Monday, September 21, 2009

Sunday Summary


I think I'll admit to the library books I have bookmarks creeping along in, just to keep tabs on how many I actually finish. I'll also have to start reviewing more often, as some books are cluttering the nightstand when they should be resting in the library bag.

  • A Poisoned Season, by Tasha Alexander. I like the story, but I find the voice of the protagonist a bit tedious. She reports even her tantrums in a calm, detached way. But I'm enjoying the mystery and the glimpse of Victorian England, so the bookmark moves on.
  • What to Read When, by Pam Allyn. This discussion of books to read with your kids jumped on me from a library display table. I'm hoping to find some gems I've overlooked, and to reinvigorate my reading out loud, which has gotten a bit lost with the summer schedule craziness, and now with the harshly enforced school night curfew. I was shocked at how many landmark books my boys didn't recognize, but admit that perhaps they were a bit young when exposed to Pat the Bunny.
  • The Science of Fear. The first few chapter discuss the difference between our gut instincts and our mind's rational thoughts, and how the modern world often leads our guts astray.
  • Coyote Horizon, by Allen Steele. I've read the first book about the colonization of the planet Coyote, but didn't go back for the others. But I kept hearing recommendations, so I picked this off the new book rack. There is an annoying religious subplot that strains credulity, but I'm enjoying the explorer strand.
I'm also reading a few of my own books, but I won't mention those. I'm in denial. I'm impressed that these all came from the adult side of the library, and half are non-fiction. Only one is SF -- I'm clearly becoming an intellectual in my old age.

On the kids' side, A has spent the week re-reading old friends, including a slew of Animorphs and some Captain Underpants and Frannie K Steins. Since the book on reading just discussed how great it is for kids to read both challenging books and low level books, I feel smug that my child is a poster kid for just that. P has been lured into a share-read of the first Sammy Keyes book, and tonight I caught him reading ahead without me. SUCCESS. He's still plugging away at Number the Stars for school & car rides.

3 comments:

kmitcham said...

There are 14 people ahead of me in line for the library books I want. I hate other people!

Kristen said...

Hey, I think I need a list of books P. likes to start trying to entice T. to read harder stuff. He tends to only dip into the Black Lagoon books but is reading way above that according to his latest stupid testing. Not sure how he continues to progress when he never, ever, ever challenges himself if he can help it. ::sigh::

Beth said...

Well, Calvin and Hobbes. That's probably about 75% of Paulos's reading for the past few months. But at least it has a lot of interesting vocabulary.

Would T. like the Captain Underpants books? The humor is compatible with the Black Lagoon, but the chapters are longer. And your expression of distaste would only sweeten the pot.