What did I read over Christmas break?

Young Adult:
Living on Impulse by Cara Haycak
Willa by Heart by Coleen Murtagh Paratore
The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler
Shift by Jennifer Bradbury (now this is an interesting book to read! read it in one day)

Adult:
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Before Christmas...in November I guess..Julie & Julia by Julie Powell...okay...that was the most weird book I have read and I don't recomend it :-(
I also read Christopher Buckleys No Way to Treat a First Lady and I do recomend this one. It was interesting reading.
Devoured Going Rogue by Sarah Palin as soon as it was available (Dan actually bought it for me without me asking for it)!

There were more books since my last posting, but I forgot which ones. And in between I also listen to books I have downloaded to MP3 player from the library...go figure.

I'll try to keep up with this better, even if I don't give you a link to these books and only write down the titles!

Wow, what a book!

A friend gave me First Family by David Baldacci to read, wow! You are looking for a thriller, no wonder it's on the bestselling list, or it should be. It starts strong and just keeps going. Guess I'll have to look for more by that guy. It is really interesting to read and keeps you wondering and guessing.

So much more reading done, but not blogged about...

The last two books I finished were "Blood and Money" by Thomas Thompson, well, here is a book about a murder in 1969  in Houston and the aftermath. If you want to be spellbound by a story, here it is!

Read this excerpt from a blog critic, then link there and see the whole story!:

Perhaps on a handful of occasions, you come across a story that can paradoxically alter and reinforce your understanding of the human condition. A story so rich in complex and interesting characters, their lives narrated with such vivid detail and telling dialogue, they have to be real people and not the imagined composites of a novelist. A story set so perfectly in a place and time in history that you come away believing for a while that you lived there, traveled the streets, overheard conversations or had supper with the denizens.

Of the hundreds of books I have enjoyed reading, like an endless buffet of delicious meals, there are few and far between the luscious delicacies found in Thomas Thompson’s book, Blood and Money. This sumptuous feast requires slow, deliberate relish in order to luxuriate in every chapter like exquisitely prepared courses served in the finest restaurant. Before I had finished the first chapter of the book, I began to pace myself to allow the rare beauty and satisfying depth of this engrossing experience to linger like the afterglow of fulfilling lovemaking.

Now I am waiting to see the movie, and if I'll find the book the movie "Murder in Texas" is based on I guess I'll have to read that too :-) ("Prescription Murder" by Ann Kurth).

The next book I read was another one from the school library..."Don't judge a girl by her cover" by Ally Carter. It is the third in the "Gallagher Girls" series. Hey, I did read the other two and it is a good and quick read. I need to be ahead of the kids in school! :-)

I did read all 20 of the Texas Lone Star books and don't know if I wrote them all down. But hey, there are list around, you can find them all...

Now I am reading another 'grown-up' book my friend lend me. When I am finished I'll share it with you also!

I have been reading, just not posting!

Here is the latest title: Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: The Methods andMadness Inside Room 56" by Rafe Esquith an actual classroom teacher! This is a non-fiction and one I had a hard time putting down, but to understand it all you have to take your sweet time, and maybe note taking would be good too. As I am not a classroom teacher, it was a bit much for me and I didn't take many notes, but I would love working with a teacher and have my child thought by a teacher such as this man. If you are a teacher you might just want to go out and by this book so you can make notes in it and keep going back to it. I just hope I can take some of it to heart during this next school year!

**Do click on above links and listen to NPRs interview and read all about the Hobart Shakespearens!

Finished two more Lone Stars :-)

This weeks readings were Evolution, Me & Ohter Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande you ought to read about her! She was a trial lawyer at one time, plus many other jobs! This was a very interesting book you are just going to have to read it yourself, or check out the above link!


The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong, WOW! What a book and the authors first to boot!!! I didn't know what to expect about this one as the title says it has something to do with the Sea...but there is much more to this book. These were two very interesting books and I didn't want to put either one down! Read them both!

Finished...

...Antsy does time by Neal Shusterman interesting to read and the continuation of Neal's The Schwa was here.

From Neal's website:

Fueled by friendship and sympathy, Antsy Bonano signs a month of his life over to his "dying" classmate Gunnar Umlaut. Soon everyone at school follows suit, giving new meaning to the idea of "living on borrowed time." But does Gunnar really have six months to live, or is news of his imminent death greatly exaggerated? When a family member suffers a heart attack after donating two years to Gunnar, Antsy wonders if he has tempted fate by playing God. Fans of "the Schwa" will welcome favorite and new characters in this wholly fresh tale, which is as touchingly poignant as it is darkly comical.

Yes! Some more taken off the list :-)

I, Q: [Book One: Independence Hall] by Roland Smith. (Texas Lone Star) It's actually one that grows on you once you know where it's going. And now you wait for the sequel! It's another spy book, and I do like mystery spy books. And when it's for kids it's easy to read, but this one is in for some surprises! Enjoy it!

From the website: Thirteen-year-old Quest (Q for short) used to live with his mother, a singer, on a sailboat in Sausalito, California. Fifteen-year-old Angela lived with her father, a songwriter, in a loft in San Francisco. Now their parent are married and Q and Angela are on a luxury motor coach traveling around the country on tour with their parents' new band called Match. Their schoolwork for the year is a Web diary of their travels. Perfect… Q can practice his magic tricks and Angela can read her spy novels. What could go wrong?

 Suck it up... by Brian Meehl, yes another Texas Lone Star. This one is about vampires...thanks, have enough of them now!

From the website: The origin of Suck It Up? Teeth-grinding frustration.

When I was writing lots of kids TV for PBS back in the 90s I was often told by politically correct TV producers that I couldn't put such and such in a show because it might offend so-and-so. I couldn't put angels on a wedding cake because it was too Christian and might offend non-Christians. I couldn't write about birthday parties because Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in celebrating birthdays because it's a celebration of self.

At some point, I became brainwashed by all this political correctness and had a eureka moment. The one minority that no one seemed to care about was our bloodsucking brothers and sisters: vampires. I mean, c'mon, they have special needs too. They're subjected to unfair stereotyping. They even suffer from a terrible hate-crime: staking.

So I found my cause. I was determined to write a story that would let everyone know that vampires are like everyone else. They just have a slight drinking problem--correction--they're diet-challenged.

The story started as a screenplay for a movie (with the likes of Jim Carry playing Morning McCobb). It was called "Don't Call Us Vampires – We're Undead Americans!" It even won a screenplay competition, taking 1st place in The New England Screenwriting Conference of 1998. The Conference gave me a wonderful staged reading of it. But the screenplay never sold and became a film.

After I finished Out of Patience, I decided to resurrect the screenplay as a YA novel. And that's how Suck It Up rose from the grave of a writer's trunk.

3 Willows: the sisterhood grows by Ann Brashares. Okay, never read any of the "Sisterhood" books, but came across this one and downloaded it to my MP3 player and listened to it every day. It's about 3 girls and how their lives during one summer suddenly changes (divorce, camp, job, love). I have to admit I did get kind of hooked on this one and if you listen to it their is an interview with the author at the end :-) (and this was not a Lone Star list book...)!

From Ann's website:
The new book from Ann Brashares, the bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.
Roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a bus girl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .
Leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.