Bookworm

November 15th, 2008

When Wia was born, I decided I was going to be the aunt that gives books. I’m a lifelong reader – it’s my relaxation method of choice – and I’d love nothing more than to instill that same love of reading in my nieces.

Wia loves to be read to, and so it’s a good thing that Grandma has enrolled her in the Children’s Book of the Month Club. So far, she’s received:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff


If You Give a Pig a Pancake, by Laura Numeroff


Mother Goose, illustrated by Mary Engelbreit


Last year for Christmas, I gave Olivia four of the Bing Bunny books. She loved them, and now Emma loves them, too. She’s happy to sit on the floor all by herself and “read” the books to herself. It’s the cutest thing – she has those stories totally memorized. Her favorite is Bing: Paint Day, by Ted Dewan.

It’s only my favorite because of the way she tells it, with all the same inflection that we adults put on the words when we read it to her. She’s so smart!

Another post about books

March 10th, 2008

Twelve and I went to Borders tonight. I had $15 in Borders Rewards Bucks, and I really did intend to just pick out one or two items and use up my bucks before they expired… what is it they say about the best laid plans? Almost $100 later, here’s what I came home with:

11590451 Everyone keeps telling me I need to read Jodi Picoult, so I figured I’d give this one a try.
10532826 I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while; it’s been on my Amazon wish list, and I just hadn’t gotten around to ordering it.
7210134 I read Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, by Marian Keyes, just a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed it — it was a light read (not that I do a lot of heavy reading, per se) — and figured I’d pick up another Keyes novel the next time I was at the bookstore. I’ll make my way through all of them eventually.
25545880 I love Stephen Lawhead. I read Taliesin when I was just a teenager, and devoured the Pendragon Cycle as quickly as they were released. I think they’re in a box in the attic… Anyway, I finished the Song of Albion series around Christmas, and now I’m looking forward to the King Raven trilogy. I really think I have a weakness for serial books. Is that wrong?
8740557 I’ve been waiting to see the movie until after I read the books. I didn’t even know it was a series until a friend mentioned that his eleven-year old daughter couldn’t wait to see the movie and see how it compared. I love children’s fiction, so I’m excited to see if I like this as much as I’ve enjoyed others (see Harry Potters 1-7, His Dark Materials series, Anne of Green Gables, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etcetera).

Sadly, this will probably only last me for a couple of weeks… I think I really need to join the public library.

Books I’ve read in the last 3 months:

March 1st, 2008
  • The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. This was a Christmas gift from my parents, along with a couple of others I’d had on my Amazon wishlist. I had a hard time getting into it at first, but really enjoyed reading it once I was able to get past the first chapter or so.
  • Definitely Dead, by Charlaine Harris. Book 6 of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, I’ve loved each one of these even better than the last. For some reason they’re really hard to find in my local Barnes & Noble stores, so I usually have to order them online.
  • Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, by Marian Keyes. I don’t like all chick-lit, but thought I might try Marian Keyes after reading an excerpt of one of her books somewhere. This was the only one available when I went to look locally, so I gave it a try. Now I feel I need to read the rest of her books!
  • The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. I loved this book — I wanted to reach out and give the little girl Jeannette a hug. Talk about succeeding in the face of diversity.
  • Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. I had this on my Amazon wishlist for several months, and when I finally got to read it I actually finished it in one afternoon. The descriptions of the practices of another culture — especially those that are no longer commonly performed — are always fascinating to me.

You can see more of what’s on my bookshelf and what I’d like to read at Goodreads, or on my Book Wishlist at Amazon.

Well, there’s the first list done — now I just have to think of topics for the next 30 days…