Knocking, knock, knock knocking...

In June, Sis and I flew in a lot of planes. You get those airline magazines? Well, we spent A LOT of time on the planes and in the airports, so I read those magazines cover to cover.

One of them recommended Bryan Ferry's cover/tribute of Dylan tunes, Dylanesque. They particularly recommended "Knocking on Heaven's Door" a song which has been covered many times over.

Cover, get it? Sorry, I'm a little goofy this morning.

I have had Dylanesque out of the library for weeks and at least eight people have holds and I hadn't yet listened to that one song.

Well, I listened to it this morning. And while the rest of the album sounded like someone doing Dylan covers and if I have to listen to Dylan, I'd rather the real thing, "Knocking..." is worth a listen.

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Things are looking up. They are still bleak, but less so. I'm sorry for being vague. (But clearly not that sorry, or I'd be more specific.)

What astounds me is how sometimes my instincts (or is it more than that?) run right. Yesterday afternoon, I was so distracted at work, I couldn't pay attention, and when it was time for dinner, I raced off to Wendy's, somehow not really thinking I would start or get any done of my Beth Moore Daniel homework but knowing I needed to. (Five days of homework by Tuesday morning. You do the math.)

I could only eat my Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe and read the intro before I just felt heartsick again. So I got in the car and started driving. And while I know retail therapy isn't always the best idea (have you seen my apartment? I do not need more books!), I went into the tiny Goodwill on Rte. 19, because it was there, and because I needed something to do for fifteen minutes. I found this really cute book of quotes about friendship (I am a sucker for little books of quotes), and a book for Max. He's always reading about nature, and this was about a particular part of the coast in Delaware. I almost NEVER give books I haven't read, but this looked like he'd like it.

When I came home, his light was on but his car was nowhere to be found. Now I know, after this happening twice, that he sometimes leaves his light on when he goes to the grocery store. With all the burglaries we've been having in the 'hood, it's not a bad idea.

He called me when he got home. I asked him what he'd done all day and he said, sleep, read, go to the grocery store.

--Still reading about the Great Lakes?

--No, I finished that, and I haven't had a chance to go to the library, so I've been reading some Bloom County.

--I got you a book.

--You got me a book?

(Does the boy not understand the English language?)

--Yes, I got you a book--it's in the car. Do you want me to go and get it?

So I went to the car, got the book, (which he thought looked great, and he lent me his copy of Mother Night) (I've never been able to read Vonnegut, but Max has been reading him since he died) and then he came up to my apartment and we sat on the sofa for about an hour.

We looked at Fish Swish Splash Dash, which is the coolest counting book I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. The pages are die cut, so each page relys on the next page for the colors of the fish. The "one fish" is actually made up of colors from "two fish" AND "three fish." Go get this book from your library, it is SO COOL! Oh, and I forgot--it flips. So you go through fish one through ten and then you flip the book and there are ten other fish and you count backwards. The fish look different, but are the same shape (because of the die cuts.)

Finally he was tired and so he went downstairs.

And this morning, when I woke up, I thought, we really are learning how to take care of each other. I got him something to read, and he sat with me long enough that I think I won't worry so much today.

In about a week, this experiment of "us" will be four months old. I think this might last for a while. I'm smiling as I type that.

Still not dead

So I've been reading.

On vacation, I read:

Never have your dog stuffed by Alan Alda. It's supposed to be a funny memoir, but it's really sort of sad. A good read though, and I think it would have meant more to me if I was a true blue die-hard M*A*S*H fan.

Broken on the Back Row by Sandi Patty: all about the changes in her life when her marriage broke up due to her affair. She is now after much soul searching happily re-married and living with a blended family of his kids, her kids. No sordid details here, but a great story of redemption. Also, an explanation of why her name is now spelled Patty not Patti. (Patti was a typo that looked cute and when her life came crashing down in 1996-7, she decided enough is enough, SPELL IT RIGHT.)

Dairy Queen and its sequel, The Off Season by Catherine Murdock. These books feature a football loving high school girl who falls in love with a player on the rival team. That part never happened to me, but some of the other stuff did, and I was crying when the second book ended. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Thanks to kids lit blogger Tasha for the recommend. (Of course I can't find the link to her posts, but at least I can give her credit--THANKS TASHA!)

Piano Lessons by Noah Adams, where at 52, Noah decides he wants to learn the piano and does everything BUT get a teacher. He does finally go to piano camp and for Christmas learns a piece for his wife, Schumann's Traumerei. I read Adam's book when it came out (over ten years ago, when I worked at Fox Books) and it made me think that I wanted to pick up piano playing again. On vacation I could play badly one handed "Lightly Row." I no longer harbor resentment that in fourth to fifth grade I had three piano teachers: one moved, another stopped teaching, and the third got pregnant (my mom.) Thus ended my childhood piano career. Recently I've been told with my finger span I could play ninths, which is unusual for a girl. I do want to learn some more songs, though. I think it will work out eventually.

Right now I'm rereading (piecemeal) Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler, Dicey's Song, Blue Like Jazz, and dipping into the Bible as I do my Beth Moore Breaking Free homework. I got a little off track this week--life took over, as it tends to do.

AND AND AND

The audio to HP #7 awaits my pickup. (I read the book, but this will give me the humor, etc, that I miss when I skim read fat books.) I heart Jim Dale.

You have been so good about waiting for pictures...I promise they are coming.

Not really a post, just a link...

Publisher's Weekly "Book Maven" Blog that asks for suggestions for Post-Potter reading. The librarians in Madison Wisconsin give a list at least a mile long. You got to give them credit.

And here's a fun look at how thick books are, and how to determine which book to clear from your shelf to make room for HP #7.

Nancy Pearl (of the Librarian action figure) recommends some Summer Reading for kids on NPR.

In which Sarah Louise eschews thoughts of her vacation in favor of talking about books...

Yes, I promise more vackay pics to come. But as I am at work, manning (womanning) the Summer Reading desk, I thought it more apropos to write about books.

Kids books I am loving:

Ramona and her mother (Beverly Cleary). I somehow read most of B. Cleary but never Ramona! This year my intent was to do Ramona's World for the Mother Daughter book club, since it starts at the beginning of fourth grade (and the MD club is for fourth and fifth grade girls) but somehow I transposed the titles and so all the publicity went out saying Ramona Forever, where Ramona is in third grade and a flower girl in a wedding. Ramona is soon becoming one of my favorite literary heroines.

I just finished Ramona and her Mother, where Ramona wants to be her "mother's girl." It's one of the books for the Mother Child Smackdown, which seemed like a good idea--a quiz show format highlighting 8 books, but now it's like those 8 books are all I'm allowed to read until I come up with enough questions...

The chapter books:
Sarah Plain and Tall by Patty MacLachlan
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers (the audio is FANTASTIC)
Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay (I'm actually getting tired of this wonderful book. It truly is wonderful.)
Ramona and her mother (see above)
The School Story by Andrew Clements (LOVE LOVE this book. Clements is a master. Haven't read Frindle yet, it's next on my list.)

The picture books:
A Chair for my mother by Vera B. Williams
My mama had a dancing heart by Libba M. Gray
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.

I have decided to not do "quiz" questions for My mama had a dancing heart as it would ruin the book, kind of like when I had to do vocabulary words for A Wrinkle in Time in 7th grade. I couldn't read AWIT for seven years after that soul carving experience.

So far I have three teams signed up. I need to get prizes together n'at. It's a good challenge but I won't really know if it's worth it until after all is said and done, next Saturday (which happens to also be Bastille Day.)

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In other news, we (the rents and moi) went to see the movie Paris J'te Aime--WOW! It seemed a little longer than two hours, it was hard to keep track of how many vignettes we'd seen, but they were all wonderful (well, Elijah Wood as vampire was my least favorite). I especially loved the last one, in which the American mail carrier fell in love with Paris. It reminded me of Carrie's love affair with New York City and how New York is the fifth character in "Sex and the City."

MTC,

Sarah Louise

Let's talk about something else, PLEASE!

So if you've been reading this week, you have seen the gamut of my mood swings. And if you have my email, this is the time to send me an "oh sweetie, you'll be fine" message. (You can totally cut and paste that!!)

So Jenny was talking about turtles and boy, does the Louise family LOVE turtles.

...please put another coin in the blog...your time is up...

okay, so I woke up at 9, spent some time with my email and reading blogs and rearranging things on my own (what, you can't see all the nuances??).

So now I really DO need to go do other things, namely EAT something, do a little housekeeping...cuz THE 'RENTS are coming on Saturday, Hallelujah!!

So talk amongst yourselves...about turtles. The Louise family loves sea turtles especially, so as your blogger librarian, I recommend E.L. Koningsburg's The view from Saturday and Sarah Weeks' Follow the moon (book AND CD).

Eclectic...

I love discovering new blogs, new authors, new music, new...but I also love the old, the familiar.

I have been told all my life that I'm good at writing the middle but I need to work on my introductions and conclusions. So-be-it.

I look at other people's blogs and see their blogrolls, all alphabetical, or in one format and think, oh, it looks so clean, so organized, and yet I know that while I might borrow some of what they do, I will probably have some that don't fit a format because I'm fairly eclectic.

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ec·lec·tic [i-klek-tik] –adjective
1. selecting or choosing from various sources.
2. made up of what is selected from different sources.
3. not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems.
4. noting or pertaining to works of architecture, decoration, landscaping, etc., produced by a certain person or during a certain period, that derive from a wide range of historic styles, the style in each instance often being chosen for its fancied appropriateness to local tradition, local geography, the purpose to be served, or the cultural background of the client. –noun
5. Also, ec·lec·ti·cist [i-klek-tuh-sist] a person who follows an eclectic method, as in philosophy or architecture.

(from Dictionary.com)

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So, my taste in music, my taste in movies, my taste in books...all eclectic. I even have an eclectic taste in friends. I am a children's librarian and I love kid's books, but I love working half-time in Tech Serv where I get to work with AV (DVDs, CD-ROMs) and non-kids books ("adult books" somehow insinuates something else...)

Do I like Madonna? Yes. Do I like Patty Larkin? Yes. Do I like Martina McBride? Lucinda Williams? Christine Lavin? Yes, Yes, Yes. I love Johnny Cash. I own five Menudo LPs from the early 80s. I adore Carole King.

I like Home Alone, Twister, Enchanted April, A Knight's Tale, Metropolitan, Men in Black, and Flushed Away, to name a few movies.

So my blog doesn't fall easily into a category either. I'm not really a library blogger, though I am a librarian. I'm not really a kidlit blogger, though I am a children's librarian. I'm not really a literary blogger, but I do often write about books. I'm not a mom blogger, though many folks on my "roll" are. I have bipolar disorder, but this blog isn't really about that either. I love crafting, but it's not a craft blog... I'm Presbyterian/Emergent/Christian but my blog isn't just about that experience either. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Eclectic.

My life has been enriched by time spent in the Americas: Brazil, Honduras, and the U.S. (mainly Maryland, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, PA) and Europe: Germany, Poland, and traveling all over the Continent as well as a short trip to England when I was 8.

My life has been enriched by my siblings: born when I was 10 and 11, my world has expanded to include them and their eclectic tastes, although my sister is pretty straightforward in her reading: she likes Regency period romances, Jane Austen, and all the classics (she asked for The Hunchback of Notre Dame for her 13th birthday--the book, not the movie.) She watches old movies. My brother is into music and listens even to Bessie Smith. He loves Bob Dylan. They both are huge U2 fans.

My dad likes country music, and I do too. My dad reads the New York Times and at least two other papers online DAILY, and often will email articles that he thinks I'd be interested in, from obits of children's authors to articles about libraries.

My mother is a nature lover. She gardens. So I have tulips in front of my house in Pittsburgh, planted when I was in library school. For her birthday, I bought her a huge bag of bird seed.

My parents aren't big readers (of books for people their age) -- my mom knows a lot of kid's picture books as she currently teaches second grade but has also taught first, third, kindergarten and preschool. My dad, like the protagonist in the movie Metropolitan, reads book reviews, but not books. He'll tell you what a movie is about, but 9 times out of ten, he hasn't seen it. He is also well versed in children's books, and his favorite, if pressed, would probably be Daniel Pinkwater's The Big Orange Splot. "My house is me...it looks like all my dreams."

Um, so in conclusion, I'm eclectic. Or, as a card I once bought in college said, "I'm glad you like me. (inside:) I'm too wierd for anyone else."

On the bookshelf right now: The Restless Heart: Finding our spiritual home in times of loneliness. As a person who spends WAY too much time by herself, this book is incredibly insightful and in some ways like looking into a mirror that says, "You are okay. You are human."

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." (Cicero) [UPDATED]

Katya>Babelbabe>Another Nutter>Sarah Louise (and many stops before and in between...)

updates in RED...

It was inevitable that I would do this meme...I've been reading voraciously since I learned in second grade. I worked for Barnes & Noble for 7 years, I've been a librarian for four. My first "job job" out of college was for a small press. Do I like books? Have you met me???

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? It depends on the book. If I love the book and want to treasure it forever, I will hunt down the hardcover. Otherwise, I prefer Trade Paper to Mass Market, but I'm not overly picky.

Amazon or brick and mortar? Wherever there are books, I'll buy them.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Both, see above, even though my former B&N co-workers think I'm a traitor for going to Borders. I like going to Borders b/c there's one on the way home from work and b/c as a former B&N employee, I get so darn homesick when I go to B&N stores. I also have this annoying habit of merchandizing & straightening books whenever I visit a B&N.

Bookmark or dog-ear? Bookmark, but that's stretching it. More like napkin, knife, whatever's available. I dog-eared as a child, when most of my books were paperbacks from the Scholastic catalog.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Random. Although I try to keep types of books together (all my biographies, all my children's books...)

Keep, throw away, or sell? Generally keep or take to Goodwill. Although if I am disgusted by a book, I will throw it in the paper recycling.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep it.

Read with dust jacket or remove it? It depends.

Short story or novel? Novels. Although Cynthia Rylant's A Couple of Kooks is a s. s. collection and it's in my top ten of favorite children's books.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter. I never had a desire to read Lemony Snicket. Actually, I never had a desire to read HP either, but as a new children's librarian, I was feeling guilty for not having read even one, so I took the first one out as an audio book and well, the rest is history.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? It depends on how tired I am.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Both. A Wrinkle in Time starts with "it was a..." and Homecoming (Tillerman bk. 1) ends with it. Dicey's Song (Tillerman bk. 2 starts with "and they lived happily ever after."

Buy or Borrow? Both. I have about 62 items on my library card at the moment. It's an occupational hazard.

New or used? Both.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All of the above. I get recommends from fellow bloggers, from online newsletters...my browsing has died down quite a bit, but it still is a great way to find books. I tend to browse our library's "New Nonfiction" with lots of success.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? If it's a cliffhanger, I must have the sequel nearby. (the Caroline B. Cooney "Janie" books fit into this category. And I don't need a tidy "a-la-Jane Austen or Nancy Drew" ending...the modern novel is much more leave it to your imagination what exactly happens after you close the book.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Anytime is reading time!

Stand-alone or series? Both. I've gotten quite attached to Meg Cabot's newest series with Heather something, former pop-star turned amateur sleuth. I also like series where the same story is told by different people (The Tillerman books by Cynthia Voigt.)

Favorite series? Trixie Belden.

Favorite children's book? Favorite YA book? That's like asking me which of my children I love the most!! Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. Jacob have I loved by Katherine Paterson.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Touched by Scott Campbell. I got it at Goodwill years ago.

Favorite books read last year? finishing up the Jennifer Weiner oevre. AND GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson. How could I have forgotten that???

Favorite books of all time? Thursday's Child and Skating Shoes by Noel Streatfield, Little Women, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Walking on Water, A Small Rain, and Two Part Invention by Madeleine L'Engle, the Tillerman series by Cynthia Voigt, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, A Kindness by Cynthia Rylant, Julius Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes, Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray, A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit, Good to Great by Jim Collins, About a Boy by Nick Hornby, Persuasion by Jane Austen, The Bible (my two favorite translations are the Jerusalem and The Message)...we could be here for years. I'm sure I've forgotten many. (Such as Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson...)

Least favorite book you finished last year? I don't finish books I don't like. Most recently, I threw IN THE TRASH Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George.

What are you reading right now? In Her Shoes (third time), listening to Good to Great on audio.

What are you reading next? As the whim catches me, but potentially 1628 Country Shortcuts (it's like Hints from Heloise).

[And for Newlywifed, because she asked:] Favorite Mother Goose collections: The Original Mother Goose and Animal Crackers illustrated by Jane Dyer. As a librarian, I love the Annotated Mother Goose and hope someday to get one of the Opie's collections.

Books I have started and have not picked up for at least a week: Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray (I loved the movie, but my sister's copy has footnotes and notes from the "original manuscript" and the English is from like the 1800s, yo!); Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

Harper Collins...messing experimenting with books

The new paperbacks of the Little House series are out. The covers are photographs of people dressed up to be old fashioned and the Garth Williams illustrations that used to people the books are GONE!

This is worse than when they decided The Magicians Nephew was Book One of the Narnia series!! At least then they kept Pauline Bayne's illustrations!!

Ursula Nordstrom is rolling in her grave, I know it.

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Update: found this wonderful blog (KEWL) and a Harper's editor who has been overseeing the repackaging came in and said, It's only one edition, we're still keeping the editions (paper and hardcover) that have the Garth illustrations. PHEW!!

I happen to be doing Freaky Friday for Mother/Daughter on Saturday and had forgotten how "bad" it was (the mom smokes, there are curse words...) It fits the UN (Ursula Nordstrom) "good books for bad children" oevre. Btw, did you know Mary Rodgers was the daughter of Richard Rodgers (as in R and Hammerstein????) She was very instrumental in putting together Free to be you and me, which shaped my view of the world back in the seventies... (when I was a child.)

Oh, and if you click on the "Nordstrom" part of the U.N. link (above) you'll read one interesting tidbit...UN never went to college!! And this woman shaped how we see Children's Literature today, capital C, capital L.

Autodidacts of the world, rejoice!

Oh, and go visit my darling friend Caro. She just had a birthday, has joined the post-beta Blogger world and changed her moniker from Carolyn to Caro because I had been using it to address her. Little old me!! It boggles the mind!

Footnote: I think I may need to start contributing to Wikipedia--they are such an invaluable source (of most of my links in this post).

Oh, and in case you were keeping track at home: it was either 9 or 6 when I woke up and now it is 13-15 (degrees Fahrenheit).

TGIF, everyone. I may (yeah right) take the weekend off. Hey, it could happen! I just found some parts of the main portion of my "story," the one I'll be using in my application for the MFA.

Chuß! Tschüß (it's pronounced chuss and it's ciao for the German speaking population.)

Moo! Moo! Moo!

Here's an interesting tidbit, for you children's book lovers (I have to throw a crumb out every once in a while or I'll lose you, I fear...): on the cart of books I'm marking call letters for "J PIC PAL" or "J PIC FLE" I have two books about cows that have lost their moo. I seem to remember a book from my childhood, Emily's Moo?

Moo Who? is by Margie Palatini (Yes, that would be J PIC PAL) and a cow who goes hither and yon to get her moo back. It's cute.

The Cow Who Clucked is by Denise Fleming (J PIC FLE--you catch on quickly!) about a cow who clucks.

I guess in this same category would be Bark, George, which features a dog who mews, moos, and clucks, only to discover that he has all those animals stuck in his stomach...

Anyways, I never really thought of this as a bovine malfunction: maybe Oprah should do a segment on Cows that have lost their moos...

Back to work!