A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

In My Mailbox (60)

2012-01-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

I did another vlog this week, in which I talk about zombies, sugar lips, not judging books by their covers, and why I might be a little OCD. Oh, and my pug Frank makes an appearance.

Books mentioned:
Scary School by Derek the Ghost, illustrated by Scott M. Fischer
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
Beach Ball by Peter Sis
Earth to Clunk by Pam Smallcomb, illustrated by Joe Berger
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts About Peace by Anna Grossnickle Hines
The Gargoyle on the Roof and Monday's Troll by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Peter Sis
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (audio)
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (audio)
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (audio)
The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Also don't forget to enter my PANDEMONIUM giveaway (ends 1/31)

ARC review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

2012-01-27T22:15:00.000-05:00

When Lena left her life behind in Portland, she left the old Lena behind too. Now that she resides in the wilds, she is no longer the girl we knew from Delirium. She must fight and push to survive and imagine a life without Alex - which for her to cope, she must pretend he never existed.

As she creates a new life for herself in the wilds, something sinister is afoot on the other side of the fence, which results in the need for the resistance to rise up and make themselves known rather than simply acting in passive defiance within the confines of the oppressive government as they have done in the past. Now is the time for action.

In the process of being part of such resistance, Lena finds herself in new dangers that she had not experienced before, and meets new obstacles in the form of a new love interest that attempts to help her forget about Alex. Is it possible to forget the great love of her life? Can she be reborn again? Or will the ghosts of her past continue to haunt her?

I have said it before, but I can't help but continue to say it over and over again: Lauren Oliver's prose is so beautiful in its simplicity it's almost painful. You read her sentences and think: how can something so simple be so enchanting? This woman can write about surviving in the wilds and make it so descriptive, I can almost taste the food Lena is eating:

I sip from this bowl of broth more slowly, savoring its strange, earthy quality: as though it has been stewed with stones.

I mean, it's not like this broth sounds like a five star meal, but as a foodie, I am so intrigued by the idea of this strange, earthy broth that I really do want to see what it tastes like. Yes. That just happened. Lauren Oliver actually made me want to eat survival provisions.

Something else I adored about this book and her other books is the fact that Oliver does not dumb down her stories for her teenage audience. She uses the same literary devices of the great classics taught in schools today, but she clearly makes them more accessible to her readers. The motif of rebirth runs rampant throughout the entire novel and even the most literal of thinkers could pick up on this. As someone who really struggled through abstract and archaic texts in high school, this book is just another example of why teachers and schoolboards today need to realize that you can learn the same literary concepts through contemporary texts, not just classics. Lauren Oliver is a YA author who should be taught with regularity in high schools.

Pandemonium is a very different book from Delirium. Oliver even said this herself. She worried that people would be upset and disappointed. For me it was just the opposite. This book was definitely more tense and filled with anxiety than the previous book, but it was just as well-written and engrossing as the first. The only bad thing about getting to read the book early is now I have to wait that much longer for the third book and oh boy is it going to be a doozy. Despite the fact that I knew how this book was going to end midway through, it was still quite dramatic and chill inducing. I would say more but I don't want to spoil anything by saying too much. Just know that Requiem is going to be one heck of a closer to the series.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium #2
Publication Date: February 28, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 384
Genre: Dystopian
Audience: Young Adult

Check out my current ARC giveaway of Pandemonium

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

2012-01-26T18:53:00.000-05:00

This blog hop is being hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Down the Rabbit Hole.

What I am giving away for my portion of the hop is one of the most coveted ARCs of 2012:

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium #2
Expected Publication: February 28, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Dystopian
Audience: Young Adult

From Goodreads:

I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,

pushing aside thoughts of Alex,

pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,

push,

like Raven taught me to do.

The old life is dead.

But the old Lena is dead too.

I buried her.

I left her beyond a fence,

behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

I have to be honest, this ARC is a tad beat up, but if you're dying to read this before the publication date, I'm sure you won't mind, right? :)

Check out my review of Pandemonium

To enter, read the terms and conditions and use the Rafflecopter widget and don't forget to visit the other blogs in the hop here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Matched by Ally Condie

2012-01-24T20:54:00.000-05:00

Cassia lives in a Society where all life decisions are not yours to make: your job, what you eat, and even who you marry are all carefully constructed for the Greater Good.

When her best friend Xander is chosen as the person she will marry, she is initially thrilled. But when her other friend Ky's face shows up momentarily on the video screen after her Matching ceremony, Officials tell her it was a mistake and that she should plan for a happy life with Xander.

At first she follows the Officials' advice and begins planning for her life with Xander. But slowly and naggingly, Cassia finds herself falling for Ky and questioning all she's ever believed about her Society. Do they really know what's best for her life and the life of its people?

Matched is a vivid and luscious work of dystopian fiction. Ally Condie's writing stands out as some of the most beautiful and captivating I've ever read. Some have criticized that the plot lags in the middle, but I felt like Condie was giving proper time for world building and for the relationship to develop. So many authors thrust the main character onto a love interest, disguise their lustful interactions as love, and rush the characters through a superficial relationship. I found the leisurely pace of the novel perfect for getting to know characters and feeling their love develop.

Fans of the classic dystopian novel The Giver will undoubtedly notice many similarities in the plot and theme of this book, which was really my only annoyance and that was mild. Despite the similarities, Condie's vivid and pleasant writing style gives this book a different tone than Lois Lowry's seminal novel which is stark and dreary. Which is to say, this is the most pleasant dystopian novel I've ever read or listened to. Even though the world is clearly not something one would ever want to live in, I never felt threatened or uncomfortable by the world Condie created. Yes, Cassia's desire to question everything her Society stands for is necessary and only natural. But this novel had a much more quiet power to it than the typical grand, sweeping dystopian plots of today.

So if you're like me and you're a fan of quieter books that focus more on character development than fast-paced plots, you are in for a treat with Matched. I will happily and eagerly read the next book in the series.

Matched by Ally Condie
Published: November 30, 2010 by Dutton
Series: Matched #1
Pages: 366
Genre: Dystopian
Audience: Young Adult

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

2012-01-21T21:04:00.001-05:00

Trailblazing author and illustrator Brian Selznick stunned the literary world upon the publication of his first novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Ping-ponging back and forth between words and pictures, Hugo's story came alive, not just in words, but also in his stunning pencil sketches that narrated the story just as much as the words did, if not more so.

In Wonderstruck, Selznick repeats that same word/picture dynamic but this time with a twist: Selznick tells the story of the two main characters in different ways. Ben's story is told through words and Rose's story through pictures.

Told fifty years apart, Ben and Rose's stories appear to be completely disconnected, their only relation to each other being juxtaposed scenes that are similar in tone and symbolism (e.g., both Ben and Rose experiencing a storm raging outside and also within themselves).

Ben's story is that of a boy who just lost his mother. Now living with his aunt and uncle, he longs to learn more about his family history, namely the father he never knew. When disaster strikes yet again for Ben, rather than allowing himself to wallow in pity, he sets out to learn about the father he never knew.

When we first meet Rose, her story is much more ambiguous since the reader only has pictures to help guide them through the narrative. We immediately surmise that she greatly admires a famous film star and also see that she is trying to run away from something at her house that she does not want to deal with. Saying any more than that would give too much away and affect the reader's enjoyment of the story as their eyes light up in realization as to what is going on.

This book is my current read-aloud with my sixth graders and I'm using my document camera to share Rose's story. It is so fun to see their own eyes light up and hear "Oooooh!" throughout the room as important realizations and revelations hit them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm enjoying sharing it with my class even more.

As kids and adults alike experience this story for themselves, it would be easy to overlook Selznick's writing ability given his mesmerizing illustrations. But not only is Brian Selznick an amazingly gifted artist, we should not ignore his talent as a writer.

What makes Wonderstruck such a work of genius is that both the text and the illustrations add to the emotion of the story. There were certain pictures I viewed that caused me to audibly gasp they were just so breathtaking, but then there was also the perfect pacing of the text that brought the story to a flawless emotional climax.

My one criticism of the book would be that there were too many instances where things were just a little too neatly woven together and foreshadowing was a little too obvious, but given the unusual nature of the way the story is being told, being obvious and overly neat is necessary to guide the reader through the story without an excessive amount of confusion. One must remember that this is a book written for kids after all.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Published: September 13, 2011 by Scholastic
Pages: 640
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Middle Grade

In My Mailbox (59)

2012-01-21T17:55:00.004-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren designed to showcase all the books you got during the week, be it in the mail, from the bookstore, or at the library.

Y'all, I have been so busy with work lately that I have been neglecting my blog. I've barely posted in since the New Year and I am so far behind on my reviews it's not even funny.

My only books this week were multiple copies of this gem:

I loved this book so much that halfway through it, I went on Amazon and ordered 5 more copies to give to friends and family. This is by far the best book I've ever read.

Most people who've reviewed this book were of the same opinion as me: it was a brilliant work of fiction. But I've read some reviews where people have said that John Green intellectualizes in his books too much and that teens really don't act the way he writes them to be, but I can think of far more Classics taught in classrooms across America that teens would relate to less than this literary masterpiece. John Green is an intellectual guy and the fact that he doesn't pander to pop culture trends and wrote a book full of heart and soul makes me love him even more. If you haven't read this book yet, all I have to say is, what are you waiting for?

Audiobook Review: This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

2012-01-16T13:06:00.002-05:00

Living at Chateau Frankenstein in Geneva, Switzerland, Victor and his twin brother Konrad never want for anything. They have doting yet pragmatic parents, a cousin Elizabeth whom they love like a sister, and servants who are treated as part of the family.

Victor, Konrad, Elizabeth, and their best friend Henry love to explore the secret nooks and labyrinthine passageways of the chateau and think they have seen all there is to see... until one day they stumble upon a hidden library full of books containing dark potions and untranslated alchemical formulas. When their father discovers that the boys and Elizabeth explored the Dark Library, he expressly forbids them never to enter the room again, declaring that he has kept the room secret for a reason.

However, when Konrad falls ill with a mysterious malady that cannot be cured with conventional medicine, Victor, in desperation, turns to the Dark Library to find a recipe for The Elixir of Life. As if caught in a contagion of his own, Victor's desperation ends up unleashing some very dark forces, not just through his attempts at alchemy, but also within himself.

The tag line of This Dark Endeavor is: The purest intentions can stir up the darkest obsessions. I can't think of a better way to describe this book. The entire exposition as we get to know Victor and his family is almost idyllic in its delivery. Their happiness as a family and contentment in their household is strikingly juxtaposed with Victor's obsession at curing what appears to be his brother's terminal illness. Victor begins the novel as quite a likeable character. He and his brother banter back and forth with mirth and deference. Their relationship with Elizabeth appears to be one of mutual respect and felicity. Their parents are so agreeable that they treat their servants with respect and provide for them fair wages and benefits.

Which is why Victor's change of character becomes so jarring. What begins as a loving desire to help his brother, quickly turns into something macabre and nefarious. The reader just wants to take Victor by the shoulders and shake him out of his perverse obsession. This would be a fantastic novel to use when discussing the concept of the tragic hero because, while Victor's narrative is not tragic in death, he certainly comes to an obvious and tragic downfall.

My foremost reason for wanting to read this book was merely due to my admiration of Oppel's previous books. Half Brother, which was published in 2010, is one of my favorite books of all time and Silverwing, which I initially did not want to read, became one of the few animal fantasies that I can actually stomach. But had it not been for the name on the front cover, I probably would have passed this book by. As someone who has never read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, I really had no interest in reading a prequel to the famous tome. But Kenneth Oppel's writing style has always sucked me in and I had a feeling that despite my trepidation at the subject-matter, I would not be disappointed with the writing, and sure enough I was not.

Kenneth Oppel's writing is so vivid in its delivery it is almost cinematic. I am holding out hope that one day movie producers will see the potential in his books and make them into movies. This Dark Endeavor probably has the likeliest chance of becoming a movie due to the popularity of the subject matter and the fact that producers seem to like making period movies.

The audience for this book is marketed as young adult, but I would say it has a foot planted in both YA and middle grade (just like his Airborn series). It would be especially enticing for middle grade kids who like dark fantasy a la Neil Gaiman or even J.K. Rowling in the later years of Harry Potter. In my opinion, this book is tagged as YA for the simple fact that the major characters are teenagers, but there is nothing wildly inappropriate in this book, only a few strange/uncomfortable kissing scenes.

Audibook notes: Luke Daniels is the narrator of the audiobook and he was the perfect choice for the role of Victor. His voice is youthful enough to pass as a teenage Frankenstein, yet gritty enough to enhance the treachery and depravity of the narrative. I judge an audiobook's success on how much I look forward to my long work commute everyday and this was one of those audiobooks that helped me forget I spend two hours a day in the car.

Check out my interview with Kenneth back in 2010

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel
Published: August 23, 2011
Series: The Dark Endeavor Chronicles #1
Print Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Audiobook Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Audiobook Narrator: Luke Daniels
Pages: 304
Audiobook Length: 8 hours, 7 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult (bordering on middle grade)

A Letter to John Green Re: The Fault in Our Stars

2012-01-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

Dear John Green:

This is not a book review. This is a letter to thank you for writing one of the most brilliant books to ever grace the literary world.

I spent the entire day reading The Fault in Our Stars yesterday. I never do that. I don't have time anymore. I read upwards of 100 books a year, but it is done so in little pockets of time: listening to audiobooks while I cook dinner, reading as a passenger in the car while my husband drives us to Home Depot, finding a miniscule moment of time in my hectic day as a teacher to sit down at my desk and read a few pages while my students are taking a test.

So when I started to read the first pages of Hazel and Augustus's story on Friday evening, I wanted to stay up all night: I was that sucked into their world. But alas, my body does not allow me to stay up all night anymore, so upon awakening Saturday morning, I continued with their story. I did not move from my chair until I finished.

I don't even know how to express my feelings in words. Hazel and Augustus were real people to me. They were two of the most wonderful teenagers ever to have graced this planet, even if only in the pages of a book. So as their tragic story unfolded, I grieved for them, as I'm sure you did as you wrote their story. As I sat there reading, a pile of sodden tissues in my lap, my thoughts ping-ponged between sadness and joy. Conversations that were supposed to be tragic ended up making me laugh out loud at their light-hardheartedness and humor. Scenes that would have been cliche and caused me to roll my eyes in any other book made me weep at their tenderness and romanticism.

I planned to write a review for this book. I marked pages. I wrote notes. But the closer to end I crept, the more I realized that this book can't be reviewed. It can't be intellectualized. It must merely be felt. Don't get me wrong, there are so many great moments worthy of discussion in any book club or literature class, but to sit here, only 24 hours after turning the final page? All I can do is marvel.

In my 32 years on this earth, I have yet to declare one favorite book. When people ask, my students especially, what my favorite book is, I always tell them, "I have lots of favorites. I can't choose just one." Today and from here on out, whenever anyone asks me what my favorite book is, I can tell them, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is The Fault in Our Stars. So thank you John Green. Thank you for Hazel and Augustus and Isaac and for all of the other amazing characters to grace this brilliant story. When I turned the last page yesterday, I grieved. Not just for the characters and for the end of the book, but also for the fact that I don't know if any book I read from here on out will ever live up to this one. You have made my reading life from this day forward a much more challenging endeavor. So thank you for that.

Skype Visit with Audrey Vernick

2012-01-10T19:43:00.002-05:00

Today was another exciting day for the sixth graders at my school. Yesterday we had lots of pie, and today we Skyped with the mega-talented author, Audrey Vernick, who wrote my very favorite picture books: Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums.

Audrey was so amiable with the kids and has such a beautiful spirit about her. She answered a lot of great questions that the kids came up with - even I was impressed with some of the questions they asked. Given how engaging she was, I can definitely tell she has done school visits before, though I believe this was her first Skype visit. So thanks Audrey, the kids and I are so grateful for you spending time with us today!

Check out my interview with Audrey back in August
Check out Audrey's other books:
Bark and Tim: A True Story of Friendship
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story
Water Balloon

Coming in Feburary:
So You Want to Be a Rock Star
Coming in April:
Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team

Pie Day is January 9th (in my classroom anyway), not to be confused with Pi Day on March 14th

2012-01-09T22:56:00.001-05:00

Before Christmas, my 6th grade class and I finished reading the book Pie by Sarah Weeks as our read aloud. Not one to pass up an opportunity to celebrate the end of a food-related book with food, I told them that if they made a pie from the book that they could earn some extra credit.

Little did I know how popular of an extra credit project this would be. Thinking that maybe ten kids out of my sixty sixth graders would bring in a pie, I vastly underestimated the power of food as extra credit. We had over half the sixth grade class bring in a pie today. Needless to say there were lots of leftover pies in the teacher's lounge at lunch and the wonderful person who runs the cafeteria was just a tad annoyed with me and all the sixth graders who came down and asked to use her walk-in refrigerator. Oh well. It was a fun project for one day - that I may never do again - or at least amend next year so that I don't have so many leftover pies to deal with.

I thought this one was so pretty it deserved its own picture

In My Mailbox (58)

2012-01-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren designed to showcase all the books you got during the week, be it in the mail, from the bookstore, or at the library.

I decided to do another vlog this week. I don't know how long I'll keep at this vlog thing, but it's fun for the time being.

One thing I forgot to mention in the video was that I did not show all the picture books I got this week. I picked up so many picture books at the library this week that I would probably have to make a 20-minute video to show you all of them. So I just showed you my favorite ones.

Books mentioned:
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
Dogs Don't Do Ballet by Anna Kemp, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie
The Boy Who Wanted to Cook by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Steve Adams
Never Take a Shark to the Dentist by Judi Barrett, illustrated by John Nickle
You Will Be My Friend by Peter Brown
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp
(If you're like me and have never heard of Marcel the Shell, check out this adorable YouTube video)

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

2012-01-07T15:31:00.002-05:00

At the end of 2010 I listened to the audiobook of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. It is the story of her experience upending her entire life, moving to Paris, and attending the world's most famous culinary school: Le Cordon Bleu. I was so enamored with Flinn's story, not just because I admire anyone who can take a huge risk like that, but Flinn's voice and style of writing were so engaging and her words were so perfectly placed that she managed to make my mouth water in each and every chapter.

So when I was approached by someone at Viking about reviewing Flinn's new book, I jumped at the chance. Given my enchanting experience with her first book, I knew I would not be disappointed with her latest food memoir, and I was not wrong.

After returning to the U.S. from her experience in Paris, Kathleen Flinn found herself unsure of what she wanted to do with her culinary education. Then one day as she was cruising the grocery store, she came across a haggard mom perusing the aisles with her cart full of ultra-processed food. Not one to generally stalk people in the grocery store, something compelled Flinn to approach this particular woman and walk her through the store, replacing her processed food with real food.

Inspired by this chance encounter at the grocery store, Flinn came up with the idea to find a group of people who felt cooking was out of their realm of abilities and start teaching a cooking class. It didn't take long for her to find nine willing participants and The Kitchen Counter Cooking School was born.

Part memoir, part testament to the ease and importance of cooking real food for yourself and your family, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School was one of the most engaging nonfiction works I read in 2011.

Seeing as how I love food so much and have learned a great deal about the subject on my own, I now judge the success of any food book based on two criteria: 1) Did it make me hungry? 2) Did I learn anything new?

I can say this book succeeded on both counts. I have become extremely discriminating in recent years when it comes to cookbooks because I am someone who doesn't follow recipes to the letter. I often find myself looking in the fridge and coming up with ways to use the ingredients I have rather than being slave to a recipe. So cookbooks, in a way, have lost their luster for me. Which is why it is always the mark of a successful cookbook or food tome when I can genuinely say that I learned something new from the author. As you can see by the number of post-it flags strewn throughout the book, I think it's safe to say I learned a great deal.

Since I would consider myself a fairly successful home cook, one might assume that this book would be over the heads of people wanting to make a change and learn to cook for themselves. I'm here to tell you that it's not. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School will inspire neophytes and aficianados alike. How likely will someone who doesn't like to cook pick up this book? Not very. Nonetheless, if someone who doesn't like to cook or doesn't cook well manages to find this book thrust into their hands, I think they will be inspired to pick up a chef's knife and start chopping.

Which I think is what makes this book so successful - Flinn writes in such a way that will make you feel inspired. Whether it's to get up off the couch and start making a delicious no-knead bread, or to take a look inside your own cupboards and start purging anything that was made in a factory, I can't imagine this book not compelling anyone to act and move in a positive direction toward a healthier eating mindset.

Even though I have largely rid my house of processed foods for many years now, Flinn inspired me to go back to making my own salad dressings. This is something I used to do all the time and for whatever reason, I stopped doing it because I thought that buying my salad dressings at Whole Foods somehow made them healthier than buying them at the regular grocery store. After reading

My impromptu vinaigrette

this book, I realized that no, the healthier option will always be to make them yourself. So that's what I did, I got up off the couch and made a batch of balsamic vinaigrette with honey, whole grain mustard and hazelnut oil. The mustard helped emulsify the oil and vinegar so it has stayed together in the fridge without separating. I keep it in a mason jar and use it as I need it rather than making a new vinaigrette every time I make a salad. Do I still use the

Bottle your own dressing!

bottled dressing every once in a while? Sure, but this book reminded me to have confidence in my own ability and make what I can, especially if it doesn't take much time.

In addition to inspiration, Flinn also gives readers some background about processed food, how they became popular, and why they are so bad for you.

For example, I was rapt to discover that the reason we have so much processed food in the first place is because after World War II, food manufacturers needed to figure out how to sell and market their products so as not to lose out on all the technology and discoveries they made from creating army rations. Food manufacturers had to find a way to convince women in the kitchen that cooking was beneath them, that they didn't need to spend time slaving away in the kitchen. Their products could do it for them. Basically, they marketed laziness.

A perfect example of this is the boxed cake mix. Food science has come far enough to create a mix where you only need to add water. But not only do they taste inferior, food companies discovered that by allowing people to add their own eggs, oil, water, etc, it made them feel more involved in the baking process - like they were making the cake from scratch. But making a cake from scratch does not take that much longer than making one from a box, and when you make your own, you have the benefit of only using seven ingredients as opposed to twenty-five ingredients, most of them unpronounceable. I mean, have you ever actually stopped to look at the ingredients on the back of a box of cake mix? It might compel you to make a cake from scratch next time.

I could go on and on about the things I learned from this book but I don't want to make this review so long that people won't read it. So I'll just leave you with one last thought: if you often find yourself feeling that cooking is just too much work (and believe me, there are days that even I feel this way and cereal for dinner is the only thing I feel like "making"), Flinn will change your mind. Her writing is so engaging and her methods are so simple that even the most reluctant newcomer to the kitchen will find themselves wanting to try some of the recipes in this book. But this book goes beyond just recipes. Flinn teaches you techniques and methods that will help you to feel confident in your own abilities to put dinner on the table without the need for a recipe. She gives you flavor profiles to work with so that you can create meals at the drop of a hat. More importantly though, she will make you remember why cooking is so important because, in general, the more you cook real food, the healthier you are and the less you weigh, and in a nation that put obesity on the map, it's time we stop being slaves to food manufacturers and start buying real food.

Here is an example from the book of a recipe that many people think is too difficult (even I thought this), but actually can be put together in mere minutes. I wouldn't recommend making this dish frequently given how rich and full of fat it is, but it's certainly a luscious treat to make every now and again.

Basic Alfredo Sauce
Serves 3-4

8 ounces cooked pasta
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup reserved pasta water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 garlic clove, minced
Freshly ground black pepper

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Reserve one cup pasta water to use in the sauce. Over medium-high heat, add all but 2 tablespoons of heavy cream to a saute pan. When it bubbles, add the salt. Small bubbles will erupt into larger bubbles. Stir. When the sauce thickens enough to cover the back of a spoon, or leaves a clean line in the bottom of the pan when you pull a spatula across it, add the pasta water. Cook over medium-high heat about three minutes, until it bubbles again and the sauce thickens. add reserved 2 tablespoons of cream, heat through and then add the cheese, garlic, and a few cranks of pepper. Add pasta and any additional ingredients and stir well to coat. Enjoy!

I added a bit of fresh parsley for color, and forgot to reserve the 2 tablespoons of cream for later, but the dish still came out delicious and took almost no time to make. In fact, it took longer to cook the pasta than the sauce.

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn
Published: September 29, 2011 by Viking
Pages: 283
Genre: Nonfiction/Food memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Book received for review

2012 Debut Author Challenge

2012-01-01T21:34:00.001-05:00

2011 was the first year I participated in The Story Siren's Debut Author Challenge. I vowed to read at least twelve debut authors, and I ended up with thirteen. Not as good of a showing as I was hoping, but hopefully I can double that in 2012.

These are the debut authors I read and reviewed in 2011:
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver (not first book, but first middle grade)
Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
Die for Me by Amy Plum
Moonglass by Jessi Kirby
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky
Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
Wither by Lauren Destefano
Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison
Across the Universe by Beth Revis

This is the list of 2012 debuts I hope to read this year. It's only fourteen so far, but I know it will grow.
Tempest by Julie Cross
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
Slide by Jill Hathaway
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne
Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
May B by Caroline Starr Rose
Welcome Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell
Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse by Lucas Klauss
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould

Novels Read in 2011

2012-01-01T00:45:00.000-05:00

I actually read almost 350 books in 2011, but I only count novels as part of my goal-fulfillment (at least 100 books) which I made my goal this year. YAY!

107. Pie by Sarah Weeks
106. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
105. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi*
104. Zebrafish by Peter H. Reynolds
103. A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace
102. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen*
101. Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan*
100. The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky
99. Divergent by Veronica Roth*
98. Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister*
97. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock*
96. Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
95. Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
94. The Future of Us by Jay Asher of Carolyn Mackler
93. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
92. Hound Dog True by Linda Urban
91. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
90. Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson*
89. Nim's Island by Wendy Orr*
88. Fever by Lauren DeStefano
87. Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
86. Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver
85. Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
84. The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson*
83. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
82. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu*
81. Dreamland by Alyson Noel*
80. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern*
79. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
78. All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin*
77. Bake Sale by Sara Varon
76. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray*
75. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness*
74. Dear Bully by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
73. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
72. The Fast and the Furriest by Andy Behrens*
71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale*
70. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver*
69. Trash by Andy Mulligan*
68. Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr*
67. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
66. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen*
65. After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson*
64. The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
63. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt*
62. The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski
61. Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
60. Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
59. Die for Me by Amy Plum*
58. Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
57. Absurdistan by Shteyngart*
56. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
55. Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
54. Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon
53. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater*
52. Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
51. Moonglass by Jessi Kirby
50. Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern
49. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin*
48. Ready or Not by Meg Cabot*
47. The Revision Toolbox by Georgia Heard
46. Strings Attached by Judy Blundell
45. Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes*
44. Bloomability by Sharon Creech*
43. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
42. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones*
41. Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
40. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson*
39. You Had Me at Woof by Julie Klam*
38. Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell*
37. Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson
36. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
35. All-American Girl by Meg Cabot*
34. Shimmer by Alyson Noel
33. Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop by Jeff Anderson
32. Missing May by Cynthia Rylant*
31. Bumped by Megan McCafferty
30. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly*
29. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
28. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg
27. Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
26. Decoded by Jay-Z
25. Pug Hill by Alison Pace
24. Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
23. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater*
22. Shine by Lauren Myracle
21. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood*
20. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
19. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson*
18. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray*
17. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
16. Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going*
15. Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos*
14. Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin*
13. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell*
12. This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson
11. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex*
10. The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander
9. Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
8. A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach by Jacqueline Wolf
7. Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison
6. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin*
5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury*
4. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
3. The Crepe Makers' Bond by Julie Crabtree
2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
1. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel*

*indicates audibook

In My Mailbox (57)

2012-01-01T00:39:00.000-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. The books you share do not have to be ones you actually received in the mail. They can be ones you bought at the book store, checked out at the library, or downloaded to your e-reader.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here is my final In My Mailbox for 2011

Books mentioned:

Bought:
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Wonderstruck by Brain Selznick
Bake Sale by Sara Varon

From the Library:
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel (audiobook)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (audiobook)
No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman (audiobook)
Chicken and Cat and Chicken and Cat Clean Up by Sara Varon
Penguins by Liz Pichon
Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown
Half spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide by Icy Smith

Oh, and don't forget to check out the two giveaways I have going on right now:
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

2011: A Retrospective

2011-12-31T23:53:00.001-05:00

2011 has been a rewarding year, personally and professionally. I can't wait to see what 2012 holds for me.

In June I said goodbye to my best year of teaching yet and it was all thanks to the passion of Donalyn Miller. After reading The Book Whisperer, I completely changed the way to structure my literature classroom. I grew leaps and bounds in my teaching, and my students showed so much passion and progress in their reading.

Then, in November, thanks to the suggestion of my Uncle Tom, I attended NCTE and actually got to meet Donalyn in person. This conference was one of the most rewarding experiences of my teaching career thus far. Not only did I learn so much, but I got to meet so many amazing teachers, mentors, and authors.

Speaking of authors this year I went to my first author signing - Maggie Stiefvater in July - and then I went to a few more after I realized that there was an amazing independent bookstore near me in Ann Arbor. I met Carrie Harris, author of Bad Taste in Boys and Laini Taylor, author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

In Cesky Krumlov

Also during the summer my husband was able to return to Germany for a month-long business trip and since this trip happened during the summer, I was able to accompany him for a week. It was so good to be able to go back and travel around Europe. When we lived in Germany we traveled somewhere new at least once a month, so that's where the "wanderlust" part of my blog came from. During the trip we visited Salzburg and Hallstatt in Austria, Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, and our old home town of Schweinfurt in Germany. I also had the pleasure of meeting Lenore Appelhans and her husband Daniel Jennewein in Frankfurt the night before I flew home. I continue to marvel at both Daniel and Lenore's generosity and talent. I am waiting with bated breath for Lenore's novel Level Two to come out in 2012!

With Daniel and Lenore my last night in Germany

And continuing with Daniel and Lenore's generosity, Daniel was nice enough to be my guinea pig to be my very first classroom Skype visit in December. Despite a rocky start when my Smartboard speakers wouldn't work, the rest of the visit went beautifully. And he was even nice enough to draw pictures for my students and then mail them to us. I have one more Skype visit already scheduled with author Audrey Vernick in January, but I hope to have more scheduled before the end of the school year. This is such a new and exciting way to learn about and through authors.

Oh, and unrelated to books and teaching, over the summer I bought my husband tickets to the U of M/Ohio State football game for his birthday. Seeing that my husband and I are both big U of M fans, we were elated to be in attendance when they finally beat OSU for the first time in seven years. The joy in the stadium was palpable. We are looking forward to more great things from the Brady Hoke era at U of M.

Go Blue!

Then, a little over a week ago, my husband decided to drop a bomb on me that he'd been doing some "research" and that he wanted to finally fulfill his dream of owning a Mustang. Since we could afford the payment, I decided to be the good wife and tell him to go for it. It certainly looks pretty sitting in our driveway.

So maybe 2012 will be the year to fulfill my dream of one day owning a Bösendorfer:

Me playing a Bösendorfer in Vienna, October 2003

(Considering this piano costs DOUBLE what my husband's car costs, I have a feeling that is a dream that will remain unfulfilled).

What are your dreams for 2012? I hope you all had a wonderful 2011 and wish you a happy, healthy 2012!

Favorite Books of 2011

2011-12-31T11:22:00.000-05:00

I read so many great books this year that I couldn't narrow it down to ten. So here are my favorites divided into categories.

Favorite Young Adult Fiction:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
This book seems to be on everyone's favorites list for the year. The characters were intriguing, the story unique, but honestly, my favorite part of this book was the setting. Prague is a beautiful and creepy city, the perfect place to write a beautiful and creepy novel.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Beauty Queens is a hilarious romp with marooned beauty pageant contestants who just survived a plane crash. The hilarity in this book is almost palpable, yet Bray manages to give this novel substance as well as humor. The audiobook is narrated by Bray herself and not only is she the most successful author/audiobook narrator I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, she also one of the best audiobook narrators period.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
While everyone raves over the dystopian tour-de-force that is Divergent, I preferred Delirium ten times over. Lauren Oliver's prose is magical, her story-telling masterful. If I could have the talent of any writer, I would wish for Oliver's. The way she weaves words, sentences, and stories together is like nothing I've ever experienced before.

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
I have said this many times before, but it bears repeating: I hate zombies. They totally creep me out and I don't like being creeped out (despite the fact that I like the creepy setting in Daughter of Smoke and Bone). But Carrie Harris managed to write a non-creepy zombie novel with Bad Taste in Boys. In fact, it was funny, sassy, and campy. Words I never expected to use when describing zombies. If Libba Bray were to write a zombie novel, I imagine it would be similar to this one. Having met Carrie at her book launch party this summer, and still correspond with her, I can tell you that her personality comes right through in this book. She is so much fun to be around.

Shine by Lauren Myracle
No only does Myracle write a compelling mystery in Shine, but she uses it as a springboard to start a conversation about hate crimes and the bigotry that still runs rampant in small town America. I still vividly remember one of the final scenes in this book. It's a story that will haunt you even after you finish it.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
*Sigh* Oh how I love Mia and Adam. And the fact that I can even remember their names this many months later tells you how much this book should be on my favorites list. I'm one of those readers who forgets almost everything about a story after I read it. But Mia and Adam? Probably one of the most perfect couples to ever grace the literary world. If I Stay is one of my favorite books of all time and so when Where She Went came out, I was so excited to get the chance to spend some time with Mia and Adam again. I know Forman has said that she's done telling their story, but I so wish that we could have one more romp with them.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
So I know that Revolution was published in 2010, but I had to include this book on my 2011 favorites list because it was by far my favorite book I read (listened to) this year. The story was so unique and the musical aspect of the main character's story was just so compelling that it was like nothing I'd ever read before. I loved this book so much that I was CONVINCED that the classical composer that Donnelly created was real and went to look up some of his music at the library only to discover that he didn't exist. I was so invested in his being real that it was like the wind was knocked out of me when I discovered he was a creation of the author.

Favorite Middle Grade Fiction

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
This book has a quiet power to it. The story is a modern retelling of The Snow Queen, and Anne Ursu writes in such a way that the magical elements weave seamlessly into reality.

Pie by Sarah Weeks
Even though I gave this book three stars on Goodreads and I still remain dubious about certain aspects of the story, this was still one of the most enjoyable books I read this year. Reading it with a group of kids who beg you everyday, "Can we please read more of Pie today?" probably didn't hurt adding this to my favorites list either.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
In this second book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, Maryrose Wood shows how well-suited she is at writing middle grade fiction - and humorous middle grade fiction at that. I can't tell you how many times these books have made me laugh out loud. Though Katherine Kellgrine's audiobook narration certainly helps add to the hilarity of the story.

Favorite Graphic Novel

Bake Sale by Sara Varon
Given the title of my blog, it's no secret that I love books that revolve around food. So when you get a talented artist like Sara Varon and a book that revolves around food as characters? Sound like a book Beth will love. And it was!

Favorite Nonfiction

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
I haven't reviewed this book yet as I only finished it a few days ago, but when you read my thoughts, they will be glowing. Whatever Kathleen Flinn writes, I will read. Not only is she a gifted story-teller, but she also writes about food in such a way that always made me want to put the book down, go in the kitchen and whip up something delicious. She makes cooking feel accessible rather than insurmountable, which is exactly the point of this book.

Favorite Picture Books

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
All I can say is, I hope this is not the last of the Buffalo books. The sheer hilarity of turning a buffalo into a lovable, cuddly picture-book character is not lost on me. Add Audrey Vernick's unique voice along with Daniel Jennewein's endearing illustrations and you have a recipe for lots of laughter.

Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly, illustrated by Stephen Michael King
What's a girl to do when she so desperately wants a pet, but her parents won't let her have one? Get creative. Which is exactly what Prudence does. I love the idea of this story, I love the humor, and I love the way the ending resonates even more.

Charlie the Ranch Dog by Ree Drummond, illustrated by Diane deGroat
I absolutely adore Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond: her blog, her show, and now her picture book Charlie the Ranch Dog. I think what makes me love this book so much is that I am familiar with Charlie from her show and her blog, and this really is Charlie's story. Given that I can't pass up a good dog book, and that the story so perfectly captures Charlie, it's no wonder why this was one of my favorite books of the year.

Rah, Rah Radishes! A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre
Colorful, mouth-watering photographs and a fun, chant about vegetables is bound to get kids excited and curious about eating what's good for them. Couple reading this book with a cooking lesson or two, and maybe we can start changing the paradigm of how kids eat in this country. When you involve kids in knowing and learning about food, they're more likely to make better choices.

Magic Trash by J.H. Shapiro, illustrated by Vanessa Newton
Magic Trash is the story of Tyree Guyton, the man behind The Heidelberg Project in Detroit. As someone who has heard of The Heidelberg Project but never actually gone to see it, this book made me want to drive to Detroit to take a gander. Since I live in metro-Detroit, it's really something I have no excuse for not going to see. What I love about the book is how it explains the inspiration for the project in the first place, which was to detract the riff raff from hanging out in the neighborhood. I mean, what crack dealer is going to want to enter an abandoned house decorated with giant polka-dots?

So those were my favorite books of the year, what were yours?

Pie by Sarah Weeks

2011-12-29T08:15:00.000-05:00

Alice Anderson adores her Aunt Polly. They spend every afternoon together at Polly's pie shop, appropriately named PIE. But when Aunt Polly suddenly passes away, everyone wants to know where or who she left her pie crust recipe to. It's not long after the funeral that the whole town finds out that Polly left her pie crust recipe... to her CAT!

With everyone in town going pie-crazy, Alice soon finds herself trying to solve a mystery of who trashed her Aunt Polly's old pie shop, and who stole the cat that was left to her in Aunt Polly's will.

Pie is a quick, fun read that gets your mouth watering from the first chapter with its tantalizing descriptions of all the pies Aunt Polly made in her shop. To help the reader feed his or her sweet tooth, Sarah Weeks includes a different pie recipe at the beginning of every chapter that are integral to the story.

In fact, while I was still reading the book, upon the recommendation of Allison at Reading Everywhere, I made the quick and simple buttermilk pie that was so easy to make, it's almost unbelievable that the pie is actually low-cal!

I read Pie aloud to my sixth graders and upon return to school in January we'll be having a pie day where kids can bring in a pie that they made from the novel. When I read it to my class, they would always beg me to keep reading after I stopped, always a sign of a successful read-aloud.

However, most of us were of the same opinion that the ending was a disappointment. For me, however, the way the story ended was not nearly as disappointing as the fact that there was a loose end in the story that was never addressed, which really bothered me because I felt like it was a part of the overall mystery that needed to be solved. Even though it wasn't, I felt like it was something that needed to be addressed. I don't mean to be so vague about it, but I don't want to reveal any spoilers. If you've read the book and want to ask me what I mean, feel free to email me or message me on Goodreads.

Even though the ending was a disappointment, the rest of the story was fun and heartwarming and was even more fun to read with a group of kids. It was interesting to hear all their theories on "whodunit" and it gave the class a chance to work together in coming up with their predictions. Not to mention, the recipes included at the beginning of each chapter are easily attainable, so long as you use a pre-made pie crust (which makes sense that the book wouldn't include how to make pie crust since the whole book is about finding Aunt Polly's famous pie crust recipe).

Final verdict: Delicious descriptions but a tad lacking in the characterization and tying-up loose ends department. Still a worthwhile read despite a few frustrations.

Here is an example of one of the easy, delicious pies included in the novel:

Buttermilk Pie
9-inch pie tin lined with unbaked pie crust
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 & 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Cover unbaked pie shell with parchment paper or a coffee filter. Press down to fit and toss in a handful of dried beans. Place weighted shell in preheated oven and bake for ten minutes. Remove from oven and discard beans and parchment. Set pie crust aside.

Raise oven temp to 375. Beat eggs and sugar until light and lemony colored. Add flour and beat until well mixed. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter. Pour into baked pie crust and dust with nutmeg. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool before serving.

Pie by Sarah Weeks
Published: October 1, 2011 by Scholastic
Pages: 183
Genre: Mystery
Audience: Middle Grade

Giveaway: Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran

2011-12-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

Crown Publishing Group is offering my blog readers the opportunity to win a copy of the new paperback of Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran. The paperback has lots of new content that includes: historical notes, author Q&A, a reading guide for book groups, and and excerpt from Michelle's new novel, The Second Empress.

Goodreads Summary:
The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire . . . but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life as only Michelle Moran can tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin.

Smart and ambitious, Marie Tussaud has learned the secrets of wax sculpting by working alongside her uncle in their celebrated wax museum, the Salon de Cire. From her popular model of the American ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, to her tableau of the royal family at dinner, Marie’s museum provides Parisians with the very latest news on fashion, gossip, and even politics. Her customers hail from every walk of life, yet her greatest dream is to attract the attention of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI; their stamp of approval on her work could catapult her and her museum to the fame and riches she desires. After months of anticipation, Marie learns that the royal family is willing to come and see their likenesses. When they finally arrive, the king’s sister is so impressed that she requests Marie’s presence at Versailles as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. It is a request Marie knows she cannot refuse—even if it means time awayfrom her beloved Salon and her increasingly dear friend, Henri Charles.

As Marie gets to know her pupil, Princesse Élisabeth, she also becomes acquainted with the king and queen, who introduce her to the glamorous life at court. From lavish parties with more delicacies than she’s ever seen to rooms filled with candles lit only once before being discarded, Marie steps into a world entirely different from her home on the Boulevard du Temple, where people are selling their teeth in order to put food on the table.

Meanwhile, many resent the vast separation between rich and poor. In salons and cafés across Paris, people like Camille Desmoulins, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre are lashing out against the monarchy. Soon, there’s whispered talk of revolution. . . . Will Marie be able to hold on to both the love of her life and her friendship with the royal family as France approaches civil war? And more important, will she be able to fulfill the demands of powerful revolutionaries who ask that she make the death masks of beheaded aristocrats, some of whom she knows?

Spanning five years, from the budding revolution to the Reign of Terror, Madame Tussaud brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax modeling saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom.

Original publication date: February 15, 2011
Paperback publication: December 27, 2011
Pages: 480
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Adult

All you have to do is complete one or more of the following tasks on Rafflecopter and you're entered to win.

Attention: For those of you who don't know, Rafflecopter has recently changed its entering procedure. You're required to sign in via Facebook, or your name and email BEFORE you start adding entries. I will not add entries for you via comments if you do not follow the Rafflecopter instructions.

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Giveaway: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

2011-12-27T00:02:00.000-05:00

Viking is offering one lucky reader of my blog a copy of the new paperback of Deborah Harkness's wildly popular A Discovery of Witches.

Goodreads Summary:

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Original publication date: February 8, 2011
Paperback publication date: December 27, 2011
Pages: 579
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Adult

All you have to do is complete one or more of the following tasks on Rafflecopter and you're entered to win.

Attention: For those of you who don't know, Rafflecopter has recently changed its entering procedure. You're required to sign in via Facebook, or your name and email BEFORE you start adding entries. I will not add entries for you via comments if you do not follow the Rafflecopter instructions.

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Best of 2011 blog hop

2011-12-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Inspired Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not a Writer is hosting this blog hop.

My Best of 2011 giveaway is an ARC of the recently released Legend by Marie Lu

Published: November 29, 2011 by Putnam
Pages: 305
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult

Goodreads summary:

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

All you have to do is complete one or more of the following tasks on Rafflecopter and you're entered to win.

US entries only please!
You must be at least 13 to enter.

Attention: For those of you who don't know, Rafflecopter has recently changed its entering procedure. You're required to sign in via Facebook, or your name and email BEFORE you start adding entries. I will not add entries for you via comments if you do not follow the Rafflecopter instructions.

Don't forget to check out all the other blogs in the hop here
And also check out my other two giveaways going on right now:
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My Mailbox (56)

2011-12-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. The books you share do not have to be ones you actually received in the mail. They can be ones you bought at the book store, checked out at the library, or downloaded to your e-reader. The idea is just to share what's on your TBR pile for the upcoming week.

I guess there's no better day to do your very first IMM vlog than on Christmas day, right? I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

Books mentioned:

Gift:
Letters to a Young Pug by Wilson the Pug and Nancy Levine

For Review:
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Bought with Scholastic bonus points:
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
The Rivalry: Mystery at the Army/Navy Game by John Feinstein
Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony
Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble

From the library:
A Bad Kitty Christmas by Nick Bruel
Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes
All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee
Wag! and Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell
Yes Day! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Litchtenheld
Along a Long Road by Frank Viva
How to Talk to an Autistic Kid by Daniel Stefanski
The Cat's Pajamas by Wallace Edwards
A Pet for Petunia and Hugs from Pearl by Paul Schmid
World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Frank Stockton

Did you get any good books under your tree or in your mailbox?

Glühwein: Bringing a little bit of Germany to my Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

When my husband and I were living in Germany, one of the things we loved to do around the holidays was visit all of the different Christmas markets and soak in the ambiance of Christmastime in Europe.

My favorite part of the Christmas markets was the vendors selling Glühwein, or what we know as mulled wine. As much as I hate the cold, sipping warm Glühwein as you hold the warm, steaming mug to your cold hands is enough to turn the heart of any Scrooge.

When we returned home to the U.S. back in 2005, one of the traditions I wish we could have continued was visiting Christmas markets. Since we don't have any authentic German Christmas markets nearby (there's one in Chicago that we're definitely going to have to visit one of these days), I'll just have to settle for making my own Glühwein, which I do every Christmas Eve when our family comes over for dinner.

Everyone who comes over loves this warm, comforting liquid, but no one loves it more than me, as it is steeped in warm memories and nostalgic longing.

As I write this post, I have my crock pot, all of my souvenir mugs from Germany, and all the ingredients standing by for me to make later. I can taste its sweet warmth even now.

I can look at each mug and be transported back to that particular Christmas market. I remember each and every one: Rothenburg, Munich, Nuremberg, and Schweinfurt. All of them were similar, and yet they each had something special about them because each town square provides a unique backdrop to give them their own individual ambiance.

Looking at these mugs automatically brings me back to all of these different Christmas markets

My favorite souvenir mug: a boot from the 2004 Nuremberg Christmas market

Glühwein

1 bottle red wine (whatever you like)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
10 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1 orange
rind of 1 orange

Bring water, sugar, and cinnamon stick to boil until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to a simmer and add in OJ. Poke cloves through orange rind and add along with wine. Keep warm in a crockpot on low. Keep it going all day and it will make your house smell wonderful, or in my case, bring you right back to Germany.

2004 Nuremberg Christmas market

Enjoying the holiday ambiance in Nuremberg

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday that includes something warm and comforting to drink! :)

Audiobook Review: Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

2011-12-19T21:17:00.001-05:00

High school senior and science geek Kate Malone dreams of attending MIT. In fact, she is so confident that she'll be accepted that she didn't bother to apply to any other colleges. While her friends and even her boyfriend are getting accepted to Ivy-League colleges, Kate waits with bated breath for her own acceptance letter.

As the straight-laced daughter of a minister, Kate frequently finds herself grappling with two different sides to her personality. There's in-control Kate: the girl who is always taking care of others (namely her little brother who has severe asthma) and keeping her family together, then there's the Kate that is one more crisis away from a breakdown.

And suddenly, crises abound for Kate. When a fire at her neighbors' house leaves them with nowhere to go, her do-gooder father offers to let them stay at the Malones' house - in Kate's bedroom. This wouldn't be a problem for her if it weren't for the fact that her neighbor Teri Litch is her arch-nemesis. With her future looming in the balance, will Kate be able to hold it together long enough to make it to graduation and then MIT in the fall?

I adore Laurie Halse Anderson. She is one of my favorite authors of all time. She is a rock star. When I met her at NCTE and got my picture taken with her, I was starstruck.

Catalyst was a solid, quiet novel, that delivered Anderson's consistent, to-the-point writing style. But it didn't knock my socks off the way books like Speak and Wintergirls did. Did I still like it? Most definitely. It's just not a book that will linger in my mind long after I finish reading the way her other books did.

The audiobook was narrated by Samantha Mathis and her performance was convincing as the voice of Kate. Her clean style of narrating worked quite well in concert with Anderson's no-nonsense style of writing.

Final thoughts: While not my favorite book of hers, Anderson writes a solid, consistent narrative that I highly recommend as an audio listen.

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
Audiobook Narrator: Samantha Mathis
Published: September 2001
Publisher: Speak and Listening Library
Pages: 232
Audiobook Length: 6 hours, 1 minute
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

In My Mailbox (55)

2011-12-17T16:39:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs: A Biography by Walter Isaacson (audiobook)

Purchased:

Water Balloon by Audrey Vernick
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Don Tate
Audrey is going to be Skyping with my class in January so I wanted to make sure I have all her books so they can fully appreciate the body of her work.

The LOUD Book! by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska
Some of my students created a Loud Book after I read them The Quiet Book. They had no idea that Deborah had already made a Loud Book herself (which was immediately my idea after I read The Quiet Book and before I even knew that there would be a Loud Book. Glad to know I share the same brilliant ideas as picture book authors :p) So I figured I'd read them her Loud Book so they could compare theirs to hers.

Library Loot:

Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin
Eli, No! by Katie Kirk

Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett, illustrated by Gary Rubinstein

Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann
M is for Mitten: A Michigan Alphabet written by Annie Appleford, poems by Kethy-jo Wargin, illustrated by Michael G. Monroe

I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willems
The Incredible Life of Balto by Meghan McCarthy

The Secret Life of a Snowflake by Kenneth Libbrecht
World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Frank Stockton

My first classroom Skype visit

2011-12-12T21:10:00.001-05:00

Over the summer, my husband and I took a trip to Europe and on my last night there (my husband stayed behind for work) we stayed with Lenore Appelhans and her husband Daniel Jennewein. If you don't follow Lenore's awesome blog, you might not already know that Daniel is a very talented children's book illustrator having illustrated a pair of books written by Audrey Vernick:

A few weeks ago I asked Daniel if he'd be willing to Skype with my 6th graders because, well, even though they're in 6th grade, they love picture books too.

So today was our Skype visit, and other than the first few moments of frustration where my Smartboard speakers wouldn't work, the rest of our visit went swimmingly. Thank you so much Daniel! The kids and I had an awesome time!

The pictures Daniel drew for my students - taken from their suggestions:

Elephant on a unicycle

A toucan skiing

A frog in a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt eating bacon

If you're a teacher and you've never done a Skype visit before, I highly recommend it. Not only was it educational, but it was a blast for the kids too. I will definitely be doing more in the future!

ARC giveaway: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

How many of you are dying to read the second installment of Lauren DeStefano's Chemical Garden trilogy? I just finished this book yesterday and I thought it only fair that I share the wealth by letting one lucky winner receive my copy of Fever. Check out my review here.

I have to warn you, if you like pristine copies, this one is a bit more than gently used. The front cover is a bit beat up, but if all you care about is reading the book, then enter to your heart's content.

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Expected Publication: February 21, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult
Format: ARC (albeit, a bit beat up)

Goodreads summary:
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

To enter, do the Rafflecopter thing:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ARC Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

2011-12-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

Goodreads summary:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

I came across an ARC of this book on display at the Simon & Schuster booth at the NCTE conference a few weeks ago. When I asked one of the reps if they had any more ARCs available to give away, she looked under a table, inside a box, and magically produced a copy of this much coveted sequel to Wither. I was so happy that I gave her a hug.

So I was sad to discover that I didn't love it nearly as much as Wither, which was such an amazing, vivid work of storytelling. The characters of Rhine and the sister wives in the first book were so real to me. They felt like people instead of characters. But for some reason, the characters in this book felt more like they were moving in slow motion rather than real time. Rhine and Gabriel didn't jump off the page the way they did in the first book, and the new, young character of Maddie was just completely out of my realm of ability to imagine. She was in the background even though she was an important character for the first half of the novel.

Fever felt more like a transitional novel, in the sense that you were waiting for something major to happen, only to realize that something major won't be till the next book.Which is not to say that nothing happens in this book. There are plenty of nail-biting moments. And yet, even with those moments, you're still waiting for that "THING" to reveal itself, which, in this book's case, doesn't happen until the very last page.

And yet, that very last page will sure make you want to read the third book. So kudos to Lauren DeStefano. I might not have loved this book as much as the first, but she succeeded in getting me to want to read (and covet) the third book.

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Series: Chemical Garden #2
Expected Publication: February 21, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult

Audiobook Review: Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

2011-12-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

From Goodreads:

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

Lauren Oliver can weave any story into gold with her hypnotizing prose. While I enjoy her YA books much more than I did this middle grade effort, I do think she can write anything and make it magical. This book had a Roald Dahl-esque feel to it, but, in my opinion, it was much better written. I was never a fan of Roald Dahl (I know, I'm like the only person on earth, right?) but Oliver has the benefit of her beautiful writing to keep readers interested and intrigued. I would compare her to Maggie Stiefvater that way. Even though I'm not always buying what's happening in the story, Maggie lures you in with her magical writing. Lauren Oliver is the exact same way.

The audiobook has the added benefit of being narrated by the one and only Jim Dale of Harry Potter fame. How can you go wrong there?

Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver, narrated by Jim Dale
Published: October 4, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins and Harper Audio
Pages: 307
Audiobook length: 5 hours, 55 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle Grade

ARC review: Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

2011-12-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

From Goodreads:

Maria is the younger daughter of an esteemed family on the island of Murano, the traditional home for Venetian glassmakers. Though she longs to be a glassblower herself, glassblowing is not for daughters—that is her brother's work. Maria has only one duty to perform for her family: before her father died, he insisted that she be married into the nobility, even though her older sister, Giovanna, should rightfully have that role. Not only is Giovanna older, she's prettier, more graceful, and everyone loves her.

Maria would like nothing more than to allow her beautiful sister, who is far more able and willing to attract a noble husband, to take over this role for her. But they cannot circumvent their father's wishes. And when a new young glassblower arrives to help the family business and Maria finds herself drawn to him, the web of conflicting emotions grows even more tangled.

This book was a complete surprise for me. I picked it up at NCTE on a whim, having never heard of it before nor any idea what it was about. When I got home and saw that it was about the daughters of Venetian glass blowers on the island of Murano, I was sold. I tend to be compelled to read any book that takes place in Europe since I lived and traveled there for over a year.

But then seeing it was a novel in verse, and coming in at a petite 150 pages, it was actually the first ARC I read, even over some of the much coveted ones I've been dying to read for a long time now.

Novels in verse are always quick reads, but sometimes they can be frustrating because there is so much that you have to infer from all that is NOT said. As I read this story, I kept wondering to myself how different it would be if it were written in prose rather than verse. Would the added detail help the story or hurt it?

But then I allowed myself to stop wondering how it COULD be, and just let myself enjoy what it was, which is a lovely, quick read for lovers of novels in verse, and/or historical fiction.

The ending was a little TOO neat and happy for my liking, but at the same time, it's certainly one that will satisfy readers.

Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Expected Publication: March 27, 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 150 (Goodreads is saying it will be 272, but my ARC is only 150 pages)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

This blog hop is being hosted by I Am A Reader, Not a Writer and Kid Lit Frenzy.

To warm your holiday season, I am offering a much-coveted ARC of Incarnate by Jodi Meadows:

Expected Publication: January 31, 2012
Publisher: HaperCollins
Pages: 384
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult

Summary from Goodreads:

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life

To enter, please read the rules, and fill out the Rafflecopter;

Also check out my other giveaway going on right now:
Signed ARC of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Don't forget to visit the other awesome blogs participating in this blog hop.

Giveaway: Signed ARC of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

While I was at the NCTE conference, I was lucky enough to get to meet Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. They signed my ARC of The Future of Us, and now I am giving it away here on my blog. Read my review here.

Published: November 21, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 356
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Magical Realism
Audience: Young Adult

Goodreads Summary:

It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.

Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

If you want to win this awesome prize, do the Rafflecopter thing:

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

2011-11-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

The year is 1996. Emma and Josh have been best friends and next door neighbors their whole lives, though Josh wishes they were more than that. His attempt to move their friendship to the next level failed miserably. Now things are awkward between the two of them.

One day Emma receives her very first computer along with an America Online CD-ROM. But upon first signing onto AOL, she is immediately taken to a website called Facebook where she sees her life 15 years into the future - and she doesn't like what she sees. So she takes it upon herself to try to change her future.

Told in alternating chapters between Josh and Emma's perspectives, The Future of Us is a quick, fun read and even though the story takes place only fifteen years ago, it reads like historical fiction. The reason why it feels like historical fiction is because technology has moved so quickly in the past 15 years, that what was technologically advanced back then, is like a dinosaur now. In fact, I worry that the impact of this book will be obsolete in less than a year due to how quickly even Facebook changes.

I honestly think, despite the fact that this book is categorized as YA, people in their thirties who were in high school fifteen years ago, will identify with this book more than teenagers will. I even mentioned this to Jay and Carolyn when I met them at NCTE a couple weeks ago, and Jay gave a good, authorly response, which is that he thinks the book is for everyone. But then he mentioned that depending on what age you are, you will read the story differently. As someone who was in high school in 1996, I can tell you that lots of feelings of nostalgia bubbled up as I was reading. Teenagers will not have those overwhelming feelings when they read "Crash into Me" and "Dave Matthews Band" in the same sentence.

I was, however, hoping this book would be more profound than it was. Instead, it was more of a fluff read. Still, sometimes fluff reads are just what you need. This book came to me at a time when I was in a reading funk and got me out of it. So while the depth of the story wasn't there, the motivation to keep reading was.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Macker
Published: November 21, 2011 by Razorbill
Pages: 356
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Magical Realism
Audience: Young Adult

Check out my giveaway here

Giveaway: SIGNED chapter sampler of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2011-11-27T13:37:00.001-05:00

One of the highlights (i.e., THRILLS) of going to the NCTE conference was getting to meet John Green and hear him speak. He did a session on defending intellectual freedom and it was incredibly exciting and enlightening.

Some of the thoughts he shared from that session:

The work of intellectual freedom is mostly doneby teachers and librarians and very little with authors.
When he wrote Looking for Alaska, he actually thought that critics were going to tear it apart for having too much of a naive Christian message. Which is why he was shocked when people tried to ban it from schools, in particular because of one awkward sex scene that he wrote to juxtapose the contrast of empty physical encounters vs. emotional intimacy.
Public schools shouldn’t exist for parents oreven students. It’s for the benefit of the social order and a more educatedwork force (in response to the teachers who offered another reading option when they assigned LFA)
When books are challenged, the easy thing for teachers and school boards to do is to just choose another book that won't cause uproar, but that is allowing ignorance to win. Teachers, librarians, and administrators need to keep fighting for intellectual freedom (which he recognizes is easier said than done).

Oh! And if you didn't already watch it, you can see me in the audience of his intellectual freedom session in one of his recent Vlogbrothers videos. I'm the one in the second row in the red sweater around the 0:11 mark.
&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;I &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Anyway, a little while after his session, John did a book signing at the Penguin booth and I got both of my books of his that I own signed (Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns), BUT they were also giving away chapter samplers of The Fault in Our Stars which he also signed one of those for me.

I have read the chapter sampler and I can't even begin to describe how amazing this book is going to be. In the first two chapters, you immediately laugh, cry, and fall in love with the main character, Hazel. She is battling terminal thyroid cancer, which metastasized into her lungs, when she meets Augustus Waters at a cancer support group. What you expect to be a sad, downer of a narrative, has already managed to be hilarious and irreverent (as well as sad and tragic) in two short chapters. I already know this is going to be one of those books that makes me cry so hard I give myself a headache. I already managed to shed tears of sadness and laugh out loud in a mere two chapters.

With that, I bet you probably want to win my one and only signed copy of the chapter sampler of The Fault in Our Stars, right?

Just do the Rafflecopter thing and you are entered to win.

In My Mailbox: NCTE Edition (54)

2011-11-27T08:25:00.000-05:00

These are all the books I got signed:

And these are all the free books I got:

Oh, and this one deserves its own picture:

Yes folks, that is a SIGNED, two-chapter preview of The Fault in Our Stars. I've already read it and I can't tell you how amazing this book already is just from the first two chapters. John Green is such an amazing writer. Be on the lookout... I will probably be doing a giveaway of this very soon for those of you who can't wait till January to get your John Green fix.

Bringing all these books into my classroom for my students and seeing their reaction at getting to read books that were signed by authors or before they're even published was so exciting. This was my first NCTE conference but it will definitely not be my last. I'm already hoping to go next year when it will be held in Las Vegas.

Michigan Beats Ohio State: Hail Yes!

2011-11-26T20:09:00.001-05:00

Michigan fans have had to wait 7 long years, but the drought is finally over! The good thing about having to wait so long for a victory over our biggest rival is that being in the stadium today and witnessing the elation of the crowd was something I will remember forever. The joy was palpable, the celebration genuine.

We're celebrating in Ann Arbor!

And this victory was even sweeter considering we won despite the shady reffing that was going on during the game. It was almost like the refs were explicitly trying to get us to lose. And yet, despite those dirty shenanigans, we still won. It was good to see that heart and determination beat out over politics.

Chicago is a feast for the eyes and the stomach

2011-11-25T13:22:00.001-05:00

Prior to my trip last week, I had never been to Chicago before. I know what you're thinking. How can someone who lives only 4 hours away and loves to travel, never visited Chicago before? The truth is, I don't have an excuse. But my attendance at the NCTE conference last week ended my lifelong Chicago drought.

Besides all of the amazing authors and teachers I met at NCTE, I also took some time to experience the beauty and culinary delights of this great American city.

Upon arrival in Chicago, my husband and I took the obligatory architecture cruise along the Chicago River. Even though we froze our butts off, it was a beautiful sunny day and we learned a lot about, not just the architectural history of the city, but the history in general. I highly recommend this be your first activity if you've never been to Chicago before. You learn a lot and you also get a general lay of the land as well.

Two of our memorable dining experiences in Chicago were lunch at Rick Bayless's casual dining restaurant, Xoco, and dinner at Sable Kitchen & Bar.

Every time I watch Rick Bayless cook or I hear his food described on TV, my mouth immediately begins watering. I knew that my first trip to Chicago had to involve eating at one of his restaurants. We decided to go with his lunch-counter/street food-style joint called Xoco and we were not disappointed. It was by far the best Mexican food I've ever had.

Rick Bayless does not serve what Americans consider typical Mexican fare. You will not find tacos, burritos, fajitas or the like anywhere on his menus. Rick has dedicated his career to introducing Americans to the variety and unique flavors of Mexican cuisine.

The specialties of Xoco are tortas (Mexican subs), caldos, (meal-in-a-bowl soups), churros (fried dough with cinnamon and sugar) and hot chocolate.

To whet our appetites, we ordered the chips and salsa that included a bright salsa verde, and a smoky, piquant 3-chile salsa.

Even my husband, who generally does not like salsa, continuously dipped his chips in one of the two bowls before inhaling them.

My main lunch order was the torta ahogada which was topped with pork carnitas, black beans, pickled onions, and swam in a spicy tomato broth.

Mouths have memories just as much as minds do, and my mouth remembers every bite of this delicious torta. I already know that our next visit to Chicago will include a trip to Xoco just to eat this sandwich. I honestly don't even remember what my husband ordered because I was just so enamored with this dish.

Even though we were full from our satisfying tortas, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try the churros and hot chocolate.

What is incredibly unique about the hot chocolate at Xoco is that it is literally bean-to-cup. You can watch them grinding the cocoa beans to create this thick and luscious drink. It's like drinking a slightly thinned-out, melted candy bar.

As you can see, despite our fullness, we didn't let much of this amazing dessert go to waste.

The second memorable meal in Chicago was at a restaurant that has recently been put on the map due to the fact that its executive chef, Heather Terhune, is on Top Chef this season. Sable Kitchen & Bar has forged its niche in the Chicago culinary scene with what they are dubbing New American cuisine (think comfort food with a twist).

The vibe at Sable is very hip, yet casual at the same time. Food is served as small dishes designed for sharing. They keep the menu at the table because the idea is to order as you go along.

We started with a flatbread of potatoes, mushrooms, and taleggio cheese, which was, believe it or not, a lovely light starter to some of the epic dishes to come later in our meal.

The next dish was a trio of short rib sliders with a root beer glaze and crispy onions.

While we were feasting on the sliders, we thought the perfect accompaniment would be the duck fat steak fries topped with cave-aged cheddar and fleur de sel

But the epic finale of our meal was... wait for it... BACON JAM...topped with brie and served with toasted baguette

It has been thoroughly documented here on this blog (and on Facebook and Twitter... and in my classroom...) that I have a rather zealous obsession with bacon. I am always looking for new ways to use the meat candy in my home cooking, so I will order almost anything in a restaurant that features bacon as the star ingredient. I mean, if I'm willing to put bacon in ice cream, I think it's pretty clear that I go big or go home, and bacon jam is going big, let me tell you. From the intense smoky and sweet scent, to the rich, luscious mouth-feel, this is one of the few bacon dishes that I can truly call sensual. I think I went into a bit of ecstasy upon that first bite.

But if bacon jam was the ecstasy part, there was bound to be an agony. Unfortunately for me, that was my nonexistent night of sleep immediately following this gluttonous meal. It was my own fault. I ate too much. But the food was just so delicious, I couldn't stop. And to put in perspective how amazing this meal was, I am always one to ban any and all food that has caused me to be sick from ever entering my stomach again. Even after my sleepless night as punishment for my gluttony, I would go back to Sable and eat that bacon jam again in a heartbeat.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? You had a meal so amazing that you couldn't stop eating, and then paid for it later? Or should I just change the word "Foodie" in the title of my blog to "Glutton"?

Thankfully Reading Weekend

2011-11-25T08:31:00.001-05:00

I reject any and all consumeristic activities on the day after Thanksgiving, and instead choose to stay home, curled up on my couch reading good books. Which is why I am happy to participate in Jenn's Bookshelves Thankfully Reading Weekend. Given the gargantuan number of books I received at the NCTE conference last week, this long weekend is a great time to spend reading.

So what's on my TBR pile this weekend?

Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver (audiobook)

NCTE Recap

2011-11-23T23:07:00.001-05:00

How do I begin to recap one of the most memorable experiences of my teaching career?

For those of you who don't know, NCTE stands for National Council of Teachers of English. I never thought to go to this conference before because it was always held in some far-off locale and it just never crossed my radar. But 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the NCTE and the convention was to be held in Chicago, a mere 4-hour drive from where I live. So upon the encouragement of my Uncle Tom, who has been going to NCTE for 25 years, I asked my principal over the summer if the school would help pay for the trip. She agreed and the rest is history.

If you are an English teacher, I highly encourage you to try to make it to NCTE sometime. It will reinvigorate your teaching. As my friend Jillian from Heise Reads and Recommends so aptly put on Twitter, in a time where teachers get kicked down and treated like they don't matter, NCTE "reminds me that what I do is invaluable & that I am supported & appreciated."

For that reason alone, the conference is worth the time and money.

So what memories do I bring back from NCTE? Too many to properly quantify, but I'll try my best.

Getting to see my teaching mentors like:

Donalyn Miller

Linda Rief

Penny Kittle

My uncle, Tom Romano

Meeting Twitter friends like Jillian (@heisereads)

Meeting favorite authors like:

John Green

Laurie Halse Anderson

Jackson Pearce

Kenneth Oppel

Carolyn Mackler and Jay Asher

I met many other authors that I didn't get pictures of, but whom I'm equally grateful to have met, like Kate Messner, M.T. Anderson, Chris Crutcher, Linda Urban, Linda Tashjian, John Coy, Tommy Greenwald, and many others.

And let me tell you something about YA and middle grade authors. They are such wonderful people. Every single author that I met at NCTE was so amiable and if they didn't have a long line, would sit there and chat for a while. I just happened to catch Jackson Pearce and M.T. Anderson at a time when there was a lull in their line and I had such lovely conversations with both of them.

Something else I cannot speak of highly enough is the generosity of the publishers who came to NCTE. I never in a million years imagined that I would be bringing home so many books. I am not lying when I tell you that it was almost 100! My husband drove to Chicago with me so we could make it a little vacation in addition to a professional trip and thank goodness we drove instead of took a bus or a train because this what our backseat looked like when we packed the car to leave:

When we got home, I pulled all the bags of books out of the backseat and started making piles. These are all the books I got signed:

And these are all the books I got for free:

To say that my students were excited when I came back to school on Monday was an understatement.

As my NCTE weekend came to a close, I had dinner with the person who encouraged me to come in the first place: my Uncle Tom, along with my Aunt Kathy and cousin Mariana, who is also an English teacher. As the evening began to wind down, I hugged my aunt and uncle and thanked my Uncle Tom profusely for encouraging me to come to such career-affirming experience. No wonder he's been going every year for the past 25 years.

When times are darkest in my teaching career, I am lucky enough to be blessed with a principal who can talk me down off the ledge and tell me that I'm doing the right thing. I know that not everyone else is that lucky. Which is why NCTE is such an invaluable experience. For me however, it was another one of those opportunities during a rather dark time to help me see that I am, indeed, doing the right thing.

But just what is the right thing? It's really very simple: practice what you preach. Model the life of the writers and readers you want your students to become. Reject all notions that test prep and/or mindless worksheets should replace authentic learning. Reach for the hearts as well as the minds of your students. The rest will take care of itself.

Back from NCTE

2011-11-21T21:01:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! 'Tis been a while since I last posted, but I have a good excuse. I just got home last night from the NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English) conference in Chicago where I had the awesomest time ever!

I know what you're thinking. A conference for English teachers is fun? Heck yeah! Authors galore rock this joint!

If you don't believe me, just check out John Green's latest video. That's me in the audience, second row in the red sweater. Can you tell how excited I am that I'm about to hear John speak? And then I just about peed my pants when I saw that I was in his video, no matter how fleeting it may be.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;I &amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;I will write up a recap post sometime this week, but I'm sure it won't be until Wednesday or after since I'll have the long Thanksgiving weekend to contemplate the feast of awesome that was Chicago.

In My Mailbox (53)

2011-11-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

This Plus That: Life's Little Equations by Amy Krouse-Rosenthal, illustrated by Jen Corace
America is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell by Don Brown

Poetry:

Every Thing on It by Shel Silverstein

Cookbooks:

Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders by Emeril Lagasse
Meals in Minutes: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast by Jamie Oliver

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2011-11-11T11:55:00.001-05:00

When Abe Portman dies a mysterious and violent death, most people assume it was a vicious dog attack, but his grandson Jacob knows otherwise. His grandfather's final words to him were, "Go to the island, Yakob. Here it's not safe."

When Abe was a young man, his parents sent him to an island during the war to protect him from the invading Nazis. As a child Jacob always heard stories from his grandfather about the home where he stayed but always assumed they were just fantastical stories made up by a man who was trying to cope with the abandonment of his parents and the loss of his true home.

Given that he saw the terrifying creature that killed his grandfather, Jacob knows his death was no dog attack. But terrorized by nightmares and a family that thinks he's gone crazy, Jacob is sent to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma of his grandfather's death, all the while knowing there is something much more sinister afoot.

On his birthday, Jacob's aunt gives him a book that was inscribed to him by his grandfather. Inside this book is a letter written by one Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine to Abe Portman. This letter is the impetus Jacob needed to go to the island his grandfather spoke of and find the house where he once lived with these peculiar children that Jacob always assumed were just bizarre stories he made up as a way of coping with the terror of war.

Now he knows otherwise and he somehow manages to convince his father to take him to the very island where his grandfather once lived. Will he find the answers he is looking for? Or just discover that his grandfather, and now he, are the crazy ones?

Peppered with a collection of unusual old photographs, Ransom Riggs weaves a story unlike any other I've ever read. It is the very definition of the publishing house that printed it: Quirk. It's not scary enough to be a horror story, but it's definitely frightening enough to be creepy, and will prevent you from reading it alone in bed at night if you're a chicken like me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book up until about two-thirds of the way through when the world of the Peculiars started to reveal itself. As someone who is not normally a fan of fantasy and/or scary stories, I found it difficult to lose myself in the world that Riggs created. Still, I can see why this book is a bestseller. The draw of the strange photographs along with the mystery of what really happened to Abe Portman allows this book to appeal to many different types of readers.Whether I read the sequel remains to be seen. I want to see what it's about before I commit to adding it to my TBR pile.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Published: June 7, 2011 by Quirk Books
Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult? (Lots of people seem to be confused about the age group of this book)
Disclosure: Book received from publisher

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Read Outside My Comfort Zone

2011-11-08T05:54:00.000-05:00

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's topic is:

Top Ten Books I Read Outside My Comfort Zone

Before I give my list, I should probably tell you what my comfort zone is. My preference is realistic and historical fiction as well as food and travel memoirs. I generally don't read fantasy or science fiction and I really despise romance novels.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling

Yup. I didn't want to read Harry Potter. I was dead-set against it. I had no desire to read about witches and wizards, no matter how popular it was. Then my friend and Super-Librarian Allison over at Reading Everywhere strongly encouraged me to try listening to the audiobooks and after the first CD I was hooked. For someone who doesn't like fantasy, the major redeeming quality of these books is that, despite the fact that JK Rowling created a whole new world in these novels, the characters feel so real that they could be actual people. For someone who is huge into character-driven novels, that's what made me love and appreciate them despite my general penchant to stay away from the fantasy genre.

2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Once again, reading this book was all Allison's fault. When I first read what the story was about I was appalled. I had absolutely zero desire to read about a group of kids fighting each other to the death. But Allison recommended it based on the lyrical writing, and, once again, I was not disappointed. Who knew that the writing in a book about fighting to the death could be so beautiful?

3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

If I dislike romance novels, I dislike books with vampires equally as much. Romance and vampires? No thank you. But I had to read this series to see what all the hoopla was about. It was definitely page-turning, I'll give Stephenie Meyer that much. But the literary merit of these books is nonexistent.

4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

At first glance, this book appeared to be a rip-off of Twilight but with just werewolves and not vampires. But Maggie Stiefvater gets by on the merit of her beautiful writing, something the Twilight books could never do.

5. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The words paranormal and romance usually cause me to scrunch up my nose and say, "No thanks," but the fact that this book takes place in Prague gave me pause and made me want to read it. Despite the fantastical characters and storyline of this novel, I was intrigued by the real-life setting because even though Prague is a real city, I couldn't think of a better place to set this creepy, mysterious novel.

6. Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

I hate zombies. I don't watch zombie movies and I don't read zombie books. But Carrie Harris is from Michigan and when I had the opportunity to attend her book launch party, I couldn't resist lifting my zombie moratorium, especially for a zombie book as funny and campy as this one. And after meeting Carrie at her book launch, was I ever glad I did!

7. Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

I am not a fan of time-travel stories in the slightest, and after reading this book, I'm still not. Believe it or not, the shiny red cover is what drew me to read this book. A great example of when judging a book by its cover doesn't pay off.

8. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Even though I generally like historical fiction, this book sounded way too complicated for me to enjoy. But the buzz around the blogosphere was that this book was an amazing read, so I gave it a try. Oh my am I ever glad I did. It was by far my favorite read of the year to-date. It was absolutely spellbinding.

9. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

As I already mentioned, I'm not a fan of science fiction, but this book was so riveting that I couldn't put it down. Plus I loved the mystery aspect of it. I'm definitely chomping at the bit to read A Million Suns.

10. Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

A fantasy book about bats? That sounds like a recipe for a book Beth will not like. But strangely enough, it was a surprisingly endearing story about the power of friendship. Now Kenneth Oppel is one of my favorite authors.

November Giveaway Hop

2011-11-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

This November Giveaway Hop is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Tristi Pinkston

For this stop I am offering the audiobook of:

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Published: September 2011
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Book Length: 9 hours, 59 minutes
Narrators: Ilyana Kadushin and Matthew Brown
Audience: Young Adult

From Goodreads:

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

I'm trying Rafflecopter for the first time so we'll see how well this goes:

Thanks for entering my giveaway! And don't forget to check out the other books in the hop by following this link.

In My Mailbox (52)

2011-11-05T19:58:00.000-04:00

America Is... by Louise Borden, illustrated by Stacey Schuett
The Wall by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ronald Himler

Cookbook:

French Classics Made Easy by Richard Grausman

Travel guides for my upcoming trip to Chicago for the NCTE conference:

Fodor's: Chicago's 25 Best
Forbes Travel Guide: 2010 City Guide Chicago

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Food other than turkey that will make you feel thankful: MANI Osteria & Bar in Ann Arbor

2011-11-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

Nowhere in southeastern Michigan is there a better place to try new restaurants than Ann Arbor. For those of you reading my blog who aren't from the Midwest, you might not already know that Ann Arbor is a college town - The University of Michigan proudly resides here - and its penchant for variety and sophistication is fairly well known in food circles. Since my husband and I live only about ten miles from A2, we frequently find ourselves wandering downtown Ann Arbor, looking for a new restaurant to try.

Last night, we found ourselves wandering into MANI Osteria & Bar. It was one of those moments where you have to be grateful that there is such a thing as serendipity. I had read some things about MANI on UrbanSpoon, but we did not seek it out last night. It just kind of fell in our lap.

When we walked in the door and arrived at the hostess station, we were offered a seat at the chef's bar where we could watch the food being prepared as we ate. For a foodie such as myself, this was like watching dinner theater - but WAY more entertaining. I was so impressed with the ballet of food preparation and organization going on the kitchen that I daydreamed of one day being able to cook without making my kitchen a disaster area as these professionals so beautifully displayed.

Look at all the beautifully organized mise en place

My husband enjoying the show

The pizza dough was being stretched out and put in the wood-burning oven right in front of me.

After perusing the petite menu, we ordered two antipasti: aranchini (risotto croquettes) and crispy pork belly smothered in apricot marmelata. To tell you the crispy pork belly was a religious experience would only be a slightly a hyperbolic statement. It was like eating superbacon. (If you read my blog regularly, you already know my close relationship with bacon.) It took the very best part of bacon: the salty, crispy goodness, and elevated it to a new level with the meaty chew of a steak. I wish I had taken a picture of this dish before I gobbled it down. But I ate it too fast before I even thought that I should've had my iPhone handy.

For dinner I ordered arugula and prosciutto pizza with scamorza, olive oil, and sea salt. While the pizza was not nearly as luscious as the crispy pork belly, I was especially smitten with how they served it. Instead of buying fancy, elevated pizza plates like most red-checkered table pizzerias, MANI decided to take reduce, REUSE, recycle to a whole new level and serve their pizzas atop giant empty cans of tomatoes.

Not only does this show patrons their commitment to reducing wastefulness, but it also gives customers yet another glimpse into the ingredients they use in their dishes. With more people these days demanding to know where their food comes from, this is really a simple, yet ingenious move on their part.

As I sat there savoring every bite of my meal and sipping on a glass of perfectly spiced sangria, I couldn't help but stop and think how I really want for nothing in my life. I have a wonderful husband, a job I love, and a roof over my head. What more could anyone ask for? And the fact that a meal at a trendy downtown Ann Arbor restaurant could make me contemplate all the things I'm thankful for, just shows you how darn good their food really is.

It's not Thanksgiving dinner, but I sure feel thankful right now.

Sophistication just oozes out of the walls of this restaurant, and yet there is still a casualness about it that prevents it from being pretentious. The simple, sleek decor, along with the giant windows that display the bustling downtown Ann Arbor scene make the space feel urban and trendy.

Urban and trendy, however, can be two words that spell disaster for a restaurant if the food is not up to snuff. Since MANI only recently opened in May of 2011, it remains to be seen whether this restaurant will be a long-standing Ann Arbor institution, but given their manageable and delectable menu along with chefs and an owner who show a commitment to simple Italian food with quality ingredients, it is my hope that this place stays around for a very long time.

I don't often fill out comment cards at restaurants, but this meal compelled me to do so. While the food at MANI is on the pricey side so it's not a restaurant we would visit regularly, I can assure you that we will be returning - hopefully for years to come.

It was so good I had to excessively use exclamation points!

If you ever find yourself wandering downtown Ann Arbor, you can take the serendipity route like we did, or you can seek out this eatery with attentive service and gratefulness-inducing food.

MANI Osteria & Bar
341 E. Liberty St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 769-6700

Audiobook review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

2011-11-01T21:09:00.000-04:00

Jack and Hazel are best friends, but one day Jack gets beamed in the eye with a snowball and suddenly his heart turns cold and icy. To the outside observer, one might think that they just grew apart when Jack decided he preferred to hang out with his guy friends at school. But Hazel knows in her heart something is not right.

When one of Jack's buddies who has, for lack of a better term, been a bully to Hazel, suspects that someone has stolen Jack, Hazel realizes he has followed the Snow Queen into the forest.

Clearly unprepared and lacking proper footwear, Hazel decides to go find Jack and bring him back. There's just one problem: everyone she encounters in the forest tells her that he followed her of his own free will and would not have gone if he didn't want to.

What's Hazel to do when her best friend clearly doesn't want to be saved? Does she risk her own life and try to bring Jack back, or does she accept that his heart's gone cold and that she's lost him forever?

In this modern-day retelling of The Snow Queen, Anne Ursu manages to leave her readers completely captivated and spellbound. As someone who continues to remain dubious over the trend of retellings and remakes these days, I was not disappointed by this lovely read. Ursu's prose is lush and vivid, while at the same time not being overindulgent. It is also a book-lover's dream with references to many loved children's books like Harry Potter, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time and many more.

Kirby Heyborne is the narrator of the audiobook and his voice neither adds nor detracts from the story. His narration is on the emotionally neutral end, but not so unemotional that it's not expressive.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Audiobook Narrator: Kirby Heyborne
Publish Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Walden Pond Press and Harper Audio
Pages: 313
Audiobook Length: 7 hours, 51 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle Grade
Disclosure: Audiobook received for review from publisher

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Had Strong Emotions About

2011-11-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's topic is:

Top Ten Books I Had Strong Emotions About

OK, so the problem with this Top Ten Tuesday is that there are SO MANY books I've had strong reactions to that it was hard to pick only ten, and I was taking way too much time trying to whittle it down. So believe it or not, I'm going to participate in this Top Ten Tuesday by NOT participating in this Top Ten Tuesday. I know, I'm being a punk, right? But I don't want to leave anyone out and I don't want to spend the whole day listing all the books I DID feel strong emotions over. I'm afraid it will make me riled up, aggravated, and/or sad for the rest of the day.

On any given day, you will find me laughing, crying, yelling, or scratching my head over a book. I'm enjoying reading everyone else's responses on today's topic, but as for me, I'm pleading the fifth on this one.

In My Mailbox (51)

2011-10-29T21:42:00.000-04:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, inspired by Pop Culture Junkie. The books you share do not have to be ones you actually received in the mail. They can be ones you bought at the book store, checked out at the library, or downloaded to your e-reader. The idea is just to share what's on your TBR pile for the upcoming week.

For Review:

My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody
Leisl & Po by Lauren Oliver (audiobook)

Won:

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson

Purchased:

The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorite books of all time. With the 50th anniversary of this children's classic, they created two new editions this year. I bought the annotated version because I love the idea of learning all of the secrets of how this book was created.

This was an EPIC book week at the used book store. Look at all of these books I got - for only $12 total.

Hardcovers:

Firehorse by Diane Lee Wilson
The Flame Tree by Richard Lewis
The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Paperbacks:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
Dark Life by Kat Falls
The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Freefall by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Pile of ARCs

Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
Relic Master: The Dark City by Catherine Fisher
The Empire of Gut and Bone by M.T. Anderson
Slayers by C.J. Hill
Ravenwood by Andrew Peters
The Hunter Chronicles: Return to Exile by E.J. Patten
Six Days by Phillip Webb
Seven Sorcerers by Caro King
The Books of Elsewhere: Spellbound by Jacqueline West
iBoy by Kevin Brooks
The Buccaneer's Apprentice by V. Briceland

And this one was so epic and I was so spellbound that I found it at the used bookstore that my eyes literally bulged out of my eyes, so it deserves its own picture:

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Caroyln Mackler

So I understand the questionable nature of purchasing ARCs. I get that there's an ethics issue to someone selling them. But my library sells used books that people donate. It's not like the person donating them made any money on them. My library sells these books for 50 cents a piece (or less). The way I look at it is, if I had won those ARCs in a contest, shipping would have cost more than what I bought them for. And now these books have found a good home in my classroom for my students to enjoy. When I brought these books into my classroom and showed them to my students, they were so incredibly excited. If I'm a bad person for buying them for my students, then oh well. I'll accept that.

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Audiobook Review: Dreamland by Alyson Noel

2011-10-27T19:10:00.000-04:00

From Goodreads:

Riley’s finding that the afterlife can be a lonely place when all you do is focus on work. So she goes to the place where dreams happen, hoping to find a way to contact her sister, Ever. She meets the director, who tells her about the two ways to send dreams. As a Dream Jumper, a person can jump into a dreamer’s dream, share a message, and participate. As a Dreamweaver, an entire dream can be created in a studio and sent to the dreamer. But Dreamweaving was outlawed decades ago, and the studio was boarded up. Thinking it’s her only way to reach out to her sister, Riley goes in search of the old studio. There she finds a ghost boy, who’s been creating and sending nightmares to people for years. In order to stop him and reach out to Ever, Riley is going to have to confront and overcome her own fears.

Very rarely do I enjoy books in a series more than the first one, but Dreamland, the third book in the Riley Bloom series, is the best by far. Perhaps my greater enjoyment of this book was a result of listening to the superb audiobook narrator, or maybe it was just because Riley's growth as a character and her humility is beginning to make her more likeable. I'm looking forward to reading the 4th book in the series.

Kathleen McInerney, the narrator of the audiobook, has a beautiful voice that possesses the perfect youthful tone to it that made it believable but not so youthful that it was annoying.

Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Audiobook narrator: Kathleen McInerney
Published: September 13, 2011 by Square Fish and Macmillan Audio
Pages: 210
Audiobook length: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle grade

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

2011-10-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

This blog hop is hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and The Diary of a Bookworm.

In honor of the spooktacular nature of this blog hop, I am giving away this creepy book:

The Countess by Rebecca Johns
Published: October 10, 2010
Publisher: Crown
Pages:284
Format: Paperback

From Goodreads:
Was the “Blood Countess” history’s first and perhaps worst female serial killer? Or did her accusers create a violent fiction in order to remove this beautiful, intelligent, ambitious foe from the male-dominated world of Hungarian politics?

In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman, stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her to spend her final years in solitary confinement. Her crime—the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, mostly young girls tortured to death for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents painted her as a bloodthirsty škrata—a witch—a portrayal that would expand to grotesque proportions through the centuries.

In this riveting dramatization of Erzsébet Báthory’s life, the countess tells her story in her own words, writing to her only son—a final reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her downfall. Countess Báthory describes her upbringing in one of the most powerful noble houses in Hungary, recounting in loving detail her devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing her father at a young age. She soon discovers the price of being a woman in sixteenth-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold calculation of a financial transaction. Young Erzsébet knows she has no choice but to accept this marriage even as she laments its loveless nature and ultimately turns to the illicit affections of another man.

Seemingly resigned to a marriage of convenience and a life of surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of acts: the violent punishment of an insolent female servant. The event shows Ferenc that his wife is no trophy but a strong, determined woman more than capable of managing their vast estates during Ferenc’s extensive military campaigns against the Turks. Her naked assertion of power accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her husband.

The countess embraces this new role of loving wife and mother, doing everything she can to expand her husband’s power and secure her family’s future. But a darker side surfaces as Countess Báthory’s demand for virtue, obedience, and, above all, respect from her servants takes a sinister turn. What emerges is not only a disturbing, unflinching portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker “Blood Countess,” but an intimate look at the woman who became a monster.

To visit other blogs in this hop, click here

Contest Rules:

Must be 13 years or older to enter
Open only to US residents
You are not required to be a follower to enter but it is greatly appreciated
Contest ends October 31, 2011 at 11:59 EST
Winner chosen at random using Random.org
To enter, fill out this form
For an extra entry, leave a comment telling me your best-ever Halloween costume

My best-ever Halloween costume was when I was a Freshman in high school and my friend Renee and I dressed up as Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World. We used to quote lines from that movie all the time so it was only fitting that we'd dress up as them for Halloween. I was Garth and I wish I still had a picture of it because everyone told me I looked exactly like him.

In My Mailbox (50)

2011-10-22T19:07:00.000-04:00

Cookbook Review: Michael Symon's Live to Cook

2011-10-22T00:18:00.000-04:00

Ever since Michael Symon competed on and won The Next Iron Chef a few years ago, I have been a huge fan - of his cooking, his humor, and his infectious laugh. I admire his unapologetic love for his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and further love his commitment to his Midwestern roots as evidenced by the choice he made to expand his empire in the downtrodden city of Detroit rather than a foodie hotspot like New York or Las Vegas. A move like that shows he's not just in this business to make money and that gritty places like Cleveland and Detroit that most people disregard and even scoff at are his bread and butter.

I have partaken in two meals at Roast, his Detroit restaurant, and I can tell you that the food is amazing. Just don't consider going if you're a vegetarian. Even salads at Roast are teeming with giant carcasses of meat, as you can see in this "salad" of frisee, crispy pig ear, a poached egg, and giant lardons of bacon that you had to cut through with a steak knife.

Yes, according to Symon, this is a salad.

So yeah, Symon is clearly a hearty Midwestern boy.

But his cooking philosophy is so much more than just BIG MEAT. What really impressed me about this book is that, given the gargantuan amount of new recipes I try every year and the fact that I know most of the basics of cooking techniques for the home kitchen, this is the first cookbook since I can't remember when that I actually learned something new. You have no idea how much this excited me. I had worried that I had expended all of my learning and that I was doomed to just repeat the same old tired dishes and techniques for the rest of my days.

But alas, Michael Symon came along and shone a light on new and exciting possibilities.

So let me share with you a few tidbits of what I learned in this wonderful compendium of "Symon Says."

First of all, one of the biggest ideas I took away from this book was the need for balance in a dish. Symon says that the main reason dishes fail is not because they taste bad, but because they do not have a balance of flavors and textures. Almost every heavy dish has to have some sort of acid component to try to cut some of that heaviness. This philosopy was made perfectly clear at Roast.

As you can see in this picture, that is a rather large hunk of meat swimming in a rich sauce but to balance out that fatty richness, the dish is then it is topped with a fresh and spicy pickled relish.

OK, so I've been blathering on about the food at Roast, but what's the cookbook actually like? Are the recipes any good and are they easy to follow is what you're probably asking yourself right about now. The answer is yes and yes.

Firstly, I tried his master pickling recipe for onions and will be using it on a regular basis. It is so easy, quick, and perfect for adding that acid component to rich dishes that it's a great have on hand sort of item. In fact, I so loved the pickling recipe that I canned a few jars and gave some to my mother-in-law for her birthday (among other things - I didn't just give her onions!).

And those pickled onions were an extremely important component to the next dish I tried which was the Lola Burger. This is the burger he served at his very first restaurant and continues to put it on the menu at all his other restaurants, including Roast. The first time my husband and I went to Roast he ordered this burger and we ended up trading dishes because it was literally the best burger I'd ever had in my life and the dish I'd ordered was not doing much for me. Since my husband will eat anything, he was gracious enough to switch plates with me.

With the memory of that burger in my mind, I set to work in recreating it in my own kitchen, worried that it wouldn't actually taste as good as it did when I had it at Roast.

But guess what? I needn't have worried about being able to recreate the magic of Roast because it was literally the best burger I've ever made in my entire life.

Try not to drool. I dare you.

So what exactly sends this burger into the stratosphere? Well, it goes back to Symon's philosophy of balance. This burger has bacon, cheddar cheese, pickled onions, dill pickle (which I did not include because I don't like dill pickles), spicy ketchup, and A FRIED EGG - all served on an English muffin instead of a bun. With such a wide variety of flavors and textures, you'd almost think that they would all be competing with each other, but that is not the case. Everything was a perfect symbiosis of flavor and texture as preached by the gospel of Symon.

And let me tell you, I was so enamored with this burger that I forgot about my side dish. I made mashed potatoes to go with it and I literally ignored them. You must understand that Beth ignoring a side dish is NOT NORMAL. I generally like the side dish better than the main course. Not this time. This burger was so good that it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up the next morning. Well, actually, my first thought was, "5:30 I hate you!" But after that it was, "Mmmmm.... that was a good burger I had for dinner last night. I wonder if it would be bad to have burgers for dinner two nights in a row."

So if you haven't already figured it out, I absolutely loved Live to Cook. If you are a jaded home cook like me in need of something fresh and new (and you aren't a vegetarian) then seriously consider giving this book a try. There's so much more I could say about it but given the novella length of this post, I'm going to wrap it up.

All I can say is that whatever "Symon Says" I'm buying!

Michael Symon's Live to Cook
Published: November 2009 by Clarkson Potter
Pages: 256
Genre: Cookery
Audience: Home cooks

Rah, Rah Radishes: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Rah, rah, radishes, red and white!
Carrots are calling. Take a bite!
Oh boy, bok choy, Brussels sprout.
Broccoli! Cauliflower! Shout it out!

With bold, colorful photographs and a fun, memorable chant as an ode to vegetables, kids are sure to get their mouths watering and asking for broccoli with dinner after reading this fun, accessible picture book.

After watching the first season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution a couple years ago and watching in horror and heartbreak as a classroom full of young children couldn't even recognize the simplest of vegetables, it's high time we get books like this into our classrooms and start teaching kids what REAL food looks and tastes like. By showing that vegetables are cool, colorful, and attractive, books like this can help contribute to the solution to our society's unhealthy relationship with food that begins in childhood.

Rah, Rah, Radishes: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre
Published: June 14, 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 32
Genre: Nonfiction picture book
Audience: Primary

Cover Reveal: John Green's The Fault in Our Stars

2011-10-20T09:03:00.001-04:00

I'm surprised there's not more posts about this in the blogosphere right now. Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably already know that John Green's upcoming novel, The Fault in Our Stars, is set to be released in January. And you'd be living further under that rock if you didn't know that all pre-orders of this book will be autographed by John himself. To say this is a hugely anticipated book of 2012 is an understatement.

Well this book now has a cover!

My opinion? They definitely took a different approach with this book than the current trend of YA literature. When I look at this, my immediate thought is that they're trying to appeal to adults. The simplicity of this cover is very much indicative of the covers of literary fiction that currently grace the shelves of bookstores today. John Green has very much been a pioneer in the YA literature world. It may sound presumptuous of me to say this, but I think this cover is another example of his presence and his novels forging new trails.

What are your thoughts?

Waiting on Wednesday: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to showcase upcoming books that you can't wait to read.

My anxiously awaited title this week is:

A Million Suns by Beth Revis
Expected Publication Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult

From Goodreads:

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

I am generally not a huge fan of science fiction but Beth Revis wrote such a vivid, intriguing world onboard the Godspeed that now I am waiting with bated breath to see what happens next. I loved that she ended Across the Universe with a satisfying sense of closure, but set up the story for this next book.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Read Because of the Cover

2011-10-18T11:55:00.001-04:00

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while, but I loved this topic, so I couldn't resist.

Top Ten Books I Read Because of the Cover

10. Pug Hill/A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace

Anyone who knows me knows I'm mad about pugs. Well, I love all dogs with smooshy faces, but I have a particular penchant for pugs. When I first saw the cover of Pug Hill, it's all I could do but die from cuteness. And then when A Pug's Tale came out? Cute overload!!!

9. Say Hello to Zorro by Carter Goodrich

In the same vein as Pug Hill and A Pug's Tale, this picture book immediately drew me in by the pug on the cover. If you hadn't already figured this out, I can't resist ANY book with a pug on the cover.

8. Savvy by Ingrid Law

My favorite painting of all time is Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. This cover reminds me so much of Starry Night that it completely entranced me. I didn't care what the book was about, I was going to read it.

7. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

A cow in a tiara? With a cover like this, hilarity is sure to ensue. Then again, after I read this, I was surprised at how serious this book actually was. At the same time, I like this original, humorous cover MUCH better than the new, more contemporary one.

6. Guinea Dog Patrick Jennings

I'm starting to see that I have a major weakness for books with cute animals on the cover.

5. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

Read this book you should. Hilarious it is. Resist a cover with Yoda on the cover you can't.

4. Ruby Red by Kerstin Geir

Red is my favorite color. And the intricate design on this cover reminds me of a beautiful, flowing red gown with shiny, silver embroidery. And if you've known me from the time I was a very little girl, you'd know I LOVE sparkly dresses. If it weren't for this gorgeous cover, I certainly wouldn't have read the book since I've never been a big fan of time travel stories. Sadly, after reading this book my mind was not changed. But hey, at least the cover's pretty.

3. Die for Me by Amy Plum

A flowing red gown AND the Eiffel Tower? Sign me up! Given the title of my blog, it's no secret that I love reading books set in real-life, bucket-list worthy locations like Paris.

2. Wish by Alexandra

Now this book has the ultimate cover for a girl who loves sparkly dresses. I want a dress the color of night sequined with stars!

1. You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret to Happiness by Julie Klam

Every time I'd go to the book store, I'd see this book with the adorably awkward Boston Terrier on the cover and was so endeared to him. This dog reminds me so much of my pug, Guenter, that eventually I gave in and finally bought it. I've read so many dog books, that this one at first didn't seem all that remarkable to me. But in the end, the cover beckoned me and I couldn't resist that darling face. I'm glad I finally did buy it because it turned out to be one of my favorite dog books of all time.

Hmmm... I'm starting to see a theme here. I read books if they've got sparkly dresses or cute dogs on the cover. Well at least I'm consistent. If you never know what to get me for Christmas or my birthday, just pick a random book with a dress or cute dog on it.

Something tests will never be able measure

2011-10-17T18:16:00.001-04:00

I love when real life lessons unexpectedly infiltrate into the classroom, causing you to change your course.

Today I had a student bring this bag into school. This lovely, drool-worthy Tiffany & Co. bag.

What do you suppose was inside this bag that instills lust in the hearts of women everywhere?

Oh only dirty socks and muddy soccer cleats.

"Attention class! Today we're going to talk about the concept of irony."

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

2011-10-16T09:11:00.002-04:00

From Goodreads:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Since fantasy is not normally my genre of choice, the premise really has to draw me in for me to sit up and take notice and want to read it. In the case of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I was intrigued by the fantasy aspect of the story that took place in a real-life setting - in this case, the enchanting city of Prague, Czech Republic.

Since so often I see things through the lens of travel (that is part of my blog after all), settings can make or break a story for me. Since so many people have already reviewed this book I've decided that I'm going to mainly discuss how the setting impacted my enjoyment of the book.

Having been to Prague before, I can say that it is the perfect setting for this off-kilter sort of tome Laini Taylor created. Just read this passage and tell me there would be a better city for the novel to take place:

The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century - or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, and invading armies. Tall houses glowed goldenrod and carmine and eggshell blue, embellished with Rococo plasterwork and capped in roofs of uniform red. Baroque cupolas were the soft green of antique copper, and Gothic steeples stood ready to impale fallen angels. The wind carried the memory of magic, revolution, violins and cobbled lanes meandered like creeks. Thugs wore Mozart wigs and pushed chamber music on street corners, and marionettes hung in windows, making the whole city seem like a theater with unseen puppeteers crouched behind velvet.

Above it all loomed the castle on this hill, its silhouette as sharp as thorns. By night, it was floodlit, bathed in eerie light, and this evening the sky hung low, full-bellied with snow, making gauzy halos around the street lamps. (25)

I mean, c'mon! How enchanting does that sound?

Which is why I found myself disappointed when two-thirds of the way through the novel, the setting changed from the magical backdrop of the capital of the Czech Republic to the fantasized world of Seraphim and Chimaera. Prague was so vivid to me, and as a result, Taylor's imagined world kind of made the story fade a little bit from my mind.

This, I recognize, is nit-picking since my life and travels have caused my readerly bias to prefer stories that take place in the real-world. However, if it hadn't been for that real-world setting, I'm not convinced I would have read this book. So while the book kept me engrossed enough to want to read the sequel, I do so with trepidation and hope that it returns to Prague, but given how the story ends, I'm thinking it probably won't.

This is still an amazing story and Laini Taylor deserves a huge amount of praise for her talent at being able to seek out and find just the right words. Her sentence structure and word placement is artful to say the least, masterful to say the most.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Published: September 27, 2011 by Little, Brown & Company
Pages: 420
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
Audience: Young Adult

Also check out my recap of Laini Taylor's visit to Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Food is my souvenir

2011-10-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

My husband just returned from a business trip to Mexico this week and per my request, he came home bearing gifts. I, however, am not someone who wants meaningless souvenirs that bear no significance to my life. Don't bring me back a keychain or t-shirt that was probably made in China anyway. No, what I asked for was something very simple: bring me back something food-related like condiments unique to the area.

To me, there's no better reflection of a culture than through its food. Not to mention, these items are something I can't buy in the grocery store at home so it's actually a real gift from that country rather than something you can only find in souvenir shops that the real people of that place would never be caught dead with.

My husband and I have a very clear policy regarding shopping and travel: don't waste your time seeking out useless souvenirs for friends and family because what do they want with a keychain from Amsterdam or a shot glass from Germany if they've never been there? The only time we amend that policy is if we're shopping and we see something that reminds us of someone. Otherwise, we feel absolutely zero obligation to buy people stuff from our trips.

Anyway, my husband came home toting several Mexican condiments in his suitcase and I can't wait to find a way to use them in a few dishes I make in the next few weeks.Travel is such a wonderful opportunity to explore new flavors, and just because I didn't go on the trip with him doesn't mean I couldn't benefit from experiencing those flavors somehow.

I'm looking forward to playing with these flavors and coming up with something mouth-watering for dinner. The only bummer from all of this is that if it turns out to be delicious, I'm going to have to send The Husband back to Mexico to get some more.

Audiobook Review: All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

2011-10-12T20:12:00.000-04:00

The year is 2083 and Anya Balanchine might outwardly appear like your typical 16-year-old girl from the twenty-first century, but outward appearances can be deceiving. In a world where chocolate and coffee are illegal, Anya has grown up in a family where chocolate is the family business. With both her parents having been murdered due to her father's mafia connections, and an ailing grandmother who is their legal guardian, Anya is the de facto head of her family. She does everything in her power to make sure she doesn't get separated from her siblings, which right off the bat, shows the reader how practical and matter-of-fact she is.

Only when she meets a new boy at school, who ironically happens to be the son of the assistant D.A., does she start to break down her barriers and open up. Even still, with the possibility of love on the horizon, you never feel like Anya doesn't have her wits about her. Her top priority is and always will be her family, so in that sense, her practicality ends up being likeable rather than frustrating. In the hands of a less dexterous author, a character so matter-of-fact and practical might come off as being cold and unfeeling, but Zevin skillfully creates a wonderfully empathetic character in Anya.

The narrator of the audiobook is Ilyana Kadushin, of Twilight fame, and her performance in this audiobook was as luscious as a Balanchine Special Dark chocolate bar. I think her narration of this book was far superior to her performance of the Twilight saga. I thought she wasn't expressive enough and rather one-dimensional in her Twilight performance, and her only saving grace was her exquisite voice. In All These Things I've Done, however, her performance was much more dynamic and expressive. Not only was her voice satisfying to listen to, but she learned from her previous experience that simply having a beautiful voice does not a good narrator make and that you need to put some emotion into it. In Twilight she was stoic and unfeeling, in All These Things I've Done, she was much more charismatic.

In reading other reviews of this novel, everyone labels the genre as dystopia, but I'm not really buying the dystopia moniker. Yes the book takes place in the future and yes, society seems to have degraded, but not enough of the American culture has changed for me to believe that this is a true dystopia. I guess the reason people have labeled it dystopia is because there isn't really any other genre it could be. To me though, it's sort of dystopia-lite. Even with the dubious genre labeling, this book is still worth every second of your time - whether you listen to it or read it. I will definitely be one the people coveting an ARC of the sequel!

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Published: September 6, 2011 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Macmillan Audio
Pages: 354
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 11 minutes
Audiobook narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: I received a copy of the book and audiobook for review

Waiting on Wednesday: Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

2011-10-12T10:27:00.000-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to showcase upcoming books that you can't wait to read.

I haven't done a Waiting on Wednesday in a while because I have been so insanely busy with teaching that I haven't had much time to even think about my blog during the week, let alone write in it.

But alas, I have returned, and here is my pick for this week:

Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Expected Publication: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Walker & Company
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

From Goodreads:

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free?

This is one of those books that I totally judged by its cover. The distinctive red high heels along the road near the guardrail clearly indicate an ominous foreboding in the air and it makes me want to know more. But sometimes I judge the book by its cover and then read the synopsis and decide to pass on it because even though the cover is compelling, the synopsis does not make the story seem so. But, after I read the synopsis of this book this book, I still definitely want to read it.

In My Mailbox (49)

2011-10-08T21:22:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs humor

2011-10-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

This picture has been making the rounds on Facebook, but I just had to share it here on my blog because even though it gives you a good chuckle, it still manages to perfectly put into perspective all the things that Jobs has done to make his innovative creations an integral part of our lives. I think about all the ways I use my iPhone and realize that this one device has now become my phone, music player, camera, reading and audiobook device, alarm clock, timer, note-taker, dictionary, shopping list creator, I could go on and on...

Rest in peace Steve. Thank you for all the work you did here one earth. I hope you're just as productive in the afterlife.

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

2011-10-08T12:56:00.003-04:00

From Goodreads:

Cupcake’s life is pretty good. He’s got his bakery, and his band, and his best friend, Eggplant. His days are full of cooking, socializing, and playing music. But lately, Cupcake has been struggling in the kitchen. He’s sure the solution to all his problems is out there somewhere. But maybe that solution is hiding closer to home.

I know there is a lesson or two buried within the pages of Sara Varon's latest graphic novel, but that is honestly the last thing I was thinking about as I was reading this adorable story of a cupcake's life as a bakery owner. All I could think was how happy-making it was for a food-lover such as myself. I got such a kick out of seeing all the different foods as characters, and got even more satisfaction out of seeing that Varon writes this story using language to indicate that she might be a foodie herself.

This would be a great read for kids who are budding bakers, but it is sure to bring a smile to the faces of adults who like to satisfy their sweet tooth by creating confections in their own kitchens.

The illustrations in this graphic novel use muted, pastel colors, yet they still manage to pop off the page with their sprightliness and personality. This is the perfect book to read when you need a good cheering up. I mean, how can a talking cupcake with his own bakery, a sandwich shop-owning carrot, and a banjo-playing bagel make you anything other than happy?

And as an added bonus, Varon recognizes that reading a book like this is sure to make the reader hungry for baked goods so she includes the recipes that Cupcake makes in his bakery at the end of the book.

Bake Sale by Sara Varon
Published: August 30, 2011 by First Second
Pages: 160
Genre: Graphic Novel
Audience: Middle Grade

Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art by J.H. Shapiro, illustrated by Vanessa Newton

2011-10-04T12:00:00.001-04:00

In the heart of a decrepit neighborhood in Detroit, Tyree Guyton started what has now been called The Heidelberg Project out of frustration for the riff raff that had moved into his neighborhood. Painting a crack house with bright-colored polka dots kept the criminals at bay and started an art movement that would divide residents of the city and of Heidelberg Street. Some people saw it as trash, others art. Twenty-five years later, the Heidelberg Project is still going strong, and is its own visitor's destination in a city that rarely gets visitors.

Using collage art and rhythmical prose, J.H. Shapiro and Vanessa Newton have captured the spirit and the soul of the Heidelberg Project in this book's scant pages.

For more information on the Heidelberg Project, visit heidelberg.org
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Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art by J.H Shapiro, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Published: July 1, 2011 by Charlesbridge
Pages: 32
Genre: Biography Picture Book
Audience: Primary/Middle Grade

Audiobook Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

2011-10-03T20:11:00.002-04:00

From Goodreads:

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Libba Bray is a mad, crazy genius. I do not claim to love everything she writes -- I'm still scratching my head over Going Bovine -- but I also can't deny her talent and ability to get her readers to think. She doesn't write fluff. She really goes for the symbolic.

So I don't know why I was surprised when Beauty Queens turned out to be more than just fluff. I was expecting a wild, campy romp through a desert island with some ditzy cheerleader types, which is how the story starts off, but the more invested in the story you become, you begin to realize that this book is also a political statement, an imploring to get the reader to question the gender roles and stereotypes we've become accustomed to in our society.

It is clear as you're reading this that Bray pulls no punches when it comes to her political views so there's no doubt that the message and themes of the story will turn some people off, but that's the beauty of being an author - you have the ability to comment on society for anyone with a pair of eyes to see or ears to hear. Even if you don't agree with her stance, you should at least defend her intellectual freedom and her right to express those views. That's what living in America is all about. (Can you tell I'm still a bit hopped up from Banned Books Week?)

Let's talk about the audio presentation for a bit, shall we? It's not very often that an author can narrate her own audiobook, but Libba Bray rose to the challenge and performed the heck out of this book. It is clear from the word go that she obviously has a theatrical background because her emotion and character voices were perfection. I would go so far to say that this is one of the most memorable audiobooks I have ever listened to. The "commercial breaks" all had entertaining soundtracks and the way they were able to get the footnotes to work (with a little "Ding" type noise every time she went to read one) without being distracting was pure genius. This is one of those few audiobooks that manages to make book more enjoyable than if you had read it. That, in my opinion, is how you know you have an talented audiobook narrator. Based on this rolicking performance, I hope Libba will narrate all of her future audiobooks.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Published: May 24, 2011 by Scholastic
Pages: 390
Audiobook Length: 14 hours, 34 minutes
Audiobook Narrator: Libba Bray
Genre: Satire/Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

In My Mailbox (48)

2011-10-01T21:47:00.003-04:00

Check out my recap of the event here.

Other book purchases:

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham

Library Loot:

Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld
Smitten by David Gordon

Doggy Whys? by Lila Prap
Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guytom and His Art by J.H. Shapiro, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Getting on my foodie soapbox

2011-10-01T14:09:00.001-04:00

I just returned home from grocery shopping a little while ago. I used to despise grocery shopping, but that's because I always felt so lost in a sea of endless food choices. But recently, I have come to enjoy my trips to the grocery store more and more for the simple fact that I have followed the rule of grocery shopping for healthy eating, which is to spend most of your time hanging out in the perimeter of the store where all the whole foods are rather than the inside aisles where all the processed food resides.

I usually go to the grocery store with my husband every Saturday morning and when we get there, he will go and take back the returnable bottles (Michigan has a ten cent deposit on bottles and cans) and I'll start shopping.

Every week he comes back from returning the bottles and declares, "How did I know I'd still find you in the produce section?"

Today, he repeated this routine and after hearing it week after week, over and over again, I snapped. I got snippy with him and said, "Why is that funny to you? This is where I SHOULD be spending most of my time. It means we're eating well and staying healthy."

I guess I got so defensive because eating healthy is not something worth making fun of, and it felt like he was poking fun at me. We should be giving a hard time to the people who don't bother to try to make real food, choosing instead to fill their carts with processed crap pumped full of chemicals. We should not be making fun of the people who are choosing to feed real, wholesome food to their families. That is honorable, not worthy of torment.

Roughly 50% of Americans are overweight or obese precisely because they don't spend enough time in the produce department, and you're going to make fun of me for spending most of my time there dear husband? I don't think so.

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. But sometimes I've got to set that boy straight. And when I was done with him, he walked away with his tail between his legs. That's usually what happens when I get on my soapbox. ;)

Laini Taylor comes to Nicola's in Ann Arbor

2011-09-30T22:07:00.001-04:00

Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been hosting a lot of awesome book signings lately. Last night, author Laini Taylor only compounded the awesomeness of all the rockin' authors who have been gracing its presence.

I have been coveting Daughter of Smoke and Bone ever since I read a glowing early review of it during the summer. I never was able to snag an ARC so I immediately started reading it as soon as the finished copy arrived on my doorstep. I have been reading it extremely slowly because this school year has been so exhausting for me that I get home from work and I fall asleep before I can read two pages. Even though I wasn't able to finish the book before the signing, I was able to get into the book enough to be enchanted. Laini is such a talented writer. Her ability to manipulate language to do more than just communicate, but make it something artful and beautiful is a true gift.

I'm so happy I was able to be there and witness such talent for myself. Thanks for visiting Michigan Laini! I hope you can come again when the sequel comes out!

As an aside, at the event last night, I ran into awesome zombie-slayer author Carrie Harris. I met her at her book launch party for Bad Taste in Boys over the summer and she is such a hoot. Evidence of her hilarity came in the form of this "contract" she wrote out for me when I asked if she'd come visit my school. I promised I'd make her ice cream since she often declares her need for it on Twitter. When she said she'd work for ice cream, I asked if I could have that in writing. She pulled out coloring book page from her purse that I'm presuming was one of her kids' -- but given her love of all things quirky, I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually hers -- and wrote the following:

How can you just not love a person like that? I have a feeling she'll fit right in with my junior high students. :)

Giveaway winners

2011-09-25T19:49:00.000-04:00

Congrats to the winners of two of my recent giveaways.

The winner of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn was Book Snob

The Winner of Dreamland by Alyson Noel was Kathy of Ms. Martin Teaches Media

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Celebrate Banned Books Week

2011-09-25T09:15:00.000-04:00

Celebrate your right to intellectual freedom this week by reading a banned book. Prove to book banners around the country that the only thing they do by challenging books is generate more revenue and publicity for the authors. Because, really, the only thing you do when you ban a book is incite curiosity and cause more people to read it than would have if you had just kept your mouth shut.

For parents out there, the temptation is very strong to challenge books that are against your morals and beliefs, but rather than inciting outrage and uproar, use the book as a teachable moment to talk to your children about right and wrong. Just because authors write books and teachers use them in their classrooms does not mean that we are condoning the sex, alcohol, drugs, and violence that appear in these books. Just because book characters behave in certain ways does not mean that we're asking you to see them as role models. I don't think there's a person out there who reads The Catcher in the Rye and thinks, "Wow! Holden is so cool! I want to be just like him." Ummm... no. Even my lack of sophistication at critical thinking when I was a sophomore in high school saw what a pathetic mess Holden was. So book banners, the fact that you're worried that kids will see these characters as role models regardless of what is taught to them in the classroom shows what little faith you have in teens to think critically. And the only thing you're going to do by attempting your sanctimonious disregard for the first amendment is make kids and adults alike want to read the book all the more.

Another thing that irks me about book banning, well besides the whole going against the first amendment thing, is that people who challenge books are putting pressure on schools to teach books that are clean and about benign topics. Obviously these people are asking literature teachers to teach something other than literature then because the very nature of literature is conflict. And the older students get, the more complicated conflicts become. That's just life. And it's precisely the reason why you saw Harry Potter get darker and darker as the series progressed. He was no longer a little kid at the end. The older Harry got, the darker and more complex the conflicts in those stories became because adult problems are more complicated than kid problems. When choosing books for teens, it is very difficult to find literature that isn't controversial because if you don't have conflict in a book, then, well, you don't have literature! So if that's the case dear book banners, what then do you suggest literature teachers teach in place of, well, literature?

I'm going to leave you with John Green's video from a few years ago where he discusses his frustration over people trying to ban his book, Looking for Alaska, in schools. He makes the point so much better than I do about authors having characters behave in morally reprehensible ways, not to say that it's OK, but just the opposite. Again, as I said before, just because authors are writing about it, doesn't mean they're saying to go out and do it! Have faith in your kids to be able to discern that.

In My Mailbox (47)

2011-09-25T08:11:00.000-04:00