According to my quick Wikipedia research (forgive me, I’m tired), The Cat [...]]]> Eva’s latest favorite book is The Cat in the Hat. Or as she likes to call it, “Meeeeoooow. Hat-tah.” Apparently love of The Cat is contagious – here I am reading it to Eva, three of her second cousins, and my mother:

According to my quick Wikipedia research (forgive me, I’m tired), The Cat in the Hat was first published in 1957. My mother remembers reading it, I remember reading it, and it seems the newest generation is entranced. Though these days I’m on Team Fish – that cat makes me nervous…

Note: In this picture am reading the book on my Droid, but we read a hardback at home.

We’ve attended story time every week since Eva was four months old. While we tend to wax poetic about story time, it’s not the only draw – there are tubs of books, tiny rocking chairs, a [...]]]> I know this will come as a shock to everyone, but Eva and I like going to the library.

We’ve attended story time every week since Eva was four months old. While we tend to wax poetic about story time, it’s not the only draw – there are tubs of books, tiny rocking chairs, a giant stuffed Elmo, and two amazing librarians.

We can hardly walk down the hill from our house without Eva knowing what we’re near. On election day, for example, we walked by the library on our way to vote. When Eva saw where we were she got so excited (lots of pointing and an “Ai-yah!!!” or two) that I had to take her in. As if I could turn down such a request.

Today we went to our usual Mother Goose story time and came home with a pile of board books. Checking out board books is somewhat unusual because Eva has a better collection at home than we find in most libraries (I wonder how that happened). I dumped the books on the couch and we went about our day.

About an hour later, Eva discovered the book pile.

She took one book off the couch, found a quiet corner to read, then returned to the couch for the next book, and then the next. Soon she was sitting in her corner surrounded by all of her new books.

That’s my girl.

The best way to get 20 minutes of quiet time is to put Eva on the floor with a pile of books. She can easily spend an hour throughout the day reading by herself in addition to [...]]]> When Eva was a newborn, I worried I didn’t read to her enough. Sometimes I worry excessively.

The best way to get 20 minutes of quiet time is to put Eva on the floor with a pile of books. She can easily spend an hour throughout the day reading by herself in addition to 20-30 minutes we read together.

The book piles in our living room got out of control after our last trip to Seattle (hmm… what a coincidence), so we picked up a bookcase over the weekend. Yesterday I sat Eva on the floor in front of the bookcase, and she knew exactly what to do.

If you want to see more baby reading in action, take a look at our latest video on YouTube. At three minutes it’s a relatively long one, but Eva “dances” during the first minute and “reads” during the second two minutes.

Since I moved in, Matt has occupied four tall bookcases, and one short; I managed to fit into one tall bookcase, plus some treacherous book piles.

No [...]]]> When one becomes the second occupant in a small house, she has to fight for real estate. Bathroom cabinet space? Closet space? No, I’m talking about bookshelf space.

Since I moved in, Matt has occupied four tall bookcases, and one short; I managed to fit into one tall bookcase, plus some treacherous book piles.

No more – while preparing for baby, it became urgent that the book piles disappear, along with our guest bed and an extra dresser (we’re donating the latter two items to a local organization called Homestretch).

Last week, I became the proud occupant of two new bookcases in our upstairs hallway – a narrow bookcase outside of the future nursery (below left), and an amazingly tall bookcase outside of our bedroom (below right).

There is nothing more satisfying to my inner geek than moving all of my books around. See how straight the spines are? And how there is empty shelf space for new books?

Not that it will last long – you may note the books on the floor in the photo on the left. We have already purchased a third bookshelf for Matt and his pile of school books which are sitting on the floor of the future nursery. How many bookshelves can we squeeze in before the house collapses?

Up next: two offices become one.

Company of Liars by [...]]]> When the news is to depressing to bear, where does one turn? To the past, naturally. While surveying my LibraryThing account, I noticed I’ve recently toured: the plague years, frontier life, and the Great Depression. For free entertainment that will lift your spirits, head to your local library and pick up:

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland. Run from the plague through post-apocalyptic-like 14th century England. Hard times highlights: sleep outside in the rain, avoid the smell of death, and keep one eye on the living. My full review is here.

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura does not need an introduction, and my first Little House reading as a “grown up” did not disappoint. The writing is simple and detailed; it’s not a coincidence that Ingalls received Newberry Honors for most of her books. Hard times highlights: mill grain with a coffee grinder and twist hay all day to stay alive.

Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles. Chronicles the coming of age of three sisters during the Great Depression, through the worst of the Texas dust storms. Hard times highlights: make dresses out of sugar sacks and rugs out of pantyhose; get buried alive in a dust storm.

All of these books were well written, riveting reads. I recommend you revisit these lovely time periods, and then turn on present-day news reports and laugh at the doomsday anchors.

I signed up to be an early reviewer for the first time last month, requested a few books, and forgot about it. I never [...]]]> A free book arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago courtesy of LibraryThing and Harper Collins Publishers. What does that mean? It means I am a LibraryThing Early Reviewer!

I signed up to be an early reviewer for the first time last month, requested a few books, and forgot about it. I never thought that out of nearly 1,000 requesters for each book that I would “win” a copy—especially on my first try.

And then—before my free-book joy had a chance to fade—LibraryThing notified me that I won a second review copy.

I’m not satisfied that this review truly captures the novel, and I may go back tweak it if I have an epiphany. But I thought I’d better get something posted to my account or my literary good fortunes might come to an end.

So I give you a review of The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry, scheduled for publication in August.

The Lace Reader starts like every good Victorian novel—with a crazy narrator you can’t trust. From there, the beginning starts and stops between Southern California and Salem, Massachusetts. It’s hard to fall into the story for the first few chapters as the author gives too much back story (telling, not showing) and it’s hard to get a grip on protagonist Towner Whitney. The stilted feel returns as the story wraps up.

The plot finds its pace when Towner lands in mid-1990s Salem, complete with fortune telling witches, a homicide detective, a ragged band of Cavlinists, and insane aunts. The broken structure of the book works well, switching between multiple narrators, quotes from “The Lace Reader,” and journal entries.

For most of the of the book, the pages turn themselves in a blend of whodunit and psychological intrigue. Author Brunonia Barry successfully took this linear-minded reader into the world of the insane and brought her back out in one piece. [4 out of 5 stars]

Last time I visited my local library, someone asked me for a recommendation. Today while browsing around Geraldine Brooks* a girl down the aisle from [...]]]> I promise not to start documenting every trip to the public library because… what better way to lose readers? But I had to write a follow-up post, just this once.

Last time I visited my local library, someone asked me for a recommendation. Today while browsing around Geraldine Brooks* a girl down the aisle from me wiggled a book and said, “This is a good one.”

I swear, I have never had random people talk to me in the library before. And now twice! In a row! So what is it? Do I suddenly look friendly and approachable? Am I losing my steely city face (which never really stopped tourists from asking directions) to suburb life? To top off all the weirdness, I find I kind of like these chatty strangers.

I did consider the recommended book, but when I added it to my pile, I noticed the spine was bright pink, and all the other books I picked out today were black. So I put the cheerful book back on the shelf for another day.

* Author note: I have not read anything by Brooks yet, but she is a fascinating interview and dedicated her latest book to hero-librarians. What’s not to like?

I must have looked like I knew what I was doing, a pile of books under one arm and inspecting the “new books” section with the other, [...]]]> I was efficiently making the rounds at my neighborhood public library—off-duty, incognito and librarian glasses long gone (lost, sadly)—when a total stranger asked me for a book recommendation.

I must have looked like I knew what I was doing, a pile of books under one arm and inspecting the “new books” section with the other, because a woman walked up to me and said, “I’m trying to get back into reading. Do you have any recommendations? Nothing too heavy.”

Always smooth under pressure (ha!), I immediately drew a blank. All I could think of were the depressing historical fiction books I read where the main character dies at the end (which is all I ever read, according to Matt), or books about the paranormal. And I was not about to recommend some cheesy vampire book to this lady.

The blank mind became stress, and I think my face turned red. The future of this woman’s reading depended on me! If I failed, she would never return to the public library!

I stumbled though a few authors before landing on Jennifer Cruise. She’s safe, not too fluffy chick lit with engaging dialog and unusual characters. Good for someone who isn’t in the swing of things. I spelled out Crusie’s name, then rushed to check out my pile of books and pay my massive fine.

I have since reviewed my LibraryThing catalog, and feel a little better about drawing a blank. I have not read anything “light” in the last year; even the Young Adult and brain-candy books did not have cheerful plot lines. (Aside from Trixie Belden, which I didn’t finish because the perkiness was too much to bear, but I like having her on my bookshelf.)

I think I should start using the tag “sad ending” and see what kind of statistics I come up with. And, when I see that what I read is 95% depressing, I’ll shoot for some cheerful books so I can hold conversations with normal people.