Week 10_PRABE#9

This week I was very strapped for reading time, but I was able to squeeze in a little bit of reading to my girls. With this morning's chapter, I barely squeeked out my 90 minutes. With finals in all of my classes the next two weeks, I have a feeling that my reading time will be equally difficult to find. We have been reading The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. This is a book that my fourth grade teacher read to my class and I have always loved it. My children are enjoying it as well. It deals with a mixed family that moves in to an old house with a reputation for being haunted. Mysterious things happen, but some are suspect as Amanda, the one "new" sibling, and her interest in the occult often seem suspicious. It's really a tale about fitting in, creating new family and children dealing with the hurt of divorce and distant parents. But it's all told in a great narrative fashion and my kids are staying equally engaged in it, as I did when I was a kid.

7/25/11 - 15 min
7/26/11 - 25 min
7/27/11 - 20 min
7/28/11 - 15 min
7/31/11 - 15 min

Week 9_PRABE#8

I have a single literary weakness, the True Blood series. There is nothing redeeming in any literary fashion from these books. Even while I'm reading them I wonder why. The characters are just silly and their motivations are often shallow and obvious. But, for some reason, I read them like candy. It doesn't hurt that I adore the TV show developed around them. But the show is darker and edgier and I prefer it greatly to the books. But, since I finally saw the most recent one in paperback, I bought it and have been happily reading it over my lunch hour this week. (Well, for two days, they are super quick reads.) Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris was no exception to the silly fun that the previous ones in the series were. The problem with these books is that now that there have been 10 of them, I can't exactly remember where one thing happened as opposed to another. I know the basic plot from start to finish, but they all tend to blend together without many distinctions arising from any of them. This one in particular dealt with the further political repercussions of the different natured creatures declaring their existence, Sooki's PTSD from past trauma, vampire family lines and her own family's special powers. And fairies. Lots of drama, lots of randomness and some smut thrown in for effect. Good times.

7/18/11 - 60 minutes
7/19/11 - 60 minutes

Week 8_PRABE #7

Well, since we had tickets to go see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter 7 with our oldest daughter this weekend, I went ahead and re-read the entire book 7. We were on vacation with our friends and had a ton of time to read on the drive there and while the kids were splashing around in the pool. I finished it Sunday evening, with my husband asking me to read out loud at around the third-to-last chapter. I'm not sure how much I love the ending of the book/series. On one hand, it satisfies the whole "happily ever after" thing that I have going on. On the other hand, it seems a little too "happily ever after". I know, quite a few people die during the series, so there is some loss and it's not where the good guys are invincible or anything. Seeing the movie was fun, but of course, it was nowhere near as good as the book. There's no way that everything included in the books would be able to be portrayed in the movies, of course. But, the final battle seemed weak compared to the chapters and chapters of description attributed to it in the book. It certainly made our six hour drive go by quickly on Sunday, having this book to read.

7/10/11 - 240 minutes

Week 7_PRABE #6

I found myself with a free afternoon and nothing pressing to do, so I was able to grab a book and have a nice long stretch of reading. Instead of starting a new book that I would have to put on hold the next day, I decided to just pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and flip to the middle and dig in to it. Since we're going to see the final movie installment next week, I thought it would be the perfect thing to flip through so that I could reacquaint myself with some of the finer details. This is one of my favorites from the entire Harry Potter series. I thought it was quite daring to introduce an entirely new element, the Deathly Hallows, to the final stage of the book. If not done correctly, it could feel like she was making it up just to find a way to solve a story that she didn't have an ending for. But, the way she intertwined it with the horcruxes that were introduced specifically in book 6 and the invisibility cloak that was in the first book, made it feel like a natural progression of the story. Something that has always bothered me about the Harry Potter series is how Voldemort essentially takes the summers off in hunting for Harry. That never seemed terribly believable to me. But, the more detailed information about the protective spells on his family's home helped to give that more validity. This book also had a lot of loss. Everything did not end happily ever after, it ended well enough. People died, children were orphaned and lots of bad things happened. If that had not been the case, these books would not have held the interest of most of the readers.

7/4/11 - 180 minutes

Week 6_PRABE #5

My kids were heavily involved in camps this past week, so instead of reading to them, I read for myself over my lunch hour. It feels so decadent to take time to read only because something interests me. Because I was hesitant to start a book for fear of not completing my assignments because I wanted to read said book instead, I spent a lot of time at www.longreads.com. I have read about Life After Zionist Summer Camp by Allison Benedikt, about a girl's experiences growing up, living abroad and her changing views and religious and political convictions. I read Marriage Lessons from My Turkish Grandmother by Sevil Delin. In this, the author discusses the old folktales that her grandmother shared with her while simultaneously weaving in her family's love history and tradition of bucking the system and marrying for love, much as the heroines in the stories bucked the system and outsmarted their male oppressors. This one struck me as timely because I have also been reading this blog, http://bettermyths.blogspot.com/, where he retells old fables and myths in a conversational and profanity-riddled manner. Many of the myths on the blog followed the same patterns as the Turkish stories told by Delin's grandmother. I also enjoyed the non-fictional piece of The Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus by Adam Rogers. This article told the modern story of a mysterious mold while also giving an extended history on the study of mold and the processes involved. I found it fascinating.

6/13/11 - 30 minutes
6/14/11 - 30 minutes
6/15/11 - 30 minutes
6/16/11 - 30 minutes
6/17/11 - 30 minutes

Week 5_PRABE #4

This week my girls and I continued reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. We have gotten to the point where Karana sacrifices her place on the boat with the white men to go back for her brother who was accidentally left on the shore. We had friends over this weekend and one of them saw the book and asked which of the girls was reading it. The girls answered that we all were. The friends are originally from California and stated that they had visited the burial site of Karana in California once. One of the couple spoke with the girls, explaining that this was one of his favorite books ever. I love seeing literature span all ages and demographics and provide something of substance for people to discuss.

6/7/11 - 15 minutes
6/8/11 - 30 minutes
6/11/11 - 30 minutes
6/12/11 - 25 minutes

Week 4_PRABE #3

I went out of town for the holiday weekend, so I was able to have lots of reading time during my flight home. Other than Sky Mall, I read Pont Dume by Katie Arnoldi. It covers a little coastal California town and five of its residents. There is Ellis, a native to the town and an avid surfer. She is upset about the uppity and wealthy people that have invaded her sleepy town and changed the sport of surfing from a physical spiritual event in to a traffic jam on the waves. She resents their mcMansions and vineyards, SUVs and everything else that they brought with them. Frank is one of the newer residents with a huge house, a vineyard on the property and drives out to hit the waves in his BMW each morning. Ellis and Frank end up with a relationship of sorts, but they are mostly just using each other during periods of stress in their lives. Janice is Frank's afflicted wife who hates the vineyard and eventually realizes she hates her husband. We watch as Janice delves in to a considerable midlife crisis. Pablo is friends with Ellis and another native. He makes his living by teaching surfing, selling pot and living out of his camper. Pablo and Ellis also have a relationship, but it is initially borne out of their comfort with each other. We meet Felix in Mexico on his family farm. His cousin gets him across the border to grow marijuana in the hills of California just outside this town. We watch his paranoia and isolation dissolve in to madness. All of these characters intertwine in the book and their story culminates with the Santa Anna winds and a large fire.

5/30/11 - 135min
5/31/11 - 20 min