Lovely Little Shelf

Flashback Friday: Lurlene McDaniels

August 27, 2010 – 6:38 am

After doing my flashback on Forever Angels last week, it got me thinking about how I really did have a thing for sad, twisty books when I was middle school aged.  I’m not really sure why.  I had a pretty normal family life, didn’t know a ton of people who had died, and was about as well adjusted as a middle schooler could be, but I really read a lot of sad, sad books.

The saddest of the sad were the Lurlene McDaniels books.  I’m not kidding when I say that in every single one, someone had a terminal disease and then they had this obstacle that  they needed to overcome.  They usually died in the end.  I remember one (the cover’s up top) called Till Death Do Us Part where the girl has a brain tumor and she falls for a guy with CF and they decide to get married before they die.  In another one, I’ll be Seeing You, a kid is blinded in a science class explosion and while in the hospital, a girl with a facial deformity falls in love with him. She’s scared because eventually he’ll be able to see again and then he’ll see the “real” her.  In one that I remember, a young girl is declared brain dead and her parents decide to turn off life support.  Her sister fights for her.

This is just a sampling.  They are all these horribly sad stories about kids dying and for whatever reason, I was super into them.  I guess even young kids have this curiosity about death, but I’m pretty sure that these books were written for kids that were, like, living in the hospital… or knew someone that was dying… I’m pretty sure they were written to help kids cope.  I wasn’t even coping. I was just morbid. That, and I’ve always loved a good book-related cry. Trust me when I say that books about kids dying are a good way to have one.

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Flashback Friday | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)

Review: Heart-Shaped Box

August 26, 2010 – 9:20 am

The Book: Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill

The Story: Judas Coyne (a stage name…. get it?) is kind of this aging “hardcore” rocker guy.  He wears black clothes, has facial hair, has girlfriends that are 20, 30 years younger than him, and has this collection of gross/scary stuff, a used noose, a snuff film, a skull that he uses for a pencil holder… all this weird crap.  When his manager sees a ghost for sale on an e-bayish site, he tells Judas about it and Judas jumps at the chance.

When a heart-shaped box filled with a black suit comes in the mail, Judas barely remembers ordering it and shoves it into his closet.  Immediately, creepy stuff starts happening.  A radio turning itself on and off, lights that were off being on… then Judas starts seeing the ghost of this man with his eyes kind of “scribbled out”… and let’s just say it’s not Casper.  This is a mean ghost and he doesn’t really like Judas.

Come to find out, this man had a beef with Judas in life and promised to settle it in death.  Judas settling his other ghosts (an abusive father, a depressed girlfriend, suicidal bandmates) and wrestling with his sanity… not to mention get away from this crazy ghost… make up the bulk of this book.  The journey takes the reader into Judas’ past and to the deep south, and if you’ve been to the deep south, you know that at least one of these places is scary by default…

Read More »

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Bookish News: Building Literacy

August 25, 2010 – 3:47 pm

This guy is pretty inspirational.

He started an organization called Room to Read with the goal of getting books to kids around the world, kids who would normally never get the chance to learn to read.  He’s really making some advances and it’s pretty incredible.

Here’s the link.

By Jacki | Posted in News | Tagged | Comments (0)

Book Blogger Interview: Book Hooked

August 25, 2010 – 10:47 am

Julie, over at Book Hooked is one of my absolute favorite book bloggers out there.  If you don’t follow her blog, please get on that for your own sake.  She reads a totally diverse selection of books, shares great bookish news, and has lately taken to book-related crafting.  Not to mention she and her husband and their new puppy are pretty much adorable.  I’ve liked her blog for a long time, but recently she re-did the look of it and now I can’t even keep myself away.  It’s beautiful.

Anyway, I got in touch with her recently to see if I could interview her and then pimp out her blog a little bit.  She was just about as excited as me and gave in really quickly.  My love for her grows! So. Read this fun little interview that we did then, seriously, become addicted to her blog.

1-  One of the (many) reasons that I love your blog is that you read such a wide variety of books.  How do you decide what you are going to read and review?

Honestly, it’s almost completely based on mood.  Of course, now that I am getting some review copies there are times when I have to read something for a deadline.  But typically I don’t know what I am going to read next until I finish whatever I’m currently reading.  I just read whatever seems appealing at the time, but I do make an effort to alternate genres.

2- For me, one of the funnest parts of being a book blogger is hearing feedback from authors.  What has been your best experience with this?

I love that part of blogging too!  I’ve received some great emails from authors, but I think my favorite was from Melanie Benjamin, who wrote Alice I Have Been.  I read it as an ARC and just fell in love with it.  I wrote her a gushing email and she replied that day.  She was the first “big” author who replied to an email and it meant a lot to me that she did it so quickly and so graciously.

3- The DIY stuff you’ve been doing is great. Do you have anything else you’re working on?

Actually, I do!  I just finished another project for my home library using the covers of some antique books that I picked up at the TN Antiquarian Book Festival.  I also just tonight completed my first painting.  I’m pretty proud of myself.  I have another canvas to paint before I hang them and post the pictures on my blog, but they are coming up too!

4- Where do you tend to get most of your books?  Are you a big library user?

Most of my books comes from one of two local used book stores.  One is independently owned and just called The Book Store.  The others is McKays and it has multiple locations in Tennessee.  Because their books are so cheap, I typically buy 5-10 each week.  Which means we have a TON of books.  I’m trying to focus on those and get room for some new ones, but the library is an ever-present temptation.  I love putting books on hold!

5- Do you have an-e reader?  If no, do you plan on getting one?

I don’t own one yet, and I’m still debating getting one.  I think they are great for a lot of purposes, particularly magazine and newspapers, and could help me be more ecologically friendly (I throw away way too many magazines).  But I can’t imagine that they will ever in a million years replace my books.  Of course I also swore that MP3 players were stupid and would never catch on.  So I could definitely be wrong.

6- What books did you love as a child/teenager?

As a child, my favorites were Caddie Woodlawn, CS Lewis’s Narnia books, and Marguerite Henry’s books about horses (Misty of Chincoteague is probably the best known).  In junior high I was a huge fan of The Babysitter’s Club and the “new” Nancy Drew books.  In high school I read a lot of Christian romance (yes it’s true), Mary Higgins Clark, and Dean Koontz.

7- What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation?

I have to say Big Fish.  It’s one of the few movies that really was better than the book for me.  And really, Ewan McGregor.  I don’t think I need to say more.

8- What authors/books make you get all fangirl-y?

Obviously Suzanne Collins is at the top of the list right now.  But honestly, I can fangirl over pretty much anyone who has been published.  I even fangirled over this guy at the last book fair I went to who wrote a book about CS Lewis describing every edition of every Lewis book.  I’m pretty sure no one has ever been as excited about his book as I was.

9- What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Canadian bacon and beef

10- Let’s hear your top 5 books you’ve read this year.

Room by Emma Donaghue

It by Stephen King

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Mountain Man Dance Moves by the editors at McSweeneys

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Thanks again, Julie!! I’m just going to reiterate, if you haven’t been over to Julie’s blog, get there in a hurry!

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Happy Mockingjay Day!

August 24, 2010 – 6:09 pm

reading_mockingjayThis is where you can find me for the next couple of days.

Eek!

By Jacki | Posted in News | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Review: NurtureShock

August 23, 2010 – 9:08 am

The Book: NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

The Story: Not to say that these two piggybacked, and maybe the two books have nothing to do with each other, but I think that the best way to summarize this book is to say that it is pretty much Freakonomics about kids.

The two authors are both parents and they just asked some interesting questions about how parents and teachers interact with kids and what the results are.

There are ten different chapters that are all pretty much stand-alone essays that cover a broad range of topics: praise, sleep, race, lying, intelligence testing, siblings, rebellion, self-control, childhood friendships, and language development.

What I Thought: In short, I thought that this was totally fascinating. The first chapter hooked me, then I was in ’til the end.

In the first chapter, the authors looked at studies on praising kids. They looked at telling kids “you’re smart” vs. “you put a lot of effort into that.”  Maybe you guys see where this is headed, but it was fascinating to me not only how much better praising effort is, but how truly detrimental telling a kid repeatedly “you’re smart” can be.  Kids who are praised in this way are less likely to try at things that they don’t do well at the first time and even less likely to learn more in subjects that the excel at.  Hmmm.

And from there, every chapter had me going “Hmmm…”  The chapter about race was pretty enlightening and talked about how kids start to notice different skin tones from the time that they are infants, but generally parents shy away from talking about race in any way until kids are 9 or 10, and even then they only talk about it in the broadest terms.  This gives kids 10 years to form their own assumptions about what race is and what it means.  Just talking to kids about race openly from the time that the are 3 or 4 seems to do a world of good, but just isn’t something that white parents currently practice.

And on and on.  The chapters about lying and siblings were other high points for me, but I have to say, I took something out of each chapter.

I realize that nothing here is concrete, great science.  It is armchair science at best, but I think that it causes readers to think about things in a new, fresh way.  There is a lot to take away from this.

I’ve already recommended this to several of my friends who are educators or parents, but I don’t think that you’d have to be either to really get a lot out of it.

(As a side note: I want to point out that this is another book published by Twelve Publishers, which I’ve talked about a little bit before.  Just wanted to say that they’ve steered me in the right direction once again.)

Conclusion: Like I said, especially if you liked Freakonomics, are an educator, or a parent, I command you to read this.  If you fit into two or three of these categories, I’d say buy your own copy.  It’s that good.

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Bookish Thoughts: More Library Lovin’

August 22, 2010 – 11:43 am

I know I shared this goodie with you a couple of weeks ago, but when I got this in an email from my husband, I knew that the Old Spice guy dropped to second place.

Enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged | Comments (2)

Review: Two Stephen King Novellas

August 21, 2010 – 9:47 am

The Book: Blockade Billy, by Stephen King

The Story: This is just an old man telling a story from the earlier days of baseball, when he was the third base coach for the Tigers.  Due to circumstances out of any one’s control, a new catcher had to be found asap just days before the first game.  He pretty much ended up being a wonder-kid and got the  nickname Blockade Billy for how great he was at stopping people from making it home.

As the story unfolds, we start to find out that maybe there is more going on with this kid than he said up front….

What I Thought: Decent story? Yeah. Worth the hoopla? Nope.

When this was initially announced, it was supposed to be this super limited edition thing and people were shelling out tons of money for a little skinny book. Then they announced that they would publish a few more. Then they totally went mass-market with it.  There were 2 or 3 copies at my library alone. All of this led to a lot of “talk” and publicity, and probably this wasn’t worthy of all that.

It was a pretty typical Stephen King story and combined two things he loves: that mysterious element and baseball.  I thought that the voice was refreshing and spot on.  It was being narrated by a guy currently in a retirement home and I thought that Stephen King hit the nail right on the head.  I could have done without some of the play-by-play ballgame stuff, but it was part of the story and made everything fit together.

There was a “bonus” story at the end of the copy that I read called “Morality.”  It was about a home health aid whose client asked her to do something pretty risky for quite a bit of money.  Her reaction and the decision that she and her husband make are the basis of this story.  I loved it, dare I say, more than Blockade Billy.  Really good.

Conclusion: Not his best novella, but not his worst.  If you are a big Stephen King fan, take an hour or so and give this a read.  It’s short and good and totally Stephen King.  Don’t make this be your first experience with Stephen King or with novellas.

The Book: The Langoliers, by Stephen King

The Story: Big, giant commercial plane leaves from the west coast.  Somewhere in the middle, almost everyone on the plane disappears.  Only the people that were sleeping survive.  Luckily, one of them was a pilot dead-heading to Boston.  Soon they wake up and start to figure out what may have happened.

They decide to make an emergency landing and try to see if anyone else was effected by this crazy phenomenon.  They quickly discover that they’re the only ones… anywhere… that are left.  As they try to reason through all of this, one of the survivors is slowly losing and they are running quickly out of time….

What I Thought: This was a re-read for me.  For some reason, this is one of my favorite Stephen King stories.  I’ve read it maybe 8 or 9 times.  It never gets old.  I think that they characters are perfect and memorable and that the situation is just crazy enough to get ya thinkin’.

I remember watching this when it was made into a made for tv movie and just thinking that it was maybe the greatest thing ever.  If I remember, most of the movie follows the book pretty closely, so if you read this and like it, try the movie out.  I haven’t seen it for years, so if it is cheesy, I apologize in advance!

Conclusion: Do feel free to make this be your first Stephen King experience or your first experience with a novella.  So, so good.

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Flashback Friday: Forever Angels

August 20, 2010 – 6:27 am

Forever Angels Series, by Suzanne Weyn

So, in fifth and sixth grade, my friend Tiffany and I went through an angel phase.  It was actually a little bit bizarre.  We read all these books about angels that were way beyond our grasp, we wore angel jewelry, she redecorated her room entirely in angel stuff, we had angel stickers on all of our school stuff… and we read the Forever Angel series.

I don’t really know how many of these books there were, probably around 20? We devoured them.

And let me tell you: they were, looking back, very, very strange.  They all featured a girl in some horrible situation: orphaned, unpopular, part of a house fire, and one where she almost killed an animal while working at a veterinary clinic are just a few that pop to mind.  She doesn’t know who else to turn to, so she turns to her guardian angel or angels that show up along the way.  The angel is only seen by the girl and she guides her to make the right decisions.  Totally strange.

A lot of the books came with freebies: an angel charm, these Victorian-looking angel stickers, stuff like that.  All the better to add to our angel obsession. Heh.

So that’s that. Now you know. I was obsessed with angels and reading sad books.

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Flashback Friday | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Blog News: Sticking to my commitment..

August 19, 2010 – 12:47 pm

As you may remember, while Isaac was still but a belly-baby, I made a commitment to (among other things) not use this blog as a mommy-blog.  I’m standing by that.

However, in order to let our friends and family watch Isaac grow and be a part of his life, Shaun set up a little tumblr blog where we plan to post daily pictures of our little feller.  He decided to do a “Project 365″ that is all Isaac all the time. Just thought I’d let you know so if you want to also watch our little guy grow.

Here’s the link: 365 Days of Isaac. I think he’s adorable and perfect, but I’m pretty biased.

Enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in News | Tagged | Comments (2)