Ready for Another Day at the Library

For more wordless photos,

go to Wordless Wednesday.

The Scariest Book Covers

The Scariest Book Covers

I've Ever Had in My School Library

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories 3

These books are scary. Even for grownups.

Ghosts Along the Brazos

Catherine Munson Foster, a librarian at the public library, came to my elementary school when I was little and scared all of us to death, telling these very scary stories that take place in the county where I live.

Goosebumps

 These scary covers make the book. 

(Incidentally, I saw R. L. Stine at the Texas Book Festival yesterday. 

His books have sold more than four hundred million copies. 

Astonishing. Astonishing that so many people want to be scared to death.

And Stine revealed at the festival that none of his books scare him! Imagine.)

That's enough of the scary covers. I'm pretty sure that just looking at these is going to give me bad dreams. 

What scary book covers have you seen?

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.

Yes, It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

What I Read Last Week

I finished seventeen books last week.

Yes, seventeen.

(I really don't want to say any more. That sounds so impressive. "Yes, I finished seventeen books last week." I feel compelled to be honest, however, and state while I did, indeed, finish seventeen books last week, that all seventeen were Cybils Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books. That does take a bit of the luster off, doesn't it?)

What I'm Reading Now

I'm trying very hard to read TransAtlantic and Americanah before I go to see the authors in Houston on November 18th. I'm a third of the way into TA and about halfway into A. Let's just pray that no Birthday Books arrive (November is my Birthday Month) that draw me away from my goal.

TransAtlantic  

by Colum McCann

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

What are you reading this week?

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. 

Peculiar Character Names

Peculiar Character Names

I'm a name geek. I've always loved to think about names for dogs and cats and people and characters in stories I'm writing. My mom and I spent one of our best days making pickles, but most of that time was spent thinking of names for our pickles. (The pickles themselves weren't that tasty, frankly, but did they ever have some great names?!)

Here are some of my favorite peculiar character names.

Atticus, Scout, Boo, Dill, Jem

(To Kill a Mockingbird)

Katniss, Peeta, Prim

(The Hunger Games)

Rhett, Scarlett, Mammy, Prissy 

(Gone With the Wind)

Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 

(From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)

Pippi Longstocking 

(Pippi Longstocking)

Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape

(Harry Potter books)

Pip,  Ebenezer Scrooge, Uriah Heep , Abel Magwitch, 

Wilkins Micawber, Charity Pecksniff, Wackford Squeers

(Various Charles Dickens novels)

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 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 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.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

What I Read Last Week

Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell

David and Goliath:
Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art  of
Battling Giants

by Malcolm Gladwell

The Silver Brumby   

by Elaine Mitchell    

What Came in the Mail Last Week

Provence, 1970:
M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard and the Reinvention of American Taste

by Luke Barr

Glitter and Glue

by Kelly Corrigan

Lies You Wanted to Hear
by James Whitfield Thomson

What I'm Reading Now

TransAtlantic  

by Colum McCann

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

What are you reading this week?

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. 

Most Memorable Books I Was Forced to Read

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Junior high English. First assigned reading.

Took my breath away at how good it was.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

Heart of Darkness

High school English.

Loathed. Collectively.

We all hated it.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Bad

Don Quixote

High school English.

Taught by a teacher who loved it more than any other book.

We ended up feeling the same about it.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

High school Western Thought class.

One of the most mysterious books I've ever read.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

Walden

High school English.

During the early 70's.

I wanted to go live in a little house in the country.

Sometimes I still do.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

Animal Farm

High school English.

First time I realized how difficult it is to change things.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

The Odyssey

College English.

What a ride!

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

The Canterbury Tales

High school English.

I had to memorize the Prologue.

How is it that I still know the Prologue some forty years later?!

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

The Glass Bead Game

High school Western Thought class.

Assigned for Western Thought,

but this book is about as Un-Western Thought as it gets.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

College Educational Philosophy class.

The only book assigned in the class.

The class didn't make,

but I'd already read the first chapter and I was hooked.

I often tell people this is my favorite book.

Pretty good for assigned reading

for a class that didn't even make.

EXPECTATION: Bad    END RESULT: Good

What are some assigned reading books that you won't forget?

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.

It's Monday!

What I Reviewed Last Week

Five Days at Memorial
Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
by Sheri Fink

We know all about Katrina here. We live west of New Orleans and Katrina was an object lesson for us. 

I didn’t know all about Memorial Hospital...more

Social:

Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect

by Matthew D. Lieberman

Have you ever read a book about something you were deeply interested in and 
finished it and thought you somehow now knew 
less about something than when...more

The Wet and the Dry:   

A Drinker's Journey   

by Lawrence Osborne    

Osborne reveals on page one that he is a drinker. A big drinker. Possibly an alcoholic. And his people are also all big drinkers. Possibly alcoholics....more

The Tortoise & the Hare

by Jerry Pinkney

Nobody illustrates a story like Jerry Pinkney. Beautiful, life-like illustrations tell this old tale of the slow and steady tortoise that wins out in...more 

The Night Before Christmas
by Holly Hobbie

It’s a happy surprise to find that children’s book illustrator Holly Hobbie has taken on this classic poem. And it will be no surprise to you for me...more

The Very Fairy Princess:
Sparkles in the Snow
by Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

I can already hear the peals of delight in my primary school library from my young patrons when they catch sight of this new Very Fairy Princess story...more

Marc Brown's 

Playtime Rhymes:
A Treasury for Families to Learn and Play Together

If I could, I would buy a copy of this book and give it to every new parent in my town. It’s exactly what parents need to sing and play little finger...more

The Smartest Kids in the World

by Amanda Ripley

Is this the best book I’ve read this year about education? Yes, it is. And I’ve read a lot of books this year about education. This one was best...more

Between Shades of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys  

(First of all, let me make one thing very, very clear….This is not that Shades of Gray. I can’t imagine a situation in which I would force myself to...more 

The XX Factor:

How the Rise of Working Women

Has Created a Far Less Equal World

It’s a depressing tale. You probably figured that out from the title, but perhaps you hoped it might be bleak but not unremittingly bleak. You would be...more

Mouse Bird Snake Wolf  

by David Almond

David Almond has yet to disappoint me. He is always writing new books that set my little brain to whirring. This new story is no exception. A thoughtful...more

    

Some Nerve:
Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave

by Patty Chang Anker

Anker is a scaredy cat. I thought I was a fearful person, but my small fears and anxieties are nothing when set against the enormous fears and...more

What are you reading this week?

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.