Scrolling through my (very long thanks to book bloggers) recommended reading list or prize lists or new release lists and adding them to my request list is my own personal version of online shopping. But it's even better than online shopping - it's FREE. Ok, so that's something to love about the library in general. But it's still awesome. And yes, I do sometimes get myself into trouble with requests. Until I lived in Toronto I never had requested books from a public library. I started off slow, only 5 books. Then 10. Then it crept up to twenty with the rationalization that I was number 277 on the list for at least one book - I wouldn't get that for ages! Then came along the autumn literary award season and it crept up again to over 30, but it would never, never, go above 40 I promised myself. The next thing I knew I had 50 books on my request list and when I tried to request another I was denied. I had hit the maximum limit.
If you aren't sure how such a thing can happen it's very easy. Just look at Penelope at Penelope's Garden.
So today I was reading the book section of the Chicago Tribune, which I like to do so I can add new books to my library request list, and happened upon a review of a novel called "Bleeding Kansas" by Sara Paretsky. The reviewer, Amy Gutman, is also a novelist, and her excellent review made me want to read her books, too, so the library list is growing a bit.
One book recommendation leads to another which leads to another and so on. As much as I read and as much as I love books (and own a heck of a lot of them) I simply can't own them all. There's not enough room for them and like most people certainly can't afford to buy them all. After becoming a stay at home parent Heather at Nobody But Yourself found that her discretionary income shrank substantially. Instead of B&N it was the library for her. Not only is she a self-confessed bookworm but her daughter is turning into a bookworm too - and is getting an early start on her own request list.
Speaking of the kiddo, she is completely turning into Bookworm, the Next Generation. Shortly after her fifth birthday last month, we went to the public library, where she marched up to the librarian and requested her very own card. She'd been counting down for over a year now, asking me each time we visited the library if she could get her own card yet, so she knew that as soon as she was five, she could have her own card. Now she does, in a green, leather pouch that she carried around for days (I also have the keytag version of her card on my keychain, just in case that card ever gets lost amidst the stuff in her room), and she's already checked out several books and even placed her first hold request (for a Disney Princess story collection, of course). I couldn't be more proud!
Willa just added a bunch of books to her library list and her justification of when to buy versus when to borrow is similiar to my own (or at least it is until I find those bestsellers in a second-hand shop...).
Some books I really just need to own, even if I'm not going to read them right away. But I find it hard to justify buying hardback copies of best sellers, and I seldom want to wait for the paperback versions. So I put them on the list at the library, wait awhile, and I'll eventually get an email telling me that the book is ready for me to pick up.
As The Lit Connection pointed out, there is a downside to the library request list - sometimes waiting for the book is a killer.
Just the thought of Eclipse sitting on that library shelf waiting for me to read it and not being able to pick it up until Sunday is killing me…
Yep, sometimes you'll wait awhile for that big blockbuster release or the latest Oprah bookclub selection. It will come eventually, even when you are number #277 in the queue. But that's ok, there's always another book (or 5) to request.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>Zesty did some daytripping in small town Ontario. There really is nothing like a small town celebration.
]]>Zesty did some daytripping in small town Ontario. There really is nothing like a small town celebration.
Love Like a Vegan made a special Canada Day breakfast that you'll certainly want to try in your home.
Erica at Five Blondes had the best Canada Day ever.
I looked at the “Diamonds and Devils” machine, glanced at my engagement ring (especially shiny and glittery as I had it cleaned the day before), and decided that this? Was my game.
Not Expected but Selected didn't have such a fantastic Canada day as Lethbridge, Alberta flooded.
Canada Day was wet. Really wet. I had the oppourtunity to have a much needed snooze Tuesday morning and woke up to an overcast sky. I was hoping to spend the day in the sun and was quite disappointed! Around noon it started to pour. When I say pour, I mean 42mm in 2 hours!!
Happy Fourth of July to all our American BlogHers. I hope your day is drier than Not Expected's!
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>The first Canadian Book Challenge is running down. The goal was simple - read 13 Canadian books - one for each province and territory in the country. You didn't have to read one book from each province and territory but many did. And the participants explored the world of Canadian literature that extends past Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. One of Back to Books selections was The Alchemist's Dream by John Wilson. It's a fresh young adult story about Henry Hudson's fatal voyage. Nicola said it was "a fascinating topic and a glimpse into an era where the boundaries between science and magic were blurry."
BiblioHistoria read one of my favourite authors as part of the challenge - Pierre Burton. You know how people say that they'd listen to a certain actor read the telephone book because even they could make it interesting? If Pierre Burton had written the telephone book I'd read it cover to cover. Historia read his Starting Out: 1920-1947, the story of his youth in Yukon and beyond. She loved it.
I could go on and on, but I LOVED this biography, for all the details it gave me about the Yukon. Now I realise this all took place well over 70 years ago, but still. I have never been to the Yukon. I have never seen the northern lights.
The Second Canadian Book Challenge is just about to start. As with last year's challenge it will be to read 13 books and you have until July 1, 2009 to do it. For a bit of an added twist John is offering up 13 different paths you can take to complete the challenge. There's "The Individuals" where you read 13 books by a single author (we have some prolific writers in Canada). There's "The Prize Pack" where you read books that have won Canadian literary awards (I personally suggest reading the Charles Taylor non-fiction book - they are fantastic). My favourite is probably "The McClung" where you read 13 books published by Canadian women - perhaps even one of Nellie McClung's own published books.
Kailana, who blogs at The Written Word has chosen the category that I think may be the most popular - The Free Spirit. You simply read any 13 Canadian books you have at your disposal.
Susan of You Can Never Have Too Many Books (a sentiment I hearily agree with) chose "The Individual" and will read 13 books by Charles de Lint. Did you know he was Canadian? Me neither. One of the lovely things about this challenge is discovering authors that you never knew were Canadian and finding Canadian authors you just plain never heard of.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>For Kids:
Queer Moms Free Space has a list of book resources for GLBT books for kids.
]]>For Kids:
Queer Moms Free Space has a list of book resources for GLBT books for kids.
The very popular Mombian has a category dedicated to books for kids as does LesbianDad.
For Tweens and Teens:
Over the past year or two I've been discovering how much bigger the world of Canadian YA is. Elizabeth just opened my eyes even more with her list of Canadian GLBT YA books.
YA author Justine Larbalestier posted (and continues to update) a list of Australian GLBT YA books.
On of my favourite YA bloggers, Colleen at Chasing Ray compilied a list of "coming of age novels" and there's a good section on "Books GLBT YAs Will Identify With Strongly".
Libraries are always an excellent source of book recommendations. The San Francisco Public Library has compiled a list of Teen GLBT Books.
For Adults:
The GLBT Book and Video Blog covers a wide range of books - fiction, non-fiction, even a wee bit of YA.
Lee Wind is an author whose blog asks I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the hell do I read?.
The Kansas City Library has a GLBT Award Winning Reading Guide.
Shut Me Up With Milk declared a Lesbian Pulp Wednesday. Lesbian pulp novels have possibly the best covers. Check out this collection of lesbian pulp covers. Aren't they fantastic?
The American Library Association has a full list of the Stonewall Book Award winners and honor books. The GLBTRT of the ALA has a great list of GLBT bibliographies to browse.
After Ellen has a book page dedicated to lesbian books.
Feministe posted a call out for feminist and lesbian book recommendations and readers provided plenty in the comments.
The Hidden Side of a Leaf is a book blog that has a category dedicated to GLBT books.
Science-fiction lover? Ever heard of the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards? There's also the GLBT Fantasy and Fiction Resource.
If you should you need a reminder for why GLBT literature is important I'm going to send you to Cecelia's blog. She's a librarian and bookseller and you need to go read why somedays her job is worth it.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>Some of you might not be so familiar with Nunavut, particularly if it's been a few years since you studied Canadian geography. Nunavut used to be part of the Northwest Territories but became a territory in its own right on April 1, 1999 (no, it wasn't an April Fool's joke, we swear). The capital of Nunavut is Iqaluit and now you all are longing for the days when you thought Saskatchewan was the hardest Canadian location to spell (at least in terms of provinces and capitals...).
On to the blogs shall we?
Jen of Nunavut just announced that she is expecting a baby. So she's doing something that most expecting mothers don't - she's getting fit for an amounti.
Kate Nova recently found out something very interesting about NU elections and voting.
School is out for summer and Arctic Teacher is doing some travelling. On her travels she got to experience something very Canadian - her first cuppa Tim Horton's in 10 months.
Nunavut Newbie isn't so much of a newbie after two years. She's certainly gotten used to the North of 60 temperatures.
I love being outside when it's warm out. I know I'm acclimatized to the north because according to Weather Office, it was only 4C while I was outside. It felt like it was at least 15C, though. It was great.
If you are trying to do the temperature conversion in your head 4C is about 39F. And she wrote that post on June 17. If you think that's bad check out how much it costs to ship items to Iqaluit.
Northern Chirp is experiencing her first northern summer - and the long summer days.
Welcome to the world of 24 hour sunlight. Official sunset is something like 11:30 and sunrise is something like 2:00 right now (OK, scurry off now and look it up on your search engines), but lengthy twilights on either end mean no darkness. And if adults' bodyclocks get whacked out by this (mine certainly is), then imagine what it must be like for kids.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>Not being an avid watcher of CNN, or TV in general (sorry Mr. Beck, I'm too busy reading), I first heard about it and watched the coverage on the Guys Lit Wire blog - a blog dedicated to good Young Adult fiction for boys. We've all heard people say that finding books for girls is easy and that finding books for boys is hard. There really are more books out there for girls (not all of which would fall under the "good" category) but that doesn't mean that the quality of books for boys is bad. There's a lot of good books out there and on Guy Lit Wire you'll find them along with some good conversation. Including this post questioning do teenage boys need books with weak females?
There are a couple of things that bother me about this discussion (between two adult men without a teenager in sight by the way). First it is that for a boy to feel heroic he must rescue a girl - and the girl also needs to be rescued. I'm sure the sociologists would have a field day over all this but I can't believe that anyone in the 21st century would believe that such antiquated notions of what it means to be a hero have any place in a worthwhile discussion.
One of the points brought up by Beck and Bell is that in Bell's book, Nick of Time, the little sister tells the bad guys that they better not do anything to her because her brother was going to come save her. And Bell and Beck thought that the girl not trying to save herself and waiting for the big brother was simply fantastic. Perhaps it worked in this book (I haven't read it so I can't comment on it) but as a general statement about books and boys? No. Scratch that, make that a heck no.
Let me be clear, I have no problem with a boy being the hero nor do I believe anyone else who is involved in this discussion believes that either. What I, and I believe many others, have a problem with is the statement that girls should not be heroes and that when they are it's threatening and damaging to boys. Libr*fiti doesn't mince words on this point.
Ok the whole brother not saving the sister anymore?????? I have no other way to say this - that is a load of crap.
Anna Jarzab isn't buying what Beck and Bell are saying either.
All YA is not emasculating to boys, and anyway their idea of “emasculating” is pretty narrow. They think that if the boy isn’t swashbuckling and rescuing damsels, then they’re not “learning to be a man”. Well, guess what? That sort of “adventure”, in our current times, has nothing to do with “being a man”. If they were bemoaning the lack of books that teach boys about respect or dignity or self-understanding or human connection, if they were saying that all books are like The Rachel Papers, filled with cheap sex and narcissism, that’d be one argument. But if it’s just that girls do all the rescuin’ in today’s YA market, well, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
The men on these blogs aren't getting behind Beck and Bell either. Raising strong independent girls does not mean we're raising weak boys. Maybe Beck and Bell are just a few too many generations removed to understand that. Perhaps they need to wander down to their local brick and mortar or library and check out what is actually on those shelves. Maybe they'll find a book that's actually been published in the last 50 years unlike the books they referenced on air. Or maybe they should let their fingers do the walking and find some great books online at the blogs above. Maybe they'll go to an online bookseller and realize that Bell's book is not even being marketed to teens but to tweens. I'm not holding my breath though. What about you?
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>There aren't many in Canada who aren't be familiar with the "dah dah dah dah dah" opening of the HNIC theme. It's had 41 years to burn itself into our collective consciousness. Many Canadians, such as myself and Éminence Grise grew up listening to it.
It brings me back to a late-70s living room on Fallingdale Crescent in Bramalea Ontario, where an Irish immigrant father and his three young kids cheered for the Leafs while the true born-and-bred hockey fan was in the kitchen probably wishing the Canadiens played more often on CBC. Like a lot of people, for me the song is sweetly nostalgic.
It was always there, it always would be - or so we thought. Early in June, right before the Red Wings won the cup, we started to hear that it might be the last hurrah for the theme song on CBC. And then, after the public outcry, we heard that maybe it wasn't. Then we heard it was going back to a mediator. And then we heard that CBC had lost the song because it had been scooped up by CTV/TSN.
CBC had lost something that people strongly identified with Canada - the theme is hockey to many Canadians. Some people blamed the CBC for their short-sightedness on the reaction of fans. Other blamed the composer, Dolores Claman. With claims that she was getting $500 each time the theme was played (not true by the way) she was seen as greedy and money grubbing. The truth according to Claman and her associates appears to be that Claman was looking for some respect from the CBC, with whom she's been involved with a legal battle since 2004, and the CBC didn't seem to be providing it.
Her site for The Hockey Theme contains news and updates on the situation written by her representation, John Ciccone. He says some things there that didn't quite make it into the CBC coverage linked to above. What kind of things? Apparently Dolores Claman forgave the CBC for not paying her 25 years worth of royalty fees meaning that she did not ask for the money. Why? She didn't feel it was fair to make people pay her back for her own lack of knowledge. That doesn't quite fit the image were we given as her being greedy and money grubbing.
Claman's daughter, Madeleine Morris, posted In Response reiterates that it wasn't so much about the money as much as it was about respect.
They kept bullying us, telling us the song was worthless, threatening to drop the song altogether if we didn't give them exactly what they wanted, absolutely on their terms. If not, they'd hold a national contest and replace the song. Honestly, it became increasingly clear to us that this was their plan all along - to offer deals that were impossible for us to accept, so they would have the excuse to drop the song without being blamed for doing it.
Kukla's Korner tried to remind Canadians that there are two sides to every story and that the CBC has a huge media platform from which to tell their side.
But how do we really know she was well-compensated? More importantly, how do we know she was fairly compensated?
According Ms. Morris, “For 25 years, CBC paid my mother no license fees at all for the music. It was only in the last 15 years that they began to pay any license fee at all.”
Would that be considered “fair”?
It's been suggested by the copyright owners that the CBC was looking for an out. Did CBC really want to just get rid of the theme? It's possible. It's also possible they did not plan for fan backlash that the announcement caused. Reactions like Miss 604's.
There are copyright issues, legal battles etc. but when it boils down to it, I truly think this tune belongs to all Canadians. When I hear the scratchy, “Hello Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland,” intro I get chills. The tune kicks in and you know you’re setting in for a great night of hockey.
And The Royal Word.
Now either this is an evil marketing scheme by the CBC to threaten a beloved national icon, get us all riled up and upset and then look like a hero when they capitulate and renew the license or someone has decided it's time to reband, rebuild and regrow the CBC and they've decided to start by changing one of the few things they have working for them. Either way there is someone epically stupid in charge at the CBC.
Part of me can't help feel like the CBC played Canadians a bit on this one by making the composer come off as greedy when it appears that wasn't entirely the case. I can't fault the Claman for selling the theme to a company that it going to for it. And I have my doubts that CBC's new hockey theme contest reality show will provide them with the results they are hoping to see. After all, unlike 41 years ago most Canadians have cable now and can just flick the switch to TSN and watch a team other than the Maple Leafs and catch our other national anthem.
See also:
MacLean's article - Dumb-da-dumb-da-dumb.
Tyee article - How the CBC Lost It's Hockey Theme
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>There are very few shelves in my house reserved for any special type of book because things are organized in a way to fit as many books per shelf as possible. But the food-lit? It gets its own shelf. So do cookbooks. Yes that's right, cookbooks and food-lit are not one and the same. While cookbooks are manuals for cooking and teach us how to make things, food-lit speaks to the experience of food and our relationships with it. Fast Food Nation? Food-lit. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? Food-lit. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Julie and Julia, and Gluten-Free Girl? Food-lit, food-lit and food-lit. Some books in the genre contain recipes, others do not - the same way that some cookbooks are dry user-manual types and others have personal anecdotes.
From a blogging point of view food-lit offers one of those great situations where birds of a different feather meet. We all eat and we all have relationships (though they may be vastly different from one another) with food. We all have feelings about food, be they good or they bad, and as such food-lit crosses boundaries in blogging. Food-lit shows up on all kinds of blogs but, unsurprisingly, predominantly on food and book blogs. Since the two groups of bloggers often approach the books from different angles it's interesting to read their reactions. Here are a few examples.
Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food is a pretty hot little book right now. Stefanie at So Many Books recommends it to everyone who eats, ie. she liked it. At Tigers and Strawberries Barbara, who enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma, didn't like it. She agreed with Pollan's main points but found that the book wasn't a cohesive unit and that it felt like "two long, investigative magazine articles."
Andi's post at Tripping Toward Lucidity about Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral pushed me into finally reading it after letting it gather dust on my shelf for a year. Andi loved it calling it one of her favourite reads of the year and I'm right the there with her. 1700 Miles of Cooking had this to say about it:
Firstly let me say that I realize the average person could never do an experiment like this and pull it off. However, after reading this book, I now think about my grocery purchasing and eating habits in a whole new light.
Tea and Cookies posted about the best books about food. 40 Forever, the singing librarian, offers some others.
If you are looking to take the plunge into food-lit The Perfect Pantry had some bookworms in her pantry and posted a fantastic list of 2007 food-lit. Remember that last year's hardcovers are usually this year's paperbacks and that makes them perfect for summer reading!
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>For the DIY dad:
All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels. If your dad thrives on big renovation projects this book needs to go on his nightstand. Amy, the Accidental Akronite went to a local reading of it and said that "you'll dig his book if you’ve ever remodeled a house or if you’re looking for an optimistic view on what most of us would have seen as an impossible task - turning a decaying mansion into a comfortable family home."
For the book and mystery loving dad:
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. The first book in the Mobile Library series, a humorous new series from Ireland. At Vulpes Libris Jackie says "the sense of unbalanced whimsy is what makes the book so uniquely enjoyable."
For the history buff dad:
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. Laura at Reading Reflections gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and 52 Books said it was "absolutely astounding".
For the hipster dad:
Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America by Neil Pollack. Liza Was Here has declared it her second-favorite parenting book.
What are your favorite books for fathers?
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>The Canadian growing season is short. We plant around May 2-4 weekend and do a little weather dance to ward off the late frost. Our Thanksgiving comes more than a month before the American holiday because we harvest our crops before our much earlier frost. What we garden, how we garden and where we garden varies from coast to coast but, perhaps in defiance to our long winters, in the summer we simply must grow things.
On the west coast, Jon and Beth are chronicling their dream of moving from BC to Bergen to become farmers. In the meantime they are satisfying that growing urge with a plot at their community garden and growing in their house with the left of a grow light.
On the opposite cost on the island of Newfoundland, Jeanette blogs at Illustrated Life about why she's putting in a garden.
Rising costs of fuel will drive up food costs, especially here, as everything is flown or trucked in. It would not take much in terms of shortages, trucker strikes or climate change to make a huge impact on availability of fresh food. So my aim this year is to become as self sufficient as possible and grow as much as I can which I can then process, bottle, freeze etc. Besides making economic sense, I also know just what I am eating and how it was grown.
In western Canada Alana provides some Prairie Home Therapy and ten steps to plant tomatoes.
Step One.
Agonize about the containers.Step Two.
Stop worrying.
I just wanted to gobble up and move into Asseragirl's garden. If you are in the market for an Organic Weed Killer she's got one for you.
I have to admit both Knitty, Vintage, and Rosy's Toronto garden and reading tastes. It's not every day you find a blogger longing to sit and read Persephone Classics in her garden. Amy's Garden is peppered with literary references and out of print gardening books.
I hope that someday I'll live someplace where I can plant a garden as big as the ones I grew up with. For now I'll just look at gardens online and dream.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>These generalizing assumptions about people based on their age could lead to societal disapproval (she bought her 7 year old a Nine!) to law (it is crime to allow children to read books above their age level. The Experts Know Best)....or children might have to start showing proof of age at the library....
Showing proof of age at the library when you are 8? *shudder* Would the librarian have made me prove that I was a certain age to take out Jane Austen's books? After all, when you boil it down they are all about sex and money. Lydia running off with Wickham in Pride and Prejudice? Scandalous and obviously not for an 11 year old. Ditto Willoughby's indiscretion in Sense and Sensibility. And do we really want to get started on the much beloved by preteen girls Brontes? Or worse yet that childhood favourite Judy Blume?
The protestors argue that if an adult (or child) is having difficulty finding a book they should go to an expert such as the school or public library librarian or a local bookseller. Sure, there are lots of stories about librarians not allowing people to read certain books - we've all heard them. Liz, a librarian who blogs at A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, argues that a librarian's value doesn't come from their knowledge of what is appropriate for what age, but for matching the right reading level with the right book for the right reader.
But we also need to "shout out" ourselves, about our unique ability to be book matchmakers; more so than bookstores, in that we have old books and new books, popular books and niche books, and so have a bigger selection of books for people to read. We need to keep up with what books are out there -- by reading reviews, both professional and informal; by reading books that are readers guides. We -- not an age on a book -- are the best help to someone who is looking for the right book for a child. And we need to let more people know that.
Liz has a pretty good point there when you stop and think about it. As adults most of us here at BlogHer would be assumed to be at the same approximate reading level, but would we all want to read the same book? Unlikely. Some of us want Politics and News while others want Research and Academia. Some of us want a simple escapist read and others want to read something that crams as many five-syllable words in as possible. Some us will want to read Adult books and some of us will want to read Young Adult books. We should read what we like, not what is "at our level". We shouldn't assume all eight year olds are any different than we are. Some will like fantasy, others mysteries. Some will be into short chapter books, others in long chapter books, and still others in picture books.
ManiacMum, who edits children's books, sees the positives in it - it will no doubt make it easier for Grandma to buy little Johnny a book he might actually read. But she also sees how it can hurt readers and is, ultimately, against it.
I still edit children's books for an educational company, and am currently working on a series for reluctant readers. It's edgy, contemporary, and I hope will give weaker readers something to get their teeth into , which is actually relevant to them. I would absolutely hate to see them age ranged as I think it would be patronising beyond belief to kids who need to be encouraged not discouraged.
Age banding, officially or otherwise, is a pretty artificial concept. One merely needs to look at the young adult books in your local bookstore to see this. Depending on what store or chain you are in you'll find some books in Young Adult sections and others in Adult - books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Life of Pi maybe show up on or the other or both in book stores. But how many adults would have read them if they had a "15+" on the cover? And how many teens would have been able to read them if they were labelled "18+"?
To me I just see another way of censoring what children can read. I stand firmly behind the idea that parents should be involved in what their kids read whether it be by reading the books with them, helping them with their reading choices, or perhaps even by just giving a free reign to whatever the child wants to read. It's your child, your house, and you get to make the rules (or at least that's what my mother used to tell me). But the same way that I don't think that one parent should tell a whole school full of kids what they shouldn't read by trying to get books banned from school libraries, don't think publishers should be telling children what books they need to be reading at what age. Sure they kind of do now with age suggestions in their catagolues but they aren't sticking it on a book cover...yet. The child rarely knows if the book they are reading is above, below or at their age expectation.
But I can only speak to this as who I am - a avid reader with no children who reads up and down the spectrum and always has. Bibliobibuli wants to know what parents think and so do I. Is age banding good for your child? Do you encourage your child to read above their grade level? Do you have a young reader who struggles and might be put off reading by finding out the books they are trying to read are actually for a younger age group?
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>Right now, and continuing until 7am Monday morning, a group of bloggers are cramming as many books as they can get to in their brains and blogging about it. Unfortunately for me I'm just a spectator this year but it does give me the chance to continuously hit refresh on the participant's blogs and see what they've read.
Mother Reader started off with a Young Adult (YA) selection Shabanu which she says didn't "wow" her. Here's hoping her selections get more enjoyable.
Library Voice finished and reviewed Tamar but found it hard to figure out out why it's considered a YA novel.
I suppose Tamar had me questioning just what makes a YA book a YA book. I think it is much more than simply having a teen character. The main themes should speak directly to the “teen experience.” Certainly, this is a wide range of experience. But things like growing up, finding out who you are, defining oneself in light of- or in opposition to- the world at large, etc. are the sorts of things I usually associate with YA fiction.
Keeping Up With Carla has me flipping over to my book list to add another to the "book recommendations" tab - The Salem Witch Tryouts.
I found myself sympathizing with Prudence as she is uprooted from the life she knows and loves in Beverly Hills to Salem, Massachusetts where she is now free to live her life as a witch. For her entire life, she has walked a fine line of being half-witch, half-mortal, but now her mother wants to fully immerse her in the life of a fully practicing witch.
No, not everyone is reading YA although it is popular for this challenge (although I must say the idea of a 48 hour YA binge sounds yummy). When you are embarking on a challenge to see how many books you can get through in 48 hours you aren't exactly to pick up something like The English Patient or the huge tome sitting on my table The Glass Books of Dream Eaters. At Well-Mannered Frivolity Susan finished Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones - Edge of Reason. Melissa, the Book Nut ran into the problem of how to review The Thief without giving away what she considers to be one of the best endings she's read in a long time. It's part of a series and she read the second book, The Queen of Attolia as well...and managed not to give away the great ending to the first book in that post either.
You needn't drop everything you have planned for the weekend in order to participate. Franki at Year of Reading managed to squeeze in some reading time during a previously scheduled appointment.
Does this have you itching to participate in a similar challenge? The Hidden Side of a Leaf is hosting a Read-a-thon between the mornings of June 28 and June 29 while collecting donations for Reading is Fundamental. If you can't dedicate the time for reading they are looking for cheerleaders to host mini-challenges during the Read-A-Thon and for prize donations.
If you were to participate in one of these read-a-thon challenges what would your strategy be? Would you have a theme? Stick to a genre? Mix and match? Inquiring minds want to know.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>Nancy Zimmerman is a Canadian money coach whose blog I've been reading for a few months. Through her blog I found Saving For Later, a blog by a woman on the east coast of Canada, Canadian Saver. Her financial goals for 2008 included "to have 183 no spend days, 83 no drive days and to go 366 days without buying a book or a magazine". Um...not buy books for a whole year?!?!?! I am physically and psychologically incapable of that. But as of her June 4th daily tracking she's 156/366.
Raise your hand if you've ever watched Til Debt Do Us Part? For those of you who haven't, it's a reality show (but not like American Idol reality...think more TLC-type reality) about couples who get into trouble financially and need someone to whip the into financial shape. That someone is Gail Vaz-Oxlade and yep, she has a blog. Gail's Blog is updated regularly with financial advice and entertaining but educational stories. And sass! Gail doesn't take anyone's excuses and her no-nonsense approach is just as amusing on her blog as it is on television. Dolly Iris just received Gail's newly updated book and was quite excited about it.
Give Me Back My Five Bucks is tackling something that most of us encounter. Sure, we've been told we're getting a raise...but not when and we haven't gotten anything in writing. She wanted to start a paper trail and had a letter to her boss written out but couldn't quite hit the send button.
I need to psych myself up for this.
Because ... I know I have to do it myself. If I don't, it's kind of obvious that I'll never see that raise, or any of the retroactive pay I was promised. It just seems so silly that I have to do all the leg work for something my boss has promised me (and I feel like an ass doing it) ... and he hasn't done a frigging thing about it yet.
In the end she sent her boss the email but isn't banking on that raise until she sees in her bank account.
At Brown Eyed Girl and Money Esme blogged about a conversation with her dad about money.
Dad and I have had some disagreements over me not taking the Austin opportunity. He thinks it’s better to have any job than to no job. Well, you know what I think. Some jobs drain you so much that you really don’t have the energy/motivation to do anything else until you are free.
Today he told me he still believes I should hang on here as long as I can and use the time to plan my next step.
Ginger blogs at Ginger Won't Snap and is facing problem - how to budget for a friend's wedding. Even worse, she's in the wedding party which is even more expensive and the expense is often frustrating.
I’m feeling overwhelmed and snappy, so I think I need to sit back and crunch some numbers to see what the revised costs of this wedding fiasco are. I feel as though it’s getting too expensive for me… I want to be the good friend that doesn’t let her down, that goes the extra mile, but I’m becoming frustrated because I’m expected to pay for all this stuff that I don’t feel I should have to pay for.
Click through to read what is expected and what her compromise is...as well as the grand tally for all the wedding-related expenses. Brides-to-be click through too and see how those expenses rack up for your bridal party (says the former six times a bridesmaid - been there, done that, bought the dress(es)).
A Canadian and Her Money calculated her yearly car expenses and the amount shocked her. What prompted this? A book that caught her eye at the library.
A book caught my eye at the library yesterday and I have been steadily making my way through it ever since: "How to Live Well Without a Car"
I thought I would blog about it here because one of the author's major arguments is that owning a car costs so much that it may be preventing you from saving, buying a house (or a better house) and even reaching financial independence. All of which makes for rather intriguing contemplations. Is a car really that big a deal, financially?
Since I'm job searching right now I was thrilled to find my way to Squawkfox. They are running a five part series on job searching which includes an installment on How To Research a Prospective Employer.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
]]>About a year ago a friend asked me if I had read any of Georgette Heyer's novels. I told that I hadn't but that I was vaguely familiar with them having seen one of two mentioned on book blogs. A few months later when I moved into a new apartment (yeah, yeah I move a lot) she send me a small selection of them as a house-warming gift. The very first one I read, my friend's favourite, was The Grand Sophy. I loved it. It was witty, had a strong-willed female protagonist and the main male character was no slouch either. It reminded me of Jane Austen but wasn't quite so serious as Austen. And unlike Austen it gave us a glimpse into the frequently amusing (at least as Heyer writes it) male mind and world.
I had some concerns because my friend said The Grand Sophy was her favourite. Would the others be as good? I picked up another one of the selections she sent me flew through it. And then another. And then I went online and ordered five more. It was official - I was nutty for Heyer. The best part about reading Heyer novels is that I know there are lots of them and that some selection of them is frequently available in libraries. And after years of being out of print they are being reissued so they are available with online booksellers and frequently at my local brick and mortar. The bad part is that I know there is a finite amount of Heyer's out there and while the existing ones will continue to be new to me, there will never be another brand spanking new Heyer.
After I started reading Heyer I started to see her pop up more frequently on book blogs thanks to those reissues I mentioned above. Fans of Jane Austen seem to particularly love Heyer's work. Vic at Jane Austen's World recently reviewed her Lady of Quality and discussed what lured her into Heyer's world.
I reveled in Georgette’s world filled with bored aristocratic gentlemen who, usually as they traveled by coach or horse to a country inn or walked the streets in London in the middle of the night, stumbled across an innocent and disarming chit who needed rescuing. This plot device was a popular one with the author. Another one of Georgette’s plots was that of the “older” beautiful, rich, and independent spinster (almost on the shelf, but not quite) who is determined to live her life as she likes it, and skirt convention when she can. Because she has independent means, she rules her roost and will brook no interference from any man.
It is true that many of Georgette Heyer's novels follow similar paths. The women and men are witty. There are daft/interfering/judgmental family members. Women often need "saving" although they also sometimes turn around and save the men. There may be a military plotline (after all, we are in the age of Napoleon here). For some the repetitiveness is part of the Heyer charm. Others, like Kim, would like to see a bit more variety. She reviewed Black Sheep at Good, Clean Reads and deducted a quarter star because it was too similar to the last Heyer she read.
In the spirit of all things Heyer, Historical Tapestry is hosting a Georgette Heyer Season.
Unlike a Season from the Regency there won't be balls, picnics, rides down Rotten Row or afternoon visits but there will be some reviews that we have already posted reposted, some new reviews, a couple of book giveaways, some guest posts, and whatever else we can think of!
The details for the book giveaway can be found here. Go enter! I promise they are fun.
In case you don't win the book don't despair. Thanks to Heyer having been a prolific and popular writer in the twentieth century most libraries carry at least one Heyer book.
There are also books written about Georgette Heyer and her Regency world. One of the most recent books is by Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer's Regency World. The Historical Romance UK blog snagged Ms. Kloester as a guest blogger of the month awhile back.
Now you must excuse me, I have a half finished Heyer novel calling my name.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Had I lived close enough to a library I would have no doubt found a summer reading program. You'd be hard pressed not to find one as librarians have permanent seats on the summer reading wagon. The Wisconsin Youth Services Librarians blog featured a post by from the Chair recently about the build up to summer reading.
]]>If your life has been like mine lately, you’ve been immersed in plans for summer reading for about a solid four months now. I know many librarians who come to dread summer reading. Trust me, there are days when I can relate to that feeling. But over all, summer reading to me is the synthesis of why we are children’s librarians because the main goal of summer reading is to get kids excited about wanting to read. Through summer reading we are developing and creating readers – and that couldn’t be more fun.
If your life has been like mine lately, you’ve been immersed in plans for summer reading for about a solid four months now. I know many librarians who come to dread summer reading. Trust me, there are days when I can relate to that feeling. But over all, summer reading to me is the synthesis of why we are children’s librarians because the main goal of summer reading is to get kids excited about wanting to read. Through summer reading we are developing and creating readers – and that couldn’t be more fun.
Part of summer reading is having someone recommend new books to you. While we like to consider librarians experts on this, part of the reason they are so good is because they continue to learn how to do it. At MVLS info Sue talks to Nancy Pearl about being a Reading Advisor. Sue goes on to talk about Pearl's "doorways" - ways through which a reader enters a book.
Remember that books can be entered through more than one doorway. Probably a book that is entered through more doorways is going to be more enduring, because more people will enjoy it. As you’re reading, think about the doorway appeal. The majority of readers enter through the story doorway.
It's a definite must read. Sue also did a second post about summer reading and leaving her reading comfort zone.
If your child decides to take part in a reading program (or if you accidentally on purpose only tell them are doing it after you've signed them up...) you will need reading recommendations. If you aren't someone who reads a lot of juvenile and young adult literature yourself, and if your child's school doesn't give out summer reading lists (it happens, mine never did) library websites can provide some great lists to get you started. The Queens Library, New York Public Library and Brooklyn Library Summer Reading '08 site would be a great place to get started. It provides information on books for all age ranges, including for adults. I've read books on both their teen and adult lists (and now have added a few more books to my To Be Read list...).
Of course libraries aren't the only places getting in on the summer reading program action. Bookstore chains and restaurants are sponsoring a few as well. Kate at I Think Therefore I Blog did a handy link round up of summer reading reward programs for kids.
Will your kids be taking part in a summer reading program? Will you?
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
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