A very dreary and chilly day - down into the 40s last night. We closed up the windows and put the down comforter back on the bed! BRRR!! I just ground one of the new flavored coffees Steve came home with for me. I'll get warm from the inside out.

Steve was up before 5:30 this a.m. and I woke up too so it is going to be a long day. I'd go take a nap but the cable guy is supposed to come some time today to switch out our cable box. I don't even know how to use it other than to turn it on and watch the channels I want - NBC news in the evening and my occasional favorite show - but Steve is a big TV watcher in the evening. He found the cutest Christmas movie that we watched last night - We're No Angels with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray. http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Were-No-Angels/Humphrey-Bogart/e/097360541441/?itm=1
A 1955 classic about three convicts who escape from Devil's Island and decide to rob the local island shopper keeper, but instead they end up being their guardian angels. The three use their "criminal talents" to add money to the cash register (Bogart can, and does, sell a silver brush set and hair tonic to a bald man), steal a turkey and even cook a Christmas meal for the family. They play match-makers for the daughter and Adolph, Aldo Ray's pet asp, takes care of the problem of Uncle Andre. What a great feel good movie. Steve is such a delight - he finds these little Christmas tidbits to share with me, even though he pretends he is a Scrooge and hates Christmas.

Speaking of tidbits, I often need to read graphic novel collections in small bits as I am not a big fan of the superhero comics. But, I did laugh out loud a couple of times over the play on words in Captain Carrot and the Final Ark. The title is but one of the zany episodes in this alternate Earth environment where Captain Carrot is the animal version of Superman. In one of the episodes the two superheroes meet and Captain Carrot refers to Superman as a big pink monster. I guess from a 3 foot tall rabbit perspective he would be. The play on words is constant - Gnu York City, Broodway, Boa's Ark, Sandy Eggo, San Anteatas Fault, etc. One of my favorite lines - "By the flea collar of S'Kuubi-Duu" spoken by Ally-Kat-Abra who is into mysticism. Lots of references to pop culture. Not sure all teen readers will catch the tongue-in-cheek and sometimes biting jabs at our human world by the writers, but most will.

Oh, cats with powers reminds me - I am listening to Stray by Rachel Vincent. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048801/ What fun! Faith is a smart-mouthed were-cat and shapeshifter. Her human friends know her as a grad student majoring in English, but the appearance of a stray (a were-cat not part of a Pride) and the disappearance of her sister causes her father, the head of the Pride, to force her to return to their East Texas ranch. No animals but cats there - other animals are terrified of the were-cats, even in human form. They know a predator when they smell one, no matter what they look like! Faith is sparring words and claws with her older brothers and a couple of other Toms who'd like to be Faith's mate, but she isn't about to have any of that. She wants to escape from the ranch. Older teenage girls will love this book, even though it does get a bit "spicy" at times.

Paul Fleischman is one of my favorite authors who spans the writing spectrum from picture books to YA novels. His Whirligig is one of the best coming-0f-age novels I have read. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Whirligig/Paul-Fleischman/e/9780440228356/?itm=4
It takes maturity to accept your responsibility for the death of a young woman - maturity gained from traveling on your own, creating and placing whirligigs around the country in her honor, as Brent does in this heartfelt novel.

But Fleischman can also make me smile in how he is able to take a classic story and make it his own as he did with Dateline:Troy. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dateline/Paul-Fleischman/e/9780763630843/?itm=7
I remember the discussions about whether or not the copies of newspaper articles, spanning time periods from WWI to the Gulf War, that parallel the events of the Trojan War in the Iliad, are to be considered text or illustration. I think it was in reference to how this book was addressed by the Newbery committee, which looks at text, not illustrations.

Perhaps not quite so dramatic, but quite unique in how Fleischman brings together the cultures with their own Cinderella story into one book, is Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Glass-Slipper-Gold-Sandal/Paul-Fleischman/e/9780805079531/?itm=1
Julie Paschkis' illustrations beautifully compliment the text based on different cultural (Poland, France, China, Russia, Mexico, the West Indies, etc.) versions of the tale with her culture specific illustrations. The endpapers are a world map, indicating the countries addressed in the retelling of this well known fairy tale. Give this one to the Geography and History teachers as well as the English teachers. What a great way to teach how interrelated we all are. An absolutely gorgeous book that belongs in every 398.2 section from elementary through high school.

When I remember, I will add the Barnes and Noble online link to the titles, but I can't promise I will each time. :-)

Now to warm up with some coffee and get back to grading. Writing in this blog is my "fun" time on the computer lately.

I wonder if Steve is freezing his bippy off in shorts on the golf course this morning. BRR!! We have all the windows open so the house is cold. I'm in sweats with an electric throw around me. I hate the cold!

I treat myself to a movie on Sunday a.m. when I read the NY Times. This morning it was The Last Mimsy. What an absolutely delightful children's movie. It must have gotten lost in all the hype about the Harry Potter and Narnia movies. It shouldn't have. The concept of a civilization in the future seeking help from the less corrupted past to save them by sending back Mimsy - a stuffed rabbit with such sophisticated computer code that current day scientists are stunned. Mimsy and the other "toys" that will be needed for a young brother and sister, Noah and Emma, to create the time tunnel to send Mimsy back with Emma's uncorrupted genetic code are found on a beach near Seattle and the story begins. And what a story it is. A whimsical touch is Emma finding a picture of Alice with Mimsy in a book about Lewis Carroll. Timothy Hutton plays their lawyer father who is as bewildered as their mother by the psychic abilities their children suddenly possess. The movie is based on a classic 1943 short story called "Mimsy Were the Borogroves". It has been reprinted in a collection of short stories, The Last Mimsy: Stories Originally Published as the Best of Henry Kuttner. I had never heard of this SF author until I just did the research on this movie. I may just have to look into this. I suspect the movie tie-in version of this reprint will have more readers than me wishing they had time to read Kuttner's more than 170 futuristic stories written under a variety of pen names, many of them with his wife. And who says movies take us away from reading? Many of us seek out books after we see a movie.

On a totally different genre note, I recently read the ARC for Rachel Vail's Lucky, a HarperCollins title that should be in stores on Tuesday. What fun! The cover art of a 40's looking green party dress got my attention, as did the words "Some girls have all the luck" on the front. Although the first book in a sister trilogy, it certainly stands alone. Phoebe is the self-centered daughter of a high powered broker mother and a teacher father. It is clear who wears the proverbial pants in this house! Phoebe and her friends who also live in their exclusive subdivision have decided rather than a small celebration for their 8th grade graduation, they are having a huge party that their parents are paying for, of course. All is going well until Phoebe's mother makes a bad decision and finds herself knocked from the top of her broker pedestal. Reality sets in when mother and daughter are gown shopping for Phoebe and the green gown is just what she wants, but mom's credit cards, one after another, are denied at the cash register. Will Phoebe have the strength to tell her friends that her family can no longer afford their portion of the party? Instead of being the one who supports her best friend Kirstyn when her life with "her crazy parents and no sisters" gets out of control, can Phoebe let Kirstyn help her this time? A charming chic lit title that will be devoured by Vail's already established bevy of young teen readers as well as those who discover her for the first time by reading Lucky.

When I see the name Meg Rosoff on the front of a book I think of her Printz Award Winning novel, How I Live Now, which I proudly predicted would win and did! I have yet to read What I Was, her new YA novel, but it is on my "gotta read" list. Rosoff also writes delightful children's picture books. Meet Wild Boars, published in 2005, was a hoot. She has again teamed up with illustrator Sophie Blackall and with their 2008 Holt title Jumpy Jack and Googily they are bound to have another hit. Jack is a snail who is very timid and afraid there may be a monster with two fingers on each hand and scary teeth and huge eyes around every corner. Googily (who just happens to have two fingers on each hand, big eyes, etc.) checks to make sure all is clear for his friend. But, Googily is afraid of something too and it may well be lurking under his bed. I snort laughed when I saw/read what it was as will every child and adult who interacts with this witty romp through childhood fears. Can't wait to read this one to the grandkids. This is a keeper in my own picture book collection.

All for today.

So much for sleeping in on a Saturday morning - woke up before 6 a.m. Steve has the house windows open so the chirping of the birds are driving me crazy. What a racket. I's in my office while Steve is still sleeping. Normally he is up long before me so this kind of feels good.

Arrived home a bit before 5:00 yesterday. I was so tired I dragged my stuff in, sat outside on the rocking chair for a bit, and then went to bed. I slept until 7:30. Got up to have a bowl of soup for dinner and crawled back in. This trip about did me in. Glad I don't have to do it until July. But it was great to see everyone.

I finished listening to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides on the way home. Along with the 2003 Pulitzer Prize it also won the Audie Award for audiobooks. I felt like I was "watching" a movie in my head as I listened to the Greek accents of Desdemona and Lefty and the Americanization of the accents as the family settles into a new life in Detroit. The interview with Eugenides at the end of the audiobook indicates that Middlesex is not autobiographical in any way other than being set in his home town of Detroit and the main character is born the same year as the author. However, Cal/Calliope's first person narration is so compelling you feel as if you are reading an autobiography, supplemented by the omniscient third person observations of family and friends. I take back my comment from the last posting that I would not recommend this to a teen. Certainly not to the "average" teen who asks me for a good read, but certainly to the more mature teen who is ready for a 500+ book that delves in the sexual identity of a teen. As I listened to this book I remembered a few of the girls who, when they reached puberty, looked more like boys than they did girls, but the possibility of any of them being a hermaphrodite never crossed my mind. As a teenager I don't think I even knew that word, let alone what it meant. However, many teens will relate to Cal's need to leave his family to find himself after he reads the doctor's file and realizes that what it starkly states, and what the doctor is telling them, are two different things. I was enthralled through all 16 CDS and told everyone at ECU about this book. Man this guy can write!! Is is so thought provoking you cannot read and set asides - it requires discussion. Now I need to check Half Price Books for a copy of Eugenides' first book The Virgin Suicides - set in 1970s Detroit and addresses the suicides of five teenage girls within one extended family. Yes, Eugenides writes edgy novels, but these are the types of novels that will hold older teens' attention who want more than the YA realistic novel can give them. I suspect I won't set Eugenides' first novel aside without talking about it any easier than I can Middlesex - which, by the way, is the name of the modernistic home Cal's family moves into in the exclusive Grosse Pointe area of suburban Detroit. The only home offered for viewing to a potential Greek buyer.

I'll stay with controversial edgy writers and discuss Frances Lia Block's Blood Roses, a HarperCollins title that will arrive in bookstores next month. Unlike Eugenides, who writes flowing prose about multi generational families, Block writes sparse modern/urban fantasy novels and short story collections that are also intense and edgy . Every word can stab like knife, or the thorn of the elusive blood rose that the two sisters search for in the canyon above LA, even though it is said you only see them if you die. Going against everything their mother has told them about strangers, they enter the home of a photographer where the young man who lured them there from the record store begins to tell stories of Jeffrey Dahmer as they sit on plastic covered furniture. When the older man leaves the room, the younger man changes his mind and tells the girls to hurry and leave, which they do. Only then do they find the blood red rose bush. Thus begins this "cannot-put-it down" short collection of deliciously creepy tales. Block does not tell straight forward, cute stories. Her writing insists the reader vicariously enter bizarre, scary, sensual scenes - such as tattoos slowly covering a teenage girl's body as she lusts for the tattoo artist and Hollywood mothers who are youth sucking vampires. What causes the hair to rise on my arms when I read Block's books (which I love) is the realization that there often is no line between where the fantasy and reality begin and end, causing me to ponder if we always know what reality truly is. Do you? Sometimes fantasy, though scary at times, makes a person feel more alive than life itself.

Must leave you with a fun one. It was so darn hot when I got home yesterday I looking over at the subdivision pool wishing it were open. I'd have been the sixth in line after Lynne Berry's five ducks in Duck Dunks as this rambunctious bunch goes to the beach. In rhyming text, Berry will delight both parents and little ones as they vicariously hit the beach to skip, run, and dive in where they bob, spin, paddle, and eventually get the shivers so it is time for sun and lunch and some kite flying. They return home very tired little ducks from their day at the beach. Hiroe Nakata's delightful illustrations, rich with the blue of the sea and the golden yellow of the sand as a background, bring these ducks delightfully to life, their round little bodies decked out in bikinis and trunks. For parents who plan to take their little ones to the beach - this is the perfect book to get them excited about what is to come. For PreK-2 librarians - a great end of the school year storytime book. Wrong time of the year for Berry's Duck Skates - will have to wait for winter for that one. Thank goodness that is months away.

That's it for today. I may go crawl back in bed now that the birds have stopped. Hopefully there aren't too many errors in here. The birds may have woke me, but I didn't said I was lucidly awake! :-)

It was a beautiful day so I decided to get out of the house at lunchtime. Had to get some books and summer clothes sent out to the grandkids in Green Bay so I noshed on my favorite - turkey breast Subway sandwich. I was so good - I didn't even order the meal deal with the macadamia nut cookies like I often do. I'd like to stop avoiding mirrors so those cookies are off my "okay to eat" list. It was them or white wine, and the wine won out. :-)

I was "bad" and stopped at Half Price Books and came out with three audiobooks for $9.99 a piece. I was so pleased with myself. That is cheaper than my audiobook subscription is each month. Also bought several books on fibromyalgia. I have now past the stage of denial and hit acceptance and decided if I am going to deal with this for the rest of my life I am damn well going to know what I am dealing with! Still want a copy of Fibromyalgia for Dummies, which they didn't have so I'll have to order that from B&N. Was also delighted to see three titles from Fern Michael Sisterhood series on the shelves and snapped those up too. Okay - I admit it - I am a bookaholic. I could think of much worse addictions!

I leave for Greenville in the a.m. and will drive back home on Friday. Look forward to seeing everyone at meetings on Weds. and Thursday. The LS Program is becoming an independent department so we will pig out on desserts after our last departmental meeting with the Instructional Technology faculty. I am on soda and ice detail. Might stop and pick up goodies I can eat as most desserts have some type of dairy in them. And, since I leave tomorrow I cannot make my gooey yummy brownies as they would be crunchy brownies by Thursday - not good!

I am about 1/3 of the way through Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, the 2003 Pulitzer prize winner on CD. Wow! Not only have I learned a great deal about Greek history I have found myself with my mouth open on more than one occasion. This is a tale of a wayward gene that makes it way through the family gene pool, recently brought to life by a brother and sister who decide to pass themselves off as husband and wife when they flee to the U.S. from their rural town in Greece after the Turks ransack the town. Their children carry the gene to the next generation where a baby (girl child by all appearances) is born, but at puberty, instead of developing breasts and hips he/she becomes masculine. Calliope/Cal narrates the tale and it is spellbinding. The couple is now living in Detroit in the middle of Depression and Desdemona is being forced to go to work by her brother/husband and finds herself in the black part of downtown Detroit. Can't wait to find out where this leads. What a humdinger of a book. At this point I would, in no way shape or form, recommend this to teens!

But, I would most certainly recommend Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I kept reading wonderful reviews about this book on YALSA-BK and other listservs, but since it wasn't within arm's reach I hadn't read it yet. While I was in my ECU office the last time I found it and put it on top of my "gotta read" pile and I am so glad I did. What a ride into a catastrophe that seems too plausible. Sure - a meteor could hit the moon and push it out of orbit. And, in doing so, chance the climate and life as we know it on Earth. Seventeen-year-0ld Miranda goes from worrying about dates and prom to worrying about whether or not they will have enough food and wood to last through the winter and which one of them may die first. Will it be their mother who is hobbling around on a sprained ankle, her older brother who isn't eating enough but chopping wood during every waking hour, or her younger brother who dreams of a career as a baseball player? Or, will it be Miranda - she is eating only one meal a day and constantly hungry. No looking in the mirror - she isn't going to like what she sees. Then the flu strikes the household and Miranda makes a trip to the hospital to discover the flu has taken her mother's doctor boyfriend and most of the hospital staff. It is up to her to save her family. Written in diary format, the reader vicariously lives through this horrific time with Miranda as she pours out her feelings into a diary she is not even sure she will live to re-read. This is one of those books that just has to be on the shelf of every YA section and I most certainly plan on booktalking it.

All for today. Need to figure out what I need to pack and finish up responding to student emails before I hit the road in the a.m.

A quiet night in the Clark household. I just went through the ALA Anaheim preliminary program while watching an old NCIS on the USA channel. Shame-facedly I admit I munched on Frito's while I did both. So I was multi-tasking/eating - in other words, my inner teen is alive and well. If I keep this up I am going to be feeling like Virginia in The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. I really was skinny for awhile, but I think those days are gone.

We went to Macy's sale today to pick up the multi-colored Martha Stewart bowls I wanted. They are made of some light weight stuff that doesn't break - which is important these days when I never know if my hands are going to listen to me or not. So now I have a set of bowls in every hue that Steve says are hideous, but function is what matters right now. Then we went to Lowe's and bought shrubs for around the back porch/deck. I ran out occasionally to supervise - too dang cold out there. Really cooled down late afternoon and now it is raining, which is good as Steve put the shrubs in. We have marigolds and a some deep purple petunias I found to put out front. I was looking for wild strawberry plants but they didn't have any. Will have to check Home Depot.

Lowe's had these really cool gnarled and crooked filbert trees that I loved. Think I am going to go back on Monday and get someone to carry one out to the car for me. If I bring it home, Steve has to plant it - right!? :-)

We were listening to Lake Wobegon a bit ago. I am not a big fan but listening to him talk about the Lutheran church and rhubarb pie makes me so homesick! I chuckled when he said the ice was pretty much off the lake. I immediately thought of Martha Brooks Mistik Lake. I felt like I was reading about back home in Upper Michigan even though this is set in Manitoba. Brooks writing about summer cottages with bedding that smells moldy no matter how many times the sheets are washed because they had been left in a unheated cottage all winter made me think of my great aunt and uncle's cabin on Lake Gogebic. The largest inland lake in Upper Michigan - http://www.lakegogebic.com/ I loved going there, but everything smelled musty.

In Mistik Lake seventeen-year-old Odella and her summer crush on the local boy resembled so many of the cousins or friends of local families who came up North for the summer. The guys we grew up with were no big deal to us, but they sure were easy pickings for the city girls who flirted with them - just as Odella's mother had years before with Mr. Isfeld, the man who owns the store where Odella now works. There is a reason that this quiet stoic man is willing to let her enter his world. It may well be the same reason her mother has a drinking problem and then runs away with another man to Iceland and never returns. Like a handful of the city girls I remember, Odella honestly does find her true love in one of the local boys from Mistik Lake and returns to discover her own cultural and familial roots. For those of us who grew up in a rural lake environment this book is so realistic I could almost hear the lake lapping against the posts - all that are left from the docks that were there when the mines still functioned. Odella is so purely, imperfectly human that she is a character I found myself forgetting wasn't someone I grew up with as I read this book. Perhaps just for a time I was Odella and that was very sweet.

You might recognize Martha Brooks' name as a YA author as she wrote the stunning The True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, which I also loved and is set in the Canadian prairies, which we drove through every summer on our way from Alaska to Point Mills. The closer we got the more I could smell Mom's homemade blueberry pie. Brooks has a way of reaching into the psyche of the lost and lonely Northern girl and making her real to even those teens who run around in flip-flops and shorts year round. Brooks goes to the heart of "every" girl and her novels hold a place in mine. Noreen and her Pembine Lake are not so much different from the lakes and people of Upper Michigan. People like me. When time allows I plan to collect the rest of her YA novels and curl up for a Martha Brooks' weekend read-a-thon.

All for tonight. I received my review books for VOYA and Library Media Connection so I need to put them in order by review due date and maybe start reading before I crash. Tomorrow morning is the NYTimes!

My first day without bandages on my fingers as the blisters have gone down. They still look awful and won't bend much, but I decided to give them some air this a.m. Mainly because I am out of bandages and will wait until my noon break to run up to Walgreen's to buy more. What is bugging me now that the pain has eased is that my nails are way past needing to be done and there is no way I can handle someone holding my left hand to do my nails right now. Aren't I ever vain? Will have to hide my hands during The Music Man at the Opera House tomorrow night. I am sure I will enjoy this more than the Revival of Queen we saw a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even know who Freddie Mercury was so I had no idea how good the impersonator was until I watched a bit of the live concert of Queen DVD of Steve's. I recognized TV commercial (I want it all) and football game music (Another one bites the dust!) and had no idea those were part of Queen songs. Hey - I was raising little kids back then, not listening to rock music. I looked around me in amazement as bald headed guys were playing air guitar along with their teenage sons. Was an unusual crowd for the Opera House and then some - first time I have ever seen them allow drinks into the theater - guess they were trying to make it feel like a concert. A group of women were waving their cell phones back and forth like lighters from back when. I am sure I will feel more at home with The Music Man crowd. :-)

While going through some old books in my office at ECU I came across a copy of Tomie de Paola's Fin M'Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill published in the 1980s and remembered the giant he fooled was Cucullin - the very same legendary warrior from Holly Bennett's The Warrior's Daughter. No mention of Fin M'Coul dressed as an infant giant besting Cucullin, spelled Cuchulainn, in Bennett's YA novel. :-) No surprise as the narrator is the warrior's daughter, Luaine, who has inherited strength from both her warrior father and strong willed mother to endure great hardship when she is wed to the king who wants her father's lands, not her. He sends his poet out to curse her with words and a poisoned shard of glass. But Druid powers beyond the king's control save Luaine and he will rue the day he tried to kill her. The pronunciation guide is great fun - I sat and sounded out the names, and discovered I wasn't saying them right in my head, but that didn't matter - I was wrapped up in this wonderful retelling of an Irish legend. Loved this book, but still favor Bennett's Bonemender series. Although I loved all three, I think younger teens will like The Bonemender's Oath the best as it is a fast paced adventure about Gabrielle's 11 and 13 year old niece and nephew being stolen by pirates. The bonemender, her brother and her elf husband chase after the pirates and find the children but it will take every ounce of healing power Gabrielle has to save them.

It is a beautiful sunny day in Lexington and I am looking forward to getting out of the house for a bit as I figure I can actually handle the steering wheel on the car today. :-) Might even stop at Half Price Books! Not like I need more books, but I am addicted to that store.

It is a gloomy cool day but we are headed for Keeneland to watch a few races this afternoon. I bet by the name of the horse, not the statistics so I never win, but it is fun. Steve is off running errands this morning while I slowly get myself going. It is even slower than usual the last few days as I had yet another accident with my hands. I thought it was just my right hand as last spring I sliced my middle finger open and about passed out from it, but didn't go to the hospital - found a butterfly bandage and "sucked it up". Then a month or so later I burned my index finger on that hand with melted wax from a mug that was not supposed to go in the microwave. Again, I didn't go to the hospital. So when the tea kettle lid fell off and boiling water poured over my left hand I screamed bloody murder and stuck it under cold water and then in a bag of ice. I was sitting there in a bit of a daze, and even watched a taped episode of NCIS before I gave in and Steve took me to the ER. By that time my fingers were swelling and the doc hands me a little packet of KY Jelly and tells me if I can't get my wedding rings off, they will have to cut them off. Well, that wasn't going to happen so again I yodeled, with tears rolling down my face, as I dragged my rings over the burned finger. Then I kept harping at Steve about where they were until we got home. I never take my rings off, except to clean them, so I was not a happy camper about taking them off. Who knows when I can put them back on as the biggest blister, which has yet to pop, is on my ring finger. I also ended up with tetanus shot in my right arm so that aches. But, I do have this wonderful white goo to slather the fingers in and lovely loopy pills to help with the pain so I am surviving, even if I can only type with my index finger and thumb on my left hand.

The funny (not ha-ha kind) part was that I was boiling water to make a Cup "O Soup as I had oral surgery Weds. a.m. to have the implant screw for the crown to replace the molar that had to be pulled and my mouth was hurting and I couldn't open it very far. So, when my doc called Thursday to check on me I told him what happened and he said, " Only to you Ruth!" He is so right. If it all didn't hurt so dang much it would be the ha-ha kind of funny.

The good news is that I received my paperwork from Vanderbilt for my appointment on June 19th with Dr. Boomershine. Don't ya just love his name? :-) I looked into a fibromyalgia study going on here in Lexington but my neurologist told me exactly what he thought of that idea - the study is being conducted for the drug company. So, I will be good and wait to see the specialist.

Since I couldn't type at all the first day I read a lovely children's book - Listening for Crickets by David Gifaldi. Lovely, but sad. I picked it up because of the attractive cover. I did think that it was going to be about an Asian young boy though by the coloration of the boy's face and hair. I didn't notice the big ear (only half his face is shown) until I had finished the book and re-examined the cover. I love the visual tidbits you catch after reading. Ten-year-old Jake has ears like a bat and has to go to special reading classes so he is teased in school. But that doesn't stop him from becoming a bit of a walking encyclopedia of bat facts, which he shares regularly. Things are home are even worse as his father is a sometimes violent alcoholic, who uses words as a weapon more often than his fists. Money is tight and Jake and his little sister Cassie share a bedroom. When their parents argue at night Jake makes up wonderful stories for Cassie so that they can concentrate on something besides angry voices. And then he builds them their very own Dragon's Nest, by cutting out a hiding place in the hedge between their home and the elderly Mrs. P next door, who Jake helps out with her cats. One more lost job and the dad goes over the edge and it is Mrs. P who saves the day. I love books where an elderly character takes a child under his/her wing to give them a safe haven. A must have book in every elementary school. I did cringe when I read about the reading program - dotted books and computerized tests - that Jake was involved in, but I loved his LEP teacher for her realization that Jake did well with audiobooks. Gifaldi is a 5th grade teacher and his knowledge of what occurs in an elementary classroom in dead on the money.

Tired of pecking at this keyboard so I shall end this now. Y'all keep your fingers crossed I don't fall down the bleachers at the track or something stupid like that today! I have always been accident prone, but this is ridiculous!!

It is Saturday night and I am sitting in a hotel room in Greenville, wishing I were home, but I did get a lot of work done in my ECU office today. Good heavens it is cold in there though! You walk around the corner toward my office and the temperature drops dramatically. When I wasn't busy moving books around, I was freezing my bippy and sitting on a heated blanket. I do love it in that office in the winter though - the heat is as high as the air conditioning is! Before I left, there were 12 boxes of books and a pile of other books (ran out of boxes!) to go to the Teacher Resource Center so that my students can request them! The cool thing about the LS Program at ECU is that, although it is online, our students can request any print materials they want from the library and the library pays for the postage there and back. This way they can see a copy of the book and can then order it for their own library or personal collection. :-)

I have a new laptop so maybe I can catch up on my Yahoo email. Mine died a couple of weeks ago and Steve has been tolerating me using his. I have over 700o messages to deal with. The problem is I am "addicted" to Adbook and YALSA-BK so I can't just delete them. I have to browse each message and sometimes I can't resist answering. So, that slows me down big time.

I noticed we are going to be talking about Alex Flinn's Beastly on Adbook. I love this modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. It has always been one of my favorite fairy tales as I love cats. :-) And, I was a big Beauty and the Beast TV show series fan in the 1980s. Who would have thought the feminine looking female in that series, Linda Hamilton, would be the buff woman in The Terminator movie? Once I catch up on some email I hope I can get involved in the discussion!

I am currently reading Holly Bennett's The Warrior's Daughter. I am a major fan of Bennett's The Bonemender andThe Bonemender's Oath so I was delighted to see a copy of her new book in my mail at ECU. So, I am immersed in the wonderful Celtic story of Luaine, the daughter of the legendary warrior, Cuchulainn, and his strong willed wife Emer, who stood proudly before him when he returned from war, still savaged by the war rage within. The tale begins when Luaine is but seven so I am in the midst of her tale - she is about to reach the puberty. I am loving the idea of a feared Druid priest befriending the young girl and his raven, Fintan deciding she is his new mistress. I cannot tell you what happens as I am still in the middle of the tale, but I am loving it. I noticed The Grey Veil is her next book. Can't wait!! Not all U.S. librarians are aware of the wonderful authors who are published by Orca, such as Bennett.

I am exhausted, but in reality, I am happy. I have a great life with a wonderful husband and great daughters and grandkids. I had someone ask me if I succumbed to the depression that happens to many people who have fibromyalgia. Well, I think it has to do with realizing that I am so fortunate in my life. I am listening to The Starter Wife, which has been made into a TV movie with the actress from Will & Grace, and I thought about how much better my life is than the millionaires who are miserable in Hollywood! Not that I wouldn't like to try having that kind of money for a few months, but money does not bring happiness. I have to admit I am laughing aloud as I listen to this ridiculous novel of a woman who was married to a Hollywood up and comer for close to 10 years - anything before 10 means - a starter wife. So, here she is, 41 years old, growing hair in places she didn't know she could, and living alone in a her friend's Malibu beachfront home, getting upset because the rude neighbors are letting their dogs poop anywhere, including right where she steps. I have reached the point where she almost drowns in a kayaking attempt and is saved by a man who she is now infatuated with. She has no idea he is homeless! So, tomorrow's trip home should prove to be interesting.

All for today. Time for a shower and Tylenol PM. Yes, I have caught Steve's virus! Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow morning feeling a whole lot better. Just talked to Steve and he and Ron stayed up until 4 a.m. playing cards last night! Sophie must be wondering why Daddy is staying up so late and why a strange man is staying in the extra room while Mommy is gone. Can't wait to cuddle with my cat, shedding or not!

The last time I posted I was scraping ice off the windshield and today I am watching daffodils sway in the breeze. Just the few days we were in Kansas City for Steve's Dad's funeral the neighbors have been busy bringing signs of Spring to their yards. It will be a bit before Steve gets any yard work done as he caught a nasty flu in KC and is in bed with it. With both the KC and Detroit flights delayed and him with the chills and running a fever it was a long trip! Then I had to drive home from Cincinnati and I hate driving in the dark.

We were able to see the granddaughters for a few minutes before the funeral, but missed out on a planned day at the dinosaur themed restaurant so Ally and Kady could build their own stuffed dinosaur. Kind of like Build a Bear places. Steve was too sick to get out of bed and he sure didn't need to give the flu to the rest of the family. Ally, who is 5, is sure Grampa is going to take her to ride a real horse when they come visit in July so Steve has to make sure that occurs. She wasn't even excited that our subdivision's pool is very close to us - she wants horses!! Kady has the most beautiful big brown eyes and she just looked at us and didn't say a word, but she did let Steve carry her around for a bit.

I am fighting Steve's flu with the chills and then sweats but I am still, hopefully, leaving for Greenville tomorrow and coming home Sunday. Steve has a friend coming down for the weekend to go to the opening days of horse racing at Keeneland so he won't even know I am gone. Hopefully Ron won't get the flu from him while he is here.

I have gotten hooked on easy crossword puzzles while sitting in the airport and on the planes so have done less reading than I normally do during trips, but I did finish Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. What an incredible book! For those of you who know me well, I will just say I sobbed with understanding at the conclusion of this book. Jenna was once the driven- to-please-them 17-year-old daughter of a bioscientist father and home renovator mother, but now she isn't sure what she is. Are you human if only a small percentage of your brain is your own? How much do you need for it to still retain your soul? Lots of mind bending questions addressed in this riveting science fiction (at least for now) novel set in a time when genetic alteration and brain controlled artificial body parts are common place. Jenna wakes up after a car accident in which her two best friends died, but they still keep calling to her. She is in a new home and her grandmother Lily is living with them and seems to dislike Jenna. Jenna cannot remember if this was the case before the accident or not as her memory is slow in returning. Her parents have always been protective, at least she thinks so, but this level of surveillance is intensive, even to the point of going out into the yard. With time Jenna will be allowed to go to school, but a very small charter school where she will meet other teens who are missing parts, physical or emotional, just as she is. An incredible novel that will niggle naggle at me for a long time. I don't talk to Steve about every YA novel I read but I have been talking to him about this one as it has me thinking about how selfish I am in relation to how I care for the world around me. Would be a great book for HS Biology classes to read and discuss.

On the "sassy" reading front I finished Christine Feehan's Night Game, another one of her paranormal romances - this time between the Cajun sweet talker Gator and Flame, the young woman who escaped from the laboratory where she was injected with cancer cells for experimentation. Both are Ghostwalkers with paranormal powers - these two can control sound waves, but they can't control the physical attraction for each other - of course! This is a steamy romance novel after all. This one did get a bit much toward the end, but I love the science part of this series. However, I won't be recommending them to teen readers, although I am sure many teens are reading these as they are Feehan's vampire series.

Lots to do today before I pack for the trip to Greenville - will leave first thing in a a.m. as it is a long drive and these days I need to get out often to stretch my aching muscles. The planes about kill me. Will be a rough drive as I can't take the strong painkillers when I drive. I am more than a little bit disgusted with the UK Rheumatology clinic here in Lexington as I waited for over a month to get an appointment and then was told that I was not "sick enough" for them to take me. A friend here in Lex, Amber, recommended Vanderbilt and she is so right. A real person answered the phone and explained that my GP had to call to set up the first appointment but that yes, the fibromyalgia specialist would take me as a new patient. What a difference from the many, many, many phone calls to the UK clinic where I only got voice mail. So, I have my fingers crossed I will get in to see him soon - about a 4 1/2 drive from here, but well worth it as I have had no luck with finding a local doctor.

All for today.

Good morning from cold but sunny Lexington. Winter is revisiting. I had to scrape ice from my car - who knew the uses for a CVS card - yesterday a.m. before I could leave for the oral surgeons. I saw a number of cars that had an inch or two of snow on them. Today the grass is white with frost but no snow accumulation. Not good as my lilacs were starting to bud.

My surgery has been postponed until the 9th due to my exhaustion and the fact that we have to leave for Kansas City on Thursday and last time I had oral surgery I ended up with infections in two of three incision sites. The bone has filled in just enough to put the smallest screw in for the implant. All this because a dentist on St. Thomas put in a shoddy filling and the molar had to be pulled. Found out that the root may have been damaged on another molar during the wisdom teeth extraction and I may need a root canal on it. In other words, it was not a "good news" visit to the doc's yesterday!

It has been a couple of rough days and isn't going to get better for awhile. Steve's Dad died on Easter and we will be going up for the funeral and spending some time with his Mom and the rest of the family. We leave Thursday and come back Monday. Steve's Dad was such a delightful man and I didn't meet him until the Alzheimer's had already taken his memory of who Steve was so he certainly didn't know who I was, but he liked me. They lived with us for a bit and he some how knew what time I came home from campus and he'd be waiting in the driveway to give me a hug. He was such a flirt and sassy! I had a set routine of getting up and toasting a bagel for breakfast on the mornings I had to go to campus. I'd ask him if he wanted one and he'd shake his head no but 1/2 of my bagel always "disappeared"! So I'd ask, he'd shake his head no, but I'd make two bagels and the other one would disappear - neither of us acknowledged what was going on. Steve tells stories of his Dad's wonderful sense of humor and I wish I had known the man Steve misses so much. I hope he has already met my son Mic in heaven - I am sure they will get along splendidly and be playing tricks on the others. :-)

I haven't finished it so I can't blog in detail yet, but I am loving Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. This is a gotta have for every YA collection as not only is it extremely well written, it is so intriguing and thought provoking that I keep putting it down to ponder on the observations she makes about what the world could be like with all of the genetic alterations we are making to living things. These could prove both deadly or prolong life - even when doing so is questionable.

One of my students just booktalked The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean - this year's Printz Award winner. I absolutely adore the book but not one of her teens chose it as one they would read. It may have been the excerpt she chose to read to them as I am not sure too many teens would be turned on by the idea of being in love with dead guy 90 years older than them :-) But, Sym certainly is in love with the idea of Titus Oates, one of the early explorers to Antarctic who died during the experience. But, he is with Sym as she navigates life via hearing aids and dealing with other medical issues due to being experimented on as a child with overdoses of antibiotics. With her father dead (who she thinks despised her) her "Uncle" Victor is all she has, other than her quiet mother who lets Victor move into their home and "manage" their money. Sym knows everything there is to know about Antarctica and she has to use every bit of that knowledge when a trip to Paris turns into an expedition to Antarctica. Uncle Victor is sure there is a civilization that lives beneath the ice cap and he is going to become famous when he locates it. But, staying alive is going to be utmost on Sym's agenda as she watches Victor slip deeper and deeper into insanity as he searches for the hole to another world. One of the most terrifying books I have read where the monster is pure white and totally impervious to the feeble attempts of humans to control it. I wish I had time to go back and read it again. I will booktalk it, but I think I'l do it as a first person from Sym's point of view.

All for today.

The day before Easter and it is cold and miserable outside. Nevertheless, I am delighted to be home and don't miss the islands at all! Rotten weather or not, we went for our usual lunch at Steak and Shake. I didn't snitch any of Steve's fries, which I normally would. But, we ate so darn many of them in Tobago it will be a long time before I crave French fries again. The Tobago Hilton had a very limited lunch menu and most every item came with fries, bunches of them. Too bad they were really good! We both put on weight during our vacation. Though quite expensive, the food on Tobago was good, especially the locally made banana bread, which was more like a moist fruit cake. On Barbados we stayed at the Almond Village Resort - an all inclusive place. The food was good and there are a number of resort restaurants to choose from. It is a very large resort and there were kids everywhere. There wasn't a meal time that a little one wasn't having a melt down. Very much a family resort. I'd go back again, but I'd take the grandkids with us. They'd love it. There is a huge pool with a couple of slides, etc. for the kids as well as other pools that adults without kids hung out at, including us. The best part was the friendly cat with ocelot type markings who decided my lap was a good place for a nap. She even had chicken with me for lunch.

Almond Village is on a quiet part of Barbados - quite a taxi ride to get there, through miles and miles of cane fields. It reminded me of Hawaii in that regard. We played tourist one day and visited one of the a caves. The taxi was a Mercedes! The elderly gentleman driving it told us about the sugar mills and how most of the sugar goes to Europe. The molasses goes into Mount Gay rum, of course. The cave was interesting as we went in on a trolley and they used spot lights to show us particular features. I shuddered as I thought of the early explorers who crawled in through the narrow tunnels to find the large openings. Only one other couple on the trolley with us into the cave even though it was high season in the islands. A majority of the other tourists we met on both islands were British.

I'll post some pictures as soon as my computer is working again. I am on Steve's as mine is acting up - it has been named Delilah! I hope Steve figures out what is wrong with it as I haven't backed up my documents - not smart at all!!

Just finished reading A. E. Canon's The Loser's Guide to Life and Love, a new HarperCollins title coming out in June. It is a contemporary version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is quite quirky and young teenage girls who like humorous chick lit will like this novel narrated by four teens whose lives intertwine. Predominantly set in a video shop where both Ed (a self proclaimed vertically challenged nerd) and Scout (a closet romance reader who has changed her name from one that is quite feminine) work for Ali who may just make you think of a genie from another famous story. They are both working the day Ellie, a beautiful naive blonde, enters the shop and Ed falls hard for her and decides to become Sergie from Brazil. After all, that is what the badge on Ed's uniform states. The problem is, Scout has a thing for Ed, though he thinks they are "just" best friends. Add Ed's friend Quark to the mix - a tall skinny science genius who decides he loves Scout. Star crossed teenage lovers, of a sort, spend 10 days of a hot dry Salt Lake City June trying to sort out their feelings about themselves and each other. Chapters include first person narratives from Ed's and Scout's points of view, emails Ellie would like to send to the college guy who betrayed her as well as letters to her grandmother, and an occasional entry from Quark's lab book. Teen angst drips from the pages along with humor welling up and spilling out - causing the reader to both grimace and and snort laugh. A light fun read for tweens and teens.

On the adult front I am listening to yet another Elizabeth Peter's historical mystery set in Egypt and loving every minute of it. Also part way through reading a Christine Feehan paranormal romance. I would have read more on vacation but I became addicted to easy crossword puzzles - over 100 of them. And I will admit I had to cheat - a lot!! In other words - I am really BAD at them, but they are such fun.

Happy Easter to all and I wish you lots of dark chocolate bunny ears. :-)

Oh boy - what a couple of weeks it has been. I am in Greenville. We got home from our vacation yesterday afternoon and I headed for the airport again this morning for a couple of days of meetings.

As far as airports go - I have begun rating them. Lexington is wonderful - the security guard actually had a sense of humor today and I felt so happy to be home! After the nightmare in Tobago, most any other airport would seem wonderful though. We arrived on a Liat flight into Tobago, from Barbados, and made our way to the customs line in time to see a woman throwing a fit because of the length of the line from the huge jet from London. The 7 of us from the tiny Liat flight had our own line and made our way through quickly. I can understand why she was upset but it was a bit disconcerting to have her screaming at the security and customs officers. I heard there had also been a fight between two locals before we got there. Apparently this is typical for the Tobago airport as it can take 2 hours to get through customs, let alone get your luggage. Took us forever to get our luggage and as we made on our way out, Steve pulling his golf bag and me with a cart with our luggage, I couldn't get through the door after the last security check. They only had one of the double doors open and a whole group of local cab drivers stood there with smirks on their face as I tried to get the other door open to get the cart through. Not one of them offered to help. I was so upset by the time I got out to the sidewalk where Steve was with the guy from local car rental agency that I was fuming. Steve saw the look on my face and realized Ruth was not a happy camper!! We then ended up with a car with 70,000 miles, a dashboard in pieces (some one tried to steal the CD/radio), a piece on the floor near the door was falling off, and the muffler rattled so bad I was embarrassed when we came to a stop! We drove around the island, which has very narrow windy roads and discovered that the locals are not at all friendly - some down right nasty. After that we stayed pretty close to "home" - the Hilton, which was in a beautiful location (quiet, on the windward side of the island) but in need of repairs. We went out to dinner at restaurants that were recommended and even those were not always comfortable to be in - terrible service. Our departure from the airport was no better - Liat charged $125 extra for luggage even though we only paid $50 out of Barbados and the guy at the exit tax window shorted us $20 in change. He just ignored Steve when he asked for the rest of the change. Although the vacation at the Hilton was very restful, I would never go back to Tobago.

I did do some reading. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the "gentle" romances of Jude Devereaux. I read Always, a very delightful time travel romance. Her books are bubble bath/beach reads but do have a bit of historical information as well. Did you ever think you may have a soul mate who lived in a different time? Or, perhaps you come back in various bodies and in different generations. Would you recognize your loved one even though you fell in love with him/her in your last life and she died in your arms? Certainly had me thinking as I read this. Although the characters are not teenagers, I do think teenage girls who love romances would enjoy these and I'd have no problems with recommending them as they don't go beyond suggestive. Some of the bodice rippers are so explicit it is more like erotica than romance.

It's late and I have a meeting in the a.m. so I am going to call it a night, even if there is an episode of Will and Grace on I haven't seen.

Isn't she gorgeous? Our granddaughter McKinley Elizabeth Quade was born Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 12:43 a.m. 7 lbs. 3 oz. My daughter Mary and baby are doing fine. Due to my health I wasn't able to travel to Green Bay for her birth, but hope to get up there soon. Grandsons are adjusting to a little sister as well as can be expected. The year old is majorly jealous, but that's to be expected.

I have been awful about keeping up with the blog. Between doctor's appointments and my "lay down times" I have had to put my courses and students first and not much else gets done. I saw a new neurologist as the cervical spine procedure did not have the results we had hoped for and the pain can be worse now than before. His diagnosis is fibromyalgia, which has been supported by my GP, so I am waiting to get in to a rheumatologist for a diagnosis confirmation and to start on a treatment plan of some type. But, at least the Requip the neurologist prescribed for restless leg syndrome (goes along with fibromyalgia) is helping me sleep so the fatigue isn't quite as bad. "Downside" to it is I am turning into a morning person - heaven forbid! The rain woke me up at 5:00 this a.m. but I am normally up and about before Steve leaves for work. I won't mention the mini-naps I end up taking during the day though! Been reading about fibromyalgia online so I am not quite so freaked out about it, but it sure explains the "migrating" pain and fatigue I have had since 2002. More than a bit irritating that it has taken this long, and a surgery that was not needed, to get what appears to be a correct diagnosis.

Steve has been wonderful about taking care of me and for Spring break we are headed to the islands. We leave for Barbados early tomorrow morning. Three days there and the rest of the vacation on Tobago. He has decided I need a true non-working vacation (first one since the 90s) and I am leaving behind the laptop and the cell phone. I am sure I will have laptop withdrawal something terrible so we are taking a travel Scrabble board, cards, and lots of books. I may even print off some easy crossword puzzles for myself. I am terrible at them, but they are fun. So while he golfs in the a.m. I plan on reading in bed and then moving on to reading under a palm tree. Have Elizabeth Peters, Christine Feehan, Jude Devereaux, and Fern Michaels paperbacks in my luggage. No work related reading either. :-)

I did, however, just finish an absolutely beautifully written YA novel by Kathe Koja - Kissing the Bee. I grabbed if off my "to read" shelf on my way out the door to yet another doctor's appointment because it was thin and easy to carry. It may be only 121 pages long, but oh what a wondrous 121 pages - fascinating bee facts and lore (for her science project) interwoven into seventeen-year-old Dana's life. She is the female worker bee, her self centered friend Avra the queen bee, and Emil, Avra's boyfriend whom Dana is in love with, fears his love for Avra may indeed be the death of him as it is for a male bee. What elaborate steps both Emil and Dana take to dance around Avra as they try to avoid her venomous verbal stings. But Emil and Dana's solo trip to an apiary (bee farm) changes the dynamics of the human hive and the queen bee may have neither bee dancing for her. Display this one cover out - gorgeous gold tone illustration of a girl's face, eyes closed, with a bee about to land on her nose. Koja also wrote Buddha Boy, Going Under, and The Blue Mirror. Buddha Boy is one of my all time favorite YA novels.

That's it for today.

We finally have heat again! We don't have a furnace, we have a heat pump, and it has gone out twice in the last month. Of course it does this on the coldest days. Yesterday was 3 degrees with the wind chill factor. The freezing rain made the driveway so slick Steve had to take a running start to get up it with his car. I was bundled up in a jacket and electric blanket. Our gas fireplace is pretty good at heating up the living room.

I am in the middle of getting annual review documents together for the university, but needed to take a break and write about a book. The Scarlet Stockings: The Enchanted Riddle by Charlotte Kandel is sitting next to me on my desk. What an absolutely gorgeous cover with a cameo style picture of a girl in a ballet pose. However, since the riddle has to do with magic red silk stockings, I wish the girl's stockings were red instead of pale pink on the cover, but I'll let it go. After all, the stockings do change color to match whatever Charlotte has on so no one knows she is wearing stockings that will help her become a prima ballerina. Too bad they also bring out the selfish and arrogant side of her personality as well, making her forget the love of her newly adoptive family and friends in a small neighborhood in London. Although set in the 1920s, this book is timeless for girls who love to dance and want to learn more about ballet - a magical art form in itself - while wrapped in a delightful mystery. Every little girl who loves to pretend she is a ballerina will want her mother to read this book to her. And, every older (upper elementary/MS) girl who is taking ballet lessons will relate to the hard work that thirteen-year-old Charlotte puts into her dancing - the bloody feet and all. They will applaud when she works hard and gets choice parts and gasp when the stockings cause her to turn nasty and mean to those who love and support her. Will she find out who left her the stockings and the ballet book with the riddle written inside? Will she ever be able to solve it? Could it be from her mother who left her at the orphanage?

That's all for today - have too much to get done to just "chat".

Another Monday has come and almost gone. I was awake at 6:30 a.m. due to a very loud dishwasher. Steve almost never starts the dishwasher so why he did this morning is beyond me, but it is not one of those quiet ones you see in the commercial on TV where the baby is asleep in the playpen in the kitchen. It sounds more like a water monster is attacking the kitchen.

So as I was wandering my way into my office, much too early in the morning, with a can of Diet Coke, I caught the sight of "yack" out of the corner of my eye and just kept from squishing my wonderful sneaker slipper into a pile of food lovely Sophie had "yacked" up. While I was muttering under my breath and heading for the paper towels I barely missed another offering from the cat - NOT-goddess. So that meant I had to wash throw carpets today. Sophie has been keeping clear of me – for good reason, Mommy is not a morning person! I honestly don't think the gifts were for me as Steve put her noisy butt out this morning instead of listening to her meow, so I suspect her offerings were more for him than me. Besides, I'm never up at that time of the morning so they couldn't be for me!

Spent a good portion of the day reading through discussion postings from my students on what they learned about magazine availability for children and teens in school and public libraries vs. the bookstores. Most of them were very surprised at the poor selection in the libraries and the large number of magazines for teenage girls, with basically none for guys, in the bookstores. I shake my head over this every semester as I hear the same thing - students don't read magazines in the library and there is no money for them. Well, if you bought the ones they want to read, they would read them, and they wouldn't be a waste of money. A majority of the magazines in many high school libraries are for adults. How many teenagers read Redbook or Woman's Day? I was delighted to read that some of the public libraries and a few schools had great titles for guys on surfing, skateboarding, gaming, etc. Survey after survey done with teens indicate that their number one choice of leisure reading materials is magazines and yet we can't seem to find the rationale for having other than curriculum related periodicals in the library? How about reading, no matter what the format, results in better readers, and, heaven forbid, they might even perform better on those nasty standardized tests!

Speaking of standardized tests, William Sleator's newest novel, Test, addresses these tests and their impact on a society where passing the test means you get out of the traffic. If you don't pass the test you can't go to college and you are stuck in menial jobs the rest of your life and spend hours sitting in the congested traffic. If you walk to school to get there faster, as Ann does, you have to wear a face mask because of the pollution. Ann is good at math but she can't seem to get a high enough score on the sample tests in English to move her forward in the classroom - smart kids sit at the front. All teens in this public high school fear not passing the test, but that is nothing compared to the teachers’ fear as their jobs depend on their students passing the test. In Ann's English class Lep, a Thai student, suddenly starts making his way closer to the front, at a rate much faster than he should be able to. Ann discovers how he is able to do so and it isn't a pretty story, but he will do just about anything to pass the test. Ann and Lep become friends and they work against the system to expose the corrupt publisher who furnishes the tests to the government. There is no subtlety in how Sleator goes about making his point as to how poorly teaching to the test prepares students for real life. He hammers it home. This book isn't going to change the way things are done in relation to standardized testing in our schools, but clearly it was cathartic for Sleator, and perhaps for his teacher friend who shared her concerns with him. It can also be cathartic for those teachers and students caught up in the testing mess. At least they can vicariously fight back through Ann and Lep.

I hear the garage door opening and need to remind Steve to take the trash out. All for today.

It is a winter wonderland outside. The snow is swirling in the breeze and coating everything in white, even the roads. I love this weather as long as I don't have to go out in it. Yesterday morning was even prettier as we had an ice storm Monday night and the trees were glazed and dripping icicles. It warmed mid-day and the roads turned to slush but it froze again last night so I am sure there is a sheet of ice under the snow. A few cars have gone by but not many - mostly trucks and SUVs. It is in the high teens today so the snow won't melt soon. It is supposed to get up to 45 degrees tomorrow and I hope so as I have another doctor's appointment and this one is across town. I am seeing yet another neurologist, but this doc is at a sleep clinic. Sleep has been eluding me and I suspect that is part of the extreme fatigue. I am also beating up poor Steve in my sleep with my muscle spasms. I would say serves him right for keeping me up with his snoring, but getting wonked in the head in the middle of the night can't be fun. Guess I also had a death grip on his arm the other night. And here I thought I wasn't sleeping at all!

I am pretty bummed out with the lack of pain relief and fatigue after the surgery almost a month ago now. The doc says I have to give it another 4-6 weeks of recovery time. So I had to cancel my trip to Greenville next week and my trip to Mary's for McKinley's birth. I wear myself out with minimal activity and still lack total balance. I have some pretty ugly bruises from knocking into things around here. Can't see myself hiking across the airports in Charlotte or Chicago carrying a laptop bag. Thanks goodness I work with wonderful people at ECU and I can attend meetings virtually until I get back on my feet. But, I sure miss them all. Let's just say I don't fall asleep in our faculty meetings as they are actually enjoyable! :-)

Since I still am laying down a number of times a day to give my neck a rest I am listening to audiobooks. Finished Pirates! by Celia Rees, which I absolutely loved. The female narrator did a wonderful job with the Jamaican accents - the one thing I miss from the islands is the lilt of so many of the accents. Like music, but often I couldn't understand a word they were saying. The idea of a teenage daughter of a plantation owner choosing life as a pirate over marrying the wicked Brazilian pirate/plantation owner her father and brothers promised her to makes for a good story. Two female pirates, one white and one black, who can strut like dandies in their pirate garb made me smile.

I just started listening to Terry Brooks The Black Unicorn. I loved the first book in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold! Only the fear of losing himself in the grief over the death of his wife and unborn child could cause a level headed attorney to spend a million dollars to rule a fantasy kingdom. Ben Holiday does, but the transition is not easily, and not without a battle. There are a number of other titles in the series and through the years I have read most, but not The Black Unicorn. It has been years since I visited Landover so it is like going home to a fantasy world I love. Ben has to return to his old world to discover if his dream is truly a premonition and his old partner is in danger. Willow, the green beauty who stands by his side, except when she becomes a tree, is on her own quest - to bridle the black unicorn. The court wizard is intent on finding the lost books of magic. And Abernathy, the man turned into a dog, is not happy about any of it – but that is his nature! I am yet again hooked! :-) Although these titles are published for the adult reader and the characters are adults, teens who love fantasy will enjoy these books, as Ben acts very much like a teenager who is finding his place in this new world.

Okay - my "true" YA reading title. Sadly, I was not as enthralled with this latest MS/JH level novel, Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer as I am with Brooks fantasy. And, that is unusual as I typically love her books. I think I have written about at least a couple others by her in this blog. How could I not pick up the ARC with "DON'T EVER TALK TO STRANGERS." Yes, it is a novel about a pedophile abducting a child, but even the chapters from his perspective did not hold me in suspense. A group of five sisters, ages 11 to 17, walk to school together and he watches them, deciding which one he wants to abduct. The idea is for the reader to build a connection with the girls so that when something awful happens it feels real. Well, I never made that connection. Fancy is clearly a special needs teen and her chapters can make you cringe, laugh, cry, and feel proud of her, but the other girls are not “real” enough to feel the kind of fear I needed to for their safety. This is also one of those novels that I will not recommend to a reluctant or poor reader as each chapter is from a different perspective and it isn’t always easy to figure out from whose. Also, the 2nd person point of view is frequently employed, which can be disconcerting. I will not deny this is a very well written novel, but it is not one I can rave about.

That’s it for today. Back to book reviews.

I have just spent most of the last 4 hours creating a list of symptoms and the 7 different medications that the variety of doctors I have seen in the last 8 months have given me. I had my first of two follow up appointments today and it wasn't good news. Hope tomorrow goes better as we start going through blood tests. It is hard to feel positive when my body has refused to cooperate with me and let me actively enjoy my "old lady-hood". Even a trip to the mall doesn't delight me as I know how I will feel afterward. No happily trooping home with bags of goodies on sale! Steve would fall over backwards in disbelief to read the above! Okay, enough whining!

Had a chance to read through the nastiness on a few of the blogs that have gone gung ho against Card having received the Edwards Award. It always amazes me how people I would think to have open minded views of other people's values and beliefs because of the way they have been treated are worse than any of the hate-mongers I have seen from the ultra-conservative side. The name calling and hateful messages are horrible and they hardly send a message of an understanding of others' rights to their own beliefs and lifestyles.

Card rightfully deserved the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the Ender's books as they have become part of the cannon of young adult literature. Sure, they are "boy" books to the extreme, but I don't hear anyone name calling and asking for blood in relation to women who write chic lit for teens. Card is an incredible writer in relation to his SF for teens. As far as his ultra-conservative personal views and his writing for the adult readership with these same views - he has a right to those views. He was not honored for his adult writing and his value system is not in any way a criteria for this award.

But, I have to smile in the fact that the hate-mongers are shooting themselves in the foot with their vicious postings as the more they complain about Card and his books the more people are going to take a look at this author, the criteria for the award and many who never read the Enders books will now be purchasing them and reading them and sharing them with their kids. The nay-sayers to Card having won the award are acting like the censors that we fight so strongly against when they want to remove And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson from the library. I am disappointed in the very groups I normally stand firmly within and/or beside. If we expect to be accepted, we must learn to accept the right of those who have beliefs totally different from our own to express them.

After that I thought it quite appropriate to discuss a guy book - Fight Game by Kate Wild. This is her first novel and it got my attention as it focuses on a teenage Gypsy who has learned to live outside of the norm since his family moves from location to location in their travel trailer. The softness in his life is the love he has for his sister and his nieces. He would protect them at all costs and he ends up doing just that when two punks try to burn their trailer, with the girls in it. Freedom chases them down and it appears as if he has pushed one of them into the path of a bus. Was it murder? Doesn't much matter as he is a Gypsy and the only way Freedom is going to be able to survive is if he agrees to work with the undergroud police operation to infiltrate the vicious high-tech fight club where fighting goes on endlessly with new teens recruited to be killed in the Bear Pit. There always has to be a bit of romance in these guys' lives so enter Java Sparrow who has been watching the fight club complex for another reason. Two heads are usually better than one when it comes to getting into a high tech complex. Yes, this book is a bit on the violent side, but it one that many of the guys will pick up just because of the cool looking cover with the title tatooed on Freedom's fist, while he scowls at the potential reader. Hand this one to the guys who are into the war games. This is Wild's first book about Freedom and I look forward to reading the sequel which will come out in summer 2008. Scholastic does have a way or recruiting really good international YA authors and Wild is no exception.

All for today.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. Although I watched a LMN mystery movie this morning while devouring the NY Times in bed, along with delicious French toast Steve made, I've been out in the living room watching pre-game show stuff with Steve along with finding the kitchen counters and doing laundry. Paula Abdul with a new single? It is so computerized sounding who knows if she is even singing it. Loved seeing Willie Nelson's beat up guitar - it even has a hole in it. Never noticed that before. A bit of trivia - I have driven past the very spot on the Texas highway where the cops found Willie pulled over sleeping off a pot buzz. Don't know why he is one of my favorite non-typical celebrities, but he is. His gravely voice works well with the crystal clear voice of Sara Evans, who sang with him.

Once Steve heard I was rooting for the Giants he decided he'd go for the Patriots as apparently I am bad luck! I always root for the underdog. I'd love to see the Giants win, but from the sounds of all the pre-game hype they don't stand much of a chance. We shall see. I remember watching the 2003 Super Bowl from the US Virgin Islands. We had flown down there for my interview for the position as the Library Director, St. Thomas Campus, of the University of the Virgin Islands. We were watching the game in bed as it came on late (Atlantic time zone) and I was exhausted from the stress of the interview and the thought of moving so far away that I fell asleep before it was over. Don't even remember who played. Happy and content back in civilization, teaching youth literature courses full-time, I am glad I took on the challenge of working as an academic librarian, but it was not my cup of tea. Big difference between teaching search strategies to marine biology students during the day and teaching children's and YA lit courses online at night. I had no regrets about not accepting an extended contract. I still love the islands, but trying to work there was very difficult. I am too type A to work on island time.

My latest read is an ARC for the new title in the Alane Ferguson Forensic Mysteries - The Circle of Blood. Since I some how have fallen off of the review copy list for Viking I hadn't read any of the other mysteries about 17-year-old Cameryn, assistant to her father, the County Coroner in a small Colorado town. Now I am sorry I hadn't. I have mentioned before what a big NCIS fan I am so these books are right up my alley. Cameryn has more to lose in this latest mystery because her mother, who has not been part of her life since she left years before, has returned to their small town and wants a role in Cameryn's life, much against the wishes of her father and grandmother. Cameryn had recently visited her mother when she saw her with a young teenage girl in the car with her. She also saw her mother run after the girl, whose is later found dead in an alley, with her long braid cut off. Did her mother murder the girl? How much of what she knows about the girl's last hours of life and her mother's involvement in it does she tell her father? Clearly Ferguson has done her forensics homework and knows the process of an autopsy, etc. She has also created a feisty, intelligent female protagonist who teen readers will be more than happy to help solve murder mysteries via forensic science. I just checked out Ferguson's web site: www.alaneferguson.com and realized why her name is familiar. She, along with Gloria Skurzynski, write the Mysteries in Our National Parks Mysteries, an upper elementary series.

Skurzynski is the author of the Virtual War Chronologs. I booktalked the first title, The Virtual War, quite a bit but hated the cover on the hardback. Was so glad to see a much more attractive cover on the newer paperback edition. A teenage boy in a furistic world who is basically raised by a hologram and has never had any interaction with other humans is quite intriguing. Add to that his training to fight a virtual war, with a teenage girl and a mutant boy, to win the last piece of uncontaminated land on earth - easy to booktalk and then some. There are now 4 books in the series, with the latest entitled The Choice.

Just listened to Alicia Keyes sing. I first heard of her when she was scheduled to give a concert on St. Thomas at UVI. Not sure what happened, but it was cancelled. That happened a lot down there. We went to a number of concerts at the university but the seats in the outdoor concert hall are so darn uncomfortable unless you right down on the floor in the expensive seats. I couldn't even sit through the one concert we sat on the upper tier wooden, backless seats. What a gorgeous facility, but I figured out real quickly why so many people were renting seat cushions when they entered!

All for today. Sorry for any typos - the spellcheck isn't working

Go Giants!!

This is going to be my last bit of "work" for today as my neck is telling me I am over doing it, but how else does a person get anything done when there aren't enough hours in the day?

I finally got my thank you emails written for the wonderful publisher events I attended at ALA Midwinter. I know I should have sat down with stationary or thank you cards and a pen but no one can read my hand writing anymore. Mary had to call me to ask what the gift tags said on the Christmas presents! Although I love all the meetings and presentations at ALA I adore the publisher events as I get to talk to other people who love YA and children's books as much as I do.

One of my favorites is the Abrams luncheon. This year I actually got to meet William Sleator and talk to him about Interstellar Pig while he signed the ARC for his new book Test. What a gracious man. We talked about how teens want to turn Interstellar Pig into their own board game - my son certainly did. That was the highlight of the luncheon, not me sending my plate of chicken and pasta up into the air and almost into Jeff Kinney's lap. It is a good thing he's a young guy - he got out of the way of the flying food fast! I was so embarrassed as it made a lot of noise and everyone looked my way. At least it happened before the authors started to speak! I was pretty pleased with myself chatting with Kinney about his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books as I had read the second one too and then it happened. I am one of the most clumsy people in the world and me trying to perch a plate of food on the edge of a small coffee table is just asking for a disaster. I am still finding tiny flecks of chicken sauce on my favorite cowboy boots! Anyway, our discussion included comments about how older teens are reading these books too. I was pleasantly surprised as I see them as elementary level books, but because of the graphic format they appear to be ageless. That is one of the things I love about the graphic format - no matter what the content (heaven forbid - even the classics) teens will read them. :-)

Speaking of unique formats, one of my favorite chick lit authors is Lauren Myracle and her instant message style novels starting with TTYL. I have to admit I had to ask someone what TTFN meant as I cannot remember ever saying Tah-tah (I am not even sure that's how you spell it) for now to anyone, but then again I grew up in the sticks of Upper Michigan so that's no surprise! So, when I saw that Myracle was one of the three authors (Lockhart and Mlynowski too) who got together to write the new HarperCollins chick lit road trip book, How to Be Bad, I had to read it. It might have had something to do with the pain meds, but I found myself laughing out loud as I read it, especially when they break into a small town museum so they can visit the lengendary alligator Old Joe, all 16 feet of him. Even behind glass he has poor Mel hyperventilating. She is the rich girl who recently started working at the Waffle House with Vicks and Jesse and is footing the bill for their road trip to Miami. Almost as funny is when they stop to eat and all there is to choose from is a hot dog cart. Poor Mel, the other two don't realize she is Jewish, even after she orders only the bun. They are on their way to visit Vicks' boyfriend who isn't making their long distance relationship easy with his few and far between short text messages. So the very religious Jesse, who is running away from the realization that her mother has breast cancer, "borrows" her mother's car and suggests the road trip. The reader gets to know the three very different girls as they meet a guy for Mel, crash at a party, drive through a hurricane, stay in a pirate hotel, and much more before arriving in Miami. This is the perfect beach read book and a good laugh was much needed after I read the wonderful, but gut wrenching, Wake by Lisa McMann, but that will have to wait until another posting. TTFN!! :-)

I had no idea just how wonderful the heated keyboard that Steve gave me was going to turn out to be. When Steve gave it to me I appreciated the warm keys as my hand are typically ice cold, but I had no idea just how much warmth it actually gives off and how delightful that can be until today. Our furnace quit working late Saturday afternoon and the builder was out of town for the weekend so we didn't get the name and phone number of the company that put the unit in until late last night. Steve called ever 1/2 hour this a.m. until he returned the call. We are 4th on the list, but he "thinks" the guys will get to us today. I sure as heck hope so. I am in thermal long johns under my sweats, with an extra fuzzy jacket on as well. Yesterday I spent most of my time in bed with the heated mattress pad and heating pad turned to high. Today I got smart and I took the little electric heater we have and came into my office, which is smaller and is heating up fairly well. I am glad we are in KY and not in WI with the very cold weather Mary and family has been dealing with. It was a balmy 32 degrees up there - she said it felt warm after the many days of below zero weather.

I am slowly lowering the # of pain pills I am taking a day so I see light at the end of the recovery tunnel. I have my good days and bad days, and the bad ones are my own fault as I start feeling a bit better and I over do it. But I have discovered the most wonderful "sleeping pill" - an hour with an audiobook. I lay on the heating pad and listen and find myself relaxing enough to fall asleep. It is wonderful as I tend to have trouble sleeping. It also drowns out Steve's snoring a bit too. :)

Since I was bed and warmth bound yesterday I read Evernight by Claudia Gray. What a cool vampire book!! I couldn't put it down. Bianca's parents have taken teaching jobs at the very remote and exclusive Evernight Academy. Bianca is not happy about it and decides to "run away" to teach them a lesson the night before school starts. As she makes her way through the woods she hears laughing - what sounds like a bonfire party - but she keeps walking and then sees a figure in a long black coat and starts to run. The figure tackles her to the ground. She thinks he is out to harm her and he thinks he is protecting her. An interesting way for their relationship to begin, especially since Jared ignores her when she tries to catch his eye. Bianca is no shrinking violet and demands to know why. Before long they are an item and their necking sessions become more and more passionate until one of them loses control and everything changes. This is not like Meyers' Twilight series with a "helpless" female falling for a vampire. This is a grab you and not let you go tale of two very strong characters who are defying every protocol involving human and vampire relationships. Thank goodness Diana Fox, Gray's agent, suggested she write a vampire novel. Gray has written a fascinating one and I do hope she will continue the tale of Bianca and Jared and in the hold-your-breath style as this one is written. There is no "bogging down" in this 327 page vicarious reader's admission to one of the creepiest private high schools ever found in a novel for teens. This gotta have HarperCollins title will hit the bookstores in late June. Watch out Isabella - Bianca is going to have teenage girls wishing they were her rather than you, and certainly not suggesting that Bianca quit whining already! :-)

That's it for today.