Nora Ephron

 This morning I was listening to the news and I heard this quote from Nora Ephron....(post from Goodreads.com).

Nora Ephron

5/19/1941 - 6/21/2012

author, blogger, director, filmmaker, journalist,
novelist, playwright, screenwriter

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.” 
― Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman


...and I could not agree more. Her words moved me and that is what reading, and actually writing, are all about. I don't know a better way to explain to someone how important reading is in my life. I have never been much of a writer, but over the past few years I have forced myself to become a writer through my blogging. By writing about the books I read I not only validate the author's word, but also the time I have invested in reading those words. I can put into words my own thoughts on the characters, plot twists, setting, etc. Through reading I have become a writer. I know I am not going to win any prizes for my writing and in all truthfulness I do it more for myself than anyone else. Reading is my therapy and writing is kind of like my receipt for services rendered.

Non-Fiction Section...Complete!

It
by Stephen King

Pennywise the Dancing Clown

It didn't really take me almost two weeks to complete this portion of the challenge. I have actually been reading in other categories as well. I just choose to post once I have completed a section of the challenge. So today I am posting about the non-fiction titles I have read. Now, if you have read some of my previous posts (July 14, 2011 or April 27, 2001) you will find that I enjoy reading about circuses. I hate clowns, let me repeat that, I HATE clowns, they scare the dickens out of me (thanks to Mr. Stephen King and his wonderfully descriptive character Pennywise the Dancing Clown in my favorite of his novels, It!). I almost didn't add a picture of Pennywise because he creeps me out so, but then I thought you might have to go look for a picture of him to completely understand from where I am coming, so I did it for you! Be thankful, now I will be up all night because of this!

Anyway, I digress, I don't really know from where my love of circuses comes. I remember going to the circus a few times when I was growing up and then again when my son was small, but something about the life of the circus performer has always seemed to fascinate me. As I was browsing the shelves of the Mary Couts Burnett Library on the campus of Texas Christian University recently I came across a few circus books that intrigued me. I browsed through a few of the books on P.T Barnum, sideshow acts and trapeze artists, but settled down to read in their entirety Tom Thumb: The Remarkable True Story of a Man in Miniature and The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918: the Tragedy Along the Indiana Lakeshore. Tom Thumb has always been a fascinating character to me. This book told the story of Charles Sherwood Stratton, who would come to be known around the world as General Tom Thumb because of his partnership with P.T. Barnum.

To be honest, I had never heard of the train wreck of 1918 and was interested in this story because it happened around the time my grandfather was born. In 1972 Warren Reeder wrote about the devastating train wreck under the title No Performances Today. Upon great requests for the original title, the local history librarian at Hammond Historical Society decided to write a new account of the devastation using newly discovered materials. The book was an easy one day read with a great deal of information (including photographs of the wreckage) about the unusual circumstances that combined to cause one of the largest circus train wrecks in history.

The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918:
Tragedy Along the Indiana Lakeshore
by Richard M. Lytle

Other Goose: Re-Nurseried!! and
Re-Rhymed!! Childrens Classics
by J. Otto Seibold

The last book in this portion of the reading challenge has nothing to do with the circus. I have actually had this book on my shelf to read for sometime because it relates to the lessons I did with my students this past year in the library. I found my students were not familiar with nursery rhymes. So I spent half of the school year teaching my students a variety of the classic children's nursery rhymes including some of my personal favorites : Jack and Jill, Little Miss Muffet, and Jack Be Nimble. Since the other two books I read for this challenge were adult books, I felt it was only appropriate for my position as a children's librarian to include a children's non-fiction title and J. Otto Seibold presents Other Goose Re-nurseried!! and Re-rhymed!! Childrens Classics seemed to fit the bill perfectly (okay, laugh at my little joke please...I hope I don't have to explain it!).

Poster issued by Chronicle Books for
promotional purposes

At first this book kind of turned me off because I so love the original nursery rhymes, but as I got further into the book I found I was intrigued by the re-rhyming of these classics. I have enjoyed sharing other books by J. Otto Seibold with my students and their families, including Olive the Other Reindeer and Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf to name a few, but I was reluctant to share this book because so many of my students did not know the original rhymes. I believe the children would love this collection of re-nurseried re-rhymes once they had been introduced to the originals. I would not want the students to believe these were the rhymes of old, but enjoy them for the hilarity of the new. We know Seibold is extremely creative, which is evident from the title of this book, but I was especially intrigued by the manner in which he presents "The Grand Finale" as a collection of all of the character previously introduced in a wonderful version of "One, Two Buckle My Shoe". I truly believe this is the best part of the entire book!

Graphic Novel Portion...Complete!

The Exile
by Diana Gabaldon

The best part of our 2012 Summer Reading Challenge is our ability to choose the books we want to read. We are given guidelines and even choices inside the guidelines in order to make the challenge a little more personal and interesting to complete. I am not a big graphic novel reader, but with this challenge I was able to find books in which I had an interest to fit this category. As I previously posted I read three Oz graphic novels last week while visiting the TWU. Today I completed the challenge by reading Diana Gabaldon's The Exile. This graphic novel is based on Gabaldon's The Outlander series. There are many similarities between the graphic novel and the first book in the series, Outlanderk, but the biggest difference is the perspective from which the story is told. In this graphic novel we read about the most basic of the story line from Jamie's perspective. For anyone who might consider reading the series, I would not recommend reading this graphic novel first. It might actually turn you away from this wonderful series. The graphic novel was a little hard to follow because so much had to be cut in order to fit the story line into this very condensed version of a 896 page novel.

Graphic Novels

2012 Summer Reading Challenge Update...

The Forgotten Forest of Oz
by Eric Shanower

The Ice King of Oz
by Eric Shanower

The Secret Island of Oz
by Eric Shanower

The  Big Book of Grimm
by Jonathan Vankin

You know I was at TWU last week if you read my previous post. You also know about the book that captured my attention. I found a wonderful place outside on the balcony of the library and started reading this new found friend when I realized I was at a library! :-) Okay, yes I can be a little nuts at times, but it occurred to me that while I was at said library I could check off a few of the readings I need for our summer reading challenge. I went downstairs to the children's department and found some graphic novels. I knew this was the perfect place to locate said genre. The best part was finding some that 1.) I was very interested in reading because of the subject matter and 2.) I did not know they existed. I love the Wizard of Oz and these were perfect for me to read while I was waiting for Walter to finish his meeting. I also started reading The Big Book of Grimm by Jonathan Vankin, which included over 50 of the wonderfully gruesome tales illustrated by various DC Comic cartoonists.. I loved it. Unfortunately I did not have time to read all 192 pages of the book and since I am no longer a student I was not able to check the book out to bring home to finish. Since I need four graphic novels to complete this portion of the reading challenge I will need to find one more book to fit into this category. Since my husband has been collecting Asterix for years, I might just have to break down and read one.

The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy

Last week my sweet husband, Walter, needed to go to  Texas Woman's University to a meeting. He asked if I wanted to go with him, and since I hadn't been on campus in a number of years I decided to go along. At first I thought I would just sit somewhere quiet and read, but then we parked near the bookstore. You know what that means! Well, of course I HAD to go in and look around. Now, it has been 14 years since we graduated from TWU, but I still got a thrill when I walked through the doors. One of the best thrills was that I was not there to spend hundreds of dollars on text books (even though I have seriously thought about going back to school to work on my doctorate). As I walked around I really tried not to go over to the books. I knew I did not NEED any new books, but I could not control myself. I walked over and the very first book I saw was yelling my name, not calling mind you, but YELLING for me to pick it up. It must have known that once I picked it up and started reading through the table of contents there would be no turning back. Boy, am I that easy of a mark?!? I guess so. Here is the cover of the book that now lives in our home.

The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy:
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Aristotle, Locke
Edited by William Irwin and Dean A. Kowalski

For those  who know my family well, or even if you just casually know us I guess, you will see why this book just HAD to come home with me! My sweet son is Sheldon Cooper! Not really, but he has a lot of the same characteristics (good and bad) of this Big Bang Theory character. We love the show and can hardly watch a rerun without MY little Sheldon saying the dialogue along with the actors.

I have to say, this book came to me at an important time in my life, all joking aside. I enjoyed the philosophy class I took in college (although not at TWU, the other university in town, UNT). Since that class so many years ago, I have not really thought about reading a book on philosophy. I have by no means finished reading the book. I am slowly absorbing the information and actually highlighting passages that I want to remember and refer to later. I know this sounds a little ridiculous, but this book has made me understand some issues that I have been dealing with in my personal life. You probably think I'm crazy, but it is true. The way the authors make connections between the philosophers statements of so long ago, specifically Aristotle, and the relationships and antics of the BBT characters is wonderful. 

Earlier in the year, my son presented a speech on Shakespeare. He had been working on this speech since last summer. It was his Academic Decathlon speech for competition and very important to him. Seeing my little boy grow into a young man and create has amazed me. I know you are probably wondering why I am including this randomness, but I do have a point. His speech was about Shakespeare's writings and how so many people just don't "get" him. (I being one of them.) I was amazed how he developed his speech around the wonderful productions he has been a part of through the Stolen Shakespeare Guild by making the connection between the entertainment of the days when Shakespeare's plays were debuting and the television of now. He made reference to The Big Bang Theory and Love's Labour's Lost, Two and a Half Men and A Comedy of Errors , even CSI and Othello and Julius Cesar.  The same is true for the above mentioned book. We might not always understand the information from the scholars of long ago but when connections are made for us based on the things we know and love it is so much easier to understand.

By the way, this book will fit into my 2012 Summer Reading Challenge...non-fiction!

2012 Summer Reading Challenge

I knew it was coming. I just didn't know that I was actually on the right track for the 2012 Irving ISD Librarian Summer Reading Challenge. I should have seen it coming though when I was talking to my friend, Lea, who just happens to be the Director of Library Services, that I was planning to read some of the books from the TLA Lariat List this summer. Since I didn't get the challenge until yesterday I guess Godmother won't really count. Oh, well, darn, now I have to read another book (raising sarcasm sign).

Okay, here is the challenge...lots of choices.

1 - controversial adult book OR  book by one of the authors visiting Irving Public Library this summer

• John Corey Whaley -  Where Things Come Back,
• Beth Revis - A Million Suns & Across the Universe
• Jackson Pearce - As You Wish,  Sisters Red, Sweetly, & Purity
• Andrea Cremer - Nightshade, Wolfsbane: A Nightshade Novel, & Bloodrose: A Nightshade Novel
• Rosemary Clement-Moore -Prom tes from Hell, Hell Week, Highway to Hell, & The Splendor Falls
• Marie Lu - Legend 
• Lori Wilde - Saving Allegheny Green, You Only Love Twice, Addicted to Love, The Sweethearts' Knitting Club, High Stakes Seduction, & The First Love Cookie Club
• Francis Ray - A Seductive Kiss, Twice the Temptation, Undeniable, & Break Every Rule
• Elizabeth Essex - The Pursuit of Pleasure & A Sense of Sin
• Leann Harris - Hidden Deception

2 -  books from the current or past Lariat List OR online books (or a combination of the two)

3 - young adult books with 2011 or later copyright dates OR nonfiction books (or a combination of the two)

4 - recent picture books OR graphic novels - (or a combination of the two)

So, there is a total of 10 books required for the challenge. I'm not sure I can limit myself to only 10! Just going through the lists and the choices I have already made some selections based on books I have wanted to read for some time that actually fit into the various categories very nicely.

You will have to come back to see the choices I make and my opinion of the different books.

Summer Reading

Although my summer will not officially begin until 3:30 Wednesday, I have unofficially declared the start of my summer reading. In the past three days I have read two great books. One from a favorite author, James Patterson, and one from a new to me author, Carolyn Turgeon.

I will start off by saying I read just about everything James Patterson publishes. As soon as I hear a new books is in the works, I go to my calendar and make an appointment to put the book on hold a month prior to the release date. This give me the reminder I need to log into the public library's online catalog and look for the title to appear. If I don't see it the day of the appointment I move the appointment by a few days. I keep this up until I can see the book has been ordered by the library and I can place a hold on it. Obsessive, maybe a little, but I want to be one of the first to read his new book when it comes out.

11th Hour
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

So anyway, I finished 11th Hour, the latest installment of the Women's Murder Club series. It was a good story, like the rest of his books, but I didn't feel the interaction between the female characters was as strong as it has been in other books.

Cinderellaby Marcia Brown

Cinderella
by James Marshall

Now for a completely different story, a fairy tale actually. I remember reading fairy tales as a child and watching them come to life on the movie screen thanks to Walt Disney. I remember the beautiful illustrations by Marcia Brown's Caldecott winning book, and the comical cartoonish characters in James Marshall's version. I have to admit my favorite Cinderella is the singing and dancing version created by Walt Disney. To this day I love the songs from the movie, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and the little mice singing "Cinderelly, Cinderelly" in "The Work Song".

Godmother
by Carolyn Turgeon

I decided this summer I would read some of the great books on the Texas Library Association's Lariat Reading List.  I started by reading Carolyn Turgeon's Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story. I was not really sure what to expect, but I devoured the book in one day. I was completely engrossed in Lil's life working in a New York bookstore and her wonderful secret life behind the locked doors of her apartment. The version of the book I was reading has a Reading Group Guide in the back. The last question is, "Fast-forward six months after the book ends. Where do you see each character? Are they better or worse off than they were before?" I love this question and for anyone that chooses to read this book based on  my recommendation, I would love to hear your response to this question. I do not feel it is appropriate to include my response here as it would spoil the book. The ending is not at all what I thought it would be, thus making it even better because now I get to ponder the above question and create my own true ending to the love story.