More Books

I've been reading up a storm over the last 2 weeks. Nothing heavy however. I've surpassed my goal of reading 50 books and am now working on reading 100 books this year. These represent books 55 -61.

First up are 2 more Aunt Dimity books by Nancy Atherton, Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil and Aunt Dimity: Detective. This series is thoroughly enjoyable. Lori is an American woman who inherits an English cottage from her mother's best friend Aunt Dimity. Aunt Dimity still inhabits the cottage in an old journal through which she communicates. Lori solves mysteries with the help of Aunt Dimity's advice. I'd class these in the "cozy mystery" genre and I'm looking forward to reading the rest in the series.

Next are 2 books in the Elm Creek Quilt series by Jennifer Chiaverini series: The New Year's Quilt, and The Winding Ways Quilt. I also enjoy this series - it's gentle storytelling, although by this time the books are also pretty formulaic and predictable. I listened to The Winding Ways Quilt, and thought it was perfect as an audio book. This book tells the "back story" of most of the supporting characters, and each story was very engrossing. In fact, several times I got so lost in a particular character's story, I forgot I was listening to a book.

The Weaver and the Factory Maid is the first book in a series by Deborah Grabien. Ringan Laine has moved into a cottage that is haunted and he and his girlfriend figure out how to lay the ghosts to rest. Each of her books is named for a traditional English folk ballad, and the story is based on the story told in the ballad. It was quite an interesting read.

The Amethyst Heart by Penelope Stokes was next. The story was trite, and the author's heavy-handed proselytizing was annoying. I think the best Christian fiction makes its point without preaching.

The next book I finished was Home by Julie Andrews. I enjoyed this memoir but was disappointed that it ended with Mary Poppins. She had a very difficult childhood, but she persevered. I was interested in her accounts of the difficulties she's had with her voice - I guess I never realized just how difficult it can be to sing professionally.

Finally, there's Twilight, by Stephanie Meyers. Since most of the girls in my classes were reading this book last spring, I decided to read it myself. I can certainly understand why they're attracted. I didn't hate it, but I can't say I love it. It was too long, and dragged out, and frankly, I got bored about half way through. I won't put it on my classroom shelf, because while there's no explicit sex in it, it teeters on the edge. I didn't find it objectionable as an adult, and I think for older teens it's not objectionable. I don't think 11 and 12 year girls need any more titillation that is already out there. I put in the category of it's okay with me if you read it, but I'm not going to give it to you.

A Visit to the Toadstool

We are blessed in this region of New Hampshire to have an amazing bookseller called The Toadstool. There are 3 locations, and it's an independently owned bookstore that competes with a Borders. The Toadstool has been around for about 30 years, I think, -at least as long as I've lived in this neck of the woods. Each of their locations is different, but all of them offer an amazing selection of books, an extremely knowledgeable staff, and a wonderful browsing atmosphere. They also are wonderful to teachers. Teachers get a discount for classroom books ranging from 20%-25% off.

This morning 2 of my teaching colleagues and I met at the local shop to browse for books for our classrooms. We have the grand total of $139 each to spend on our classroom libraries or to round out our novel sets for language arts. I already knew what I wanted to buy, but I had fun browsing the shelves for great middle school novels. I will be purchasing a classroom set of Mike Lupica's Miracle on 49th Street. I already have a set of his novel Heat which I used last year. My kids, girls and boys alike, enjoyed Heat, but I wanted a novel with a female protagonist as a counterpart to it. So that eats up most of my portion of book money.

I did buy a couple of other titles - books that either intrigued me or that I know are popular with the middle school set and I just haven't read them yet. (With my own money of course!) I got a copy of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight because I know that the girls are all reading this. It's not what I would choose to offer 6th graders, but I want to stay current. I also bought The Mysterious Benedict Society on the recommendation of my incoming 5th grade niece. She and her brother have led me to some great books! Finally I found a book called Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos that intrigued me. It's set in London in 1906 and appears to be a combination of adventure, magic, and mystery. Amazon describes it as mix of Nancy Drew and Indiana Jones. So I have my next set of books to read!


We're headed to Providence this afternoon to celebrate Elder Son's birthday #28. It's hard to believe - he's as old as his dad was when we got married. Where does the time go!