Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman

Set in the simpler time post World War 1, this story grabs hold of you and leads down the forest trail - and before you know it, without agreeing to be terrified, there you are, with those across the river - and it is terrifying!

The final hundred pages are don't put it down good, cancel all meetings good, do not disturb good. Hard to believe this is Buehlman's first novel - it is abundantly clear he has been crafting words for quite some time. 

Ugly Fish by Karen Lareau - a 5 star picture book cautionary tale

Great illustrations, and a cautionary tale everyone sometimes needs to be reminded of, regardless of their age:  If you act like a jerk, someone is going to settle your hash sooner or later.

Now rest assured, Ms Lareau does not use language like 'jerk' anywhere in this book.  Instead it is about a pretty but greedy fish who did not want to share his home, despite repeated attempts to provide him with friends. When he finally comes around to the idea that it might be nice to have some company, his next friend isn't much interested in him.  She presents the tale in a way that both surprises and horrifies - through in many repeated presentations at story time kids love this story and understand it - they aren't scared or horrified.  Parents, and other adults, sometimes react in surprise and horror because the outcome is not saccharine, as most kids books.

First posted on Goodreads

Resurrection

Ok, I have such a hard time keeping track of passwords, that I lost the ability to update this missive for literally years.  Then recently, revelation and huge aha! moment, I finally figured out how to find my secret password file!

Still, I didn't begin posting entries again, until something like an earthquake shook my world - I work for Borders, the soon to be defunct 2nd largest bookstore company in America. I've been writing my reviews on staff selection slips and there just hasn't been a need for recording them here - now all that changed, didn't it. My time with Borders comes to an end, simultaneously with their demise - as of Friday, the liquidators who will be in charge don't care about book reviews.  They care about moving those units - fast as possible, eventually with deep discounts - and units to them will include the shelves and displays as well. It'll be a circus for 8 weeks or so, and then it will all end.

But enough of the sadness and on to the silver linings - I will return to reviewing books here, and occasionally muse on the rest of life.

Here's why I don't take time to blog

In January of 2008 I read:

The Woods by Harlan Coben
Covering Ground by Barbara W Ellis
Potshot by Robert B Parker (the 28th Spenser)
Widow's Walk by Robert B Parker (the 29th Spenser)

and I got a brief start on:

Duma Key by Stephen King

I enjoyed the unabridged audio presentation of these:

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Rangers Apprentice #3, The Icebound Land by John Flanagan
You've Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

In addition to all that book reading and listening, I read a few magazines and the daily newspaper.

I also do storytime once or twice every week, and that activity adds u to a lot of books read. In January the kids and I enjoyed:

Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming
Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri
There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Wood
Smitten by David Gordon
Necks Out For Adventure by Timothy Basil Ering
Fish Kisses and Gorilla Hugs by Marianne Richmond
Blue Goose (again)
Josephine Wants To Dance by Jackie French
Imagine A NIght by Sarah Thompson
A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch
A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohman
Skippyjon Jones by Judith Schachner
The Fabulous Bouncing Chowder by Peter Brown
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
Winter is The Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer
Toy Boat by Randall Deseve
Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Conner
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Conner
Super Completely and Totally the Messiest by Judith Viorst
Happy Birthday to You by Marianne Richmond
Thumper Finds a Friend by Laura Driscoll
Big Chickens Fly the Coop by Leslie Helakoskie
Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson
A House is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton
365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental
Ugly Fish by Kara LaReau
Maybe aBear Ate It! by Robbie Harris
I'm a Manatee by John Lithgow
Tusk Tusk by David McKee
Stay Awake Sally by Mitra Modaressi
The Prince Won't Go to Bed by Dayle Ann Dodds
A Kitten's Tale (again)
Maybe a Bear Ate It! (again)
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
A Isn't For Fox: An Isn't Alphabet by Wendy Ulmer
Princess Me by Karma Wilson
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic
Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic
The Three Pigs by David Weisner

The best books I read in January were the Spensers, especially Potshot. In it, Spenser and Susan define heaven: The place where all the dogs you ever loved are waiting for you. My own definition includes cats too!

Since I'm only a few pages into Duma Key, I can't really include it but know I'll love it.

The best three books I heard were The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. Burke always captures southern Louisiana in such lyrical and beautiful language, and he continues that tradition in this book. He also brings a perspective to Hurricane Katrina that was stunning in it's honesty and depth of feeling. Next was The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. This mystery novel for 8 to 13 year olds is full of wonderful, quirky and very real characters and a plot that twists and turns in unexpected ways. Very good! Finally, The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge was tremendous! Every single chapter bent my head in a new direction. I was truly surprised several times during this story, and considering how many mysteries I consume, it is not that easy to surprise me!!

As for the storytime books, here are my brief notes:

Blue Goose and A Day Without Crayons are both wonderful ways to reinforce the color wheel for kids of all ages.

For the joy of rhyming read-a-loud, I most loved I'm A Manatee!, A House is a House for Me, and Beetle Bop.

The most beautiful illustrations were in The Three Pigs, A Isn't For Fox and I'm a Manatee!

The kids most enjoyed Beetle Bop, There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea, Big Chickens Fly the Coop, Bear Snores On and A Isn't For Fox.

I'm shooting for a monthly update, so see you again in March to go over what I read, heard and read aloud in February.

Long time, too busy reading to blog about it

And that stays true today, though I do still have deeply rooted intentions to actually write a book blog.

Stay tuned, saddle pals.

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

unabridged audio read by David Arron Baker

Odd Thomas is one of Koontz's most compelling characters. He is philosophical, fearless and committed to forward movement in his life, regardless of where it takes him. In this third story that features the character (The first book, Odd Thomas, was followed by Forever Odd) Odd continues to come to terms with the loss of his love, Stormy Llewellen, and the strange road he walks as a ghost seeing fry cook. Odd has finally left Pico Mundo for the greater world, as represented by a monastary in the New Mexico mountains (at least I think it was NM). There his unique ability to see ghosts and spirits of ill will confound him in confronting monsters of physics. He is assisted by an assortment of colorful monks (most notable, Brother 'Knuckles' Salvatore, former gangster now dedicated to the Lord) and a mysterious Russian librarian from Indianapolis (or is he a secret agent?). If these two had more opportunity to interact with Odd's fat writer mentor Ozzie, that might have been funny. Unfortunatly, Ozzie's only a brief blip on this story, so perhaps in the next Odd book.

Odd acquires a ghost dog named Boo, helps Elvis move on the next realm, and acquires a new famous dead companion, Frank Sinatra. It all looks nuts when you write it out like this, but again , this is one of Koontz's best stories, and has moments of brilliance that shine like a supernova.

Spirit Horses by Tony Stromberg

With an introduction by Linda Kohanov, this is a beautiful collection exclusively of photos of horses. Some are so amazing, showing tight details of haunch or forelock or eye, and others show the freedom and glory of wild horses. Clearly a subject close to the photographers heart, and to add more pleasure for the reader, the photos are often accompanied by wonderful quotes that bring to life the symolism and vitality of horses and their ancient connection with people.

Mitch Albom revisits mortality in For One More Day

This time, Albom creates a pathetic sports loser, Chick Bennetto, who was once (very briefly) in the World Series and is now more commonly found in the nearest dive bar. After losing career, wife and daughter, he decides to kill himself, and as he teeters between this life and the next, he finds himself on a spirtual visit with his mother. I hope Albom has exorcised all his ghosts now, and will return to some kind of meatier writing, because I personally have had enough of the morality plays.

This book is the classic illustration of a very well orchestrated marketing campaign that drove a sappy short novel to the top of the bestseller charts. Ugh!

Storytime at the Children's Museum 1-2007

So today was the first storytime of 2007 at the CM and it was fun enough. A rather small yet apreciative audience enjoyed these five books:

Big Bug Surprise by and illustrated by Julia Gran
Prunella is excited to share one of her collection of bugs at show and tell, but before it is her turn, a queen bee flies into the classroom, naturally followed by the entire swarm. Everyone except Prunella panics. Prunella saves the bees and the school by using her jelly sandwich to lure the queen and her swarm to a new home in a tree. After that excitement, Prunella finally gets to share her show and tell dung beetle! Reading the gasps and eeks of this portion of the story is the best part, for my hambone self and for the kids as well!

Outside Over There by and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Sendaks beautiful illustrations carrry this story of goblins who steal Ida's baby sister and Ida's adventure to save her sister before she becomes a goblin bride.

Hello Twins by and illustrated by Charlotte Voake
Loose illustrations flow over the pages that tell the story of Simon and Charlotte, twins who are not alike and who like each other.

Not A Box by and illustrated by Antoinette Portis
A story that sparks imagination in the kids who hear it. It features a bunny who has to repeatedly explain that his box is not a box . . . it is a burning building, a race car, a rocket ship, a robot, a million things, but not a box!!

January's Child: The Birthday Month Book by Andrea Alban Gosline Illustrated by Lisa Burnett Bossi
A nice take on the Monday's child poem, featuring the twelve months instead of the seven days of the week.

starting sooner or later

Yeah, the best laid plans and all that rot . . . in life, shores seem to expand to a level slightly larger than the time allotted to do the chores. And this is an exceptionally busy time of year for me, so don't be surprised if this entire book blogging experience doesn't actually come together completely until 2007. I'm still going to try out some formats and the like . . . stay tuned.