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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

 Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has gotten tons of attention, especially since the release of a movie based on the first book, and has become our bestselling series for the 9-12 age range. The Lightning Thief  is the first book in the series and it lives up to the hype. Percy is a likable hero and the cross-country adventure full of hellhounds, furies, and angry gods introduces a little U.S. geography into this Greek mythology lesson. Riordan’s steady pace and inventiveness pull Percy along on a thoroughly entertaining adventure.

Weetzie Bat, by Francesca Lia Block, was recommended to me countless times when I lived in Los Angeles. It is, in part, a love letter to LA, with references to the Formosa Cafe, Canter’s Deli, and countless other LA institutions.  The wonder and magic that is the stuff of living minutes away from the Hollywood sign or Sunset Blvd. is perfectly captured here.  Having said that, I feel I must warn those who shop for younger readers, Weetzie Bat has mature themes and is best suited for older teenagers and adults. It is a modern fairytale that illustrates the joy of a family of close friends, but is still grounded in reality, with references to AIDS and the many ways in which love is a “dangerous angel.”

The edition I read contains all five of the books in the Weetzie Bat series and is called Dangerous Angels. I only read the first book, but I was very tempted to read straight through.

Please see the Firefly website for more information.

All of us at Reading Rock Books want Firefly to be a success. As an extra incentive to attend, if you bring your Firefly program into Reading Rock, we’ll give you 10% off your next purchase. If you bring in a receipt for any art purchased at the festival, we’ll give you 20% off!

6/5/10 – Laura discussed Yum! Yum!! by Joanne Fitzgerald and Southern Farmers Market Cookbook by Holly Herrick

Yum! Yum!! is Laura’s favorite board book! Each food-themed rhyme is accompanied by a gorgeous, fun pastel illustration of animals at a farmer’s market. The rhythm will keep babies interested and older children will enjoy spotting the father pig on each page. The perfect baby shower gift.

Holly Herrick’s Southern Farmer’s Market Cookbook is a great resource for your summer cooking. Filled with meals made from ingredients that grow well in this region, this book will help you boost your farmer’s market experience by shopping with these recipes in mind. Plus, there’s a full-color, make-your-mouth-water photo for almost every recipe in the book.

 
6/19/10 – Amy discussed State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy

If you’ve never read a culinary mystery, this first installment of the Olivia Paras series is a good first taste.  Ollie’s journey to become the next White House Head Executive Chef is interrupted by an attempted terrorist act. Ollie gets involved in the investigation after meeting up with an intruder on the White House lawn and assaults him with a frying pan!  A fun mystery, followed by 25 pages of all the recipes Ollie cooks for the first family.

So far, I’ve read an advance copy of Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates by Kim Kennedy (which is set to come out in August, so I’ll write more about it closer to the release date) and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I have been told to read Stargirl numerous times, by fellow booksellers, by teenagers, and by customers who read it as a teenager and still remember it well. I’m pleased to say that it lived up to the hype. Spinelli’s writing is easy-going, never forced, and makes it easy to believe that Stargirl, the girl that narrator Leo Borlock has fallen for, is truly magical.

Other titles on my list include: Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, and several others. I hope to post about this semi-regularly, throughout the summer. Please let me know if there are any books you think I should add to my list. If you have any special reading projects going for the summer, I’d love to hear about those, too.