Bloggiesta Ole!

I don't know how much time I'll actually have this weekend (June 11-13), but I don't want to miss out on the fiesta!  Head on over to Maw Books Blog if you  haven't heard about this event dedicated to spiffing up your blog.  It's also a good excuse to down an excessive amount of taquitos, but that may just be me.

I'll write out my to-do list tomorrow at the starting line. 

¡Hasta mañana!

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Author: Deborah Wiles
Published: 2010
Length: 400
Source: Bought it from Amazon
Award: YALSA Best Fiction Nominee for YA
Author Website
Challenge:  Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010
 

Personal Enjoyment Factor: 4.5/5

Heavens to Murgatroyd!  Being twelve can be tough!  Franny feels virtually invisible.  Her history teacher repeatedly passes her by when it's her turn to read.  Her college-aged sister leaves for a week without bothering to tell her why.  And the boy-of-her-dreams down the street won't notice her if ex-friend Margie has anything to do with it.  Sometimes, though,  it would be nice to be invisible.  Like when her Uncle Otts is trapped in World War I memories and tries to get the neighborhood kids to "fall in line" as they run away in fear of the "crazy" old man.  

What puts Franny's life a notch above the usual preteen woes is that it is the year 1962, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Air-raid drills, bomb shelter blueprints and the threat of  nuclear war all occupy Franny's thoughts as she tries to compose a letter to Chairman Khrushchev pleading for peace.  But despite all the fear and uncertainty that surrounds her, she still has to figure out what she wants to be for Halloween.

Countdown is a documentary novel, a first for me, but definitely not the last.  I loved the format of the book with photographs, song lyrics and news headlines from 1962.  What a great way to get immersed in history!  This is set about ten years before I was born, but some of the pop culture woven into the story must have lingered into the seventies because it had a familiar feel for me, especially the music.  I spent much of my childhood listening to my mom's 45's (and eating Chex mix,  pig-in-blankets and TV dinners, but those are still popular today, right?)

Aside from the fresh approach to historical fiction, Countdown is a pleasing story that had me turning the pages until I was through.  Franny is a likable character whose own experiences parallel the increasing tension of the Cold War, and I appreciated being able to look at the events of the early 60's from different angles.  It seems that many of the books I've been reading lately have sequels, and this one is no exception.  Countdown is actually the first of a trilogy.  For the record, I will eagerly anticipate Book Two, which, according to Wiles' blog, she is currently writing.  She also has an iMix on her blog of songs and clips of speeches that are highlighted in the book that you can enter to win here through July 1.  Sadly, I have no iAnything to download it to.  I'm so behind the times--no wonder I loved a book about the sixties.

48 Hour Book Challenge Completed

What a wonderful 48 hours! I've learned that sometimes I'm in the zone for these readathons, and sometimes I'm not. This time it was exactly what my brain wanted to do! Not that my numbers are overly impressive--another thing I've learned is that I'm not good at keeping track of time, especially towards the end. I'm not really in it for the stats anyway, I just love setting aside a block of time exclusively for reading.
I read for about 22 hours, which included some Twitter time and some blog visiting done at random times throughout the weekend.   Here's what was read:


The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Trading Faces by Julia DeVillers (finished with 11-year-old daughter)
I listened to a couple of hours of Guests of the Ayatallah by Mark Bowden, and started The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. 
My 15-year-old daughter also finished My Lost and Found Life by Melody Bowsher.

 
I'm looking forward to doing more visiting in the coming week to find out how everyone did and what great books are recommended.  Oh, and I suppose I should do some reviews.  It's good timing for the Bloggiesta coming up next weekend, June 11-13.  I'm not sure if I will be able to participate yet, but I am hoping to!  I have a lot of little tasks I would like to accomplish, and this event makes it fun.

*For the 48 Hour Book Challenge, we will be donating to Love 146, an organization my daughter heard about at her high school that she has become involved with.

48 Hour Book Challenge Midway

It's the middle of the 48 Hour Book Challenge for me. I've had a good night's sleep and am ready to get started again. For the first half, I was able to read for 11 hours and 45 five minutes which was beyond my wildest expectations. I read

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

For cleanliness reasons, I listened to Guests of the Ayatallah by Mark Bowden while cleaning up, taking a shower, and blow-drying and straightening my hair.  I may have damaged my ears some with the whole hair drying/listening bit, but it sure made it seem to go faster.

I  also spent some of that time reading out loud to my 11-year-old a book we've been flying through this weak, Trading Faces by Julia DeVillers.  I was scared I would be bored with this one when she picked it out, but it's quite entertaining.  We're hoping to finish it today.

Today I will continue to read Countdown by Deborah Wiles, and then I don't know what.  I do have a carnival to go to this morning and a fundraiser event tonight involving eating yummy food.  And looking around there's a fair amount of housework to be done.  I'm not as good at ignoring it as I once was. 

48 Hour Book Challenge Starting Line

As I sneeze and sniffle this lovely Friday morning, I am ready to begin the 48 Hour Book Challenge hosted by MotherReader.  (If you want to join in, it's not too late!). My chosen 48-hour block sits between 9 a.m today and  9 a.m Sunday.  I'm not reading continuously or anything--I am after all human and I have various events to attend the next couple of days.  But I am looking forward to reading A LOT, and I'm excited to read several children's and YA books that I've wanted to get to for a while (out of the 30 I check out of the library.  I couldn't help myself.)   I will attempt to tweet, but I'm not sure when I'll do updates on this blog.  Maybe just when I feel like it.  Have fun, those of you who are participating!

Cranford: Book and Movie Reviews

For the Elizabeth Gaskell Mini-Challenge hosted by Becky, I decided to read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and watch the BBC series of the same name.  Both brought me so much enjoyment and satisfaction that I needed at the time--another reminder of why reading is so essential to my well-being!

Cranford, the Novel 

Cranford is one of those "You had me at hello" books.  I remember reading the first page at my daughter's karate class, and trying to suppress a gleeful chuckle so as not to embarrass myself:

"In the first place, Cranford is in posession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses, above a certain rent, are women.  If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by being with his regiment ... In short, whatever does become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford.  What could they do if they were here?"

So, obviously, this is a book mostly about older, single women in the town of Cranford, after all "'A man ... is so in the way in the house."  But encounters with men do occur, and there are some young-uns popping in here and there (including the somewhat enigmatic narrator).  Not particularly plot driven, Cranford is more a collection of humorous and heartwarming sketches with delightful details of life in an English country town in the mid-1800's.   Each paragraph was a new joy for me to read.  I especially appreciated this description of  the bachelor Mr. Holbrook's sitting room:

"The rest of the pretty sitting room ... was filled with books.  They lay on the ground, they covered the walls, they strewed the table.  He was evidently half ashamed and half proud of his extravagance in this respect."

I can relate!  Also of relevance to my life is a chapter that begins with a discussion that "everyone has his own individual small economies"--their own special thing they are OCD about not wasting.  For the Cranford community, this could be paper, candles, even string.  For me--Ziploc bags.  I am a baggie-washer.

But personal tidbits aside, Cranford is about really about life, love, death, and the inevitability of change.  And a cat that eats valuable lace.  Which brings me to . . .


Cranford, the Movie
This is a must-see Brit Lit Chick Flick!!!   I don't even know what else I can say.  Perhaps just a heads-up that it is not only based on Cranford, but two other novellas by Gaskell.  The stories intertwine, which leads to some obvious changes in the original story, but it all works out wonderfully.

 George Eliot Laments
As lengthy as this post already is, it seems like a good place to express my sadness at not being able to complete the George Eliot Mini-Challenge also hosted by Becky by the June 1 ending date.  I had planned on reading the two of Eliot's major novels that I haven't read yet:  Romola, and Felix Holt.  I did, however, acquire copies of each--one used from Amazon, and one for just a dollar at a discount book store.  Score!  I will read them soon, and mostly likely gush about the genius of Eliot.

Savvy

Author:  Ingrid Law
Published: 2008
Length: 342 pages
Acquired:  Local library
Award:  Newbery Honor
Author Website
Personal Enjoyment Factor:  4/5

Mississippi Beaumont (Mibs for short) is about to turn 13, the critical age when members of the Beaumont clan discover what extraordinary power, or "Savvy" they have.  One of her brothers causes hurricanes.  Another brother can generate electricity.  And her mom, well, she's just perfect.  At everything.

But before Mibs gets to blow out the 13 candles on her perfect birthday cake, her father is in a serious accident along the highway near the city where he works.  She hopes that when her Savvy surfaces, it will be a power that will help her save her father's life.  After series of detours and challenges along the way in an old pink bus with her brothers and the preacher's kids in tow, Mibs finally gets to her Poppa to figure out what she can do to help.

I totally enjoyed Law's style of storytelling.  The alliterative/rhyming wordplay was fun and  it fit the quirkiness of the characters.  While the idea of growing into superpowers and struggling to control them is not necessarily an original idea, she twists the concept in a fresh way with a message of resilience that is valuable for kids and adults alike.  Some of the abilities of the characters were delightfully creative, and the love they all have for one another is a theme that never gets old (for me, anyway).

I'm a crybaby and it takes little for me to lose it (Blindside (the movie) = 1 box tissue), so at the end of the book my youngest daughter and I were tag-teaming it during the places I couldn't get the words out because I was blubbering. I'm looking forward to the companion novel, Scumble, out in August of this year.

Additional thoughts from the "kidlings":

Eleven-year-old (a reluctant reviewer--this was all I could get out of her even though I offered a generous handful of pebbles for her rewards jar):  "The book Savvy was very interesting and original.  It was an exciting book and made me want to keep listening.  Once you hear one thing you want to hear the next.  My favorite character is Mibs' little brother Samson because of how shy he is and it's funny.  Savvy is a wonderful book."

Eight-year-old (who included spoilers so I had to edit):  "I liked the story Savvy.  It was a little sad at the beginning. But at the end [spoiler excluded :-)] If you have the chance, read the story Savvy."  I couldn't have said it better myself!