Mrs. Claus Explains It All (2008)
Written by Elsbeth Claus.
Illustrated by David Wenzel
Review copy from Publisher

In Mrs. Claus Explains it All, Mrs. Claus answers the questions that real kids have, from how Santa’s reindeer received their names to how Santa’s village is hidden from almost everyone. There’s questions about Santa’s favorite food and also whether Santa is exercising or not since he’s getting a little big.  One child wanted to know where did the elves come from. One of my favorite answers in the book is the answer Mrs. Claus gives about what the elves’ favorite books are. One answer I didn’t really like was the answer Mrs. Claus gives about why we don’t always receive what we ask for. Sometimes no matter how hard we wish or pray for something, we’re not going to get it.

The illustrations by artist David Wenzel was part of the magic of this book. My favorite illustrations are the ones of Santa’s Village on the endpapers and the elves in the Village’s library.

I read this book during my kids’ book club meeting and they enjoyed the book a lot. My daughter was happy to learn that Santa’s favorite food is macaroni and cheese. Guess what we’re leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve?

Mrs. Claus Explains it All is a perfect book for the Christmas season and children who want their questions answered.

Horrid Henry’s Christmas (2006)
Francesca Simon
Illustrated by Tony Ross
Copy from Publisher

Goodness, I had no idea what I was getting into reading Horrid Henry’s Christmas. To call Henry horrid is no exaggeration. From stealing the show in his school’s Christmas play to forgetting to buy his family Christmas gifts (or forgetting to replace the ones he ate or used), to fighting with his brother Perfect Peter, the boy is a handful. With all his adventures I did laugh often but wondered how Henry’s parents secretly coped with him.

My favorite story in the book was “Horrid Henry’s Ambush” which made me laugh so hard, tears ran down my face. In the story, Henry tries to ambush Santa to ensure that he gets the presents he wants.  He lays a trap filled with string, a bucket of water, jump rope, and a whoopie cushion.  I won’t give the ending away but it has a surprise or two. I read a few of the stories included in the book to my kids and they loved it. Horrid Henry is a hit with independent readers.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that’s hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.  The event spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly awaiting.

Yesterday it started out small. One bookseller on Twitter was talking about this great book she was reading that isn’t due out until June 2010. Then another bookseller started talking about the same book  and peaking everyone’s interest. The book? The Passage by Justin Cronin. What is it about? According to a New York Times article, “death row inmates transformed into vampires by a government-spawned virus”.  I cannot wait to get my hands on this book!

What book are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Hopefully this is my last challenge post for awhile. Since my last post so many great challenges have posted by fellow bloggers  that fit in with my “deliberately reading” focus for next year and I’m dying to sign up.

Essay Reading Challenge 2010January 1, 2010 to November 31, 2010

I am so excited that Carrie of Books and Movies decided to hosted this challenge once again. It’s  one of my favorite challenges. Participants sign up to read 10, 20, or 30 essays. I love essays and enjoy reading them so I’m signing up for the 30 essays level though I’m hoping to read much more than that. For extra credit, participants can write an essay and link it to the challenge page. The grand prize for participants who read and review at least one essay will be The Best American Essays of 2010 edited by Mary Oliver. Look out for Carrie’s post filled with essay recommendations this Sunday.

African Diaspora Challenge
Hosted by BrownGirlSpeaks
When? All of 2010

The goal of this challenge is for participants to read books written by Black authors and set in Africa, North America, South America, Central America, South America, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, or Europe. There are three levels of participation and I’m committing at the scholar level which is to read at least twelve books. I’m not coming up with a list. I’m going to make it up as I go.

Art History Challenge
hosted by Sarah
All of 2010

Joining this challenge just like almost every challenge I’m joining is part of my goal to read deliberately next year. I don’t think I’ve ever read any books that have to do with art so this challenge is really outside of my comfort zone.

My goal is to participate at the curious level and read at least 3 books about art, non-fiction or fiction.

Chunkster Challenge
Hosted by Wendy of Caribousmom
February 1, 2010 through January 31, 2011

Chunkster: 450 pages or more of adult literature (non-fiction or fiction)

I always felt a lot of pressure to read smaller books because of blogging. There’s nothing wrong with larger books but I’ve always wanted to post often and smaller books help. Next year, instead of giving into my own induced guilt, I’m reading a few chunksters. So I’m committing to the smallest level: reading three books also known as The Chubby Chunkster.

A few of the chunksters I’m looking forward to reading:

1. The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters
2. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
3. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
4. Admissions – Jean Hanff Koreltiz
5. The Fellowship of the Rings: Part 1 of Lord of the Rings – Tolkien

Cybils Award Challenge
Hosted by Michelle over at Galleysmith
December 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010

Every year when the Cybils Awards open up for nominations, people of all ages flock to the website to nominate some of their favorite reads of that year. Michelle came up with the great idea to host a reading challenge based on the award’s nominees.

I’ve decided that I’m going to read five nominees from each of the following five categories:

Non-Fiction: Picture Book

Fiction: Picture Book

Fiction: YA

Fiction: Middle School

Graphic Novel: MG

One lucky participant who signs up for the “categorically speaking” level and reads and reviews every book from at least one of the categories will be eligible to win a $100 gift card to Borders Books.

Young Readers Challenge 2010
All of 2010

Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews is once again hosting this challenge. The goal is to read at least twelve children’s books. I love children’s books so this challenge will be no problem.

That’s How I Blog Twenty Minute Book Club
Hosted by Nicole over at Linus’s Blanket
December 29, 2009 to December 31, 2010

Nicole has a great radio show called That’s How I Blog! Every Tuesday night she interviews  a blogger from around the blogisphere. It’s always fun to listen in to the conversation and chat in the chat room. During the last 20 minutes of the show, Nicole has a twenty minute book club where bloggers can call in and discuss one book chosen by the interviewee.

Nicole says,

The purpose of this challenge will be to read the books being discussed for the Twenty Minute Book Club portion of That’s How I Blog! It’s a great opportunity to share a reading list with your fellow readers.  In addition to the show there will be a Google Wave for each book we discuss (no cliques here, contact me for wave participation) and twitter discussion with hashtag #20minbc.

I’m participating in the Aluminum level, which is read four books from the 2010 list of books.

So that’s a few more of the challenges I’ve signed up for in 2010. Have you signed up for more challenges too?

Last week I took an unofficial break from from blogging to focus on finals. With school basically over for the next four weeks, I can finally come back to reading and blogging.

Two weeks ago, Michelle from Galleymith, Jennifer from The Literate Housewife, Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog, and myself were all on Twitter discussing our reading plans for next year. Rebecca came up with the great name, A Year of Reading Deliberately. I had been thinking about my reading plans for a while before the discussion. This year a lot of the books I read were ‘blah’, nice but nothing I want to keep on my shelves or buy. They weren’t memorable. I would like to blame this on being a moody reader but I can’t. Thinking about my favorite reads of this year won’t be too hard because the favorites really stick out. Next year I want to read more challenging books. Books that I have ignored because of their pace or subject matter. I want to get out of my comfort zone and pick up books I probably wouldn’t have without it being required reading.

Next year reading deliberately means:

Diversity. I’ve read a few books written by authors of color this year but not enough. Last week I read Chameleon by Charles R. Smith Jr.  It’s the story of a young African American boy growing up and trying to decide his future. I would have missed this book if it wasn’t for Jodie over at Book Gazing.  Next year I want to read more books by authors of color, more GLBT titles, and also more books by non-American authors. I’ve signed up for the GLBT and Canadian Book challenges to help me reach that goal.

Re-reading. Remember picking up a book you’ve read before and reading it again? I do too but it’s been a while since I’ve re-read a book. There have been a lot of times this year where I want to re-read favorites but instead read something new. Next year I plan on diving into my favorite books like East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfeld, and others.

Project Fill-in-the Gaps. I started this project earlier this year to “fill in the gaps” of my reading of classics and contemporary fiction. Sad to say I haven’t worked on it much. I’m hoping to read at least twenty of the books on my list. It’s important to me to feel at least a little well-read. Some of the books on my list I’m taking off while others are going to be added on.

TBR Pile. I have a lot of unread books on my shelves right now and I’m not happy about it. Some of my books have been sitting on my shelves for a few years. I love my local library so I ended up reading library books more than the books I own. I want that to change, so next year I plan on using the library less.

Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. Earlier this week Rebecca over at Rebecca Reads wrote a post about being a selective reader. In it she says that she doesn’t know very much about any particular genre. She’s learning a little bit of every genre that’s important to her such as the classics. A few semesters ago I shared a class with a guy whose passion was mythology. He spent much of his time reading and re-reading Greek mythology and its re-tellings. I loved listening to him talk about it. It made  me want to read more mythology myself. So what I want is to be well-read in an area that I enjoy reading. So I’ve picked Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. This year I’ve read about ten plays that won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and enjoyed them all. I plan on reading as many as I can next year.

So this is what reading deliberately means to me. What does it mean to you? Are there any areas in your reading you would love to read more in? If you end up writing a post about reading deliberately, email me or comment below and I’ll add your link to this post.

Other thoughts on reading deliberately: A Literate Housewife * Nomadreader * Carrie * Care

For the past few days I’ve been dipping in and out of The Haiku Anthology. Edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel, the anthology includes more than 800 haiku and senryu written by 89 poets. All the poems have been written in English by modern poets. I’ve discovered this anthology a few years ago and it’s become a great book to have on my shelves. One of my favorite poets in the anthology is Nicholas Virgilio. Because it finally feels like autumn here in California, I wanted to share this haiku Virgilio wrote.

approaching autumn:

the warehouse watchdog’s’ bark

weakens in the wind

I’m not a huge reader of poetry, but I love dipping in and out of poetry collections and anthologies. What poetry collections and/or anthologies do you enjoy?

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

I’m in the middle of a few books right now. One of which is Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick. I’m reading it for Bookingmama’s Shelf Discovery reading challenge.  Here’s my teaser:

I can’t remember the book that made me a into a reader. (God, how much better would this story be if I could!) All I remember is that first I wasn’t a reader, and then, suddenly, I was.

pg 1

For the past few days I’ve been trying to read as much as possible for the Thankfully Reading Weekend. I read a memoir, short stories, and children’s books.

Books read

• The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks by Robin Romm
• Library Mouse: A Friend’s Life by Daniel Kirk
• If I Were You: A Daddy-Daughter Story by Richard Hamilton
• Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka

• South by Patrick McDonnell
• Scorpions by Peter Murray
• Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee
• Wolf by Becky Bloom
• Stay Away from Rat Boy by Laurie Lears

Short Stories

From the collection, Love Stories in This Town by Amanda Ward

• “Should I Be Scared”
• “Butte as in Beautiful”
• “The Stars are Bright in Tears”
• “On Messalonskee Lake”

• “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison
• “Medley” by Toni Cade Bambara from the collection, The Sea Birds are Still Alive
• “Lullaby” by Leslie Marmon Silko
• “Somebody Up There Likes You” by Shalom Auslander from the collection, Beware of God
• “Heimish Know All” by Shalom Auslander from the collection, Beware of God

Event Highlights

My favorite read during this event is the short story, “Medley” by Toni Cade Bambara. Bambara is a new-to-me author. I discovered the short story through one of my classes because it was last week’s required reading. The story’s main character, Sweet Pea, works as a manicurist trying to save enough money to send for her daughter and buy a place of her own. In the meantime she learns how to be a woman and mother as she deals with her boyfriend. The rhythm and language of the short story was better than anything else I’ve read in a long time.

Event Lowlights

I wished I read more! I wasn’t really in the mood for long works. The Mercy Papers was barely 200 pages long and at times that felt too long. The short stories were perfect for my finicky mood. The children’s books were mostly read to my kids.

This was a great event. I have to thank everyone behind it for hosting. What did read this weekend?

Today is the official start of the Thankfully Reading Weekend. I started my reading yesterday with a collection of short stories, Love Stories in This Town by Amanda Eyre Ward. Between cooking yesterday and spending time with the family, I also started The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks by Robin Romm. Romm chronicles the three weeks leading up to her mother’s death from cancer. It’s a sad but engaging read. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is another book that was started a few days ago. It was Dewey’s favorite books of all time. Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors so I’m reading it to honor her memory.

I have a ton of books on my shelves that I would love to read this weekend like Liar by Justin Larbalestier and Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith. I’m hoping to finish at least three or four books this weekend.

What are you reading this weekend? Are you participating in Thankfully Reading Weekend?

So remember that last post I did about 2010 reading challenges? Well after that post a lot of bloggers decided they were going to start their own challenges and guess what? I signed up! Yay! Before I talk about the newest challenges I’ve joined, let’s talk about the reading lists. WARNING: this post is long but hopefully entertaining.

Bibliofreak has made a new blog dedicated to her World Religion Challenge that starts next year. I’ve signed up for the Universalist path, so I’m reading as many books as I can about as many spiritual paths as I want. My list:

Hinduism
Hinduism: A Beginner’s Guide by Klaus K. Klostermaier
My Family and Other Saints by Kirin  Narayan
Essential Hinduism – Steven Rosen

Judaism
The Talmud and the Internet – Jonathon Rosen
Finding God in the Garden – Balfour Brickner
Living Judaism – Wayne Dosick

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality – J. Brett Bill
Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings
Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity – Catherine Whitmire

Islam
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam- Reza Aslan

Wicca
The Pagan Book of Living and Dying - Starhawk

Buddhism
Razor-Wire Dharma: A Buddhist Life in Prison – Calvin Malone (memoir)

Unitarianism Universalism
The A to Z of Unitarian Universalism – Mark W. Harris

Mythology
Don’t Know Much about Mythology – Kenneth C. Davis

Christianity
Easter Everywhere – Darcey Steinke (memoir)
Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott (re-read/memoir)

Shinto
A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine – John K. Nelson

Sufism
The Gift – Hafiz (poetry)
Sufism: A Beginner’s Guide – William C. Chittick

Comparative Religion/Spirituality
God: stories edited by C. Michael Curtis
Best American Spiritual Writing (various years)
The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World edited by  Bob Abernathy

I also signed up for the GLBT reading challenge hosted by Amanda from The Zen Leaf. I’m planning to read at least four books. Some of the authors I’m looking forward to reading are:

Sara Teasdale
Langston Hughes
W.H. Auden
Dorothy Allison
John Cheever
Patricia Highsmith
Tennessee Williams
Jeanette Winterson
Rita Mae Brown
Edna St. Vincent-Millay
Ellis Avery
Audre Lorde
Sarah Waters

Aarti over at Book Lust is hosting the Flashback Challenge! I cannot wait to start this re-read challenge. I’m signing up for the Literari level, which is to re-read six books. I have a ton of books on my shelves that I would love to get to, so I’m hoping to re-read more than six.

The TwentyTen challenge hosted by Darren over at Bart’s Bookshelves. Participants are to read two books from ten categories for a total of twenty books.  The ten categories: young adult, tbr, shiny and new, bad bloggers, charity, new in 2010, older than you, and who are you again?. For the last category particpants choose the theme and I’m going with prize-winning books.

The brilliant Lu over at Regular Ruminations is hosting the VPR challenge. It’s a poetry challenge. I don’t read poetry as much as I want to outside of school, so I’ve signed up. I plan on reading at least two volumes of poetry.

Okay. So those are the rest of the challenges I’m signed up for in 2010. Have you added any more challenges to your list for next year?

The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life (2003)
Twyla Tharp
245 pages

I read The Creative Habit a few weeks ago and have been meaning to write something about this wonderful book.

I usually don’t read books about creativity and creative thinking. I prefer to read about the writing and reading experiences of others, but after reading about this book on another blog, I wanted to give it a try. Being a mom and a student, I sometimes feel like I need something different in my life. The Creative Habit gave me many ideas to use in not just my everyday life, but also when I blog.

The Creative Habit is choreographer Tharp’s manifesto on creativity. Divided into twelve chapters, each chapter deals with a different aspect of creativity and ends with exercises the author suggests readers use. Her topics range from finding a ritual to the different types of memory, from what a good idea looks like to being in a rut and failures. This isn’t a book designed just for artists but for everyone. One of the most surprising things I read is when Tharp talks about creativity being a habit, a discipline.

Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, Why am I doing this? . . .The ritual erases the question of whether or not I like it. It’s also a friendly reminder I’m doing the right thing. (I’ve done it before. It was good. I’ll do it again.) We all have rituals in our day, whether we’re aware of them or not.

It made me realize that one of my morning rituals is to make a pot of coffee before I do anything else. Once it’s made I can sit down and do what is that’s needed for the day. Making a pot of coffee is my start to conquering the world around me.

I also noticed that throughout the book Tharp stresses that what works for one person may not work for another. There were exercises and suggestions that I took notes on and many that I didn’t bother with. I was talking about this book on Twitter with a fellow blogger when she stated that the number of physical exercises turned her off. I thought about that. There are exercises that involve the physical movement of the body. I’m not really a physical person though I understand that as a former dancer Tharp is. So those exercises I wasn’t really looking at.

My favorite chapter is definitely the chapter on “scratching”.

You can’t just dance or paint or write or sculpt. Those are just verbs. You need a tangible idea to get you going. The idea, however minuscule, is what turns the verb into a noun-paint into a painting, sculpt into sculpture, write into writing, dance into a dance.

Don’t you just love that? Scratching is a way of finding ideas to fuel your creativity. You can scratch by going through books or visiting different stores, by taking a walk, having a conversation, or traveling. Included in the chapter is tips to keep generating new ideas.

One of my favorite exercises from the book is entitled “reading archaelogically”. In the exercise, Tharp writes why she reads and various ways she read. One example is her suggestion to readers to conduct their own reading dig. A reading dig is when you take an author or subject and starting with the most recent of texts, read your way backwards to older texts. Along the way you take note of recurring themes and style, learning as you go.

Overall I had a great time reading this book. It gave me a lot of ideas when it comes to blogging and I’m glad I read it. Highly recommended.