Sunday, October 27, 2013

World Book Night 2014 Book Choices

On October 24th the book choices for the 2014 World Book Night were announced.

2014 Book List

To download the list with ISBN's please click here.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

The Ruins of Gorlan: The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 1 by John Flanagan

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Large Print edition) by Jamie Ford

The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Pontoon by Garrison Keillor

Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Miss Darcy Falls in Love by Sharon Lathan

Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Cuando Era Puertorriqueña by Esmeralda Santiago

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Large Print edition) by Maria Semple

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff

100 Best-Loved Poems edited by Philip Smith

To see book covers and learn more about the selected books follow this link

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/books/2014

Also applications are open to be a book giver.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Wow, Neil Gaiman!! You are the best!!!!!

The very day I was dis-ing Neil Gaiman's book The Ocean at the End of the Lane, he was standing up for reading and libraries at the Barbican in London. The Reading Agency's annual lecture series was initiated in 2012 as a platform for leading writers and thinkers to share original, challenging ideas about reading and libraries.

Wonderful, wonderful and much in agreement with my view of books, reading, libraries, and learning

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

http://gu.com/p/3jhj8

Take the time to follow the link and read his speech.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Neil Gaiman

I have just finished Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Whoa...he is dark. Previously I read The Graveyard Book and American Gods. I liked the premise of American Gods. Reminded me of the way Mt. Olympus had moved to America in the Percy Jackson series. And The Graveyard Book was a Newbery Winner. This most recent book is written for adults, but it was very troubling to me. What sort of mind creates these works? I liked the Hempstock women. Interesting characters. I did not very much like the narrator, main character. When I finished I sought out some reviews to see if my take was the same of others...probably not.

Here are links to several you may want to check out for yourself.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/06/29/book-review-the-ocean-the-end-the-lane-neil-gaiman/4mcI42A6E2VOXpKPWZlcPJ/story.html

http://www.npr.org/2013/06/17/191346480/a-deceptively-simple-tale-of-magic-and-peril-in-ocean

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/books/review/neil-gaimans-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/darkness-with-consolations-neil-gaimans-the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/

As for me, glad I read it, but it was discomforting and I didn't like it...not even the cover.