Posts Tagged ‘reading’
Perfect Book Gifts! (For YA and Little Kids)
One of my favorite projects is picking out books for my nieces and nephews for Christmas each year. I have conversations with my husband about the kids and what they’re into lately (soccer, theater, Halo, art, wilderness, princesses, philosophy). I talk to my own kids about their cousins. I have email conversations with some of my sisters about what books their little kids have already read, and I scroll back through my own favorite reads of the year.
The ideal book is a perfect match for the niece’s or nephew’s time of life and personality, a surprise, and something he or she hasn’t discovered yet.
At risk of giving away my surprises, (my nieces and nephews have far better things to do than keep tabs on my blog, but in case they see this, I’m keeping recipients vague), here are the titles my husband and I are giving this year. If you’re looking for gift ideas, too, maybe one will strike you.
And no, I don’t send them my own books for Christmas. Where would be the fun in that?
For the college-aged and teens:
Genn Albin, Crewel
Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone
Kate Burak, Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things
Trish Doller, Something Like Normal
David Levithan, Every Day
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Marie Rutkoski, The Shadow Society
Neal Shusterman, Unwholly
Dan Wells, Partials
For the little ones, ages 2-9:
David A. Carter, Builder Bugs
Ian Falconer, Olivia and the Fairy Princess
Tommy Greenwald and J.P. Coovert, Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading
Irene Latham, Don’t Feed the Boy
Barbara Lehman, The Red Book
Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted
George MacDonald, The Light Princess
Ray Marshall and Wilson Swain, The Castaway Pirates, A Pop-up Tale
Mo Willems, Knuffle Bunny
Read Anything Good Lately?
I read for fun. I love to drop into a good story or follow a curious argument. Some books I devour fast, like a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, and some I savor slowly, like the chocolate cappuccino brownies my sister made lately with my daughter, two nieces and two nephews. The one I ate was rich, smooth, full of careful love, and I can still taste it.
It's easy and free to catalogue your library on Goodreads.
My favorite place to read? The hammock in my front yard by day, my living room couch with a good lamp by evening, and my bed with many pillows by night.
I’m fond of Goodreads, where I can keep a running list of books I’ve read and want to read. It’s fun to see what others are recommending, too, and join conversations about favorite books.
Since I abandon books that don’t interest me, the ones I finish are all books I like. The last ten books I read or reread are:
Julia Quinn, What Happens in London
(Light-hearted romance of spies.)
Trish Doller, Something Like Normal
(A young Marine comes home from war.)
Veronica Roth, Divergent
(A teen girl trains as Dauntless.)
Emmy Laybourne, Monument 14
(Kids hole up in a store to survive disaster.)
Genn Albin, Crewel
(A teen girl learns to spin time and matter.)
Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl
(Mary Boleyn serves as mistress to Henry VIII.)
Olivia Goldsmith, The Bestseller
(Dishy, gossipy tale of publishing in the 90′s.)
Jennifer R. Hubbard, Try Not to Breathe
(Teen boy adjusts after discharge from psych residence.)
Julia Glass, The Widower’s Tale
(Cranky, old guy allows preschool in his barn.)
Lois Lowry, The Giver
(Boy starts to see red in colorless dystopia.)
99 Favorite Reads, Picked by Teens
The teens who named their favorite books for this list include athletes, honors students, non-readers, incarcerated girls, a prom queen, loners, computer game players, gay and straight teens, teens from the coasts and in between, teens of many races, artists, and writers. Their choices made the list (alphabetically) regardless if the books were award-winners, banned, popular, controversial, new, or classic. The sole criteria: these books are favorites.
1. Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
2. M.T. Anderson, Feed
3. Anonymous, Go Ask Alice
4. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, The Future of Us
5. Isaac Asimov, The Foundation
6. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
7. Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls
8. Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker
9. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
10. Misty Bernall, She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall
11. Meredith Blevins, Hummingbird Wizard
12. Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, A Lion Called Christian
13. Libba Bray, Beauty Queens
14. Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
15. Cupcake Brown, A Piece of Cake: A Memoir
16. Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
17. Meg Cabot, Jinx
18. Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
19. Kristin Cashore, Graceling
20. P.C. Cast, Destined (House of Night)
21. Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
22. Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None
23. Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl
24. Billy Collins, The Trouble with Poetry
25. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
26. Caroline B. Cooney, The Face on the Milk Carton
27. Chris Crutcher, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
28. Leah Cypess, Mistwood
29. Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon
30. Lauren DeStefano, Wither
31. M. C. Escher, Icons
32. Nancy Farmer, House of the Scorpion
33. Gayle Forman, If I Stay
34. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
35. William Golding, Lord of the Flies
36. William Goldman, The Princess Bride
37. Lori Gottlieb, Stick Figure
38. John Green, The Fault in our Stars
39. John Grisham, Bleachers
40. Teri Hall, The Line
41. Frank Herbert, Dune
42. Georgette Heyer, Devil’s Cub
43. Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
44. Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
45. Ellen Hopkins, Impulse
46. Emily Horner, A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
47. Anthony Horowitz, Stormbreaker (Alex Rider)
48. Khaled Hosseini, Kite Runner
49. Jennifer Hubbard, Try Not to Breathe
50. Brian Jacques, Redwall
51. Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
52. Stephen King, Night Shift
53. Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman, Scar Tissue
54. Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
55. Louis L’Amour, The Daybreakers
56. Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
57. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
58. Sarah Darer Littman, Want to Go Private?
59. Lois Lowry, The Giver
60. Gregory Maguire, Wicked
61. Yann Martel, Life of Pi
62. George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
63. Patricia McCormick, Cut
64. Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
65. Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
66. B.J. Myrick and Hazel Hart, The Dark Side of the Rainbow
67. Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go
68. Caragh O’Brien, Birthmarked
69. Lauren Oliver, Delirium
70. George Orwell, 1984
71. Christopher Paolini, Eragon
72. Gary Paulsen, Hatchet
73. David Pelzer, A Boy Called It
74. Jodi Picault, My Sister’s Keeper
75. Tamora Pierce, Trickster’s Choice
76. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
77. Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
78. Julia Quinn, The Viscount Who Loved Me
79. Ayn Rand, Anthem
80. Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles)
81. Veronica Roth, Divergent
82. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
83. R. A. Salvatore, Homeland (Forgotten Realms)
84. Elizabeth Scott, The Living Dead Girl
85. Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
86. Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
87. Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl
88. John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
89. Tupac Shakur, The Rose that Grew from Concrete
90. Art Spiegelman, Maus
91. Todd Strasser, Give A Boy A Gun
92. Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand
93. J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
94. Omar Tyree, Flyy Girl
95. Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped
96. Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
97. Elie Wiesel, Night
98. Jacqueline Woodson, Beneath a Meth Moon
99. Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
List compiled by Caragh M. O’Brien, June 18, 2012. Feel free to distribute. Comments welcome at caraghobrien.com.
Food and Books
Food and Books, Union CT
One of the coolest landmarks in the quiet, northeastern corner of Connecticut is the quaint and quirky Traveler Food and Books directly off exit 74 on Route 84. It’s part restaurant, part used bookstore, and when you visit, you’re invited to pick a used book to take home for free. Black and white photos of famous writers line the walls, and you’ll find stands of jigsaw puzzles, coffee mugs, and shrink-wrapped sets of National Geographic dating back over decades. We like this place. It feels like home. They make turkey club sandwiches with toothpicks in the wedges, thick French fries, and Shirley Temples with maraschino cherries. The lower level is a tightly packed warren of bookshelves, where hiding and browsing are synonymous, and all your old book friends await you.
Pick a free used book to take home.
But beyond the place itself, I’m intrigued by this concept of Food and Books, as if they’re a team, or interchangeably precious. Food is to the belly what books are to the mind, and I’d argue we need both to be well and happy. I’m reminded of Frederick Douglass, who traded his scarce supply of bread with the white boys in Baltimore so they’d teach him to read. He was so hungry to learn, he literally starved himself for it.
For those of us who can’t get enough, is there a link today between over-reading and over-eating? Not according to a recent Canadian study of sedentary habits and obesity. The research by Statistics Canada showed that not all sedentary activity is the same, as readers are less likely than TV watchers to be obese.
Besides, books make us happy. They contribute to immediate and enduring happiness, the way good, nutritious food does. For me, few indulgences are sweeter than curling up with a favorite book and a nibble of fudge. That’s what I’m up to tonight.
