Sunday, March 07, 2010

Sunday Salon: Reading, Read, To Read #10


Happy Sunday! I wanted to let you know about Karin's upcoming challenge. She's hosting the Spring Break Reading Challenge. It will be a very short challenge--just March 12 through March 21rst! But I think it will be a fun challenge! It is just one of the challenges I joined this week!

How important is it for a book to have a good cover, a great cover? Do you choose books based on their covers? Can a cover be so ugly, so unappealing that you would never, ever read the book? Would you consider yourself a cover snob? I'm curious to see how much a cover influences your choices as a reader.

What I've Reviewed This Week:

The Total Tragedy of A Girl Named Hamlet. Erin Dionne. 2010. [January 2010] Penguin. 304 pages.
Wishing for Tomorrow: The Sequel to A Little Princess. By Hilary McKay. Illustrations by Nick Maland. Simon & Schuster. 273 pages.
Cracker! The Best Dog In Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata. 2007. Simon & Schuster. 320 pages.
Mr. Knightley's Diary. Amanda Grange. 2007. Penguin. 294 pages.
Emma Brown: A Novel From the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Bronte. Clare Boylan. 2005. Penguin. 464 pages.
The Screwtape Letters. C.S. Lewis. 1942. HarperCollins. 224 pages.
The Secret Providence of God by John Calvin. Edited by Paul Helm. 2010. Crossway Publishers. 128 pages.
Somewhere to Belong. Judith Miller. 2010. [March 2010] Bethany House. 368 pages.
Hearts Awakening. Delia Parr. 2010. [March 2010] Bethany House. 352 pages.
Shake, Rattle, & Turn That Noise Down! How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me and Mom. by Mark Alan Stamaty. Random House. 40 pages.
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. By Jim Murphy. 2003. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 176 pages.
Everybody Was A Baby Once: And Other Poems. By Allan Ahlberg. 2010. [March 2010] Illustrated by Bruce Ingman. Candlewick. 64 pages
Curious George: Curious Baby Counting "by" H.A. Rey. 2009. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 12 pages.
Who Do You See? By Will Grace. 2009. Scholastic. 6 pages.
I Don't Want A Cool Cat! By Emma Dodd. 2010. [August 2010] Little Brown Young Readers. 32 pages.
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. Mo Willems. 2007. Hyperion. 48 pages.
Today I Will Fly (An Elephant & Piggie Book). Mo Willems. 2007. Hyperion. 64 pages.
My Friend is Sad. (An Elephant & Piggie Book) Mo Willems. 2007. Hyperion. 64 pages.
I Am Invited To A Party. (An Elephant and Piggie Book). Mo Willems. 2007. Hyperion. 64 pages.
I Love My New Toy (An Elephant & Piggie Book) Mo Willems. 2008. Hyperion. 64 pages.
There Is A Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant & Piggie Book) By Mo Willems. 2007. Hyperion. 64 pages.

What I'm Currently Reading:


The Stolen Crown. Susan Higginbotham. 2010. [March 2010] SourceBooks. 400 pages.


A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin. 2010. [March 2010] Revell. 432 pages.

What I Hope To Begin/Finish Soon:


One Crazy Summer. Rita Williams-Garcia. 2010. [January 2010] HarperCollins. 218 pages.


Young Bess by Margaret Irwin. 1944/2010. [March 2010] SourceBooks. 400 pages.


Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs. 2010. [March 2010] Waterbrook Press. 480 pages.

Movies Reviewed This Week:

Across the Universe (2007)

Challenges Joined This Week:

Spring Break Reading Challenge (March 12-21)
Nonfiction Five (May-September)
Guardian 2 Challenge

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

4 comments:

Miss Remmers said...

Wow! You have been busy! Congrats on Spring Break reading!

Kathy Martin said...

You have had a busy week. I am a big fan of Mo Willems too.

I am also taking part in the Spring Break Reading Challenge. The Christmas one was fun and I even won two of the days. I just wish I was really on Spring Break. I am already trying to do too many challenges this year to look for too many more. I am starting to feel the pressure.

I never used to even look at the covers and I still have a hard time remembering them. But since I began working with a woman who is very visual I am becoming more interested in covers. It seems to me a lot of recent YA books have particularly lovely covers. I still pay lots more attention to the blurb and the author. I bad cover won't ever make me pass up the book if it is by an author I like or has a story that sounds intriguing. I just wish that the contents of books with lovely covers always matched. (Fallen, I'm talking to you!)

Happy reading!

Andi said...

Wow! You've had a very busy reviewing week. I'm envious! :)

Will definitely have to check out the Spring Break Reading Challenge. Sounds fun.

As for covers, it seems like I'm talking about them on my blog a lot lately--especially with A Reliable Wife. Love love love that cover! They usually don't turn me off of a book completely, but I'm most definitely entranced by beautiful ones.

Elisabeth Marie said...

Aww this makes me sad. :( My Spring Break is this upcoming week, so I won't beable to participate.
On the bright side, I hope you enjoyed Mo Willems, I sure do (and so do my storytime kids). We especially like I Am Invited To A Party and Are You Ready to Play Outside?