I like big books and I cannot lie.

I like big books and I cannot lie.

You other readers can’t deny,

that when a book on your shelf has an itty bitty spine,

you think a big book instead would be so fine.

Baby got book!

Dial 1-900-BIGBOOK

Baby got book!

My apologies to Sir Mix-A-Lot … (not really)

A while back I posted this picture on my FB timeline. Several people noticed, so I decided to write a little bit about the books on this shelf.

On the top of the table, by the little lamp are two piles. I’ll start with the one on the left. The spiral notebook is a journal I’m keeping for the book Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly. You can’t see the book, but it’s there. It’s half tucked into the journal and half the journal is tucked into the book. They’re being a book mark for each other.

Each year during Lent, ourchurch gives us a free book. During this season of the year I always try to DO more rather than give up something. Reading a spiritual book is always a priority. This year’s book, oddly enough*, Resisting Happiness, fell squarely into my New Year’s resolution of time management.

The next book down is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It’s a young adult book, which in my opinion, is an exciting and entertaining genre. This book has gotten a lot of press and I can’t wait to read it.

Next in line, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, has been on my to-read list for a long time. I picked this one up for next to nothing at a book sale. Finally, the last one in the stack, also picked up at a book sale, is by Diana Gabaldon. Need I say more? Yes???? O.K. She’s the author of the Outlander series and the creator of my literary crush, Jamie Frasier. (BTW my friend Debbie T. in Omaha thinks he is her boyfriend, but he’s not.) I can’t wait to read The Scottish Prisoner.

Are you still with me? Good! 

The pile on the right has the book I’m reading right now on  the top.  I’m reading The Book That Matters Most, by Ann Hood for a couple of reasons. First, I found her book The Red Thread,which I wrote a post about, and fell in love with it. Secondly, The Book That Matters Most was released around that same time. I plan to read all of her books. Maggie, the daughter in this story, at one point in her life works in a weird book store where the owner expects the employees to arrange/group the books any way they’d like. Maggie makes a shelf she entitles ‘her mom’s books.’ I’d need more than a shelf. Just sayin’.

Under that book is a movie….wait for it…. based on a book. (Surprise!) Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was a good book and a good movie. I’m glad I read the book first though, because I know I would have gotten lost in the story if I’d seen the movie first.

And under that movie is my Nook. I'm an equal opportunity reader. I read e-books, books on cd and good ol' fashion paper books. Under my Nook is our son Nathan’s first communion Bible that I try to read regularly. 

O.K. The first shelf. Easy-peasy. That’s our family Bible. It was given to us by Tim’s sister Jane and her husband Denny. This is the Bible Tim likes to read from.

Second shelf: Besides being a mess, it has a book I bought a long time ago and recently dug back out for Woman’s history month, which is March ladies and gentlemen. Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It’s a non-fiction book, and if I’m being candid, I have to tell you I have not finished it. Not a big fan of history type reading. But I have ‘read around’ in this book.

Under that book is the book sleeve for Nate’s little blue Bible. Under that, my volunteer binder from Women’s Choice Center. And under that, a beautiful photo book by Mark Hirsch called ThatTree. 

Now, the. Bottom. Shelf! 

The book you see there is a kid’s how-to knitting book by Melani Falick. I find that when I’m teaching myself how to do something, using kid’s books are best. They have easy to follow directions and simple pictures. I used to knit all the time and kinda got away from it. I wanted to pick it up again so I got out my book. You know what? It’s NOT like riding a bike. I’ve forgotten how to do stuff and my knitting is not smooth. My hands and shoulders get stiff. I had to pull this project out four, yes four times!  I’m not sure if I want to get back into knitting again! Geesh!

And finally, under the dreaded knitting book is a photo album. It chronicles our clean up history on our land. Boy, it's changed a lot over the years!

So there it is. My shelf.  A picture of me.

The scary or cool (you decide) thing is I have lots of other stashes of books around this house. Tim is a patient man. (But don’t tell him I said that.)

So, what’s your “deal”? What makes you who you are?

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

*Or maybe not so oddly…

Saving Red by Sonia Sones

I just finished reading a Young Adult book called Saving Red. People sometimes think young adult books are for readers between, let’s say, 14 and 20 years of age, but that’s not true. Young adult books typically have teen-agers as the main characters but the stories are far from teenybopper.

If you liked the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, or the Twilight series, you actually read in the Young Adult genre.

Any book in the Young Adult genre will be fast-paced. That’s one of the things I like about YA. The action starts right away and the reader isn’t stuck on pages of description of the carpet, or weather, or what-have-you.

Saving Red is no different. I mean, just read the inside flap:  “My name is Molly.  This book is about me. I’m probably the guiltiest person who ever lived…” I checked this book out from my library solely on the cover design and inside flap blurb.

But when sat down and opened the book, ready to read, I realized the whole thing was written in verse. Crap. I was looking for a good novel. 

Courtesy of Google Images

But then I thought about another book written in verse, Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech. That book ripped my guts out. (You gotta read that book, by the way.) 

So I thought I’d give it a go. I read the whole book in 2 settings within a 24 hour period. About 4-6 hours was all it took.

This is a story about a teenage girl, Molly, who tries to help a homeless teenage girl realize that going home is safer than living on the streets. The problem is, the homeless girl has literally went off her meds and is pretty much crazy. 

Not many fictional stories take on a topic as tough as mental illness. Even less have a likable main character with a mental illness. To top it all off Molly’s family is going through their own hell dealing with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Her mom is always high on doctor prescribed marijuana (talk about opening a can of worms!!!), and her dad is a work-a-holic lawyer.  

See?  Intriguing, isn’t it??

This is the one and only page in the book that
the verse rhymes. I laughed out loud when I
read it! That author is a trickster!

Check out Saving Red by Sonya Sones. You won’t be disappointed.  (In fact, you’ll be thinking about it for much longer than it will take you to read it.)

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine

Tek the Modern Cave Boy: A Review

A new children’s book being added to our library’s collection caught my attention today.

At first, I thought Tek The Modern Cave Boy was a baby board book because the front and back covers are so thick and board like. They were smooth and black, resembling, an i-phone. However, when I opened the book, I was surprised to see regular paper pages. And, you know, that first page had me hooked. This is just what an author works for: a cover that gets noticed and a first page that hooks the reader!

Picture courtesy of Google Images

That very first page looked like a three-by- three  i-pad security keyboard screen, but instead of numbers zero thorough nine, it had a mixed up variety of letters of the alphabet. The next page highlighted the security password: T E K. ---- And we were in! Time to read!

Tek, a little caveman boy who won’t do anything except game is missing out on all the adventures his world has to offer--- he could be seeing real live dinosaurs but he doesn’t even care! Evolution happens. He doesn’t care. His parents intervene- to no avail. All Tek ever does is game. (I love how the art work tells the story too.)

That is, until a volcano has a huge explosion and Tek’s tiny, narrow world changes.

This cute story, written by Mutt’s creative genius, Patrick McDonnell, tells a cautionary tale of how a person can get pulled into technology causing erosion of all other interests and activities.

I’ve written about the infiltration of technology into our daily life in previous posts. It’s a real problem. Patrick McDonnell’s approach to this topic is fun and hopefully, will be inspiring to young readers and their parents.

Look for this book at your local friendly library or bookstore. You won’t be disappointed.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine

Book Review: The Red Thread by Ann Hood

Last week I talked about how life events show up in my writing, and how I like watching for the unusual or quirky behaviors in people because these are the things that make a character believable. Makes them imperfect. Makes them come to life.

Then, I found a novel with a title that hits directly at the heart of my novel. I HAD to read that book!

Courtesy of Google Images

The Red Thread, by Ann Hood was written in 2010. It is a story of six American couples, each who want to adopt a baby girl from China. It’s also the story of six Chinese parents who, because of China’s One Child Family Planning Law, are forced to give up their baby girls.

The six American couples have complicated and sometimes overwhelming ordeals in their quest to build a family.  But the Chinese mothers’ stories just broke my heart.

**Spoiler Alert!**

Courtesy of Google Images

One young mother tried to keep her child hidden from the community because she already had a nine year old daughter. She would have been able to keep the second child had it been a son. (This part of the story is not fiction, but LAW!) She was tricked into helping another family member and left the sleeping baby unattended for a moment. Her husband when in the bedroom and took the baby away.

A teenage girl got pregnant and her boyfriend took off when he found out. When the baby girl was born, the teen had to sneak to the park with her newborn and abandon it there- hoping that she would be found before it was too late.

Courtesy of Google Images

Another mother had twins. Like the mom with a second child, she could have kept both if one had been a boy and one a girl, but since both twins were girls, she had to make a decision on which one to keep and which one to let go. (Talk about Sophie’s Choice!)

There are three more stories like this, each one devastating.

The American parents have their own regrets and pasts to work through in order to adopt a baby from China. It’s a soul wrenching story that, I believe, people who have never experienced adoption could completely understand. This story gives us a glimpse of that emotional upheaval.

The epilogue is eloquent torture. Ann Hood puts the words together in emotional beauty and my only regret in this story is that it seemed to end fairly abruptly.

Courtesy of Google Images

I wished I could have known more about why some of the characters made the decisions that they made. Did Sophie ever forgive Theo, and why is she staying with him? Nell, a powerful business woman, does everything she can to have a baby. Why did she think she needed a baby in her life anyway, and why did she realize she was making a big mistake only after she was on the flight to China? Did Maya ever forgive herself? Could she trust herself with a child?

I guess a good story gives you food for thought, huh?

Courtesy of Google Images

In the acknowledgements Ann Hood shares with us that she lost a baby daughter and that she and her family went through the adoption process for a baby girl from China. This fact blew me away! I don’t know how this woman, this mother, this author-lady could even write a story like this! She’s a super hero in my book.

Courtesy of Google Images

Ann Hood has written several adult novels, her newest, The Book That Matters Most, released in August 2016, is getting good reviews. I know that I’ll be reading it, along with all her others.

I send my love to all adoptive families. And to my favorite “baby”, David, I’m so blessed to have you in my life.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

 P.S. In 2015, China relaxed its thirty year old One Child law, allowing families to have two children of either/both sexes.  However,in my opinion, I think a statewide tradition (especially in China) would be very hard to break.

Banned Books

September 25 through October 1, 2016 is Banned Books Week.

Banned books on display at the LeClaire Community Library

We’ve all read banned or challenged books. You would be surprised by some of the titles that people/organizations have tried to have banned - many of them are very well known and loved books. Also, the list of banned and challenged books is llllooooonnnnnggg! Your favorite books might be on the list. Mine is.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees our right to read and write whatever we want (it’s called freedom of the press.) The first Amendment also guarantees the right to protest against something you find disagreeable (it’s called freedom of speech.)

Ironic, isn’t it? The First Amendments supports both sides of this argument. It says, “Go ahead, and complain. It’s your right.”  But it also says, “Tough luck, Chuck. Our citizens can read or write whatever they want!”

Libraries across the United States of America are displaying some of the books that have previously been banned. They’re reminding us of our rights as Americans—something we can never take for granted. They’re inviting us to expand our minds, and challenge our own thoughts and ideas. That’s important. Keeping it real, folks.

"If all books were banned and you could
save only one, what would it be?

One of my all-time favorite books, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, published in 1967, has been banned and challenged because of gang activity (the rich kids verses the poor kids), underage smoking and drinking, and family dysfunction. Seriously. What teenager could possibly relate to that? (Sarcasm Alert! Sarcasm Alert!)

Maybe we could have learned about real life from the late 1960’s family sitcoms.  My Three Sons, perhaps? No. That family was a blended family. For shame! The Andy Griffith Show? No. That show had a town drunk and Opie didn’t have a mom.

How about music? Well, Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel was big in 1968. Seduction of a younger man by an older woman was the theme of that song. That won’t do at all. How about Lady Madonna by the Beatles? It’s about a woman on welfare who has one night stands with all her kids in the house. Riigghhtt!  I’m sure all those TV shows and songs had no effect on society. Certainly no mirror of society.

Yep. This one is on the banned list too.

You can see my indignation is for real.

I’m linking a list of banned books right here. Check it out. Better yet, read a few!

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself,

~Nadine

P.S. If it weren’t for the First Amendment, there would be no place for Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, etc.

Reading: An Introvert Just Doin’ Her Thang

Being a reader is something that I do not take for granted.  I’m not sure at what age I became a “good” reader.  I remember being in the “middle reading group” in elementary school. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the groups were named after birds.  You know: The Blue Bird Group – they were the top readers, The Red Bird Group, and the poorest readers: The Buzzards Group—(not really their name).   And like all kids, I envied the Blue Bird Group. 

I have a distinct memory of my third grade teacher (nasty ol' Miss Brown) making a big stink over me mistakenly using the word ‘kids’ in a sentence when the text said  ‘children’. It went something like this:  The text sentence:  The children ran outside.  What I read out loud:  The kids ran outside. I remember she made me read that sentence several times until I finally realized my mistake. (I know now, as an experienced teacher, that those kinds of word substitutions do not change the meaning of the text, nor is it the end of the world if a kid can understand the meaning of the passage even if using an incorrect word.)  Geesh lady, take a chill pill.

I think sixth grade might have been the year that I stood up and took notice of literature. My teacher that year read many books to our class that I considered “risky.”   I wrote in a previous post about The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton and how that book changed me.  That may have been the beginning of my love of reading.  This particular school year was an all-out whole language paarrtayyy.  We got together in small groups and wrote extra chapters for The Outsiders, and then made the book into a play.  I remember my friend, Connie, was talked into being the lead female, Cherry Valance, because she had the best clothes of all the girls in our class.  We also wrote a newspaper based on the events of that story.  It Was All Good.  No taking turns reading out loud up and down the desk rows that year.  Mrs. Juanita Jackson (my teacher) knew what was what when it comes to engaging kids in reading.

When I was in junior high, I was put in an accelerated reading class.  This class literally was a speed reading course.  After reading a text that flashed on the screen-- I’m not talking computer screen, I mean reach-up-and- grab-the-handle-pull-it-down silver screen-- fired from a slide projector, we had to complete a comprehension quiz before moving on.  Oh, man did I love the status of that class and I was determined to stay above the line that would send me back to the regular reading class. The cool thing about this class is that I didn’t have to read out loud in front of the other kids. --  Because whenever I had to read out loud you could just forgggedddabout comprehension at that point!

I’m rather confused and disoriented when I’m in a crowd. (My husband often leads me through them.) I don’t do well with small talk. I’d rather just sit back and talk with one or two people- and even that’s difficult sometimes.  I get overwhelmed in unfamiliar surroundings.  I often observe rather than participate.  I like to people-watch. I like quiet. I am an introverted person.

It seems that introversion and a love of reading go hand-in-hand. My fellow employees at the library are all self-confessed introverts who would rather not be part of unorganized social situations. They’re all readers (of course) and they’re all cat people. (But that’s a different story.)

I’m not saying extroverted people don’t read. They do.  I’m just saying that for me, reading is a natural part of who I am, as much as being introverted is who I am.  I contend that extroverts read more for information and introverts read more for entertainment. Do you agree? Disagree?

What are your reading habits and preferences? Do they align with your personality?

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

75 Books

The Parade magazine that comes in our Sunday paper published a “summer reading issue” on June 26th. One of the articles was by author Ann Patchett. She was asked by Parade magazine to list the 75 best books of the past 75 years.  I read her list and I was not that impressed. Anyone can put together a list of best sellers. If she would have listed HER favorites, that might have been more compelling.

So I decided it would be interesting for me to do something like that. I use Goodreads to help me, yet it's still taken me a couple weeks to put my list together. The books I am sharing have all been in the top 100 most popular (not best seller, necessarily) for their year. I am only listing books that I have actually read. (If I did not read a top 100 in a particular year, I simply skipped that year.)

One caveat: Many of the books were not necessarily read by me the year they were published. Simply because A) I didn’t know how to read it yet or B) I hadn’t heard of it yet.

Oh, and one more thing: Since I was born in 1960, I thought I’d  start there and stop at 2015, however, for me 55 books was not enough. Ladies and gentlemen, this list is 75 books long!

Here. We. Go!

1960: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.

1961: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

1962: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

1963: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak,

1964: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory By Roald Dahl

1967: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.  (She started this novel when she 

was 15 and published at 17!)

1968: Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

1969: the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

1970: Love Story by Erich Segal

1971: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone (I didn’t read 

this book until I had my one little kiddos.)

1973: Socks by Beverly Cleary

1974: Jaws by Peter Benchley

1975: Forever by Judy Blume

1977: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

1977: Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (This was my first in a long line of adult romance novels!)

1978: Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel (Used in my teaching years- a great beginner reader book!)

1979: Bunnicula by James Howe

1980: Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

1981: The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks (My last read aloud to my quickly growing kids!)

1981: Ramona Quimbly, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

1983: Just Go to Bed by Mercer Mayer (A little critter fav in our house!)

1984: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

1986: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

1987: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (A great kid book)

1988: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

1989: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

1991: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (The first is a series—I read them all!)

1993: The Giver by Lois Lowry

1995: Where  the Heart Is by Billie Letts

1997: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

1998: One Thousand White Women: The Journal of Mary Dodd by Jim Fergus

1999: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

2001: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

2001: Deception Point by Dan Brown

2002: Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne (A kid’s book featuring time travel. I love my time travel books!)

2003: The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

2004: The Jane Austin Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

2005: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I read the whole series of this one too!)

2005: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2005: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

2006: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2006: Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

2006: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

2007: The Shack by William Paul Young

2008: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read the whole series)

2009: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

2009: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

2010: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (I still can’t watch the movie…)

2010 I Am Four by Pittacus Lore (Fun Fact: Pittacus Lore is not a real person…the real author is unknown)

2010 Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

2010: The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

2011: Divergent by Veronica Roth (Read this series too..)

2011: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (I didn’t read the others… really, this was more than enough!)

2011: The Martian by Andy Weir (This guy couldn’t get a publisher so he put his book on line chapter by chapter. It was so popular that publishers actually (finally) came to him!!!)

2011: 11/22/63 by Stephen King (A time travel novel- trying to stop the assassination of JFK. Great book!!)

2011: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

2012: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

2012: Gone Girl by Jillian Flynn

2012: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

2012: The Light Between the Oceans by M.L. Stedman

2012: The Rope by Nevada Barr (This is an origin story of how Anna Pigeon became a park ranger. There are several mysteries with her as the central character  that started way back in 2003)

2013: The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

2013: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

2013: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

2013: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

2013: Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

2014: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2014: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

2014: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

2014: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

2015: Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

2015: Girl At War by Sara Novic

2015: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

2016: Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

There you have it! Seventy-five winners! I hope you give one (or more) of these books a try.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself

~Nadine

http://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/