books i've read may 2010

5.1.10

• Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty (PB)
  
• In the Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap by Alexs Pate (A-NF)

5.2.10

• Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich (A)

5.5.10

• Adored by Cecily von Ziegesar (YA)

5.6.10

• Itty Bitty by Cece Bell (PB)
• The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood & Renata Liwska (PB)

5.7.10

• Oddly by Joyce Dunbar & Patrick Benson (PB)
• The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson & Joel Chin (PB)

5.8.10

• New Mexico Curiosities by Sam Lowe (A-NF)

5.9.10

• The Naughty List by Suzanne Young (YA)
• Ms. Wiz Spells Trouble by Terence Blacker & Tony Ross (Y)

5.10.10

• Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems (PB)
• Big Wolf & Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme & Olivier Tallec (PB)
  
• My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall (PB)
• Lom and the Gnatters by Kurusa & Isabel Ferrer (PB)
• Bee-Wigged by Cece Bell (PB)

5.11.10

• Be Generous: 101 Meditations and Suggestions to Get You Through the Day (and Night) by David Marell (A-NF)
• On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (A-NF)

5.12.10

• happyface by Stephen Emond (YA)

5.13.10

• The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis & Gwen Millward (PB)
• Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola (PB)
• My Garden by Kevin Henkes (PB)
• Hiccup the Seasick Viking by Cressida Cowell (PB)
• The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic by Darby Penney, Peter Stastny, & Lisa Rinzler (A-NF)

5.14.10

• Riding Invisible by Sandra Alonzo & Nathan Huang (YA)

5.15.10

• The Costume Party by Victoria Chess (PB)
• Kitty's Cuddles by Jane Cabrera (PB)
• Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel & Nick Bruel (PB)
• Stanley's Beauty Contest by Linda Bailey & Bill Slavin (PB)
• Wallace's Lists by Barbara Bottner, Gerald Kruglik, & Olof Landstrom (PB)
• Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Bemelmans Marciano (A-NF)
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan (YA)

5.16.10

• Beautiful Dead: Jonas by Eden Maguire (YA)
• Foyle's Further Philavery: A Cornucopia of Lexical Delights compiled by Christopher Foyle (A-NF)

5.17.10

• Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George (YA)

5.18.10

• Creature by Andrew Zuckerman (A-NF)
• Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey (A-NF)
• Vatos by Jose Galvez & Luis Alberto Urrea (A-NF)
• Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg (A-NF)
• The Best Camera Is the One That's With You by Chase Jarvis (A-NF)
• Bookworm by Rosamond Purcell (A-NF)

5.19.10

• The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (YA)

5.20.10

• Hip Hop Dog by Chris Raschka & Vladimir Radunsky (PB)
• Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett & Noah B. Jones (PB)
• Green Angel by Alice Hoffman (YA)
• Green Witch by Alice Hoffman (YA)

5.21.10

• My So-Called Death by Stacey Jay (YA)

5.22.10

• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (A-NF)

5.24.10

• Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (YA)
• How to Twist a Dragon's Tale by Cressida Cowell (Y)

5.26.10

• The Waking: Dreams of the Dead by Thomas Randall (YA)
• White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise (A-NF)

5.27.10

• Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors by Joyce Sidman & Beckie Prange (Y-NF)
• Just Like Bossy Bear by David Horvath (PB)
• The Grouchies by Debbie Wagenbach & Steve Mack (PB)
• Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun & Spite by June Casagrande (A-NF)

5.30.10

• Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs--Even If You're Right by June Casagrande (A-NF)

5.31.10

• Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths by Mardy Grothe (A-NF)
• Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss (A-NF)

05.10 total: 59

23 picture books; 19 adult non fiction; 1 adult fiction; 13 young adult fiction; 2 youth fiction; 1 youth non fiction

A preoccupation

The last couple times I've been to the library, I've been interested in books about words or grammar. I only got one book the time before today. But then I graded a bunch of my students' papers and I think I became obsessed with grammar. So I sought out some grammar books today when I visited the library. I have the following language/word/grammar/punctuation books to read:

• Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Bemelmans Marciano
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
• Foyle's Further Philavery: A Cornucopia of Lexical Delights collected by Christopher Foyle
• Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun & Spite by June Casagrand
• Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs--Even If You're Right by June Casagrande
• Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey

Looks exciting, yeah? :)

A new favorite library activity

Okay, so it's not a totally NEW favorite library activity. I just started doing it more often recently. It is: browsing the new book shelves at the library!

I did this at AADL. It started while I was working there, mostly because shelving the new books was an activity I could do when things were slow. That, of course, lead to browsing and checking out the books that looked interesting. The fun part is that I end up reading books that I may have never discovered or would have thought about picking up.

I discontinued doing so once I got to the Branigan Library here in NM. Mostly because the new books sections never looked very large. I kept at it in the children's section, but most of those books, at least at Branigan, are not really new. After some wandering in the YA section one day, I discovered the YA new book shelf. And a book that I had really wanted to read on was there on it (I don't remember which book now)!

So I started browsing the adult fiction and non fiction new book sections in the last few months. Here are some gems I discovered:

• Dogs & Devotion by The Monks of New Skete (A-NF)

A very cool book of photographs and quotes.

• The Weiser Field Guide to Vampires: Legends, Practices, and Encounters Old and New by J.M. Dixon (A-NF)
• How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful by Diana Laurence (A-NF)

Clearly, I was in a vampire phase. Two very different and equally fascinating books...

• How to Be a Cowboy by Jim Arndt (A-NF)

Who wouldn't want to be a cowboy?

• The Oxford Project by Peter Feldstein & Stephen G. Bloom (A-NF)

A very neat photo book that had photos of every person is the town of Oxford from the 80s and in 2000 (I think those were the dates).

• Bear-ology: Fascinating Bear Facts, Tales & Trivia by Sylvia Dolson (A-NF)

Vital information. I can now tell the difference between a brown bear and a black bear.

• Fifty Dresses That Changed the World by Design Museum (A-NF)
• Fifty Shoes That Changed the World by Design Museum (A-NF)

I'm not a big fashion person, but these were pretty interesting!

• Americanos: Latino Life in the United States by Edward James Olmos, Lea Ybarra, & Manuel Monterrey (A-NF)
• Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress by Candacy A. Taylor (A-NF)
• Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life edited by Graydon Carter & Risko (A-NF)

Books that contributed to my knowledge of Latinos, waitresses, and celebrities. Clearly, the knowledge of Latino culture was most useful to me, now that I am living in a place where Latino culture is so prevalent!

• Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage by Katie Brown (A-NF)

This book spawned my interest in trying rock climbing. Haven't done it yet, but it's on my list!

• Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style by RuPaul (A-NF)

I love RuPaul! Would I have thought to look for this book if it wasn't on the new shelf? Probably not!

• We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion by Sep Kamvar & Jonathan Harris (A-NF)

Clearly, the best discovery so far. This book examines the use of feelings in blogs across the US. Blogs and their therapeutic benefits are one of my research interests. :)


And it won't end there. I'm still on the lookout. Some of my current check-outs are from the new book shelves and I look forward to reading them:

• The Lives They Left Behind by Penney, Stastny, & Rinzler
• White Like Me by Tim Wise
• Foyle's Further Philavery collected by Christopher Foyle
• Anonyponymous by John Bemelmans Marciano

Yay for cool new books! :)

book i've read april 2010

4.1.10

• Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell (PB)
• Two Old Potatoes and Me by John Coy & Carolyn Fisher (PB)
• Am I a Color Too? by Heidi Cole, Nancy Vogl, & Gerald Purnell (PB)
• Crocodiles Are the Best Animals of All! by Sean Taylor & Hannah Shaw (PB)
• Dragolin by Stephen Cosgrove & Robin James (PB)
• The Wizard, the Fairy and the Magic Chicken by Helen Lester & Lynn Munsinger (PB)
• Death by Denim by Linda Gerber (YA)

4.2.10

• Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life edited by Graydon Carter & Risko (A-NF)

4.3.10

• Gramp-Lop by Stephen Cosgrove & Robin James (PB)

4.5.10

• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (YA)

4.9.10

• Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon (Y)

4.10.10

• Meanwhile by Jason Shiga (GN)
• Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight (Y)
• Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 by Eric Wight (Y)
• Heist Society by Ally Carter (YA)

4.11.10

• Crush by Carrie Mac (YA)

4.13.10

• We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion by Sep Kamvar & Jonathan Harris (A-NF)

4.14.10

• Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style by RuPaul (A-NF)
• How to Be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell (Y)

4.15.10

• Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy (A)

4.17.10

• Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lynn Childs (YA)

4.18.10

• All in the Family!: A Look-It-Up Guide to the In-Laws, Outlaws, and Offspring of Mythology by Steven Otfinoski (Y-NF)

4.19.10

• Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn (YA)
• Scandal by Kate Brian (YA)

4.23.10

• The Nine Lives of Chloe King: The Stolen by Celia Thomson (YA)

4.24.10

• Bleach #30 by Tite Kubo (M)
• Need by Carrie Jones (YA)
• Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell (GN)

4.29.10

• Undead Much? by Stacey Jay (YA)

4.30.10

• Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur (Y)

04.10 total: 30

7 picture books; 10 young adult fiction; 3 adult non fiction; 5 youth fiction; 2 graphic novels; 1 adult fiction; 1 youth non fiction; 1 manga

books i've read march 2010

3.2.10

• Zombie-Loan #8 by Peach-Pit (M)
• Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder (A)

3.3.10

• The ACME Catalog: Quality Is Our #1 Dream by Charles Carney & Scott Grass (A-NF)
• Young Zeus by G. Brian Karas (PB)

3.4.10

• Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage by Katie Brown (A-NF)
• Skin Deep by Mark Del Franco (A)

3.5.10

• Monkey High! #8 by Shouko Akira (M)

3.6.10

• Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (GN)

3.8.10

• Fables: The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Mark Buckingham, Tony Akins, Russ Braun, Andrew Pepoy, & Jose Marzan Jr. (GN)
• Rosario + Vampire #10 by Akihisa Ikeda (M)

3.9.10

• Nothing by Janne Teller (YA)
• How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (Y)
• How to Be a Vampire by Amy Gray (YA-NF)

3.11.10

• Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting & David Wiesner (PB)
• Cactus Poems by Frank Asch & Ted Levin (PB)
• This Is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore, Jessica Alexander, & James Ransome (PB)
• The Underwear Salesman and Other Jobs for Better or Verse by J. Patrick Lewis & Serge Bloch (PB)
• The Story of Honk-Honk-Ashoo & Swella-Bow-Wow by Ralph Cosentino (PB)
• Otis by Loren Long (PB)

3.13.10

• Sticky Burr: The Prickly Peril by John Lechner (GN)

3.14.10

• Bizenghast #6 by M. Alice LeGrow (M)
• Ambition by Kate Brian (YA)

3.15.10

• The Brimstone Journals by Ron Koertge (YA)
• I Just Hope It's Lethal edited by Liz Rosenberg & Deena November (YA)

3.16.10

• The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, Carson Ellis, & Nathaniel Stookey (PB)
• Sunday Chutney by Aaron Blabey (PB)
• Babymouse Burns Rubber by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm (GN)

3.17.10

• Buddha #8: Jetavana by Osamu Tezuka (GN)

3.18.10

• Rage: A Love Story by Julie Anne Peters (YA)

3.19.10

• Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel by Ronda Thompson (A)

3.20.10

• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves by Nathan Robert Brown (A-NF)
• Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire (A-NF)

3.21.10

• How to Speak Dragonese by Cressida Cowell (Y)
• 35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say by Maura Cullen (A-NF)

3.22.10

• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (PB)
• How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse by Cressida Cowell (Y)

3.23.10

• You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay (YA)

3.24.10

• Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress by Candacy A. Taylor (A-NF)

3.25.10

• Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (YA)

3.27.10

• Josephine Wants to Dance by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley (PB)
• Indescribably Arabella by Jane Gilbert (PB)
• Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox & Nicholas Wilton (PB)
• Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman & Kevin Hawkes (PB)
• Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (PB)
• In the Cards: Life by Mariah Fredericks (YA)

3.28.10

• The Mark by Jen Nadol (YA)

3.30.10

• Americanos: Latino Life in the United States by Edward James Olmos, Lea Ybarra, & Manuel Monterrey (A-NF)
• The Nine Lives of Chloe King: The Fallen by Celia Thomson (YA)

03.10 total: 48

4 manga; 3 adult fiction; 7 adult non fiction; 15 picture books; 5 graphic novels; 10 young adult fiction; 3 youth fiction; 1 young adult non fiction

Found a poem!

Love it, love it, love it!! :)

nobody but you
by Charles Bukowski

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don't, don't, don't.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you're worth saving.
it's a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving your self.
your spiritual self.
your gut self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don't join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally
if necessary
wager your life as you struggle,
damn the odds, damn
the price.

only you can save your
self.

do it! do it!

then you'll know exactly what
I am talking about.

For my Papa

Dear Papa,

I found a book that I think you would have really enjoyed. I remember how much you loved Wile E. Coyote from the Loony Tunes cartoons. We used to watch them together when I was little and you and Grammie would babysit me.

I found The ACME Catalog! It shows, in full color with lots of fun descriptions, many of the purchases that Wile E. Coyote made in the cartoons! It was so much fun. My favorite was the bat costume. Do you remember that episode?

I wish that you were still alive so that I could have shared it with you. I think you would have laughed quite a bit. But, I am glad that I was able to enjoy it and think fondly of you. I miss you very much.

Wherever you might be, if you have access to books (and I hope you do), please see if you can find it. Read it and think of your favorite granddaughter.

Love always,
Dawn