Read it Forward is coming your way

Carrie Ryan, the author of The forest of hands and teeth will be at McNeil in April.  We're so excited to have her visit that we've purchased 150, yep, that's right, one-hundred-and-fifty- copies of the book and will randomly distribute them throughout the school for everyone to read.

Read it.
Pass it on.
Let your friends read it.
They pass it on...

We don't want to see those books again - we want everyone to read it and then meet the esteemed author.




Taken from Carrie Ryan's website:

"In Mary's world, there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death? "


More details later, Mrs. Bligh and I are cooking up ideas and fun activities to go along with the book - this is going to be fun!

Milline-hummm trilogy

Am I the only person in America not to be completely in love with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?  I am officially past page 100 and am still wondering what all the hullabaloo is about.  I'll most likely finish, it's not a poorly written book, I just don't think it's my cup o' tea.

On to something new

I'm starting with my new exciting book: You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know

This is the story of Heather Sellers who is "face blind".  She doesn't recognize faces; she can pass her own mother in the grocery store and know even know it.  She embraces strange men in the airport thinking they are her boyfriend (they are not, and he laughs as he watches this happen from afar).  Not only is she face blind, but her parents are both bat-crazy, which makes for a fascinating story.

I'm torn because I need good airplane reading for later this week, You Don't Look... or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? (Tattoo is paperback so it has that going for it).  Times like these, a girl wants a Nook.

Well, I handed off Surviving the Extremes to a friend who showed interest in reading it.  Since I was in the middle of two other books, I could afford to leave it for a while (also, I don't think we'll be using it for our read-it-forward after all).  Don't climb Mt. Everest and you're safer, I'm just sayin'.

Crazy: I liked the ending.  Jason totally needed to get out of that house with the crazy dad, no heat, no food and leaking roof.  I've probably ruined it for the one reader I have out there (who doesn't read y.a. lit anyway), but I found myself disbelieving that some of this.  What I find perhaps saddest of all y.a. themes, is the lack of a positive adult in many of these kids lives.  Then again, I suppose that does happen.  Push anyone?

I'm slowly making my way through Selected Stories - short story fans, I definitely recommend it!

A little bit about my reading habits

I'm a librarian so people naturally assume I read all the time.  They are partially right as in I am always reading something, however:

I rarely finish what I start reading. 

Here's the deal, life is short and there are A LOT of bad books out there.  Or rather, books I personally do not enjoy.  I'm a fan of Daniel Pennac's Readers Bill of Rights, my favorite two:

3. The right to not finish.
10.  The right not to defend your tastes.

With that in mind, the purpose of this blog is to keep a virtual list of what I'm reading (self-serving), keep everyone updated on the goings-on in the MN library and to start a dialogue with my fellow Mavs and colleagues.  I know you're reading out there and I want to hear from you!

Confession: I'm a book hoarder.  It's a good thing I work in a library.  I have access to absolutely every wonderful book imaginable, and yet I still use my public library for books and dvds.  My favorite public library dealio:

borrowing entire seasons of TV shows at once

None of this Netflix one-disc-at-a-time stuff.  On our last snow day I was able to watch an entire season of Rescue Me (yay!).  Though of course, that means I didn't get any reading done.

At any rate, right now I'm reading Selected Stories by W. Trevor; Crazy by H. Nolan; and  Surviving the Extremes by K. Kamler.


By the same token, if I'm not feeling the story: Next.

1. Crazy is a review book, this means I have to read it for work, basically.  Honestly, these are usually hit-or-miss.  (I  loved Nolan's Dancing on the Edge, which I read years ago and is why I selected her newest title.)  God love Jason.  He has a Greek chorus of imaginary "friends" in his head that both support and ridicule him.  He's not too far from having split personalities.  You try to be "normal" (quote, unquote) after your father tries to bury you alive.  His mother died recently and now Jason must live with and "protect" his mentally ill father.  A father who wears Viking helmets to chase away the Furies (for those not familiar with Greek mythology, be prepared for lots of references).  But who is there to protect Jason?  I'm anxious to finish this one.

2. Surviving the Extremes: What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Endurance is total guy book.  Written by Dr. Kamler, the vice president of the Explorers Club, this book examines what humans go through to conquer nature - or does it conquer us?  He saves lives (sometimes, sometimes not) as hikers explore Mt. Everest, others explore the outer most jungles of the Amazon, and other previously uninhabitable regions of the earth.  We're thinking of making this one of our next Read it Forward choices - chime in if you've read it and have an opinion, please!

3. Selected Stories: is wonderful.  Short stories fascinate me.  The author has to grab you immediately with both character and plot.  You're immediately put inside the head of your protagonist and you must instantly care what happens.  If a story is only 15 pages and by page 3 you dont' care, why bother?  Short stories are also an excellent choice for someone like me who has difficulty (at times) picking up a book again.  I can read a story, leave the book, return to it at my leisure and not worry about remembering what happened.  I'm starting all over again!

I think that's it for the day.  I have some technology to brush up on - it's not all about the books, you know.