Multiple Books!

Lost the entire post!

Coronet Among the Grass, the second installment in Charlotte Bingham's early autobiography. Stylistic change as writing matures? The author is maturing? Whatever the reason, Among the Grass is much more readable. Perhaps it's due to the sentence structure's improved flow, or even that short sentences seem more visually jarring, Among the Grass may not be as comic a tale, but was more pleasant to read.

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene. I feel this book was a wonderful discovery. So many of the new YA books coming into our library are based in the US, Britain or Australia. Here's a book based in France, which also begs the question, why are we not seeing more books from other countries? The book would be readable for any teenager: an only child has hit her teens and is struggling through the normal teenage troubles, crushes, schoolwork, etc., yet also dealing with the psychological effects of being abandoned by the father of the family. This has a slight twist, as the family is Muslim and the father has left to marry a second wife so that he might have a male heir. Interesting glimpse into the life of a low-income single-parent immigrant Muslim family. More interesting: I borrowed my copy from the book sale shelf. There is only one cataloged copy of the book in Berks County Public Libraries.

I'm always behind the times when it comes to reading bestsellers. I prefer reading before the hype, or long after the hype has died down. In this case I'm finally getting around to reading Ice Bound by Dr. Jerri Nielsen, most likely commonly known as the woman who developed breast cancer while in Antarctica. At this point in my reading list, McMurdo Base and the Dome are old friends and I'm enjoying revisiting these places through another author's eyes.

Also got around to Stranger Than Fiction, delightful, and am currently enjoying season one of My Family starring Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay.

Coronet in the Weeds

At age 20 Charlotte Bingham decided to write the first installment of her autobiography Coronet Among the Weeds and it was published in 1963 (perhaps because of her father and mother's influence) whereupon it became quite a sensation. Really. In Britain. Maybe because the family was titled. And that pretty much descibes the sentence structure for the entire book. Easily read in a few hours with the delivery of a stand-up comic monologue. Humorous in parts, but also requires Brit-speak or a long acquaintance with BBC broadcasts.

Where does the time go: or why I'm still awake at 4am

Image by Angels Gate via Flickr

Recent Reads:

Young Adult

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier - Always read the sequel first! I'm a sucker for the new book section and rarely stop to see if there's a book I should have read previously. The book does have a great cover, incidentally, Kinuko Y. Craft whom I'll be Googling. Cybele's Secret will be enjoyed by teens who've matured beyond Theodora Throckmorton, and by mothers who aren't ready for teens to be reading Libba Bray's The Sweet Far Thing. I'm always tickled by how relevant my reading choices seem to be so reading about Cybele's Gift so close to the announcement of the female fertility figure discovery was appropriate.

Paper Towns by John Green. Three for three. John Green has once again created a plot and characters that both sexes will enjoy equally. It has to be read. Similar emotional pull: the Watching Alice series by Daniel E. Parker (which also shares traits with the Gossip Girls series, which I sampled at approximately the same time).

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Companion to Life As We Knew It which has to be one of my top ten YA books, but not neccesarily for young adults. The moon has fallen into an orbit closer to earth and the dominos fall as geophysic events cascade. LAWKI graphically describes the aftereffects of the event in a rural/suburban landscape while TDATG occurs in an urban setting where information seems less easy to obtain. For a good freak-out high, read LAWKI first.

Adult, or mature teens

The Cobra Event by Robert Preston. Graphic in forensic anatomy and epidemiology, The Cobra Event is probably the best bioterrorism book I've ever read. As gripping as Crichton with data spot on the latest in viruses, even for a book written in 1999. There are a few passages that date the book, but then The Andromeda Strain has those as well. Once again, I finished reading just BEFORE I read the article on the emergence of a class similar to Ebola/Lassa Fever.

September 11 causes the most glaring problem: can a forensic pathologist still travel with his/her own prosector knife even if it's in checked luggage? The book also answered a question that came up in this house after a photo of the CDCs representatives were in Berks County for swine flu. Yes, they were wearing uniforms and the CDC is a branch of the Navy. If I worked at the CDC I'd be up in arms about having to wear what looked like a Girl Scout vest.

Currently Reading:

Fiction

Surving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White. So far I'd catalog it in the YA section, but BCPL Bookmobile has it in Fiction. Five teens enter a contest to recreate Scott's fatal voyage to the South Pole, without knowing that the gear and materials will be appropriate to 1912, or knowing the show's producers don't play fair.

Over One Whole Month?!

Have been practicing using Illustrator most evenings so this has been neglected.

Relistened to Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series and have read that we get both a sequel and a prequel in the next two years!

Let's see: Emily Windsnap and the Montser from the Deep, Labyrinth by....hmmmm...Kate Mosse, The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson, Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder, Doctor Illuminatus and Soul Stealer by Martin Booth, Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction and most likely others I will remember later on. 

I'm also finding lots of books that I want to read are not in the county collection. Let's hope the new library spending act does not get passed, because I won't be able to afford to pay for inter- library loans.

Quick bedtime post

Still refreshing on horseshoe crab details - hope I can see Dr. Carl in May @ Green Eggs and Sand this year. (And hoping the population is strong again this year.)

Sabriel as read by Tim Curry - gifted, gifted performer

Ankle Deep by Angela Thirkell. How many times have I now marveled over how modern her books are in topic and writing?

On the web: lots and lots of play-dough recipes for the library National Library Week cookie cutter workshop.

(And read all the Twilight books as well as Midnight Sun since last post.)

Still open and recently closed...

Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce

Part of the Circle series, which seems I read so long ago. The irony of this book is that Mt. Redoubt continues to puff and blow. I loved images of being inside the crystaline structure of the different minerals. A book rockhounds will enjoy. YA

Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

I'm still reeling from the pedigree charts, but it's somewhat more clear and I remember some things from I, Claudius. I know how the story is supposed to end, so why am I surprised that I have tears running down my cheeks? The characters are well-written, it may help explain history, and it also falls into Sue Lange's category of "what women once did." How historically accurate? Unknown without research, but truly enjoyable.

Getting up to date

Many Angela Thirkell novels later, I have also been reading: 

Dingo by Charles de Lint. YA but I'd put in J. Fantastic cover, interesting premise, but felt like it had been cut short.

If You Are Reading This It's Too Late, by Pseunonymous Bosch. Not high on my list to finish, but enjoyed the protagonists enough that I eventually will.

Women Who Wrote the War fascinating account of the earliest female war correspondents.

The Annotated Frankenstein by Leonard Wolf. Footnotes become as interesting as the story.

Against the Clock Illustrator 9.0 and Photoshop 5.0.

Princess Ben. Not bad. Enjoyed her tower scenes.

ST Deep Space 9 Season 4 - must have missed most of this season. It's nice to find new episodes.

Inspiral Carpets - Revenge of the Goldfish. Named for Sandy Skoglund's installation piece. I'm impressed. I haven't listened to a disc I've enjoyed as much for quite some time. Lyrics may be a little shallow and not certain that music would receive great marks from professionals, but the big point is I ENJOYED IT and didn't turn it off!

White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison. Old friends in a new scenario - will wait quietly for next volume.