I wish there were a mute button for cats! Sophie is in one of her whiny, talkative moods, especially in the morning. Thank goodness down pillows fold over your head easily and block out the worst of it. I really didn't mind getting up at 3:30 this morning to put her out, but being woke up a second time, out of a dead sleep, to insistent, angry meowing is not cool. I staggered/fell (easy to do with a four poster bed that requires a step for me to get into) out of bed and opened both the bedroom and bathroom doors. I figured Steve had either locked her in the bathroom by mistake, or out of the bedroom. Not the case - the fool was perched on the outside window sill of the bedroom window giving me the evil eye and meowing. If I weren't still half asleep I would have laughed myself silly as Sophie is no dainty kitty - she is a full bodied CAT!! How she could keep herself on that little window ledge is beyond me - maybe that is why she looked so pissed off. Now she is is curled up sleeping by my feet - the constant meowing is only for between 3 and 8 a.m.

I did a session at NCLA on new children's books and loved Isabel and the Miracle Baby by Emily Smith Pearce. The opening scene, with Isabel pulling the baby's hair because she is so upset and jealous about the addition to the family and to her room, stinky diapers and all, is very telling of Isabel's emotional state. This 8-year-old has been through a roller coaster of emotions as her mother has just completed chemotherapy for cancer and then has a baby. Mom still hasn't gotten her entire strength back and is still wandering around in the same bathroom and slippers she did when she was sick and this disturbs Isa terribly. Isabel's mother has the cancer ladies group at her house and Isa hears things that scare her as she hands out cookies and lemonade. As many children do, she starts acting out and rebelling as a way to deal with her fears and emotions. A beautifully written upper elementary novel. A must have in a 3rd-6th collection.

Happy Halloween! I have a bright orange shirt on to celebrate the occasion. Went for a short walk in the neighborhood yesterday and many of the houses are decorated. We had a headstone in the front but it disappeared - either the wind or someone who thought it was for the taking! We have a huge bag of candy in the kitchen so I sure hope we get lots of trick-or-treaters tonight so it is gone. We went on the Nutrisystem diet on Monday. Hmmm - I have put on 1/2 a lb.!!

Wow! I didn't realize my last posting was so long ago - October 11th. This month has flown by with NCLA and AASL back to back. October is gone. Not surprising as I can barely see any white space on my October calendar.

NCLA was wonderful. Our department had a booth in the exhibits area and we had lots of prior, current, and future students stopping by to talk and hang out. The preconference I presented went well. I normally speak to a mix of youth librarians from public and schools, or just schools, but this was all YA youth services librarians in public libraries. The discussion we had about adding urban literature to the YA collection was the most lively. I booktalked a whole bunch of new YA novels, mostly in the urban lit, urban fantasy, graphic novel, and chick lit genres. As always Meyer's Twilight series came up as extremely popular. I have the third one, Eclipse, next to the bed but need to finish a review book before I can dive into it. We were talking, at the AASL preconference I did the week after NCLA, about what fun it would be to develop playlists of songs the characters in the books would have on their Ipods. One of the participants said Meyer was one step ahead of us - there is a list of songs or what she calls a "soundtrack" for Twilight, are on her web site: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_playlist.html
How cool is that? I love the idea of teens creating playlists for characters in the books they read as they really need to have "bonded" with the character to do this well. Use the technology and music they love to draw them further into the book. Share the playlists on the library web site.

One of the graphic novels I highlighted in my sessions is Train + Train. Original story by Hideyuki Kurata and art by Tomomasa Takuma. This is a go!comic title and you can check out the other cool titles they have at www.gocomi.com. This manga title reads from back to front, right to left so I had a couple of stop/starts as I was reading. I am still not quite comfortable with this format - after all, I am old!! But, the story held me as I really wanted, and still want, to know what occurs on the Special Train, "an advanced education system". Set on another planet, rebellious Arena is set on getting onto the Special Train and shy Reiichi just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - near her! They are hand cuffed together and end up on the Special Train. Can't wait for the next volume! I also really like the section at the beginning of the book that explains what honorifics, such as chan, san, onii, etc. mean. For this novice manga reader, having this information really helped.

That's it for today - a gorgeous, though chilly, autumn day in Kentucky.

I am absolutely awful about getting on this blog as of late. Between doctors, physical therapists, and other appointments to figure out what is wrong with my neck and arm, as well as work commitments, there are not enough hours in the day. I cannot wait for the end of the month and NCLA and AASL to have come and gone. I always have fun presenting and attending sessions, but two conferences back to back right now is just too much for me. By the time I get back I won't need to wear a Halloween costume - I will look like an old crone!!

But, I am so excited I had to blog. IT'S A GIRL!!!
Mary just called me right after they got out of the ultrasound and told me the good news. Not until she had to give me a rough time by sadly saying, "Guess we will have to try again." I cried, "No!" in dismay and then she started laughing. So I knew she was kidding, but she had to reaffirm to me at least twice that my next grandchild is a girl!! I shrieked so loud in delight I think the guys working out on the street heard me. I know my son in law did as I could hear Scott laughing in the background too. All I wanted to do is call Mom to tell her but then I realized that she knew from conception that it was a girl - great-grammas know these things from heaven, I am sure of it. :-) We grammas on earth have to wait until the doctor tells the mommy. And to think that I had to wait for the full 9 months to find out what both of mine were. So, I can start little girl clothes shopping already. :-)

In anticipation I set aside I'm Going to Grandma's by Mary Ann Hoberman for the first time my new granddaughter comes to stay with us by herself. What a lovely book about the little girl who is excited about spending the night with her grandparents, until it is bedtime. She fears the bathwater might be too hot, but it's not. Even though she has her most favorite pair of pjs on she still feels funny and so does her bear. So her grandmother tells her about the first time she spent the night with her own grandmother and how the very quilt the little girl is laying under has a square of cloth from the very first dress her grandmother made for her when she stayed with her so many years ago. And, there would be more stories for her to tell each time she came to stay, one for each square in the quilt. I almost cried when I read this book as Mary has the quilt I made for her brother Mic when he was moving from the crib to make room for the new baby and into his own bed. He helped me pick out the squares from the leftover fabric from his clothes and from my maternity tops that I had made. I can touch each square in that quilt and a memory comes to mind and Mic does not seem so far away. As he would tell me, "Touch your heart Mom, I'm right there."

And, on that bittersweet note, I shall end this posting.

Once upon a time I had the goal of blogging at least every other day. That is a fairy tale these days with too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Spending way too much time in doctor's offices isn't helping any either. Saw my GP yesterday and she thinks the pain and numbness in my neck and right arm may be due to an artery problem. So now I wait to get in to the next specialist. The vertigo comes and go and the headache just never goes away, it just varies in intensity. So I and the pain pills wait for the next potential diagnosis. It is all happening to my right side. Mousing with my left hand is almost becoming easy!

Been busy working on the handout for a presentation on new children's books at the North Carolina Library Association Conference next month and came across a book that caused me to pause and say, "Oh my!" Run Far, Run Fast by Timothy Decker is a cross between a picture book and a graphic novel and addresses the bubonic plague but refers to it as the Pestilence. It is stunning in the sparseness of the text and the starkness of the black and white line drawings. The left side of the page has a larger illustration and the hand written text. The right side of the page looks more like a graphic novel with the illustrations adding depth to the story of a ten-year-old girl who is sent away by her mother when the Pestilence visits their home and her father gets sick. They are boarded into their home, but the mother pulled lose a board and pushed her daughter out. The girl wanders past a monastery and walked all the way to the sea but the Pestilence had made it there before her. Travelers on the road sometimes help her but it isn't until the man who narrates the tale meets her in the forest and offers to help her and her little brother that she has a future. It is a gentle but very arresting tale. I can't get it out of my mind. I find myself picking it up over and over as it is so unique. Is this a children's book? I don't think so, but what a great resource to introduce the Middle Ages and the Plague to middle school and older.

We finally got rain today. It was wonderful to see it come down for more than a few moments. It has been such a dry summer the trees have lost some of their leaves already. Our neighbors' birch trees lost most of their leaves last month. The weather has been very hot again but it is supposed to cool of into the 70s this weekend. We went down to the reenactment of the battle between the Indians and settlers at the Boonesborough settlement last weekend and it was a lot hotter than it should be for this time of the year. We wandered through the fort but left before the actual reenactment as I hate loud noises and there was going to be a lot of that. I enjoyed listening to and watching the spinner and weaver, but most of it was gift shop type places. People were walking around in time period clothes. One of the male Indians had the funniest looking leggings on - he looked like he had bumblebee legs! Made me think of the Renaissance fairs I have been to in the past and loved, but a different atmosphere. Came home smelling like wood smoke. Made me lonesome for the smell of woodsmoke rising from the sauna in the evening when I was growing up. Mom also cooked on a wood stove so the kitchen often smelled of woodsmoke. I wonder if I went to school smelling like woodsmoke and didn't know it. I close my eyes and smell her homemade bread though, not woodsmoke. Selective memory!

Sorry it has been so long since I have written an entry. What a couple of weeks it has been. I drove over to Greenville last Thursday for our Library Science Program retreat on Friday and since we had meetings on both Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed in NC. Worked out well as I forced myself to spend the entire weekend and Monday in my office getting the handouts ready for the YA Lit Preconference at AASL in Reno next month. I am printing out the 27 page "booklet" as I type this. One last editing go through and it can go in to the AASL office on Monday. I am going to let it sit on my desk until Sunday to edit it as I am terrible at catching my own errors. Not a problem catching my students' errors, but own - forget it, at least if I try to edit right after I write. I try to tell my students to get someone else to edit for them if they can. We are our own worst editors.

The drive home Wednesday was a killer. I didn't get in until about 1 a.m. Thank goodness for audiobooks to keep me focused and alert while I drove. The last hour into Lexington was tough as all I could do in yawn, even after drinking Diet Coke all the way over. I finally got in to the chiropractor's for a massage and adjustment this morning. It hurt so good! The vertigo had come back while I was in Greenville and I was having balance issues again. Seems to happen when I drive for the long stretches like I did. We'll see if today's adjustment took enough pressure off the nerve so I will quit feeling like I am going to fall over when I try to bend over.

Had a great time at the ECU Pirates football game on Saturday night. Jami, one of the other LS professors, invited me and I wasn't sure what to expect as I had never been to a college football game before. It was great fun shouting "ARGGH!!" and making a hook with the pointer finger and thumb when the Pirates got a first down. So I told Steve we need to get tickets for the UK football season next year. It is a lot more fun than going to the Texans games - we had seasons tickets the first two years. I spent as much time people watching as game watching at those games. The ECU game was sold out and the stands were filled to the brim, with one whole side of the stadium taken up by student seating.

Haven't had much time to read but I did listen to two really good audiobooks. I collect Mary Higgins Clark's Christmas books so I know what her writing is like and enjoy her mysteries. No Place Like Home was no exception. Can you imagine a young girl shooting her mother by mistake while trying to protect her from an abusive stepfather and then being called Lizzie Borden because she shot him several times. The sleazeball didn't die and made it out to be that it was premeditated murder by Liza, who in reality was so traumatized she didn't speak for months. Liza was adopted by a distant relative of her mother's and was raised in California, but returned to New York to go to design school. She was a well know interior designer, the widow of a wealthy older man, and the mother to a young boy when she was courted and married again. She had promised her dying husband that she would tell no one of her past as it could hurt his son's future. So, Liza does not tell her new husband and he ends up buying her the very house she shot and killed her own mother in. And, she is getting threatening notes. It is a great car trip book as you keep listening to find out. I had a pretty good idea who the culprit was but there were a few surprising. I think older teens would enjoy it as they could relate to Liza as a child. Will need to download a few more Higgins Clark to listen to in the car.

Also listened to Ursula Hegi's Sacred Time. At first I had a difficult time getting into it as although the narrator was supposed to sound Italian, he sounded Jewish to me. But, I did find myself getting drawn into the story of a close-knit Italian family where the protagonist's mother does not fit in. Although the narration switches between Anthony, his mother, aunt, and other characters, the story revolves around the day in the kitchen when Anthony convinced his mouthy cousin that she could fly. What happened that day changed all of their lives forever and no one trusted Anthony, especially himself. Anthony punished himself more than his family did and doesn't find redemption until years later when his 80-something year old mother, who is feisty enough to be taking self defense lessons, convinces him it is time to let it go. Will it be too late for his own marriage and his relationship with his son? The story is set in the 1950s, in the Bronx, so it has a flavor all of its own. Not sure teens would be interested in this book and there are some adult sex scenes I made sure my windows were closed when I listened to them. :-/ I am pretty careful with that after sitting at a stoplight with my car windows open while listening to a Stephen King audiobook - that's when I realized how many times the f-word came up in a matter of a minute or two! For that reason there is no way I would listen to Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Even though it is a YA novel and is an interesting book about two older teens who find each other while trying to avoid old flames, they can't utter a sentence without profanity in, mostly the f-word. I ignore the profanity when I read, but it is hard to ignore when listening to an audiobook.

All for today. The weekend is almost here and I am actually going to "play" this weekend instead of working 10 hour days. Steve wants to go down to a festival south of us so that should be fun.

It is hard to believe this is the 6th year anniversary of the attack on 9/11/01. Steve and I had been dating for just a short time when that happened and initially I thought he was in the World Trade Center when Mary called to tell me to turn the TV on and I saw the second plane hit. Based on the way I reacted just thinking Steve was there can only shadow how the people who lost loved ones in that disaster feel. There are no words to say how glad I am Steve is now my husband. I am blessed! Add a way cool daughter and wonderful grandkids to the mix and I am a very happy wife, mother, and grandmother.

Been working on the presentation handouts for the AASL conference in Reno and been reading graphic novels, chick lit, and urban lit. What a mix! I have Wild Ride: A Graphic Guide Adventure written by Liam O'Donnell and illustrated by Mike Deas next to me. It is an Orca title so it is set in Canada, but is a great addition to a MS collection. I love the color illustrations of the feisty female character and her determined little brother. On the way to visit their parents on a scientist expedition the siblings, another young teen, and an unscrupulous man are left to fend for themselves when the bush plane they are in goes down in a remote area. Reminiscent of Paulsen's Hatchet the group builds a shelter with saplings and branches, etc. Not only is this book an adventure it also teaches survival techniques for kids and teens who go camping or get lost in the woods. It also has an ecological message as the bad guy is interested in helping the company that wants to clear cut the area. Hand this one to the MS guy who says he doesn't read. :-)

All for tonight.

My desk in a box was delivered today. It sits in the middle of our entry way - all 200 plus pounds of it for Steve to put together. :-) I am hoping I will come back from Greenville next week to a L shaped desk set up in my office. Have to drive home Weds. afternoon after our meeting gets out as our dining room table and china cabinet will be delivered next Thursday. Then we will be pretty well set other than display shelving in the living room for our "stuff" that we have collected.

My mouth is on fire! I put together a Mexican casserole for dinner and made the mistake of using Steve's hot picante sauce in it instead of my mild sauce. Steve is loving it - not me! I don't care for spicy hot things. So, he is welcome to all of the leftovers. Guess that is good since I leave for Greenville in the morning. He can eat it to his heart's content!

Finally got caught up on email and grading after a long weekend in Branson, MO. The 9 hour drive over on Friday was kind of fun since we took the scenic route, but coming home on Monday I was so tired I kept nodding off and then waking up motion sick - happens if I close my eyes in a car. All I wanted was to crawl into my own bed and end the day! But, we did have fun in Branson. Steve hadn't been there in over 20 years so it had changed dramatically. He remembered Silver Dollar City as a place where local artisans set up and worked on their crafts so you could watch them. There were a few of those but mostly food concessions and touristy shops with the same stuff in each. He did not convince me to go on the water ride! We did go in a weird house where the floors were slanted - felt kind of like my vertigo! We saw the Presley Family show - no relation to Elvis. Four generations of the family on stage. Very musically talented family. Also saw Jim Stafford who was quite funny. His two kids were in the show and the boy was so tired he was yawning while playing the piano. Everything is Branson is very G rated - the perfect place to take your kids on vacation. Lots of Go-Kart places and put-put golf, etc. The evening shows are all G rated too. Lots of elderly there as well.

I received several Richard C. Owen Publishers author autobiographies and sat down to read them right away, diving into George Ancona: Self Portrait because I so enjoyed the short conversation I had with him years ago, as well as his books. This autobiography is so cool as many of the pictures he took of himself using a mirror. The process Ancona uses to design his books is very interesting. Great book! Also enjoyed Jim Arnosky: Whole Days Outdoors as he reminded me of a kid in a man's body - the need to be outside as much as he can. He writes or draws for short periods of time and then goes outside. I have a much deeper appreciation for his books after reading this autobiography. The Owen series of author autobiographies should be in every elementary school library. One of my favorites is an older one in the series, Lee Bennett Hopkins: The Writing Bug. I would share it with the students after reading some of his poetry. They loved the photographs - made him real to the kids.

All for today. Need to get my stuff together so I can head out of here first thing in the morning.

Taking a break from my urban lit research to blog for a bit. This research is very interesting as these books are filled with sex, drugs, and violence due to the ghetto settings. And, it is no surprise that teens are eating them up, especially black males between 16 and 25, a group we often think of as nonreaders. Urban lit makes up a large part of the African American Booksellers sales and some of these books are being self published and promoted - to the point of the author selling them out of the back of his or her car. These are young authors who know about marketing and how to sell things on the streets. Not exactly the process for getting a book published that many of us think of.

Finished reading Get More by Nia Stephens, the third title in the Boy Shopping series, which the back cover touts as an interactive novel. It reads like those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" titles. But, instead of choosing an adventure, Briona, who looks very much like Beyonce, is choosing between three boys she has met online. As a reader you can choose if she continues to date the guy or not. I picked this book up thinking it would fit into the urban lit genre but it really is chick lit. Rich teenage girl who divides her time between a fancy Manhattan apartment with her model mother and in LA with her rap video producer father. She's been in some of her father's videos and has had a few bit parts in movies, but she doesn't get the part in a teen soap opera because she doesn't know what love is. Well, not sure how many 17 year olds do, but Bree is intent on finding out and is seeking a guy who will love her for herself, not for her money, family, or fame. Chick lit used to be lily white but more and more chick lit titles have black or Hispanic protagonists. This series is a perfect example of the changes that are occurring in chick lit. Good changes! This is a Dafina Books for Young Readers, which is part of Kensington Publishing Corporation, one of the largest publishers of urban lit. www.kensingtonbooks.com.

Did not get to read last night as I hoped as I was in too much pain to concentrate. Steve is so sweet - he found our copy of Casablanca and we watched that together while I curled up under an electric blanket with a heading pad behind my head. I went to the dentist yesterday morning knowing I had a filling that had to be replaced in my bottom right molar, realizing it was possible it would end up as a root canal and crown. Well, the filling the island dentist had put in was so poorly done that the inside of my tooth had continued to decay. The dentist took a digital picture of it and showed it to me - gross!! There wasn't enough tooth left to put a crown on so the dentist pulled the tooth. Even being totally numb from the Novocaine that wasn't much fun and much less fun when the Novocaine wore off. So I am back on painkillers and an antibiotic as I have one huge hole in the back of my mouth. She asked me if I wanted her to take a pic so I could see the crater - I said no thank you!! Now if it had been Mary, she would have loved it. When she was in school she would call and delightedly tell me about what she had seen in surgery. I would not make it in any medical profession - weak stomach! So next month I will go back to the oral surgeon who took out my wisdom teeth to start the process of an implant. They literally put a screw into the bone in your jaw. Oh yuck - I need to quit thinking about this. A friend reminded me today that all of these health issues started since we moved to Lexington, but I haven't been happier with where we live than I am right now so go figure! We are supposed leave to tomorrow for a couple of days in Branson, MO but I am not sure I am up for the 9 hour drive over there right now. Maybe a good night's sleep might change my mind. Last night both the cat and my "lack of tooth" woke me up.

What fun I had this afternoon! I worked with two Freshman English groups who had read Graham McNamee's Acceleration for their summer reading requirement. In both groups I had two very verbal boys who had me laughing out loud a number of times. I was delighted to see girls in both groups, who had opinions and comments about the book and the main character's actions as well as questions about secondary characters. Tates Creek High School library is so cool! They have their own little coffee cafe where hot chocolate, coffee, tea, etc. is sold for $1 each. That's where my groups met. They also have a quiet reading area set aside with a rocker and other comfortable seating. Their color scheme is shades of purple and it works great. I could have spent hours in that library and most likely will now that I know how to get there!

Then I drove to the correct mall to see if the china cabinet I like is still on sale. I tried to do that yesterday but went to the wrong mall. After walking around the Fayette Mall Dillards and unable to find the door to the mall hallway I was looking for I asked for help. The salesman was amused but very nice to me when he explained I was in the wrong mall. I couldn't do anything about it then as I need MapQuest directions to get around Lexington still and I had gotten to that mall with directions from downtown where I had picked up my personalized license plate: FNSISU - Finnish sisu! I had directions to get home, but not to Turfland Mall. So I went today and the sale wasn't still on. Guess I will wait and see if they have a Labor Day sale. We bought a dining room table from there on Saturday and I should have just bought the china cabinet as it was 30% off the sale price, just like the table was.

Have a stack of Bearport books next to me, a cool children's non-fiction publisher with titles that will be a real hit with kids in elementary school libraries. Their books are similar to Capstone books in relation to the high quality of the color photographs. I have Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts: Super Bowl XLI, which has really great action shots, in my lap. I was reading through it while watching football last night. The text is not extensive, but that is not the point of these books. They pique the interest of the young reader and/or the resistant/reluctant older reader to get involved in the book, even if it is only reading the pictures and a bit of the text. They also help readers understand the purpose of a table of contents and index. Most of the Bearport titles also include glossaries and all have a link on the Bearport website: www.bearportpublishing.com. My favorite of the titles I have read is Meish Goldfish's Gray Wolves, a title in the America's Animal Comebacks series. The photographs of the wolves are excellent and I love how the text addresses the need for wolves to wean out the weak and old. When we lived in Alaska I saw a wolf in the wild and it was so incredibly beautiful and big! At that point, back in the late 70s and early 80s, they were shooting them from small planes because they were eating dogs off of chains in people's yards. They were not endangered in Alaska but people from the Lower 48 couldn't understand that. Anyway, the bindings on these books are strong and the series cover subjects both in the curriculum and those that interest kids - sports and dinosaurs, etc.

All for today - I should say so, it is almost 7:30. Having a "flexible schedule" just means we work longer hours!

I'm a happy camper - Steve came home and did something to make the wireless connection for the printer work from my laptop. I am still having problems since I caught that lovely computer virus while we were in Mexico. Sooner or later we are going to have to just purge the hard drive and reload my software, but I don't have another computer to use so I can't afford the time to leave it to be worked on at ECU.

I started doing some research on urban lit. Wow! Some of this stuff reads very close to porn. I found a few sites with excerpts and was almost blushing and I was alone in my office! Trying to find good YA level titles isn't as easy as it looks. But I am learning a lot! I found that very little of the urban lit is published by mainstream publishers. No surprise there. Not as easy to find, but worth the search. I picked up a couple of titles from series I hadn't heard of before when I was at Barnes and Noble in Greenville. Can you believe I have still to set foot in the B&N here in Lexington? Weird! But, I am a regular in the Half-Price Books.

Matter of fact, that is where I found the audiobook version of Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle, which is one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. I was having a hard time turning off the car cause I wanted to hear more. I think part of it was because there were constant references to Alaska - the father in the book had been raised in an Inuit village and was harassed because of being white. I related to that from the two years we lived in Galena, an Athabascan Indian village on the banks of the Yukon back in the late 1970s. I was the Head Start teacher and went to training in Nome. I was the only white person there and certainly did not fit in. But, I did get a chance to try whale blubber - chewy and gross! And, an old Eskimo guy thought I was so white that he wanted to adopt me. Now I can smile about it but there were times I felt so out of place I wanted to just stay home. Then I had Mic and he was the hit of the basketball games we went to and was passed around the bleachers. I'd get him back and he'd smell like dried fish! His first winter outfit was a rabbit bunting with a fox fur collar. Still have the picture - he looked adorable!

Okay, back to The Tenth Circle, which is intended for the adult reader, but will have high teen appeal as it is about a Freshman girl who says she was raped by the boy who she was trying to get back as her boyfriend. Picoult pulls no punches about what happens at teen parties when parents aren't in attendance. But, this book is more about the aftermath of how Trixie is treated in school after she accuses Jason, a hot shot hockey player, of rape. From his point of view it was consensual and he figured she was out for revenge because he broke up with her. Trixie's father is a stay at home dad and graphic novel artist and the mother is an English professor. The title comes from her obsession with Dante's The Inferno. The perspective shifts among the people involved, including the police officer who is intent on finding out what really happened the night Trixie ended up at the hospital, as well as what happened on the bridge the night Jason's hockey career came to an end. Add the mother's affair with one of her students to the mix and you have a very intense dysfunctional family situation that the vicarious listener/reader just can't walk away from until he/she knows what "really" happened, if that is possible. I find Picoult a fascinating author as she most often writes about teens but she isn't writing for teens.

Now for dinner - pepperoni pizza with black olives and no cheese.

Eighteen hours of driving and two days of meetings later I am back home. The trip to the chiropractor was much needed today as my neck and shoulders are very sore from the driving. But, no signs of the vertigo - yahoo!!

Isn't it interesting how messy a house can get when only a guy is in it? I got home at 10:00 last night to a sink full of dishes and a full laundry hamper. So, those chores got done today while I caught up on email and other "stuff". My 3 days of snail mail is still sitting on the kitchen counter. I will get to that this evening.

Sitting next to me on the desk is an advanced reading copy of Alex Flinn's Beastly, which will be out from HarperCollins in October. Flinn has delved into the Beauty and the Beast lore and made it her own with this captivating modern retelling. The beast is the self centered preppie, Kyle, who gets turned into a beast by a witch he plays a very mean prank on concerning taking her to dance at their exclusive private school. But, no one is more self centered and self serving than his TV anchorman father who is more concerned about what having a beastly son may do to his own image. So he basically imprisons Kyle in a home no where near Manhattan where he might be seen by the beautiful people. Kyle is left with the housekeeper and a blind college student who is to be his tutor. In his boredom, and with a basically unlimited credit line, Kyle creates a beautiful rose garden in the tiny plot of ground behind the house and creates a beautiful environment for - you guessed it - his Beauty. But, she would not have been his type before he became beastly. Kyle learns the true meaning of beautiful - oh yes, this knowledge comes with their time together as he matures into the man he will become. An absolutely delightful urban retelling of a story so mature in theme that every time I think of Disney and those d--n dancing teacups I could scream! This is a coming of age story, not one for our toddlers. And, Flinn has given it back to us as a modern coming of age tale, beastly and beautiful, all at the same time. A YA novel for every collection.

All for today.

At last - rain! It thundered like crazy last night and then the rain came. I could hear the grass and bushes sighing in relief! It was 104 degrees outside yesterday when we drove to Lake Cumberland, with the top down on Steve's car. We were both drenched in sweat, but what great fun, with Gordon Lightfoot on the stereo. For such a large lake, we didn't have much luck finding it! We saw glimpses of it in places and found a boat landing, etc. but there wasn't much to look at since the water level is so low. I was not very impressed, but I grew up in Upper Michigan, just minutes from a swimming lake and a short drive from Lake Superior. So, these man made lakes from dammed up rivers just aren't real lakes to me.

Had an early Christmas when boxes of books from Scholastic arrived. To keep myself in the mood I have Scrooged on in the background. Every time I see it (well, actually listen this time) I catch something I missed last time. I rarely ever just sit and watch a movie - I am always doing something else at the same time. Seems like such a waste of time! But, there is never a bad time to watch a Christmas movie. Steve has been teasing me there is no place in the living room for the Christmas tree. Well, it is going to go in the dining room this year, since it is empty at the moment. Haven't found the "perfect" dining room set we can afford yet.

Oh yeah - back to the boxes of books from Scholastic. I had Christmas on the mind! I grabbed one of the Bluford High series to read right away as I have been hearing good things about this series based on a group of African American teens who attend a high school in urban California. I read Payback, which is about Freshman Tyray Hobbs, a bully who loses his power when one of his victims gets the best of him with a wrestling move and knocks him to the floor of the cafeteria, with the rest of the his victims watching. Everyone is delighted, but Tyray. Intent on getting his power back, Tyray lies and steals to get the money for a gun so he can intimidate the other students, especially Darrell, the wrestler. Raised in a family where the father is a big bully himself, Tyray knows no different. Well written, no. Didactic, yes. But, worth having in a JH and HS collection - yes. This series address issues that inner city teens deal with, but the short and easy to read titles are minus the street language that causes many of the other contemporary teen titles to be an issue in some high schools. The reading level is low enough for even the most reluctant/resistant reader.

Okay - now to go through paperwork, print out meeting agendas, etc. to get myself ready for the trip to Greenville.

Up early this overcast Thursday morning. Steve was out turning the sprinklers on at 7:30, trying to give our new bushes and the grass a drink before it gets too hot. It was 102 degrees on my car thermometer yesterday. Took a long time for the car to cool down. I wish this heat would end. Our poor little spruce tree we planted out front is looking pretty pathetic. Only green on the very top these days. We may have to replace him.

Spent most of yesterday cleaning up in this office trying to find the floor so that Steve can put my desk in here, if it comes while I am in Greenville. We aren't having great luck with shipments. Our bedroom furniture took three attempts before we got it all undamaged. The driver told me the desk was damaged and I should refuse it, so I did. I want to get my office set up so I can actually do some writing and lay things out. I have piles everywhere since I have no desktop space right now.

I did find my copy of Chris Crutcher's Deadline and read it, almost in one sitting. You know from the start that Ben is going to die, but you still want to find out the ending. I know that sounds weird, but only by reading the book can you understand that comment. Ben is such a fascinating, quirky young man who approaches his impending death as the way to take the chances he would not have otherwise. He's a little guy but goes out for football and plays next to his quarterback brother Cody. He goes after the girl of his dreams and gets her. For a guy who is dying, Ben has a pretty good life. Too bad he hasn't told his family or anyone else in his personal life that he is dying. Even the therapist the doctor insists he see bails on him. He's too much for her to handle emotionally. So, Ben talks to Hey-Soos, the guy he meets in his dreams who looks a lot like what he thinks Jesus might and a bit like himself. You gotta love Hey-Soos' attitude! And he seeks out Rudy, the town drunk, who has a signed copy of Malcom X. Rudy turns out to be much more than Ben bargained for when he opens up about his past and why he stays drunk most of the time. As always, Crutcher throws a kitchen sink full of teen/family/social issues into this book, from mental illness, to racism, to child sexual abuse, but it all works because Crutcher is a master at crafting the teen issue/problem novel. One of my favorite new titles so far. It's a Greenwillow/HarperCollins title and will be out in September 2007. A gotta have in any teen collection, public or high school.

That's it for today.

Where did this day go, let alone the whole weekend. I am losing time too quickly! Fall semester begins on Monday for me. Actually on Sunday as I will drive over to Greenville the day before. One meeting after another all day Monday and 1/2 of the day on Tuesday and then I will head back home. So, I need to take advantage of this week and have a little fun between the chiropractor visits! I am learning to left hand mouse click to give my right shoulder a bit of a break as I spend so much time on the computer, which isn't helping the pinched nerve much. But, I can't say that is "fun".

Just got back from Kohl's and Old Navy. Our granddaughter Allyson starts K next week and she is excited. Decided she needed some fun clothes so I headed out shopping. Will have to show them to Grampa Steve tonight and then Gramma Ruth (me) will get them UPSed out tomorrow so Monica can bring back what doesn't fit. Wish I could have had Ally with me while I was shopping. That would have been more fun. I remember enjoying school clothes shopping when Mary and Mic were little, but Mic was always more picky than Mary.

I spent most of my weekend in the closet - literally! Now that we have bedroom furniture with drawers I had no excuse but to get things put away. You could barely get into our walk-in closet with all the stuff in there. Had to buy another over the door rack for my shoes. It seems as I get older and heavier I buy more shoes than I do clothes! I guess they are easier to fit. Mostly all summer shoes as I tend to wear boots all Fall and Winter. With as hot as it has been here I am looking forward to Autumn and the cooler temperatures.

Along with cleaning I did get a bit of reading done this weekend and finished Gail Giles' Right Behind You. The story starts out in rural Alaska, with a young boy grieving the death of his mother and boiling with anger over what he can't have because of where they live and his father's harsh treatment toward him since his mother died. They are both too deep in grief to realize something is ready to explode and it is Kip who loses it when the neighbor boy taunts him with his baseball glove. Kip is angry, way too angry to be near gasoline. He wanted to destroy the glove so he threw the gasoline on Bobby's glove, but it also got on his arm, his chest and his face. When the lighter sparked in Kip's hand it was too late to take back his anger. He had killed a 9 year old boy and no one in Alaska is every going to let him forget that, least of all Kip. Kip is now a teenager and his family has grown to add a stepmother and they have left Alaska and he has a new name, but a new name is not enough for Kyle let his inner Kip let go of his self loathing and guilt over what he did. The steps, wrong turns included, this teenager takes to come to terms with what he did and how it will impact his life forever is both raw and touching. As a mother I just wanted to reach out and hug this kid, realizing that he could be any one of our children whose anger got the best of them and a stupid response cost someone else their life. As always, Giles goes for the jugular and doesn't let go until the end. I will most definitely be booktalking this one. It is a Little Brown title and should be out next month, September 07.

Now to go open the two boxes of books that came from Scholastic. :-) I am sure I will add many more to my "gotta read" pile.

Heat advisories in effect for Lexington - in the low 100's, but I just put socks on to keep my feet warm! Turned the air down from 75 to 78. Steve is normally too warm and I often have a flannel shirt on over my t-shirt so when he is gone the temp. goes up! But, on the other hand, I can't handle the extreme heat either. So I am happy here in my little office for now. Will work on Fall courses until I go the chiropractor and get some relief from this headache. Vertigo is still trying to raise its vicious head but I am dealing with it.

Finished Patrick Jones' Chasing Tail Lights last night, which is set in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan so the cities below the bridge were as far away as another state. We spent more time in Wisconsin and Minnesota than Lower Michigan, until my older brothers went to college and moved down to Troll country - below the bridge. Jones opens the reader's eyes to what it is like growing up in a poor urban white, very dysfunctional family. Christy has two older brothers and a little sister - all with different fathers. Christy misses her trucker father who has died and often thinks of him telling her that, sometimes when you are lost, chasing the tail lights in front of you will take you were you want to go. Christy spends a lot of time on the over pass chasing tail lights in her mind, wanting to get out of town and away from her life. When her best friend Anne gets a car they do literally chase tail lights, but they never get far out of town. Christy has had a crush on the same guy for years, but she won't talk to Anne about sex. For good reason - she has been abused by her older step-brother for years. Through the use of flashbacks, Jones takes the reader back through Christy's life so we can see the hell she has lived with and how she blames herself for what is happening to her. It takes a caring teacher who also grew up in urban poverty to help Christy stand up for herself and ask for the help she needs. Jones pulls no punches when he addresses the issue of sexual abuse, but he does not include graphic descriptions of the abuse, which make the incidents even more intense in their starkness. I found myself holding my breath as I was relating to Christy's connection of smell to her step-brother's abuse. The teacher's dialog gets a bit "preachy" at times and the repetition of "chasing tail lights" can be distracting, but overall this is an excellent novel to add to a YA collection. This is a Walker title that should be out sometime this month. The short interview with Jones in the back is an interesting addition and offers the reader some insight into the author, who many of us know as one of the best YA librarians on the planet. :-)

Another week is upon us. Where has this summer gone? Just got a reminder that I will be leading a book discussion group for Graham McNamee's Acceleration later this month at Tate's Creek HS here in Lexington. Their librarians are really proactive and a fun group of ladies to work with. Can't wait to meet some of the teens. I have to put a group of discussion questions together for our group time and I can't help but wonder if any of the other readers screamed at Duncan, "This is no stereotypical horror movie, don't go down those stairs!" Don't you just hate it when you are watching a suspenseful movie, especially teen horror movies, and the character walks right into what is certain terror or death? Me - I'm a wimp. Unless I had to go in there to get a loved one, there is no way I'd go down those cellar stairs!

Really wish McNamee's Hate You, written in 2000, would come back in print. Seventeen year old Alice has been writing songs that no one, even she, can sing. Stepping in between her father and mother when he was strangling her, 10-year-old Alice took the brunt of his anger instead and has badly damaged vocal chords. Her hate for him has simmered all these years and has been written down in her songs. So how is she supposed to deal with a request to visit him now that he is dying of cancer?

Been reading the textbook I chose for my Materials for Young Adults course this semester and though I really like how easy it is to read and how accessible the lists of books are I am really disappointed in the definition of young adults as ages 11 through 18. So, a majority of the titles in the bibliographies are for tweens, not teens. It will work for the basics, but I need to rethink my textbook choice for Fall 2008. I am at the point where I would like to just write my own Materials for Older Young Adults textbook and be done with it. I guess if I had 48 hours in the day I might be able to do that. Oh well, enough complaining about that - it won't get my course online any quicker. Classes start already the 22nd! That is only 16 days away.

But, on the positive side, my darling husband left the reservations for our trip to Branson for Labor Day weekend on my computer to find this a.m. Friday through Monday. I am not even going to take my laptop or cell phone with me! :-) Need to start looking at who is playing during that time period. Steve doesn't want to go the Kentucky State Fair where all kinds of great country bands are playing including Rascal Flats. Oh well, I'll live, since I am not crazy about big crowds either.

On to working on classes until I get the sheer pleasure of a massage at 3:00 and then the chiropractor. I set my laptop on top of two reams of paper to put it up higher on my desk so that I am not looking down so much, which is killing my neck. I ordered a new L-shaped desk from Staples last night and Steve said he would get a nice big monitor for me when the desk comes in. :-) Not sure he is thinking about the fact that he is going to have to put this desk together.

Sitting here watching The Today Show. Couldn't miss Vince Gill and Amy Grant. I was a big Vince Gill fan back in the 90s but he kinda fell off my radar screen. Actually, I don't listen to music as much as I used to since I started listening to books in the car. That was my music time. But, I did order Alison Krause's new CD as I enjoyed the concert so much. Saw the coverage on the fiasco about Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's concert in Louisiana. Some woman grabbed him by the crotch and then another pulled a ring right off his hand. He literally stopped the show and had security search the area. Some how it ended up on the floor near the stage. Yeah - after the woman who pulled if off his hand dropped it. Faith didn't take too well to the woman fondling her husband and gave her a piece of her mind. She is one feisty woman!

Speaking of feisty women, I would have to add Gail Giles to that group. She was a hoot to listen to at the YALSA Preconference at the ALA Conference in DC. She didn't pull any punches about the difficulties of being a teen. Clearly she goes for the edginess of adolescence in her books. I finally read What Happened to Cass McBride? Very interesting book as it leaves you rethinking who is the victim, the girl in the box buried under the ground or the older brother of the suicide victim who put her there. And, rethinking just how deadly words can be, inflicting wounds that never heal over. Cass acknowledges she is a bit on the shallow side - she chooses the guys she dates dependent upon what they can do for her to build her college application content! She knows which guys to date to be voted Prom Queen, etc. She know what has to be done to keep in her father's good graces. He is as cold and slick as the black metal and glass furniture in their almost all white house. Cass is terrified but know she has to use her ability to manipulate a person and cause self doubt to get herself out of the box and in the process finds out the abuse that occurs in her abductor's family. Perhaps he is the victim after all. Gail has a way of going for the jugular and she does so again with this book. A great book to booktalk and can't wait to add it to my presentation notes. :-)

I think I may be seeing light at the end of the vertigo/headache tunnel. After going to the ear, nose, and throat specialist and not being able to get the symptoms to kick in while I was there, and being told I would have to wait at least 3 weeks to get in for the battery of vertigo/balance battery of tests, I was at wit's end. I woke up on at 2 a.m. Monday in so much pain that I was in tears. Decided to give up on the medical approach for now and went to a chiropractor. I was tired of being handed prescriptions for the symptoms and pain, with no "fix" in sight. I had great luck with chiropractic care back in Alaska and called for an appointment. I think it was fate as the closest one to us is Dr. Steven Book! How appropriate, a doctor named Book for a librarian. :-) A look at my MRI films from back in 2005 when I had headaches and numbness in my right arm and doing a new set of x-rays, the problem is in the same area of my neck. Always thought I was a bit "twisted" - now I know for sure I am! My spine literally turns to the right as it reaches my neck. The twist is causing the bones to pinch a nerve. So far so good - I am moving my neck much better and the headache pain is easing. And, though I have my fingers crossed, it is seems to be helping with the vertigo as well. In reality, he is doing pretty much what they did in physical therapy back in 2005, along with manipulation. I get a 1/2 hour massage later this a.m. before he tries to work on my neck for a bit. After basically losing my summer to the pain and vertigo I am frustrated as my lucid/awake moments were spent grading and interacting with my summer school students. So here it is less than 3 weeks before Fall semester starts and I have to get two courses online, both with new textbooks so I have my work set out for me. And there went summer 2007 for Ruth! I am trying to get myself psyched for Fall here in Kentucky with the beautiful color and cool weather when Steve and I can go on long walks - there are walking trails everywhere here in Lexington. They put one in right across the street from us that we haven't even explored yet. I miss being able to walk without worrying about falling on my face due to the vertigo!

All for now. Want to get a bit of work done before I head out to the chiropractor. Hopefully it will give me enough relief to get through the weekend.

When I finished sending out the last emails to my students late Friday afternoon Steve was coming in the door. I said I was ready to celebrate the end of a very long and arduous Summer Session of grading, vertigo, grading, oral surgery, grading, a wisdom tooth extraction site infection, grading, more vertigo, grading, a different wisdom tooth extraction site infection, grading, etc. In other words, it wasn't a fun 11 weeks! So, we went right down the street to The Bone Fish Grill. All I can say is, "Yummy!" We started out with crunchy breaded calamari with a delicious tart sweet and sour dipping sauce along with the regular marinara sauce. Then our journalism/psychology major at UK waiter brought us delicious bread - I wouldn't let him take the tangy sauce - I dipped my bread in it while Steve tried the oil and herb dip. I had Atlantic salmon with an Asian sauce - delicious. Along with a couple of glasses of white wine I was so full and satiated that I came home and vegged in front of a really cute 1999 movie with Hume Cronyn (who I adore - when he smiles how can you not? It goes right to his eyes.) called The Sea People. He and his just as elderly wife are sea people (they prefer not to be called mermaids, especially the men!) who are nearing the end of their years and it is time for the old man to return to the sea. Problems are arising because the water near where they are living is not cold enough. Enter a teenage girl, who is missing her father who is away on a job. She discovers their secret, along with a fisherman's teenage grandson - the very ones who can help them. I thought of my yummy salmon dinner as Cronyn comes out of the water with a fish in his mouth and spits it out because it isn't the type he was fishing for. And, heaven forbid, they learned how to eat fish cooked that evening at a beach bonfire with the the teens. I am not a sushi fan so their dislike of cooked fish cracked me up. I made the mistake of ordering my tuna cooked at a restaurant on Tortola and the chef came to our table and gave me heck about it. Was more than a bit embarrassing - not been a tuna fan in restaurants since then.

Yesterday was a truly lazy day. Spent it doing a bit of cleaning and working my way through the piles of "it isn't crucial" paperwork near my favorite chair. Did get the seashell adorned wreath for the master bathroom ordered from LL Bean so I can then match new carpets and a window shade to it. Decided, though I do not want to live in the tropics again until we truly retire, I miss it very much and need a bit of the ocean feel and colors around me. We have a number of tropical looking pictures and Steve gave me gorgeous tiles made from real shells pushed into them to make an imprint. They are going to go around the wreath above the jacuzzi.

Went to bed early and read a bit of Patrick Jones' Chasing Tail Lghts. Christy is a teen living in a Flint, MI home that most of us wouldn't wish on our worst enemy - dysfunctional is too kind of a descriptor! So she goes to the freeway and chases tail lights, the desire to get out of town. Her father once told her if you are lost to follow the tail lights in front of you and in most cases you will get where you want to go. I am only part way into the book, but I do like the way it jumps between Christy's earlier life, to help build foundation knowledge for the life she is living now and why those tail lights look so attractive.

Today has been catching up with emails and finishing up the paperwork for the Tennessee Association of School Librarians presentations in November. I'll be doing back to back booktalking sessions on MS and then HS books. Looking forward to attending this conference as TN is our southern neighbor state. Also read through the North Carolina Library Association Youth Services Section Chapbook which reminded me I am doing a morning preconference workshop on "hot formats"in teen literature on October 16th as well as a session introducing new children's books on Thursday at the North Carolina Library Association Conference in Hickory. The Fall is going to be a busy semester as I am also presenting a 1/2 day preconference and a session at the AASL Conference in Reno.

The 2007 winners of the North Carolina Children's Book Award Program were announced in the Chapbook:
Once Upon a Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley in the picture book category and A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M. Martin in the Junior Book category. No wonder so many of my students referred to these two books in their summer school assignments! The 2008 Nominee list is also included. Go to www.bookhive.org for more information and the lists. My vote for the 2008 award in the picture book category is Wolves by Emily Gravett, which I talked about in an earlier blog entry. My favorite for the Junior Book category is Jennifer Holm's Babymouse 1: Queen of the World. I just finished reading Camp Babymouse and found myself laughing out loud at this precocious mouse's antics at summer camp. She has the most delightful sense of humor! This sister and brother collaboration is a delight. The 8th episode in Babymouse's active life will be published soon. A perfect graphic novel series for elementary school - actually, for any age. I heard these are very popular in dorm rooms. I want a t-shirt with Babymouse on it! :-) Check out the cool website at: www.babymouse.com. There are some great tools on their for teacher - such as actual graphic novel pages students can make up their own stories on as well as posters that can be printed out etc.

Jen used to chat with my UHCL students in my YA literature courses as I am a big fan of her Boston Jane historical fiction series set in the Pacific Northwest. Most of you know her best for her Newbery title, Our Only May Amelia, which holds a special place in my heart as it is based on Jen's Finnish heritage. And, for her second Newbery honor book, Penny from Heaven, based on the other part of her heritage, which is Italian, and on her own mother's life.

A long post today to make up for the days without!

I have the perfect reason to work on a blog entry right now, actually two. One, I have caught up on my grading, at least until tomorrow. And two, I couldn't find all of the ingredients I needed for the casserole I planned on making for dinner so I headed back to my keyboard. Sure, Meijer is all of 5 minutes away, but the fluorescent lights in there set off the vertigo symptoms big time so I am not going up there. Steve is a better cook then me and we have leftovers too so I don't think we will starve.

Actually, I would like to be where I took this picture - sitting on the wall on the waterfront in Cozumel watching the sun go down before going into Guido's and eating the best calazone possible - no cheese and lots of sauce, pepperoni, mushroom, and black olives. Hmmm. I must be hungrier than I realized.

I would convince Steve we need to go out for dinner, but we did that last night before the Allison Krause concert, which was fantastic!!! (We went to Rumors, which I thought when we first moved here was a topless bar and couldn't figure out why we were going to lunch there!) Her incredible voice is even better in person. I had goosebumps when she sang her ballads. I think Steve like the guys' singing better as one of them is the voice over for George Clooney when he sang in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, one of Steve's favorite movie. "We thought you was a toad!" is a favorite line of his. Not that poor Steve could see. We had center seats several rows from the front, on the floor, so they were great seats, but a behemoth of a guy sat down in front of me and blocked out the view of stage completely with his big head and even bigger wide brimmed hat. Steve changed places with me and we talked, a bit loud, to the neighbor about my not being able to see, hoping the guy would take his hat off. No such luck so Steve mostly listened to the concert and fidgeted as he had an even bigger guy on the other side of him with thighs the size of a whole 30 lb. turkey, not just the leg! Those small chairs hooked together are not great seating for well fed and/or large muscled adults! Uncomfortableness aside the concert was superb and I loved Krause's very dry and deadpan sense of humor. She is a hoot when she talks. I'd put up with seats and go back tonight if I could. Now to purchase her latest CD. :-)

I know tweenage girls love Meg Cabot, but I will not be experiencing Princess withdrawal now that I finished listening to The Princess Diaries, Princess in the Spotlight, Princess in Love, and Princess in Waiting. Okay - that is enough for me, I get the idea that she is very insecure about her relationship with a non-noble and with her own nobility status. Actually, my favorite character is the French grandmother who looks and acts nothing like Julie Andrews. She has her eyebrows painted on and has a cigarette and drink in her hand 24/7. And, she is not above a little lie (heck - a big lie) to get Mia to do what she wants. The narrator's voice for Grand Mere (sp?) is hilarious and almost made listening to four of these tween novels worth it. Almost! By the time I got through the 4th I was shouting at the radio in the car - "Get a spine already!" Okay, so I had been on the road for several hours, drank way too many Diet Cokes, and had made my still sore jaws even sorer by eating crunchy Cracker Jacks! There are now 8 books about this clumsy insecure princess. In the latest Mia, as a junior, finds out her beloved Michael is going to Japan in Princess on the Brink. Not ready for the next 4 yet, so I guess I'll see if I can find any of Cabot's Mediator series titles on audio. :-) It is amazing what I find at Half Price Books and I haven't been up there in over a month. Oh dear, just thinking about it gives me withdrawal symptoms. Just think of all those cheap YA audiobooks someone else besides me bought! How could I let my scrunging for a good deal go so far between visits?

Steve came home, didn't smell any dinner cooking and headed out to mow the lawn. Hmmm. Wonder if that is good or bad news in relation to me getting out of cooking dinner. But, not much can ruin my momentary good mood since I am caught up on my grading! :-)

I have been so terrible about posting in the last 6 weeks since the vertigo hit. I am back in bed with it and it had better settle down as we have tickets to go see Allison Krause in concert tonight in Rupp Arena, where the UK basketball team plays. Steve can lead me in if I am still dizzy! This town is "Go Blue" crazy. I don't even wear my ECU t-shirts around here. I would rather be right in the middle of this picture than in bed! This is Guido's in Cozumel - my favorite restaurant in Mexico so far. And, it is Italian! The court yard is canopied by flowering trees. We ate there twice because I liked it so much.

I did booktalking presentations at the ECU Library Science and Instructional Technology COLRS workshop on Saturday. COLRs is an IMLS grant scholarship program for MLS students who plan to work in rural North Carolina schools. The participants were new scholarship participants and other students in the MLS Program. It was great to meet students in my courses. I feel like I know them from how active we are in the discussion boards, but it is always nice to hear their voices and see their faces. Two of my summer session Children's and YA Literature course were there and they were busy reading whenever they could as the semester ends this week. Thank heavens! I need to get the grading done and the grades posted so I can breathe a sigh of relief and take a few days off before I start setting up my Fall semester course sites. Of course, both courses I am teaching have new textbooks so my "pleasure reading" will be set aside for awhile to read the texts and prepare the new quizzes.

Steve's Mom is in the hospital and he was up in Kansas City while I was in Greenville and I drove back to KY prepared to feed the cat and get the next flight out of LEX into KC if needed. Thank goodness she is doing better. Don't know as I could have driven myself out to the airport with how bad the vertigo was on Sunday. I couldn't even get up to say welcome home when Steve got home from KC late that night. The MRI results came in Monday a.m. - negative, so the next step is an ear, nose and throat specialist to see if there is something going on in my inner ear. I get really frustrated with this all, but sooner or later we are going to get an answer. Steve is so sweet - he came home at lunch time yesterday to check on me as I was a real mess in the a.m. He brought me a Subway sandwich and a yummy cookie. And, he made dinner last night. I am getting so frustrated as I can't get out in the yard and put in more flowers and bushes. Or get my closet and drawers set up now that our bedroom furniture has all been delivered. I feel like life is going on around me and leaving me behind. I use what energy and time I have to grade and try to keep up with my students' emails. Not been a good summer!

Not much reading as I am sleeping so much because of the vertigo medication. But, I did finish listening to Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. It is a Holy Grail story with a twist - two story lines, with two women who may just be the same soul, if you believe in reincarnation as the early believers did in the medieval storyline. In 2005 an archaeological volunteer, Alice Tanner, stumbled upon the labyrinth cave, with two sets of bones, one of whom she shares dreams. This is a long listen - 16 CDs - but I loved learning more about medieval France and how the Inquisition was so strong in this area. Alice unearths relics that are links to the Holy Grail, which is not the cup we often think of and the mystery begins, with her being chased by two opposing groups who think she has the ring and/or the book that will help bring the Grail to life. Kept me listening to say the least! As far as teen appeal, the fact that Alais is only 17 at the beginning of the book may be appealing to older teenage girls, but this is not a quick read for anyone.

All for today.