too. HE is just SO fabulous!

>87 Crazymamie: Mamie: I'm glad you're liking the Hardy - it *is* surprising coming from him, no?
And Stephen Fry is amazing, full stop. I love him.

I'm popping in to give a shout out to Jude the Obscure! I liked it more than Mayor of Casterbridge.

>89 Carmenere: Lynda: Oh, whoa, really? I most definitely didn't like that one. Waaay too depression-inducing for me. Ha!

22. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (1001 Children's Books, 216 pages) - 9/10 = A
Hoo boy, this one is a doozie, folks. It tells the tale of how heart-wrenching the cruelty of childhood innocence can be, right alongside the cruelty of purposeful malevolence, and sets it down in WWII's Poland. When I finished it last night in bed, I just sat there and sobbed for a good long while. A powerful and terrible and lovely read.

Wow, that's some reaction to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Amber. I'll have to take a look at that one.

How did Charlie like The Book With No Pictures? Kids usually get a big kick out of that one.

>92 jnwelch: Joe: Well, children and the Holocaust will do it every time, I'm afraid.
And Charlie LOVES The Book with No Pictures! We've had it for some time and it gets frequent re-reads.

What a fun thread, but I can't keep up. On snow days (late 1950s, early 1960s in the Denver schools) the school wasn't closed, but attendance was optional. I always begged my dad to drive me to school (buses didn't run on snow days), and he would generally make sure I got there. Once his transmission was frozen and he could only get the car into reverse, so we "reversed" all the way to school. He was a good dad. Snow days were so much fun! Free reading time and dictionary contests (who could find the word first and we were divided into teams), plus four-square games in the gym. I always felt sorry for the kids who had to stay home.

>94 labwriter: Oh, I LOVE that snow days were optional school days!! I lived so far from the school, though, that I doubt my parents would have taken me in (we lived way out on country roads, which were generally last to be plowed). Those dictionary contests sound amazing! I want to play!!

What We Read Today:

-The Cap That Mother Made
-Chapter 4 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 8 of Tonight on the Titanic

do you/did you have any Snow Day traditions of your own

As our school only ever closed once during my childhood for snow I can't claim to have any traditions. Actually, I only remember it snowing twice during my childhood at all and the first time it only actually stuck when it settled on a piece of ground that didn't get walked on - half an inch max! The second time was when I was sixteen and we had a real blizzard with quite a lot of snow that cut the town off for several days. There are only three roads into my home town. Two are quite narrow between relatively high hedges and the snow drifted, and the other is down a steepish hill that was too slippery.

>55 scaifea: great bag bag. And for a good cause too :) I was a bad school mum last year and forgot to take the kindergarten washing home when I had put my name down for it. But I made up for it by buying all the teachers a coffee one day, clever huh?!

Also, >8 luvamystery65:, :) :) :)
So funny!
We had no snow days that I can recall at primary, or secondary school! Although, surely there must have been one? Ok, I do now. There was a huge snowfall in 1994 and a lot of the kids from farms had to stay home and snow rake (rake paths in the snow for sheep to get to food), so there were a lot of absent kids. I lived so close to high school I could easily walk, and probably did so on that snow day, I'd say.

Have a wonderful weekend!

>98 LovingLit: Megan: Ha! I bet they loved the coffee day - how clever of you! And what does kindergarten washing entail?

>99 DianaNL: Thanks, Diana.

On the agenda for today:

Today is the Winterfest at Charlie's school, which I described somewhere above, so this morning I'll stick around for a bit to help the librarian- she's in charge of getting the HoCho made and ready, which means heating lot of water in those big urns, which are ancient and take forever and she had tons of other things to take care of, so I volunteered to do the morning book check-out for her. Which means that I get to help the kids pick out new books to check out and take home for the weekend, and I get to check them out for them! Love it! After that, which will take all of 30 minutes or so, I'll hurry to the grocery shops then hurry home and put the groceries away, work on getting the weekly bills and photos sorted, then back to school to help out with the actual Winterfest this afternoon - again, I'll be with the librarian on HoCho and Cookies duty. Not a bad gig, eh? I get to stay inside in the warm and hand out treats!
Meatloaf, baked potatoes and steamed broccoli for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I listened to a smidge more of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is, as predicted, absolutely perfect when narrated by Mr. Fry. And I started reading The War That Saved My Life, which is good so far, about a disabled and mistreated girl in WWII's London (well, at first - she and her brother have just escaped the bad mom for the train that takes children to the countryside for the duration of the war).

The calendar book for today: Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen. Sounds like it might be a lovely bit of fluff (I mean that in a good way) - anyone read this one? Thoughts?

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Doris Gates got the idea for Blue Willow (1941 Newbery Honor Book) from her experiences as a librarian helping hundreds of children from migrant worker families."
Huh, interesting! I haven't read this one yet - anyone?

Morning, Amber! Happy Friday! I just started Winterdance and it looks to be another gem. Have you read Paulsen? I know he writes YA.

Happy Winterfest Day, Amber! You hit the nail on the head with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, It tells the tale of how heart-wrenching the cruelty of childhood innocence can be. Truly, a sad realization.
Still Life with Bread Crumbs came to me last year through the neighborhood book swap. All of us agreed, we gave it a resounding meh.

>102 msf59: Morning, Mark! I haven't read Winterdance but I have indeed read some of his YA stuff and it's very good.

>103 Carmenere: Lynda: Isn't Striped Pajamas devastating? Such a powerful read.
And thanks for the tip about Bread Crumbs - perhaps I'll pass.

Morning, Amber! I've read Blue Willow, and I loved it, but that was way back when I was in grade school. DOn't know if I would still love it, but I can remember the artwork from it very well, so it definitely made an impression at the time.

If you and Charlie are reading a Magic Tree House Fact Tracker, Amber, I'm thinking he's liking the MTH books? As you may remember, I read those with our son many moons ago, and we had a wonderful time with them.

>105 Crazymamie: Mamie: Good to know! Since I'm making my way through the honor list, I'll get there eventually!

>106 jnwelch: Joe: Yes, he does like them! And the fact trackers are nice, too, especially this one, since Charlie is so interested in Lincoln.

>107 scaifea: :-) Glad to hear it.

>108 jnwelch: Joe: It's nice that they're tolerable for adults, too, since there are so many of them! Ha!

>3 scaifea: Grew up in Southern CA, so no snow day traditions from my growing up years. My daughter says when we lived in CO, we built snowmen or went sledding and had hot cocoa. I hadn't seen that as tradition, but if she does, then it is.

>109 scaifea: Agreed, Amber. Light, but enough content there to make it tolerable for an adult.

There were a lot of them when we were reading them lo, those many years ago, and I know she just kept going. :-)

>110 nittnut: Jenn: If she says so, then it is!

>111 jnwelch: Joe: Oho, yes, she's still writing them! I think she's up to #54 right now...

>101 scaifea: Hi Amber. I read Still Life with Bread Crumbs years ago and loved it. Then, recently I listened to it on audio and loved it even more! I've decided to listen to all of Anna Quinlan's books. She is one of my favorite authors and I loved all her books.

Great to see that Return of the Native hit the spot. I read it for my A Levels and, despite that, came away loving it.

Have a lovely weekend.

>113 Dianekeenoy: Diane: Excellent! I love it when a book gets varied opinions here! I makes me more keen to read it, honestly. And I've never read any of Quinlan's stuff. I'll keep an eye out.

>114 PaulCranswick: Paul: I'm glad to see that you loved the Native. I'm fairly certain that I would have loved it anyway, even if Alan hadn't been reading it to me, but of course he didn't hurt matters.

What We Read Today:

-Signs of Winter by Colleen Dolphin (one of Charlie's school library books, easy reader) - 8/10 = B
-Chapter 6 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 9 of Tonight on the Titanic
-Chapter 10 of The BFG (which it the one with the whizzpoppers, so there was much giggling)

BFG - one of the many great books by Roald Dald
The Return of the Native - I didn't care for it, nor Tess d'Ubervilles. In general, I don't find his (Tom Hardy's) characters sympathetic, unlike Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, or Charlotte Bronte, from the same period.

>56 kidzdoc: Don't kids have it so hard? 80o

>68 charl08: How many books do you read at a time?

>91 scaifea: 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' sounds too traumatic for me.
I must confess I've never liked Hardy. I received a collection of some of his books one Christmas, and I skimmed through them all but never read one all the way through. It was decades ago, but they all seemed rather depressing. Return of the Native, at least, had an almost cheerful ending - relatively speaking.

>94 labwriter: If we lived in a place with snow and optional snow days, I'm sure I'd stay tucked up nice and warm in bed, let alone reversing all the way to school!

Have you come across the Geronimo Stilton books? They're very popular in our library; no sooner do I return a handful to the shelves than another heap is brought over to be checked out by someone else. And my younger son likes to read them when he's in the library when I've got library duty.

>117 jjvors: Jeff: Dahl is amazing, no?
And I tend to think that unsympathetic characters are kind of the point with Hardy, at least sometimes...

>118 humouress: Nina: I admit that I was surprised that at least some of the characters weren't completely depressed and experiencing the worst kind of ending with The Return of the Native, based on my past experiences with Hardy's work. Ha!
And yes, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not for the faint of heart.

On the agenda for today:

We all had a bit of a sleep-in, then French Toast and now we're hanging out waiting for time to take Charlie to his gymnastics class. This afternoon I may do some baking (bread and maybe chocolate cupcakes) and hopefully there will be some time in the sewing room, too. We'll see. Pumpkin Soup for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I listened to a little more of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the car (excellently funny, of course), and I read a couple more chapters in The War That Saved My Life, which I'm enjoying quite a bit, too. And then, as I was putting groceries away and mixing up the meatloaf, I started listening to, um, well, you see, it's on one of my lists and so I simply must and I can't really complain about how silly a book is before reading/listening to it...*deep breath*...Twilight. I admit that I've always been curious about the whole hullabaloo surrounding this one and since it's on One Of My Lists I have a perfect excuse finally to see what all the stink is about. Too early to say anything substantive, but my ears haven't burned off or anything, so...

The book calendar weekend trivia question: "What strange habit involving trees did D. H. Lawrence have?"
Um, wow. Well, there you go. Any guesses? Hint: It is as titillatingly silly as one might suspect of him.

The Newbery/Caldecott trivia: "Lloyd Alexander (The High King, 1969 Newbery Medal) was once a member of the United States Army Intelligence."
Love that series so much and I can't wait to introduce it to Charlie some day!
Also, it's Alexander's birthday today! He was born in 1924.

Did DHL hug trees?

(>118 humouress: I'm not commenting on how many books I read at a time, for fear I might incriminate myself.).

I thought The Book of Aron told the story of a child in a ghetto orphanage very well, but of course beyond sad.

Hot chocolate in the library sounds like a great gig to me. Happy weekend.

I am going to go out on a limb (ha!) and guess petting them.

I'm late in answering your bonus question. I was homeschooled and we didn't have snow days until I was a... senior? junior? Because my sister started going to the high school in 9th grade and it was silly for some of us to be on one calendar and others to be another. Before then, our "tradition" was to keep going to school anyways and get out earlier than everyone else for summer vacation.

I didn't mind Twilight so much. I wouldn't reread the series but I found them light, entertaining weekend reads.

Oh my gosh, 54 Magic Tree House books! Well, good for her.

Happy Saturday, Amber!

How did I miss your Snow Day question? What I remember best is helping people with stuck cars get unstuck, and the camaraderie in that. Plus how quiet our town of Ann Arbor got in the heavy snow.

>121 scaifea: I found and got a Lloyd Alexander book today at a library book sale: Time Cat. It will likely go to our nephew, but I may very well read it first.

>122 charl08: Charlotte: Nope, he didn't hug the trees...
I think I'll stay clear of more children/holocaust books for awhile, if I can help it. Thanks, though.

>123 bell7: Mary: Ha! Nope, he didn't pet them, either.
So far I haven't found anything horrid about Twilight, but then again I'm not very far in and The Relationship hasn't started yet (and that's the thing that I remember so many people complaining about - how misogynistic it all was). We'll see how it goes.

>124 jnwelch: Joe: I know, right?! She's got a good franchise going!
Oh, I *love* how quiet a nice, big snow makes the world. There's magic in that, I'm convinced.

>125 harrygbutler: Harry: I haven't read that one, but I've loved all of his books that I *have* read - I hope you and your nephew both enjoy it.

23. Magic Tree House #17: Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osborne (Charlie's school library book, 71 pages) - 8/10 = B+
Annie and Jack take the tree house to the sinking Titanic in this one, to find a magic gift to help free a dog from a curse. I admit to being every so slightly confused but reading it out of order and have tried to subtly suggest to Charlie that he start checking them out in the proper order. We'll see how that goes...

Also Read Today:
-We Forgot Brock! by Carter Goodrich (public library book, picture book) - 8/10 = B+
A sweet and funny book about a boy and his imaginary friend, and meeting another friend, too.

-The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge
-Chapter 6 of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker" Abraham Lincoln
-Chapter 11 of The BFG

Hmmm - think I have some magic treehouse in the cupboard somewhere. Cass missed them but Will is heading towards them - I'll have to dust them off :)

Have fun reading Twilight, Amber. *Cackles*

I, personally, have a perfectly good reason not to read it. It's a YA romance. So you see, I'm allowed to hate it without reading it. Yay for me!

Morning Amber! Happy Sunday! Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

>128 BekkaJo: Bekka: Well, Charlie's really enjoying them and I don't mind them at all so far, so yeah, pull 'em out of the closet!

>129 Ape: Stephen: Well, I have an update to report: When I tried to listen a bit this morning while making the beds, my ipod refused to do anything. Yes, it's older than Charlie and due to go On The Blink any day, but I'm not entirely certain that Twilight didn't kill it...

>130 msf59: Morning, Mark!

On the agenda for today:

We're off to Dubuque this morning for breakfast and then a bit of shopping (we have a couple of gift cards to burn and we're thinking that we'll use them for new bath towels - exciting, I know). And then I'm hoping to get some time in the sewing room this afternoon, since all of the other weekend chores are finished, including all the baking: chocolate cupcakes and Hawaiian Bread, both of which turned out deliciously yesterday! Leftovers for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I read a good little chunk of The War That Saved My Life and I've decided that it's fantastic. I should be able to finish it today, hopefully.

No other guesses for the calendar trivia, so here's the answer: "When he had writer's block, he climbed mulberry trees in the nude to stimulate his imagination." Well, I mean, honestly. I'm not surprised.

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia for today: "A twelve-year-old boy wrote to Elizabeth Yates (Amos Fortune, Free Man, 1951 Newbery Medal) and said, 'Amos Fortune must have been a great guy. Did you know him?' Yates felt that she did."
Aw, what a cute kid! And the book is quite good, too.

Ouch. That climbing sounds painful. One of my worst recalled childhood accidents was sliding down a tree trunk in the park. My top tucked up and I had a graze that lasted for ages. Makes me wince just thinking of it.

>132 scaifea: we have a couple of gift cards to burn and we're thinking that we'll use them for new bath towels - exciting, I know

I'm planning a new ironing board cover :-) Have a fun day out together.

>133 charl08: Charlotte: Ha! I know, right? Painfully strange.

>134 susanj67: Susan: I got really excited a while back when I found a perfect fabric for a new ironing board cover so I made my own!

Happy Sunday, Amber!

Happy Sunday, Amber.

You've got me tempted to email my 25 year old son and suggest we read a couple of new Magic Tree House books together. That should throw him for a loop.

Happy Sunday my dear, sending love and hugs.

Hey Amber! Sounds like you have a nice relaxing day in front of you.

Morning, Amber! I would think that climbing mulberry trees in the nude could be dangerous. There could be some...you know...unfortunate chaffing.

New linens are a legitimate cause for excitement in my book!

Happy Sunday, Amber!

>129 Ape: But Stephen, does the cover have a photo of a person / people on it?

Hi Amber! Just getting started on catching up with the group today, and I've missed 3 full threads already?!? Wow! Loving all of your photos and book/life chat, as always. I've really missed being in this group more!

Weird question: Did you get your big red chair at JC Penney's? If so, I have the same one! Wisconsinites unite! ;)

>136 Carmenere: Hi, Lynda!

>137 jnwelch: Joe: Oh, you should! I bet he'd agree without missing a beat!

>138 johnsimpson: Happy Sunday, John!

>139 Thebookdiva: Abby: Well, now that the shopping is over with, yes, the rest of the day should be pretty relaxing.

>140 Crazymamie: Mamie: Ha! Agreed.

>141 foggidawn: Yes, although I don't like shopping much at all. Well, it's over now and we have new towels! Woot!

>142 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl!

>143 humouress: Hi, Nina!

>132 scaifea: new bath towels - exciting, I know
I just received an order of new bath towels yesterday and it was definitely exciting! It was so nice to dry off with a new, fluffy towel after my shower this morning. The old ones were in really sad shape.

>146 lauralkeet: Laura: It feels luxurious to use new towels, doesn't it? Our old ones are so bad that they're unraveling!

>132 scaifea: I'm also loving The war that saved my life. Bone Gap on audio isn't really doing it for me so I might get the book out from the library.

Regarding Twilight, I read all the books, it was ok for light entertainment, but Bella is not my sort of heroine, she's too passive.

I've found some excellent YA and children's through following the Jewish National Book Awards, adult books as well. I just finished Audacity, a YA verse novel.

>148 avatiakh: Kerry: I hope that you like the print version of Bone Gap better - I absolutely loved it.

>145 scaifea: I did email Jesse about the Magic Tree House books. Haven't heard back yet. He's probably thinking, another example of my dad's being looney-tunes.

>150 jnwelch: Joe: Ha! I can't wait to hear what his reaction is! You can always blame the loonyness on my, though.

24. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Newbery Honor book, 316 pages) - 9/10 = A
A young girl, along with her brother, both living in squalor and abuse with their awful 'Mam' in WWII's London get evacuated to Kent. They - and especially the girl - slowly emerge from the hell they've always known and begin to know what it's like to be cared for and loved, and slowly she begins to heal.
A beautiful story nicely told, and a thoughtful look at abuse and how young minds deal with that sort of thing.

25. Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln by Mary Pope Osborne (public library book, 113 pages) - 8/10 = B+
A nice companion to the MTH book involving Lincoln, and a good introduction to the president for young ones. We all enjoyed this one.

Also Read Today:
-How to Hide a Lion by Helen Stephens (public library book, picture book) - 8/10 = B+
A lion goes to town to buy a hat, gets scared by all of the scared people, runs away and hides in a girl's back-yard playhouse. The girl, Iris, befriends the lion and helps him hide.
A sweet and imaginative story with nice illustrations.

-The Book with No Pictures
-Chapter 12 of The BFG

Hi Amber! Hope you had a great weekend!

Hey Amber. Not catching up but definitely stopping by for my viewing of the Charlie, Mario & Tuppence Toppers. All three are unequivocally charming and photogenic!

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

>154 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel - we did!

>155 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen! Thanks! It remains to be seen how the week will go - Tomm has another business trip (he leaves today and doesn't return until Friday night) and we're expecting 8-12 inches of snow tomorrow. So we'll see.

On the agenda for today:

Tuppence has a laser treatment at the vet's office this morning, and I think I'll take Mario along, too, just because I don't think she'll do well left on her own in the house without Tuppence (I think she'd be upset that I went somewhere with Tuppence and didn't bring her along, and I don't want her pooping in my shoes while we're gone) and just take her for a walk while we wait for Tuppence's appointment to be finished. Then it's home to vacuum the house, do a little book fair work and then sew until time to pick up Charlie from school. I think we may go out for dinner tonight, since there's a chance we'll be snowed in for at least part of the rest of the week...

On the reading front: I started - and read about half of - Crenshaw, which is good so far. I've been hesitant about picking this one up, since I didn't really care for The One and Only Ivan, but I've heard such good things about it and then there it was on the library shelf just looking at me, so, well, here we are. I definitely like it better than Ivan so far.
In audiobook news: my ipod decided yesterday that it was Done. Finished. Like Monty Python's parrot, No More. It's not shocking - it's older than Charlie by at least 2 years, I think. So, I synced my itunes stuff (where I keep all my music and audiobooks) to my iphone and now I need to get used to the new look of "my music" over there. Gah. New-fangled stuff. We'll see how it goes...

The calendar book for today: Deadline by Sandra Brown, which is described in the blurb as "a combination of romance and suspense," and doesn't sound all that appealing to me. Anyone read it and want to change my mind?

And the Newbery Caldecott Trivia: "When his hometown librarian asked Jerry Spinelli (Maniac Magee, 1991 Newbery Megal) if he was a 'maniac,' he answered, 'I sure am. Aren't we all?'"
I liked Maniac Magee quite a bit - it's definitely worth a read if you haven't already.
And Happy Birthday to Mr. Spinelli, born on this day in 1941.

Morning Amber! 42 today and partly sunny. I will gladly take it for Feb 1st.

Good luck at the vet today.

>158 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I admit that I'm a little concerned about, um, crowd control with Mario. She gets so excited around people and she's large and strong and I'll have to juggle her and Tuppence and my wallet and,... Whew!

Good morning, Amber!

I liked Spinelli's Stargirl, but never read Maniac Magee. Sounds like I should give it a go.

>160 jnwelch: Joe: Oh, you should - I think it's right up your alley.

Morning, Amber. My kids liked Maniac Magee - well, Daniel and Rae for sure, I remember. Good luck with the vet. And good thinking to eat out with that forecast in store. Hoping you don't get all of that snow to deal with alone while Tomm is gone.

My sincerest sympathies on the death of your iPod.

>162 Crazymamie: Mamie: I get pretty perturbed when technology dies, because I don't know what to do with it. It always brings home my anxieties about green footprints and all of that. And it seems such a waste. Gah.
One of the teachers at Charlie's school offered this morning to send her husband and son to dig Charlie and I out if we get tons of snow, which is so, so kind, especially since she volunteered that without me even mentioning the snow! She knows that Tomm is gone most of February and assumed I'd be unhappy about a blizzard right now. So nice.

Oh, that is so sweet. When we lived in Indiana, the guy who did a bunch of construction for us would always show up and quietly plow our driveway every time we got snow - he would never take any money for it. He was just that nice.

Apple might recycle that for you - I know they take back old stuff if you are buying new, but I don't know if they just take it back otherwise. They refurbish a lot of that tech.

Morning Amber. Your iPod died? That's terrible. I also hope you don't get too much snow.

>164 Crazymamie: Mamie: It's so nice to remember occasionally that there are, in fact, many more nice people in the world than nasty ones, no?
And thanks for the Apple tip - I may try that.

>165 Thebookdiva: Hi, Abby! Yeah, but it's okay since I immediately transferred everything over to my iphone so I won't miss out on any listening time. itunes makes it pretty simple.

Back from the vet and it went pretty smoothly, even though Mario is always so enthusiastic about meeting All The People. *sigh*

>161 scaifea: Requested from the library.

Our grandpup Sherlock is great around people, but gets worked up around other dogs (he was attacked by a German Shepherd). So at the vet's they take him into a room by himself.

>168 jnwelch: Aw, poor Sherlock! Mario doesn't get upset - she's just *very* enthusiastic and *very* strong. Ha!

Amber's iPod RIP
Although a sad day, you may like keeping track of one less device. I haven't picked up my iTouch since mr iPhone entered my life.

>167 scaifea: Amber, one of my friends has a dog just like that. His goal in life is to make friends with *everyone*. And he's a truly gentle soul...but he's also an enormous German Shepherd, so there have been...misunderstandings. At least at the vet's they all like animals!

>170 Carmenere: Lynda: Ha! Yes, I think I'll grow to be happy with having just one device, but I'm frustrated right now because I can't figure out how to make it display current track/total tracks - I want to know where I'm at in the book!

>171 susanj67: Susan: Yep, that's Mario: a very kind, gentle giant. Thankfully we'd had no misunderstandings just yet.

Sorry to hear about your deceased iPod, Amber. I think I bought my current iPod in 2005, and it's worked great, although the display has just now developed two lines through the bottom of it, so it may be starting to show its age. I use it a ton, as I connect it to a Bose speaker to play music on non-work days, especially when I'm cooking or cleaning.

I've had good luck with nearly all of my electromechanical devices. The Gold Star microwave oven I bought in 1993 lasted until this past summer, and my car, a 1999 BMW Z3 that I've owned since 2002, is still running strong.

>173 kidzdoc: Darryl: I can't complain - I used my ipod tons, too. And I'm getting used to using my phone today.

>152 scaifea: Nice comments on The War that Saved My Life. I really liked this one, too.

My community occasionally does electronics recycling events -- I got rid of a dead Kindle that way last year. You might see if that sort of thing ever happens where you live.

>91 scaifea: yes, Amber, you perfectly described The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

>157 scaifea: Laser treatment? How is Tuppences now?
re Mario, yes some dogs don't like to be left out on anything, I have one like that (Ari) ;-)

>175 aktakukac: Thanks, Rachel. It's a good one, isn't it?

>176 foggidawn: That's a good tip - thanks! I'll look into it.

>177 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. That was a hard one to talk about.
And Tuppence is doing great - the laser treatments are to help her with her stiff joints (she's got a bit of arthritis) and they do indeed help her lots. We call them her spa treatments because she loves them! Apparently they're very relaxing.

26. Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (public library book, 245 pages) - 8/10 = B+
A boy inadvertently turns to the comfort of an imaginary friend while his family is going through tough times (losing their house and living in their van).
I hesitated about this one because I really didn't like The One and Only Ivan very much at all, but this one is actually pretty lovely.

Whelp, school has already been canceled for tomorrow and it hasn't ever started snowing yet. Looks like there will be homemade doughnuts at Scaife Manor...

What We Read Today:
-Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett (public library book, picture book) - 9/10 = A
A sweet story of a little boy ghost looking for a friend and finding one.

-The Book with No Pictures. Again.
-Instructions

Hey, even I get a snow day tomorrow and that hardly ever happens. Woo hoo!

>159 scaifea: One at a time is my motto....never had to juggle more than one child at a time, or one pet at a time...I'm in awe of people who manage it.

Recycling of electronics in Wisconsin. I'm a bit of a fanatic about this kind of stuff myself. Don't thank me. Just send donuts.

>181 BLBera: Beth: WOOT!!

>182 laytonwoman3rd: Linda: Well, it went pretty well today, thank goodness. There was a little girl in the vet's office, bless her, she was probably 3? Mario was certainly taller than her when she (Mario) was sitting, and the girl just walked right up to Mario, after asking if it was okay, and threw her little arms around Mario's neck. Mario, meanwhile, was in heaven. Absolute heaven. And that little girl said, "My goodness, you're a big one!" ADORABLE.

And thanks for the link! Stop by any time for those doughnuts (they don't travel well).

On the agenda for today:

Well, it sort of depends. Definitely doughnuts, but beyond that we'll see what Charlie wants to do with his snow day (it hasn't started snowing still yet). I'm hoping for some time in the sewing room or some time to work on the Latin book, but otherwise I'm open for all sorts of board games and such with my favorite 7-year-old. Spaghetti for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front: I listened to more The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (still amazing, of course) and more Twilight, which, honestly, isn't bad at all so far, if a little slow, although I suspect that that may be because I know what Edward is already going into it...

The calendar book for today is one I'm afraid I'm not interested in (modern poetry isn't my bag, baby): Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart.

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Few young readers have complained about the ending in Jacob I Have Loved (1981 Newbery Medal), but many adult critics have said the book ends too suddenly."
I can't remember it having an abrupt ending, but I do remember it being a good read...

Oh, and Happy Groundhog Day, all!

We celebrated early this year since we knew Tomm would be gone on the actual day: every year we watch the Bill Murray movie, of course - this year we watched it on Sunday night.

Morning Amber! Duh! I did not realize it was Groundhog Day. It looks like we will miss this upper Midwest snowstorm. How about you? It looks like we will get rain. I will take that.

Please search out, Winterdance and keep in mind, we have a TC game going...

>186 msf59: Morning, Mark! Well, Charlie has a snow day today but it hasn't started snowing yet. We'll see what happens. Since Tomm is in California until Friday (I mean, honestly), I'd be okay with not having to shovel the driveway...
And I'm so sorry that I keep forgetting the game! I'll try to remember to get to it today.
And I've added Winterdance to my wishlist - thanks for the nudge!

>183 scaifea: That encounter between Mario and the little girl! So cute. ( And how wonderful that the little girl had been taught to ask before approaching a dog she didn't know.)

I enjoyed the Twilight books well enough. They are definitely not beautifully written or anything and there's certainly some problematic stuff, but I found them entertaining. I've never quite understood some people's delight in eviserating them. (From some fellow English PhD types, it always strikes me as some manner of protesting too much.) Anyway, since you're planning on reading it in any case, I hope you find it at least somewhat entertaining!

and Happy Groundhog's Day to you too, Amber! Nice you were informed about the snow day last night.
Have a fun day with Charlie!

>188 lycomayflower: Laura: Eevryone round these parts seem to be good about teaching their young 'uns to ask before petting animals - I've not encountered one wee one who hasn't asked first. It's wonderful, really. And this particular little girl was such a cutie that I nearly asked her mom for permission to pick her up and squeeze her!
And yes, I don't really see anything awful about Twilight yet and I agree that sometimes folks latch on to something like this to pretend smartypantsness. Silly, really.

>189 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda! Well, the snow has started now, but it's very light so far. We're supposed to get hammered starting later this morning, though.

I remember loving Jacob Have I Loved but don't remember the ending. Maybe I should re-read it. Enjoy that Snow Day, whether it snows or not!

Good morning, Amber.

Snow Day! I bet you have a very happy young guy.

>191 katiekrug: Katie: Oho, it's coming down like gangbusters now. I will most definitely be shoveling later today.

>192 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! Oh, yes, he is over the moon! Dough for the doughnut is raising and he keeps running to the window to watch the blizzard conditions outside and begging to go outside (we will as soon as I punch down the dough in 10 minutes).

Happy Groundhog Day, Amber! Appears your weatherman didn't hear Puxatawney Phil's prediction for an early Spring. Enjoy your snow day.

Loved the topper to your thread, especially the Dorothy Parker book. Just stayed the weekend at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC, where we sipped a very civilized Dorothy Parker cocktail and attempted to be erudite.

>194 michigantrumpet: Marianne: I've been following your weekend talk over on your thread, but haven't chimed in - I'm totally jealous, of course!

Ohomygoodness, just got in from shoveling and that's the heaviest, wettest snow I've ever tried to move! I can already feel where I'll be sore tomorrow...

And here's what happened earlier today:

Looks like a good day, Amber.

I finally threw in my shovel (for the most part), and we have a teenage neighbor do the shoveling.

I just heard back from our son about the Magic Tree House books. He said we read somewhere near 30 of them, and that he was pretty impressed with us. I'm pretty sure we moved from those, once he outgrew them, to the Oz books. I had a ton of them from my own childhood - what Frank L. Baum did over several volumes was continued by Ruth Plumly Thompson and others.

>100 scaifea: kindegarten washing = 2x supermarket plastic bags full of tea towels, flannels, and ratty raggy things that are used to mop up the weeks' spills.

W liked the Geronimo Stilton books too, but he'd never sit still to read anything long enough for me to do library shifts in his presence. I'm so jealous you have a reader!

I hope your snow doughnuts make up for the snow shovelling!

>197 jnwelch: Joe: 30 of them?! Yes, that's impressive! And Charlie has the first 5 Oz books on his shelves - we've read the first one together already.

>198 LovingLit: Megan: It's cool that parents chip in to help with thing like the washing!
I've seen the Stilton books around but don't really know anything about them and Charlie hasn't yet expressed interest. That may be still to come, though.
And yes the doughnuts, along with some HoCho, were a nice way to recover from the shoveling, although they clearly cancel out any exercise benefits from said shoveling...

>199 scaifea: oops, you weren't the one saying about Geronimo Stilton and library duty...it was directed to you. But I'm still Andalusia jealous (!! Um, auto correct, what are you on?) that you have a reader. W is still holding out and has barely read a word this summer holidays. I am making sure to read to him every night though, and I hope he'll jump on the bandwagon, at least a bit, one day.

>200 LovingLit: Ha! No worries!
There were days last summer that I had to coerce Charlie to read - we had a schedule in which he would read to me every day right after lunch. So W will likely come around; sometimes reading just isn't the highest summer priority for wee little men...

>196 scaifea: Nice looking doughnuts, Amber! They look like a worthy treat after shoveling heavy, wet snow.

Is your book page holder from Levenger? I have one that looks exactly like that, except that it is dark brown in color. I've own it for years, and I keep it with me in my messenger bag, for emergency use.

>202 kidzdoc: Darryl: The doughnuts are delicious! I'm very much looking forward to them for breakfast tomorrow. I am not, however, looking forward to how stiff and sore I just know I'm going to be while eating that breakfast. Gah.
The page holder isn't a Levenger, but it does look very similar to theirs.

What We Read Today:

-Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? by Robert E. Wells (public library book, picture book) - 8/10 = B+
This is a book in the AV2 series, which is a cool collection: each book has a code inside that you can use on their website to access more information about the topic, plus a readalong. Very neat.

-Oh, What a Busy Day!

My daughter loved Magic Treehouse! She went straight from those to Harry Potter.

I would agree that Twilight is over-criticized. Would I want my daughter dating a vampire? No, but reading about it is a different thing.
There was a very good analysis by John Green about how annoying it is that people always trash anything that teen girls want to read.

Hi Amber! I am sorry you had shovel duty today. I suppose this wouldn't be the time to tell you about the beautiful, 70 degree afternoon we had here....

>206 cbl_tn: I suppose she wouldn't want to hear about mine, either. If it's any comfort, it's about 35° here. C.

>200 LovingLit: That was me. My reader now wants to turn into a librarian, but I'm trying to hold him off because I had to deny another little 8 or 9 year old girl. But I taught him how to shelve books, and work out alphabetical order for authors. Let's see if he remembers all that next week :0)

>205 banjo123: Rhonda: Charlie is begging me to start reading HP to him and I've told him that we'll read the first one this summer. I know he's going to want to zip through the whole series once we get started, and although he's ready for the first couple, he's not really ready for those older ones...
And I'm not surprised that Green rants about such a thing, since he writes YA! Ha! He is a smart cookie, though (and a Kenyon grad!).

>206 cbl_tn: >207 humouress: Carrie & Nina: Honestly, that would make me much sadder than the shoveling. It's February and should be cold and snowy! Yes, I'm sore is a few places this morning, but it's cold and wintry-white outside and all's right with the world. *grins*

On the agenda for today:

I'm devoting today to the Latin book, since I didn't get to it yesterday. I did laundry already yesterday and there's nothing else of consequence on my To Do list, so here's hoping I can get a goodly chunk of work done on that business (my co-author is getting antsy at me).

On the reading front:

I started reading Noah Barleywater Runs Away yesterday afternoon as I sat in the rocking chair with the heating pad on my shovel-weary back, and it's delightful so far. I decided to read it because it has occasional illustrations by Oliver Jeffers, who is very well-loved at Scaife Manor, and only yesterday when I started reading did I realized that it's written by John Boyne - the The Boy in the Striped Pajamas guy! Literary Sychronicity! Bookish Serendipity! I also read a bit more of The Waters of the Wondrous Isles last night - I made it through that tall stack of library books before any of them were due (can I get a WOOT!?) and so now I can get back to my regularly-regimented reading.

The calendar book for today sounds pretty interesting, although I have no pre-existing knowledge on the subject: Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang. Anyone read this one? Thoughts?

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "As a child, Joan Blos's (A Gathering of Days, (1980 Newbery Medal) favorite books were Newbery Award-winners: Caddie Woodlawn (1936), The Trumpeter of Krakow (1929), Roller Skates (1937), and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (1930)."
A Gathering of Days is just lovely, and I really liked all of Blos' childhood favorites (especially The Trumpeter of Krakow, which is amazing), except Hitty, which is, wow, just, um, not good.

Good morning, Amber! Are the schools closed today! More donuts, maybe?
Oh! A HP summer sounds fantastic! How exciting for the story to unfold to new eyes!

>210 Carmenere: Morning, Lynda! There's school today but it's on a 2-hour delay (we've got some freezing rain coming down right now). But no, no more doughnuts - I'm knackered. Ha!

Morning, Amber! Happy Mid-Week! How much snow did you guys get?

>212 msf59: Morning, Mark! Well, we got about 5 inches, I think, but it's snowing again now. Ding. Dang. I've just been out for some preliminary shoveling - my muscles can take light snow repeatedly today, I think, but not heavy stuff once, so I'll make a couple rounds this morning, likely. I'd be really okay with it stopping right now, though...

Ooh, bummer, Amber! Take it slow. We just got a lot of rain...thank the Gods. Just gloomy and chilly, here today.

>214 msf59: Mark: It seems to have stopped snowing and the sun is out, so here's hoping it's over, because I wouldn't have to shovel anymore if it is...

>196 scaifea: Are those homemade donuts????

I'm glad you are getting a break in the snow, Amber, although the truth is that I'm a wee bit jealous about the snow. I miss "snow days." :-)

Noah Barleywater Runs Away sounds kind of fun.

>216 EBT1002: Ellen: They *are* homemade doughnuts! Or were, rather. They're all gone now.
I didn't like the shoveling part but otherwise yesterday was wonderful. I loved having Charlie home yesterday and we had such a good time together.
Noah Barleywater Runs Away *is* fun so far, although I don't really know where it's going yet (but that's part of the fun, too!).

Might Noah Barley Runs Away be a good one for a 6-year-old boy? How old is Charlie, anyway? I know he is precocious but I'm always looking for recommendations for books for my 6-year-old grand nephew and it occurs to me that your thread might be just the place!

ETA: My grand nephew might be turning 7 in April. I think he is.

Morning, Amber! Hooray for bookish serendipity - I love when stuff like that happens. And your doughnuts from yesterday look mighty yummy. Hoping the snow slows down for you - shoveling was not my most favorite thing, I must admit, and I do not envy you the task.

>218 EBT1002: Ellen: So far I'd say yes, but after reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I'll hold off on a full-on recommendation until I'm done - there's no way I want Charlie to read *that* one right now at age 7...
Does your grand-nephew have The Book with No Pictures? And I'd also highly recommend any/all of the Elephant & Piggie books my Mo Willems - they're (super) easy readers and so, so funny. Oh, and The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home - if you get those for him, you'll be the Coolest Great-Aunt Ever. No, seriously.

>219 Crazymamie: Mamie: The snow has stopped thank goodness! I was getting ready to inhabit my Sad Place if it didn't, I'm afraid...

Oh, dear, I'm so far behind, Amber. I try to do better now. I wish you a lovely day.

Hiya, Amber. I'm finally starting my LT day. Hope all is well at Scaife Manor.

>220 scaifea: Thank you for the recommendations, Amber! I'm making notes and planning ahead for April birthday purchases.

Last Christmas (2014) we got him a Seahawks t-shirt and his reaction was "I wanted a toy." This year (2015) we got him one Lego toy and a stack of books and he was ecstatic. :-)

I missed the doughnuts! They look gorgeous. Hope that the snow shovelling is now done.

>222 Ameise1: Hi, Barbara! No worries - it's good to see you!

>223 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! It has indeed been a good day - I hope yours has been, too.

>224 EBT1002: You're welcome!
Ha! Kids and their brutal honestly sometimes, eh?

>225 charl08: Hi, Charlotte - yep, the doughnuts were pretty great and the snow shoveling is definitely done! For now, at least...

What We Read Today:

-Oh, What a Busy Day!
-Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (We have a beautifully illustrated picture book edition)
-Chapter 1 of A to Z Mysteries: Secret Admirer

>208 scaifea: Yes, my daughter was lucky in that when she started on HP, only the first couple of books were out. So she grew up with them, and they didn't get really dark until she was ready for it. Plus she got to stand in line at midnight for the last 2 or 3.
I've always wondered how people manage these days, when they are all out, and are at such different emotional levels.

Twilight talk is fun to follow. I found them mildly entertaining, and sort of like a train wreck - can't look away but it's gonna be ugly - and I was mostly bugged by Bella's personality. So darn passive.

>228 banjo123: We dole them out, one at a time, parsimoniously. *grin*

Morning, Amber! I actually like those Twilight books. Just saying...

I finished up Return of the Native on audio, and I loved it. Shocking, as it was written by Hardy. *blinks*

Hi there, Amber! Hope you're not outside shoveling snow :0( but comfy cozy with a good book with furry children beside you.

I don't know what to do without knowing what's on the agenda for today in Scaife Manor!

When I read Twilight back in 2008, I gave it 6/10 stars which isn't awful - but it's not all that great either. I wasn't doing my mini-reviews back then so don't know what put me off. However, from what I know about Twilight, I don't like "wishy-washy" characters and that describes Belle perfectly, right?

Good morning, Amber!

Your reading the illustrated Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening reminds me it's been too long since I've read some Robert Frost. That's a good one, isn't it?

Hi, all - sorry. Something funky is going on with my interwebs this morning; some websites are loading just fine, but others, including LT, wouldn't load at all until just now.

>228 banjo123: Rhonda: I've told Charlie that we can read the first couple this summer but then we should probably wait to continue, since there's some likely-scary-for-7-year-olds bits in the rest. He avoids potentially scary stuff like the plague, so I think we'll be okay.

>229 nittnut: Jenn: Admittedly I'm not very far in yet, but I don't find Bella passive at all so far.

>230 Crazymamie: Mamie: Isn't it good?! And isn't it crazy that it's so good?! I'm glad you liked it.

>231 Carmenere: Lynda: Nope, no more shoveling, just internet issues.

>232 rosalita: Julia: Ha! Sorry! I'll update the agenda in a moment...

>233 Morphidae: Morphy: Well, again, I don't find her wishy-washy just yet. Maybe that's still to come. Honestly, she seems a more realistic teen girl than most YA heroines, who tend to be more mature and bold and smart-decision-makers than I ever could have been at that age.

>234 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! Yes, Frost is pretty amazing, and I love finding books like this that make it easy to introduce Charlie to such amazingness.

On the agenda for today:

Whelp, The Monkey is off to school and I've went and had lunch at our local fabulous Italian place with a good friend, and now I'm back to do a bit of work in the sewing room until time to go back to school to pick up Charliemagne. Indonesian Curry Soup (a new recipe!) for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front:
I read a chunk of Noah Barleywater Runs Away, which is pretty great so far, although I'm nervous that it'll break my heart in the end just as Boyne's Pajama story did. I also read a few pages in The Crystal Cave, which is also turning out to be fairly excellent.

The calendar book for today: A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I'll possibly never get to this one, as I've not ever read any of the Wheel of Time books yet...

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Robert Lawson pointed out that rabbits had a good year in the art in 1945. That year, Lawson's Rabbit Hill won the Newbery Award, and the play Harvey, written by Mary Chase, received the Pulitzer Prize."
Charlie and I both loved Rabbit Hill - if you haven't read it I definitely recommend it!

>236 scaifea: Well, it has been seven years. It was a wild guess as to why I didn't rate it higher - not that 6/10 is bad, just average. Is she angsty?

>238 Morphidae: Morphy: Yeah, she's certainly a little angsty.

I stopped by the library today before picking up Charlie and they have their Blind Date with a Book display set up, so I came home with this one:



Anyone want to guess my date?

27. Noah Barleywater Runs Away by John Boyne (Charlie book, 222 pages) - 9/10 = A-
8-year-old Noah decides to run away from home one day and finds himself in a strange wood and at a strange cottage, which turns out to be a toy shop. He spends the day with the old toy-maker, who tells his story while also pulling Noah's story from him.
Whelp, I saw the ending coming and, as with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I didn't want it to happen, although it wasn't as intense or as devastating this time. I thought the very end was a little heavy-handed, a sort of 'yes, I get it already, I know what the clever secret is,' but perhaps the intended audience (maybe grades 3-5?) wouldn't feel that way. All in all, a lovely little read.

>240 scaifea: I couldn't guess, so Googled and it's not one I've heard of. I'll leave it for someone then!

>242 Morphidae: Morphy: I have to admit that I'm kind of excited about it because I've read one other of this author's books and LOVED it.

>240 scaifea: Our university library has the Blind Date With a Book thing going on, too! I didn't, um, set myself up, but I thought it was intriguing. I wonder if Seattle Public is doing it....

>244 EBT1002: Ellen: I've done it for the past two years and it's a hoot! My normal reading life is so regimented and I love it that way, but this is a nice step out of that.

I'm glad to hear people are still having fun with the "Blind Date." We did it the last 2 years but decided to give it a rest this year. The main reason is that we just don't have time to work out the "hints" on the outside jackets. We've done them in the form of personals the last couple of years, but I see that the one at your library was much shorter.

Annnnd, I'm finally caught up. Just in time for the next thread to begin. ;)

Hi Amber, I am the same as >247 rosylibrarian: above. Just got caught up before a new thread starts! Even though I haven't a clue as to the blind date books' identity, I am dying to know!

>240 scaifea: My guess would be something like The Death of Ivan Ilych, where the title might constitute a "spoiler"?

>246 thornton37814: Lori: This year they printed the first line of each book on the cover and I think it's a great idea. I thought about cheating, because I knew the first lines of some (and figured out others) of books that I know I'd like to read, but I was a good girl and picked out that I didn't know.

>247 rosylibrarian:: Ha! Yep, I'll try to find time today to start a new thread...

>248 DeltaQueen50: Judy: I didn't have a clue, either, but I love that first line - so alluring, no? It's The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee and I'm delighted with it because I've read her Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy and it is absolutely wonderful.

>249 foggidawn: Nope! See just above there. Have you read it? Have you read Ophelia? If not, oh you should!

On the agenda for today:

Grocery shopping this morning, then home to put all the new supplies away, do the weekly bills and photos and hopefully have time to start a new thread before heading to school to pick up Charlie at 12:30 - today is an early release. It's also the 100th day of school and Charlie's a little sad that the first grade classes don't really do much to celebrate (it's a big deal in kindergarten and he loved it). So, I'm going to try to think of some way to surprise him with a big of a celebration at home... We may visit the library today, too, before dinner, which will be at the local Chinese buffet, one of Charlie's favorites.

On the reading front:
I listened to a bit more of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I'm convinced that I could have it on constant repeat and never tire of it. Fry and Adams are a heavenly match. I also listened to more of Twilight and I'm still waiting for it to get terrible. Also, I started my Blind Date, The Midnight Dress and so far so good, although I'm not very far just yet. And I read a few pages in Dandelion Wine last night before conking right out and it's still just as wonderful as it was the last time I picked it up.

The calendar book for today: The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, which sounds like it just may be amazing - anyone read it?

And the Newbery/Caldecott Trivia: "Jean Craighead George's son had read all the Newbery books at the time his mother won the Newbery Award for Julie of the Wolves in 1973."
Ha! Neat! He must have been really excited, then, when his mom won!
Also, Happy Birthday to David Wiesner, born today in 1956! We love love love his stuff, especially Flotsam.

Morning, Amber! Happy Friday! Hope you have a good day and I hope you have a nice weekend planned.

>252 msf59: Morning, Mark! I don't think we have much of anything planned for the weekend, and that sounds pretty good to me!

I finally finished W & P. Yes, I am feeling quite liberated...

>254 msf59: WOOHOO!! Way to go, Mark!!

I love the blind date idea, Amber. My library does not hook up people and books in such an inventive way. It's more "Staff Suggests Shelf". Sooo, boring!
Have a Great Friday!!!

Hey Amber , I've got Solnit's book on walking but hadn't heard of the one you've mentioned above. Intriguing title.

I have the original full cast recording of H2G2 which I love and listened to endlessly whilst struggling with sleep (I always wake up when they are attacked by the auto planet defences). You're making me think I should try Fry too.

>256 Carmenere: Lynda: I feel so lucky to live in a town with an amazing little library, filled with fun and inventive staff members. Such a wonderful place and they all know Charlie and me both by name! It's our own version of Cheers, really. ("Norm!")

>257 charl08: Charlotte: I have the full cast version around here somewhere, too, but I've never listened to it. I'm afraid that now I'll be spoiled and not want to listen to anyone by my Stephen reading it so me. (Yes, I'm claiming him - he's mine. I unabashedly admit that he's my Fantasy Best Friend and I love him unconditionally.)

You have such good luck with your blind dates! I'd probably end up with either a book I've already read or a book I don't like.

>259 cbl_tn: Carrie: Well, last year my blind date didn't go so well, but I still love doing it!

That blind date book thingy sounds really neat. Nothing like that going on at my library, I'm afraid.

The closest thing to a Snow Day tradition when I was young-ish (when I was a child we had something like a 5 year stint of not much snow and hence no snow days) was the whipping up of a batch of Baking Powder Biscuits to go with dinner. I would happily swap a gross of them (and I really like them) for a dozen homemade donuts.

I love the idea of library as Cheers. Made me giggle.

Good morning, Amber. Happy Friday!

No snow days here either as I grew up in Florida. I think I vaguely remember a hurricane day though when everything was shut down. Does that count?

>261 Fourpawz2: Charlotte: Oooh, baking powder biscuits!! I haven't made those in ages. Note to self...

>262 charl08: Charlotte: It's seriously true. They all know me there. And they are all in love with Charlie. I've been outright offered the last two job openings they've had, without even giving a hint that I want a job, and I considered the last one, but I can only take a job if I can have summers off and that doesn't really work.

>263 jnwelch: Morning, Joe!

>264 Morphidae: Morphy: Ha! Um, no. I'm pretty much saying no to that substitution. Unless you made doughnuts, and then I'll consider it.

>250 scaifea: Ohh, I like the idea of putting the first sentence on the cover of the Blind Date books! I'll have to tell my coworkers about that idea for next year.

>266 aktakukac: Rachel: Isn't that a great idea?! Easy and it can be really intriguing!

The new thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/218638