Okay - I need a break from my email! There are days I yearn for years gone by (seems like eons ago, and yes, I feel that old some days!) when snail mail was the norm for communication with a phone call for emergencies. When I lived in Alaska and my kids were little I can remember writing long letters to both my mom and my sister-in-law who has kids only a couple months apart in age from Mary and Mic. Life was so much slower back then! No longer do I wait to hear the mailman go by, but I am sorely tempted to check every time I hear the "bing" that a new message has popped into my work email inbox. And, I don't even want to think of the thousands of emails in my yahoo account inbox. I haven't had time to check it in weeks. What wonderful discussions am I missing on adbooks and YALSA-bk? Too many electronic means of communication and not enough hours in the day!!

With that little tirade out of my system I now need a "book fix". More than a few of my YA literature students have read Anna Godbersen's Luxe http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Luxe/Anna-Godbersen/e/9780061345661 so I had to find out what they were so intrigued with and I gobbled it up in two sitting. Would have been one, but sleep won the battle during sitting one. A group of New York society girls fighting over the same guys - sounds like Gossip Girls, but so much better!! Well, better for those of us who love historical fiction and the glorious dresses and fancy surroundings described in detail. Oh, for the days of the floor length "bad girl" dresses Penelope Hayes wears and to be scandalized by a man's hand on a woman's ankle! Well, she, and other females in the book, did a whole lot more than let the "bad boy" Henry fondle their ankles, but the details are left for the reader's imagination to fill in whatever steamy detail desired. As the story ends with the "good girl's" funeral (no body to bury) and a smile on the younger sister's face as she enters the church, readers will go searching for Rumors http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Rumors/Anna-Godbersen/e/9780061345692/?itm=3 to find out what antics spicy little sister Dianna has up the sleeve of her ruffled gown. And, then reach for Evny http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Envy/Anna-Godbersen/e/9780061345722/?itm=1 to read to find out who really gets the "bad boy". I now have to go searching through my shelves to find the next two in the series as although I have read the reviews and I know who gets him, I want to know all the details of how she did and what she did to the other socialites to get him. Oh what a juicy read this series is!

Now, with a shake of my head - to clear the brain from scenes of 1899 New York City - I have to share Good Night Baby Ruby by Rohan Henry. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Good-Night-Baby-Ruby/Rohan-Henry/e/9780810983236/?itm=1 The very simplicity of Henry's drawings of Ruby with her spiral twists of hair standing on end and kitty, who may have caused some of the mess it appears Ruby created, will have parents and their little ones revisiting this book many times before baby eyes will close at night. The line drawings, with various pieces of clothing and other elements in the room in solid shades of pink, blue, red, and yellow, beg to be explored over and over - with little fingers pointing out details such as the yellow bee in the cloth book on the nursery floor, the floppy stuffed bunny's red nose, or kitty's pink tongue when she yawns. I absolutely adore this book! This is the first picture book by this author of Jamaican roots - but I say - More! More!

Okay - now back to my email!