Tag Archive | books

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.

A little scary or a lot scary (fiction)

Oct24

Seems like Halloween is more than just a one-day event now, as folks often celebrate the whole month of October!

Get yourself in the spooky mood with these great books which range from deliciously shivery to keep-the-lights-on scary (links to my full recommendations):

Baseball, high school romance, and a zombie invasion! I Love Him to Pieces is No.1 in the graphic novel series “My Boyfriend is a Monster.”

Pulled into Ghostopolis before he’s dead, Garth must find his way back to the living world.

A seance, a missing brother, a mystery in The Haunting of Charles Dickens.

What does The Mermaid’s Mirror show? Will Lena sleepwalk into the California surf and never return?

Is every vision thrust upon The Vespertine at sunset fated to become reality?

Swordfights, heroes, and soulless monsters – in modern-day Paris? Die For Me…

Lenah gladly traded her Infinite Days as a cruel vampire to regain her humanity, but her vampire companions want her back.

She carves charms against “the evil eye” for townsfolk, but something truly evil is swirling its way up the river, drawing Plain Kate along for the deadly voyage.

Hansel and Gretel’s tale gets a frightening new twist in Sweetly.

An old evil with a young face, The House of Dead Maids tells a chilling backstory for Wuthering Heights.

Ready for Halloween!
**kmm
[image from http://www.fundraw.com/clipart/clip-art/3163/Man-Fighting-Skeleton/]

Time to wander (reflective)

Sep13

Technology seems mighty essential to us these days, but sometimes unplugging is the right thing to do.

The internet access that I hoped to have during our travels through the American West began to vanish as the mountains grew higher and the distances between towns grew longer.

Yellowstone National Park was wonderful, as we watched Old Faithful and other geysers erupt, hiked to waterfalls, and celebrated the forest’s recovery from the huge wildfires of 1988. Elk? yep. Bison? in abundance! but no online access as we camped above quiet Lewis Lake.

Relaxing and enjoying the scenery will be the norm for a while as we travel places that Kelsa went (will go?) in Trickster’s Girl, through the lava-strewn wild country of Craters of the Moon National Monument, just down the road from the 50 (yes, fifty) nuclear reactors of the Idaho National Laboratories…

So it’s on to Seattle for the Kidlitcon bloggers’ convention this weekend, with Scott Westerfeld as keynoter (yay!), then time to tour the Oregon coast (hmm… where Maddie will chafe under the restrictions of DigitalSchool in the future of Awaken) and amazing national parks in several states (hello, Redwoods! hi, Crater Lake! nice to see you, Bryce Canyon!).

It might be a while before I can get new books posted here, but never fear! BooksYALove has lots of outstanding books beyond the bestsellers coming your way!
**kmm

Read around the world (reflective)

Jul31

We’ve circled the globe during July and the Ultimate Blog Challenge, highlighting books set in many countries (and eras).

The Grassland Trilogy reaches back beyond written history, showing the courage of young people trying to Escape the Mask, see Beneath the Mask, and go Beyond the Mask.

Cate of the Lost Colony traveled from the glittering court of Queen Elizabeth I to the desolate sand dunes of Roanoke in the New World, and Plain Kate, driven from her home by superstition, must search for answers down the river, into the mists.

Esty’s Gold took us from famine-stricken Ireland to the Australian goldfields in the 1880s, while The Reformed Vampire Support Group sticks together in today’s Sydney.

Online gamers in China, India, Singapore and the US are fighting For the Win and a fair chance at life.

Annexed and Briar Rose brought us perspectives on the Holocaust – the Netherlands, Germany, Poland – so many bitter sorrows, so many untold tales.

Modern-day Paris hides decades-old secrets in Die For Me, while in Montreal, Mira just wants her own today in Pieces of Me.

And we’ve just begun the Rivers of Time trilogy, as Lia and Gabi go back to 14th century Tuscany in Waterfall.

Oh, the photo up there? That’s me aboard the wooden sailing ship Southern Swan in Sydney Harbour in the 21st century. Ready for more great books in August?
**kmm

At Home With Handmade Books, by Erin Zamrzla (book review) – how-to do something new

Jul22

Craving a new journal in your favorite colors? Easy.
Need an itsy-bitsy notebook to slip a secret pocket? Simple.
Want to use that single unique sheet of patterned paper in a special way? Can do!

With this Fun Friday find, you can make your very own books from a wide range of materials.
Go green as you use old postcards as covers for a travel journal!
Be ready for a new school year with fabulous keepsake-gathering book featuring ziptop bags as pages.
Make all your holiday gifts with your own two hands, the paper and cover stock that you find, and some very simple tools.

Erin gives very understandable step-by-step instructions for each binding method, and you’re sure to go beyond her examples to create one-of-a-kind books that you’ll be proud to show off, share, or even sell. Of course, some will be so special that you’ll just hide them away so you can enjoy them all by yourself.

Your local independent bookstore would love to order this for you if not in stock. And ask for it at your local library so they know it’s a book that their patrons would use again and again.
**kmm

Book info: At Home With Handmade Books: 28 Extraordinary Bookbinding Projects Made from Ordinary and Repurposed Materials / Erin Zamrzla. Shambhala Publications, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [Video one and two – make a tag notebook!] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Recycle everyday materials into amazing personalized books as you create a Pillowcase Dream Journal or a Peek-a-Book with these clear instructions and step-by-step photos. Turn a favorite bookmark into an accordion book with space to write notes or make your travel pix into a fanfolded Travel Photo Album. Charming flutter books include a Sketch/Jot Journal, just right-sized for your jeans pocket.

Learn simple four-hole binding to make a Cut, Keep, Collage Storage Book with ziptop plastic bag pages for corralling photos and ticket stubs or use a sponge as the cover of your favorite Cleaning Hints Book. Take the outside cover of an old children’s book and rebind it with journal pages inside – ultimate recycling! The Yamato binding technique is preferred for the perfumed “Sweet Secrets Sachet Book,” while Ledger binding transforms leftover papers into a “Recycle Bin Memo Pad.”

Zamzrla explains tools, techniques, and papers as she guides you through each project and makes suggestions for variations and tweaks. Learn how to make these 28 handmade books, and you’ll always have great ideas for gifts and beautiful journals at your fingertips! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fun Friday!

Jul1

Welcome to Funny Friday, kicking off a long holiday weekend in the USA and the Ultimate Blog Challenge (31 posts in 31 days!) all in one fell swoop!

Sneak peak at titles rumored to be on board for future Fun Fridays: The Red Blazer Girls in The Ring of Rocamadour and also The Vanishing Violin, crafty fun At Home With Handmade Books, and a little undead versus living battle in graphic novel Ghostopolis.

Be sure that you’ve asked your local library or indie bookstore for these recent BooksYALove fun favorites (click title for full recommendation):

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman – school in space, dinosaur racing, spies = a graphic novel series with a great future!

I Love Him to Pieces (My Boyfriend is a Monster #1), by Evonne Tsang; art by Janina Gorrissen – Baseball, egg-babies, flirting, and a zombie plague! This graphic novel is set in St. Petersburg (be careful on your way to the beach this weekend!) and is first in a series.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier – yes, you can live through braces, junior high, and high school to come out smiling on the other side! Autobiographical graphic novel with heart.

Cinderella: Ninja Warrior, by Maureen McGowan – choose-your-own-adventure meets fairy tale in this kicking twist on the classic (ninjas! magic! secrets! the worst evil stepmother ever!); first in series.

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis – mix the straightlaced traditions of Regency England with some irrepressible magic and you’ll find Kat in the middle of it, trying to ‘save’ her siblings from their unhappy futures. Spunky Kat also has to deal with a stick-tight magic mirror, a too-proper stepmother, and a daring bandit on the woods road…

Fish, by Gregory Mone – Pirates, treasure-hunters stealing from pirates, maps and puzzles, and a pirate-to-be who refuses to fight anyone! Such a cast of characters, such a prize – if they can keep it!

Have a fun Friday, and happy reading!
**kmm

The contents, not the container

Jun26

Terry Border makes weird things – Bent Objects, to be exact. And he concocted this still-life at the behest of his publisher. Yep, a book publisher asked for a sculpture that showed eReaders zooming way beyond printed books… anyone else see the ‘huh?’ in that??

Of course, it is the contents of books that we crave – the drama, the emotion, the relationships, the information, the humor – and sometimes the container doesn’t matter at all.

If I’m looking for a map of the Lewis and Clark Trail, I don’t care if it’s online, in a National Park Service guide, or in a library book.

I’ve read numerous books in bite-sized pieces delivered to my email by Daily Lit, as Advance Reader Copies through NetGalley, and in whole works through Project Gutenberg (and have even helped proofread some new digitizations there).

But our brains just don’t read text on the screen the same way that they read text on a page, according to researchers, as Thomas Larson notes in his overview of several recent books and studies on the two methods of reading.

I still love print books best for fiction, curled up in my chair, with a cat or two on my lap. No batteries to run down, no cords or mice (sorry, kitties), no overheating (laptops can be lapscorchers). The tactile experience of turning the pages of a book contributes to our reality of the reading experience.

I like real.
**kmm

Happy Father’s Day!

Jun19

Since my dad is (a) driving with Mom somewhere in Canada with the cellphone off, (b) doesn’t get online at all (but does ask us kids to look up things when visiting), and (c) probably doesn’t know exactly what a blog is, I’ll still wish him Happy Father’s Day here as we look back at some fictional fathers in recent BooksYALove recommendations.

In YA books, dads can often be a cipher, just kind of a placeholder while Mom is the key figure – try Ten Miles Past Normal and Stolen for father-who’s-there-but-barely. Other times, Dad has to fill both parental roles (Zen & Xander Undone -not so well, and I Love Him to Pieces, much better).

Some are adoptive fathers as in Dogtag Summer and Heart of a Samurai, while others are fathers no longer in the child’s home, like This Thing Called the Future.

We have bumbling-yet-well-meaning fathers in Kat, Incorrigible and Visconti House, then trying-the-best-they-can dads in What Happened to Goodbye and Astronaut Academy.

Plenty of papas are long, long gone, as in Flawless and Fire, while others are rather too involved in their teenagers’ lives (Awaken, anyone?), as far as the teens are concerned.

Fathers might leave through divorce (Who Is Frances Rain?) or through death (Saraswati’s Way and Trickster’s Girl), and yet young adults must cope with their changed world, a world with one pair of guiding hands forever gone…

Of course, we’ll find these various sorts of fathers, father-figures, and conspicuous-by-their-absence fathers as we go along on BooksYALove = family is so often a key element in YA fiction.

So, wish a dad Happy Father’s Day today, even if he’s not your dad; there’s enough love to go around, right?
**kmm

A day for this, a day for that (reflective)

Jun12

Time to put a little structure into BooksYALove (but promise me that you’ll try some titles outside your “favorite” genre):

Mysterious Mondays – because there’s not a day that starts with P for paranormal! Books featured on Monday will have elements of the supernatural, mystery, magic, or other paranormal characters and situations. Quite a few recommendations recently in this category, like Awaken (futuristic), House of Dead Maids (ghosts, mystery), and Kat, Incorrigible (magic, alternate history).

World Wednesdays – getting away from the confines of home. Find a different place in the world with every Wednesday book, set in a country outside the USA. Recent recommendations in this group include Mamba Point (Liberia) and Stolen (Australia).

Fun Fridays – going into the weekend with a grin. Friday books will range from humorous ways that characters cope with life (Ten Miles Past Normal) to crafty books (Little Green Dresses) to graphic novels (I Love Him to Pieces).

Oh, Tuesday and Thursday? Gotta have time for books that don’t fit in these three boxes, although sometimes they’ll have books with theme-day elements (especially when a series is covered over successive days). Lots of realistic fiction here, like Zen & Xander Undone and Last Summer of the Death Warriors.

Watch for some Reflective Sundays, like last week’s post on YA Saves! and perhaps the occasional Sneak-in Saturday, where I discuss a book that – dang it – has gone shooting toward the bestseller lists before I got a chance to showcase it here, and I just love it too much to leave it off our lists here.

Think this’ll work? Any “hidden gem” titles that I need to include on BooksYALove?
**kmm

YA saves! YA books cover every subject & emotion

Jun5

I wasn’t gonna post today, but yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article about YA books “Darkness Too Visible” has me and lots of other folks pretty steamed up.

Check the Twitter conversation #YASaves for reaction from authors, readers, and librarians; we gotta wonder about the article author’s qualifications as a book reviewer… (search her name and tell us what you think)

Did she ask any independent bookstore folks about what books they would recommend to the worried mom in paragraph one? How about her child’s school librarian? Or their public librarian?

Maureen Johnson (whose 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope are bestsellers and won’t get the full BooksYALove treatment – so just go read them!) has a new favorite picture, by Anastasiy Gorbunov, which illustrates exactly how books lead to new interests and visions and experiences. (The caption translates as “Reading isn’t dangerous. Not reading is.”)

Dr. Teri Lesesne, “the goddess of YA literature” and major expert in the field, was explosively ticked-off by the article, as her LiveJournal today shows. The points that she notes there are exactly why YA books are so important, and why I’m trying to get the word out about the great titles that you’ll miss if you don’t dig past the big display stacks at the big-box bookstores or the “you’ll like this one” lists at the big online retailers.

Too bad that the mom in the WSJ article didn’t have someone to help her find that great book for her 13 year-old daughter… like Smile and Dancing Through the Snow and Sequins, Secrets and Silver Linings… sigh…

At least the #YASaves hashtag is trending high right now (#3) so the conversation continues! C’mon over to Twitter and join in.
**kmm