Friday Fill-In

1. My husband makes me happy.
2. I would like more sleep and time, please.
3. Chocolate (and Starbucks!) tastes SO good!
4. Thursday is my favorite day of the week because I'm starting an Artist's Way class.
5. I have no idea ... I'm too tired to think of my best feature.
6. We could learn so much from children.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to prepping my Girl Scout troop for a presentation, tomorrow my plans include the Girl Scout presentation and going to the symphony and Sunday, I want to kick back and relax but it's Open House at my school!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Booking Through Thursday - Huh?

Here is this week's BTT question:

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”


This is going to be a short and sweet answer because I just got home from work after a full teaching day and an evening parent meeting. My choice is Paula by Isabel Allende. Most people have heard or, or read, something by Allende, but when I mention Paula no one seems to have read it or know about it. It is Allende's account of her adult daughter's sudden illness and ultimate death. It is one of the few books that I have weeped during. I can't read the last few pages without tears in my eyes. Not because it is so overwhelmingly sad, which it is, but because of the beautiful way in which Allende immortalizes her daughter's spirit. It really is breath-taking. I think my copy may even have tear stains on it. As many of you know, I don't tend to keep books that I've already read. I pass them along to others. This is one of the books that I have kept. It is also one I don't tend to loan out because I'm afraid of losing it. I actually bought someone their own copy rather than lend them mine!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book came very highly recommended from many of my fellow bloggers, and I read it for the A to Z Challenge. Right away, I want to say WOW - everyone was right. This is an excellent book. It is definitely a 5 star book in my rating system this year. I said I'd reserve 5 stars for books that blew me away, and this one did it.

For those of you who don't know, this book is set in a small town in Nazi Germany during World War II and tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a German teenage girl, as told by Death. Death is the narrator and a major character in the book. It is also the story of the people who live in her street and in her small town. Yes, it is a Holocaust story but not in the same way as many of the books I've read.

In the past, I've had the good fortune to teach Number the Stars and The Diary of Anne Frank to groups of young people. This book needs to join that literature group for young adults. It is the first book I've read where I truly understood the terrors faced by the German population at the time. I've always thought how could anyone let such horrendous things happen, but Zusak showed me a different view of humanity - the humanity of the average German who truly had no choice.


STRENGTHS OF THE BOOK THIEF: There are so many. First, I think Zusak has created one of the all-time great characters/narrators in Death. I know that sounds funny, but Death, in this story, is human, humane, compassionate, and a bit humorous. At the end of the book, Death says, "I am haunted by humans." In some ways, I think Death is haunted by humanity - both the good and the bad parts. When Death does take children in the story, his compassion and gentleness moved me to tears.

Another strength is how Zusak created the characters of Liesel and her foster father, Hans. The depth of their relationship is clear, but so is their humanity. At one point in the book, they shelter a Jewish man in their basement. I don't want to give away anything in the book, but Death does say that all people die. I was quite taken with Death's descriptions of both Liesel and Han's souls. That also brought me to tears.

Zusak was also able to tie all the pieces together, and the book didn't feel like over 500 pages. Everything happened for a reason which helped move the plot along elsewhere in the book. Each of the book thieving incidents by Liesel were turning points in the plot. I actually reread the first twenty pages of the book after I finished it because Death alludes to a lot of these points right at the start of the story.

WEAKNESSES OF THE BOOK THIEF: My first instinct is to say NONE, but, after a discussion of the book with my husband, I did realize one thing about it. It required that the reader had some basic knowledge of the rise of Hitler in Germany, the horrors of the concentration camps, and the way war was fought in World War II with bombers etc. It didn't even occur to me since I always assume that this is knowledge that all educated people possess. However, my husband reminded me that there are schools were the Holocaust is not discussed and where American and World History courses never get to World War II. I hope teachers find this book and use it to inform students.




Overall, what can I say. WOW and again WOW. I don't keep many books - I pass them along for others to read. This is going to be one of the few that I put my name in because I want my daughter to read it when she's old enough. I've read many blogger's reviews of this one, but please feel free to leave me links to your reviews. I want to reread them now that I've read the book.

Friday Fill-In

1. The last compliment I got was from a parent; he/she said that they were pleased with the way I handled a difficult situation.
2. I'm reading The Book Thief which has been highly recommended on a number of blogs.
3. I woke up today and thoughtthree day weekend coming!
4. Why does it always seem like good or bad things happen in threes!.
5. The last thing I ate was an ice cream sandwich called an Its It.
6. January... cold and Open House time at school.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night (it was Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone), tomorrow my plans include taking in a jazz concert for date night and Sunday, I want to do nothing but I really have to help Surfer Girl finish her science project and we still need to take down the Christmas tree!

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

This is a book for the A to Z challenge as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner so I'm using it for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. I've read so much about this one on various blogs that I had to give it a read.

It is the story of three women in three different time periods; Virginia Woolf as she's writing Mrs. Dalloway (which is a book I highly recommend), Clarissa Vaughan as she's planning a party for a friend dying of AIDS, and Laura Brown, a suburban 1950s housewife. Cunningham interweaves the three stories in alternating chapters. I read Mrs. Kimble for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. It is also the story of three women yet their lives are intertwined with a shared husband, and they do interact in the book. The women in this book live in different times and places. Yet, Cunningham is able to make them seem remarkable similar.

Strengths of The Hours: The fact that he was able to make me care about these three very different women in only 200 pages is amazing. He basically told the story of one momentous day in each of their lives. I say momentous because it is dramatic in one story but less so, outwardly, in the others. There was a sense of depression and desperation running through the three stories yet I felt the most positive about Clarissa, even though her story is the most obviously tragic. Cunningham was able to give her a strength that was lacking in the other two. I felt quite depressed at the sameness between the state of Virginia and Laura. It was especially interesting to see how Cunningham made it clear that they were, in some way, beholden to, or controlled by, the men in their lives. Each experienced a true sense of despair in life. I can't say I enjoyed this part of the story, but it did make me think and reflect. Maybe that's the point.

Weaknesses of The Hours: This may be a very personal response to the story - and quite secondary to its power, but I had trouble with Richard. He is the poet and writer in Clarissa's life who is dying of AIDS. It is probably the fact that Cunningham choose to give him AIDS that affected me. The chapters that featured him were quite difficult to read because I have lost friends to AIDS, and it truly is a horrible disease. I wonder if I would have felt the same way if it had been a different disease. I'm sure this is not an issue for others - like I said, this is a very personal point of view.

Overall, I'd give The Hours 4 stars out of 5. I almost gave it 5, but I'm trying to hold my 5 stars for books that truly blow me away in every way. It was make into a movie with Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep which I haven't seen. I've heard mixed things about it, but I'm adding it to my Netflix list because I'm curious. Let me know if you've read this one and have an opinion, or if you've seen the movie.

Book Awards Reading Challenge - Midway report

It seems we are midway through the time for this challenge and it's time to update my progress.
I've finished 8 of the 12 books on my list, and loved most of them. I even got my book of the year from this list. I have four to go and may make a substitution. I'm almost done with The Hours which qualifies as a Pulitzer Prize winner. I will probably substitute it for The Road because that one seems to be getting buried on the TBR pile.

So here's the finished list:


1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Pulitzer Prize, 2003)
2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Man Booker Prize, 2002)
3. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Newbery, 2004)
4. Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh (PEN/Hemingway, 2003)
5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Book Sense Adult Fiction Winner, 2000)
6. City of Bones by Michael Connelly (Anthony Award, 2003)
7. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize, 1995)
8. California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker (Edgar Award, 2005)


Here's the TBR list:

1. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Newbery, 2006)
2. Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (Newbery, 2007)
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer Prize, 2007)
Possible substitution of The Hours by Michael Cunningham
4. March by Geraldine Brooks (Pulitzer Prize, 2006)

Friday Fill-In

1. My favorite book of 2007 was The Poisonwood Bible.
2. I'm most tempted by a bookstore full of books.
3. Today I want to spend time with my family.
4. The last thing I took a picture of was either a child in my class or my daughter.
5. You and I have memories of a lot of fun times and vacations.
6. The most recent movie I’ve seen that I really enjoyed was The Water Horse.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night with the family (It's Annie tonight) tomorrow my plans include seeing Chinese acrobats and Sunday, I want to have some quite time to read.