Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier - Although I'd seen the movie quite a while ago I needed to read this book as my English Academic team is reading it for our upcoming competition. And, much to my surprise, the movie doesn't even hold a candle to the book. I enjoyed the movie so I knew I'd enjoy the book. However, the writing and the language in this book is so outstanding that, with each turn of a page, I feared getting to the end. Frazier paints picture after picture of nature, each clearer and more precise than the one before. He addresses so many issues, from Civil War to friendship...lost love to respect for nature.

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend doing so. The literary value alone is well worth the experience!

The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard - This book is one that once you start reading, you just won't be able to put down! It took me a mere two days to fly through it, unprecedented for the usually slow reader. A very well-written and suspensful mystery, Pickard creates compelling and believable characters that her reader can't help but come to love. Her small-town setting, where everyone knows everyone, lends itself to the intimacy and closeness of all the characters. Each action of each character results in profound consequences for the others.

Set in Kansas, this is the story of many people. Rex, Abby, Mitch, and "The Virgin". Upon the discovery of the naked girl, dead, in a snowstorm one dark night, the town of Small Plains is changed forever. No one knows who she is, but the town embraces that and gives her a proper burial. Eventually she comes to be revered as a miracle worker who heals those who petition her. Many years later, old wounds are opened, questions begin to be asked, and the identity of the girl is revealed at a high price to many....especially those you would never have suspected.

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer - This book affected me more than any book I have read in as long as I can remember. With highlighter in hand, I found myself marking passage after passage, from quotes by Thoreau to incredibly poingant lines of text from the author. Although I've lived a relatively unadventurous life, I've WANTED to live out many adventures and still have hopes of doing so. This book made me really think about what it takes to actually throw caution to the wind, to disdain the opinion of friends and loved ones, and strike out on a "great" adventure of one's own.

This book is an eloquent and engrossing narrative about the perils Chris McCandless, a stubborn and idealistic young man who takes nature head on and loses. Not just a book about McCandless, the author documents other fool-hardy men who have done the same and attempts to draw both parallels and differences between them. Truly a gripping account of misplaced genius and idealistic misfortune that will put your life, the good and the bad, into perspective.

Code Orange by Caroline Cooney - The first book that my Young Hoosier Book Club chose was a fun, witty, and adventurous one. Set in post-9/11 New York City, I enjoyed reading about places I've been...Columbus Circle, the Upper West Side, Riverside Drive, the Hudson River. I was envisioning the setting without having to make up anything as I went along!

Mitty, the main character, is an unambitious high school student who goes to a yuppy private school. He's very priviledged and wants for nothing. When he's assigned a research project on infectious diseaes, his life is turned upsidedown when he actually chooses to do it. He chooses to research vitriola minor, or smallpox, and at once his life is thrown into a spiral when he risks infection and, ultimately, worse danger than he had ever imagined.

This was my first Caroline Cooney book, and I can see why she is so popular with young adults. Her book left me wanting to read more!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - This year's Caldecott Award winner, this is, hands down, one of the most enjoyable books I have read in my life. Not just a book, more than just a story, Selznick uses words and pictures to tell a fantasic story set in turn-of-the-century Paris. The black and white pages with sketches that not only illustrate the story but ADVANCE it, are artfully drawn and are interspersed at just the right time.

The story is of a boy, Hugo, who is an orphaned clock keeper inside a Paris train station. His quest to find not a way to fix an automoton that his father had once attempted to fix leads him to a filmmaker, his god-daughter, and, eventually, a home.

READ IT. Sure, it looks like a kid's book and it is. However, no adult should miss out on the experience this book creates.

Frustration beyond all frustration is what greeted me as I picked up my much anticipated copy of The Ultimate Life, the sequel to Jim Stovall's wonderfully inspiring book The Ultimate Gift. Both the book and the movie that followed were some of my favorites during 2007. I spent several months looking forward to finding out how Jason Stevens planned to manage his great uncle Red's fortune. However, upon settling down and cracking open my copy of The Ulimate Life it took only two pages....yes, just TWO PAGES, for me to slam the book closed in disgust.

Here's the rub: In The Ultimate Gift Stovall set the entire story for us. Red is Jason's great uncle. I understand fully that movies often change content, say by changing the relationships between certain characters. Okay. Fine. I am smart enough to know that. On the other hand, it is totally unacceptable, ever, for an AUTHOR to change the relationship between his OWN CHARACTERS in a sequel! In The Ultimate Life, Jason somehow becomes Red's GRANDSON, not NEPHEW, just like in the movie! I was aghast. Stricken. Speechless, even. One of my book club students came in shortly after I had discovered this fact and, together, we lamented the state of affairs in writing today. Okay, a little dramatic, but true.

Final recommendation: Readers Beware! Read it if you want, but be prepared to lose some of my respect in the doing :)

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron- Technically a YA book, this offering by Peter Cameron would be of interest to any adult reader. Sarcastic and sardonic, the protagonist struggles with nearly every aspect of his apporaching adulthood, from the expectations that he go to college to his sexuality. A loner, James Sveck, the Manhattan-bred 18-year old soon-to-be college freshman, can't seem to connect with anyone, least of all his therapist.

Throughout the book there is great commentary and insight into modern-day urban life, something many of my students will struggle to identify with, but with which I was enthralled. Cameron will make a large portion of his audience, especially those who look for relief in books, feel excitingly understood. Maybe his book will help many of them find an itch to write.

Restless by Rich Wallace - One of this year's Eliot Rosewater books, it's a wonderfully written YA ghost story. Not scary ghost story, mind you, but believable ghost story. It reminds me quite a bit of Acceleration which was on last year's Rosie list. The author has the language and euphemisms of today's teenagers nailed down. One of the main characters, Herbie, is a tough nosed athlete trying to play football and run cross-country at the same time. This book would appeal to those fringe readers who sometimes find it hard to find a book that they'd enjoy reading...think guys...think guys who don't like to read.

One Mississippi by Mark Childress - Another Rival Reader selection that makes my recommendation list! I laughed out loud most of the way through this book, but was also rendered speechless by a few of the events along the way. I didn't grow up in the 70s, but could identify with many of the cultural references and descriptions along the way. Since the story starts out in Indiana, it hooked me from the start. When the setting shifted to Mississippi, it had me with the hilarity of it all, from the moving incident to the Frillingers and Prom Night.

The relationship between the two main characters is very compelling, and the author gives away just enough along the way to clue the reader in to the fact that whatever happens in the end is going to be big. He certainly does NOT dissappoint, either. You might be able to see the end coming, but how it unfolds will leave you with more questions than answers!

A Three Dog Life: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas - Thank God...back to good writing, and in a memoir at that! I'd admit, the name of this book is what hooked me (a friend of mine has three dogs, thus the connection). Sometimes I choose books like that. Sometimes I am greatly dissappointed, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. This book provided the later of the two.

This is the memoir of Abigail Thomas, more specifically her memories centered around the traumatic brain injury of her husband, Rich Rogin. One night, Rich took their newly acquired dog out for a walk on the Upper Westside of Manhattan and was hit by a car when the dog darted into traffic. The dog came home, but Rich didn't. Abaigail writes skillfully about the pain, confusion, and acceptance she experiences throughout the years following the accident when Rich lost his memory and became a totally different man. Unable to care for him at home, she writes about her visits with him in the hospital where he lives and their weekly visits when she takes him home. Although traumatically injured, many of his words seemed prophetic, as if he were seeing the world from a different plane.

Thomas is an artful writer who is able to write lucidly about a completely heartwrenching part of her life.

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts - A Rival Readers Book Club selection, I was a bit dissappointed with this book. Written in the same style of her first book, Where the Heart Is, there are several very unique characters who she does a wonderful job of making the reader love and hate. With names like O Boy Daniels, Nicky Jack Harjo, Teeve, and Rowena Whitekiller, the reader can't help but get wrapped up in their individual stories.

Set in Oklahoma, we get a good idea of what this town and its residents are like from the beginning. Letts tells us a TON of important information about the characters in the first chapter...which was a bit overwhelming. From there the story unwinds. There's a murder and a lost child who is presumed dead but returns 25 years later looking for his real mother. When Nicky Jack Harjo, now Mark Albright, returns and finds that his mother was killed and he was stolen and then adopted, he sets his sights on uncovering the truth surrounding that day. Along the way he falls in love, barely misses being shot, and sets a small Oklahoma town topsy turvy before finally getting the answers everyone had been needing for so long.

The plot was suspenseful with enough mystery to hook the reader, but Letts' writing style was very plain and simple. Although I'm a sucker for a good story, I prefer good writing...and there she failed terribly.

I haven't had the chance to read much over the past few weeks with finishing my marathon training and traveling a bit more. I have read plenty of running magazines, though no one will be much interested in those. I should have a reading update very soon though as I'm reading our first book club book of the year and it looks to be awfully interesting! Check back for updates soon!

Bright Lights, Big ___(err...backside) by Jen Lancaster - Jen Lancaster is the writer I'd be if I had any writing talent whatsoever. Crass, sardonic, and downright catty, I'd love to have my own personal tete-a-tete with her. I mean, she SO could be me if I had been a sorority girl,liked pearls, or wasn't totally freaked out by pitbulls. We both adore Fox News. We both love to read Janet Evanovich. And if I hadn't sworn off cursing, I could SO see us sharing some awfully interesting discussions about certain liberals (aheemmm...Hillary Clinton....).

Her first book, Bitter is the New Black had me in tears. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the second memoir at Barnes and Noble. It was like manna from heaven. And this one did not disappoint, either. She's just as snide as ever, taking on everyone from her neighbors to the city aldermen. I'd have to say that the chapter about her love of Target had to be my favorite, closely followed by the chapter recounting her "love" of her personal trainer. Been there, doing that my friend!

Take the time to check this book out. I don't have it on my shelf at school, but it will forever be on the one at home!

Fade to Black by Alex Flinn - My second Eliot nominee this week was well worth the time. The nominees for this award usually confront current, edgy issues, and this was no exception. Flinn takes on several stereotypes and issues in this book, chief among them being teens living with HIV. Pair that with said teen being Hispanic, and you have the ingredients for an edgy book full of tense interactions between teens who are too young to fully grasp the meaning and gravity of both their words and actions.

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger - This was the first title I chose in my quest to read all the Eliot Rosewater nominees for this year before I actually have to sell them to my Senior English students at the start of second semester. This one would border on the controversial, so it seemed like the ideal place to start! Here's a link if you'd like to read more about this book. If you're open-minded, Hartinger has written a thought-provoking and compelling book that is worth your time (recommended for mature readers only!):

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Geography-Club.html

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier and Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy - These were two memoirs I'd been wanting to read all summer and finally had the time to sit down and spend time with this week. Both men are wonderful examples of not only African-American men who've broken out of the typical stereotypes of their peers, but they are wonderful examples of intelligent men who've stuck by their convictions through adversity and have reaped the rewards for having done so.

Although similar in focus, these books were very different in scope. Poitier's writing was much more thought provoking on an intellectual level, while Dungy's book encouraged the reader to be more introspective from a spiritual standpoint. Both men recounted the experiences, both positive and negative, of their lives while asking the reader to go further and also examine their own lives and values at the same time.

I'd highly recommend either of these books to anyone who enjoys reading memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies. Sports fans and Christians alike will be inspired by Dungy's book, while anyone willing to take a good, hard look at society and all its ills and shortcomings will be thoroughly surprised by the wonderful books these two mean have created.

While in Europe over the summer, I had the chance to do a few geeky librarian things like visit the British Library (where all kinds of cool, original manuscripts like the Gutenburg Bible are kept), The Globe Theatre, Kings Cross Station (Platform 9 3/4 even!), and Shakespeare and Company. I'll post a few pictures over the next few weeks so all the literary types like me can enjoy!

FINALLY....I finished it. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It only took me four weeks and a lot of late nights, but I savored it along the way and, in the end, was incredibly happy with the last installment in J.K. Rowlings series of books that are all bound to be classics one day.

I won't divulge a lot of what happens in the book as I know many of you haven't read it yet. However, I will give away just a small bit that I was extremely pleased with. That is near the end of the book when Dumbledore's Army (along with all of the other "good guys") battle all of the Death Eaters (and all of the other "bad" guys). This, to me, brought the entire series to one final, common point and wrapped everything that had strung out along the way into a nice, neat package. The ending was more than I could have hoped for!

The end of summer is upon us, and I haven't written once about what I've read! I guess part of that is because I haven't read a whole lot, and what I did read was while I was on vacation. It's time I take a few mintues to catch you up with my reading world!

While on vacation I read the following books:

• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Miakelson. This book had been on my list of YA books to read for quite some time, but I decided to use it as our summer school text and needed to get with it. It's a really, really good YA book, especially for the more troubled of the lot. The main character, Cole Matthews, has been through the legal system and finally pulls his last straw...severely beating a fellow classmated. His last chance at avoiding jail is to take part in a new program derived from the Native American form of healing called Circle Justice. Cole decided to take part and is banished to a remote Alaskan island where he confonts not only his own ghosts, but a mythical bear called the Spirit Bear.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Honestly, I only selected this title because it was on Oprah's Book Club list (I know...pretty lame!). Usually I am happy with the books she chooses, but not this time. I respect McCarthy as a writer, so I was a bit surprised that I didn't take to this book at all. There were a few good lines ("Each was the other's world entire" -- good writing!) but the tone of the book was just way too dark for me...especially for a vacation read. Father and son survive a nuclear winter and attempt to make their way in a world that is totally foreign to them, attempting to allude other survivors who mean them harm. The ending didn't dissappoint; it was just as dark as the entire tome!
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseni. Again, I was anxiously awaiting this book by the author of The Kite Runner. His first book was an Eliot Rosewater nominee and an all-out excellent book. This one lived up to my anticipation, and was, I think, possibly even better than the first book! This is the story of two Afghan women who are both wives of one Afghan man. Their hate for one another turns into friendship and their seemingly diverse and hurtful pasts are woven into one life that, like those of most Afghan women, takes a tragic turn that tests the bonds of their friendship and love.
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. We selected this as our next book club title and I'm really excited for our group to discuss it next week. It's a memoir, and not just any memoir...it's funny. Gotta love that! Alas, most of the humor throughout comes from the insane (literally) antics of the author's parents who, honestly, are just not mentally stable enough to be raising one kid let alone four. From putting the kids in the back of a U-Haul while moving to "checking out" of the hospital by jumping into an ideling car, their parenting skills leave much to be desired. In the end, her parents wind up homeless (but happy), living their eccentric lives with the same passion and flair as always.

It's the end of the school year....and I haven't read a book in what seems like ages! I guess it's only been a few weeks, but when you're a reader who can't find the time, a few weeks seem like forever!

Regardless, today is the LAST day of school, so that means my reading time will increase by leaps and bounds. My reading plan for the summer: read at least half of the nominees for the Eliot Rosewater Book Award for next year. That means 12 books. I think I can do that. Currently I am about halfway through Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This is our next Rival Readers book club selection. I'm enjoying it even though the tales of some of the more seedy parts of the circus sideshows are enough to make a girl like me blush! I'll be back soon with a full review of this book...and, hopefully, at least one more!