PICTURE BOOK - Vanilla Ice Cream - Bob Graham

Illustrated by the author

2014 Candlewick Press

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.54

My rating: 4

Endpapers: peach with subtle leaf repetitions

Setting:  Contemporary India; over the ocean; then a city of white people

1^st line/s:  "The young sparrow rises from the dust.  He looks down at Annisha and Suhami."

My comments:  This is one clever, adorable book.  Limited words, super illustrations.  Some pages have several boxes to closely examine - sort of a beginning graphic novel.  The whole time you're reading you're thinking ... vanilla ice cream?  This is about a sparrow's journey -- but the cute twist at the end is fun.

Goodreads:  A wild sparrow’s journey sets in motion a toddler’s new experience in Bob Graham’s tale of life’s surprising little turns — and unlikely connections.
          Following some food, a curious young sparrow stows away in the back of a truck and takes an unusual voyage south — through the lush rice paddies of India, across the rough sea, and all the way into a bright new day. As the sun rises high over the city, he finds little Edie at a café with her grandma and granddad, and for a fleeting instant, his world meets up with hers and changes her life in the most delightful way. From the masterful Bob Graham comes an invitation to notice the smallest of moments as they unfold around us, full of unexpected promise.

67. The Cutting - James Hayman

McCabe & Savage #1

Read on my iPhone/through Kindle/Audio eBooks

Audio read by Jonathan Davis

9 unabridged cds (11:00)

2009 Minotaur/McMillan

336 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 10/21/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.80

My rating:   (4) Loved it, despite a few "flaws"

Setting:  Contemporary Portland, ME

1st sentence/s:  from prologue:  "July, 1971.  He pressed the terrified creature firmly against his body.  He was a sturdy boy, tall for his eight years, with dark hair and a long, thin face.  After more than a month of summer sunshine, his normally fair skin had turned quite brown."
from Chapter 1:  "Portland, Maine; September 16, 2005.  Fog can be a sudden thing on the Maine coast.  Even on the clearest mornings, swirling grey mists sometimes appeared in an instant, covering the earth with an opacity that makes it hard to see even one's own feet on the ground."

My comments:  I love intense murder mysteries (does that make me ghoulish?) but this one had a few "grizzly" factors that almost took it too far for me.  This always happens when it involves any cutting of the skin with a knife or scalpel.  I have a difficult time with this.  The title should certainly tip one off......  That said, I greatly enjoyed this mystery.  I love the setting - Portland, Maine and upwards to Blue Hill (home!), and I really like the very human protagonist, Mike McCabe.  He's a police detective who has relocated from NYC with his 13-year-old daughter, Casey.  He made a few assumptions -- perhaps you could call them gut feelings - that seemed a bit over the top, but without which he could not have followed the clues to catching the bad guy. And this one one bad-ass bad guy.....

Goodreads book summary: From a formidable new voice in suspense fiction comes an edge-of-the-seat story of a homicide detective on the trail of a killer, who slays with exacting precision, and who harbors a terrifying motive
          Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe moved from New York City to Portland, Maine, to escape a dark past: both the ex-wife who’d left him for an investment banker, and the tragic death of his brother, a hero cop gone bad. He sought to raise his young daughter away from the violence of the big city . . . so he’s unprepared for the horrific killer he discovers, whose bloody trail may lead to Portland’s social elite.
          Early on a September evening, the mutilated body of a pretty teenaged girl, a high school soccer star, is found dumped in a scrap-metal yard. She had been viciously assaulted, but her heart had been cut out of her chest with surgical precision. The very same day a young businesswoman, also a blonde and an athlete, was abducted as she jogged through the streets of the city’s west end. McCabe suspects both crimes are the work of the same man---a killer who’s targeting the young---who is clearly well-versed in complex surgical procedures, and who may have struck before. Just as the investigation is beginning, McCabe’s ex-wife reemerges, suddenly determined to reclaim the daughter she heedlessly abandoned years earlier.
          With the help of his straight-talking (and, at times, alluring) partner, Maggie Savage, McCabe begins a race against time to rescue the missing woman and unmask a sadistic killer---before more lives are lost.

Historical Fiction I've Read

Picture Books
Aston, Dianna Hutts - The Moon Over Star (1969 Moon Landing)
Atkins, Jeannine - Anne Hutchinson's Way (1634 Massachusetts Bay Colony)
Barker, Michelle - A Year of Borrowed Men (WWII Germany - French POWs)
Barron, T. A. - The Day the Stones Walked (Ancient Easter Island)
Bartone, Elisa - Peppe the Lamplighter (Immigration NYC - Little Italy)
Bildner, Phil - The Hallalujah Flight (1932 Transcontinental Flight)
Bunting, Eve - Pop's Bridge  (building, Golden Gate Bridge 1933-1937)
Burleigh, Robert - Abraham Lincoln Comes Home (Civil War/Post-CivilWar)
Fleming, Candace - Boxes for Katje (1945 Netherlands)
Fredericks, Anthony D. - The Tsunami Quilt (1946 Hawaiin Tsunami)
Hopkinson, Deborah - Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story (WWI US)
Huget, Jennifer LaRue - Thanks a Lot, Emily Post! (1922 America)
Kerby, Mona - Owny, The Mail -Pouch Pooch (1888 Across America)
Koehler-Pentacoff - Jackson and Bud's Bumpy Ride (1903 Across America)
Levine, Ellen - Henry's Freedom Box (Underground RR)
Lowry, Lois - Crow Call (1945 America, after-the-war)
Malaspina, Ann - Finding Lincoln (Civil Rights Era in the south)
Newman, Leslea - Gittel's Journey (Immigration to Ellis Island around 1900 from Russia)
Owens, Delia - Where the Crawdads Sing (1952 - 1970 No. Carolina)
Peacock, Louise - At Ellis Island (Immigration from Armenia to Ellis Island) 48 pgs.
Polacco, Patricia - Fiona's Lace (Immigration)
Polacco, Patricia - January's Sparrow (Underground Railroad)
Polacco, Patricia - An Orange for Frankie (turn-of-the-century America)
Polacco, Patricia - Tucky Jo and Little Heart (WWII in the Pacific)
Snyder, Elaine - Anna & Solomon (1897 Immigration to the US from Russia)
Stroud, Betty - The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom (Underground Railroad)
Wheeler, Eliza - Home in the Woods (The Depression)
Wiviott, Meg - Benno and the Night of Broken Glass (1938 Berlin)
Wood, Douglas - Aunt Mary's Rose (1950s America)

Middle Grade Books
Anderson, Laurie Halse - Chains (American Revolution) or YA?
Blackford, Cheryl - Lizzie and the Lost Baby  (WWII England)
Giff, Patricia Reilly - Gingersnap (1944 Brooklyn)
Hesse, Karen - Brooklyn Bridge (1903 Brooklyn, NY)
Lai, Thanhha, Inside Out and Back Again (1970s Vietnam)
Latham, Irene - Leaving Gee's Bend (1932 Depression Alabama)
Partridge, Elizabeth - Dogtag Summer (Flashbacks to 1975 Vietnam)
Patt, Beverly - Best Friends Forever (1942 Japanese Interment Camp)
Pinkney, Andrea Davis - Dear America: With the Might of Angels, The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley Virginia, 1954 (desegration, 1954 Virginia) (5)
Rose, Caroline Starr - May B. a Novel (late 18th century Kansas)
Selznik, Brian - Wonderstruck (1927 NJ and 1977 Minnesota)
Stolz, Joelle - The Shadows of Ghadames (19th century Libya)
Timberlake, Amy - One Came Home (1871 Wisconsin prairie)

Wendell, Mindy Nichols - Light and Air (1935 Tuberculos/upstate NY) (4)
Whelan, Gloria - Listening for Lions (1919 Kenya & England)
Whelan, Gloria- Small Acts of Amazing Courage (1919 India)
Williams-Garcia - One Crazy Summer (1968 California)
Wolk, Lauren - Wolf Hollow  (1940s rural PA)

YA Books
Cushman, Karen - The Loud Silence of Francine Green (McCarthy era)
Schlitz, Laura Amy - The Hired Girl (1911 Baltimore)
Taylor, Janet B. - Into the Dim (Eleanor of Aquataine Taylor time travel)

Adult Books
Barnes, Kim - In the Kingdom of Men (1967 Saudi Arabia)
Bartels, Erin - We Hope for Better Things (1861/1963/contemporary Detroit)

Benedict, Marie - Agent 355 (based on true story of female spy during American Revolution)
Blackwell, Elizabeth - In the Shadow of Lakecrest (1928 Lake Michigan)
Brooks, Geraldine - Caleb's Crossing (1660s New England)
Brown, Amy Belding - Flight of the Sparrow (1676 Mass. Bay Colony)
Bryce, Megan - To Catch a Spinster (Regency Romance, England)
Chamberlain, Diane - Big Lies in a Small Town (contemp & 1940 NC)
Cornick, Nicola - The Phantom Tree (1557 England/ Time Travel)
Dallas, Sandra - Prayers for Sale (1930s/Depression, Colorado)
Fortier, Anne - The Lost Sisterhood (ancient Odyssey times)
Gerritsen, Tess - The Bone Garden (1830 Boston)
Goolrick, Robert - A Reliable Wife, (1907 rural Wisconsin)
Harkness, Deborah - Shadow of Night (1591 England, France, Prague)

............................... - Time's Convert  (American & French Revolution embedded in fantasy)
Harmon, Amy - Where the Lost Wander (1853 Overland Trail)
Hashimi, Nadia - The Pearl That Broke Its Shell (Early 20th Century Kabul, Afghanistan)

Hawker Olivia - One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow (1876 Wyoming)

.........................-The Fire and the Ore (1856 Mormon Trail/Utah)
Hoffman, Alice - Everything My Mother Taught Me (1908 coastal Mass.)
Howe, Katherine - Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Salem Witch Trials)

Jenner, Natalie - The Jane Austen Society (post WWII Hampshire, England)

Kline, Christina Baker - The Exiles (1840s Britain & Australia, plus ship voyage)
.................................... - Orphan Train (1929 Minnesota)
Krueger, William Kent - Ordinary Grace (1961 Minnesota)
Lovett, Charlie - The Bookman's Tale
Morton, Kate - The Forgotten Garden (multiple/early 20th century: Australia & England)

Moyes, Jojo - The Giver of Stars (1937 eastern KY)

Nesbit, TaraShea - Beheld (1630 Plymouth colony)
Otsuka, Julia - Buddha in the Attic (1920-1940 California)
Pulley, D. M. - The Buried Book (1952 rural farmland Michigan)
Raybourn, Deanna - A Curious Beginning, (1897 England) Mystery
Richardson, Michele - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (1936 eastern KY/Appalachi)
Romer, Anna - Lyrebird Hill (1898 and 2013 in alternating chapters, New South Wales, Australia)
Shaffer, Mary Ann & Annie Barrows - Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Society (German Occupation of Guernsey Island)
Spera, Deb - Call Your Daughter Home (1924 SC/ 3 female POV)
Taylor, Janet B. - Into the Dim Time Travel that takes us to 1200 Eleanor of Aquitaine & Becket's London
Wallace, Michael - Crow Hollow (1676 Puritan Boston)
Wingate, Lisa - The Book of Lost Friends (1875 & 1987 Louisiana)

Zugg, Victor - A Ripple in Time (TT to early 1700s Charleston)

Movies
The Butler (Civil Rights era)
Invictus (end-of-apartheid South Africa)
The King's Speech (1930s England)

66. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

2014, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
HC $24.95

260 pgs.

Adult CRF

Finished 10/20/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.01

My rating:    (5) Awesome 

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Alice Island (a fictional island off Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts)

1st sentence/s:  "On the ferry from Hyannis to Alice Island, Amelia Loman paints her nails yellow and, while waiting for them to dry, skims her predecessor's notes.  'Island Books, approximately $350,000.00 per annum in sales, the better portion of that in the summer months to folks on holiday,' Harvey Rhodes reports.  'Six hundred square feet of selling space.  No full-time employees other than owner.  Very small children's section.  Fledgling onn-line presence.  Poor community outreach.  Inventory emphasizes the literary, which is good for us, but Fikry's tastes are very specific, and without Nic, he can't be counted on to hand-sell.  Luckily for him, Island's the only game in town.'

My comments:  I loved this book.  I loved the way it was written. I loved all its references to books and short stories. I liked the format.   And I adored the characters. I appreciated all the "hints" in A.J.'s notes of what was to come, how you slowly realized what was going to ultimately happen.  The plot unfolded perfectly. It's been a long, long time since I've stayed up so late into the night to finish a book.  My favorite character?  The chief of police, Lambiase.  Biggest problem?  How to pronounce "Lambiase" and "Fikry." Super story.  I've listed the short stories that begin each chapter below.

Goodreads book summary:  On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto "No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World." A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.
          A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island-from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who's always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.'s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.
          And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, but large in weight. It's that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn't take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.'s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn't see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

 Short stories mentioned:
Dahl -  "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1953)
Fitzgerald - "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1922)
Harte -  "The Luck of Roaring Camp" (1868)
Bausch - "What Feels Like the World" (1985)
O'Connor - "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1953)
Twain - "The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County" (1865)
Shaw - "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" (1939)
Paley - "A Conversation with My Father" (1972)
Salinger - "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948)
Poe - "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843)
Bender - "Ironhead" (2005)
Carver - "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love" (1980)
Dahl - "The Bookseller" (1986)

MOVIE - This Is Where I Leave You

R (1:43)

Wide release 9/19/14

Wed. 10/15/14 at ElCon

RT Critic: 43   Audience:   67

Cag:  4 - Liked it a lot, although the sad parts almost overwhelmed me, and they would probably be considered not-very-sad.... just poignant.  VERY funny in many places. 

Directed by Shawn Levy

Warner Brothers Pictures

Based on the book by Jonathan Tropper

Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Timothy Olyphant, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda

My comments:  Funny.  Sad.  Touching.  And then a little more of the funny......  This is a look at a family, at relationships, and at the choices we make in life  What is important?  What is happiness?  Four siblings come together at the funeral of their father.  The protagonist is Judd (Jason Bateman) who has left his wife after finding her cheating with his boss/friend.  He hasn't told his family.  His sister, Wendy (Tina Fey) is in a seemingly loveless marriage with a guy who's always on the phone wheeling-dealing and still in love with her brain-damaged ex-boyfriend, Horry (Timothy Olyphant) who lives across the street from her parents.  The eldest, Paul (Corey Stoff) is married to Judd's ex-girlfriend and they are frantically trying, hopeliessly, to get pregnant.  And then there's the baby brother, Philip (Adam Driver), who is incredibly immature and will say and do anything, no matter how embarrassing to his family.  Last but not least is Mom (Jane Fonda), whose part is small but perpetually hysterical.

PICTURE BOOK - Fossil - Bill Thomson

Illustrated by the author

2014 Two Lions (Amazon!) (I'm quite sure it said 2014 in the book, but Goodreads says it was published in November of 2013.

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.91

My rating: 4/Loved it

Endpapers: grey-green

Title Page: A wordless beginning to the story - the start of their walk

Illustrations: "Bill Thomson embraced traditional painting techniques and meticulously painted each illustration by hand, using acrylic paint and colored pencils.  His illustrations are not photographs or computer-generated images."

1^st line/s: None - it's completely wordless
Dedication:  "In loving remembrance of the students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School"

My comments:  This wordless book is about a boy and his dog, out for a walk along the sandy shore of a lake or pond.  The fossil he discovers when he accidentally trips splits open to begin a series of events that are chronicled beautifully in pictures only.  The facial expressions of the boy AND his dog give the story incredible dimension. I only had one problem with the book.  Near the end of the it, he boy intentionally destroys fossils.  He does this (SPOILER!) to save his dog.  I have a really hard time with this...it makes total sense for the story, but I don't want the idea of destroying a fossil to ever be in an impressionable kid's mind. Other than that, the book was incredibly glorious.  What a beautiful pair this boy and dog are!

Goodreads:  When a boy and his dog go for a hike, the boy trips on a fossil, and it comes to life, revealing an ancient plant. The boy is so intrigued that he breaks two more fossils that come to life—a dragonfly and a pteranodon. When these prehistoric creatures collide with present reality, the boy must figure out a way to make things go back to normal. Visually told through art, this "wordless story" will surely spark imagination and creativity.

65. The Good Luck of Right Now - Matthew Quick

2014 Harper Collins

285 pgs.

Adult Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished 10/17/14

Goodreads rating: 3.60

My rating:   3.5 Liked it a lot, with one reservation

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Philadelphia with a foray to Montreal and Ottawa

1st sentence/s: "Dear Mr. Richard Gere,  In Mom's underwear drawer -- as I was separating her "personal" clothes from the "lightly used" articles I could donate to the local thrift shop -- I found a letter you wrote."

My comments: This book was certainly quirky and fun. And funny.  The protagonist, Bartholemew (love that name!) Neil reminded me a bit of The Rosie Project's Don Tillman. But somehow it's impossible to totally picture a grown man of 38 never having a job, a friend other than the local priest and his mom, a vocation, a hobby, an interest... I tried and tried to conjure an image of this poor guy, but to no avail.  My imagination is usually pretty good, but to totally love a book I need to relate in some way and I couldn't. I wasn't IN this story, I was watching from afar, if that makes any sense.... But I still liked it very, very much.
      Here's a quote that resonated: "Back before she got sick, mom always used to say, "for every bad thing that happens, a good thing happens, too - and this is how the world stays in harmony." Whenever too many good things happened to us, mom would say, "I feel sorry for whoever is getting screwed to balance all of this out,": because she believed that our good meant that someone else somewhere in the world was experiencing bad.  It actually depressed her when our luck was very good.  Mom hated to think about others suffering so that we might enjoy our life."

Goodreads book summary: For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday mass, and the library learn how to fly?
          Bartholomew thinks he’s found a clue when he discovers a “Free Tibet” letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother’s underwear drawer. In her final days, mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Richard Gere a series of highly intimate letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy, the Catholic Church and the mystery of women are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man’s heartbreakingly earnest attempt to assemble a family of his own.
          A struggling priest, a “Girlbrarian,” her feline-loving, foul-mouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the cat Parliament and find his biological father . . . and discover so much more.

PICTURE BOOK - Mr. Wuffles - David Wiesner

Illustrated by the author
A Caldecott Honor Book

2013, Clarion

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.01

My rating:3

Endpapers: solid gray

Title Page: spread across two pages - large black (and white) protagonist with each letter of the title done in a different color.

Illustrations:  Really great.  Watercolor & ink

1^st line/s: This is a wordless book.

My comments: I've got to admit, I had to read this book more than several times to figure out what I thought was going on.  It was wordless and I guess my imagination wasn't up to par.  I wasn't prepared for aliens from outer space....

Goodreads: A 2014 Caldecott Honor Book In a near wordless masterpiece that could only have been devised by David Wiesner, a cat named Mr. Wuffles doesn't care about toy mice or toy goldfish. He’s much more interested in playing with a little spaceship full of actual aliens—but the ship wasn't designed for this kind of rough treatment. Between motion sickness and damaged equipment, the aliens are in deep trouble.When the space visitors dodge the cat and take shelter behind the radiator to repair the damage, they make a host of insect friends. The result? A humorous exploration of cooperation between aliens and insects, and of the universal nature of communication involving symbols, “cave” paintings, and gestures of friendship

MOVE - Hector and the Search for Happiness

R (1:54)

Limited release 9/19/14

El Con - by myself - 10/9/14

RT Critic:  31  Audience:   66

Cag:  6/Awesome  5/Loved it  4/Liked it a lot  3/Liked it  2/It was okay  1/Didn’t like it

Directed by Peter Chelsom

Relativity Media

Based on the book by Francois Lelord

Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard

My comments: This is a movie that stays with you.  It's stayed with me - for days now.  I've created my own list, trying to figure out what makes me happy.  The movie?  I loved it.  I really loved it.  I'd like to go back and see it again.  It didn't get good reviews from critics, and I haven't even read them.  This will go down as a favorite movie for me, I think.  Definitely quirky.  Off-beat.  Tongue-in-cheek.  Clever.  Absurd.  
       There was one, somewhat disconcerting element.  Two days before I saw this I saw Gone Girl, where Rosamund Pike is a psychopath.  She has a pretty-decent-sized part in this story, with an entirely different persona.  It was hard not seeing her as the psychopath!d  She did a wonderful job, though, I almost wish I hadn't just seen her play such a seriously different part.

RT Summary: Hector (Simon Pegg) is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike), he feels like a fraud: he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results. Based on the world-wide best-selling novel of the same name, Hector and the Search for Happiness is a rich, exhilarating, and hilarious tale.

64. Pay It Forward - Catherine Ryan Hyde

Young Reader's Edition

2014 Paula Wiseman, Simon & Schuster

274 pgs.

Supposedly for kids-middle grades; see my comments

Finished 10/9/14

Goodreads rating: 3.93

My rating:   2/ It was okay...

TPPL

Includes discussion questions

1st sentence/s:  Prologue - "Maybe someday I'll have kids of my own.  I hope so.  If I do, they'll probably ask what part I played in the movement that changed the world. And because I'm not the person I once was, I'll tell them the truth.  My part was nothing.  I did nothing.  I was just the guy in the corner taking notice."

My comments:  A "2" means that it was okay, not that it was horrible.....but I wish I liked it more.  I really want to.  I wanted to read it aloud to my class.  But I don't think it would hold their attention - I think it's too disjointed and adult-centered.  It just doesn't strike me as a book for kids.  There's too much from the adult point-of-view and nowhere near enough from the kid's.  And not telling the ending seems a huge cop-out.  The book deals with crime and being down-and-out...if it's based on a true story, after reading about people's problems that we don't really care so much about, why not be truthful about the ending, too?

Love the cover.

Goodreads book summary: The internationally bestselling book that inspired the Pay It Forward movement is now available in a middle grade edition.
          Pay It Forward is a moving, uplifting novel about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts his teacher;s challenge to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world. Trevor;s idea is simple: do a good deed for three people, and instead of asking them to return the favor, ask them to ;pay it forward; to three others who need help. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading across the world, and in this quiet, steady masterpiece with an incandescent ending; (Kirkus Reviews), Trevor's actions change his community forever.
          This middle grade edition of Pay It Forward is extensively revised, making it an appropriate and invaluable complement to lesson plans and an ideal pick for book clubs, classroom use, and summer reading. Includes an author'snote and curriculum guide.

MOVIE - Gone Girl

R (2:25)

Wide release 10/3/2014

Viewed 10/6/2014 at ElCon with Sheila, Connie, & Gwen

RT Critic:  87  Audience:  91

Cag:  5/It was a really well-done movie

Directed by David Fincher

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by Gillian Flynn.  My review here.

Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, 

My comments: I liked the movie more than I liked the book (a bit unusual....). I considered Nick Dunne a jerk-of-an-idiot in the book, and I considered Amy Dunne a psychopath.  I felt a little better...though not much....of Nick in the movie, and considered Amy even crazier than in the book.  You had to like Nick, because no matter how sleezy a character Ben Affleckk could ever play I'd HAVE to root for him.  So I wonder how I would have felt with another actor portraying Nick?  Both Affleck and Pike (as well as Perry, Harris, and Carrie Coon, who plays Nick's twin sister Margo) were terrific.

RT Summary:  GONE GIRL - directed by David Fincher and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn - unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

63. Cress - Marissa Meyer

#3 The Lunar Chronicles

Audio read by Rebecca Soler - who's spectacular and perfect for these voices - she really does them justice.

13 unabridged cds/ 16 hours

2014 Felwel & Friends/Macmillan Audio

550 pgs.

YA SciFi/Dystopia

Finished: 10/8/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.50

My rating:   5/Awesome, didn't want it to end....

TPPL

Setting:  All-over-the-world (which is now six countries), but mostly orbiting in space between Earth and Luna (the moon).  When?  maybe a couple hundred years from now?

1st sentence/s: "Her satellite made one full orbit around the planet earth every sixteen hours. It was a prison that came with an endlessly breathtaking view -- vast blue oceans and swirling clouds and sunrises that set half the world on fire."

My comments:  I am really enjoying this series.  I'm listening to it as I drive back and forth to work, and I think the Rebecca Soler, who does the reading, is terrific.  She adds personality to each of the characters and is able to switch instantly to individual nuances as the dialogue progresses.  I think she's added a dimension to each of the characters that I might not have done if merely reading the words. The story is part scifi, part dystopia, mystery, adventure and a tiny bit of romance.  It works really well together and I must give Marissa Meyer TWO THUMBS UP! I'm very much looking forward to the next installment.  This one ended perfectly.

Goodreads book summary:  In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 
       Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 
       When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Poems About Books and Words

Books

Books!

All sizes, all colors,

whispering,

"Come inside!"

"Come inside!"

Printed words

are a mystery.

How can they be

full of sounds?

How can you

look at this page

and hear my voice?

Read this and see

a green parrot

with a

bright read head

and long

purple

tail

feathers.

Words can frighten.

Words can sing.

Words can tickle.

Words can sting.

Words show us

worlds

never seen before.

Read this

and see

golden waves

crash

on a crimson shore.

And don't forget...

books smell good

too.

         ~ Mordicai Gerstein

            from Dear Hot Dog

Giant Bookmobile of Tomorrow

I am a very moving van.

Driver: he's the Gingerbread Man.

Fuel: imagination power.

Speed: a dozen aisles per hour.

Whether it be comic strips,

Poetry at your fingertips,

Picture books or trivia,

The Wizard of Oz, Olivia,

My bookmobile has just one goal:

To entertain on cruise control.

but kids get on at every block

And I forget to watch the clock.

So if my van is "overdue,"

It's okay if you are too.

    

        J. Patrick Lewis

              from Poem-Mobiles

CALLING ALL READERS

I'll tell you a story.
I'll spin you a rhyme.
I'll spill some ideas ----
and we'll travel through time.

Put down the controller.
Switch off the TV.
Abandon the mouse and
just hand out with me.

I promise adventure.
Come on, take a look!
On a day like today,
there's no friend like a book.

Laura Purdis Salas
from Book Speak!

Poetry

Poetry is like some
sugar-crazed teenager
who just got a license
but refusees to follow
the rules of the road.

It races out of control
then jams up the traffic by
going reeaaaaaal slooooooow.
It turns up the music so loud
you can’t figure out how it Decides
to capitalize certains Words.
Punctuation? Ha! A joke!
Won’t use complete sentences.

And why does it refuse to
stay
on
the
line?
The most annoying thing?
Poetry won’t shut up.
It embarrasses everyone
by telling the truth.

Ralph Fletcher
from A Writing Kind of Day

In the Land of Words

In the land

of words,

I stand as still

as a tree,

and let the words

rain down on me.

Come, rain, bring

your knowledge and your

music. Sing

while I grow green

and full.

I’ll stand as still

as a tree,

and let your blessings

fall on me

Eloise Greenfield

from In the Land of Words

POETRY PICTURE BOOK - Dear Hot Dog - Mordicai Gerstein

Illustrated by the author

2011, Abrams Books for Young Readers

HC $16.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.49

My rating: 4

Endpapers: Bright, sunny yellow

Title Page:  Across the two pages the little girl is waking up as the sign rises behind her prone figure.

Illustrations: Acrylics on paper.

Toothbrush

All night

dozing in your holder

you wait for me.

I give you toothpaste

for breakfast,

mint,

your favorite flavor.

Then you go to work

in the foamy, pink

cave of my mouth,

scouring and scrubbing,

gargling your little song;

shreds of carrot,

pebbles of peanut,

cracker crumbs

hiding in cracks

---all washed away.

I rinse you off, and

back in your holder

you sigh and dry.

As my day begins,

you go back

to sleep.

Socks

I never stop
to think about socks,
and if I get them
for a birthday present
from Aunt Adi,
I'm disappointed.
You can't play
with socks.
But now,
with wind rattling
the icy windows,
putting on these
soft, thick, red ones
makes me happy
all day.

Ice-Cream Cone

I hold you high against the sky

like Liberty's torch,

a snow-topped,

milky mountain,

while rivers

of vanilla slide

over my fingers

and down my sleeve.

I turn you and lick you,

and with every lick

there's less of you.

Come back!

I see you hiding

deep in the cone.  

I bit off its 

bottom tip

and the very las of you

dribbles into my mouth.

I give the cone

to my little brother.

He likes them.

I don't.

My comments:  Great poems, from the point-of-view of three different boys during the day.Toothbrush, Pants, Toes (! !) Socks, Shoes, Cup, Bowl, Kite, Air, Water, Summer Sun, Hot Dog, Ice-Cream Cone, Leaves, Rain, Books, Crayons, Scissors, Spaghetti, Bear, Light, and Pillow!  Great poems!

Goodreads:  Whether it’s slurping up spaghetti or catching some sun at the beach, the everyday wonders celebrated in this collection of poems will appeal to young readers.
          Cleverly crafted by Mordicai Gerstein, Dear Hot Dog follows three friends from the time they wake up and brush their teeth to when they snuggle up for bed with their favorite stuffed animal. In between playing outside, making crafts, eating their favorite treats, and reading, together they delight in the adventure and magic that each day brings. Gerstein’s vibrant illustrations and lighthearted verse make Dear Hot Dog a great introduction to poetry for young readers

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