Sunday Salon: Reading, Read, To Read #1

Happy New Year! It's been a great week for blogging. So many bloggers choosing to compile their favorite-and-best lists of the year, the Cybils blog posting the finalists, etc. If you've made a best-of list, I would love to see it. If you don't have a blog, you can always mention a few must-read titles in the comments of this post! I really love to see what books get that ultimate-must-read-best-of-the-best status. Visiting all these posts makes my own wishlist grow.

Speaking of which, I've decided to keep track of blog reviews that make me want to read the book. This isn't an original idea by any means. Jen Robinson does this occasionally and there is Chris and his bad bloggers. I'm not going out intentionally looking for books to read, these are just going to be books that grab my attention when I'm out reading blogs. I'm sure it'll get updated every week. Probably every day knowing me.

What I've reviewed this week:

William S. and the Great Escape. Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Simon & Schuster. 214 pages. (MG Historical Fiction)
Lucky Breaks. Susan Patron. 2009. Simon & Schuster. 180 pages. (MG Realistic Fiction)
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg. Rodman Philbrick. 2009. Scholastic. 224 pages. (MG Historical Fiction)
The Fiddler's Gun. A.S. Peterson. 2009. Rabbit Room Press. 293 pages. (MG & YA Historical Fiction)
The Crippled Lamb. By Max Lucado. Illustrated by Liz Bonham. Thomas Nelson Pub. 1994/9. 32 pages. [Christian Picture Book]
The Oak Inside the Acorn. By Max Lucado. Illustrated by George Angelini. 2006. Thomas Nelson Pub. 48 pages. [Christian Picture Book]
Too Purpley. By Jean Reidy. Illustrated by Genevieve Leloup. 2010 (January 2010) Bloomsbury USA. 32 pages. (Picture Book)
Animal Crackers Fly the Coop written and illustrated by Kevin O'Malley. (March 2010). 2010. (Picture Book)
Where Teddy Bears Come From. Mark Burgess. Illustrated by Russell Ayto. 2009. Peachtree. 32 pages. 32 pages. (Picture Book)
Ice Land by Betsy Tobin. 2008/2009. Penguin. 368 pages. (Adult Historical Fiction/Historical Fantasy)
Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face And Other Poems. By Jack Prelutsky. Illustrated by Brandon Dorman. 2008. HarperCollins. 208 pages. [POETRY]

What I'm Currently Reading:

Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan. Simon & Schuster. 435 pages. (Adult Historical Fiction)


The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. 1860/2005. Simon & Schuster. 784 pages. (Classic)


Under the Dome. By Stephen King. 2009. Simon & Schuster. 1088 pages. (Adult Horror/Science Fiction)


The Silent Governess. By Julie Klassen. 2010. (January 2010) Bethany House. 448 pages. (Adult Historical Fiction/Historical Romance/Christian)



First Escape by G. P. Taylor. 2008. Tyndale Publishers. 288 pages. (YA Fantasy/YA Graphic Novel)

What I Hope To Begin/Finish Soon:


The Dog In the Wood by Monika Schroder. 2009. Boyds Mills Press. 168 pages. (MG Historical Fiction)


The Timekeeper's Moon by Joni Sensel. 2010. (March 2010) Bloomsbury USA. 352 pages. (MG/YA Fantasy)


The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer. 1921/2009. Sourcebooks. 355 pages.

Movies Reviewed This Week:

My Favorite Wife (1940)
Pillow Talk (1959)
Send Me No Flowers (1964)
Lover Come Back (1961)
The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Challenges Joined This Week*:

Short Story Reading Challenge
Speculative Fiction Challenge

* With this being a new year, a thousand and one challenges have started this past week. But this list is just for those that I joined (and wrote sign-up posts) this week.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Ice Land

Ice Land by Betsy Tobin. 2008/2009. Penguin. 368 pages.

When I was sixteen, I was given a cloak made entirely of feathers.

Did I enjoy this one?! I did! It's a complex story--at times--a historical fantasy with gods (the Aesir), giants, dwarfs, and humans living messy (and sometimes intertwined) lives. But it's a beautiful story as well. It is set in Iceland (circa 1000 AD), and it is the story of love in all its messy glory.

It left me a bit speechless. Not many books do.

From the back cover:

Warned by the fates of an impending disaster, Freya embarks on a dangerous journey deep into the mountains to find a magnificent gold necklace said to have the power to alter the course of history. Meanwhile, the country is on the brink of war as the new world order of Christianity threatens the old ways of Iceland's people, and tangled amid it all are two star-crossed lovers whose destiny draws them together--even as their families are determined to tear them apart.

Infused with the rich history and mythology of Iceland, Betsy Tobin's sweeping novel is an epic adventure of forbidden love, lust, jealousy, faith, and magical wonder set under the shadow of a smoldering volcano.

They got it right! You know how sometimes the way a book's description can be so misleading, and so not-the-book-you-get? Well, this one really is as good as they make it out to be.

Fulla, a young maiden, is unhappy. Her grandfather (her only remaining family) wants her to get married. He wants to do the choosing of course. What does she know of such things? Of what makes a marriage work? What makes a marriage strong? How could she--such a young thing--know about love and matters of the heart? How can she know her own mind? So says her grandfather, Hogni, in any case.

Who would she choose if she had her way? Does she dare speak it even to herself? When such a choice is oh-so-obviously forbidden? It's Vili. A young boy from a rival family. The son of the man who killed Fulla's father.

This isn't Fulla's story alone. It's also the story of the goddess, Freya. The goddess of love who is a bit unlucky when it comes to her own heart, her own affairs. Freya has worries of her own. Worries for her people, worries for Iceland itself. She's heard prophecies, seen signs, enough to lead her on a quest for what could be salvation. Her search for a remarkable gold necklace, a necklace made by the dwarfs, what would she do to obtain it, to make it hers? Will it change her destiny?!

So many different characters...so many stories intertwined...all beautifully and wonderfully done. A great, great story. Very compelling and oh-so-fascinating. Definitely recommended. It would be oh-so-perfect for Carl's Once Upon A Time reading challenge this spring. If you can wait that long. I couldn't. I'm weak.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

What Should I Read Next?

Welcome to the special New Year's edition of "What Should I Read Next?" I am currently reading a few books. And it's likely that it is one of these that will be the very first book read in the new year. But. I want to know what you think I should read next...

A. From two thousand feet, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester's Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down.
B. When I was sixteen, I was given a cloak made entirely of feathers.
C. Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?
D. My name is Andrew Zansky.

All four would be by new-to-me authors: Stephen King (I never did make it through The Stand though I do want to one day), Betsy Tobin, Sam Taylor, and Allen Zadoff. (The titles: Under the Dome, Ice Land, The Island At The End of the World, and Food, Girls, And Other Things I Can't Have.)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Poetry Friday: Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face And Other Poems

Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face And Other Poems. By Jack Prelutsky. Illustrated by Brandon Dorman. 2008. HarperCollins. 208 pages. [POETRY]

Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face is a collection of poetry by the oh-so-prolific-and-often-humorous Jack Prelutsky. It does feature some new poetry--fifteen poems to be exact--but consider it to be a best-of collection featuring his previously published poems.

The book has five sections: "It's Hard To Be An Elephant," "Oh Breakfast, Lovely Breakfast," "Once they All Believed In Dragons," "Is Traffic Jam Delectable?", and "There Was A Little Poet." Each section has a handful of activities for children to extend the poetry.

Do I have a favorite? Or two? Well, I'm a bit partial to "My Mother Made A Meat Loaf"

Here it is in part...

My mother made a meat loaf
that provided much distress,
she tried her best to serve it,
but she met with no success,
her sharpest knife was powerless
to cut a single slice,
and her efforts with a cleaver
failed completely to suffice. (48)

But I think my favorite, favorite (and maybe you can guess why) is "I Often Repeat Repeat Myself."

I often repeat repeat myself,
I often repeat repeat.
I don't I don't know why know why,
I simply know that I I I
am am inclined to say to say
a lot a lot this way this way --
I often repeat repeat myself,
I often repeat repeat. (136)

Of course, that is only part of the poem. You'll have to check out this book or The Pizza the Size of the Sun to catch it in its entirety. There is just something about that poem that just works for me. It is very fun, very catchy, and very memorable. I think it is the rhythm. I'm not an expert. I just know what I like. And I like this one very much.

Included with the book is a CD. I was skeptical at first, was this CD just a gimmick? But I was surprised to see the CD is over an hour long! Perhaps some of these poems-as-songs will show readers (of all ages) that poetry can be fun. Especially songs like "We're Fearless Flying Hot Dogs." Though the performance on the CD is nothing like the performance I've linked too. It's not-so-interrupted.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Cybils Finalists have been announced

What do you look forward to most on New Year's Day? I hope one of the things would be the Cybils' announcements.

I was on the Middle Grade panel...and this years finalists are...

Captain Nobody
by Dean Pitchford
Putnam Juvenile
Nominated by: Dawn Mooney

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Simon & Schuster
Nominated by: melissa

Anything But Typical
by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Simon & Schuster
Nominated by: Pam W Coughlan

Heart of a Shepherd
by Rosanne Parry
Random House Children's Books
Nominated by: jone

All The Broken Pieces
by Ann Burg
Scholastic
Nominated by: Laurie Schneider

Operation Yes
by Sara Lewis Holmes
Arthur A Levine
Nominated by: Laura Purdie Salas

Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, The
by Barbara O'Connor
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Nominated by: Augusta Scattergood

Have you read any of these? Do you have a favorite of the seven?

Be sure to check out the finalists in other categories too.

Young Adult Fiction
Poetry
Graphic Novels MG/YA
Fantasy and Sci-Fi (MG)
Fantasy and Sci-Fi (YA)
Picture Books
Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books
Nonfiction (MG/YA)
Nonfiction Picture Books


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews