Coop A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry

Summary:
Michael Perry ventures off to live with his pregnant wife and step-daughter on  a many-acred property in a lopsided farmhouse. As a reader you are able to follow Perry on this adventure while also reliving his unique but charming childhood of growing up on a dairy farm with more then 10 siblings. Even though Perry may seem to have a hard childhood as the son of a dairy farmer he wouldn't have it any other way, and his recollections are magnificently dreamy and desirable.  He elaborates on many other topics including his wife's home birth and his daughter's desire for a pony. Perry does finally achieve his goal of a somewhat subsistence life when he wakes one morning and everything that is on his plate for breakfast is from his backyard (minus the Salt, Pepper, and oil).

My Opinion:
Well I was intrigued by this book only because of my "dream" (yes it is referred to as the dream) of owning my own little farm somewhere, with animals (yet to be determined) and lots of homegrown vegetables and fruits. I obviously don't know how this will work hence the reading of "Coop". This book is by no means a "how to" but more of a funny narrative on how to do it with lots of laughs, curses, and lessons. My biggest problem with my "dream" is my sensitivity towards animals in otherwords to butcher or not to butcher? Perry has helped me with this overwhelming question by explaining on the morning of his pigs slaughter day he has a gut filling of guiltiness, but he goes through with the butchering thinking about all the times the pigs bucked him in the groin or escaped from their pen. As much as this sounds inhumane Perry explains it such a persuading way that it makes sense to me. I can almost understand and conceptualize actually having animals on my little farm for the purpose of nourishing myself with protein. Not only is Perry great at explaining farm-going life to the average urbanite he expresses stories that will make you heart grow fuzzies for a life of subsistence and family.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Summary:

An asteroid hitting the moon shouldn't cause worldwide panic, mayhem, and the end of the world, Right? Well in Miranda's world it does, the moon is a little too close for comfort in small town Pennsylvania. In a sudden moment Miranda is whisked out of school by her mother and assigned to the grocery store to buy several cart loads of food, gasoline, and winter long johns! Miranda finds herself wondering if her mother has gone mad just like everyone else, I mean why long johns in the middle of spring? Months later Miranda can't thank her Mom enough for all the crazy planning, because as the moon gets closer to earth, more volcanoes and earthquakes appear and less sunlight and warmth. Can her brothers and Mom survive and if they can what are they surviving for? What does the future hold for Miranda's family? It is filled with rations of canned peas? Then what kind of life are they living, or are they holding on for each other?

My Opinion:

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is more of an adorable type of dystopia or at least that is how the main character Miranda is represented. She is a growing character, much more aware towards the end of the book, but still holds on to her infinite desire of normalcy with her new life in a world that could be ending. I don't think Miranda as a character should really be whining about boys, privacy, and doing chores when life as she knows it is ending. Yes, I can admit that Miranda does realize all of her faults, but it is a constant battle between being a bigger person and complaining. This was tiring throughout the book especially when neighbors, family, and friends are dying all around her from starvation, dehydration, and diseases. Who knows how any of us would act in the same situation, but I would hope more of us would be a little more forgiving and thankful about actually having food, water, and heat. I was more interested in Miranda's older brother Matt who seemed to have some character! I was also intrigued by Miranda's family dynamic, Pfeffer really does produce a great family story that many readers including will enjoy. I am anxious to read the next few installments of this series to see how these dynamics play out. Overall I did enjoy Life as We Knew It especially examining a family that is facing and dealing with their world catastrophically coming to an end.

Series (Companion Novels are included)

Life as We Knew It

The Dead and the Gone

This World We Live In

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Summary

Alexia Tarabotti is soulless, which sounds pretty terrible but actually is really not half bad. She is immune to supernatural’s special abilities, for instance when she comes into contact with a vampire their fangs detract and werewolves gain sanity and human form during the full moon. But she finds her days dull so she spends them in her late father’s library reading books on science and technology. Oh yeah and eating trifle. Her life gets a bit more exciting when Alexia has been targeted by a mysterious group of scientists. Will she participate voluntarily or will she fight along side her handsome companion and werewolf Lord Maccon?

My Opinion
Now there are a lot of debates out there as to if Soulless can be put under the Steampunk genre, I have to admit I think it deserves to be included. Yes, much of the book is a witty romantic story but you are eventually introduced to a science that is highly industrial and advanced for this time period. Also you have Alexia the main character who embodies the counterculture of the time; she is an Italian, unmarried, 25 year old women who is highly interested in science and educating herself. Most importantly she doesn’t rely on the men folk to protect or accompany her in daily tasks; she defends herself with a silver pointed parasol. Alexia is obviously not the stereotypical average women of her time. I love books that combine Victorian/historical well mannered societies with kick-ass fantasy like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith. Soulless fits this hilarious mold perfectly and I fell in love with Alexia, I think in some ways I would be just like her if I had to live in 19th century England, polite well mannered with a slight hint of audacity.

Parasol Protectorate Series

Soulless

Changeless

Blameless

I checked out Soulless from Lafayette Public Library

White Cat by Holly Black

Summary

A conflict is brewing between curse workers and the rest of society. Cassel Sharpe finds himself caught in the middle. His two brothers, parents, and grandfather are all curse workers, given the power to change emotion, memory, luck, or even to kill just by the touch of a finger. For centuries Curse Workers have had to deal with prejudices including constantly wearing gloves, curse work being a crime, and a proposition is about to be voted on that requires all citizens to be tested and recorded if they are curse workers. Curse workers are left to make a living being con artist and mobsters. Cassel is not a curse worker and has never shared that bond with his family. Cassel has always been the outsider the straight kid in a corrupt family, but is he really? Will Cassel put family first like his mother always said and help his family in a life of crime or try to hold onto his honesty and lead a normal teenage life?

My Opinion
I have been looking forward to reading this new series by Holly Black. She delivers with an original and refreshing new series! Cassel Sharpe is a complicated character but as much as he brags about his irresistible charm and wit I was not falling for it. I was hoping to be in awe or at least a victim of his cons or uncontrollable lies. But sadly I wasn’t! Black may be writing Cassel’s character this way on purpose so he seems much more normal and mediocre then he is because that is actually how Cassel feels being the only non-curse worker in his family. Black does create an amazing refreshing new story with this series! I love the new world she creates that has touches of crime, mobsters, and fantasy. What a great combo! I felt the story lagging a little between the two climaxes but the fact that this book has TWO Climaxes in the plot is what makes this novel so exciting. Twist and turns will keep you reading!   


Curse Workers Series
White Cat
Red Glove- Release Date 04/05/2011

I checked out White Cat at Lafayette Public Library

Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison

Summary:
Madison had a terrible prom, it was filled with boys, reapers, and her death, but somehow she is still alive, well alive to everyone around her. Madison knows she isn't alive she is lost between the worlds of life and death. A stolen dark amulet is the only thing keeping her on earth giving her the faux human appearance. She is guided by her light reaper Barnabas and Grace her guardian angel. But soon Madison finds out that her death on prom night wasn't an accident, but a dark scheme planed by a very powerful dark timekeeper. Will Madison accept her fate and join the dark ranks or choose to ignore her fate to be human again. She must decide between the worlds of light and dark and between choice and fate.

My Opinion: 
I assumed "Once Dead, Twice Shy" was going to be another vampire/other-worldly creature story with love, lust, and teenage angst. But happily I assumed wrong, Harrison delivered a real and spunky character in Madison. Who's only desire is to be normal again, which is really what every teen is fighting to be. Harrison also generates a curious heavenly world of Seraphs, reapers, guardian angels, and timekeepers. Finally for a change I was really intrigued by the story she created. Keeping the story interesting by explaining the new world Madison is entering, the complications and clashes of the light and dark worlds, for which she is smack dab in the middle of. I can't wait to read the sequel "Early to Death, Early to Rise" coming out June 2010. 


The Series
Once Dead Twice Shy by Kim Harrison
Early to Death, Early to Rise by Kim Harrison

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Summary:

The story starts right after the original Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" ends, Darcy and Elizabeth finally wed. But as soon as the newlyweds are wisked off on their honeymoon, Darcy seems to be unhappy and distracted by something. This something eats away at Elizabeth until she can solve the mystery, which is finally reveled to her, but not without a price. Darcy will have to trust his love for Elizabeth to have a chance at mortality.

Opinion:

I was really excited to read this novel, as it's title refers to two of my favorite subjects when reading Mr. Darcy & Vampires. But to sum it up I was not impressed! This could only be a response to my dislike of sensitive vampires, and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre is by far the most sensitive vampire I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Mr. Darcy as the Jane Austen character is already a very reserved and quite character. Now those two traits are only intensified in "Mr. Darcy, Vampyre" because he needs to hide his innate beastly side from Elizabeth! This fact alone drove me mad as Elizabeth tried and FINALLY figured out that her husband was a vampire. I guessed the whole plot line by the time I was done with the first 25 pages, obviously we know Mr. Darcy is a vampire by the title, so why didn't Grange unclothe the mystery and elaborated on how Darcy came to be what he is and what does this mean for the newlyweds. There was no mystery behind the story as much as Grange focused on Mr. Darcy's secret throughout the book, as readers we already know. The whole time I am thinking "What is going to happen to their relationship and how did Darcy become a Vampire?". Like many of the books I have been reading the real action doesn't seem to start until the last 50 pages, where Darcy tests his love to become a mortal once again. If there is to be a sequel it will not have the fortnate place on my hold list at the library.      

I checked this book out at the library!

Colorado Teen Literature Conference April 10 2010

CTLC totally blew me away! Well not exactly but I was impressed, they put on a great conference. All the workshops were geared to all things teen, which is hard to get at local conferences like the CAL conference, so I was very happy. They also had great food, which is always a plus. Both keynote speakers were fabulous, Matt de la Pena and Ellen Hopkins were funny and inspirational at the same time which was perfect for the teen audience. 

The breakout sessions I attended were as follows,

Oops I Started a Cult and Other Teen Book Bundles by Gigi Yang and Erica Segraves

Really practical and provided us with detail info on how to do the same thing at our own libraries. I really want to try this out at our library hopefully soon.

The YA Blogosphere: Hip, Fun, and Fabulous! (And Let’s Not Forget Intelligent!) By Sarah Wethern

This one was good too, and I learned about a lot of great new blogs to add to my Google Reader.

I Know You Are, but What Am I? By Lauren Myracle

AMAZING, probably my fav out of the bunch just because Lauren is so funny and just a great person in general. Made some really great points about censorship and how we have to just be open-minded and really put ourselves in other people’s shoes.

Here is the link to a few of the presentations
http://coteenlitconf.org/2010-presentation-handouts

We had three teens come with us, which was really great and they enjoyed the conference as much as we did. Overall a really great day and I learned a lot of practical and inspiring things to bring back to the library, which is AWESOME!

I will definitely go next year! I wonder who will be the guest authors????

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Summary:

Colin has trouble with love but also with girls named Katherine, he has been dumped 17 times by girls named Katherine. Any normal guys would just stop dating girls with this name but not Colin he has to find a "cure". By figuring out a theory for anticipating break-ups. You see, Colin is a child prodigy and as much as anyone would think this is a godsend it isn't hence the keyword in this phrase being "child". Meaning only that Colin has grown out of this whiz, genius, brilliance by the time he is off to college. Colin and Hassan venture on a post-graduation road trip with no known destination in sight. They land in Gutshot, Tennessee and don't seem to be in a hurry to leave. Colin soon finds himself falling for a girl who goes by Lindsey Lee Wells, incredibly she is not named Katherine. Will he perfect his theorem before it is too late and another girl breaks his heart?
   

My Opinion:

John Green delivers again with a HILARIOUS story of wild pigs, girls named Katherine, and the word FUG. Green delivers such amazing stories that appeal to guys. It is also refreshing to have an intellectual hilarious male writer in teen literature. Not only is Colin trying to find love he is also trying to figure out who he is, as are many teens after they graduate high school. Also the relationship between Hassan and Colin is strong yet informal and comical. Both characters seem to agree to disagree and are always insulting each other, which adds to the hilarity of the story. Even though this may seem like a harsh friendship, this honesty is what makes the friendship strong, simply there is no B.S. Guys will love this story for the silly antics and witty prose, but girls will fall in love with the eccentric love story of Colin and his abundance of Katherines.   

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Summary:

"The Awakening starts with Chloe Saunders and her fellow supernatural friends Simon, Derek, and Tori making a great escape from the Edison Group. Unfortunately the supernaturals find themselves in this situation several times throughout the book, barely escaping the Edison group each time. Chloe and her fellow escapees Simon, Derek, and Tori finally decide to find a family friend that might be the only adult on their side.The stress of being a runaway is very trying on Chloe. She has to constantly control her supernatural abilities of raising the dead, which even includes raising by accident dead bats, rabbits, and humans. This is Chloe's most trying obstacle and she looks to an unlikely friend Derek to help her out. In the beginning Derek and Chloe had a very trying relationship but grows as Derek is able to help Chloe control her supernatural abilities. As Chloe and Derek's friendship blossoms,  Simon's affection for Chloe is threatened. Of course "The Awakening" ends with a cliff hanger so you will have to wait until the release of "The Reckoning" coming out May 1 2010.

My Opinion:
I have to say that I very much enjoyed the first book in this series "The Summoning" and was disappointed with second installment to the series "The Awakening". Like with a lot of series the second book always seems to be "a waiting in limbo" plot where nothing much happens. Characters create more solid relationships with each other and that is about it. This is exactly how "The Awakening" lays out, Chloe learns a little more about herself creates some solid relationships, and the supernaturals figure out a plan, the end! I just felt like there was no substance, storyline, or a solidified plot. Just a bunch of teen runaways who get into trouble but somehow get away. Armstrong could have completely left this book out of the series, and readers would be missing a whole lot of nothing. I am still going to pursue the third installment to this series as I think it will be a good one, that is to stay "The Awakening" did leave you with a great cliff hanger that makes readers want to come back for more.   

The Darkest Powers Series
The Summoning
The Awakening 
The Reckoning due May 1 2010

Teen Tech Week March 7-13 2010

This is the first year I decided to do anything for Teen Tech Week, in the past it has always been on my mind but I never actually developed or carried out any programs for it. So I was excited in my new job I had time to carry out a mini celebration. 

First I created a Teen Tech Week booklist and pathfinder which includes websites that support the teen tech week theme of Learn, Create, and Share. I had a hard time coming up with ideas for some websites. I knew I had packed away notes of techy websites from all the workshops I have been to, but couldn't find them! But I found this really great article in Young Adult Library Services journal Winter 2010 called "Free Online Tools for Serving Teens Four Verbs to Live By and Great Technologies to Try" by Mary Fran Daley. The article had some really great ideas for websites to help teens learn, create, and share technology. I was so thankful Mary wrote such a helpful article. Here is the link to the Teen Tech Page on our website and you can click on the link to get to the book list and pathfinder.


We also decided to have a contest for teens; they submit their favorite website or tech book and write a review of either to be entered to win an I-Tunes gift card. We are using Evanced for the contest and the teens submit their entries and share their reviews through our website. The reason I wanted to do this particular program is because it is easy! But alsol promotes the theme of Teen Tech Week by letting teens share and learn new tech websites and books with each other.

Enjoy!

Halloween Storytime @ Tallyn's Reach Library

We did a group storytime for Halloween, this is a tradition for us here at the library. We usually do some kind of performance because well, it is "SUPER FUN".

I linked the video of the performance so you can watch it first hand!

We adapted the story"By the Light of the Halloween Moon" by Caroline Stutson into a puppet show (with no puppet stage!). We made some puppets but we also went searching for characters in Halloween shops, etc to turn into puppets. All together we had a Spider, Ghost, Skeleton, Witch, Ghoul, and Bat. All of these creatures are trying to bite a little girl's toe (played by me). The children reacted really well to this one and were surprised by all the characters popping out of the curtain.

Next, we sang "The Monster Mash" which was super great. We even had our own choreographed moves as you can see in the video!

Our last story was "The Thirteen Days of Halloween" by Carol Greene. Gita sang the song in a terrific high pitched witches voice (it was really great) as each of us in the background held up each of the thirteen presents that are given. For the presents we just scanned the images out of the book and printed them on cardstock, decorated with glitter to create a more eye-catching effect, and glued Popsicle sticks to the back for ease of use. As we held each present up (which were very gross gooey Halloween-like) we made some kind of sound effect. For instance when we said 5 howling ghosts we made howling ghosts noises. The kids really liked this one, I think mainly for all the crazy creatures that were presents and because it is familiar to them.

Then after our last story we handed out little goody bags, which of course the kids LOVED!

Overall it went well, we didn't have as much of a turn out because the day before we were closed due to a snow storm. So I don't think grown ups wanted to go out, but it was still a nice crowd.

The "Thirteen Days of Halloween" video is in a separate post titled "Thirteen Days of Halloween" post because of the size I had to separate it. I tried to do this 5 million times and the video just won't upload not sure why but I am going to let it go! Sorry!

Catching Up

This is the first time in two years that I am burned out on reading. I know can you believe it! But I haven't read for like two weeks, until this morning when I started up "Coop" again. I guess I just have had a lot on my mind and I can't seem to concentrate. But I think I am out of my reading slump and I am back on the wagon. So get ready for some great reviews!

As a librarian I kind of feel bad about being in a reading slump I don't think we should ever feel this way? And like most people reading is an escape a stress reliever but this is not the case for me. I can't ever seem to calm my mind with reading. Is this strange? Not sure? But I actually really enjoyed my few pages of "Coop" this morning it brought a smile to my face and brightened my ever-so drifting dream of owning land and having farm animals and a garden.

The sad thing is I had to force myself to sit down and read this morning which is never the case. Usually on work days in the morning I have to rip myself from my book and wish a thousand times that I could just sit snuggled up and read all day. But now that I do have the time to read it doesn't seem to be a pleasure I long for but more of a disposable activity that I am available to do at anytime.

Well there you go a little thought from an off the wagon librarian!