It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

                 

What I Reviewed Last Week The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe Will Schwalbe's mom is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Will and his mom decide to form an informal two-person book club  and set off reading and talking...more The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver Liza is the only one who realizes her brother  Patrick's soul has been stolen by wicked Spindlers,  spider-ish creatures who live Below. Liza slips through...more  The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin I shouldn't even elude to plot in this review of  The Mountain Between Us.  You will hate me if I give anything away,  even if I elude to the fact that...more The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani I can't remember the last Trigiani book I read,  but I know it was back when my most challenging reads  were because of length of the novel rather than...more  Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer Artemis is clever, very clever. He wants fairy gold. And he has a plan to get it. The fairies are rather smart, too. They want to keep their gold. The...more  Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics by Jim Al-Khalili One of my favorite words.  How could I pass up this book,  with a title like that?  Even if, when I really thought about it,  I knew it would probably be...more The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide What's an advice columnist to do when she discovers she is dying?  Write a book providing advice about dying, of course. And that's what Delia does, in...more Sahara by Michael Palin My first book by this wonderful travel author.  How has he eluded me for so long?  Michael Palin is that perfect mix of an excellent observer of all that...more Julie Andrews' Treasury for All Seasons I'm always looking for another great book of poems and  what better way to organize these than to set them to  the rhythm of the seasons and who better...more All the Awake Animals Are Almost Asleep by Crescent Dragonwagon After a busy day, children need a quiet book before bedtime.  Just say the title of this book and you'll know right away that this is a perfect choice....more The Thankful Book by Todd Parr Every book on happiness I read raves about the value of being thankful.  Once again, Todd Parr takes on a worthy subject and brings to it the simplicity...more

What Came in the Mail Last Week and I'm Reading Now The Cybils nonfiction picture book nominees have started to arrive! For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Peggy Thomas Follow the Drinking Gourd by Cari Meister Giant Squid  by Mary Cerullo Queen of the Track by Heather Lang And I also received some wonderful new nonfiction reads in the mail: On the Map:  A Mind-Expanding Exploration  of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man by Brian McGrory

What are you reading today?!

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. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

Everything Looks Better in Underpants, or My Weekend at the 2012 Texas Book Festival (as Told in 15 Photos and 1 Video)

I am happy to see the Goddess of Liberty still

triumphantly reigns atop the Texas Capitol 

on this beautiful October weekend.

It's time once again for the Texas Book Festival.

I spend most of my time (as I usually do) in 

the Children's Read Me a Story Tent.

This year, I hear Duncan Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera),

Bob Shea (Dinosaur vs. Santa), Don Tate (It Jes' Happened),

Liz Garton Scanlon (Think Big), Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back),

and Tad Hills (Rocket Writes a Story). Fabulous.

School children from the Austin area introduce the authors.

Look at this remarkable intro for author/illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh,

presented in the form of a big book,

modeled after his own book about artist Diego Rivera.

Anita Silvey, 

the Queen of Children's Literature.

I chat with her 

 twice during the festival
and wish I could talk with her every day.

And, of course, I buy a copy of 

her new Children's Book-a-Day Almanac.

Always happy to see book characters themselves

attending the festival.

A crazy-long line for crepes at the festival,

but it is worth the wait.

Don't think the Texas Book Festival is just children's picture books;
I attend a few serious grownup panel discussions, too.
My favorite was this one, Will We Ever Get It Right? Our Education Crisis
with Michael Brick, Meira Levinson, and Paul Tough.

Expect long lines if you really want to get books autographed.

Shy Dav Pilkey (who would have thought it?!) 

really doesn't have to speak much

at this session with fellow authors Mac Barnett,

Jarret J. Krosoczka, and Lisa McMann. 

Everything looks better in underpants.

It takes Batman (Jon Scieszka) and two Robins (Adam Rex and Mac Barnett) 

to announce the 2013-14 nominees for the Texas Bluebonnet Award. 

How cool it is to listen to an author (Rosecrans Baldwin) relate 

his experiences living in Paris 

(Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down)

while sitting in the gallery of the Texas Senate!

And, of course, I had to pop in to get a preview of 

author/illustrator Jon Klassen

who would be coming to speak at my school the very next day.

(More on that in another blog post soon.)

For the first time, I volunteer to be an author escort

at the festival and who do I get to escort around? 

Pop singer Jewel!

She has just published her first children's picture book.

What an amazing voice!

And what an amazing weekend I had!

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that 

you (or a friend or family member) have taken, 

then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at At Home With Books. 

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.

Top Ten Best One-Night Reads

I often have people tell me,

"I don't have time to read."

If you are one of those people,

this is the list for you.

All of these books are

books you can finish in one night.

(Note: A great resource for short books is

David Major and John Major's guide, 100 One-Night Reads.

I chose, for this Top Ten,

books that were not listed in that guide.)

We Sinners: A Novel

by Hanna Pylvainen

The vexations and consolations of religion.

A Room With a View

by E. M. Forster

Relationships.

Plus Italy.

The Principles of Uncertainty

by Maira Kalman

I love Maira Kalman.

She writes children's picture books,

but The Principles of Uncertainty is not one of these.

Though you might call it a grownup picture book.

South of the Border,

West of the Sun

by Haruki Murakami

How many pages is Murakami's 1Q84?

A million pages?

And what does it mean? Nothing, really.

And everything.

I suggest you try South of the Border instead

and get your nothing-and-everything in 

one sustained night of reading.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

by Amy Krause Rosenthal

Rosenthal mostly writes children's picture books,

which are surprising and delightful

(you really must read her Little Pea if you haven't)

but this is a gentle story of a small life

that we grownups can finish off in an evening.

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

For the sake of full disclosure,

I must tell you that this is not a real book,

but a play, 

but don't let that put you off.

It's Oscar Wilde, after all,

and it's full of delightful clever-ness and fun.

Not Quite What I Was Planning:

Six-Word Memoirs

by Famous & Obscure Writers

A great challenge:

tell the story of your life

in just six words.

You will finish this book in an hour

and spend the rest of the evening

trying to work on your own six-word life story.

How to Be Perfect

by Ron Padgett

It's poetry, but give it a chance.

It's fabulous.

Read these. 

You can read one of these books in one evening.

I promise you will not be sorry.

Do you have other suggestions for short books for me?

Please share them.

And thank you again, Mother Teresa.

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.

When I Cleaned Out My Purse After Last Weekend

Texas Book Festival

Austin, Texas

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme, post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky from At Home With Books.