And the winners are.....

The 2010 Newbery and Caldecott winners have been announced (yesterday in Boston)!! Yeah!

Here is the Caldecott winner:
"The Lion and the Mouse" by John Pickney


Honor books include:
"All the World" by Liz Garton Scanlon
"Red Sings from Treetops" by Joyce Sidman


The Newbery winner is:
"When you reach me" by Rebecca Stead

Honor books include:
"Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose
"The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jaqueline Kennedy
"Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
"The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg" by Rodman Philbrick


Pickney is a fabulous children's book illustrator. Many agreed that it was about time that he was awarded a Caldecott for his work. I am excited to check out some of the other winners. Happy reading!

2010 commitments

Are books no longer in vogue? Gone are the days when people would spend hours reading a book by candle light or a roaring fire. Let me rewind that, gone are the days before electricity, but I still find myself reading hours upon hours (often when I should be doing something else).

In our current age of technology it is easy to be bombarded on a daily basis by the Internet, television, radio, text messaging, video games, iPods, the list could go on and on (hey you're reading this blog so you're obviously one who embraces technology). However, as we start this new decade let's vow to find times to shut ourselves off from the constant buzzing of technology and curl up with a good book. In a world that can too often leave us feeling disenchanted why not occasionally whisk ourselves away to a different time or place?

Having two young boys (and I mean very young) I hope that they find enjoyment out of reading, in the future. I pray that I will not have to constantly pry them from yet another screen. I know that the Kindle and some other portable "book" devices are becoming more popular, but what can ever replace the feel of a good book? Let's not create a society like the one found in Ray Bradbury's classic "Fahrenheit 451," where books are burned and outlawed.

Here's to a decade where books are rediscovered and reopened. Dust off your bookshelves and let the adventures begin. Let's support our public libraries and local book stores! Okay well I'm off my latest novel is calling.

Happy reading!

2009-2010 Babel Series

2009-2010 Babel Series
One of my friends is partaking in the 2009-2010 Babel series. This is an author series put on by Just Buffalo. The featured authors include A.S. Byatt, Ha Jin, Salman Rushdie and Azar Nafisi. I am inspired to read books by these renowned authors. I want to read "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi (I own this book but never finished it). I also want to read "Possession: a romance" by A.S. Babett. Salman Rushdie is best known for his Indian novel called "Midnight's Children" and Ha Jin won the National Book Award for his novel entiled "Waiting."

There just isn't enough hours in the day to read all the books I want to read!

Books for 2009

Okay so I don't know if I have the motivation or time to keep this blog up, but here are some of the books I've read this year (the highlighted ones were my favorites):

"Go in Peace" by Pope John Paul II "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
"The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell
"The Mighty Queens of Freeville" by Amy Dickinson
"From Lullabies to Literature" by Jennifer Brickmayer
"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman
"The Wanderer" by Sharon Creech
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving
"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golding "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult
"Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski
"I am the Messanger" by Marcus Zusak
"Some Wildflower in my Heart" by Jamie Langston Turner
"The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
"Comfort Food" by Kate Jacobs
"The Wednesday Letters" by Jason F. Wright
"The Memory Keepers's Daughter" by Kim Edwards
"The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See
"The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon
"Sing them Home" by Stephanie Kallos
"The Shack" by William P. Young

Thank you to all the friends that loaned me some of these books to read!! Happy reading!

Summer reading list

Those dog days of summer are here! No matter if you're on the beach (I wish), on the subway, on your couch (that's more like it) or in a car reading is the perfect activity. It is food for your mind and a way to keep your brain smart. Here are some of my favorite summer reads.

image courtesy of Getty Images
1.) The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

2.) The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

3.) A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins

4.) The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

5.) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

6.) And then there were none by Agatha Christy

7.) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

What are some of your favorite summer reads? Let me know by posting below. If you have any questions, comments, etc. about the books listed above post away!!

Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

Hello fellow book friends!! I know I haven't posted in forever, but I have been reading. I have been reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective agency series and recently finished "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. Today I am going to talk a little bit about "Ethan Frome." First let's find out about the author. Edith Wharton was born in 1865, into a wealthy New York family. She traveled extensively and was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for literature for her novel "Age of Innocence" (on my to reading list). She spent her life writing, promoting French imperialism and participating in charitable works. She died in 1937, in France.

Wharton wrote "Ethan Frome" in 1912. Ethan Frome is the name of a man who lives in Starkfield, a small New England town. He desperately longs to leave this town but his trapped there taking care of his sick parents and his invalid wife, Zeena. He pines after Mattie, his cousin, and contemplates leaving his wife to start a new life with Mattie but tragedy prevents this from occuring.

The vivid descriptive narratives draws the reader into Ethan's gloomy and seemingly hopeless life. The entire tale is told by an unknown narrator who peers into Ethan's life from the outside. Although this was a dismal and at times depressing story it is considered an American classic. In 1933, it was made into a movie...that I'll have to check out one of these days!

In the upcoming days I am going to post some of my summer reading suggestions for the beach and those dog days of summer!

Check it out

This week I am going to be a guest tipper at the Tip Spot. Check it out. I am going to be blogging about books and reading.

p.s. This awesome blog was created by my friend Christy and her sister Lizzy