I didn’t finish reading anything this week and was putting off this post in the hopes that I’d get at least one book read enough to call it done. Alas, it was not to be. In addition to reading for pleasure and general edification, I’ve set a goal to read through the Bible in a year. I have never actually done this–read the Bible from cover to cover–and I have a variety of reasons for doing so, foremost is my desire to more fully understand Biblical references that people make when they are trying to defend some position or other. So I suppose this would be a more secular reading of the Bible than anything. As I read, I realize that I am familiar with most of what I’m encountering (long years of Sunday School, youth group, even Bible study), I just haven’t read it without the context of guided study or in conjunction with the other parts of the Bible. The plan I am following has you reading from a different book each day. I was doing well until we got to Isaiah. I’m now rather behind. So, I’ve got a date with a mug of coffee and my Bible this morning. Seems appropriate for a Sunday!
Still Reading:
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
I am reading this slowly, a couple of chapters a night. The humor sneaks up on you–it’s quite sly and rather funny.
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
Listening to this one on my commute. My guess is that I will finish next week or early the following (depends on how long my commute is each day, and that is variable). Really enjoying this story–glad to have the context of The Year of the Flood. When I tried to read Oryx and Crake it was difficult for me to enter the world. Having read The Year of the Flood first gets me there because I have an idea about just what is happening/has happened in the wider, desolate world around Snowman.
The Clockwork Three, Matthew Kirby
Having a hard time getting into this story, although it isn’t badly written. May just be me.
The Steps Across the Water, Adam Gopnik
I want to love this book and I am struggling!
Have Yet To Start
Catherine of Sienna, A Passionate Life, Donald Brophy
The American Catholic Revolution : How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever, Mark Stephen Massa
The Wonder of Charlie-Anne, Kimberly Newton Fusco
Abandoned
The Damage Done, Hillary Davidson
Silent Auction, Jane Cleland
Acquired
Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool (Newberry)
A Sick Day For Amos McGee, Phillip C. Stead, illus. Erin E. Stead (Caldecott)
One Crazy Summer, Rita Williams Garcia (Coretta Scott King, author)
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, Laban Carrick Hill, illus. Brian Collier (Coretta Scott King, illustrator)
Award winners to read–for myself and for work. Eventually I need also to read the winners of the Carnegie Medal, Pura Belpré Award, and Geisel Award, as well as the Newberry Honor books. And probably the Printz Award titles too. This is a need/want. :) There are such a ton of awards (though, not compared to the number of titles coming out) that it’s kind of not possible to get to them all before people start asking about them. Well, they have already started requesting the titles, but the wider public will probably not really be aware of the books until next month or even later. It’s mostly librarians and educators who are looking for the books right now. So that gives me some time.
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg
This has been on my list for a little while and I found a copy at Borders on sale. Looking forward to relaxing with this and cooking up something special.
I know I said I wasn’t going to sign up for any reading challenges this year, and I haven’t. But today I came across The Outlander Series Challenge, the goal of which is to read all 7 of the books in the series between now and the end of the year. Outlander has been on my radar for some time and I was just thinking recently that I’d really like to find a fantasy series that I can sink into. The Outlander Challenge dovetails nicely with both of those desires. So…I’m breaking my vow and signing up for just this one challenge. Just this one!! :)
A mini-goal of mine is to do better about writing and posting reviews of the books I read this year, but since doing better in terms of past performance just means posting at least once a month, I thought I might also post on Fridays a recap of my week in reading and movie watching.
Books Read:
A Finders-Keepers Place, Ann Haywood Leal
Happily Ever After, Nora Roberts (the last of the Bride Quartet)
Bellfield Hall, Or, The Observations Of Miss Dido Kent, Anna Dean
The Year Of The Flood, Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
Movies Viewed:
Alice in Wonderland (Disney, 2010) — The Tim Burton version
This Week I Acquired (through the library or through purchases):
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
Birthday purchase of the lovely Penguins Classic volume with cover designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I’ve never read Cranford, but Elizabeth Gaskell has been on my radar for a little while and I am looking forward to setting aside some special time for savoring this title.
The Steps Across the Water, Adam Gopnik
Library book–plucked from the new book cart, so I should read it quickly and return it so it’s available for the kiddos while still actually new. I’ve always enjoyed Gopnik’s writing in the New Yorker and I’m intrigued to see how his talent and style translate to children’s literature.
The Clockwork Three, Matthew Kirby
Another new book. It looked interesting, but has the potential to be anywhere from awful to just blah. Cover and storyline fall neatly in line with the spate of fantasy novels currently published in children’s lit–hence the potential for, well, anything.
The Wonder of Charlie-Anne, Kimberly Newton Fusco
Children’s book set during the Depression/Dust Bowl. Charlie-Anne is a tomboy trying to keep things from changing too much despite the huge changes happening in the world around her. The is not an unknown archetype and I wasn’t sure about cracking the cover, but I have been drawn in by the strength of Charlie-Anne’s character, which is a definite mark in Fusco’s favor.
Readers’ Advisory for Children and ‘Tweens, Penny Peck
Professional development. From a quick perusal, it appears to have a number of really great book lists.
Catherine of Sienna, A Passionate Life, Donald Brophy
Biography of St. Catherine. I enjoy religious history and biographies and picked this up while browsing the new books (in the adult department this time).
The American Catholic Revolution : How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever, Mark Stephen Massa
See above, plus I am really intrigued by the Catholic Church.
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
I just finished listening to The Year of the Flood and want to find out more about this strange world. Great for my commute.
The Damage Done, Hillary Davidson
New mystery involving a stolen identity and drug addiction.
Silent Auction, Jane Cleland
Cozy mystery set in the world of antiques and furniture.
Title: A Finders-Keepers Place
Author: Ann Haywood Leal
Publisher: Henry Holt, 2010
Synopsis: Most eleven year old kids are worried about the grade on their spelling test and who they sit next to during lunch. Fifth grader Esther Page is not most eleven year olds–she’s got to figure out how to keep her family together.
Target Audience: 10 -13 year olds? We have it in the children’s department.
Review: This was a very quick read; I pulled it off of our cart of new books at the library and was invested in the story from pretty early on. Eleven year old Esther and her eight year old sister Ruth are barely keeping it together, covering for their mother’s erratic and frightening behavior. Valley, their mother, is either sunk into a three day sleep induced by the little yellow pills she keeps around or following one of her notions. Underlying the strange behavior is a mean streak that has been hanging around their mother for six year, since their father left. If all that isn’t bad enough, teachers at school are starting to ask questions. So are the neighbors. Esther can see a bad thing coming a mile away and she needs to come up with a solution, fast. Even though she was only four the last time she saw her father, Esther just knows that things would be better if she and Ruth could find him and bring him back. The story follows the girls as they struggle with their mother’s increasingly manic behavior and attempt to find out what happened to their father. As you might imagine, the truths the girls discover are not happy ones. The book ends in a less bad place than it began, but overall it’s a sad and frustrating story.
Questions/Issues I had:
Why was the book set in 1973? That seemed like such an odd choice to me. I haven’t figured out the importance of the story being set in that decade–nothing in the story screamed seventies to me and while dates did come up–1966 in particular since that is when their father left–those dates weren’t really set in actual time. They were more like placeholders. Without the specific mention of the dates, I would have thought this was a fairly contemporary story. Or been happy with the vague, some place, some time kind of setting.
The whole time I was reading the story, I sympathized with Esther’s desire to keep everything together, but I kept waiting for an adult to step in and take a little bit of control of the situation. That NEVER happened. As the story progresses we see that Valley is actually abusive to the girls. Ruth has developed a stealing problem. They hardly have anything to eat and in fact grab food out of the dumpsters. The one adult “friend” that they know–Aunt Dode, a sometimes friend of their mother–gives them money for coffee and three days later brings over a tuna noodle casserole because it finally occurred to her that they might be hungry. Ford, the nineteen year old kid who runs an auto repair shop down the street, is the most responsible person around–getting the girls medicine when the Dumpster diving results in some mild food poisoning, leaving stuff out for their “finders-keepers” hunts.Their father, of course, turns out to have left for heaven–not some church down the street (Esther remembered that he was a preacher).
The problem of the mother: Valley repeatedly drives down the middle of the road, onto the sidewalk or just generally like a mad-woman. She is never pulled over. She leaves the girls at a flea market. No one notices. She takes all of the electrical appliances out of the house and leaves them on the curb. No one notices–or notices Esther trying to sneak back small things like the toaster. Valley knocks down walls in their house–including making holes in the exterior walls. No one notices. Rather than explain what had happened to their father, Valley just screams that he’s gone. At the end of the story, when asked by Esther why she never explained what happened to their father, Valley says that she did tell the girls. When they were four and 1.5, respectively. The story ends not with the girls being taken out of the situation or a social worker or therapist entering the scene to work with the family and keep Valley on track. Nope. Rather, it ends with Valley crying in the torn up kitchen, promising to take her pills. And Esther’s post-script is that she makes Valley take those pills right in front of her, every morning. I don’t understand how this resolved anything for those girls, or their mother, for that matter. Overall, very frustrating.
Wow! 2010 in reading was a year of biting off way more than I could chew. I made too many goals without thinking about the major area I need to improve in–actually writing down what I’m reading. I don’t think I’m going to join up with any group challenges this year, but I do have some reading goals that I would like to achieve for myself:
- Record everything I read this year. EVERYTHING!!
- Since this blog is ostensibly also about watching, I’d like to do a better job keeping track of the movies I watch during the year as well.
- Read at least one non-fiction book a month.
- Work harder at finishing books, even when I lose my mojo part way through. I would have had such a longer list of completed books last year if only I’d stuck with the many books I started.
- Continue to focus on essays and short stories–one thing I did learn in 2010 was that I greatly enjoy these shorter narratives.
- Post once a week on this blog. Even if I don’t have anything completed to talk about.
