I got in more reading this week, and still managed to finish a second baby quilt. Ok, they are not quite finished, but I did go shopping and purchase fabric for borders that I anticipate finishing within the next couple of days. I also managed to get some housecleaning done and pruned my rose bushes. I have the scars to prove the latter. I hated these roses when we first moved in to this house, in part because they were in such a sorry state. However, since I've started pruning and feeding them, they are starting to look glorious. It reminds me all over again of the importance of weeding and feeding our library collections.
BLOG POSTS THIS WEEK
PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev & Taeeun Yoo (Illustrator)
This is just the most beautiful book about inclusion. I love the refrain that highlights different aspects of friendship.
That's what friends do:
lift each other over the cracks
brave the scary things for you
never leave anyone behind
give you directions if you need them
Taeeun Yoo's illustrations show us diverse characters with diverse kinds of pets. This is a must purchase kind of book!
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| 5 stars |
Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol
I love this book so much and think children will appreciate it too. They might even learn why sometimes adults need a little quiet space. The illustrations are both gorgeous and hilarious at the same time!
NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS
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| 4 stars |
Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Tuan Ho & Brian Deines (Illustrations)
I've been wanting to read this book since I first read about it. I've read other accounts of Vietnamese people's horrific escapes from Vietnam, and across my teaching career, I've taught their children and grandchildren.
Brian Deines illustrations are gorgeous. Skrypuch and Ho's story is compelling and frightening. I especially appreciate the photographs and additional information about Ho's family in the backmatter.
NON FICTION
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| 5 stars |
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
This book is on my #MustReadNF2017 list. I think someone told me it wasn't nonfiction, but it was already on my list and I didn't want to change things up. I'm glad I left it there. This story of Alice, a woman with early onset Alzheimer's, is a perfect example of how much truth can be revealed through fiction. After my mother's traumatic brain injury, we lost who she was, but understood that on some level, she was also still there. Had I read this book while she was alive still alive, it would have given me so much more appreciation for her.
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| 3 stars |
South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion, Kimberly Farr (Narrator) & Nathaniel Rich (Narrator)
It was interesting to listen to these sections from Didion's notebooks written in the 1970s. It reveals a sense of time and place that lends understanding to what we see today. I appreciated the latter section where she looks at her own affluent upbringing. I am looking forward to now reading Where I Was From.
POETRY
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| 5 stars |
Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya
Just WOW! I read and reread numerous sections. I scribbled down phrases, lines and whole poems.
I discovered knowledge hidden from me because of my white privilege. I'm so grateful for this. Mostly I'm grateful to realize that "...being an ally is ultimately learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable."
NOVELS
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| 3.5 stars |
The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
I was intrigued by the first paragraph of this book and continued because I was fascinated by the magical realism aspect of it. Unfortunately there is a mean girl component that is compounded by jealousy over a very nice boy. I nearly abandoned this one when the teen angst ratcheted up. Then I went and read the end. (Does anyone else do this to determine if a book is worth reading?) Anyway, I appreciated the ending enough to go back and finish the book!
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| 3 stars |
Shot in the Dark by Janet M Whyte
I liked a lot in this book, not the least was all the information about goalball, a sport for blind people. The protagonist, Micah, is a 13 year old kid with uveitis, an eye condition that causes blindness. He's also a goalball player. Micah seems to deal with the usual adolescent issues, but his vision impairment exacerbates them. Luckily he has a supportive family, and Cam, his mobility specialist, who helps him maintain his independence and act as a mentor at the same time. Micah's issues with other people, and how they are resolved are authentic and positively handled.
My only concern, and here I must acknowledge that I finished reading Even This Page Is White just prior to starting this, is that Micah and his mother are depicted as people of colour at the start of the book, and the author is white. I wish I understood the purpose of this. It makes me uncomfortable.
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| 5 stars |
Duke's Den by Becky Citra
Becky Citra has created a beautiful collection of complex multicultural characters and placed them in my neighbourhood. How could I not love it?
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| 4 stars |
Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles by Shari Green
I'm kind of a sucker for novels in verse, but this is exceptional anyway. There are many miracles to behold in this one summer when Bailey and her younger brother, Kevin, are left with their unknown grandmother in a small community near the ocean. Their parents are at a marriage counselling camp in an effort to save their family. There is much to love about all these beautifully flawed characters. I especially appreciate how much Bailey learns about friendship and family and how complicated it all is.
CURRENTLY
I'm listening to State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I'm reading Pandas on the Eastside by Gabrielle Prendergast.
UP NEXT
My next audiobook will be When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I plan to read Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel. Then I'll be digging into my Chocolate Lily box to read more from there. Planning what I would read helped last week, so I'm committing to read The MIssing Skull by John Wilson, Adventure on Whalebone Island by M. A. Wilson, and Last Chance Island by Norma Charles. I've got three more picture books to finish up too.
How has your week been?
How has your week been?
PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS
#MUSTREADIN2017 9/36 1 in progress
#MUSTREADNFIN2017 3/12
50 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 11/50
Chocolate Lily (CL) 38/52 1 in progress
Goodreads Reading Challenge 132/333
Chocolate Lily (CL) 38/52 1 in progress
Goodreads Reading Challenge 132/333
Vera Brosgol is from Portland and is super nice and goes to our bookstore. I love Leave Me Alone! When Breath Becomes Air was an emotional beautifully written book.
ReplyDeleteYou are so lucky Earl! She seems like a person with a hilarious sense of humour.
DeleteSo many great sounding books on this list. The only one I've read was Leave Me Alone and I really enjoyed it. Hope you'll post more quilt pictures soon.
ReplyDeleteNext week! :)
DeleteStrictly No Elephants is a good one! Root Candy and Other Miracles sounds great. I never read Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, but I loved her book Bel Canto and just recently read Commonwealth and thought that was good, too.
ReplyDeleteBel Canto turned me into a fan too. Truth and Beauty is my favourite of her's so far. Commonwealth is on my list.
DeleteYou've read some wonderful books, Cheriee. I enjoyed Root Beer Candy a lot, will look for Even This Page Is White, among others. Strictly No Elephants is wonderful, I agree.
ReplyDeleteI think you will enjoy the power of the poems in Even 'This Page is White.
DeleteLove those fiction picture books!
ReplyDeleteI have not read ALICE, but I've read a few others by Lisa Genova. Her knowledge of the brain is fascinating. What a career change she's had!
I'm going to have to read more about her, since Still Alice is my first book of hers. Left Neglected is also on my list.
DeleteI loved Strictly No Elephant, the illustrations in particular! So sweet, without being preachy, the way the best kid's books should be.
ReplyDeleteI really love how many Canadian books you read! I really need to up my kidcanlit game. :-)
It helps to be on a jury!
DeleteYes, Still Alice is fiction but no less powerful and wrenching! A wonderful book. Watch the movie adaptation, too - it is surprisingly good and Julianne Moore is excellent in it. I cried so hard at the movie that my contact washed out of my eye and I had to run to the restroom! ha ha
ReplyDeleteI want to read State of Wonder, too.
Enjoy your books this week -
Sue
Book By Book
I might have to watch the movie. Love the story about your contact!
DeleteEven This Page is White looks like something I would really appreciate. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt's remarkable powerful poetry, but it also includes some interviews with Canadian artists that I appreciated reading.
DeleteI have never skipped to the end of a book. I would never finish if I already knew the ending. Much in the same way, that I avoid reading books for which I have seen the film. But, hey, if it works for you, it works for you. I have heard lovely things about Stacey Lee's books, and hope to read one of them soon.
ReplyDeleteSam @ WLABB
When I am reading a book late into the night, and need to get up in the morning, I often read the end, just so I can get to sleep. It never stops me from going back and reading the rest of the book. I know there are not many of us who do this, but I've met a few others like me. I can't read books when I've seen the film, because I can't create my own world. Stacy Lee's Under a Painted Sky is good!
Delete