Tag Archive | reading

Happy Mother’s Day (reflective)

May13
photo of toddler boy and newborn baby sister napping

This small boy in his “I’m the big brother” shirt is a grown man now.
His tiny baby sister recently became a bride.

These days, their worklife involves communication, crafting word pictures, using pictures to tell stories.

I read aloud to them before they were born, on long car trips, before bedtime, and just because, the way that my mother the creative writer read to me and my siblings, the way that her mother the journalist read to her and her brothers.

A house full of books, a house full of stories, a home full of memories.
Happy Mother’s Day!

**kmm

A to Z Blogging Challenge – done and done (reflective)

May7

Today’s bonus post is about my recent experiences with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, so please skip over if you wish. Be sure to visit BooksYALove tomorrow to see why Myra firmly believes that Girls Don’t Fly.

cartoon of woman chained to teacher desk stacked with papers
Clip art  © 1998 Mark A. Hicks*

Questions in bold were asked by the A to Z Challenge organizers (bless their hearts for putting up with hundreds and hundreds of random bloggers), with my reflections following each one.

How did your journey through the alphabet go? Doing 26 posts in April was difficult because I promised all-new content and didn’t fudge along the way, despite hectic travel and conference schedule.

Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Not really, because there was no categorization of the blogs in the challenge & finding potentially worthwhile blogs was very hit-or-miss, based often on how well the blog name reflected its content and focus.

What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too…we want to hear it all) By posting all-new content twice as often as usual, I went through my To-Be-Reviewed shelf of books twice as fast as normal, but received fewer subscribers/followers than during other challenges. Many visitors were “drive-by” commenters who (like me) had landed on my blog even though it wasn’t in their interest area. A glitch in Google Analytics wiped out my statistics for 3 weeks of the Challenge, so I couldn’t even see if people visited other posts on my blog after landing there.

Did you enjoy posting daily? I wish that I hadn’t chosen to do this Challenge during a hectic travel and conference month for me – I was delighted when April was over.
What was your biggest hurdle? Staying true to my commitment to provide 26 new book recommendations in April when I saw that others had opted for a different level and could use repeat posts, cute photos, short poems, and still feel satisfied.
What was your easiest task? The writing itself.

Was time management an issue? (I know, silly question, when isn’t time management an issue – but, it is worth reflecting on) Having to pre-schedule and write 10 days of posts in advance prior to travel and conference was stressful.

And what about your content – did you have a theme or did you wing it? BooksYALove is recommendations of young adult books beyond the bestsellers; A to Z Challenge didn’t change that.
Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder? Finding the right book for each letter was a pain. Being stuck weeks in advance with writing about those particular books when others came along – but didn’t fit the alphabetic pattern – was an even bigger pain.

How about commenting – did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? yes.
Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? Absolutely yes. If your blog is so popular that you insist on having word verification enabled to protect yourself from a spam deluge, then why are you in a blog challenge?
What worked for your blog? I don’t use word verification or other sign-in stuff. Oddly, the first comment-spam that I ever received came during A to Z Challenge.

What will you do different next year? (Yes, you are doing this next year, you know you are, even if your brain is telling you to run for the hills – it appreciates the exercise) IF (big if) I decide to do A to Z next year, I will recycle some content instead of doing 26 new books. And I will be very, very selective about which personal creative writing blogs to follow.

What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event? (We would love to hear from you and know what you think would make this awesome event even better) – (1) Have bloggers self-select into a category & list blogs under those categories (crafts, kids, health, books, writing, personal creative writing, art, etc) at A to Z.
(2) Provide brief description of each blog (written by submitting blogger) so we know what it’s about! For instance, Michelle Rafter (WordCount Blogathon sponsor) had Jan Udlock help her make this useful list of 2012 Blogathon participants.

I know that it’s TONS of work to organize and run a blog challenge, and I appreciate the A to Z folks for freely providing this opportunity to bloggers. For me, it was probably just not the right time to lock myself into such a rigid structure.
**kmm

*Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com – clip art image of woman chained to desk Copyright © 1998 Mark A. Hicks

Lessons in blogging from classic movies (reflective)

May7

Today’s Blogathon2012 theme is “5 movies that have inspired my blogging,” so here are 5 classic movies that remind me of what to do and what NOT to do on BooksYALove – the movie title links go to Internet Movie Database.

Coincidentally, these movie-based lessons also reminded me of Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science, the pithy truths that underpin everything I do as a “librarian-at-large” on BooksYALove, as a contributor to www.abookandahug.com, and when I recommend books to family and friends.

image of old movie film reel
Clipart courtesy of webweaver.nu

1) Blue Hawaii – yes, the Elvis movie. During a family visit in spring 1969, all the kids got packed off to see this movie so the grownups could have some time without us. It didn’t matter if we liked Elvis or not, we had to go. Decades later, I still regret those 102 minutes spent at the Saturday bargain matinee when I could have been reading! So I want to make sure that I never say that “everyone will just love this book” on BooksYALove – because it just isn’t possible! Ranganathan’s Second Law states “Every reader his/her book.”

2) Planet of the Apes – wow! Seeing this movie as a young teen in the late 1960s was powerful and disturbing- because I had absolutely no idea of what it was about until we were in the theater watching it (another well-meaning extended family outing with all the kids, regardless of their ages). Ranganathan’s Fourth Law is “Save the time of the reader,” so BooksYALove aims to give enough taste of each book that readers can decide whether or not it’s one they’ll want to try.

3) Star Wars – the first one, the real one, the one that I saw 7 times (twice in French!), and I still have the 1970s t-shirt. The power of story was evident in this movie (known as A New Hope to youngsters)- classic struggle between good and evil, between doing the expedient thing and the right thing, choosing friendship and loyalty over the easy way out. Hmmm… sounds like the best themes in young adult books today. Ranganathan’s Fourth Law = “Every book, its reader.”

4) The Empire Strikes Back – We took my youngest brother to see this movie for his birthday during its first theatrical release (long ago…). As the opening  filled the screen, he leaned over and whispered “You know that Darth Vader is Luke’s daddy.” No, I did not! Why would I want to know the ending? Ruined the whole movie for me (at the time, it was the last in the Star Wars saga). So I will never give away special plot twists or the ending in any book recommendation on BooksYALove – a no-spoiler site by design and choice! “Books are for use” says Ranganathan’s First Law, not to stay on a shelf or be locked away – and I never want to make a book stay unopened because I spoiled that delicious journey of discovery for even one reader.

5) The Sound of Music – My Girl Scout troop went to see it on the big screen in the mid-1960s (and broke into song during meetings regularly thereafter – “the HILLS are aLIVE with the sound of muuuuuuusic”) – we thought we were just going to see a nice musical. But we also got a glimpse into war’s perils, not graphically or violently, but at age ten began seeing that there were many unfair things that happened to good people, that there was a big world outside our Air Force base housing, and that ordinary people can make a difference. “The library is a growing organism” is Ranganathan’s Fifth Law, and I hope to help readers grow their personal libraries through BooksYALove, as we discover other worlds and other lives through books together.
**kmm

Books in Space for Star Wars Day (reflective)

May4
photo of Darth Vader, woman in pink shirt, Storm Trooper

“May the fourth be with you” – it’s Star Wars Day*!

Outer space is a great setting for young adult books. Sometimes it’s the distance from home and safety that’s the major plot factor. Other times it’s the way that young people overcome obstacles which are magnified by limitations on oxygen, gravity, and other resources. And often enough, it’s other people who are the challenge to the heroes and heroines we meet in space-related stories, with results ranging from comic to tragic.

Check out these space faves on BooksYALove (my recommendation links open in a new window/tab) at your local library or independent bookstore:

book cover of The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes published by Tor BooksThe Moon Maze Game, by long-time sci fi authors Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, takes live-action role playing games to new heights as teams of veteran high-tech LARP simulation players are pitted against each other in a self-contained habitat on the Moon. Its puzzles, tricks, and traps may become the players’ allies when terrorists hijack the game habitat.

While today’s LARPers are limited to Earth, you can learn more about classic live action games at www.larp.com which has gathered info, strategies, and locations for 15 years.
cover image of Astronaut Academy Zero Gravity by Dave Roman Published by First Second BooksSchool in space sounds like the most fun thing ever, but Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity seems perilous to Hakata Soy, who missed the first weeks of school due to his crime-fighting assignment. Learning Spanish (and spying) with Senor Panda, dinosaur racing, – this graphic novel by Dave Roman brings stories from students and teachers in space.

While many elements of Astronaut Academy are over-the-top funny, Roman stays true to the science of space – human Doug must wear his spacesuit to stay out on the spacewalk all day and oxygen gum helps players stay in the game during fireball tournaments.

cover image of Across the Universe by Beth Revis published by RazorbillMeanwhile, a spaceship continues on its 300-year voyage to a new planetary system with settlers in cryosleep and a rigid hierarchy of crew members tending to the ship’s needs. But as they hurtle Across the Universe, someone starts unfreezing settlers and disarming the cryo-alarms. Some die from their botched reawakening, but teenage Amy is saved.

Still many decades from their destination planet, Amy knows that her scientist-expert parents are still Frozen, and Elder of the crew knows that Amy doesn’t fit into their society. First in a trilogy, followed by A Million Suns, with book 3 scheduled for January 2013 publication.

Of course, there will be great space-based YA books ahead, so keep watching BooksYALove to find your new favorites.
**kmm

*thanks to ABDO Books for providing the Star Wars photo-op during the 2012 Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Houston.

Happy Blog Birthday to me! (reflective)

May1

Wow – BooksYALove is a year old today!
Nearly 200 no-spoiler book recommendations posted,
Multiple blog challenges completed,
Now it’s time for the 2012 version of WordCount Blogathon, the challenge that got me finally started in blogging and the community that kept me going the whole year ’round.

I write the recommendations on BooksYALove for readers who seek something a bit different, who want to read interesting books that aren’t just the usual bestsellers piled in stacks at the front of the bookstore or screaming from ads. And no spoilers – ever! If you want to know the exact ending of a book or whodunit or who winds up with whom, you’ll need to read reviews somewhere else.

Young adult books are not only for teenagers, of course, as today’s YA authors skillfully navigate their characters through the perils of love and loss, identity and community, dreams and disasters that folks of all ages share. While some YA books are brief reads, others go well over 400 pages in hardback. If you like historical fiction or mysteries or paranormal intrigue or science fiction, you’ll find great YA books to enjoy.

So here’s a toast to authors and to readers – may we share many memories together through young adult books for many years to come!
**kmm

Birthday cake clipart courtesy of http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/birthday.shtml. Photograph of reader statue (c)Katy Manck 2011.

Giveaway Over! Cat Girl’s Day Off – feline interview, too

Apr3

If you’ve read my recommendation of Cat Girl’s Day Off, by Kimberly Pauley, then you know that Rufus Brutus the Third is a feline force to be reckoned with – even if he has been dyed pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

My cat Max (pictured at right) chatted with Rufus (see him on the book cover below). They decided to give one lucky BooksYALove reader an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book, so follow their instructions to enter the giveaway!

Max: You went through a lot in Chicago to find your person. Was it worth it?
Rufus: My person and I are an inseparable team – I inspire her writing, you know.
Max: Yeah, I help my person write by staying nearby, just in case she needs to pet me. And there’s a dog in your life, right?
Rufus: Oh, Fergie! I’ve had hairballs bigger than his wee little brain, but if he makes Easton happy, I’ll put up with him. The imposter [snarl!] was terribly mean to Fergie, but took out most of her anger against me.
Max: Chasing you with hairspray and perfume? What an awful person!
Rufus: And the things she did to other humans, like my Easton… [snarrrrlll] don’t get me started!
Max: Did you enjoy getting to meet other cats, despite the circumstances?
Rufus: It’s enlightening to travel, my person always says, and she’s right. If we’d stayed in Hollywood, how would I ever have run into Meep or PD or Queenie or Nat, the cat-fluent person? Maybe she’ll be able to convince my Easton to stop calling me Tiddlywinks and use my real name!
Max: Would you ever visit a school again, I mean, after all that craziness with the movie people?
Rufus: Certainly not! Their facilities for felines are definitely sub-par!

Max: So here’s how readers can enter to win an Advance Reader’s Copy of Cat Girl’s Day Off.
Rufus: But they have to give us their word of honor that they won’t try to sell it!
ARCs may NOT be sold!
Max: Exactly, but the winner can share the ARC with other readers.
Rufus: The giveaway is open to readers 13 years and older, with a US mailing address, since Tu Books will ship the ARC directly to the winner.
Max: And only 1 entry per human, to make it fair.
Rufus: To avoid those awful, awful spammers, write your e-mail address in the comments like this: RufusBrutusTheThird AT EastonWest DOT com.
Max: We’ll take entries through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 9th.
I’ll be up then. Will you be up, Rufus?
Rufus: Undoubtedly! Hollywood was made for late-night cats like me.
Max: Then all the entries will go in the Randomizer to choose 1 winner. My person will e-mail the winner who must reply to her with their US mailing address by Monday, April 16, 2012.
Rufus: You DO want to get your paws on my heroic tale of bravery as soon as possible, don’t you??
Max: Just for fun, add the color of your favorite cat, too.
Rufus: So my person would put “pink” – seems a funny name for such a boring color.*
Max: Good luck, everyone, and remember that your cat knows a lot more than he or she is telling you!
—–
*Cats can’t distinguish reds from greens and browns because they don’t have cones in their retinas.

Ready, set, blog! (reflective) – blog challenges ahead

Mar23

Did you ever get a “little set in your ways”?
Is it time to push your writing muscles a bit?
A blog challenge may be just what you need!

With over 150 book recommendations, BooksYALove heads into its 12th month with a wow, as I participate in the A to Z Blog Challenge in April.

Rather than just posting 3 books a week, I will be posting on 26 of April’s 30 days according to the Challenge’s alphabetical schedule, starting with A on Sunday, April 1 (no fooling).

Naturally, trying to align the alphabet with the stack of great YA books that I want to recommend isn’t as easy as I’d hoped. Using book titles would be simple – if I had some that began with X or didn’t have multiple titles that all start with the same letter. Ditto for authors’ names, last or first. So, there will be a few entries that get shoehorned into a letter slot because of their subject or a major character.

But why do a blog challenge in the first place? You’ve heard that it takes 30 days to acquire a new habit, so a month-long challenge with a set framework and some coaching will make your success more likely, as will being accountable to the challenge organizers and fellow bloggers as we exercise our blog-writing ‘muscles’ and encourage each other.

On April 30th, my blog’s first birthday, I’ll take another deep breath and plunge into the full 31-day Wordcount Blogathon, with a big thank-you to its host Michelle Rafter. Yep, I finally began blogging so that I could participate in the 2011 Wordcount Blogathon. Lots of excellent advice, a forum to share our posts, guest post exchange – you should sign up for the 2012 version, too! It’s free, you won’t get any sales pitches, and your blogging muscles will get great exercise. Sign-ups will begin soon, so I’ll remind you!

Ready, set, April!
**kmm
(photograph of lichen on oak branch (c)2012 H.B. Massingill Jr. – thanks, Dad!)

Book Award List Time! (reflective)

Jan26

It’s nice when someone validates your choices and opinions, isn’t it? And when the someones are the noteworthy folks on the American Library Association’s many book awards committees, then it’s even nicer.

Several BooksYALove selections were tabbed on the 2012 award lists, which looked at books published in 2011 and late 2010. And, yes, some are now on bestseller lists, but were posted here well before sales popularity moved them there. You should be able to find them all at your local library or independent bookstore, but you may encounter a waiting list!

Beat the rush on future award books by reading them whenever something appealing to you is introduced on BooksYALove – no spoilers, I promise!

As I read YA books that deal with real-life issues during the “YA Saves Reading Challenge” hosted by TheBusyBibliophile blog, plus all the wonderful science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction on the publishing horizon, I’m sure to find plenty of great young adult books beyond the bestsellers which will be included in future award lists – and you could see them here first!
**kmm

2012 Newbery Medal – Honor Book
Breaking Stalin’s Nose, written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin – my recommendation

2012 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults – “Forbidden Romance” category
I Love Him to Pieces (My Boyfriend is a Monster #1) / by Evonne Tsang; art by Janina Gorrissen – my recommendation

YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults
What Happened to Goodbye, by Sarah Dessen – my recommendation

Payback Time, by Carl Deuker – my recommendation

Ten Miles Past Normal, by Frances O’Roark Dowell – my recommendation

Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby – my recommendation

Huntress, by Malinda Lo – my recommendation

Legend, by Marie Lu – my recommendation

Karma: a novel in verse, by Cathy Ostlere – my recommendation

This Thing Called the Future, by J.L. Powers – my recommendation

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs – my recommendation

Now is the Time for Running, by Michael Williams – my recommendation
—–
(thumbs up image courtesy of Mohamed Ibrahim via http://www.clker.com/clipart-29226.html)

Reading beyond the box (reflective)

Jan5

A new year and a new challenge: Read and thoughtfully comment on 5 blog posts a day for 21 days…

Since it takes about 3 weeks to solidly acquire a new habit, MotherReader and Lee Wind have once again teamed up to help book bloggers get into the good habit of reading what other book bloggers are reading and writing about and (most importantly) joining in the conversation about the kidlit that makes us all so happy with their Comment Challenge 2012.

And there will be prizes for folks who register their 100 comments in 21 days (with 1 day off, just in case), too! We’ll be checking in with Lee on Wednesdays to update our totals and get a bit of encouragement along the way.

So, a new year, new blogs to read, new books to discover – onward…
**kmm

LIttle Women and Me (fiction)

Nov4

Fun Friday with a blast into the past, as a middle-school girl is launched back into the pages of Little Women – no cellphone, no jeans, no kidding!

It seems like the world of Little Women is so much simpler than modern life, but Emily finds that even in 1861, human nature keeps things interesting. And the personalities of those March girls!

So, can Emily change the parts she dislikes about her favorite book? Will her actions as “the middle March” fix it or spoil it?

You’re sure to find the original Little Women at your local library or indie bookseller, but if you’d like to read Emily’s favorite online -free!- in a variety of formats, visit Project Gutenburg here.
**kmm

Book info: Little Women and Me / Lauren Baratz-Logsted. Bloomsbury, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

Recommendation: Emily jumps into the assignment to change something in a classic novel – she can’t change her real-life family, can she? Being a middle sister is just so annoying…

Back in the pages of her favorite book, Little Women, Emily tries to decide on just one thing to change: Prevent sweet Beth from dying? Keep Papa out of the Civil War fighting? Have boy-next-door Laurence marry Jo instead of silly Amy?

Suddenly she is whirled into the book itself – as middle March sister Emily!! What a different world – life for 13 year-old girls in 1861 means corsets and needlework, not jeans and text messages.

As she lives through the events chronicled in the novel’s pages, Emily tries to fit into the story without giving herself away as a time-traveler. School isn’t mandatory for girls? Hooray! Reading aloud to grumpy, demanding Aunt March? Yikes! Long evenings at home with sewing instead of the internet? Urrr…

Key events in the story are just around the corner – can Emily change things enough to keep Beth alive or make Laurie realize that he loves his best friend Jo instead of her sister Amy? And what will happen to Emily when the last page of the book is turned?

Whether reading this before or after Little Women itself, readers will see 19th century life and Alcott’s classic tale in a deeper way through Emily’s humorous adventures and misadventures. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.