Fantastic Books

I haven't posted in a while, what with family in town, work on the house and other busy summer pastimes. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading, though. In fact, I have read some really terrific books in the last couple of weeks.


The Lost Painting, by Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action, was an exciting find. I'm a big fan of art history mysteries and true ones are always the best. In The Lost Painting, Harr explores the events and characters surrounding the finding of a long-lost Carravaggio painting. I loved this one because it fully explored the research of the provenance of the painting, academic theories, and the techniques to prove authenticity. Colorful characters from the European art world were delightful to meet and the pacing was quick in what could have been a ponderous outlaying of facts. I highly recommend this book for anyone with even a passing interest in art, or those who enjoyed Harr's style in A Civil Action. This volume, just to note, is considerably slimmer than A Civil Action. :)

I also recently finished reading Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, and I've been recommending it to everyone I see. This book was the buzz of the Book Expo America and has a huge following among independent booksellers. After hearing about it, I had a long wait on my library's holds list! It was definitely worth the wait. This is the touching, exciting, and exotic story of a young man who inadvertantly joins the circus and is forever changed by it. Exploring dark themes of insanity, abuse, and the Depresseion, the novel also has tender relationships and a certain sweetness. It has it all, right? Go pick this up before your summer reading time is up, it's the best thing I read all summer.

Fannie Flagg's newest novel set in Elmwood Springs, Missouri, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven is just as full of sweet and sassy characters as the last couple, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl and Standing in the Rainbow. In this installment, set in current times, Aunt Elner and company ponder the meaning of life after a near-death (or back from death) experience. Without the bite of her previous novels, Flagg still creates rich and humorous characters. Of the trilogy, my personal favorite was the second, Standing in the Rainbow, but I love seeing how Flagg wraps up the lives of these beloved people in the last of the trilogy. It's definitely worth checking out.

Today I picked up the second installment in the Newbery award-winning children's series about Crispin, an orphan in the middle ages. Crispin: At the Edge of the World, by Avi, continues immediately where Crispin: The Cross of Lead left off. Crispin and Bear must flee for their lives when a brotherhood of spies believes that Bear has betrayed them. Bear is injured, and while they are hiding out in the forest, the two meet some colorful and interesting characters who join them in their further adventures. This is a worthy sequel to the first, highly acclaimed volume. Full of compassion, insights, and growth, I enjoyed this newest edition by Avi. While the publication date in my advance copy said September, it appears that the book is on the shelves now, so check it out and pass it along to your young reader.

Happy reading!

Bookshelf

My bookshelf is over-flowing right now. Here are some of my current picks:

A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman, by Joan Anderson

A Glancing Light, by Aaron Elkins

Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, by Fannie Flagg

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

Tenderwire, by Claire Kilroy

The Patriot, by Piers Paul Read

Eating Heaven, by Jennie Shortridge

Elements of Style, by Wendy Wasserstein

Hollywood Nanny

This past week I picked up a frivolous little book called You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again!: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Hollywood Nanny by Suzanne Hansen. I would guardedly recommend this as a beach read, but not much else.

This book is a memoir, a non-fiction mud-slinger, that is both defaming and titillating, but is NOT well-written. Suzy went from a small Oregon logging town to Hollywood where she quickly found work as nanny to the uber-powerful Michael Orvitz, a Hollywood agent who had only recently started his firm when the book takes place, in the 1980's. Her naivete is grating and the writing moves from gossipy to whiney as the story progresses. As one might expect, the family's attitudes and behavior are shocking and dehumanizing to any other than the powerful and the story follows the lines more entertaininly set out by the authors of the Nanny Diaries...nanny loves the kids and sees them more than the parents, nanny makes some trifling mistakes that are blown out of proportion, nanny is fired unfairly.

With the movie version of the fictional, but based in reality, Nanny Diaries coming out soon, I would stick to that one if you're going to choose a nanny expose to read this year. Suzanne Hansen's just seems mean-spirited as she names names all over Hollywood.

Amazing Blogger

I saw this story about the most amazing blogger today. Apparently, he started a blog to track his bartering and started with a paper clip...and ended with a house!

Check out this really interesting story.

And here's a link to his blog One Red Paperclip.

Vegas, Baby, Yeah!

I've been away in Las Vegas for the past few days and I didn't read a thing...unless you count the absolutely indispensible Best Places Las Vegas. I love the Best Places guides, which started in the Pacific Northwest and are published by Seattle-based Sasquatch Books. Written by locals and full of actually useful and in-the-know reviews, these are my must guides anywhere they publish. I had the 1st edition Vegas guide, published in 2001, which was a bit out dated in a city so in flux. Unfortunately, it looks like there hasn't been a newer edition. I hope one comes out soon.

Speaking of Vegas, I found a cool website from the UNLV libraries that has a bibliography of books, films, and photographs of Las Vegas architecture.

My personal Vegas bibliography is not too extensive, since I'm not such a fan of Mob histories or road trip books or things like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Here's mine:

Bad Kitty, by Michele Jaffe - even though this one is for teeny-boppers, it is soooo much fun for adults.

Bringing Down the House and Busting Vegas, both true stories of MIT kids with blackjack tricks by Ben Mezrich.

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker, by James McManus; the title has it all, what more could you ask?

Your Friendly Librarian

YouTube

Apparently, I'm not the only one interested in YouTube this week. Along with Entertainment Weekly, NPR picked up some buzz about it too.

This morning on Morning Edition there was a story about YouTube and NPR's blog, Mixed Signals, features some comments on it as well.

I always enjoy finding out even more about the things the interest me (I guess that's why I'm a librarian).

Entertainment Websites and Blogs

The June 23 issue of Entertainment Weekly had a terrific list of 100 entertainment sites to "bookmark now". They approached their 25 favorite sites to recommend their 4 favorite sites and the results were pretty interesting. I would suggest checking the issue out for yourself.

I highlighted websites that sounded interesting to me and here's my list of cool entertainment websites and blogs, with annotations by EW.

I'll start with my very favorite find:
Celebrities-Eating.com
Just pictures of celebrities eating.

AllMusic.com
A reliable music database of albums and songs by artists ranging from Gnarls Barkley to Shakira.

Internet Movie Database
The unofficial bible of the entertainment world, and also the best way to cheat at the Kevin Bacon game.

National Public Radio
"The radio station that's always erudite but with a sense of whimsy." - Col Needham

YouTube.com
The ultimate source for viral videos, from dancing babies to Brokeback spoofs and beyond.

Metacritic.com
Think of it as a one-stop resource for summaries of film, DVD, television, book, game, and music reviews from various outlets.

CollisionDetection.net
Pop culture with a scientific and tech bent.

Defamer.com
Nobody does snarky Hollywood gossip like these bloggers, who recently influenced the artwork for Snakes on a Plane. (Snakes on a Plane is its own internet phenomenon, to hear a story about it, check out one that aired on NPR back in April.)

Panopticist.com
Cultural commentary.

GoFugYourself
Saucy attacks on celeb fashion foibles with annotations of red-carpet pics of Lindsay Lohan, etc.

Film-Releases.com
Studios' release schedules for the next two years.

Blog of a Bookslut
Guide to lit-world scandals.

Pollstar.com
The best source of national concert listings, broken down by venue.

HomestarRunner.com
A collection of cartoon shorts, emails, and inane games starring the animated antics of Strong Bad and Homestar - I love Strong Bad!

Robscrab.com
Schrab makes coller F/X with cardboard than Industrial Light & Magic, and posts it for free.

Slate.com
Witty pop-culture coverage from critiques of Beyonce's iTunes picks to "why Tom Cruise should disappear for a year."

Arts & Letters Daily
The site "catalogs every piece of high-brow cultural criticism." - Slate

Arts Journal: The Daily Digest of Arts, Culture and Ideas
I stumbled across this one while following links and it's a really cool journal of all kinds of things of interest to those of us in liberal arts.

Enjoy this mixed bag of sites to entertain and educate.

Your Friendly Librarian

Autism and Al Capone

In one of those amazing coincidences, I read Al Capone Does My Shirts , by Gennifer Choldenko, today in one sitting and then listened to an incredible feature on autism and Asperger's Syndrome on NPR's All Things Considered.

In the 2005 Newbery honored book, Choldenko tells the story of Moose, an otherwise normal kid who happens to live at Alcatraz. Set in Depression-era San Francisco, the story weaves together cool facts about the real families of guards and staff who lived in quarters on the famous island, regular juvenile high jinks, and the special relationship between a boy and his autistic sister.

The story has the typical conflicts of making new friends at a new school, impressing girls, and family disagreements, but the unique setting puts a whole new spin on things. I loved the titular episode where Piper, the warden's scheming daughter, sells Al Capone's laundry services to the kids at school. Al Capone ran the wringer in the laundry room at Alcatraz, where all of the employees' laundry was done, as well as the prisoners'.

Autism was not a broadly recognized disorder until 1943, a fact that makes the story of Moose's sister Natalie all the more poignant. Natalie is 16, but the kids' mother refuses to admit that she has aged beyond 10 years old. The mother's denial is based partly on the fact that treatment centers viewed children past the age of 12 as beyond help and partly because of a harsh comment a relative made when Natalie was 10. A side story in the book deals with the family's attempts to get Natalie accepted to a special school that might help her get past the various obsessions and behavioral disorders that rule her life. A reader now would recognize Natalie's obsession with numbers, her ability to place birthdates, her rocking, and her inability to connect with people as traits of autism, but at the time many people just saw her as crazy and suggested that she be put away. The family's difficult daily decisions and the gentleness between the 13-year-old Moose and Natalie are a wonderful introduction to younger readers of a problem that affects more and more people all the time.

According to the Autism Society of America, autism now affects 4.5 out of every 10,000 live births. To read more about these statistics click here.

Bookshelf

My bookshelf right now is overflowing with teen reads like these:

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko

A Mango-Shaped Space, by Wendy Mass

The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner

Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli

24 Girls in 7 Days, by Alex Bradley

Second Sight, by Gary Blackwood

Darcy and Elizabeth

For those of you who know me or have seen which direction my tastes lean over the reading of my blog, you will know that I am a big fan of Jane Austen sequels, no matter how dubious they might seem. Well, imagine my joy to find a sequel to my favorite and the most dubious sequel of all, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll. The new sequel is Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley and just came out in May. I can't wait to get my hands on it! Racy stuff!

Running around online, I found the Austen fan site, The Republic of Pemberley, where most sequels to all the different novels are listed. Pretty cool.

A Death in Belmont

I have to credit Sebastian Junger for writing a masterful and terrifying memoir of how the Boston Strangler touched his life. A Death in Belmont makes a great non-fiction thriller for summer reading!

I first read an excerpt from the book in April's Vanity Fair, complete with eerie photographs. When I picked up the book, I was looking forward to reading it, but found after about two chapters that despite knowing what was to come, the book was actually a little too scary for me to read alone in my house at night! Knowing as much as I do from the excerpt, I will highly recommend it, but I could not get any further. Try it for yourself.

Read an interview with Sebastian Junger from his visit to Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon.

Your Friendly Librarian

Bookshelf

Here are the books sitting on my to-be-read bookshelf right now:

A Death in Belmont, by Sebastian Junger

The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Althea Darcy, by Elizabeth Aston

Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby

Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, by June Casagrande

The Geographer's Library, by Jon Fasman

More from BEA 2006

I have a little time now, so I can continue telling you about the exciting new books coming out in the fall that I saw at Book Expo America, and the authors I met.

I am really excited about a novel called Alabama Moon (FSG, 09/06), by first time author Watt Key. This is for middle grade to teen readers and is about a boy who grew up in the wilderness with an anti-establishmentarian father. When his father dies, Moon must make his own way in the world, trying his best to follow his father's philosophy of not taking anything from anyone. Full of adventure, hunting, and survival skills, this will be a favorite of reluctant reading boys and fans of books like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. I attended a lunch with Watt Key and he was a fun and engaging speaker. Most of the skills and scrapes that Moon experiences are things that he experienced himself, growing up in the swampland of the Deep South and during a survival project in college. The writing is tender and tart and smacks of true experience. Look out for this one, it should be a winner.

New author Obert Skye visited a group of school children I was involved with in Alexandria, Virginia, when he wrote Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, (Shadow Mountain, 4/05). This fantasy novel completely grabbed the imaginations of these kids, as did the author's own sincere belief in every aspect of the world he created. Months later, these kids were still talking about the book and saying it was their all-time favorite. Well, the second book, Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, will be released this fall and the series has been picked up by Simon & Schuster with a big advertising campaign behind it. I hope more readers will pick up the series and get sucked in to the world of Foo.

A new mystery series for young readers, Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin, will open this fall with The Fall of the Amazing Walendas (Scholastic, 9/06). Written by the editor of Chasing Vermeer, the book uses many of the same techniques to draw kids in, with ciphers, mysterious artwork, and a fairly mature tone. It has been a number of years since a kids book took up the story of Holmes's child spies and this one should be welcome. The book's design is really beautiful, with old-fashioned art and tooling. I am eager to read more of this chapter in the series and hope to see more to come.

Other new books to watch for:
Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull (Shadow Mountain, 8/06)

Kiki Strike, by Kirsten Miller (Bloomsbury, 5/06)

I've Got an Elephant, by Anne Ginkel (Peachtree, 9/06)

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, by Barry Lyga (Houghton Mifflin, 10/06)

Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo (Orchard, 9/06) UK edition available now.

One of the highlights of my trip to BEA was the private pop-up book making workshop I attended, taught by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. There were about 20 people in attendance and we all were offered personal help as we learned to make creative cuts in paper and create our own pop-ups. These guys are so much fun! The team's most recent pop-up is Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters (Candlewick, 4/06). They also have Castle (Orchard Books) coming out in August. Matthew Reinhart's new book this fall will be a pop-up version of The Jungle Book (Simon & Schuster, 10/06). I can't believe how many new books they have coming out with so much detail! They are so passionate about what they do.

Your Friendly Librarian

Powell's Books Passes the Mantle

I want to thank my grandma and my loyal reader, Libby from Bellingham, Washington, for sending me an article from the Seattle Times profiling the Powell family and the store's changing hands from father to daughter. Powell's is my favorite bookstore in the country and I use their website and online ordering for this blog. If you're ever in Portland, Oregon, it's definitely worth checking out.

Emily Powell is just 27 years old, but she has been planning on running the store since she was 8. I look forward to seeing how she guides the store and hope it continues to be the successful book mecca it is today.

You can check out the article from May 21 on the newspaper's website. You will need to set up a free account to access the archives.

Your Friendly Librarian

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

A colleague of mine in Boston let me know that the 2006 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards have been announced. This award for excellence in children's literature is considered prestigious among librarians, authors, and children's literature professionals, but is little known outside of those circles. The Horn Book is the premier journal reviewing children's literature and a starred review is highly coveted.

I highly recommend the journal, which is published out of Boston bi-monthly. Many of my colleagues in Boston, where I attended library school at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, are involved with the Horn Book one way or another. The Boston Athenaeum, where I was an intern, annually hosts the award ceremony. This year, as in years past, people I know sit on the jury for the awards. This year my favorite professor, Margaret Bush, was on the jury. Obviously, I really like this resource and hold it close to my heart.

Anyway, I was excited to see that Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (see my review in March's archive) won the prize in the category of fiction and poetry. Other winners include the gorgeous Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert, in picture books and If You Decide to Go to the Moon, by Faith McNulty, for non-fiction.

To see a list of the winners and honor books, follow the link to the award page of the Horn Book's website.

Your Friendly Librarian

Book Expo America 2006

Exactly two weeks after I set foot at BEA 2006, I am finally recovered enough to write about it! What a whirlwind! New books, famous authors, gala dinners...what more could a book lover desire?

I'm trying to think where to begin...I attended BEA to check out new books for children and teens, but along the way I did discover some neat new books for adults as well. All of the buzz this year was about a recent book called Water for Elephants (Algonquin, 05/06), by Sara Gruen. All of the independent booksellers had read it and were really excited to tell people about it. Apparently it is a love story set in a travelling circus during the 1930s. I always love circus books, ever since reading Geek Love in high school. I can't wait to get my hands on this!

I also met Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, and picked up an advance readers' copy of his book Thirteen Moons, due out in October from Random House. I picked up so many galleys, I haven't had a chance to read this one yet, but it's at the top of my pile.

For teens, Gail Carson Levine has a new fairy tale novel coming out in September called Fairest. This is a surprising version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that definitely twists in ways the reader will not suspect, much like Ella Enchanted. The cover art on this book is gorgeous too, so it will make a great gift come the holidays.

In audio books, Random House Audio acquired the library of read-aloud stories published by Rabbit Ears. They plan to keep the Rabbit Ears imprint and re-release old favorites such as Robin Williams reading Pecos Bill as well as new recordings. Random House plans to have all of the backlist back in print by the end of 2007. Collections of stories will be available in August, such as fairy tales, world folktales, and American tall tales, all read by celebrities. These are eagerly awaited by those of us who remember the series fondly. Also interesting, during BEA, Random House annonced that it is teaming up with Starbucks to release two classic audio books during the holidays, The Velveteen Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas. For more information on this corporate partnership, check out the article in Publisher's Weekly.

My favorite "porcine wonder" has returned in two new stories, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride and Mercy Watson Fights Crime. These hilarious books are appropriate for those who are starting to feel confident reading on their own. My 6-year-old friend is a big fan. These easy and fun stories show that Kate DiCamillo, author of Because of Winn Dixie, has a wide range of writing talents. Chris Van Deusen's art is also especially bright, expressive, and reminiscent of by-gone days. Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride came out earlier this month and Mercy Watson Fights Crime will be out in September. If you're not familiar with the series, be sure to check out the first book, Mercy Watson to the Rescue.

I think that's all the reviewing I have in me right now. Believe me, you will see more upcoming fall season books on the blog as I work my way through the boxes I sent home.

Other cool authors I met?
E D Baker, author of the Tales of a Frog Princess series, which includes the upcoming fourth novel, No Place for Magic.

Kevin O'Malley, an author and illustrator of such books as Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude and the Miss Malarkey series, among many others. I sat next to him at dinner and have a personalized drawing he did for me! What a cool dude!

The wonderful and prolific Walter Dean Myers, author of tons of African American history stories, novels, graphic novels, and picture books. This time he was touring for The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage.

Meg Cabot, whom I've just begun to love, author of the Princess Diaries series and other awesome books for teens and adults. I picked up How To Be Popular, due out in July.

Sandra Boynton, the rock star of baby books, signed a copy of her newest songbook, Dog Train, for my little friend Dominic. She has a new board book titled Your Personal Penguin, coming out in September.

Andrew Clements was signing his two newest books, a picture book titled A Million Dots, and a new novel called Room One: A Mystery or Two, both are due out in July from Simon and Schuster.

Avi gave me a copy of his new Crispin book, Crispin: At the Edge of the World, due out in September. This is a sequel to the Newbery Medal winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead.

I want to tell you more of what I picked up and whom I met and what I saw, so stay tuned. For today I'm out of time.

Your Friendly Librarian

The Webby Awards

The Internet's most prestigious award, the Webby Award winners were announced yesterday in 69 Internet categories. Winners are voted on by industry experts and also people around the world, with the People's Choice award. According to the press release, 300,000 people voted for the People's Choice this year. Incredible!

You can sign up now to be a part of next year's competition, voting on what sites should be nominated early in the year. It's always fun to have a say when the official nominees are released. I have discovered some of my favorite websites and blogs this way. Check out the nominees and winners from this year's competition on the Webby website.

The Webbys got me to thinking about what Internet sites I visit most frequently, besides the search engines and my email. Here are my top five, in no particular order:

Google Maps
The Daily Candy
101 Cookbooks
Craig's List
Powell's Books Review-a-Day

What sites do you enjoy most?

Your Friendly Librarian

Bookshelf

With Book Expo America around the corner - this year in Washington, D.C. - I have to get back into children's/teen literature mode since that's the reason I'm attending.

What's on my bookshelf to get me back into the spirit of things? I have been loving Anthony Horowitz's teen spy series about Alex Rider. I also recently discovered Robin McKinley, who has won numerous awards and honors for her teen fantasy novels, but whom I had not read before.

Eagle Strike, Anthony Horowitz

Scorpia, Anthony Horowitz

Evil Star, by Anthony Horowitz

Rose Daughter, Robin McKinley

The Door in the Hedge, Robin McKinley

The Wish, Gail Carson Levine

Al Capone Does My Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko

East, Edith Pattou

Busy Times

I find myself much busier than usual right now and I am interested to note my reading choices during this time. For example, non-fiction resources with useful snippets are more appealing than the more concentrated non-fiction I had planned to read. I also find that I am reading comfort fiction rather than new and meaty fiction (the sort I might review on the blog).

My light fiction of choice right now is anything by Joan Aiken. In the last week I have wolfed down two of her Jane Austen inspired sequels. I find her ideas and writing style aren’t that divergent from my idea of the Austen spirit. I just completed Mansfield Revisited and The Youngest Miss Ward. The second was especially enjoyable as it followed the histories of very minor characters in Austen and so was mostly original.

Ah non-fiction! Right now I feel the need to sing the praises of The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook by Anne Byrn. Moving to a new home in a high altitude climate, but being very busy, it is welcome to find a cookbook that embraces cake mix – an element easily converted to a high altitude receipt. I have always enjoyed this cookbook, but this week I am especially appreciative. Try the Bacardi Rum Cake (pg. 292) or Banana Cake with Quick Caramel Frosting (pg. 72), two of my favorites.

Other indispensable non-fiction right now?

Sunset Western Garden Book, edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel. This is THE guide to growing anything in the western half of the country. Covers Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. This exhaustive volume lists EVERY plant that will grow in the western zones, when to plant, when to water and really special sections such as what to plant under your oak tree, deer resistant plants, and plants for windy areas. It also includes a how-to section for gardening novices such as myself that explains things like planting cuttings or how to compost.

Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes, by George Nash – very useful for wiring projects, remodeling your basement, and examining the quality of your roof.

And for dreaming, I have been enjoying Creating the Not-So-Big House, by Sarah Susanka. Her ideas are complimentary to my own, namely that many newer houses are bigger than the average family really needs and waste space and resources in pursuit of cubic feet. She advocates the use of quality materials and design to create personal spaces that reflect the families that live in them and to eliminate empty, wasteful space. Her ideas mesh well with existing, older homes and remodel projects and her books are full of gorgeous house photos.

What kinds of reading do you do most during busy times?

Your Friendly Librarian

Bookshelf

I'm a busy bee, reading the following:

The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman

By a Lady: Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen's England, by Amanda Elyot

Mansfield Revisited, by Joan Aiken

A Year in the World, by Frances Mayes