An Evening of Science

As I have said before, Z is a big fan of animals and I have my degree in zoology. In our house, there are two books that are big go-tos for our animal learning. Tonight we had to find pictures of whale sharks (the world's largest fish) and blue whales (the world's largest mammal) to find out just how big they can get.

The first is the National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals. Z got this for Christmas from his grandparents in 1996 when he was 2! This is a smaller book but has a lot of great information and, of course, the photography is amazing. It also has a lot of correct animal drawings which I think are important for kids to see because scientists don't always have a photograph to go from when they are trying to identify an animal. It's about 250 pages so it's not totally in depth but just right for a curious kid.

The second book that we go to is much larger -- the 600 page Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife. This book is put out by the Smithsonian Institute and Z can barely lift it. He got this one for his third birthday. It has many more specific species examples listed and good sections on habitats and zoology topics like evolution, anatomy and behavior. There are fantastic large action photographs and good location maps for the species. We love animals!

Swimming, leaping and growling,
K and Z


Buy Encyclopedia of Animals and Animal on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Favorite Book Number One: Great Expectations

"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name being Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip."

Since I recently re-read this book, let's talk about Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.  I can't remember exactly when I first read this book but I think it was around 1994, when I was in college.

The story starts with a young boy named Pip, out for a stroll on the murky, misty marsh when he is suddenly set upon by the convict Magwitch who has escaped from a local prison boat.  In fear for his life, he gets the convict a metal file for his leg irons and some food and that is the last he hears of him.  Pip continues to grow and by-the-by meets and becomes a regular in the home of a local spinster, Miss Havisham and her ward, Estella.

When Pip comes of a certain age, he finds out that he has been financially provided for so that he can move to London and become a "gentleman".  He assumes that this gift is from Miss Havisham but has been expressly forbidden to ask about it by his lawyer.  Pip spends years in London, learning to be a gentleman and pining over Estella, whom he fell in love with in his youth.  The story continues on through Pip's maturity into adulthood and the resolution of his various relationships.

I have always liked the characters in the book, especially Pip and Miss Havisham.  They are believable and well written in their various voices.  The story never feels forced even when some parts of it are in the realm of the fantastic.  The descriptions of the various parts of England are vivid.  This book is good on so many levels that it's really worth a read.  Some people have a fear of Dickens but I think it unfounded.  He has a sense of humor and a real appreciation for all levels of society.

Do you love or hate this book?  Please join in!

Expecting greatness,
K


Buy Great Expectations on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Save Me From the Pain

Oh no! The reading headache strikes again! I think I have found the main culprit and it seems to be the way I sit on the couch when I read (and use my laptop). I need to either lay down or not read on this couch. As for tonight, I am going to beg off and catch up with you all again tomorrow.

Not to leave you empty-handed today, here are some things I'm planning to write about soon:

- My awesome set of really old Wizard of Oz books
- A list of 31 books for the month of October (the best month, by far!)
- My absolute favorite books of all time

Excedrin-ly yours,
K

The Kid is Boss

Sometimes when we go to the bookstore, I steer Z toward certain books and sometimes I just let him freely choose. This last Saturday was a "Z's choice" day. So this is what we ended up with --



Not such the literature snobs,
K and Z


Buy A Tale of Tails on Amazon for the carefree kid in your life.

"Mrs. Thomas Beresford shifted her position on the divan and looked gloomily out of the window of the flat."

Now that you are familiar with Agatha Christie's detectives, I'll tell you about the book I just finished, Partners in Crime. This is the second book in the Tommy and Tuppence series. In the first book, The Secret Adversary, they were in their early twenties and rather immature. This book takes place six years later. They are older and living more of a staid existence -- which is boring Tuppence to tears. Luckily for her, they are offered an exciting challenge -- to run a detective agency that is being used as a midpoint for foreign spy communications. This book has an overstory but is essentially a collection of short stories with each case they take on. One thing I liked was that they incorporated the techniques of the detective stories that they had read in their time, including Poirot in one story. This wasn't an obnoxious change of pace in each story but really more of a name dropping and a subtle subtext. I really enjoyed the format of this book as I think Christie is fantastic with the short mysteries. I'm sad that this is such a short series, only three more stories with Tommy and Tuppence.

Reveling in the mystery,
K


Buy Partners in Crime on Amazon or find it at your local library.

An Agatha Christie Primer

I previously sang the general praises of Agatha Christie but since I am going to do some reviews, I wanted to give you a little more insight into her characters so that, if you are new to Agatha, you can follow or decide which stories really interest you.

First, there are two main series. Hercule Poirot is a retired Belgian policeman turned detective who exercises his "little grey cells" in solving mysteries that he is hired to investigate. The picture in most people's minds of Poirot is the portrayal by David Suchet in the BBC's Poirot series. He is a fastidious man who is obsessed with his "moustaches". According to Wikipedia, Poirot is in 33 novels and 51 short stories. He is an iconic detective who always gets his man but doesn't always turn him in -- sometimes he lets the criminal take an easier way out.

Christie's other main series is the Miss Marple series. Marple is featured in a dozen novels and a handful of short stories. There is also a Marple television series on BBC. Jane Marple is a spinster who has a knack for ending up "in the neighborhood" when a murder has occurred. Her only qualification for solving these murders is her experience in life. She has an ability to recognize certain personality types in people (based on people she knows from her small hamlet of St. Mary Mead) and to use that information to deduce motives and actions. She is a cunning but soft-spoken woman who helps the police with her unique talents though she is hardly ever called upon officially to do so.

The final pair that star in their own series of novels are Tommy and Tuppence. There are five stories starring this pair. They are young twenty-somethings at the start of the series, much younger than Poirot and Marple, but the series ends when they are in their seventies apparently. I've only read the first two books in this series so far. These two have connections to the British government but in an unofficial capacity for the most part, although they do profit handsomely from it.

The final two recurring characters are Mr. Quin and Mr. Parker Pyne. Parker Pyne is a "problem solver", not just dealing in thefts and murders. The stories about him are amusing but don't really let you follow in the problem solving. Mr. Harley Quin is a supernatural sort of man who seems to be omniscient and he leads others to the right questions in order to find solutions.

Of course, Agatha Christie also has many, many stories that don't feature any of these sleuths. With 80 novels and 160 short stories, not to mention her numerous plays, it is surprising that she manages to keep such high quality through most of her stories. There are a few that are less detective and more supernatural that just seem a bit weak but these are definitely a small minority of her writings.

Still enjoying the mystery,
K

The Recent Library Haul

P.D. Eastman is always a safe bet when looking for a good children's book. Sam and the Firefly is about an owl who is looking for a friend when he wakes up late at night and meets Gus the firefly. They play around and eventually Sam teaches Gus how to write words in the sky with his light. Gus decides to use this power for evil and causes car crashes, airliner mishaps and, saddest of all, loss of business to a hot dog stand. When he crosses out the "hot" and replaces it with "cold" he fools the patrons who shout "We want our Hot Dogs HOT, not COLD!" Pure genius! Gus gets in trouble for being bad but when the time comes for him to save the day, Sam trusts him and helps him see that it's better to be good. This was a good beginning reader but it is a bit long so you may have to help your little bookworm to finish out the story like Z asked me to do.

Duck & Company by Kathy Caple is a short five story book about a duck and a rat that own a bookstore. They have the standard problems of a cat customer who wants to find a rat cookbook, a mother hen who is sick of reading children's books and just wants a nice scary story for herself and getting in a new "cliff-hanger" book that they stay up all night reading only to fall asleep in the store the next day. This book is very simple and should be an easy read for your beginner. Z liked the "chapter" divisions again ... he's a bit obsessed with chapters at the moment.

The kids tv channel Sprout has started showing some Frances cartoons and so we picked up our first Frances book this time out. A Bargain for Frances (Russell Hoban) is about how Frances has a certain friend who somehow always gets the best of her. Frances' mom warns her not to play with this girl but she does anyway and gets tricked out of some money. Frances then proceeds to trick the girl back and then everything is even. I wasn't especially pleased with this concept. This doesn't really fit in with the philosophy of "not stooping to their level" that I learned from my mom. I don't think I read these books as a kid so we will try another and see if the moral is a little less vindictive. Let's give the kids a few years before they learn to be mean-spirited and shady. ::wink::

Reading our way through the kids' section,
K and Z


Buy Sam and the Firefly, Duck & Company and A Bargain for Frances on Amazon or find them at your local library.

For the Little Girl in Your Life

If you are looking for a book gift for a 4 to 8 year old girl (or a boy that loves all books), consider this Madeline's House book set. It includes three miniature books -- Madeline, Madeline's Rescue and Madeline and the Bad Hat -- and the adorable cardboard house. The books are paperback but the carrier keeps them safe. I bought this for my niece and will probably gift it again at the next preschool birthday party we go to. It's just so cute!

In a giving mood,
K

Anticipating a New Release

For all of you Wicked fans, I just found out that the third book in Gregory Maguire's alternate point-of-view Wizard of Oz series, A Lion Among Men, will be coming out on the 14th of October. I really enjoyed the direction that he took Liir in Son of a Witch and am assuming that this is the second half of his story although the title definitely points to a Cowardly Lion storyline. Wikipedia says that this story picks up about eight years after the last one. I'm excited!

Buying my return ticket to Oz,
K


Preorder A Lion Among Men from Amazon or wait for it to arrive at your local library.

"The flash projected the outline of the hanged man onto the wall."

You may be vaguely familiar with the story told in The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte because you saw the movie The Ninth Gate, starring the ever-fantastic Johnny Depp. And I know that it wasn't the plot of the movie that made you choose it at the video store! Of course, if this is all you know about this book, then you have been sadly cheated. The movie (no offense to Johnny) was terrible and it took a twisted and intelligent plot and made it into a trite satanic piece of crap. If you have not read this book but have seen the movie, please go immediately, have that part of your memory removed permanently and then go buy this book! Then if you accidentally choose to watch the movie again, you will appreciate the book even more.

I came across this book many years ago on one of those "new to paperback" tables at Barnes and Noble. This is actually where I have found a few of my favorite books. The Club Dumas is the story of Lucas Corso, a mercenary middleman in the rare and antique books world. He is asked by a friend to verify the authenticity of a handwritten proof of a chapter from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. At the same time he is trying to prove whether another book, The Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows, is a forgery or if either of the other two copies in existence are forgeries. As Corso travels and contacts various people to complete his research, his life and maybe even his sanity are in danger.

If you are tentative about this book because of the satanic plot elements, let me reassure you. The discussions of the devil and his motives in this book aren't much more descriptive that what I learned as a teenager in sunday school. There is one brief scene with a "satanic ritual" but it's presented in a such a way as to seem almost ridiculous. The majority of the book is a cat and mouse chase between Corso and those trying to thwart his efforts. The New York Daily News endorsement on the cover says "Think of The Club Dumas as a beach book for intellectuals." I would say that it's less for intellectuals than lovers of books, especially the history of books. So, if you haven't read this book, give it a try. I've read it three or four times now and each time I find new things to enjoy about it.

On to another book,
K


Buy The Club Dumas on Amazon or find it at your local library.

2nds Challenge

Thoughts of Joy is hosting a "2nds Challenge" that I am going to do as my first challenge on this blog -- here are the details:

Have you recently (or not so recently) read a book by a "new-to-you" author and can't wait to dive into another one of his/her books? If so, please join us in the second 2nds Challenge!


WHO: Anybody

WHAT: Read 4 books by authors that you have only read one other

WHERE: Mister Linky will keep track of monthly books read here on "Thoughts of Joy..."

WHEN: September, October, November and December, 2008

WHY: Because we love to read...why else?


I am going to read:
1. The Black Tower - Louis Bayard (first read The Pale Blue Eye)
1. The Glass of Time - Michael Cox (first read The Meaning of Night)
--Finished on 24 October -- Review
2. A Vengeful Longing - R.N. Morris (first read The Gentle Axe)
--Finished on 10 November -- Review
3. Aurora Floyd - Mary Elizabeth Braddon (first read Lady Audley's Secret)
--Finished on 10 September -- Review
4. Memento Mori - Muriel Spark (first read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
--Finished on 18 October -- Review

Feeling challenged,
K

"These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket."

On our library trip this week, I decided to go ahead and pick up our first chapter book and start some nighttime chapter reading. Z has always wanted to read his own books so we've never been able to do this before. He's gotten better lately about sitting and listening to me read without grabbing the book out of my hands and taking off running. As I thought about which book to choose first, I felt that I couldn't choose anything more appealing to a 4 year old kid than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

There's no point in reviewing this book -- most of us know it by heart! I would like to recommend the version that we picked up at the library, the one that is pictured here, the 40th Anniversary Edition from 2004. The book is incredibly colorful with little sketches of candy on each page and different pastel colors for each chapter, along with the always fantastic illustrations by Quentin Blake.

We started last night and ended up reading three chapters and two chapters tonight. When I try and close the book, Z runs over and turns to the next page and reads "Chapter Five, The Golden Tickets" and I have to keep going. I'm enjoying reading to Z and even though it's not always obvious if he is paying attention or not, when he comes running back over to ask for more, I know that he is enjoying himself. These are the rewards of being a parent!

Happily reading,
K and Z


Buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Do You Series?

Today I just have a question for you all --

When you read a series, are you a stickler about starting at the beginning? I am. I don't think I've ever read a series out of order and I'm not sure I can either. I started reading Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn series but after six books, I have been having trouble finding the next two. They seem to be out of print. But I just can't bring myself to skip these and move on to the rest of the quite lengthy series. Is anyone else as mental as me?

Ponderingly,
K

"There is no mystery to happiness."

Really good first line? You bet. The start of a really good book? Not really. I stayed up until 4:30am this morning finishing The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. I was having trouble getting through it over the past few days and I decided to power through just to find out what happened. There are many good things about the book but it just wasn't quite there for me.

This book is a historical fiction/thriller about a lecture visit that Sigmund Freud made to New York in 1909. He apparently left America with an unexplained distate for the country and this story is a fictional account of what happened while he was in New York City. I'm a big fan of historical fiction from this period, namely fictions about Edgar Allan Poe. This book has many of the same elements, ie. discussions about the state of New York City's government and the trappings of high society. The main difference, though, is that in the Poe historical fictions, he is the main character. Freud was just a side character in the main plot of this story and therefore I didn't get to learn as much about him as I would have liked to.

This book had a few flaws that kept me from totally enjoying it, even as easy reading. First, the characters, on more than one occasion, use sarcasm. The problem with this is that it's hard to read sarcasm. I couldn't help thinking that this probably worked better as an audiobook. Second, there are few modern male authors that don't creep me out when they write about sex. This book didn't even really have any actual sex in it but there were references to body parts and such and it was just so awkward and almost immature that it was off-putting. I mean, he used the words "down there". Awkward. Finally, I just felt that the book needed some more editing for flow. The book is less than 400 pages long but for some reason it had five "Parts". These weren't any sort of scene change or time change as the book happened in about a week and the story skipped between different narratives. I'm not sure what the point of the parts was. Also, there was a bit too much movement between narratives and there were some superfluous characters. This should have been a bit more polished.

The copy I have of this novel has a review from Matthew Pearl on the back, whose books I have enjoyed. Now that I re-read the review, it's very well crafted to not actually say that it's a good book but to say that the plot is compelling and that the ideas of the book are intriguing, which I totally agree with.

As I am in Olympics mode, I will finish by saying that the book had good enthusiasm but was lacking in execution.

Moving on,
K


Buy The Interpretation of Murder on Amazon or find it at your local library.

A Quick Mystery Book List

Since I can't really be expected to ponder anything besides Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryant today, I am going to copy this meme that I found at A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore... (she has read 13 of them) and A Work in Progress (she's read 17).

The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's online members (compiled in 2000).

In bold are the ones I've read; books I'd like to read are in italics.

Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca
Dunning, John. Booked to Die
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money
Finney, Jack. Time and Again
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance Reading
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee
Walters, Minette. The Ice House
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man

I've read 8 of what they consider the best mysteries. To be honest, I haven't heard of many of these books (or even their authors) so I am definitely going to have to do some research and add on to my already ridiculously long wish list!

Mysteriously behind,
K

Olympic Reading Hiatus

I regret to report that my progress in the book I am currently reading has been delayed due to the Beijing Olympics.

Here Come The ABCs!

One of our favorite things that did a great job of getting Z interested in letters and words is the fantastic They Might Be Giants' Here Come the ABCs video and cd. T and I were fans of TMBG in our younger days (and still are -- don't despair John and John!) so when we saw that they were putting out an ABCs album for the little ones, we were psyched! I think Z was about 18 months old when it came out so he was just about ready for some ABCs and we were in the market for kid music that wouldn't make us stick our fingers through our ears into our brains.

With such awesome tracks as "Go for G", "Pictures of Pandas Painting" and "Alphabet Lost and Found", there's something for everyone. As with all of They Might Be Giants' music, there's a lot of variety in the sounds and styles of each song so it doesn't get as tedious as some other sing-songy kids' music. And the best part is that it lets the young ones learn that letters and words are exciting -- and boy, are they!

Rocking to the ABCs,
K and Z

p.s. if you like this one, don't miss their second outing Here Come the 123s. It's math-tastic!


Buy Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s on Amazon or find them at your local video store.

"Chapter One -- in which an account is rendered of a certain cynical escapade"

I'll admit that is not the first sentence of The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. It's the first chapter heading -- but isn't it amazing? You don't even have to get past the chapter title to experience the fantastic writing of this book.

After giving up on The Mill on The Floss for now, I decided to go back and read The Winter Queen for a second time. It had been a while since I first read it (Amazon says I bought it in February 2005) which usually means that I can't remember much about it. It turned out that I remembered most of it but it was still throughly enjoyable this time through. Akunin is a fantastic writer and I also give credit to the translator of this book, Andrew Bromfield. He does an admirable job of translating this book from its native Russian.

The main character in The Winter Queen is a 20 year old clerk in the Moscow department of detectives in 1876. Erast Fandorin begins his adventure when he is assigned some investigatory work into the mildly suspicious suicide of a college student. This small and seemingly simple case leads Fandorin straight into the middle of a worldwide conspiracy. His life is constantly in danger but his intelligence and self-control help him to perserve in the most treacherous of situations.

This book was mentioned in my previous post about the best detectives around the world and it definitely deserves its place on the list. There are eleven books so far in the Russian series, 5 of which have been translated into English. I am going to re-read the rest of the series over the next couple of months so I promise to write more about this high-quality series again.

Moving on to another mystery,
K


Buy The Winter Queen on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Telling the Story in Your Own Words

Roald Dahl is a childhood staple so when Z and I went to the library, I grabbed The Enormous Crocodile. We got home and I started reading it to Z and he lost interest almost immediately. It's got quite a lot of text per page and I think it intimidated him. I also saw a bit of nervousness in his face when we got to the fourth line of the book: "The Enormous Crocodile grinned, showing hundreds of sharp white teeth. 'For my lunch today,' he said, 'I would like a nice juicy child.'" I could almost see Z's little throat make a ::gulp:: motion as he slipped off of the couch and snuck away.

A few days later, I picked up the book again and started to read it to him. This time, though, I paraphrased based on some quick page skimming and looking at the illustrations and by the end, Z was laughing! He really thought it was a funny story and was happy that The Enormous Crocodile got his in the end. It was just overwhelming for him with the specific vocabulary and amount of text in the book. So, this is a good lesson that you can take any story that you want to tell your child and make it appropriate for their age and attention level with just a little work from your own imagination. This opens up the amount of books that I can share with Z right now and that's very exciting!

Without sharp teeth,
K and Z


Buy The Enormous Crocodile on Amazon or find it at your local library.

The Quality of a Writer

Here is my confession of the day ...

I have not read any of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and do not ever intend to. ::Gasp:: How have I come to this definitive decision? Through one simple but infinitely important reason -- every review that I have read (by a reasonable teen or adult -- not those cuckoo teen girls with atrocious spelling and an unnatural loyalty to a book series) says that it is an entertaining story but that the author is not a very good writer. I may have it wrong but I think that the best story ever, written by the worst writer, is just going to be a bad book. When I was a teen, I started reading Dean R. Koontz books. After two or three of them, I dropped them cold -- not because the stories weren't interesting or scary or whatever else they were meant to be but because the writing was so dreadfully bad.

I'm not a book snob by any means. I don't have to finish a book feeling edified or educated. I appreciate and enjoy many books, such as Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series, simply for their entertainment value. But just because a book is entertaining and/or "frivolous" reading does not mean that I still don't expect that it be well-written. For me, a story is only as good as the quality of the storyteller. And for this reason I will be avoiding this particular bad writer, however popular she and her stories may be at the moment.

Snarkily critical,
K

p.s. If you need some examples of the totally painful teen reviews of the book, check out the L.A. Times Book Review. My favorite line from a comment is "In my opinion, books are things that people take time to write in order to get an important message across in a way that both entertains and sheds some intelligence." Hah.

Sick of Reading

Okay, so I'm sure you can guess that I'm not really sick of reading. It's more of sick from reading. Every once in a while, I read too long in uncomfortable positions and give myself a multi-day tension headache. I'm just getting over one of these but I think I'm heading back to a headache by reading George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss. I get interested in the story of the two young siblings and their disfunctional extended family and then the book takes off on an overly descriptive tangent (like the current one I'm in about the history of the naming of St. Ogg) that bores me to tears.

I've already taken one break from reading this book and am now considering another. Two "breaks" seems like one too many as I am not someone who puts books down. I read one at a time and I read through them like I'm watching a movie. And it's not that I can't read books with tangents or philosophy and it's not that I can't read Eliot because I got through Middlemarch, it's just this book that seems more tedious than normal. Maybe this is just the wrong time in my life to read this book. I think I will set it aside and come back to it at a later point.

Now to decide what comes next ...

Indecisively,
K

Reading Program Accomplished

Our county libraries started a Preschool Reading Program (Catch the Reading Bug!) this year where the little ones get credit for being read to, spending time outdoors, going to the library and singing. Z finished his program this week. We cheated a little because he wasn't actually read to -- he reads his own books. But I think it was great for him to have a goal and to see his progress through the program.

Z ended up getting a toy, a piece of candy, a free kids meal at Ruby's Diner and, the best gift of all, a book. He got On Beyond Bugs: All About Insects from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library. It's a cute book that is chock full of insect information. I've actually noticed it at the bookstore and thought that Z would enjoy it. (Side story: The other day we went to the Insect exhibit at the Pacific Science Center and Z was thrilled to get to hold a Madagascar hissing cockroach. Not one of the "cutest" pictures I've ever taken of him but it'll be a fun time to remember!)

I don't think we will ever need a Reading Program to keep Z reading through the summers but I think it's great to let him know that reading is important and "rewarding". Too many kids end up thinking that books and reading are a punishment. But as we know, books are awesome!

Reading for fun,
K and Z