Illness and Insomnia = Racking Up the Page Counts

It's the 20th week of the year and I already have 50 of my 52 in 52 logged for the year. Illness and Insomnia seem to equal racking up the page counts. I don't recommend this method but if I'm going to be stuck in bed might as well make the most of it.

May the 4th Be With You + Free Comic Book Day

It will be argued by some that Comic Books are not literature...and this is possibly technically accurate but many of the books I list and review here don't fall into the category of great literature. Sometimes its just about the joy of reading. The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day - so head out to your local comic shop and join the fun...and May the Fourth be with you!

World Book Night 2013

So, months and months and months ago I signed up to be a World Book Night giver...I had a great plan, I'd have my giveaway at Caritas Village in Binghampton. I didn't plan on returning to the theater for the first time in over 2 decades or for World Book Night falling just 48 hours after that show closed while I was still in the post production exhaustion. So I had to make a backup plan.

The purpose of World Book Night is to put books into the hands of non-readers or light readers and I happen to have a friend who is in leadership in the Achievement School District (a slightly Orwellian named program where a number of failing schools have been taken over in hopes of turning them into successful schools). So, a series of facebook messages and one box delivery later 20 kids in these failing schools now have in their hands their very own copy of Rick Riordon's "The Lightning Thief". Mission Accomplished.

The Lightning Thief to me is a particularly appropriate title to put in the hands of reluctant readers. A modern retelling of the classic Hero's Quests of Greek Mythology it stars a dyslexic misfit named Percy Jackson who has been kicked out of a string of schools and who struggles academically in every way. Being a demigod suddenly turns his "disabilities" into advantages, his ADD providing him advantages in battle and the root of his dyslexia being that his brain was programmed to read, not English, but rather Latin. When my dyslexic daughter discovered Percy Jackson there was an instant identification and boost to her own self image. I love the idea of these books going into the hands of kids that may not see themselves as successful and presenting them with a different frame through which to view their challenges.

As usual I'm insanely behind on reviews. I updated the 2013 52-in-52 list just before coming here to post this and at week 18 of 2013 there are already 41 books on the list. By the time it auto publishes on 1/1/14 there is no telling what the count will be. I will never catch up so I suppose I will consider this review #1 and make an effort to do better going forward. Happy Reading!

Drinking with Dead Women Writers

Drinking with Dead Women Writers by Elaine Ambrose
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The title itself was intriguing enough but the first paragraphs of the introduction set the tone and sealed the deal.

"Blame it on the Cabernet. We met to share libations and laughter, but in less than an hour had outlined a book. We'd capitalize on our proven talents for drinking and our evolving talents for writing, while incorporating a literary flair by including 16 famous female authors. Game on.

We agreed to write and exchange chapters for eight weeks and publish the book within four months. Such goals are easy to set after swilling a few bottles of wine."

So with that introduction we sit down with various spirits and such famous women authors as Willa Cather, the Bronte Sisters, Louisa May Alcott and Ayn Rand. The chapters are fun, humorous, irreverent and best of all informative. I had never read Cather, or Rand, or Plath and this book piqued my interest and provided a convenient bibliography in the final chapter to inform future book choices.

I LOVED "Drinking With Dead Women Writers" and I'm looking forward to when the sequel "Drinking with Dead Drunks" becomes available on the kindle.

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Maxwell's Closet

Maxwell's Closet by Steven Belskie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maxwell's Closet is a well written fantasy novel about young Maxwell, described as "a remarkably ordinary child, whose classmates regarded him as rather dull" and his amazing adventure one incredible night when the door to his closet was thrown open from within and he was taken away into another world, one of orcs, knights, wizards, battles, loss and victory. Whether the world he encountered was a dream or an alternate reality, Max woke changed. Maxwell's closet is a quick read at only 150 pages and a wonderful adventure for the young (or young at heart) fan of fantasy. I look forward to more from Steven Belskie.


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My Problem Is I Read Too Fast and Review Too Slow

I'm going to go ahead and post my list of recently completed reads here so I can HOPEFULLY remember to go back and review them:

1. Lines of Blue and Gray 
2. Old Before My Time 
3. Claus 
4. Christmas Campfire Companion 
5. Six Guns and Slay Bells 
6. Loving God when you Don't Love the Church 
7. Pups in Tea Cups 
8. Holy Habits 
9. A Year of Biblical Womanhood - Rachel Held Evans 
10. Becoming a Vegetarian Against Your Will - Tiffany Dow
11. Unladylike - Pam Hogewekk 
12. The Art of Neighboring 
13. Kingdom Journeys 
14. Halloween - Silver Ravenwolf 
15. The Last Temptation of Clarence Odbody 
16. The Hour that Matters Most - Les and Leslie Parrot 
17. Halloween is For Lovers 
18. Broken Shell Island - Dalya Moon 
19. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch 
20. Midnight Paths - Joe Hart 
21. The Time Hunters and the Box of Eternity
22. The Great Emergence - Phyllis Tickle
23. When I Invented the World - Stanley M. Herman 
24. Craft Business Heros
25. Time Shock
26. Emergence Christianity - Phyllis Tickle 
27. The Church Creative - John O'Keefe
28. BoneYARD - John O'Keefe
29. Misfits: Who Are You Including - John O'Keefe 
30. Insight: Reflections on the Gifts of Being an Introvert
31. Bless Back - Julie Saffrin
32. Life-Altering Experiences: How a Single Question Tapped into the Soul of MetaFilter
33. Stomp Boogie: A Roy Carpenter Mystery - Troy D. Smith
34. Here's to Not Catching Our Hair On Fire: An absent minded tale of life with Giftedness and ADHD
35. Clockwork Blue
36. Red Heart - Jackie Gambler
37. How to Read Literature Like a Professor
38. Our Worst Homeschool Mistakes
39. Ishues
40. All That We See or Seem - Troy D. Smith and David Allen
41. The Thirteenth Gift
42. You Lost Me
43. Blacklisted from the PTA
44. Gnome on the Range
45. The Rich Mama Plan: How to Master Your Family's Spending
46. The Much Ado About Fairy
47. Smart Women Know When to Say No - Dr. Kevin Leman
48. When a Mother Follows Christ - Katie Hoffman
49. A Titanic Affair - Amanda Grange
50. Dalek I Loved You a memoir by Rick Griffiths
51. Reinventing Rachel - Alison Strobel
52. Idylls In Darkness - Troy D. Smith
53. Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
54. Extraordinary Lessons From An Ordinary Life
55. Maxwell's Closet
56. The Eighties - A Bitchin Time to be a Teenager! - Tom Harvey
57. Composting: Inside and Out
58. Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tells Us to Deny Gay Equality - Mel White
59. Drinking with Dead Women Writers -  

Confessions of A Rebel Debutant

I picked this up on a weekend trip when I was looking for a little light reading. Anna Fields, who writes for "As The World Turns" has turned out a soap opera of a memoir. Being a southern woman but of a social strata well below that of the world of the Debutant set I was hoping for more of a glimpse into that culture and perhaps some reflection on what drives the "Deb" world. I really didn't get that. What I did get was a reminder that women are some of the most horrid creatures in the world when they are together in large same gender groups.

From the catty "mean girls" of her all girls "finishing school" to the crazy celebs and society women she profiles it seemed that Anna had only one true friend, Alma, and in the vein of all great southern tragi-comedies...she ends up dead.

It was an interesting read. Not at all what I expected but still worth a look.