The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson

We went to see the Swedish subtitled movie of The GIrl with the Dragon Tattoo on Friday night, so I was anxious to finish this last installment in the trilogy. Wow!!!! Up really late turning pages at the end of Lisbeth's trial last night. I love these books!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

My official first day of summer break following a week of grading AP English Literature and Composition essays in Louisville was spent reading Aimee Bender's new novel. I am a huge fan of Bender's quirky characters and this book did not disappoint. The main character in this work of magical realism is a little girl named Rose who can taste emotions in her food - from the sadness of her mother's lemon cake to the sterility of school cafeteria food. I devoured the book in one sunny day on the deck - no pun intended.

Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Tinkers by Paul Harding

AP Senior Tribute

Everything Matters by Ron Currie Jr.

I scrambled to order this book from the library when no bookstore around had a copy, then ran out of patience and ordered one from Amazon, which came the same day as the library copy. Was it worth it? For sure. Junior Thibodeau learns in utero that the world will end on June 15, 2010 at 3:44 pm. I had to read it quickly. Junior's family is a mess, his knowledge is pretty weighty and he squanders his youth, perhaps because he knows he will die at age 36. The novel alternates chapters titled with the names Junior's friends and family members with chapters that count backwards to his presumed last minute on earth narrated by the voice (is it God? - probably not) in his head. I got a little tired of the book in the middle section, but when I got the the final section, it kept me rapidly turning pages. If the book is a gimmick book, it was a gimmick that held me - and I think will have enough danger, drugs and derelict behavior to hold student readers as well.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

What's a vacation without a good audio book for the road? This one is a bit heavy on the melodrama, but a modern twist on a classical love story just the same. Ralph Pruitt's mail-order search for a reliable wife brings Catherine Land to his remote Wisconsin homestead. The mystery of her sensuous past and the deep seated remorse he carries over his past sins makes this almost a bodice-ripper. Almost. I can see this becoming a movie - soon.

Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber

I rounded out my Spring Break reading with this quirky story about a young man, Sid, who believes he is receiving postcards from Zoe, his old girlfriend, sent from all over the world. Since he is a telemarketer for adventure travel packages, Sid departs on a journey of his own and finally the reader learns the reasons for Sid's confusion about life. Also a quick read, I enjoyed Sid's self- deprecating narration.

Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger

I picked this up on cover image appeal needing a Spring Break travel book. A kayaker's love story. The novel opens with a tragic death and then flashes back to when Cobb and Mary met at a campsite along Maine's Allagash River. Whoever described it as Henry David Thoreau meets Nicholas Sparks had it right. Have a tissue ready for the end.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I have only seen the trailer for the movie made recently from this novel. The book was an edge of your chair, page turner. Short chapters, mesmerizing characters and a fast paced mystery plot. I read it in two days and was not disappointed.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I almost would have taken this long novel back to the library without reading it if it had not been for the full page advertisement in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday for its paperback release with glowing recommendations from John Irving. I read most of the 500 plus pages over this long Presidents Day weekend and wept this morning at the final scenes. Verghese is a medical doctor who also studied at Iowa Writers Workshop, and the novel is so full of accurately described medical procedures that I'm sure I missed a lot. However, it is the best book I have read in the last year. Set in Ethiopia and America, it is the story of love and loss between identical twin brothers and their famous, but estranged surgeon father. Get it in paperback and start reading today. It will be a long time before I stop talking about this book.

Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton

I found this gem of a book at one of our favorite Massachusetts bookstores, The Montague Book Mill, whose slogan is "Books you don't need in a place you can't find". I always find something browsing there and this time I brought home and immediately devoured Starting Out in the Evening. Heather Wolfe is a twenty-something graduate student who locates and pursues the somewhat reclusive seventy-something novelist Leonard Schiller. Her plan is to write a masters thesis on his work that will bring his older novels back into print. I cringed when it looked like it was going to be a smarmy love story, but the novel focuses in the end on Schiller's relationship with his adult daughter, Ariel and her struggles with love. It is a literary novel, with plenty of quotes, allusions and references to other writers and the craft of writing. When I found out a movie was made of this book, starring Frank Langella, and it had gotten good reviews, I couldn't wait to see it - and of course - was greatly disappointed. It did not include one of my favorite scenes in the book, when Frank returns to France to keep a promise to his deceased wife, and the comet scene in the end. Oh well. I should have known the book is ALWAYS better.

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

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I have hit upon some great fiction for these cold winter Ohio nights. The Girl with Feet of Glass is a magical fairy tale on one level and complicated mystery on another. The fragile young heroine, Ida Maclaird, is a stranger in the icy bogland called St. Hauda's Land. She meets a local photographer, Midas Crooks, who struggles to help her when he learns that Ida is slowly turning to glass.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

A lovely read. Ford uses a split narrative to alternate between Henry Lee's childhood in 1942 when he meets Keiko Okabe and 1986, when the Panama Hotel's cache of treasures from interred Japanese families becomes public. Henry is forced by his father to wear an "I am Chinese" button and his growing affection for Japanese Kieko creates family tensions. The two young teens are separated by the war, Henry finds a Chinese bride, but the years do not dull his longings for what might have been. The book is more sweet than bitter.

Floodmarkers by Nic Brown

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Under the Feet of Jesus by Maria Helena Viramontes

Viramontes came to speak last summer at the AP Literature and Composition grading session in Louisville, so I got to meet her and hear her speak about her fiction. I snagged a free copy of Under the Feet of Jesus at NCTE in Philadelphia back in November and read it on one January snow day. Viramontes writes about immigrant migrant workers and has been compared to Steinbeck for her commitment to Californian labor culture. This book is lovely and I was pleasantly surprised when is did not turn toward the tragic ending I foresaw.

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

Also a Christmas gift from David, these stories by Alice Munro offer a sharp contrast to Meloy's clipped plots. Munro weaves her stories - lots of detail, many characters, broad bands of time. I haven't really read much Munro, but I certainly understand why her fiction receives so much praise.

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy

This Christmas gift from my husband was a lovely read over break. Meloy's short stories are contemporary and moving. I began at the back of the book with "O Tannenbaum", for obvious reasons. The story involves a couple out to cut down the perfect Christmas tree when they encounter another couple, stranded on the side of the road. Coincidently named Bonnie and Clyde, the strangers add an element of danger to a peaceful outing.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

A lacuna is an underwater cave, or a missing section of text in a manuscript, or according to the definition of Lacunar Amnesia, amnesia about a specific event. So, although I am a huge Kingsolver fan, I took a long time getting into this book because I hadn't had the time to immerse myself in it and kept forgetting what I had read previously each time I picked it up. Christmas break gave me the necessary time to plunge into it, and it was well worth the time. Harrison William Shepherd keeps notebooks. These notebooks, published later by his secretary, Violet Brown, who had a hand keeping some of them from being burned, record Harrison's interactions with a cast of colorful historic characters - Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev Trotsky, to name just a few.

The Solemn Lantern Maker by Merlinda Bobis

I love serendipitous finds like this book. Browsing the Random House booth at NCTE where they were giving away three free books to teachers on opening day of the conference, I pick this up. It satisfied three criteria - (1) cover appeal, (2) a seasonal message and (3) a jacket blurb that piqued my curiosity - "It's six days until Christmas, and on the bustling streets of Manila a mute ten-year-old boys sells his version of the stars." Magical and riveting book.

Riley Park by Diane Tullson

I read this tiny YA novel in the airport coming home from NCTE. I was sent on the mission by colleagues at SHS to find a new book for 10th grade basic students; I think I have found it. Recommended in a session at NCTE about new books for teens, Riley Park details the after math of a party in the park that ends in violence.

NCTE Annual Convention

Philadelphia
NCTE Annual Convention

Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing by Lydia Peelle

This book of short stories is amazing.