It's here!

The new website for Red Hot Eyebrows is up and running like a well-oiled machine.  Caren's husband, Andrew, is a graphic designer and he got the site all prettied up and easy to use.  I added some content, like what it's all about, who Caren and I are, and how to contact us.  All the posts on this blog are also on the new site, so you won't have a need to come back to here unless you're feeling nostalgic or something.  I've been adding some new reviews on the site and we've got our very first ever video co-review at the top!  I've been trying to think of a clever name for it, like a co-view.  Or a co-review-you-can-view.  Hmm, that still needs work.

In case you didn't see the link above, the new site address is www.redhoteyebrows.com.  You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Red Hot Eyebrows and hitting "like" to get more frequent updates on books and stuff.  I might be bringing my twitter feed back to life one of these days, but don't get your hopes up.  Anyway, come on over!  Catch up on what we've been reading!  We've got our Best and Worst of 2010 List in the works!  Soon we'll have prizes and whatnot!  I couldn't be more excited!  I'm using lots of exclamation points!!!  That should be reason enough, right there.

The Big Move

Hey readers, we've got some news.  RHE will soon be moving to a new site!  There will be more bells, some whistles and possibly a firecracker or two.  For now, I'm tweaking it and getting it ready for the Grand Unveiling and writing a review or two to stay caught up.  My reading is far out-pacing my writing right now, but I should be all caught up for the Big Day.  Notice lots of capital letters?  That's because RHE is going to be one amazing site when we're done with it.  One might say it'll be Turbo Awesome.  I might be exaggerating a bit, but I'm prone to enthusiastic exaggeration when I'm excited.  Thanks for your patience while Caren and I shine up the doorknobs and put out the fancy linen.

The Top 100 Picture Books

Since so many of you enjoyed the post about the top 100 children's novels, I thought I would do some digging and present the top 100 picture books list from 2009.  There were a whole pile of books I didn't recognize in this list, though the top 15 were all ones I have read or own.  Here are the books that didn't make the list, in case you were curious.  I would do some major shuffling, eliminating and adding to this particular list.  I didn't disagree nearly as strongly with the novel list.  Why is that, I wonder?  Hmmm.

You might notice that I haven't blogged about anything I've read lately.  That's because I'm in the midst of RCPP season.  That would be Recitals, Concerts, Presentations, and Projects. Oy.  I'm sick of school and it's not even me who's going.  Caren's excuse is a new baby.  Congrats to her!  Now spend some of those wee hours reading, wouldya?  It'll make me look less lazy.  Ha ha, I jest.  Sorta.

Some truly awesome action figures for the literary crowd

Thanks to Rachel, whose blog I totally stole this from.

The Top 100 Children's Novels

Recently I found myself eagerly checking the School Library Journal's blog every single day.  They had called for librarians, writers, readers and all who were interested to rate their top ten children's novels of all time.  There was a system of how many points a book got according to its placement on each person's list.  I'm glad I'm not the one who had to figure it all out, instead I just got to read and enjoy.  Now I'm going to make it even easier on you and tell you to click here to see the complete list.

I was delighted to find that the list split equally among books I'd never read or never heard of, books I love and cherish and own, and books I remember reading at some point but don't own.  I would have shuffled some of the order of the books to suit my preferences, but in general it was pretty close to what I consider the best.  I've put some of the books I'd like to own on my Amazon wish list and will now have Christmas present ideas for a few years.

If ever you find yourself in need of a good book for you or your kids to read, hop over to the list and see what might fit.  I might have my kids work their way through the list over the summer, now that I think about it.  Maybe I will too.

Taking a page from Jenny's book

After December's co-review, I decided to read some of Jenny's favorites from 2009. Highly recommended, by the way. Since she's already reviewed them, I don't want to be redundant. But I also couldn't just set them aside without briefly sharing my thoughts.

Of the three that I read, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, was my very favorite. The characters were so well-drawn and the writing was so engaging that once I started it I literally couldn't put it down. I felt like I gained a greater appreciation for that time in our nation's history, but had so much fun at the same time I didn't even mind learning something!

Next I tackled The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Wow. What a trip! It was fascinating and compelling, and kept me thinking about it for weeks afterward. I thought the final conflict was a bit anti-climactic, and it was a lot longer than it needed to be. I had to put my life on hold for a week until I finished it, then had to purge myself for another week before I could bear to pick up another book! But it was very interesting and certainly will stand out as an unforgettable experience. I don't think it will be letting me go for a long time!

My last choice of this batch was The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, by Tiffany Baker. The change in tone and characters and drama was refreshing after the gothic weight of The Historian. I enjoyed the writing, the pacing, and the slight menacing edge to the otherwise pastoral small-town life. One thing I had a hard time with was fully connecting with the narrator. But that almost didn't matter as Baker explores some really interesting topics of life and death and an unusual form of redemption for a remarkable title character. And weaves in a little magic and folklore at the same time to keep you guessing until the end.

So thanks to Jenny for the hours of enjoyment I've had over the past month or so. I can't wait to get to some of the other books on her list!

Meeting Brandon Mull

I should title this post, "Standing in line for an hour in an overcrowded Barnes & Noble to meet Brandon Mull for 2 1/2 seconds and only getting one book signed." Oh man, it was quite a night. I dragged all my kids (including newborn baby) and my neighbor to a B&N about 12 miles away to meet Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven books. I love that series of books and with the latest installment coming out next month, my Fablehaven fever is in gear. I had no idea how big of a crowd would turn out. I mean, it's geared towards pre-teens and took place on a school night, so how many people could possible show up? Roughly five kazillion.

I don't know what I was expecting, a small setting and opportunity to chat like when I met Brandon Sanderson or Linda Ashman? It sure wasn't. My husband drove over after a meeting to save me from exhaustion while my neighbor pulled books off of shelves and kept my girls busy with stories. Without either of them I wouldn't have made it through. We did get to talk to Brandon Mull for a minute or two about his new series of books after Fablehaven is finished. He was very nice and was happy to sign our books and a stack of book plates for any future books we might want to purchase. I wish my kids hadn't been so tired at that point so they could have asked some questions, but they were wilting quickly.

Meeting authors is something I love to do so I won't say I'll never do that again, but I wish this experience had been better. I still love Brandon Mull's books and he was totally nice to us, even two hours after he had been signing books, so he's not diminished in my eyes. I'll just rethink this kind of adventure in the future. Here's a picture to commemorate the event. Notice the look of irritation and exhaustion on some of my kids' faces. They are little troopers, I think.

Reading and nursing

I've been ignoring the blog lately, if you couldn't tell. Having a brand-new baby is great for having plenty of time to read, with all the breastfeeding down time and all the hours in the middle of the night waiting to be filled, but writing anything down about what I've been reading has been a near impossibility. I'm barely getting a shower in every day, people, but I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here. A big drawback of all this postpartum reading is that I am crazy emotional and every single stinkin' book has made me cry. All of them. Even the stupid science fiction ones. I am not a crier. If a movie gets sad, I tilt my head and say, "Jeepers, that was sad." On occasion, a book will make me tear up, but gasping sobs and running nose? Nope. Shall I enumerate? Yes, I shall.

For some reason I've been reading a bunch of Orson Scott Card books but that's mostly because I have some at my house and extra trips to the library are not happening. I read Hidden Empire, which is the sequel to his Tom Clancy-esque book Empire. It's about a worldwide plague, government corruption and conspiracies. Card revisits characters who lost so much in the first book, but I don't remember being all that attached the first time around. So why would it make me cry? Not only did it make me cry, but it made me tear up later just thinking about it. Apparently I needed more punishment, because then I re-read the Ender's Shadow series of books by Orson Scott Card and cried through half of those too. My husband was starting to worry as I hiccuped my way through those stupid books.

I am a great admirer of David Small's illustrations. If I know a book is illustrated by him, I'm more likely to read it and seek it out. He published a memoir of sorts called Stitches. I say "of sorts" because it is written as a graphic novel. But this is no kids' story. David Small grew up in a seriously screwed up family who verbally and emotionally abused each other. His grandmother was a nutcase and his father gave him radiation treatments that led to David getting cancer, which they kept a secret from David until he was an adult. Oh man, it was a sad and horrible tale, but written in a riveting way that had me flipping pages almost faster than I could read. The true savior of this tale is a therapist that David eventually sees who tells him that he is worthy and good and a valuable person. Thank heavens for that therapist! David Small was able to make something wonderful of his life despite his parents' efforts to tear him down. Stitches was a fast read, but a tearjerker, mostly because of the stupid hormones. Stupid evil hormones.

Still not being adventurous enough to read anything too challenging, I started re-reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Again, a book I own so I didn't have to venture out of the house to get something different from the library. I like to wait years between re-reads of favorite books because I want it to feel fresh again, but weighing my options of said library venture versus re-reading something I knew I liked, I went with Mistborn. My heavens, that's a good book and it's definitely been enough time for me to forget how it all goes down. I'm really looking forward to re-reading the other two books.

That's the sum total of reading I've done since my baby boy was born. Caren and I are doing a co-review of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte in February and I'm dragging my feet a little bit. I've never read it and I'm afraid it will trigger those stupid tear ducts again. Somebody reassure me that it's not that sad because honestly, I can't handle any more crying. Surely my system has worked all the post-pregnancy hormones out of my system by now, but you never know.

Co-review: 2009 Best and Worst

Happy New Year! But before we move on to 2010, let's take a look back at 2009. For December's co-review Jenny and I decided to share the best and worst books we read in 2009. Keep in mind that these are not necessarily books that were published in 2009, but rather were read for the first time that year.

Caren's List of Favorite Reads:
I had quite the battle trying to decide which books should make the "best" list. Some deserved to be on it because I had so much fun reading them, but weren't necessarily amazing examples of literature. While others deserved to be on it because they were fantastic literature that left me deeply moved, but weren't necessarily the kind of thing I would pick up and read again anytime soon. In the end, I decided to include both.

1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. I love when a new author can blow me away with an amazing work, and this was definitely one of those "wow" experiences.
2. A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel. This lighthearted memoir is elevated beyond just a funny-yet-forgettable personal story by Kimmel's keen wit, observation, and powerful command of language.
3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Definitely not to be taken lightly, this is one work that gets deep inside you and won't let go, leaving you forever changed.
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. A delightful story with a deeply human touch, as well as a wonderful nod to the power of literature in improving the human condition.
5. These is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner. A fascinating period piece with a great mix of action and sympathetic characters.

A Few More I Just Can't Leave Out:
And then there were a few more that I can't in good conscience fail to mention, even if they didn't quite make the "best" list.

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. Fun and a little bit freaky, but in a good way.
2. The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry. More than a little bit freaky -- okay, a lot freaky -- but a well-crafted story if you can stomach the bad language and themes of abuse.
3. The Thursday Next Series, by Jasper Fforde. Some were better than others, but the whole series provided me many hours of entertainment this year.
4. She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel. This follow-up to Zippy continues Kimmel's story in a similarly delightful style, but leaves some of the childhood innocence behind.
5. Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Worth reading even if it did put me to sleep more than once.

Definitely Worth Skipping:
I try to avoid books that I suspect I won't enjoy, which helps keep my "worst" list pretty small. But these are the ones that I disliked the most, ranging from mild irritation to serious aggravation.

1. Spare Change, by Aubrey Mace. Such a major waste of ink and paper that I didn't even bother reviewing it. Think "local author spends too much time watching lame romantic comedies" and you'll get an idea. To add to the insult (because I did feel insulted reading it), I accidentally spilled water on it right before returning it to the library and had to buy the stupid thing!
2. Freddy and Fredericka, by Mark Helprin. Helprin's sense of humor might have redeemed it if he had cut the thing down by, oh, about 500 pages.
3. The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs. This one falls more into the mild irritation range. Jacobs over-estimated her abilities and the result is shallow and forgettable.
4. Running with Angels, by Pamela Hansen. Worthy message, but poor execution. But what else can you expect from someone who isn't a writer?
5. The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan. Corrigan has some skill as a writer, but I had a hard time really connecting with her as a narrator of her personal story.

And now I'm excited to see what Jenny has picked for her top reads of 2009!

Jenny's List of Favorite Reads:
This project of picking favorite books over the year is harder than it looks, people. It has taken me literally minutes and minutes of thinking to determine what I loved best this year. Like Caren said, it isn't always about great literature but about how much I enjoyed reading it.

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
I kept coming back to this book whenever I would try to tabulate my favorite books of the year. The story was so engaging and the people so lovable that I felt like I was living on the island with them. It was the best book all around.
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I put that book down and felt altered forever. Stockett gives the women of this story three dimensions and made me respect and relate to them. Amazing writing.
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This book completely freaked me out, frightened me to death and refused to be put down for more than a few minutes at a time. Kostova reinvented the Dracula tale in such a compelling way that anybody could enjoy it, if they can handle the scariness.
4. Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Such a beautiful tale of friendship in a setting that completely blew me away with its beauty and painful atrocities.
5. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker. An unusual heroine who you can't help but root for, with mystery, love and suspense all tied in.

Honorable Mentions:
I read and review lots of books for young adults and younger readers and oftentimes, I find them to be the very best of books to read for both me and my kids. A few of those made it into my honorable mentions list.

1. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. Not since Ramona Quimby has a little girl caught my family's adoration like Clementine. The three books written so far were read out loud with delight and thoroughly enjoyed.
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Never has a group of ghosts been so lovable. Or a villain quite so deliciously terrifying. It got me hooked from the first chapter.
3. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Oh my heavens, the quirk! The hilarity! The quirky hilarity!
4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Eye-opening and informative, a look at how Americans eat and where our food comes from. It made me take a serious look at what I was feeding my family.
5. The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan. The long-anticipated newest installment of The Wheel of Time series was given new life by Sanderson and did not disappoint.

Books I hated with a fiery vengeance or just plain didn't like:
1. The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. A book by Hale should never leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, but this one did. It had many redeeming qualities but the inappropriate and incomprehensible friendship ruined it for me.
2. Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin. Oh my gosh, will it never end? I have never forced myself to read beyond my tolerance of a book since I was in college. It was painful.
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. Was funny for about five seconds then just turned out to be stupid.
4. My Abandonment by Peter Rock. Child abduction is terrifying and upsetting, and yet this author makes us want to believe that a 10-year-old girl would be okay with it. Sick.
5. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I never blogged about it because I never finished it. After pages and pages of her sexual awakenings and exploits, I couldn't stomach another page. Plus, Julie Powell comes across as a selfish, horrible person. Wasn't this supposed to be about cooking? And Julia Child? The movie was a million times better and not at all a waste of time, unlike the book.

Hey, I'm impressed by all the reading we did in 2009! Not bad for a couple of moms with nearly ten kids between them.

Unblogged books

I admit, I like things to be tidied up. I like my loose ends tied. Here we are, nearing the end of the year and I have a handful of books I never blogged about but they won't stop nagging at me because of it. I deemed each of them unworthy and yet, here I am blogging about them. Darn those unbloggable books. You might be wondering, what makes a book unworthy of me sharing my opinion willy-nilly? Mostly it was because I couldn't think of anything spectacular to say that would either deter readers or cause them to leap from their computers and dash to the library. Those are the two reactions I prefer to instill in people. Some of these I loved and some I hated, but the most I can conjure up is about a paragraph each.

I read one book this year that I so completely disliked that I didn't even want to think about it after I read it. Usually, if I really don't like a book it's just that much more fuel for my fire. But this book was repulsive to me and I didn't want to think about it ever again after I read it. My Abandonment by Peter Rock is about a girl, Caroline, and her father who are living in a state park in Oregon, off the grid and avoiding people. Their past is mysterious and you gather that the father is a veteran with mental illness. They do get discovered and people try to help them in their situation, but everything just deteriorates more and more. It's based on a true story but the whole thing made my skin crawl. That's all I want to say about that.

Mark L. Van Name's newest installment of his books about Jon Moore and his intelligent ship Lobo is just as awesome as I thought it would be. If my blogging about the previous books haven't gotten you to pick up a copy of the first book yet, me writing yet another blog about it probably won't do the trick. Overthrowing Heaven is more action, more great sci-fi and focused much more on Lobo than Jon. Loved it.

When I was at my uncle's funeral, I met the father of an upcoming author, Aprilynne Pike. It's a long story, but I decided to read her young adult novel, Wings. It's about a girl who suddenly sprouts a blossom out of her back that resembles wings. Ends up, she's a faerie and never knew it. This story could have been very cool and original and yet, it just reads like a Twilight knock-off, love triangle and everything. Except in Wings it's the girl who's supernatural, not her love interests. Well, one of them is, but whatever. If you love Twilight, read Wings, but I can't endorse it much more than that.

Caren went to a midnight release party for The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan and didn't know what the hubub was about. My husband was seething with jealousy that she went and had pre-ordered a signed copy of the book months before. Caren sent us the bumper sticker she got at the party that said, "Bela is a Darkfriend" and my husband giggled like a schoolgirl and then dashed upstairs to plaster it to his bookcase. The fact is, if you're already a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, you'll have read the latest installment finished by Sanderson after Jordan passed away. You don't need me telling you how awesome it is or how perfectly Sanderson accomplished the task of taking over this epic book series. You already know. And those of you who don't know probably would be hesitant to start a series that includes twelve books, one prequel and a nearly rabid fan base. I don't blame you.

I like fairy tale retellings, like Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl or Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted. They're fun and interesting and flesh out a tale so creatively that it gives it new life. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George falls directly into that category and the caliber of Hale or Levine. George retells the tale of the twelve dancing princesses, which was one my favorite stories growing up. It was riveting and exciting and very well done. I read it, then passed it on to both my eight- and six-year-old daughters who both adored it. I would gander that any child on a skilled enough reading level would love this book and would also be a great read-a-loud. I'm going to have to do some more reading of George's books if this is what I have to expect. Excellent stuff.

Speaking of excellent writing, I recently re-read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. This book is a perfectly crafted dystopian future story about a tyrannical drug lord, cloning, and corrupt governments, but written for the young adult age group. Nancy Farmer has written many books but Scorpion has to be my favorite. Matteo, the clone of drug lord Matteo Alacran of the nation of Opium, a strip of land between Mexico and the U.S. is just as clever as his original version and with the help of some other clever people is able to make more of his life than as spare parts. Very cool, very exciting and some interesting deep thinking about the idea of cloning in general and the value of life.

Ahh, I'm feeling better. Now I can dive into books for the new year knowing that I tidied up my pile. Now if only I felt that way about my desk...

A midnight book release party

Last week I went to my first ever midnight book release party. Ironically, I didn't even care about the book. It was the final book in the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. I have not read any of Robert Jordan, and have no desire to. But because this book was written by Brandon Sanderson and he was attending the book release, my sister convinced me to go and get some books signed by him.

It was fun, though the activities meant nothing to me since I haven't read the Jordan books. People kept handing out stickers that would make the other fans laugh, but meant nothing to me. But for the sake of any Jordan fans reading this, one said, "Bela is a Darkfriend," and the other said, "I killed Asmodean." No idea what they meant, but I still think the Wheel of Time logo looks like Mickey Mouse. And after looking at the cover art for those books, I have a new appreciation for the cover art of Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. I'm not a big fan of the Mistborn cover art, but by comparison the childish illustrations used for the Wheel of Time series make Mistborn look like fine art!

It was fun to meet Brandon Sanderson. He was very gracious and flattered that we would have stood in line just for him. I had a chance to thank him for answering our questions for the blog a little while back. Overall he seemed like a very nice guy who is not too full of himself, which impresses me even more than his amazing talent. I wish him all the best success, especially with the publication of this most recent monumental work. That's a huge responsibility to finish the work of another author and try to be true to what came before while still exercising your own creativity. And with such potential of alienating die-hard fans, it's not a risk to be taken lightly! So I hope for his sake that it's well-received. Because knowing his other work, I'm pretty sure that it'll be the best of the series!

But having said that, I just have to ask, what is the deal with fantasy fans?? Do they not realize that they are perpetuating a horrible stereotype that keeps them marginalized and less respected than the genre deserves? Standing in line for two hours with all these hard core fantasy fans just about did me in. Holy lack of personal hygiene! I don't know when the last time was I've been so entrenched in B.O. Come on, do you really think that voluminous cloak is going to mask the fact that you forgot to put on deodorant for the day? For goodness sake, take a shower, brush your teeth, get a haircut, and if you're a girl put on a little make-up, and then maybe there would be less of a "freak" stigma! I just don't get it. I enjoy a good fantasy, but never to the point that I would sacrifice my personal dignity for it. Ewwww.

Overall it was a fun night, even though I didn't care a snitch for the book that all the hullabaloo was about. It did make me sad that I never made it to a release party for a book I cared about, like the last Harry Potter book. Now, that would have been an event I could have gotten into! But don't worry, I would have brushed my teeth before I left the house.

An author to watch

It's pretty rare that I get to read a book before it's published, but I got that opportunity recently. Mark Foster is a doctor and an old college friend of mine who just wrote his first book and now it's online for anybody to read. To endorse Mark's writing, I'll divulge the top-secret information that we used to play in a band together. He wrote the songs and played guitar, we had some other buddies who played instruments and I played the violin. Yeah, we were pretty cool. Okay, so we were kinda dorky but what wasn't dorky was Mark's songs. He wrote the most beautiful lyrics, more like poetry set to music. Well, except for The Wookie Song. That one was just silly, but we had a good time.

I think Mark has enormous potential, but he has had trouble finding an agent to represent him due to the fact that his book doesn't have enough sex in it. He's taking the unique approach of putting his book in its entirety online for anyone to read and comment on. In my opinion, Mark deserves a shot at having an editor take a look and see what comes of it. Plus, I think he needs to write some more books so if you all read it and tell him what you think it'll push him in that direction.

Go read the book and Mark's bio here. He includes links to some of his short stories as well. You can also follow a link to his brother's website, enormously talented musician and songwriter Jeff Foster. Lots of good stuff on that there website. I don't want to tell you too much about the book so you can have fresh eyes when you read it, but I will say it's a medical drama. Go check it out while it's free for the reading and tell him what you think.

Meeting Linda Ashman

The Bookies is a bookstore in Denver that I don't often frequent due to the fact that I love The Tattered Cover so much and The Bookies is in a part of town I don't find myself in very often. I do get their newsletter, mostly for curiosity's sake and to know when they do their amazing sidewalk sales. When the September newsletter came and it said that Linda Ashman, children's book author who I've raved about in the past, would be signing books there on a day when I was also going to be within a few miles of the store, I couldn't pass it up.

We arrived ten minutes early for the signing, but Linda Ashman was already there, ready and waiting to sign some children's books. My mother-in-law gave each of my youngest three daughters a book of hers for their birthdays this year, so we brought those along to get them signed. Some of my girls were more timid than the others, but Ashman was so cute with each of them. My six-year-old had questions about being an author and they chatted a bit about ideas and where they come from. Ashman had a copy of the preliminary sketches the illustrator did for her new book, Creaky Old House, which I found fascinating. She and I talked a bit about writing and the publishing process and she was delightful and interesting.

Ashman's husband and son were there too and my husband and I chatted with Jackson, her son, about his favorite books and his interests. Jackson blogs about his favorite books and I was totally impressed that this eleven-year-old could express himself in writing so well. My poor kids will now have extra pressure from their mom to do more writing. I thought it was sweet that her family would be there to support her while she did signings.

The whole encounter was such fun and now we have a copy of Creaky Old House, which is just as charming as her other books. My only regret is that I didn't buy Come to the Castle as well, but there's always next time.

A birthday shout-out

Caren's birthday is this month and in honor of that, I'm going to tell a story on her. About a million years ago when she and I were newly married to our husbands, the whole family went on a camping trip up in the mountains. That night as we all sat around the fire, Caren said she would tell us a story. Now, as a preface, I have no idea how I managed to get that far in life without ever having read The Sneetches and other stories by Dr. Seuss, but I hadn't. When Caren recited What Was I Scared Of? from memory, in the dark, in the woods, I don't know if I've ever been more scared. She terrified me with that story and the ending took me by such shock that the whole night is seared in my memory.

Every time I read What Was I Scared Of? to my kids, I try to make it just as surprising and suspenseful as I heard it for the first time so long ago. The shock has since worn off for them, but I still love to pretend like it's the first time they've ever heard it. It's the perfect spooky story and the ending always feels absolutely right. It remains one of my favorite stories of all time. Happy birthday, Caren, and thanks for scaring the bejeepers out of me and impressing me with your memorization skills!

Twittery tweets

I read a bunch of book-related blogs and run across random book and author information almost daily. It's my entertainment. I rarely blog about what I read because I'm too lazy. I just collect information in my brain and occasionally it'll drive me toward a book choice or blog topic. But why not Twitter about it? I said to myself recently. That's a great idea, I replied. I don't talk to myself much more than that because that would just be silly.

If you read this here blog in a reader, you won't catch my tweets. Too bad for you. If you've hopped on the Twitter wagon already, you can follow me by clicking on the link in the sidebar. If you're thinking to yourself, "What the devil is this Twitter business?" just hop on over to the blog and read them, if you like, and I'll strive to educate and entertain.

Some questions for Brandon Sanderson

A year ago, I got the opportunity to meet rising star author Brandon Sanderson. He and his wife, Emily, were delightful people and were all the more pleasant to put up with me asking five hundred questions about writing and books. He also agreed to answer some questions for this here blog and, thanks to his wife, those questions got answered and I'll share them with you now. I figure that if an opportunity arises like this, you have to snatch it up before it passes you by. Brandon Sanderson is becoming such a hot item these days that this kind of chance may never happen again!

First off, Caren had some questions for him about Warbreaker, his newest novel and our latest co-review.

How are the Idrian royalty descended from the First Returned if the Returned can't bear offspring?

I don’t want to give away spoilers on this idea right now, as I am planning to explore it in the second Warbreaker book. As Robert Jordan often said, Read And Find Out.

The Idrians and Hallandrens had different beliefs about the purposes of the Returned and how they came to be. What is the true explanation? This is another topic that I don’t want to say too much about, partly because it would give spoilers to things I plan to write in the future. The other reason is that it is difficult to say, as with any real religion, that one is completely true while another is completely false. All religions are based on some truths, and I’ve tried to show this by including some truths about the Returned in both the Idrians’ and the Hallandrens’ religions.

Your portrayal of religion in Warbreaker and the Mistborn Triology is not always very flattering, though there are underlying themes of faith and redemption. How do these portrayals reflect your feelings of organized religion and religious faith? I am a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and my particular religious faith is something that has shaped who I am as a person. I also find the concept of organized religion in general to be interesting so my books tend to contain references to and portrayals of religions. Perhaps the reason that some of these portrayals of organized religion in my books are not always very flattering is that I believe that religion, used for the wrong purposes, is one of the most evil things in the world. Someone who is familiar with guns is more likely to know enough to be afraid of the misuse of guns, and caution others about this. Someone who believes strongly in organized religion can be even more aware of the problems that come with the misuse of religion.

The ending is really a beginning for at least two of the characters -- Vasher and Vivenna. Do you plan on writing more about them in the future?

I would like to write more in the Warbreaker world in the future. I’ve planned to write at the least, a sequel, though I’m not sure yet if that will be the story of Vasher and Vivenna’s continued travels, or something else. Most likely I would not write about Siri and Susebron, as I feel like their plot arcs were finished and most loose ends tied up.

The problem is, I have so many projects under contract right now, that I may not get to more Warbreaker for quite some time!

We both had questions about the fantasy genre, writing in general and whatever else popped into our heads.

How do you determine an appropriate balance between the fantastic and the familiar in your writing?

There should be a balance between the fantastic and the familiar, and while determining this balance, for me, has become instinctual, I usually end up using the three storytelling pieces, character, setting and plot. For example, if my setting has a lot of fantastical elements, I might want to use more conventional characters, or loosely follow a well known plot archetype.

What do you see is the biggest challenge for today's fantasy writer?

I think one of the biggest challenges for today’s fantasy writer is to come up with something new, that still satisfies the fantasy reader’s desires.

Fantasy seems to engender either strong devotion (bordering on obsession), or skepticism (bordering on contempt) -- more than any other genre that I can think of. Why do you think this is? And what would you like to help fantasy skeptics understand?
Fantasy has a steep learning curve, meaning that when you open a fantasy book, there can be multiple things about the setting and characters that are different from the world we live in, and have to be explained or described. I think fantasy readers like this extra layer of complexity, while those who do not like to read fantasy may be put off by the effort it can take to get into a story. This is both a great strength of the genre, and something that keeps it from being more widely accessible. I would explain this concept to fantasy skeptics so they would understand better what “those weirdos who read fantasy” see in it, and so they might have a better idea what to expect if they choose to try a fantasy novel.

How much science research goes into your writing? In general, how much time would you say you spend researching before you write?

I’ve always had an interest in the sciences, so I have a fairly good grasp on basic principles. However, one of the reasons I became a writer rather than a scientist is that I like being able to bend, if not completely break, the rules. Still, I usually do some research to make sure that my magic systems, when they are heavily scientific, are consistent. How much research I do really depends on the book and my level of knowledge on the scientific topic. For Mistborn I looked at the periodic table of elements to choose metals for the allomancers to use, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with friends about the physics aspects of pushing and pulling.

What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Advice I often give to aspiring writers is to keep writing. I think this is really the best thing you can do, whether your problem is that you have writer’s block, or that you think the beginning of your novel is not good enough, or that you can’t figure out what to write next. Creating a habit of writing regularly is the most important thing you can do if you want to be a writer.

What's the craziest thing a fan has asked or said to you, especially now that you are finishing the much anticipated conclusion to the Wheel of Time series?

People have asked me to write some pretty ridiculous things into The Gathering Storm. They’ve wanted events such as certain characters to die, or other characters to form romantic attachments. Let’s see, other crazy things…people have asked me to sign body parts, usually arms, sometimes a stomach, which I always refuse to do.

Many thanks to Brandon Sanderson and his wife, Emily for taking the time to answer our questions. For you readers out there, if you haven't figured out yet that Caren and I are fans of his work, go back and read some of the many posts we've done about his books. His books always make for a good read.

Itty bitty bragging rights

In June 2008, I popped over to Orson Scott Card's website to see what new books he might coming out with in the future. I didn't see any new books, but I noticed he was putting out a call for essays and that very day was the last day they were accepting submissions. I racked my brain for a good ten minutes and then typed what I could think of. The question was something along the lines of what Ender's Game meant to me as a reader. The ten minutes I spent brain-wracking consisted of me thinking "How do I summarize what this book means to me? This book that I have read so many times I could outline the plot and identify each character by how they fight?" I don't remember exactly what I wrote but apparently it was good enough to be picked for his newest book, The Authorized Ender Companion. The Companion is co-authored by Jake Black (no clue who he is) and I don't really know what it's about. I just know that my little blurb will be in it and you should all buy a copy. I won't have to buy a book because Orson will be sending me my own autographed copy. I'm not rubbing it in or anything, just stating the facts. The facts that I am awesome and I rock.

Before my head gets too big I better find something humbling to do. My dirty bathrooms are calling. That ought to take a little hot air out of me.

Paperback Swapping

I've been searching my memory, trying to remember how I originally heard of The Paperback Swap Club. I'm fairly certain it was my husband who heard about it on NPR and told me about it, since he knows I'm crazy about the books and such. It's a online club where you register books that you own that you no longer want, and request books that you wish you had. If someone requests your book, you ship it to them via media mail, which is pretty cheap. If you find a book you want, you request it and whoever listed it sends it to you for free. There's no cost for membership and you don't pay anything to get a book. You just promise to send a book to someone if they want it.

To start off, I listed 10 books I had that I didn't want any more. I'm more of a borrower than an owner of books, but I did have some that I had collected over the years that didn't merit keeping forever. As soon as I listed the books, half of them were requested within two days. I was stunned. People wanted my garbage? Really? As soon as I shipped the books, I received credits in my account that would get me some books for free. I used those credits to get a copy of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, a Robert Jordan book that my husband had been hinting about and the three Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea books by L.M. Montgomery. They were books I had always wanted and figured that this was a great way to get them. The point of the club is that as soon as you get your requested book, you read it and re-list it. The paperbacks are being swapped all over the country and nobody's house gets cluttered up. But I was looking for keepers.

The prize of all the books I received was a book I had loved as a child and had never been able to find as an adult. In my searches for it, I had discovered that it was a rare book, hard to find and expensive to purchase when I did happen to find a copy. The mass marketed paperback in used form ran about $50. The hardback version I had read over and over again growing up was over $100. Someone on Paperback Swap had listed the paperback version and I did a jig of glee when it arrived at my door. I put the hardback version on my wish list and months later, I got a notice that it was on its way. A first edition hardcover of The Maze in the Heart of the Castle by Dorothy Gilman was now mine and I paid nothing for it.

I eventually swapped out all my books for ones I wanted for my permanent collection, realizing this meant I had less books to re-list and earn more credits, but I didn't care. The books I had found were like gems to me and there was no way I'd send them on their way. I know the purpose of the website was for different intentions, but I'm perfectly happy with how things worked out. Last week, I cleaned out some cupboards and found some cookbooks I never use. I've already shipped off two of them and my next step is to do some shopping on Paperbackswap.com and see what treasures are waiting for me.

Commitment issues

I'm not even close to posting anything I've read lately and I'm totally going to blame it on my pregnant brain. Just like my fickle stomach, my fickle brain cannot commit to one book. I've read a few chapters in like, four books, and they are all wonderful and interesting, but I cannot seem to stay put. I decided the only way to get some reading done would be to put the question to you, dear readers. I'm going to give some summaries and try to be a cheerleader for each book so you can make an informed decision.

• Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert. Two islands twenty miles off the coast of Maine have been warring with each other since before the Civil War. The islands' industries have evolved over time but since around 1900, it's been lobster. The men are jealous and crafty in guarding their territories. The book centers around Ruth Thomas, whose father is one of the most ruthless of fishermen. In the first three chapters I've read, she seems much too clever and smart for this island. The story seems like it's quite proud of it's quirkiness. It's fraught with quirk. But I love Maine and I love quirk.
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I haven't read a good mystery in a while and this one won some award that's plastered on the cover. It's about Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old girl living in 1950s England who's obsessed with chemistry and torturing her mean older sisters. When a body appears on her family's land, she's fascinated by what could have happened to him. I've read the first few chapters and Flavia reminds me of Harriet the Spy, who I wanted to be like when I was young. I even carried around a notebook and tried to spy on my neighbors for one summer. I discovered that my neighbors were boring. Anyway, she's spunky and fearless and fascinated by poison.
• Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. I recently posted about how much I like Neil Gaiman and how much I'm looking forward to future books but I'm lukewarm about this collection of short stories. If he can't commit to a novel, how can I commit to a bunch of short stories? Someone please remind me of how much I like his writing.
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Takes place in 1960s Mississippi and is about black women who take care of white children. It follows a recent college graduate, Eugenia, who decides to collect the stories of these women who are trusted with white children, but finds that their stories are probably too disturbing for white eyes. My best friend, Abby, recommended it and I lived in Mississippi for six years, so I think I'll enjoy it. It makes me wish I could read it with a book group that's never lived in the South, so they could have something to think about that they probably never did before.
  
• Julie and Julia: My year of cooking dangerously by Julie Powell. If you've seen the movie trailer, then you have an idea of the book that the movie is based on. Julie is sick of her job and is fearing the dreaded age of thirty, so she decides to mix things up by cooking every single recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I'm a little irritated that someone would be traumatized by turning thirty, but I love books about cooking. I'm game. Seriously, thirty is not old.
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. If my friend Rachel would just quit going on and on about how much she loves this book and how its the best book ever and how she wished she could laminated every single page of it and spend the rest of her life memorizing it in its totality, I wouldn't need to read it. Sheesh. Why don't you just marry it already, Rach? Wait, were you gushing about the movie or the book? Now I can't remember. Shoot, maybe it was the movie and I don't have to read the book after all. It's in England and has to do with the industrial north and the pastoral south and it's kind of Dickens-esque. It's about the middle class women in the Victorian era and looks like something I'd enjoy. I don't know if I would enjoy it to the degree that Rachel does, but it looks worth the time.
  

There you go. After writing all that, I'm still not sure which to start with. Go vote on the side panel there and then make a comment about why you voted for what you did. I want to be convinced here so make it compelling. The vote ends on Tuesday so make it snappy, will you?

Resources for parents of readers or future readers

Tell me if you've ever been in this situation. Your child has recently become addicted to The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. She's read #1-12 but wants to see what happens with Jack and Annie so she must, absolutely must read #13 next. Or say your son is obsessed with insects and you'd love it you could find an adventure series with insects as the main characters. Or you'd love to collect all the Curious George books and are curious (har har) about how many there are. If you've ever been in this position, then boy howdy, are you going to be glad you read this blog today.

If you don't have this blog in your reader and you have children, you need to sign up. These ladies know their stuff and you can read the contributors' biographies here. Plus it's PBS, so it's like educational or whatever. Anyway, I've gotten hundreds of ideas from the Booklights blog's inception. So many ideas I cannot even use them all. I have two voracious readers and with these summer days leaving us with a lot of down time, we have to make great use of our city library. My girls would like it if I went to the library three or four times a week, but that's not happenin'. So when we do go, I like to make sure they're making it worth the time we're there.

One resource I got from the Booklights blog is the series books database. The post about it is here, or you can just go straight to the database here. When my kids are hungry for books, we go to the database, search either by subject or author or title and find some books to put on hold or look for while we're at the library. They love cruising the database, trolling for books. Each book or series is categorized by being either Juvenile Easy, which usually means picture book but is listed as birth through 2nd grade, Juvenile which is 2nd through 6th, and Young Adult which is 6th through 12th. It really depends on your child's interest and reading ability which category to go with. My older girls are Juvenile category types, while my younger two girls are definitely Juvenile Easy.

Thank goodness for Booklights so I can read up on series books that feature adventurous girls, or good audiobooks for roadtrips, or whatever else. Try it out and love it.

The other resource I've rediscovered lately is a book I reviewed a while back, Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt. I was getting tired of my oldest daughter's book choices that included Goldie the Sunshine Fairy by Daisy Meadows. Please let that be a nom de plume. These kinds of books are the literary equivalent of cotton candy and I figured it was time for something a little more healthy. I think it's good for her to be reading and not to get too picky on her choices, but I sat her down with Honey and asked her to write down five titles of books from each of the chapters for intermediate readers. "Just find some books that have interesting summaries," I told her. I didn't tell her which books to pick or give her suggestions, but on her own she picked Caddie Woodlawn, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Call of the Wild, A Wrinkle in Time and other classics. I'm going to try to read each one along with her, which I don't often do because she reads so much more than I can keep up with. But I'll make the time for these books.

Honey also has lists of picture books, easy reader books, and some young adult novels. Hunt published a book for adult women readers called Honey for a Woman's Heart, which I have vowed to select some books out of for myself. There's also Honey for a Teen's Heart, but I'm going to wait a few years on that one. It's more full of tips on how to communicate with your teen through literature, which sounds awesome to me. I've got a few years to work up to that. My next project is to find some other moms who are interested in forming a mother-daughter book club. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Hope these resources help and either motivates your readers or keeps them occupied for a few hours at a time on a hot summer's day.