2008 Challenges

I finished all my challenges but sadly, I did not blog all the books. I would love to comment on all of them but am too busy writing in other places. I have signed up for several blogs for 2009. But doubt if I can keep up with all the book review stuff. Maybe I will just post the books name and the challenge that it should count for.

I am doing the best I can.

Chunkster Challenge-Completed

I completed my Chunkster Challenge... First Challenge ever completed and I am pumped.

Inkspell

I love reading books in a series. I like the continuing contact i have with characters who touch my heart and make me think.

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke is one such book.The story begins with the book Inkheart and a young girl, Meggie, who loves to read and be read to. One strange night, Meggie's father reads aloud from Inkheart, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. The fun begins!!!Inkspell continues the story a year later.

Characters are moving from one world to another and many desperately want to get back home for a variety of reasons. I love this series and am anxiously awaiting the last book in the trilogy, Inkdeath, which will be out sometime last summer or early fall.

Eldest

I thought I had posted this two days ago and can't find it any where... Makes me so mad.

Eldest by Christopher Paolini tells the continued story of Eragon and his dragon Saphira. Eragon is a dragon rider and need to receive more training in magic, fencing and communication to be able to destroy King Galbatorix. Eragon has the help of dwarfs, elves and other humans.

Another part of the novel is the story of Eragon's cousin Roran. He is also being harassed by King Galbatorix, so he does what is necessary to save himself and his community. I am generally not a fantasy reader but enjoyed both books and am anxiously awaiting the third book in the trilogy.

Lone Star Nation

Being an adopted Texan, I wanted to read a book that tells the story of Texas Independence.The book, Lone Star Nation by H.W. Brands was recommended by a friend who is a history lover.

I had a hard time with the book but then I was intrigued by the way the author brought in characters who are Texas heroes.The author begins the book with the story of Moses and Stephen Austin, the "founders" of Texas. It amazed me the sacrifices the Austins made to take families into Texas. At the end of the story, Stephen Austin, in poor health, had no money, no home, no family and in actuality, had been replaced as the leader of Texas by Sam Houston.Throughout Texas history, many men have played important roles. This book gives some background information about Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, James Bowie, William Travis, and others.

I found it interesting how some of the "heroes" were portrayed in comparison to how we teach it in the schools in Texas.

The Crossroads Cafe

I finished my fourth book for the TBR Challenge. It was a pretty good book. I chose this book because my f2f book club was also reading it. The Crossroads Cafe by Deborah Smith deals with two scarred individuals who come together and support each other in a new life.

My f2f book club met Monday the 25th and everyone really loved the book. It was a romance, yet the writing and language were rich and flowing. The character were so easy to fall in love with and everyone enjoyed their story.I have read several books by Deborah Smith and she always tells a great story with great characters. I recommend that everyone reads her.. You won't be disappointed.

Thirteen Reasons Why

Just finished my fourth book for the Young Adult Challenge and it was very good, but oh, so sad..From the front cover:"Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker- his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier.Hannah's voice explains that there are thirteen reasons she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them, If he listens he will find out."
This book was an interesting look into the mind of a troubled young adult who feels she has no one to trust. Even though the events were pretty typical of teen age life, Hannah had no support system to help her deal with her issues.I wish I would have listened to this book because the writing is in two very distinct voices: Clay's and Hannah's...

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I went on a reading weekend with my f2f book club and wanted to try and get at least one book finished for one of my challenges...I am so glad that I read this one.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is the recent winner of the Caldecott Award, which is giving each year to the best picture book. "Hugo" is not your typical picture book, it is 533 pages long where a picture books is about 32 pages. The author uses a combination of orginal drawing, movie stills, and photographs to make his story come alive with the text. It is a very fascinating and original book.

Hugo tells the story of a young man living in Paris, whose life is surrounded in secrets and mystery. His life intertwines with a bookish school girl and an eccentric old man who runs a toy shop in the train station where Hugo works.

Great book.. I highly recommend it.

True Evil

YES!!!! I like killing three birds with one stone. I just finished True Evil by Greg Iles for the Chunkster Challenge, TBR challenge and for my f2f book club which meets Tuesday night. It feels really good to get the book finished and it is really good that it was a pretty good read.

A FBI agent working undercover, Alex Morse, has suspected that a divorce attorney is having spouses of his clients killed in mysterious ways. Alex Morse's own brother-in-law was one of those clients and now Morse's beloved sister is dead. Morse seek revenge for her sister... Alex knows the next target. Will Dr. Chris Sheperd help Alex find a killer or will he be in the next victim?

Overall, I really liked the book. However, the medical jargon lost me a couple times and for me, took something away from the story.

Bet Your Bottom Dollar

I just finished my first TBR Challenge book Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie. This book has been in my TBR pile for such a long time and am so glad that I finally had a reason to read it.

BYBD tells the story of a small southern town's Dollar store and the ladies who run the store. Big trouble comes to town when a national chain dollar store moves to town and the local community is scared that the big chain will put the local store out of business.

This is a delightful book. I love books where the women's relationship are one of the main themes of the book.. I liked this book so much that I plan on reading the next two books in the series.

November Blues

Whenever I read books that are in a series, I am always leery about reviewing them. I always hate it when someone posts a spoiler and I sure don't want to spoil anyone's reading experience. November Blues in the followup book to The Battle Of Jericho, both books by Sharon Draper.

November's life has changed dramatically beginning with a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong. Who will stand by her side when she needs them the most. How will Jericho respond when his world has been shattered and he feels he must make a choice between football and music ? Can the physical pain of football pound away at Jericho's emotional pain?

The Battle of Jericho

Sharon Draper is one of the best kept secrets of Young Adult Literature. She has won the National Teacher of the Year Award, as well as being a four time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. She has won numerous education and writing awards, yet I don't hear people talk about her and they should be! She is a writer who writes characters that break your heart, yet you are standing on the street corner cheering them on.

Jericho and his cousin, Josh, are invited to join the most exclusive club at their school, The Warriors of Distinction. The Warriors are known for their good deeds around school- the toy drive, helping teachers,yet, sometimes Jericho questions what the club is really all about. After taking the pledge " All of us or none of us," Jericho finds himself questioning the club and himself, wondering how far he will go to become a club member and is it really worth it?

There is a sequel to this book November Blues. I will be reading it for sure.

Life on the Refrigerator Door

Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
220 Pages



Happy New Year! I am so excited to have finished the first book in my Young Adult Challenge.. Being 1500 hundred miles away from home I had to substitute a book that I hadn't planned on reading.

Life on the Refrigerator Door is the story of 15 year old Claire and her divorced mother.Because both mother and daughter are super busy with life and all that it entails, communicating with one another is very difficult. They communicate by leaving notes for each other on the refrigerator door. When Claire and her mother are faced with a tragedy, they both realize that communicating by the refrigerator door leaves a lot to be desired.

I really enjoyed this book. It was short, could be read in less than an hour, and told a interesting story about a teenager and her mother.

Young Adult Challenge

I have joined a Young Adult challenge that begins January 1, 2008 and ends December 31, 2008. I know I can easily complete this challenge. The hard part is waiting until January 1 to begin reading these great books.

This is my list of possible choices:

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green

2. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

3. Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson

4. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

5. Inspell by Cornelia Funke

6. Eldest by Christopher Paolini

7.Just Listening by Sarah Dessen

8.The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen

9. This Lullaby by Sarah Dressen

10. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

11. I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak

12. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I might change my mind somewhere along the way but I think these are the ones I am going with

TBR Challenge

Well .you can tell I was bored today. I have decided to participate in another challenge , for me this is great. I promised my husband that I would try and decrease my TBR pile this year. I have over 1000 unread books at my house and really need to get rid of some of them. I am suppose to make my list of 24 books, 12 that I plan on reading and then 12 that might be used as alternatives. Since I am in California and don't have my books here I am going to make some guesses and then I will clean the list up when I get home.

12 TBR Books

1. The Crossroads Cafe by Deborah Smith

2. A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith

3. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson

4. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackson

5. True Evil by Greg Iles

6. Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie

7. The Zookeeper Wife by Diane Ackerman

8. The Nine by Jeff Tobin

9. The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva

10. Lone Star Nation by H.W Brands

11. Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

12. Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson

Alternatives

1. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

2. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

3. Welcome to Camden Falls by Ann Martin

4. Needles and Thread by Ann Martin

5. Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

6. A Woman in Charge by Carl Bernstein

7. Living History by Hillary R. Clinton

8. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton

9. Improbable by Adam Fawer

10. Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica

11. Heat by Mike Lupica

12.Tilt-a-Whirl by Chri Grabenstein

Biographies by Margaret Davidson

I love biographies. I remember reading one when I was a little girl about Clara Barton. After I read it I wanted to be a nurse. But that soon changed when I realized I couldn't stand the sight of blood. I read four biographies by Margaret Davidson and for the most part I really enjoyed then, Thomas Edison, Frederick Douglass, Louis Braille, and Helen Keller. I learned something about each person I read about. These books could be used to introduce biographies and could possible be used to help students write an autobiographical piece of writing.

Lists!!!

I make lists, lost of lists. I have lists for movies I wants to watch. I have lists for places I want to visit. I have lists for CDs I want to buy. And I have lists for books.Lots of lists about books. Historical books I want to read listed in chronological order. Young Adult books I want to read is another list. But then I have another list of books I want to read and this list tells me if I can check them out of the library or not. This is like the holiest of holy list. I am constantly changing this list by adding new books and occasionally I will actually read something from this list. I decided that I needed to start reading some of the books off this list since the library might have to cull the book I wanted to read.

So I went back to the earliest book I placed on my holy of holy list. It was published in 1970!!!!!!!!! How long has this book been on the list and what in the world was this book about and who was Betty Brock? I was shocked when I got the book from the Library and the book was a children's book No Flying in the House. What was even more shocking was the book was great.

A tiny talking dog, Gloria, and her young charge, Annabel Tippens, need a home. How does a dog happen to be raising a young girl? Mrs. Vancourt can't resist a talking dog who can do 367 different tricks. She takes them in to live with her. Where are Annabel's missing parents? Gloria and an evil cat named Belinda both know. But it is left to Annable to discover on her own.

I would use this book as a reading for enjoyment book. I think our kids would enjoy it and it is a great story.

Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume

Every generation needs one.... A friend who will tell you that it is okay to worry about whether your boobs will ever get big.. A friend who will worry with you about starting your period. A friend who knows what it is like when your parents get divorced and you think that you are the cause of it. Judy Blume has been that friends for many young adults.

Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O'Connell is a series of essays written by authors whose life has been impacted by the writings of Judy Blume. Each author talks about how they could identify with the main character of each book they read. Judy Blume was the first woman to look girls straight in the eye and tell it the way it is.

Is there a Judy Blume for this generation? I hope so.. It's amazing that we ever got along without her.

What type of inner child are you?

Your Inner Child Is Happy

You see life as simple, and simple is a very good thing.You're cheerful and upbeat, taking everything as it comes.And you decide not to worry, even when things look bad.You figure there's just so many great things to look forward to.

http://www.blogthings.com/howisyourinnerchildquiz/">How Is Your Inner Child?

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

I hate it when I get distracted from a book by life. That is exactly what happened with my first Newberry Challenge book Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. I have been extremely busy at work and actually took some teachers to a reading conference. It has taken me about 3 weeks to read an 184 page book. So for me to write a review would be a disservice to Jerry Spinelli. The first half of the book was great and the last half was such a disconnect with me, it just wouldn't be fair.