Friday, December 31, 2010

Sisters Red (Sisters Red, #1)Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oooh, I did like this retelling. It's basically Little Red Riding Hood but with some BIG TWISTS.



What can I say without giving too much away? Interesting characters. Nice details. I do wish the ... two? uses of the f-word would have been left out. I've heard her talk about that before and while I never like it I am willing to ignore it. I just really didn't feel like it "fit" the characters at the points in the story. Many other choices could have been made that would have been more effective. She's the author, though, and gets to make that choice.



Will be reading Sweetly. And probably sooner ... this book has been out for a while!



View all my reviews

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Dear Poor Neglected Blog,

Little did I know when I started you that as soon as I would actually do so most inspiration would cease. Actually, this has made me that much more appreciative of all of the great bloggers out there. It's hard to come up with interesting posts when life gets in the way. Life will always get in the way, however. That can't always be an excuse.


So. As is the thing to do this time of year, let me consider some of my goals to make next year different than this year.


1) Read more. Don't let the TV become a mind-numbing past-time. More picture books. More middle grade books. More young adult titles. More grown-up/adult books. Also the internet. Those great book bloggers are wonderful but one spends all one's time reading ABOUT books there is much less time to actually read the books. (Side note ... as MOVING more is also a goal it might be good to add here that audiobooks will play a role in this reading more. Dear track/treadmill/road/sidewalk/dumb weights that I really hate but I know will help get my metabolism up ... meet the audiobook download. Commute ... meet either the audiobook download or the CD set.)

2) Spend more time browsing in bookstores. Seems like kind of a given but I don't, actually. Or I haven't so much.

3) Browsing in the library is fun, too. It's gotten to the point where I have so many books on hold behind the circulation desk that I rarely just venture into the stacks ... and that's kind of a bummer. Miss out on the thrill of the find that way. So don't let the holds overtake me. Check out the shelves.

4) Embed Goodreads reviews here. I'm never going to be a super detailed reviewer. But I actually do post over there quite a lot and it's silly to try and reinvent the wheel I've already written. Short and sweet. That'll work.

5) Post some of the cool stuff we're doing over at school. Well. And the cool ideas that I wish we could do but have trouble convincing people to try. At least this will be an outlet to think through those ideas.



Contemplated signing up for some challenges. I still might. For right now my concrete minimum goals are 156 picture books, 37 middle grade books, 35 young adult books, and 15 grown up books. I can do that and hopefully do more. But definitely that.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Thanksgiving's Over. Now We Move On ...

to OTHER holidays.


I still love The Chanukkah Guest as my favorite Hanukkah read aloud. I've seen other good stories but none of them seem to be as small-fry, not everyone necessarily knows what we are talking about, friendly.



Then for Christmas I have more favorite titles. I hope that's not unfair. There are more choices out there.


My Penguin Osbert

The Longest Christmas List Ever

Uncles and Antlers

Bear Stays Up for Christmas

It's Christmas, David!