Yesterday was like Christmas on the island for me - not only did we get 7 boxes of new books in at Montessori, the health food store had a shipment in of soy products so I savored soy yogurt for breakfast this a.m. Yogurt is the only dairy product I really miss because of being lactose intolerant. I like the rice and soy based "ice creams" better, but miss the creamy texture of Yoplait yogurt. It tends to be feast or famine on the island as far as stocked shelves - buy it when it is there as likely it won't be the next time you are in the store. So yesterday was a good "shopping" day. :-)

I just finished reading The Game of Silence, the sequel to The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Having grown up in Upper Michigan I enjoyed reading about the Ojibwe way of life in the 1800s. Omakayas, a young girl with the ability to dream the future, is the only survivor of a small pox epidemic and is a much loved adopted daughter to Yellow Kettle and Deydey. A great addition to a middle grades (3-6) collection.

My YA reading at the moment is Lori Aurelia Williams' Broken China, about a teenage mother whose two-year-old daughter dies and her life spirals out of control. I met Williams when her first book When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune was first published. She is a delightful woman and I enjoyed talking to her about Houston as that is where her books are set. I loved her debut novel and have recommended it to many people. The way the neighbor girl deals with sexual abuse by referring to the wolves in the walls and making up stories about being from another planet breaks your heart. William's second book is Shayla's Double Brown Baby Blues. William's has captured the life of the inner city blacks of Houston in her novels.

That's it for today.