Mailbox Monday - 2/23/09

Thanks to Paperbackswap and Dewey, my TBR pile is bigger than it was two weeks ago. Since I was on break last week I didn't write a Mailbox Monday post, so here's what I received in the last two weeks.

• Angel of Forgetfulness - Steve Stern (Jewish Literature Challenge)
• Because I said so: 33 mothers write about children, sex, men, aging, faith, race, and themselves (Dewey challenge)
• What I talk about when I talk about running- Hariku Murakami (In their shoes challenge)
• Flygirl - Sherri L. Smith (Y.A. challenge)
• The World to Come - Dara Horn (Jewish Lit.)

• The Victoria Vanishes - John Fowler (Just loved the cover of the title. I'll fit it into a challenge somewhere)
• Jesus Swept -James Protzman (loved the synopsis)
• Confessions of a Former Child - David Tomasulo (loved the synopsis)
• The Maternal is Political - Shari MacDonald Strong (Dewey challenge)
• Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson (Childhood Favourites challenge)

So that's it until tomorrow. I only have a handful of books coming this week. What did you receive last week?

Sunday Salon: Reading Journal

Good morning! The sun is just starting to come up while the clouds are slowly moving in. Today's forecast calls for rain which is perfect for me. Later on I'm leaving to celebrate my grandmother's birthday but until then I plan on reading and relaxing.

My plan last week was to stay off the internet and get some homework done. It didn't happen. I love being online. There's so many things to read and learn about. Thanks to fellow bloggers, I found a ton of books to put on my TBR list and pile and ordered several books this week.

I've been dipping into Language for a New Century: Contemporary from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond all week. It's a massive anthology of poetry from more than 400 poets, from sixty different countries, translated from fifty languages. One of the goals of the book is to introduce readers to poets they would never hear about otherwise. The book has been receiving criticism because it can only give you one poem per poet. I say the book is an introduction. If you want to read more from a poet then go and find their books and help support translated works.

The foreword by Carolyn Forsche gave me goosebumps and made me read it aloud:

We know, from the mellifluous litany of poets' names, who wrote these poems, but we might also consider what wrote them: the urge to sing, pray, cry, announce, and whisper; to write cultures into visibility; to write not after events but in their aftermath, through collisions in time and space, exile within and without; to walk around in the ruins of wars, awake. What wrote them was a determination to revolt against silence with a bit of speaking. What wrote was an upwelling of poetic apprehension of world.

Forsche calls the book "a field guide to the human condition". I think it's a perfect description for all poetry.

Reading this book made me think of my relationship with poetry. As a teenager it was all I read. I checked out the Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson hundreds of times in eighth grade. "Because I could not stop for death/He kindly stopped for me. . ."

After Dickinson I read and reread the haikus of Richard Wright before moving on to Alice Walker's Her Blue Body Everything we Know. "Good night, Willie Lee, I'll see you in the morning" is a favorite poem from that collection. From there I arrived at Chitra Divakaruni's Black Candle. It stayed next to my bed for months as I read and reread it, raking up library fines.

I wonder what happened, what made me neglect poetry for years? Now Language for a New Century is leading me back to the collections I've loved. Right now Black Candle and the Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson are sitting at my nightstand once again, while Her Blue Body is on its way to me. This week poetry has become the first and last things of my day.

What do you think of poetry? Do you read it? If so, what are your favorite poems? Who are your favorite poets? If not, why?

Sunday Salon

My reading this week has been scattered. Last Sunday I finished Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn for The Inner Child Weekend and Childhood Favorites Challenge. I haven't finished a book since then. I've been swamped with homework, studying, kids, and being sick. I'm still a little tired but I'm feeling much better.

I'm almost up to date with homework and studying, so I plan on using today to finish The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It's a reread for my online book club, The Well-Read Ladies. I'm loving the discussion we're having.

After The Thirteenth Tale I plan on starting a book of poetry called Language for a New Century. It's an anthology featuring contemporary poets from Asia and the Middle East. I also plan on finally dipping into Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff. It's been killing me that I haven't been able to give it my attention.

With all the assignments and studying I need to accomplish this week, I think I'm going to take a week-long break from blogging. That way I can spend more time focusing on what I love, reading. I hope you have a good week and see you next Sunday.

Library Loot 2/10/09

I just came back from one of my favorite places in the world! What is it about libraries and bookstores that give me butterflies?

My library already had issues one through five of Bill Willingham's masterpiece series Fables, but for some reason didn't have the rest. I asked my library to order the rest of the series and they said yes! Now volumes six through eleven are on their way. I also put the beginning of the series on hold so I can reread it. For some reason I received volumes one, seven, and eleven. Hopefully I'll receive the rest of the series before I have to return the books.

I'm an English/Anthropology major and I love fairy tales. So when I saw The Hungry Clothes and other Jewish Folktales, I had to check it out. Can you believe I've never read Peter Pan? My family loves the various movie versions of this book, so it's our newest family read. I'm reading Exit Wounds for the Graphic Novel Challenge. I'm also in a short story mood, so I had to check out Yiyun Li's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers before I read her latest Vagrants.

What have you checked out from the library lately?

Sunday Salon: The Peaceful Post

Good morning! Right now there's no sun in sight and the air is nice and cool. I love these winter mornings. Since I'm in Southern California, snow is not a worry but we did have some rare thunderstorms yesterday. When you do hear thunder, you can't help but pay attention.

Last week I read only children's books again. Something tells me this might be how the rest of the year will be. This week I read:

Ziggy's Blue-Ribbon Day by Claudia Mills. Ziggy is not good at running, jumping, or throwing balls for track-and-field day. Though his teacher told him to try his best and Ziggy will, he knows he won't be receiving a blue-ribbon award. He's an artist, great at drawing. By chance things change and Ziggy might be receiving a blue ribbon after all.


Chicken Feathers by Joy Crowley. Chicken Feathers is the tale of Josh, an ordinary boy living on a farm and his pet chicken Semolina, who can talk. Not talk like a parrot does and repeat what you say, but actually talks. No one believes Josh when he says Semolina can talk, but he has bigger things to worry about. His mom is in the hospital pregnant with his little sister and he suspects a fox is taking eggs from one of the chicken houses.



Potato Joe is a counting book for small children by author and illustrator Keith Baker. The illustrations are simple yet beautiful though my youngest was not interested in it at all.



Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber. I can't believe I have never read this book until now. Ira is going to sleep over his best friend's house and tries to decide whether or not he should take his teddy bear with him. Full of repetition and funny scenes, Ira Sleeps Over is a new favorite in this house.



A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever is written by Marla Frazee and was nominated for a Cybils award last year. Frazee is also the illustrator for Sara Pennypacker's great series, Clementine. A Couple of Boys is about James and Eamon's week-long adventure with Eamon's grandparents Bill and Pam. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is great. I didn't want it to end.

This weekend I participated in the Inner Child Weekend loosely hosted by Dovegreyreader. The purpose of the weekend is to put aside your adult reads and read your childhood favorites.


Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day by Judith Viorst has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first books I was able to read by myself. The title explains the story perfectly. When my kids are having a bad day this is the book I reach for.



My other read for this weekend is Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn. I read this book when I was around eleven years old. I was browsing my local library and I remember I just happened to find it. The cover intrigued me. Daphne with her flowing hair and beautiful face sitting back-to-back with Jessica. I don't think I can do this book justice. Just read it. I promise you'll love it.


After Daphne's Book, I plan on reading Lauren Groff's short story collection, Delicate Edible Birds and Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale for The Well-Read Ladies book club.

What are some of your childhood favorites? What do you plan on reading this week?

Judge a book by its cover

This week's Weekly Geeks assignment is to:

Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?

I think this is a great assignment. I'm the type of person who loves looking at book covers. I would rather pay more for a hardcover edition of a book if the cover looks a lot better than the paperback version. Most of the time I buy a book primarily because of the cover and a few good reviews. I'm paying for that outlook now.

I picked Markus Zusak's The Book Thief because it's one of my favorite reads. This is the cover I have on my hardcover copy. I checked Amazon.ca and found the same cover for both hardcover and paperback.

I searched around and found this vastly different color at Amazon Denmark. It's creepy and I like it better, but it does misrepresents Death. He's not some creepy bloodthirsty creature. He's pretty sweet with a hard job and no vacation from it.





This cover I found at Amazon.uk. It does not fit the theme of the book at all. Liesel, the main character, is not just reading books in the novel. She's living her life and learning so much about loyalty and trust, the meaning of family, and how strong love is and how hard loss can be.


I've seen the French cover before but it's creepier than the Denmark version. Liesel dancing with Death? Not exactly.

So which one do you prefer? Do you judge a book harshly by its cover?

Winner of Mini-Challenge #1 is. . .

Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books! Dawn is the winner of Away by Amy Bloom. Congrats, Dawn!

Care at Enjoy Life, Love the Journey is the winner of Keri Smith's How To be An Explorer of the World. Congrats!

Inner Child Weekend 2

Dovegreyreader came up with a great idea to have an Inner Child Weekend every month. I plan on reading Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn in the 1983 edition that I remember reading as a pre-teen. When the book came earlier this week in the mail, I examined every inch of it to make sure it was the same book. It is. I had the urge to smell the damn thing.

What books did you read as a child? Have you read any lately?

Mailbox Monday

Marcia at the Printed Page hosts Mailbox Monday. My TBR pile is ridiculous. . The last row is coming today and the rest is already here:

Sunday Salon: January Wrap Up

January has been a very surprising month. The beginning of it was filled with new resolutions, the promise of a better school semester, and a honest chance of tackling my TBR pile. Instead I added dozens of new books and watched as the pile grew. Unread books are now double the number of read books in my home. The school semester is going pretty well, though I do have a professor who is crazy enough to give my class several hundred pages of poetry and autobiographies from the 17th century for assigned reading every week.

Another surprise was how often I turned to children's books. Of the thirty books I've read this month, only four were adult reads: How to Be an Explorer, The Man in the Picture, Gods Behaving Badly, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. All four were great reads. Hopefully this month will be much better for adult fiction since I have a ton of books that are due at the library and I've run out of renewals.

I've only read five short stories this month for the 100 Shots of Short challenge:

"Farewell, Navigator" - Leni Zumas
"Dragons may be the way forward - Leni Zumas
"The Everything Hater" - Leni Zumas
"Heart Sockets" - Leni Zumas
"Lucky Chow Fun" -Lauren Groff

In December I joined The Year of Readers challenge. I pledged $1.50 of my own money for each book I read throughout 2009 to two great charities: 828National and FirstBook. Every month I'm alternating between the two charities. January was the month for First Book.org. With all my reading I earned $45! Next month I'm going to try to match that for 826National.

Currently I have four books going:

Tigerheart by Peter David
My One Hundred Adventures - Polly Horvath (middle school fiction)
Chicken Feathers - Joy Cowley (middle school fiction)
The Butcher and other erotica - Alina Reyes

Hopefully I can get all four read before next Sunday.

What are you reading this week?