Sunday Salon: Books, books, books

Good morning. Right now it’s early morning and the sun is starting to rise. It’s pretty quiet over here with only a few of the kids up. The only sounds that can be heard are the keyboard as I type, the heater, and my coffee pot. The second my coffee’s ready, I plan on sitting at the kitchen table reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life. In the book, Tharp explains how creativity is really a habit that you have to foster. She also includes great ways to become more creative and exercises to get you going at the end of every chapter. I’m halfway through it and it’s a book I would recommend to anyone doing NaNoWriMo.

I’m also in the middle of a graphic novel, a memoir, a collection of essays, and some fiction. I have my hands full. Which is why Marie from The Boston Bibliophile and I are planning on doing a 12-hour mini-readathon this Wednesday. The plan is to read as many of our short paperbacks as possible. I have a ton of unread books on my shelf that have been sitting around for years. I hope to knock out as least five books since so many of them are less than 200 pages long.

My coffee’s ready and so I’m off to read. Have a great Sunday. What are you reading today?

Library Loot

If you don’t know, library loot is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share what they checked out at their local libraries.

As usual I went overboard with my library loot. Between my old loot and what I’ve just checked out, I’m starting to become claustrophobic looking at my shelves. But I’m up for the challenge. I’m hoping that November and December will be my best reading months of the year. I also don’t plan on checking out anymore books until I read at least half of what I have. Wish me luck.

• Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food by Leslie Miller (Women Unbound Challenge)
• Street Gang: The History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis
• The Man Who Forgot How to Read by Howard Engel

• Come Closer by Sara Gran (saw it on Nymeth’s blog)
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• The Heroines by Eileen Favorite

 

• Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry (Cybils nominee)
• Looking for Lucy Buick by Rita Murphy
• Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta (Cybils nominee)

 

• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (Project Fill-in-the-Gaps)
• Beware of God by Shalom Auslander
• The Brooklyn Nine by Alan M. Gratz (Cybils nominee)

Old Library Loot

• Flight Vol 5 – Kazu Kibuishi
• Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age - Maggie Jackson
• Faith, Hope, and Ivy June – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• High Tide in Tuscon - Barbara Kingsolver
• The Haiku Anthology: haiku and senryu in English

• The Magician’s Elephant – Kate Dicamillo
• The Wild Things – Dave Eggers
• Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
• The Unfinished Novel: and other stories - Valerie Martin
• Little Brother - Cory Doctrow

• Sprout - Dale Peck
• Twenty Years at Hull-House – Jane Addams
• Love, Aubrey - Suzanne LeFleur
• Once Upon a Time (She Said) – Jane Yolen
• Pip: The story of Olive – Kim Kane

• The City of Ember – Jeanne Du Prau
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth – Carrie Ryan
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven - Sherman Alexie
• The Onion Girl – Charles De Lint
• Uglies - Scott Westerfield

• Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories - Sandra Cisneros
• The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
• The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro

So that’s my loot. I plan on posting every day this week but won’t be hanging around Twitter as much as usual. I really want to read as much as possible. What did you check out from the library this week?

Mini-Reviews

Can you believe that I haven’t posted a new review in over a week? I don’t know if it’s this confusing California weather (thick fog in the morning and warm during the day) or what. I’m in the weirdest mood though November is supposed to be the month where I get so much done. The week fter the readathon, I didn’t read much. This week I’m in the middle of five books so the next review I write will probably be next week. I don’t have the energy desire time to write longer reviews so I thought shorter reviews would be a nice change for right now.

Rapunzel’s Revenge (2008)
Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale
144 pages

I first heard about this book during last year’s Cybil’s awards. My library just bought a copy last month and I’ve finally been able to read it. The Hales have taken the Rapunzel fairy tale and turned it on its head! After escaping from Mother Gothel, Rapunzel decides to go back and get her revenge on the witch and free her mother from enslaved in a mine camp. On the way she meets Jack of the Beanstalk fame and the two start on a daring adventure.

This was a great read. In this retelling Rapunzel is a daring young girl who won’t take no for an answer. With Jack by her side the duo chases off coyotes, wrestle with giant snakes, and rescue a spoil brat from a group of bandits. This is a book that has a place in my permanent library.

Amulet Vol 1: The Stonkeeper (2008)
Amulet Vol. 2; The Stonekeeper’s Curse (2009)
by Kazu Kibuishi

Kibuishi is the genius behind the fabulous Flight graphic series. Last year I found out about Amulet and read the first book in the series. The problem with reading books in a series is that you have to wait until the next volume comes out. Just last month volume 2 arrived and I dove in. Both books are about siblings Navin and Emily. With their mother they move to an old family home to start over after losing their father in a car accident. Only days after arriving, strange things start to happen and their mother is kidnapped by a strange creature and taken to another world.

Book two starts where the first book left off with Navin and Emily trying to rescue their mother. Filled with more action and adventure than book one, you can’t put this book down until you turn the last page. The graphics are so great, there were a few I wanted to blow up and put on my wall. Great read for all ages.

Peter and Max: A Fables Novel (2009)
Bill Willingham
400 pages

I have been a fan of  Bill Willingham’s graphic novel series, Fables, for years. Peter is a Fable who lives with his wife Bo (Little Bo Peep). When Bigby Wolf, Beast, and Frau Totenkinder informs Peter that his older brother Max has returned, Peter knows he has to go and finish the fight that started between the two brother centuries before.

With that said, I have to tell you this was an excellent read. Because I’ve already read the graphic novels I found the beginning slow-going and almost set the book down. After a while, the book picked up and I set aside almost everything to read it. The plot goes back and forth between the past explaining how Max became the Pied Piper and his jealousy with Peter, and the present as Max flies across the world to confront his brother.Willingham did a fantastic job providing the background information. Bigby and Frau Totenkinder both appear in the brothers’ past and readers find out more about Frau Totenkinder and the life she lead before coming to our world.

The fight that happened between the two brothers wasn’t what I expected after the build-up of so much suspense. It was a pretty crafty fight though. If you love fairy tales and/or love the Fables series, this is a great book for you.