The library is a weekly stop for me to collect and return delicious books, music and films.
What I’m reading
Pedaling revolution: how cyclists are changing American cities by Jeff Mapes
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this book. Powering myself through lunchtime rides into the edges of nature sanctuaries and riding with my family into the next town over for ice cream has made me realize how accessible bike riding is for everyone and how effective it can be. Even if you don’t dump your car and move to bikes only, the book encourages at the least, re-thinking how we travel around our environment and to consider making the shorter trips with our own human powered wheels. (You also get the advantage of slowing down and seeing the changes that happen on the regular visit to the market.)
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
A modern day dystopic zombie love story. After watching the strangely exhilarating ‘The Walking Dead’ tv show, I wanted to try this out. Summer means I try out some fiction, but I’m not really feeling it yet. I’ll give it a few more chapters, then move on to all of the other fiction that the library has quickly delivered to me ALL AT ONCE!
What I should be reading
Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
OMG, produce and berries are starting to ripen around here! And with the cooler temps these days (finally, after all of those 90+ degree days, tornadoes, etc.) I need to position myself over the oven for a few hours and get to some jam making!
A Discovery of Witches
I live witch stuff, always have. I grew up on ‘Bewitched’ and tried so hard to make magic happen by wiggling my nose! This book is big. VERY big! And I only have it for one more week. I’ll start it soon and, if I like it I’ll request it again. I have so many other books waiting in the wings I could conceivably get back to it if the story warrants it.
What I finished
Inkheart
I adore good young adult fiction and I finished this up fairly quickly. It’s part of a trilogy and, while I started the second book I need to let the first one sit for a little while longer, read a different kind of book, then try #2 again. It’s not bad, but there’s something about finishing a book… I have to digest the story, the characters, the ending before picking up the sequel. If I don’t let it sit then I quickly burn out on the characters and premise.
Reading with my kids
Tintin books: Destination Moon, The Calculus Affair, The Black Island, The Red Sea Sharks, The Secret of the Unicorn, The Broken Ear, The Castafiore Emerald And most of them have been read about 5 times each. I love doing different voices for different characters. The most difficult voice: the Scottish fellas in The Black Island.
Zita the Spacegirl
My 7 year old read it by himself and immediately wanted a sequel. Or a prequel. Or anything else the author might have written. Alas, our library has nothing else and it looks like this marvelous book only came out in February, so we’ll have to wait a good long time for another quality comic to be churned through it’s creative process.
Johnny Boo
We have three of these books: The Best Little Ghost in the World, And the Happy Apples, Twinkle Power. All fun and kind and thoughtful. Simple illustrations. And an ice cream monster who learns to wiggle when he’s trying to learn how to squiggle.
One of the best lessons we learned: But you can’t stay angry at him for long when it was a mistake Squiggle.
Waiting for
• The Fast and the Furious
• 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do – just in time for the start of summer!
• The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love – we’ll see, I have seen many positive reviews for this.
• The Edible Front Yard – read about this idea in Knutzen and Coynes’ book. I am currently trying to convince my husband, who is the lawn mowing member of our family, that we need to convert the front yard into a small fruit orchard: plums and pear. He suggested moving our garlic bed out there. Perhaps, with this book in hand and some careful planning, we can start on our conversion plan next year. (But we’d have to keep the tetherball where it is.)
• The City Cook: I read about this somewhere and the pics looked delicious.
