Reading and Resolutions: 2009

Five Books I Wished I Had Read in 2008 and Planned to Read in 2009
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo check
The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers check
Manalive, by G. K. Chesterton check
Mystery and Manners, by Flannery O'Connor check!
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy check

Best New Discoveries of 2009
Author: G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy, Father Brown stories)

Novel: Listening Valley, by D.E. Stevenson

Favorite Classic

This is tough. I should say Anna or Les Mis, but I'm not sure... Maybe Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens?

Favorite Mystery
Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy Sayers

Greatest Reading Accomplishment
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

Biggest Failure to Complete
Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes (again)

Favorite Reread
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta

Books I Won't Be Reading Again

Kiss Me, Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire

Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Young Unicorns, by Madeleine L'Engle

Books I Didn’t Think Would Be That Great But Ended Up Amazing
North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson

Books I Thought Would Be Amazing But Really Weren't That Great

A Brief History of Montmaray, by Michelle Cooper

The Reluctant Heiress, by Eva Ibbotson

Total count for 2009:

113 books. That's an exact tie with last year!

Books I Plan to Listen to in 2010
Middlemarch, by George Elliot
The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Plus read the King James Bible again: in five months.


PHEW!

(See also, favorite children's books of 2009)

Magnum Opus

It is finished!

My own design, inspired by and containing Pottery Barn sheets... pieced in February, hand-quilted during countless hours this summer, bordered today.

I don't procrastinate much, do I? The last week of December sees me finishing this, Anna Karenina, and the editing of our cousin film, Macbeth. Long live the new, unfettered year! Or should I say, the year with no fetters in it yet.

Anna Karenina

I first heard of Anna Karenina from Fred Astaire, as his character coached Audrey Hepburn's in Funny Face.

Now, today you're not happy.
- I'm hurt and...
- Right, a creature of tragedy. Heartbroken, suffering. You're Anna Karenina.
-Shall I throw myself under the train?

You'd think that, being such a Hepburn fan, I would have remembered the quote better, but I SO did NOT see it coming. (I could feel it coming, though, as the train ride progressed, and the delicious, mounting tension made me doubly glad that I do not use sparknotes.)

This was my big book of 2009. This and Les Miserables. Which wasn't so ambitious, when I look at all I accomplished in 2008. But to each year its own novels.

Anna was so different from War and Peace. So much more a character-driven novel, but so many of the same types... Levin is Pierre, Anna is Natalia, etc. etc.

And I just about screamed with laughter when Anna is writing a children's book. Bored out of her head, so what does she do? Writes a children's book, of course. Everybody thinks they can write a children's book--even Anna Karenina.

I liked this quote, randomly:

"...you have no idea how, when I look at you, I am always learning what awaits me--the education of my children."

"Oh come! There's nothing to learn from me!" said Lvov.

"All I know," said Levin, "is that I never saw better brought-up children, and do not wish for better children."

Lvov visibly tried to restrain the expression of his delight, but a radiant smile lit up his face.

"If only they turn out better than I! That is all I desire. You do not know yet all the difficulties one has with boys who, like mine, have been neglected through our life abroad."

"They'll catch it all up. They are such gifted children. The chief thing is the moral training. That is what I learn by watching your children."

"You talk of moral training. You can't imagine how difficult that is! You have hardly mastered one fault when another crops up and there is a fresh struggle. One must have the support of religion--you remember we talked about that--no father, relying on his own strength, without that support, could educate a child."

And this:

"Yes, all the newspapers do say the same thing," said the prince. "That's true. So much the same that they are just like frogs before a storm. They prevent our hearing anything else!"

December Reading Log

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Hurrah! Reviewed (kinda) here.

The Morning Gift, by Eva Ibbotson
Brilliant reread.

Sorcery & Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by P. Wrede & C. Stevermer
If you haven't read this, depart! Such fun. Jane Austen meets... MiddleEarth.

!!!

Frank Cottrell Boyce wrote a BBC screenplay for Framed, and nobody told me?!


And it's not going on DVD?

And nobody recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube?!

You're killing me, here!

close your eyes and you can see

It's my last night at the library.

8:00, quiet, empty rooms, I walk through the stacks and listen to my boots click against the floor, feeling like Kathleen Kelly in those final moments before she closes The Shop Around the Corner. It's Christmastime, even. No Harry Nilsson playing overhead, though.

Eyes trailing the shelves, thinking of that Montgomery poem about swaying an airy kingdom in my little book-lined room.

But I am coming back, and in the meantime... Life!

Joyeux Noël!

Tradishunnnn!

Every year at Christmas we watch the 1980 version of Little Lord Fauntleroy (with Alec "I'll give you half now, and half when we get to Alderon" Guinness).

It is thee best version. I heart Frances Burnett.

O Mr Hobbs!

O Dem Golden Slippers!

O lovely jokes when 7 siblings know a movie inside out!

If only it would be released on Region 1 DVD. Our tape is running thin.

Worth trying to find this Christmas.

One Man's Trash

We had a lovely post-birthday visit to the used bookstore yesterday. Came home with:

4 Boxcar Children that we lost when our basement flooded last month
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (my sister's)
Bloomability (mine!!)
Absolutely Normal Chaos (my other sister's)
Witch of Blackbird Pond (ditto)
Jane Eyre (for a friend)
2 Hank the Cowdog (my brother's)
2 DK Lego readers, which are very hard to come by (ditto)
The Last Full Measure (other other sister's)
Shug (HC, perfect shape, for the library)
True Meaning of Smekday (ditto)

And thanks to store credit, spent a grand total of $30

Anyone else have gorgeous finds this month?

Wait, What? (All in a day's work)

A girl and her mother checked out a stack of books, including Waiting for Normal.

"I don't know about that one," the mother said. "I might have to read it first."

"I've read it," I volunteered. "How old is your daughter?"

"Ten," she replied.

I nodded. "I think it'd be okay." (She'd just returned Robin Brande's Fat Cat, for heaven's sake.) Then, considering that I was talking to a Concerned Parent, I added, "There is a gay character."

"Oh, I don't care about that." (Emphatically.) "Just about other stuff that 10-year-olds should not be reading."

...um, assuming she's talking boy-girl stuff here? Isn't the issue of sexual identity fairly... sexual?

Many Happy Returns!

Happy birthday, dear Jane! Love, Noel

Happy birthday, dear Noel! Love, Jane

Kidz Book Buzz Blog Tour: Just Grace and the Snack Attack

from Just Grace and the Snack Attack, by Charise Mericle Harper

Kidz Book Buzz Blog Tour: Just Grace and the Snack Attack

Reviewed by my sister, Adeline.

I am eight. My sister gave me "Just Grace and the Snack Attack" and I liked it. Grace has a friend named Mimi, and they are neighbors. Mimi likes to sew stuffed animals but Grace doesn't, because she doesn't like to sew. She likes drawing. She drew a lot of cartoons in the book. I liked looking at them.

In school they did a food project, food that they haven't eaten before, like a Chicago Hot Dog, with chopped onions, hot peppers, a pickle and tomatoes.

My favorite part of the book was when Grace and her friends had a potato chip eating contest.

I liked Grace because a lot of things happened to her, like Mimi made her a stuffed potato chip out of a FedEx envelope.

Another one of Grace's friends lived in the basement, and she made a zine for Grace. A zine is a piece of paper turned into a little book.

Kidz Book Buzz Blog Tour: Just Grace and the Snack Attack

It's time for another blog tour:

Just Grace and the Snack Attack
by Charise Mericle Harper
Ages 6-9
176 pages

From the publisher:

After reading this new book about Just Grace you will know how to . . .
1. turn your favorite potato chips into a tasty chipwich.
2. draw and fold up your very own zine, which is a cool little book made from only one piece of paper.
3. look for and use the special powers of the wish chip.

This book will not help you know how to . . .
1. do fancy hairstyles for your cat.
2. make a flower garden in your room.
3. bake a four- or even five-layer cake.
But this book might make you feel a little bit hungry, and if it does, then you will know you are having a “snack attack” just like Grace!

Move over Judy Moody, Amber Brown and Clementine, there's a new spunky third grader on the block!

Come back tomorrow for a review from my eight year old sister, and Wednesday for instructions on how to make your own zine, just like the cover promises.

In the meantime, shop around these other participating blogs:

The Hungry Readers
Our Big Earth
All About Children’s Books
Looking Glass Reviews
Fireside Musings
Green Bean Teen Queen
KidzBookBuzz.com
Book Crumbs
My Own Little Corner of the World
Reading is My Superpower
The 160 Acre Woods
Carrie’s YA Bookshelf
Everyday Reading
Cafe of Dreams

The Young Victoria

Watched on tvshack last night...

absolutely beautiful.

The Albert Memorial is now on my list of places that must be visited this spring. I'll probably just stand there and cry...

exquisite film score, too.

Best Books of 2009 (Well, According to Me)

December might not be over, but I doubt I'll be reading much this month. So without further ado, my favorite new books of 2009:

Clockwise:

Any Which Wall, by Laurel Snyder

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, by Rodman Philbrick

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
Dandelion Fire, by N.D. Wilson
Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps, by Steve Cole & Linda Chapman

A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck

Just how deep does my librarian blood flow? I was crushed when I realized that I'd be in London when the Newberys are announced. I had such fun last year, watching the live unveiling. Who knows if I'll figure out the time difference, or what I'll be doing the third week in January. But I can still post my hopes in advance. And those hopes are:

Newbery

Philbrick absolutely deserves the award for this story, and the award absolutely deserves to gain respect by settling on such a worthy recipient.

Newbery Honors are mixed between hopes and predictions. I hope Any Which Wall and Calpurnia Tate get honors. But I predict Calpurnia Tate and When You Reach Me.

We shall see.