Autumn is here and this month I’m free to read whatever I wish, having finished the 10 children’s and young adult titles I set out to read over the summer. Now that I’ve read the first book of no less than six different series for young readers, I may still read YA through the fall. I’m particularly anxious to read the rest of both the May Bird and the Hunger Games series.

The Hunger Games has been recommended to me by teens and teachers alike and, with Mockingjay (the third and final volume) getting so much buzz, I was curious to finally see what all the fuss was about. I totally get it. I was hooked from the beginning. In case you haven’t heard of Suzanne Collins or her Hunger Games trilogy, they’re about a future culture that is ruled by a all-powerful government that requires that each of the 12 districts under it’s control put forth a boy and a girl each year to fight to the death for their perverse amusement. I know it sounds awful, and it is, but it’s also a brilliant look at how adolescents function in warlike cultures. Plus, it’s intense and exciting and will have you carrying it with you everywhere you go, hoping there will be a moment in your day that you can find to keep reading it. I look forward to starting Catching Fire very soon.

I remember wanting to read A Wrinkle in Time as a child, but for some reason I never did. At that time, the book had a brilliant white flying centaur on the cover. I’m not sure what I was imagining the book to be about, but I was surprised, while reading it, to find it so scientific and practically devoid of mytical creatures. (The flying centaur is around for maybe five pages or so.) Even though it wasn’t what I was expecting, I can see why it has been well-loved since the 60′s. The original book jacket and the one of today, by the way, are both much more accurate than the one in my elementary school’s library. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed, though I don’t think any book could live up to the mystique that this one has had in my mind for decades.

Anne of Green Gables might have been my grandmother’s favorite book. Her teacher read it to her class in the one-room schoolhouse Grandma attended in rural Illinois. I watched the movie with her countless times and was so surprised at how much it really does follow the book. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading this book. My sister read it and the rest of the series years ago. She and I even read from it at my grandmother’s funeral. Regardless of the delay, I have finally read it and I loved it. Montgomery’s descriptions of Prince Edward Island are beautiful and the characters are undeniably real, but perfectly lovable.

Have you been listening to our book reviews on WDKN? As part of “The Local Gourmet,” which airs the 1st and 3rd Saturday at 1pm, Reading Rock Books brings you food-related book reviews. Here are all the ones we discussed in August’s shows:

8/7/10 – Laura discussed Put ‘Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton and Putting Up by Stephen Palmer Dowdney

Put ‘Em Up is a comprehensive guide to canning your own vegetables. You don’t have to grow them yourself, either. With fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market or the grocery store, you can make your own salsa, relish, chutney, or other canned creation. With detailed illustrations and troubleshooting tips, Vinton walks you through the process step by step. Vinton encourages first-time canners with a full 100 pages of instruction before the wide selection of recipes that makes up the rest of the book.

In Putting Up, Stephen Palmer Dowdney shares his favorite recipes from his decades of experience canning homemade goods, which have become favorites at his local famer’s market. Recipes are arranged by chronologically, so to speak, so that you can easily find recipes for the specific veggie that is flourishing in your garden in a particular month.

8/21/10 – Amy discussed Farm to Fork by Emeril Lagasse

With school back in session and the first football games of the season just around the corner, my family has started to look forward to the wonderful goodies that we get to have in the fall and winter months. My sons are already looking forward to Thanksgiving Day and that first taste of eggnog with their pumpkin pie. And what did I find when flipping through Emeril Lagasse’s new book Farm to Fork? Anytime Eggnog and how to make pumpkin puree for the perfect pumkin pie. Now of course Emeril’s eggnog is not for kids, but it does look absolutely delicious. And for those that do not like the thoughts of raw egg whites, I being one of them, the instructions for using whipping cream instead are included in the recipe. Now for the pumpkin puree, Emeril suggests using a 5-pound sugar or “pie” pumpkin that you cut up and roast in a 375 degree oven for 1 to 1 ½ hours then peel and puree. After letting the puree sit overnight in a lined sieve to drain excess liquid, this puree is now ready to use to make your traditional pumpkin pie or Emeril’s Pumpkin Custard Pie (page 72). The puree also stores in the freezer for up to 2 months. The book also suggests visiting your local farmers market and seeing what other kinds of pumpkin and squash that you can experiment with. So let’s get cooking and not wait until November for those fall goodies!

Our most recent newsletter is available online here.  Check it out for book reviews, store news, and an interview with author Aryn Kyle!

Per Petterson garnered extensive praise for his novel Out Stealing Horses, for which he won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His newest book, I Curse the River of Time, is another example of Petterson’s marvelous writing style and is a prequel of sorts to In the Wake, though both stand alone and need not be read in any order–and I do recommend reading them both. Petterson’s spare style has been compared to Hemingway, but the dreamlike flashbacks of main character Arvid Jansen feel nothing like Hemingway.

Arvid, reeling from the realization that his marriage is over, takes the ferry from Norway to Denmark to visit his mother, who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Arvid, an intellectual and avid reader, reflects on the turbulent past of his relationship with his mother, which hinges, in part, on decisions he made as a naive, young Communist decades earlier. Arvid, now nearly 40, is still mulling over incidents from childhood and how his place and standing in the family were never what he’d hoped. Petterson’s prose can be breathtaking, but it is his deep characterization that will make his novels stay with you for days and years to come.

Here are two videos of Per Petterson. The first is a reading from I Curse the River of Time. In the second, Petterson discusses his new book and Arvid Jansen.

Kim Kennedy’s new book may be called Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates, but it might have been more aptly titled Misty Gordon and the Haunted Posessions of Madame Zaster. The haunted posessions of recently deceased medium Madame Zaster are not only more original and more interesting than undead pirates, but they’re also more integral to Misty’s story. In fact, it isn’t just Madame Zaster’s spooky cat-eye glasses that seem to be trying to communicate with Misty. Misty’s father’s antique business is suddenly bringing all kinds of haunted items into Misty’s life that all point her in one direction: the town of Ashcrumb has a secret and Misty is poised to solve it.

Misty’s is a fun story that has been called part Nancy Drew and part “Pirates of the Carribean.” Overall, it would make a great, slightly spooky autumn read for the middle-schoolers in your life.

Read as part of my YA Summer project.

We at Reading Rock were delighted that July was our busiest month so far this year (thank you!). Between increased traffic at the store and the summer activities that come along with July weekends, I squeezed in three books I’ve been putting off for years, all aimed at 9 to 12-year-old readers.

So many people have recommended The Invention of Hugo Cabret to me over the past few years that I’ve lost count. It is a perfectly lovely book, but, in all honesty, it suffered from being hyped up too much. Brian Selznick’s illustrations are charming, as is the story of orphaned Hugo Cabret finding his way through life and solving a mystery left behind by his father. The most enjoyable aspect for me though were the details and atmosphere of the Parisian train station where Hugo lives. Even though it didn’t quite wow me as I’d expected, I did enjoy it and will definitely recommend it in the future. The book itself is beautiful and would make a great gift.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo is another title that has been recommended to me by practically everyone. Oddly enough, this one never sounded that great to me for some reason, so it easily surpassed my expectations. It really is a wonderful book and I really wished I’d read it years ago. The tale of Edward Tulane, a narcissistic china rabbit who is separated from his owner and starts a long, hapless journey while learning about the meaning of love, has an old-fashioned fairytale quality about it. I plan on getting a hardcover copy to keep for my son to enjoy when he’s older.

 May Bird and the Ever After is the first book in the May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Right away I was impressed with Anderson’s accessible but sophisticated writing style. As this summer has been an education on young adult literature for me, this style of writing is an improvement. Whimsical in story, but realistic in characterization, this first May Bird book held my attention as well as, if not better than, Harry Potter. May Bird and her cat, Somber Kitty, go on an unexpected adventure in the Ever After, or the after life, that involves various ghosts, specters, knaves, and ghouls, but is ultimately about the importance of good friends–whatever their form. I am going to put off reading the rest of the series until after I’ve read more from the YA list I’ve started for the summer, but the wait will not be easy.