Friday Favorite - June 4

I can't remember if we had The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf on our bookshelves when I was growing up or if I first read it when I checked it out from a library. I just remember reading it and anytime you remember a picture book you read as a child, that's says something about the book.

Ferdinand is a bull that grows up doing things his own way. While the other bulls are practicing to be in the bull fights, Ferdinand is content sitting under his favorite cork tree and smelling the flowers. One day, when he is fully grown, a group of matadors comes to his meadow looking for the strongest, fiercest bull. While they are there, Ferdinand accidentally sits on a bee and the resulting uproar he causes makes the matadors choose him. But true to his own nature, when Ferdinand gets to the bullring, he refuses to fight.

When the book was first published in 1936, it caused a lot of controversy because it was felt to be promoting pacifism and it was banned in Spain and burned as propaganda in Germany. It has been translated into more than 60 languages and has never gone out of print. Walt Disney made the book into a film that won the Academy Award in 1938.



Leaf commented, "Early on in my writing career I realized that if one found some truths worth telling they should be told to the young in terms that were understandable to them." He wrote almost 50 books, nearly all for children, most with a message. He was so respected that he co-wrote books with Ludwig Bemelman ("Madeline) and Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss).

Friday Favorites - "Sybil"

The book "Sybil," by Flora Rheta Schreiber was actually first introduced to me by--surprise, surprise--a movie adaptation. Made for television in 1976, the 2-part movie starred Joanne Woodward, as psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur, and Sally Field as Sybil Dorsett, a role for which Fields won an Emmy. As a teenager, growing up in the 1970's mental illness was something with which I was completely unfamiliar. I was riveted by the movie and had to pick up the book to learn more.

The book, first published in 1973, tells the story of graduate student Sybil Dorsett, who initially seeks psychiatric help for social anxiety and memory loss. But, after intense therapy, drug therapy and hypnosis, it's discovered that Sybil is actually suffering from dissociative identity disorder--split personality. Because of horrific abuse in her childhood, Sybil has fractured into 16 personalities. The book chronicles Sybil's treatment, including how she became aware of each of the personalities (and they of each other) and how Wilbur and Sybil worked together to integrate the personalities into one successful individual.

Sadly, later research of the tapes made by the real psychiatrist and patient, on whom the book is based, revealed much of what is in the book to be fraudulent. Which really opened the door, in the medical field, as to how real this disorder is. It does seem easy enough for me to believe that the mind might create another self to deal with things that the real self can't handle. And none of this debate effected my opinion of the book as an incredible story.

Friday Favorite - March 5

The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. B. White, is the book that made Mini-me fall in love with books. It's not that he didn't like to read before then; he loved to have me crawl into bed with him and read as many books as I was willing to read. When he was in first grade, we bought a booked set of E. B. White books. I started with Charlotte's Web, then moved on to Stuart Little but put The Trumpet of the Swan off because it was the only one I hadn't read. Frankly, I didn't know anyone who had read it. But Mini-me was hooked almost from the start. When we were almost finished, he asked me not to read it one night. Confused, because he was enjoying it so much, I asked him why. "Because I don't want it to end," he told me. When we did finish it, he was so quiet and sad. "Can we start it again?" he asked. And that's when I knew I had a reader on my hands. Not just a kid that would read. But a kid that would love to read. A true mini-me!

Like the rest of his family, Louis is a trumpeter swan. But unlike his four brothers and sisters, Louis can't trumpet joyfully. In fact, he can't even make a sound. And since he can't trumpet his love, the beautiful swan Serena pays absolutely no attention to him.
Louis tries everything he can think of to win Serena's affection--he even goes to school to learn to read and write. But nothing seems to work. Then his father steals him a real brass trumpet. Is a musical instrument the key to winning Louis his love?

Friday Favorite - February 26

The Birth House by Canadian author Ami McKay was one of the books I noted on Wednesday as one that I think would make a great movie. Michelle, of Red-Headed Book Child, asked if I had reviewed this one. The answer is no--I read this one a few months before I started blogging as part of my face-to-face book club. It was one of my favorite books we have read and lead to one of the liveliest discussions we've ever had (and that's really saying something!).


As a child, Dora Rare, the first female in five generations of Rares, is taken under the wing of Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for storytelling and a kitchen filled with herbs. As she grows into adulthood, Dora becomes Miss Babineau's apprentice, and together the pair help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labour, breech births, unwanted pregnancies, and even unfulfilling marriages.
But their idyllic community is threatened with the arrival of Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor armed with promised of sterile, painless childbirth. Soon some of the women begin to question the midwives' methods - an uncertainty that erupts in a war of gossip, accusations, and recriminations after a woman dies. Overshadowed by this powerful, determined male doctor, Dora must summon all her strength and wisdom to protect herself and the birthing rituals of her ancestors, and the village she loves.

We all loved the story (so much going on!) and McKay's writing style. Then we got going on our own birth experiences. One of us had even used a midwife for a home birth. Best laughs of the night were generated when we talked about the treatment Dr. Thomas was using on women who were "hysterical." According to the website for The Birth House:

"At the turn of the century, a woman might be diagnosed with hysteria for the following symptoms - speaking her mind too often, reading too many novels, writing cramps, headaches, fear of impending doom, and being overly 'fretful'. (just to name a few)."

Wanna know what the treatment for hysteria was? Let's just say, we'd all be going to the ob/gyn more than once a year if they still treated women for hysteria!

"Doctors often prescribed vibratory treatments to control the condition. It's no surprise that women were quite pleased when companies such as Sears and the Lindstrom Smith Company began advertising home vibrators in many of the ladies' almanacs and journals of the early 1900's."

To learn more about this book and to see how many treatments you might need check out the web site for The Birth House where you can also learn about McKay's new book due to be released this fall.

Friday Favorite - Where The Lilies Bloom

Picture this: the year is 1974 (yeah, yeah--I know I'm old) and a 13-year-old, highly hormonal me plops herself down in a darkened theater. The movie starts and it's beautifully filmed and it's all about a culture I don't know anything about and it has a father and his four children struggling to make ends meet in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. And then the dad gets sick. And dies. Hello. I'm crying already. And the movie has hardly started. So of course I had to get the book when I found it in the bookstore.

"Where The Lilies Bloom" by Vera and Bill Cleaver is the story of what happens to the Luther famiy. Because the oldest sister, Devola, is "cloudy headed," father, Roy asks his next child, 14 year old Mary Call, to make take care of the family after his death. He makes her promise to keep the children together, hold onto their home, and to keep Devola from marrying Kiser Pease, their landlord. While Roy is ill, Kiser also becomes ill and Mary Call is able to basically barter his care for the deed to their home and land. Then she finds a book on "wild-crafting" left by her mother. This enables the children to use the wild herbs they pick on their property to sell in town for their medicinal properties. It seems the children will be able to make it on their own after their father dies until they discover that Kiser never owned the land they live on, his sister does. She turns them out and the children are left to survive the winter in a cave. And, yes, I did cry while I was reading this book. Even though I just told you yesterday that I hardly ever cry during a book.

The movie starred Rance Howard (father of Ron Howard), Harry Dean Stanton, and Jan Smithers, who would go on to play Bailey on WKRP in Cincinnati. Which, of course, many of you have never heard of because you weren't born yet. But trust me, it was a huge t.v. hit. Sadly, this is another movie that can only be found used. It really is a timeless movie, that, like the book, is a wonderful story for young adults.

Friday Favorite - Cathedral

Cathedral, by Nelson DeMille, is a book I found in a box of books at my in-law's house in 1983. I remember when I found it because I know I read it before my husband and I went to New York City as part of a delayed honeymoon trip. To be honest, I can't remember details of the book, except to recall that I found it incredible gripping and amazingly detailed.

From Mr. DeMille's website, here's a description of the book:

"St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act - the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church. The hostages face death. Flynn faces his own demons, in an electrifying duel of nerves, honor, and betrayal…"

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that this is not the kind of book that I usually read. But then you also have probably noticed that I'm willing to read a variety of books. This one takes place almost entirely in St. Patrick's Cathedral and I had rarely read a book that painted such a vivid picture of a place. So when my husband and I went to New York City in the summer of 1983, I had to go see the cathedral. I'm not sure my husband quite understood the attraction, after all, we're not Catholic. But as someone who has more than a passing interest in architecture, he was willing to play along. When we first got into the cathedral, I was immediately reminded that this was not just another tourist attraction. There were, of course, people praying in there. So we quietly went to a middle pew where we could get a good look at everything without being too disruptive. I was almost giddy to realize that the picture that DeMille had painted in my head was so accurate that I could vividly see the characters moving around the place just as the book had described.

I've never re-read the book, nor have I ever read any other DeMille, but I still have the book. Because much as I have always loved to read, as many books as I had already read by that point in my life, that was the first book that had ever really made me realize that a vivid setting can be just as important to a book as the characters set in it.

Thanks to Alyce of At Home With Books for hosting My Favorite Reads.

Friday Favorite - Sunshine

Kate is a 20-year-old mother of a baby girl, happily settled down with a man she loves after a less than idyllic life growing up, when she is diagnosed with breast cancer that has metastized. Sunshine is based on a true story which happened in the early 1970's so treatment of cancer was much different and survival much less likely. Kate is given the option of having her leg amputated or taking chemo. The pills make her angry and sick and Kate makes the difficult decision to stop all treatment and live her remaining months to the fullest. As she does so, she tapes hour after hour of things she wants her daughter to know when she is gone.

I first read this book after I saw the made-for-television movie (of course there was a movie, right?). As I did with the movie, I cried and cried as I read the book. Here was a young woman, not much older than me, who died. Do you remember being that age? You don't think anything can kill you; then, once in a while, something comes along that makes you realize your own mortality. This book did that for me. I have no idea whatever became of my copy of this book and it is, sadly, no longer in print. I would love to read it again, as an adult and a mother, when I might have a different perspective on the choice Kate made. Although I still can't imagine making the choice to stop fighting, knowing that your child will never remember you as anything more than a voice on tape.

Friday Favorite is done in conjunction with Alyce of At Home With Books' My Favorite Reads.

Friday Favorite - The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

In keeping with my tradition of picking Friday Favorites that have been made into movies, here's another one for you. Although I'd bet that most of you have never seen the movie--and maybe never heard of the book.

I don't remember when, exactly, I read Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One." I'm certain I picked it up in the library and equally certain that I had no real idea what I was picking up. I don't recall if it was because Waugh is also the author of "Brideshead Revisited" and I assumed I was getting something in that vein. What I got was definitely not something having to do with the British aristocracy. Instead Waugh has, in "The Loved One," turned his satirical bite on the Hollywood way of life and the American way of dealing with death. British ex-pat Dennis Barlow is working nights at the Happier Hunting Grounds pet cemetery (while aspiring to be a poet by day) and living with his uncle. When his uncle is fired from a Hollywood studio, he commits suicide and Dennis is called upon to plan the funeral. The arrangements are to be made at the Whispering Glades Cemetery (read Forest Lawn here), the poshest cemetery in town. While working on the funeral, Dennis meets Aimee, a junior cosmetologist and soon finds himself competing for her attention with the sinister Mr. Joyboy, the senior mortician. Would you believe me when I say that this book is funny? No? Okay, maybe not laugh out loud while you're reading funny but it is funny in that way that makes you snort just a little bit.

The movie version, directed by Tony Richardson (father of Joely Richardson of Nip/Tuck fame) was made in 1965 and starred Sir John Gielgud, Jonathan Winters and Robert Morse with appearances by James Coburn, Roddy McDowall, Milton Berle, and even Liberace. While not completely true to the book, the movie is also very funny and billed itself as the movie with something to offend everyone when it came out.

My Favorite Read is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Be sure to check out Alyce's site on Thursdays to find out what her favorites are.

Blogging Goals for 2010

I was all fired up for Bloggiesta. I couldn't wait to get home from work to get started. I had a to-do list ready. I steeped some Chinese Jasmine tea. And then I hit a wall. Where to start? So I headed over to Maw Books to check out the mini-challenges and right off the bat say Rebecca's mini-challenge "Set Goals for 2010" which seemed like as good a place to start as any.

Every January, I make the usual resolutions: lose weight, get more organized, paint a few rooms, etc. And every year, I make it about a month (just like you, I would guess) then I start to taper off. This year I resolved to make fewer resolutions. And I'm going to try to keep my blogging goals to a doable number as well.

1. Work on putting more of my own voice into my reviews. This is something I've been trying to work on for the past few months and I'm getting closer to where I want it to be.

2. Take notes while I'm reading to make writing the reviews easier. I've resisted this. It felt too much like homework. So I think I'll use an index card so I don't get too carried away. I've been wanting to include more quotes and this will help with that as well.

3. Reach out to authors. I'd like to include more guest posts and author Q & A's. Who knows--some of the authors might not even be with us any more!

4. Get back to doing Friday Favorites. There have certainly been plenty of books I've loved over the years.

5. Do Sunday Salons every Sunday--on Sunday!

How to reach the goals? I've already begun working on a blogging calendar for this year to help track some things. I'll plan to work on Friday Favorites and Sunday Salons on any day that I'm not doing a book review. And I'll use this weekend to start reaching out to authors. Thanks Rebecca for encouraging me to do this!

Friday Favorite - December 18

In honor of my middle child's 18th birthday this week, I wanted to highlight some of the books that he (and I) loved when he was growing up. This kid (whom I will hereafter be referring to as Mini-Me) loves to read. His favorite books now include "The Count of Monte Cristo," "A Clockwork Orange," and the book he finished last night, "The Road." For his birthday he was thrilled to receive the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe.

I have no recollection of reading Crockett Johnson's "Harold and the Purple Crayon" when I was growing up but when Mini-Me was little I snapped it up for him as though I had known all my life that it's a book every child must read. The story begins:

"One evening Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. But there wasn't any moon, and Harold needed a moon for a walk in the moonlight. Fortunately, he had brought his purple crayon. So he drew a moon. He also needed something to walk on. So he drew a path..."

The only color in this book is purple. To begin with you have just Harold and his crayon. Everything else that appears in the book is drawn by Harold as the book goes along. Harold even creates frightening creatures then draws the very thing he needs to vanquish them. It's a marvelous story that teaches children to use their imaginations.

Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" is particularly special to Mini-Me because, well, even though I told you I would hereafter refer to him as Mini-Me, his name is really Max. And his copy of this book was given to him by family friends who wrote the most wonderful inscription in it for him. For a kid that grew up with a lot of fears, this book was a great way to for him to learn that things aren't always as scary as they seem. But most of all that, no matter what, you can always go home where someone loves you most of all.

When Mini-Me was eight, we discovered Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events through the book order forms he used to bring home from school (how I loved the days those came home!). I was intrigued enough to order "The Bad Beginning: Book the First." At that time, it was a bit above his ability to "get" everything in the book so we read it together. And we both loved it. So much so that he raced through the rest of the books that were already published then had waited, impatiently, as Snicket got around to writing the rest of the thirteen book series.

In "The Bad Beginning" the reader is introduced to the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, who are orphaned when their home is burned down and their parents are killed. They are left in the charge of Mr. Poe, a banker whose job it is to place them with a family member. His first attempt is with the villainous Count Olaf who uses them as slaves and attempts to trick them in an effort to get at their millions. Doesn't sound like a children's book, does it? To be honest, it can be frightening for some children. But these children are very smart and continue find ways to save themselves using their considerable smarts and Sunny's very sharp teeth. The books are exceedingly witty for both children and parents.

Friday Favorites - "A Little Princess"

Okay, I'm back to picking a book for my Friday Favorite that's been made into a movie. I cannot remember the first time I read FrancesHodgson Burnett's "A Little Princess" but I couldn't have been more than ten. I must have checked it out from the library because I didn't own it until my daughter was born. If I had ever owned it, I would have kept it, just as I did Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men; Heidi; and The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew. Even as a kid, I loved the classics!

Sara Crewe is delivered by her wealthy father to a new boarding school while he goes off to war. But when he dies, Sara finds herself penniless and at the mercy of the horrible Mrs. Minchin. Despite being made to become a maid and to live in the attic, Sara never losses her optimism and kindness. Even though Sara is no longer a "princess" in the school, she never stops being a real princess. She remains a favorite of most of the girls and attracts the attention of a mysterious benefactor. I love the lessons this book teaches: kindness is rewarded, it is better to be a good human being than rich, imagination is a wonderful thing and every little girl is somebody's princess.

The book was made into a movie in 1995. It's cast is largely unknown and the budget was tight but the movie was a beautiful realization of the book. My daughter and I love to rewatch this together every few months. I recommend it every bit as highly as I recommend the book!

Friday Favorites - "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything"

I know, I know--it's not Friday. But I had to wait to post this until Halloween and now Halloween is minutes from over and I almost missed it. I don't even have little children to get into costumes and out into the neighborhood to use as an excuse for my lateness.


My pick this week is Linda Williams' The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything. My mom first found this book for my niece when she was very little. She loved it so much that a copy soon made it to my house. It is simply charming. At two years old, this was my son's favorite book. We made it interactive. The little old lady, out on a walk is confronted by a series of clothing items. Each makes a "sound" (although shake, shake is not really a sound). When we started reading the book, I did the "sounds" myself but soon my son was joining in the fun and I would let him read the sound words. By the time he was three, he could "read' this book himself. Although beloved by all three of my children, it was my oldest who truly loved this book. Tonight my fourteen-year-old and I read it together!

Beyond the fun factor, the book has a wonder message about being brave and facing fears. It teaches children that sometimes things aren't as scary as we might think they are. My copy is falling apart. But it will continue to be a part of Halloween for years to come.

Friday Favorite - "Chesapeake" by James Michener

In what may be a first, my Friday Favorite this time was never made into a movie. My choice this week is James Michener's Chesapeake, a novel that spans 400 years, making a movie adaptation all but impossible. Complicating matters even more would be the fact that there are no people in a good part of the book. I've seen movies done from the point of view of a cat or a dog, but I'm guessing that filmmakers have really shied away from trying to get the point of view of Canadian geese down on film.

The book is entirely set in an area scarely more than 10 miles square, in and around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It opens before the Europeans discovered the area then follows their arrival and the settling of the land right up until the time the book was written (it was published in 1986). About 10 years ago, I discovered that my husbands' ancestors had settled very near this area and was so excited to already have a picture in my head of what the land must have been like when they first arrived.

Michener is the master of combining research and story; twenty years after reading the book, I still remember what this book said about the migratory patterns of the geese and how they are able to navigate their way. At almost 1100 pages, this was by far and away one of the longest books I had read up until this point in my life, but I don't ever remember feeling as though it was an insurmountable obstacle. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I later picked up a couple more Michener novels.

Michener's first novel was "Tales of the South Pacific" which was made into the Broadway musical and movie "South Pacific" and which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

Friday Favorite

About now you're probably starting to wonder if I read any books that aren't made into movies because, once again, my Friday Favorite has been made into a movie, Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. Although I'll bet most of you haven't heard of the movie. The movie, released in 1996, stars Kate Beckinsale, Rufus Sewell, and Ian McKellan. I love this movie so I was excited to see that it was originally a book. Then I was nervous. What if I hated the book and it ruined the movie? Hurray! The book had every bit of the charm, wit and whimsy of the movie--or, more accurately, the movie had every bit of the book's charm, wit and whimsy since the book was originally published in 1932.

Flora Poste is a young society lady who suddenly finds herself an orphan. She most definitely does not want to get a job so decides she will need to live off her relatives. But which ones? After rejecting a number of offers, Flora chooses to move to Cold Comfort Farm, home of the Starkadders because she feels that they will provide her with a project. To say that the people on Cold Comfort Farm are a bunch of country bumpkins is an understatement. But Flora immediately sets to work to make their lives "better," although her motives are not altruistic.

The book is a wonderful satire of the melodramas of D. H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy and a parody of the rural novels so popular at the time it was written. Okay--that sounds boring doesn't it? Pretend like you didn't just read the names Lawrence and Hardy because you don't have to have been depressed by them to enjoy this book. The characters in this book are wonderful--a recluse aunt, a hellfire preacher, and an oversexed cousin obsessed with the "talkies" (who also happens to be in charge of the farm's bull). Even the names will make you laugh: Ada Doom, Elfin, Urk and the cows are Feckless, Pointless, Aimless and Graceless while the bull is Big Business. This book is just great fun! It's a shame that Gibbon's other works are no longer in print.

Friday Favorite

My favorite read this week is Alice Walker's "The Color Purple." This is primarily the story of Celie, a poor Southern black woman, struggling to escape degradation and abuse at the hands of the men in her life. The story is told through letters: Celie's letters to God, her letters to her sister Nettie, and, ultimately, Nettie's letters to Celie. Celie's trouble's really begin when she is raped, repeatedly, by her stepfather who then sells off the children Celie bears. Nettie runs away to avoid the abuse. The stepfather then marries Celie off to Albert, who Celie refers to simply as "Mister." 

Celie is helped along the road to salvation by two strong women: Sophie, who refuses to be taken advantage of by any man (including Celie's stepson) and Shug, an independent singer, who Albert loves and Celie soon comes to love. When Shug discovers that Mister has been hiding Nettie's letters to Celie for years, it unleashes a fury in Celie that leads her to finally declare her independence. The story has an authentic folk tale feel while also being intensely emotional and poignant.

The book was quite controversial, when it was published, because of it's portrayal of black men. The book also deals with racism and touches on homosexuality. Despite the controversy, the book won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1985, Steven Speilberg turned the book into a movie starring Whoopie Goldberg as Celie, Oprah Winfrey as Sophia, and Danny Glover as Albert. The casting created a stir of it's own, but both Winfrey and Goldberg delivered splendid performances.

Whoopie Goldberg as Celie in the movie adaptation of The Color Purple

Friday Favorites

It's a two-fer this week on Friday Favorites! In honor of Frank McCourt, who recently passed away, I wanted to talk about "Angela's Ashes," McCourt's Pulitzer-prize winning memoir of his life growing up in Limerick, Ireland. I recently wrote that this is one of my all-time favorites. The McCourts had emigrated to the U.S. but returned to Ireland after Frank's sister died. Things progressively got worse for the family. McCourt's anger with the Catholic church, his father, poverty, and even his mother (Angela, for whom the book is titled) is evident throughout the book. But he writes without sounding bitter and is even able to find forgiveness. The story is written with a lot of humour, despite the bleakness of the family's day-to-day reality.


A book that's much less on the public's radar (but certainly deserves to be better known) is "The Invisible Wall" by Harry Bernstein, who wrote that book (and it's sequel) when he was in his 90's. Bernstein also grew up in abject poverty and was also the son of an alcoholic father. But Harry was Jewish and lived on a street, in an English mining town, with an invisible wall down the center of it. On one side of the street lived the Jewish families and one the other side were the Christian families. Although there were actually things that each side needed the other for, there was as little intermingling as possible. Then Harry's sister did the unthinkable--she fell in love with a Christian boy, sparking both a family and neighborhood crisis. Although Harry does not tell his story with the wit of McCourt, the story is told with eloquence and draws the reader in. Average rating for this one is 4.5/5 stars amongs the reader reviews on Barnes & Noble's web site.

Thanks to Alyce from At Home With Books for introducing me to the idea of My Favorite Reads!

Friday Favorites

Two new favorites this week. I discovered, a few weeks back, Learnoutloud.com while searching for free online books to listen to. This site has links to all of the Librovox books as well a many other sites for classic books and a lot of great links to author speeches. So far I've been listened to Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome," Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer," William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet, and an wonderful speech by Isabel Allende among others.

Since the fall, I've been reading more and more book blogs, hence the inspiration for me to start my own. I've now lost track of the number of blogs I'm following. There are some really great places to get book reviews, learn about new books, read author interviews and even make new friends. Coming in September, there will be a whole week devoted to book bloggers. For more information, check out http://www.bookbloggerappreciationweek.com. Here's some information from the site:

Last year over 400 blogs came together to celebrate the art of book blogging during the first ever Book Blogger Appreciation Week! I am so pleased to announce that the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week will be taking place September 14-18.
WHO Anyone who blogs about books is invited to participate. In fact, we want everyone who blogs about books and reading to be a part of this week!
WHAT A week where we come together, celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers in promoting a culture of literacy, connecting readers to books and authors, and recogonizing the best among us with the Second Annual BBAW Awards. There will be special guest posts, daily blogging themes, and giveaways.
WHEN September 14-18, 2009
WHERE Here at the new Book Blogger Appreciation Week Blog! (Please note that this year there are three separate blogs and feeds—one for the main event, one for giveaways, and one for awards.)
WHY Because books matter. In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word. I, Amy, the founder of Book Blogger Appreciation Week love this community of bloggers and want to shower my appreciation on you!

Friday Favorite

I'm really stepping back down memory lane this week with my Friday Favorite, actually favorites. I know I can't be the only person that has fond memories of the Dick and Jane series of books which taught children to read for over forty years. In fact, there are so many people that learned to read with Dick, Jane, their sister Sally, Father, Mother, and their dog Spot, that a number of publishers have republished some of the books.

In 1996, Harper Collins published "Growing up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream." Barnes & Noble's site says: "Here's your chance to step back into the innocent watercolor world of Dick and Jane, where night never comes, knees never scrape, parents never yell and the fun never stops. And side by side with the story of Dick and Jane is an entertaining and informative text that tracks important historical, social and educational events of the "Dick and Jane era." I love the way this book took me back to my childhood when life was almost as carefree as it always was for Dick and Jane.

Friday Favorite

My Friday Favorite this week is William Styron's "Sophie's Choice," which was made into an equally wonderful movie starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. This is really three stories wrapped into one. It's the story of a young Southern man, Stingo, who moves to New York with aspirations of becoming an auther. He moves into a boarding house where he meets the charismatic Nathan and a Polish immigrant, Sophie. The relationship between Nathan and Sophie is the basis for the second story and Sophie's past is the basis for the third story. I just found the characters in this book to be incredibly well-written and Styron writes about the anguish of the characters in a way that really kept me glued to the book. In chronicling Sophie's past and how it affects her in the present, Stryon has written one of the great Holocaust novels.

Out this week is a meta-list of the Top 100 books of all time compiled by Newsweek after they looked at lists put together from ten other sources including Modern Library and Oprah. Check it out here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204478/.

Literally just delivered to my door, a box of books I ordered from Barnes and Noble's clearance sale. I got: "Baker Towers" by Jennifer Haigh ("The Condition"), "P.S. I Love You" by Cecelia Ahern, "The Art Thief" by Noah Charney, "Things I Want My Daughters To Know" by Elizabeth Noble and "Heyday" by Kurt Anderson (of NPR fame). So excited to dig into them but must read through my library books first. Discipline is the order of the day!

Friday Favorite

My favorite this week is E. L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," a brilliant exploration of a moment in time. Doctorow weaves fiction and reality in this novel and explores issues that resonate even today. Weaving in historical figures, including Harry Houdini, Sigmund Freud, and J P Morgan, with some of the most memorable characters in literature, Doctorow explores racism, sexism and class structure at the turn of the last century.

In "Ragtime," Doctorow chronicles the lives of three families, initially telling them as separate stories then gradually weaving them together. The families include a rich white family, a black family from Harlem and a Jewish immigrant family. Jandy, at http://www.jandysbooks.com/, wrote this synopsis: Father runs a fireworks and arms factory in New Rochelle and Mother stays at home with their children. Mother's Younger Brother works for Father but has yet to find his purpose. Father is also a wanderer and joins Perry on a trip to the Arctic.
Mother's Younger Brother falls in love and thru his lover meets the widower Tateh and his daughter in the Jewish slums. But she is notorious. When Tateh discovers this, he and his little girl leave New York. After Mother's Younger Brother's lover leaves him for another man, he returns to New Rochelle still searching for his purpose. While father is gone a Negro girl, Sarah, and her newborn son are taken in by Mother. After a few months a Negro man starts visiting every Sunday. He is the baby's father and wants to marry Sarah. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a jazz musician from New York and owns an automobile that he drives back and forth to New Rochelle each week. Trains are king and automobiles are still a novelty. Racism gets ugly when some of the white men in New Rochelle decide they have to do something about that uppity Negro who drives through every week. No one could have predicted the results their nasty prank had.

Milos Forman directed a wonderful movie version of the book in 1981 which starred, among others, James Cagney, Mary Steenburgen and Mandy Patinkin. I highly recommend it as well. I've also recently picked up the book "American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century" which tells the story of several of the real characters in the book. I post a review on that when I finally get to that spot in my to-be-read pile!