Tuesday, September 27, 2011

For Sale




For more wordless photos,

Top Ten Books I Want To Reread


I don't often reread books.
There are few books I want to reread.
The only exceptions are
children's picture books
and
poetry.

What about you?
What books would you like to reread?



And don't forget!
This is the last week for
the September Giveaway here at Readerbuzz is...


And it's international!
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me

Top Ten Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me!

All books are from the 1001 Children's Books











Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Quiet Before the Storm



It's quiet today.
But I can see the dark clouds gathering.



Here's what my week holds for me: 


 Monday through Friday is the
 Scholastic Book Fair at my school library.
  I will be an alien.


Monday night is Nicole Krauss and Francisco Goldman,
speaking at the Wortham Center in Houston.
Monday night is also the night my sister hosts
a lovely dinner for our extended family in her home.


Tuesday night is our public library book club.
I have to get the library set up to Skype the author.

Wednesday night is Bible study,
which has just resumed after a summer hiatus.

Thursday night is Open House at our school,
with the book fair open for parents.

Friday I have a librarian/technology meeting,
along with wrapping up the book fair.


Friday night we leave for the Warrenton Antiques Fair.*

I think I'll spend today
hunkering down
and preparing for the storm that is next week.





Don't forget!
The September Giveaway here at Readerbuzz is...


And it's international!



What is the Sunday Salon?
Imagine some university library's vast reading room.
It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in.
They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,
and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.
Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and
compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....


That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual.
Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon
get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read.
And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs.
Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon,
an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities
 and fall into a good book. 
Click here to join the Salon.

*Photo Credit:  corrabellerose.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Top Ten Books I Read Because Of Another Reader

The prompt this week is
Top Ten Books I Read Because of Another Blogger.

My wonderful mom passed away this summer---
she was the best reader I've ever known---
so I decided to do this week's post as a tribute to her.

Thank you, Mama.

Here are the Top Ten Books I Read Because of My Mom:


Every month, I got a new book in the mail.
I could not wait to see what would arrive.


When I got a little older, my mom would buy
 Bobbsey Twins books for me.



Nancy Drew was my mom's
favorite book character
when she was young.



My mom loved mysteries.
She helped me find Phyllis Whitney
when I was in elementary school.



One Christmas, Mama got my sister and me
 a collection of records.
One was this record,
Danny Kaye reading stories of Hans Christian Anderson.


Did I ever feel grownup
when Mama checked out Gone With the Wind for me?!



For many years,
Mama would share her gothic novels with me,
including books by Mary Stewart...


...Victoria Holt...


...and Dorothy Eden.



I'd be amazed if you've read this one,
one of my mom's favorite books.
It is based on a true story
and takes place not far from where we live,
two hundred years ago.
It is one of my favorite books, too,
just because my mom loved it so much.


How about you? What books have others led you to?


Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Slogging Through with a Behemoth Cold




I was hoping this would be the day I'd make it without Mucinex and Tylenol, but, alas, it appears that it is not to be.

You've been there: coughing, sneezing, coughing some more, runny nose, more coughing, sore throat, stuffy head, and always, always, the incessant coughing. Push the dial to its highest setting, and then place me in my school library for the first week of checking out books to five and six and seven-year-olds. Eight classes a day. Parents thronging the library before school and during lunch and after school to check out books for their kids.

Do you see me there, trying to read stories and help children find books, simultaneously attempting to wipe my drippy nose? A Wonderful Week, yes. But a Bit Tricky with a Behemoth Cold.

It serves me right. I've been bragging again about How I Never Get Sick.

Okay. Enough whining.

It's my Un-birthday month. In the mail this week, I got nine Un-birthday books! (That's worthy of an exclamation point.) And lovely Un-birthday cards. And little Un-birthday notebooks and Un-birthday pens. I've discovered that the sighting of an Amazon swoosh box on my front porch significantly soothes coughing.

Look at the books I finished while I was sick:





A moment from this week:  I'm sneezing, coughing, and reading a story aloud. I've missed lunch because of the sweep of parents arriving during that time, and I didn't get a chance to take my next dose of meds. I'm about to make a Grand Sneeze ("Uh...uh...uh...uh....") and a little girl stands up in the middle of the Story Circle, runs over to the checkout desk, and grabs a Kleenex for me. Just in time.

Thank you, Mariana.

How about you? Did you have a good week? Any others out there fighting behemoth colds? Anyone finish any great books? 






Thursday, September 8, 2011

I've Never Met a Genre I Didn't Like

Literary Blog Hop



First, let me introduce myself.
Bonjour! Enchanté! ¡Buenos días!


I am Debnance at Readerbuzz.
I love to read.


 I'd love to visit your blog. 
If you like, follow me and leave a comment and
I will hop over and follow you.


I also invite you to:
Befriend me at Goodreads.
Follow me at Twitter.
 Befriend me at Facebook


Here's the prompt for this week from the Book Blogger Hop:

“Many of us primarily read one genre of books,
with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre,
what genre would you start reading?
Or would you give up reading completely
if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?”

My reply:
I read a wide variety of genres,
including genres that I've created myself,
so I don't think I will run out of genres!

Here are some of my favorite genres:
creative nonfiction
travel narratives
children's picture books (both nonfiction and fiction)
books-about-books
literary fiction
books about happiness
poetry
books about spirituality and faith
history
essays
books about education and learning
fantasy
mysteries
children's fiction
classics
historical fiction
real, old-time science fiction
biographies of strong leaders
books about cooking
photography books
post-apocalypse books
short stories
women's fiction
animal stories
moving-and-starting-over books
biographies of writers
memoirs of regular people
adventure books
joke books
encyclopedias and dictionaries


Have I left anything out???


How about you? What are your favorite genres?



My 6th Grade Teacher:  Mrs Grace
Photo from dok1

Now, the writing prompt from The Literary Blog Hop:

Must all literary writing be difficult?
Can you think of examples of literary writing
 that are not difficult?

Must I bring out the ruler
and rap your knuckles again?
Yes, yes, yes!
All literary writing must be difficult!
How dare you even ask this question?!

We must make all children think that
literary books are onerous, laborious, and abstruse.
We must continue to require all children to read
behemothic books with limited appeal to them
and mandate that the children write palaverous essays
about this compulsory reading
that concur with our beliefs.

I'm ashamed of you for even voicing this question.
Go stand in the corner!
Off with your head!




And don't forget!
The September Giveaway here at Readerbuzz is...


And it's international!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Wolves in the Library and a Five Hour Bookish Lunch


A book-ish week for me!


WOLVES IN THE LIBRARY
Classes came to our school library for the first time.
I read the wonderful children's picture book,
Wolves, written by Emily Gravett.
It was quite the hit with the kids.


FIVE HOUR LUNCH WITH BOOKISH FRIENDS
It was lovely to meet up and enjoy a five hour lunch
with book friends. Louise, center, is from Australia,
and I've happily already met her, in Paris.
Susan, right, is from Houston like me,
but this is the first time I've had the chance to meet her.
Isn't that odd and interesting?

Louise shared three wonderful Australian children's books
with me. I plan to read the two Australian picture books
with the children at school soon.

MY UN-BIRTHDAY BOOK MONTH HAS BEGUN!
I'm in a un-birthday book club
and September is my un-birthday month.
I got my first un-birthday package in the mail yesterday.
Inside were three books from my wishlists,
two of which are 1001 Children's Books You Must Read
that I have not been able to find anywhere.

IT'S TIME TO NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITES
FOR THE INDEPENDENT LITERARY AWARDS!
All readers are invited to nominate their favorite reads
of 2011 in seven categories for the Indie Lit Awards.
I'm especially interested in you

MORE BOOKISH EVENTS COMING SOON....



What is the Sunday Salon?
Imagine some university library's vast reading room.
It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in.
They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,
and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.
Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and
compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....



That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual.
Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon
get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read.
And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs.
Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon,
an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities
 and fall into a good book. 
Click here to join the Salon.