July-December 2012

Sorry all, this is no more than the email I sent out already, but I thought I'd post it here so it would be easily accessible.  I know I usually put in pictures and links and such but this all I can manage at the moment.  Hope it helps.  (Wondering how I managed that Ray Bradbury post and couldn't doctor this up?  Well, I wrote that weeks ago, just after his death,+ and had thought I'd get back to it and write more, but that didn't happen either so I just added a sentence or two and posted.)

July 

Hostess: Brooke 

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.  341pages

It's 341 pages so hunt up a copy quick and get started.  Kelly was talking about this one at the last book group for those of you who were there.  It's about 2 couples and their friendship through life.  It's a very well-written and touching story and I'll stop rambling about it and move on . . .

August  

Hostess:  Julie 

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiayama.   224 pages

Julie says this is a happy book and a quick read but with lots of interesting stuff in it as well.  224 pages

September 

 Hostess:  Amanda

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.   447pages

This is the story of the Chicago's World Fair and a serial murderer from that time.  Written in novel form, but it is non-fiction.

This one is a bit longer too so be sure to allot enough time to read it before school starts.

October  

Hostess: Chelsea

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan 187 pages

True story of a woman reporter going on a walk about with an Aboriginal tribe in Australia and how it changes her.

November 

Hostess: Mary Anne

Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale

This is the sequel to The Princess Academy, so you may want to read or reread that in anticipation.  It comes out in August sometime, so hopefully we'll have time to get copies and read it.

December 

Hostess:  Heather

The Greatest Salesman in the World  by Og Mandino 128 pages

I didn't quite gather what this book is all about so here's a snippet of a review off of amazon

"A parable set in the time just prior to Christianity, The Greatest Salesman in the World weaves mythology with spirituality into a much needed message of inspiration in this culture of self-promotion. Mandino believes that to be a good salesperson, you must believe in yourself and the work you are doing. It is a simple but profound spiritual philosophy about how to succeed in the world's marketplace, easily understood and easy to take to heart"

Hostesses:  FYI Eva and Lisa F. volunteered to host but all the slots were filled so if you need a back up you might try one of them.  

Ray Bradbury-thoughts on his death

How odd that the very night Ray Bradbury had died I found myself in a discussion about him, only to discover his demise the next day.  Somehow I feel as though I've lost a relative, an old friend I'd lost touch with but still loved dearly.  His writing was always about people, which is why he's one of a very few science fiction/fantasy authors that I love.  So many get wrapped up in describing the world or the gadgets or the plot that comes out of the crazy world, but Ray Bradbury never forgot that people are people whether here or on Mars, whether adults or children.  And he was excellent at imagining what they might do in what many found, unimaginable situations.

I haven't read as many of his works as you would think, considering I'm such a fan.  I have read Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine a few times each.  I've read the Illustrated Man, Farewell Summer and most of Green Shadows, White Whale.  I started the Martian Chronicles this week.  

Dandelion Wine feels like it could have been about my own small hometown and in the era of my parents childhood.  Ray is only 12 years older than my father.  He must've been about the age of Becky Walton who grew up next door to my mother (yup she grew up next to a family of Waltons--so did I).  So hearing of his own childhood sounded so familiar because it was very similar to the lives of my parents growing up in the neighboring state (although they were on the southern end of Indiana and he on the northern end of Illinois).  So I feel as though I've lost my Uncle Eli all over again.  Uncle Eli was the one that had a handful of stories that were well-polished and well-loved; every family seems to have one.  I feel as though I've lost all over again the small town itself.  English Indiana was prone to flooding so the old sandstone library, the old barber shop, the old marble bank and the old post office and the old Denbo funeral home where I'd attended more funerals than I can keep track of,  were all torn down when the town literally moved away (only about 2 miles though).   The new town is fairly devoid of personality, but when John and I moved back in the spring of 1999 I brought the librarian to tears when I signed my full name, which included my mother's maiden name and my own.  The librarian remembered both my grandmothers.  People would stop my sisters in the grocery store and say, "You must be Opal's girl".  When they did the plant exchange at the Home Ec Club the retired librarian (who had given my very first library card) brought a cactus runner that was from a plant that she'd originally gotten from my grandfather who by this time had been dead almost 20 years.  When John and I were on our honeymoon my dad took us on a cemetery tour of the county and told us how we were related to what seemed like, everyone in the county.  We're also related to everyone in the county to north of us, but we thought we'd save that tour for another day.  I guess what I'm saying is my sisters and I are from a place where our roots run deep.  A world where people were people and they were the focus of our lives, and a world that felt as though Ray Bradbury were a member of the family.  Ray is even the most common name in my family.  A lost world that Ray Bradbury did an excellent job of capturing so it wasn't really lost after all.  He was brilliant, and always so hopeful about the world, which considering the seriousness of so much of his writing and all the social ills they addressed, he was always hopeful that those people would wake up and remember they were people and start making the world a better place and jump off the bandwagon of self-destruction so many seem to be on.

Here are a couple links:
Ray Bradbury's website
NPR All Things Considered
NPR Fresh Air Interview November 2000
NPR Talk of the Nation
NPR news break, includes audio of him talking about writing Farhenheit 451.
NPR snippets

Mary Anne's Summer Reading List 2012

In 2009 I heard an NPR show, On Point, go over a summer reading list and I was inspired to do my own.  Sort of surprising I hadn't before, huh? So here is my 4th summer reading list.  I'll never get to them all, but a large portion are young adult selections so maybe I'll get to more than I think, although this summer promises to be particularly hectic, so who knows.


(sorry for all the formatting variations, but I did cut and paste from a few different places)

"Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus tells the true story of Manjiro, a fisherman's son who dreams of becoming a samurai. The book begins in 1841, and is based on the sprawling true-life tale of Manjiro, whose destiny was almost determined before birth as a son in a long line of fishermen. But a storm blew his life on a new course, and he became one of the first Japanese to set foot in America.   I heard of this first on NPR, it's part of their Backseat Book Club.  You can listen to the article here.


Young Adult Novel Based on a true story

Another from the Backseat book club is Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
It's about a community garden in Cleveland and how it brings people together.  You can listen to the article here.




Young Adult Novel

My very first list I posted on Facebook and after reading it one old friend strongly recommended this book, The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams


Novel (I think it's young adult)

In August Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale comes out and I'm excited to read it.  She is one of my favorite authors.  This is the sequel to Princess Academy.  


Young Adult Novel

My sister has recommended this to me for years really I'd better read it before my kids are grown:  

Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child

by John Gottman, Joan DeClaire

Non-fiction














The next several have been on my summer reading list in the past and I've not managed to read.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder Um, yeah. Still haven’t made much progress on the Little House Books. 






Young Adult Novel

Richard Peck: I’ve read a few of his books. They are typically set in the Midwest in the early 1900s and are just fun. They are good ones to listen to on car trips.


Young Adult Novels

BFG by Roald Dahl: I’ve begun to be ashamed that I’ve never read anything by Roald Dahl. It seems like everyone has but me. This happens to be a book we own so I’m starting with it. 




Young Adult Novel

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: My husband and others have recommended this to me for years. Orson Scott Card is not my favorite author but I have heard such good things about these books.




Young Adult Sci-fi Novel

Peter Pan by JM Barrie: I've wanted to read this ever since watching Finding Neverland.  Also, I have read Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and wondered how much was changed from the original story. Plus books about never growing up sound like a great summer read. 




Young Adult Novel

Reading the OED by Ammon Shea: A book about his experience reading the Oxford English Dictionary. Sounds incredibly dull and yet the little interview snippet they had on the NPR show I mentioned made me very curious. This may be one I nibble at all summer rather than read all at once, assuming I can get a copy now.  When I first put it on my list it was new and in great demand.

Non-fiction
















A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter: Someone called in on that NPR show in 2009 and suggested this and since I love Women's Literature I was pretty excited about it. A Jury of her Peers may sound familiar to a lot of you because I bet you had to read the short story by Susan Glaspell for school sometime. This book also sounds like something I may just nibble at but the caller said he couldn't put it down, so we'll see. 



Non-fiction








Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott: I've read Little Women and Little Men and then bought Jo's boys years ago and somehow never read it.  I loved Little Men. I read it when John Ray was still pretty young but it inspired me to be more patient and creative in my parenting. Something I could use a refresher course on. 


Young Adult Novel

Land of Little Rain by Mary Austen: A Recommendation by Daddy several years back. I just know it's very short and is set in the Southwest. 




Novel

Beauty by Robin McKinley: It's a young adult novel version of the story of Beauty and the Beast. I have read this one before but it was so long ago I don't remember anything about it except that I think the Beast had a library with all the books ever written (past or future). Robin McKinley's retelling of Fairy Tales was some of Shannon Hales inspiration for her novels and I love her novels. My sister, Jana's recommendation. 




Young Adult Novel

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar: This was loaned to me quite a while ago and as interested as I am in it I haven't managed to read it yet so hopefully this summer.  (Don't worry Annette, I'll get your copy back to you)




Novel













No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke: I myself am surprised that this made it on this list. Mommy decided she liked Edith Piaf and I never understood it, but last year on NPR they were discussing Summer Reading lists and they did a little review of this and I wanted to read it. I even found myself enjoying the snippet of song they included. Wha. . .?


It was on All Things Considered.  Click here if you want to hear it.  They go through a list of books and No Regrets is mentioned last. 6 minutes and 18 seconds into it, if you want to skip the other books.  


Non-fiction

Taming the Paper Tiger at Home (Kiplinger's Personal Finance Guides) by Barbara Hemphill  I have read this book before and it helped a ton, but that was just before I had Samuel (he'll be 6 soon) and I feel I need a refresher course before my papers swallow us all whole.






Non fiction/how to

These is My Words by Nancy Turner: This has been recommended to me a few times by a few people and when our group read it I was gone and didn't read it.  




Novel

Borning Room by Paul Fleischman: In 2010 I happened to see a friend reading this on Goodreads and put it on my list and promptly forgot about it, but am now intrigued anew since it is by the same author as Seedfolks up on the top of this list.




Young Adult Novel

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Interested in this for several reasons. Want to read something by Truman Capote just because of his connection to Harper Lee and all I’ve ever read was his Christmas memory which is mostly sweet and I think not very indicative of his regular style or subject matter. It's also the only Capote we own.  There were two movies about Truman Capote a few years ago that, although I didn’t see, sparked some further interest in him. 




Novel

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.  I thought I didn't like Steinbeck, but it turns out that I do and this is such a classic that it seems like I'm missing something not reading it (I haven't even seen the movie unless you want to count the Veggie Tales version).  Plus I'd never read much about the dust bowl and after reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse a few months back I am intrigued.  It sounded so much more awful than I'd ever understood and it seems crazy to me that I was so unaware of it seeing how it was not that long ago or that far away.   This is one John and I thought we might both read.  It's a little dark for summer reading I think, but I can't only read young adult stuff.  Plus I feel the oppressive heat of summer might be just the time to relate to some of the suffering I expect to find in this book.

Novel