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Claire has a big list and it's all about fun. Let's hope not too much compulsory reading gets in its way.

and Claire has been busily sighing and swooning on your behalf. See her latest booklist of love stories.

Speaking of Claire, she's been pushing me for years to read Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which I'm finally doing. And loving, not least for the following exchange, among the most indelible in American literature:

The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.
"Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.
"Fuck you," said the raven. It said nothing else as they went through the woodland together.

Here's the promised book display to highlight our new GLBTQ list. "Different Families / Same Love"—that goopy enough for you?

The lit holder has copies of our Gay and Lesbian, Adoption, and Celebrate Diversity lists. And the books are a selection of picture books from those lists!

Sorry for the crummy (as usual) photos. I'd blame the camera, but—no, actually, I'll just blame the camera.

Jump the Cracks was featured on a list of  "the best and most noteworthy new children’s and young adult books of 2008" at this year's annual conference of the Illinois Reading Association.


Here's the abstract from list, titled "Books Worth Knowing":

DEKEYSER, STACY Jump the Cracks. Flux, 2008. Gr. 6-9

In a mixture of pique, projection, and protectiveness, Victoria semi-accidentally kidnaps a toddler on a train at New York’s Penn Station, determined to keep him safe from his teenaged mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend, and finds herself on the lam with a cute kid as she tries to figure out how to keep her charge and herself from the law on the one hand and angry criminals on the other.*


Thank you, ILA, BCCB, and Ms. Stevenson!!



*reprinted with permission from Deborah Stevenson, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Claire has a new book list devoted to careers. (And gosh darn, why didn't I think to show her my treasured copy of Bruce Learns About Life Insurance?)

“The American voice of the sixties I most identified with turned out to be less Ken Kesey and more Philip Roth. I didn't want to take peyote and have visions in the desert; I wanted to marry a nice psychoanalyst or film critic, live in a brownstone in Park Slope with books and really nice rugs, and send checks to progressive political causes. I didn't want to die young. In fact, I wanted to put off dying as long as possible.”

That’s author Rachel Shukert meditating on what the rock star Jim Morrison taught her about literary taste and her own life in high school, in an essay for Nerve. That teenager is all grown up, and just published her first book, Have You No Shame?.

Today Shukert takes us through her real-life influences, the writers who helped her shape her laugh-out-loud memoir. It's a hyper-linked reading list that will keep you busy all summer.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You are a bit coy in your book, but you have some very literary influences--mixing up everybody from Joan Didion to the Torah. Who do you read for inspiration? What's the reading list you would give to an aspiring memoirist?

Rachel Shukert:
Well, certainly Joan Didion. Also, David Rakoff, David Sedaris. Follow this link to continue reading...

Claire looks at Buddhism and Hinduism in her ongoing series of booklists on world religions.

A semi-related question: people who went to college a generation after I did swear that Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is the greatest book they ever read. Is it hard?

Claire has a new list of short story collections up for your reading pleasure.

Also, there's a great short story by Ha Jin up at the New Yorker. Read it.

and good for you, too: Claire's latest booklist.

We've covered a lot of of politics lately. It's time to get back to our bread and butter--reading.

If you want to be a writer, then you need to read and read, and then read some more. Without further ado, here are two links to great writers discussing what they like to read.

Over at Ecstatic Days, novelist Nick Mamatas reflects on the writings of John Fante. Start with Ask the Dust, and read this guy when you are hurting, poor or stuck in your writing. He'll remind you why you write. Meet this new old writer here:

"Fante’s gimmick is an “open” one, or at least open to me. Young guy, son of boisterous immigrants, wants to be a writer and wants love from inaccessible women. He starves and struggles and begs the universe for something, anything at all, to keep the dual tortures of hunger and loneliness from overwhelming him. I fit right in. The agony of it all keeps me writing, just as it did him."

Then, over at Literary Saloon, one of my favorite writers in Spanish is being featured again. Juan Rulfo's spooky novel still challenges me, and his work with ghosts, poverty, and Latin American landscape is unforgettable.

Dig it: "At Slate Jim Lewis introduces what he thinks is The Perfect Novel You've Never Heard Of, Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo. Given all the coverage it's gotten the past couple of years -- including our review -- we're pretty sure you've heard of it."

debuted today. You can sign up for your free subscription here. It's designed as an outreach (as we used to say in the '70s) effort to parents, teachers, and others, so pass the details along to anyone who might not wander these particular climes.

And Claire has prepared a new recommended reading list of survival stories. Grrrr.

Claire has a new list of concept books up for your edification.

Claire has a roster of A-team sports books for you, so batter up before I run out of metaphors.

Claire helps out the reluctant readers this month. You know who you are.

Who needs old closet case Dumbledore when Claire has put together a first-class list of out-n-proud GLBTQ-and-sometimes-Y fiction?

I've got an editorial in the upcoming Horn Book about the outing of Dumbledore, who in fact joins a long line of characters who coulda-woulda-shoulda be gay if the reader so inclines--like Shakespeare in Susan Cooper's King of Shadows as we discussed here a few weeks ago. Or Harriet the Spy. (Or Sport, Beth Ellen, or Janie.) Betsy and Tacy! Frank and Joe! Nancy and George! Or not, too--the point is that characters become your imaginary friends whose lives, loves, and destinies can become what you need them to be.

I'm reminded of 1965, the momentous year when Barbie became flexible. Durable characters always are.

Too many people expect the job of "writer" to mean one thing--sitting around quietly working on your novel. Those people will get very hungry. 

Author Allen Rucker's writing career reads like a vocational manual for writers: he's written a comical television book (The Sopranos Family Cookbook), co-written non-fiction books for celebrities (Hollywood Causes Cancer), and most recently, a personal memoir about paralysis (The Best Seat in the House (in hardcover now, look for the trade paperback in January 2008)).

Today, this television and film writer explains the books and writers who influence him, giving us a big long reading list for the weekend.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You have a deep love for crime fiction. Do you have a reading list for aspiring crime writers? Who are the writers, generally, who inspire you? Which websites, magazines do you read for material?

Allen Rucker:
I’m not a crime-fiction writer, just a crime-fiction reader. I read the literary stuff, too, and a lot of the current entries – like Ian McEwan’s Saturday, for instance – has its share of criminal activity. Continue reading...

Fuse8 posts a link to what she accurately characterized as another hand-wringing piece about allegedly depressing YA novels on reading lists, but I am even more depressed by the author (a professor of creative writing, no less) condemning some "young adult fiction", unnamed, where "a town holds a lottery. At first it seems like an innocent exercise, but the author slowly reveals that the winner of the lottery will be sacrificed."

Worker of the world Claire has put together a list of books for Labor Day.

if not so far as Christmas, Claire Gross has compiled a list of starred school stories for all you kids who need to start getting in the mood now.

And on a related note, and for the truly hardcore delayed gratification junkies, I'm pleased to announce the theme of our 2008 special issue: School. Pencils sharpened?

Imagine a book club full of Dick-heads all studying the same book.

That's right. A longtime fan of science fiction genius Philip K. Dick will be live-blogging his reading experience this summer. David Gill (founder of both the blog and the pun, Total Dick Head) will be revisiting Dick's dense novel, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

His post inspired me to dig out my own copy and re-read this trippy masterpiece. Check it out:

"Scene by scene, chapter by chapter, I'll be analyzing the action, looking for common PKD themes and connections to other works, enjoying the new notes on the novel prepared by Jonathan Lethem for the Library of America release, and exploring scholarly work done on the novel."

Yesterday Kimberlee Morrison suggested we all pick up the "cerebral and intricate" novel Paradise. That book has already spawned plenty of book club analysis, but could merit a blogged reading as well.

Close reading such "intricate" books will make you a stronger writer and help you find your reading community as well. What other books could use this kind of close reading among blogging fans?

We've just posted a list of recommended Spanish-English books.

Some people believe books should be read with rubber gloves and surgical tongs. I don't--my books have scribbled notes, busted spines and creased corners.

We are writers. We need to devour books when we read them. You can write your own book, but you are constantly in conversation with the other books you read. How can you have a conversation with somebody if you don't ever get close to them? Give your books a hug.

If you need some inspiration, check out the Book Inscriptions Project--an online archive of all the personalized dedications and messages that people left behind in books. "Send a copy of the cover and the inscription and any details about how, when and where you found it. See this or this or this for examples," they write.

Seeing how other people love books (and share them with loved ones) is the first step in building a better relationship with the books you read. Check out this slightly nerdy, tender inscription if you don't believe me. I love it when stories and love get all tangled up...

“'Lindy,

Nothing like this
ever ends. The ring,
like Gandalf, never ends.

I love you
Robert'

-- A 1966 copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien."

(Thanks to 52 Projects and Bookgirl for the link.) 

"It is almost impossible to write a novel any better than the best novel you've read in the three-to-six months before you began your own...Thus, you must read excellent novels regularly."

That's a bit of advice from Samuel R. Delany in the writing handbook, Rebel Yell.

That book was created by University of Utah writing professor, Lance Olsen. He's written nine novels himself, and this week he is our special guest, discussing his new book, Anxious Pleasures and sharing tips for fledgling writers.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing. 

Lance Olsen:
Well, in addition to the predictable shameless plug for my own fiction-writing guidebook, Rebel Yell, which provides lots of exercises to get the creative juices flowing, let me also suggest Brian Kiteley's 3 A. M. Epiphany, a remarkable compilation of primers. Continue reading...

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Gail Gauthier’s recent post, “Why Blog Reviews Are Important,” in which she makes the case for reviewing older titles after discovering that her most recently published novel was reviewed — eight months after publication — on two different blogs. Blogs, she writes, can extend the season of a book. In today’s world, the season of a book (or movie or any number of other new events, for that matter) is pathetically short. I won’t go on and on about this, except to say that when Eisha and I created this blog, I never set out to review just new titles. But that’s exactly what I’ve done. Gail’s post is a nice reminder that reviewing older titles “remind{s} readers of books they’d been meaning to read but had forgotten about” (such as this review from this week at the excelsior file, one of my favorite blogs — and if it hadn’t been for Just One More Book’s review of the ‘06 re-print of Margaret Shannon’s The Red Wolf, originally published in 2002, who knows how long it would have taken me to find this intriguing picture book).

On that note, here’s something else that’s been on my mind, and here’s where the poetry comes in: Mama Goose, which serves as a child’s introduction to poetry. I’ve been reading Chris Roberts’ entertaining Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme (first published in 2004 by Granta Books). I’ve been reading it slooooooooowly, ever since my thoughtful husband gave the 2005 Gotham Books edition to me as a birthday gift. And my oh my is it fun and raucous and witty. It’s not an academic look at the history of Mother Goose, as the author points out. It is, as Bookmunch put it, a “jolly, light-hearted look at a peculiar kind of history.” And you gotta dig a book that takes its title from a Smiths’ song anyway (ah, Morrissey and high school — that takes me back . . . in a, um, rather melancholy way, ’cause it’s . . . well, Morrissey). So, yes, this is a great read: Who knew that the lullaby “Rock-a-bye, baby” could be a warning about hubris? And that “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is all about taxation? And that one saucy explanation for “Jack and Jill” is:

. . . that “up the hill to fetch a pail of water” is actually a euphemism for having sex and that “losing your crown” means losing your virginity . . . So here you have a rhyme about a young couple slipping off for a bit of “slap and tickle” and the regrets that come later.

{And who knew that, according to the 2001 British census, “the Star Wars religion of Jedi makes up 0.7 per cent of the {British} population”? Yes, fun facts abound in Roberts’ book} . . .

And so reading it has got me thinking about my favorite Mother Goose anthologies. The list-lover in me is going to make a list for you now — my attempt at a top-five (this will be tough) — and here’s where I need your help: Heaven only knows I haven’t read them all. So, please do tell (if you’ve made it this far) — what are your favorite Mama Goose anthologies? Please enlighten. Tell me what I’ve missed. I can’t get enough of this stuff, especially the history about it. Here are my favorites:

1. My Very First Mother Goose by Rosemary Wells (originally published in 1996; Candlewick Press) — The very first on my list. Can there be any dispute that this is the mother of Mother Goose books? (I have a feeling there can be, especially from the aforementioned Elzey, and I say that in the spirit of respectful debate, not complaint). Over sixty nursery rhymes with much to pore over in the illustrations, and Iona Opie, the ultimate authority on the Mother Goose tradition (as well as other subjects, such as children’s street rhymes), pulled it all together. Pair it with 1999’s Here Comes Mother Goose by the same pair, and all is well.
2. The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews (2003; HarperCollins Publishers) — A fine, fine nursery rhyme anthology with Nina Crews’ photo collages and inimitable touch. Mama Goose in an urban, multi-ethnic setting. Who knew the “fine lady upon a white horse” was really riding a carousel and that Georgie Peorgie is really a playground casanova . . . Lots of action and lots of energy and great fun.
3. Some From the Moon, Some From the Sun: Poems and Songs for Everyone by Margot Zemach (2001; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — As the story goes, the completed illustrations for a nursery rhyme book were found in Margot Zemach’s estate after she died in 1989. Zemach’s line-and-watercolor art always amuses and radiates a child-like energy. Many lesser-known rhymes are represented in this anthology, including some non-Mother Goose rhymes (”When a big tree falls and people aren’t near/ Does it really make a noise if no one can hear?”). Best of all, there’s a wonderful afterword that includes more illustrations and a note about Zemach’s life.
4. This Little Piggy: Lap Songs, Finger Plays, Clapping Games and Pantomine Rhymes by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Will Hillenbrand and music by Adam Stemple (2006; Candlewick Press) — According to the site of the talented and prolific Jane Yolen, this nursery rhyme anthology was based on an earlier picture book collection of hers, The Laptime Song and Play Book (1989). This collection is expanded from that earlier title, however, with approximately sixty nursery rhymes and finger rhymes and clapping rhymes and etcetera and etcetera and you-name-it. Will Hillenbrand, one of my favorites, adds his playful touch to the collection. Best of all, for annotation nerds like myself, Yolen provides a bit of history for the rhymes on each and every page (oh the research she seems to have put into it! My favorite page includes a “Mary Mack Around the World” column to the right of Hillenbrand’s illustration for “Miss Mary Mack.” I want to find Yolen and hug her for this interesting research, making the book ten times more interesting to adults). She also, I must mention, provides instructions for how parents and children can gesture/play along with the rhymes. Stemple — Yolen’s son — provides original arrangements of a handful of the songs on a CD that accompanies the book. When I put the enthusiastically child-friendly tunes in the CD player, my children drop any and everything they are doing, stand there for a moment of amazed silence, and then run for this book with glee, as if I have just promised them cookies for dinner and a new puppy. ‘Nuf said about that (except that when I can’t get “Have you ever, ever, ever in your long-legged life/ Seen a long-legged sailor with a long-legged wife?” out of my head at three in the morning as I turn over in my sleep, I’m grateful for Eisha’s advice to me: Any time a song is obsessively playing on the record/8-track/iPod of your mind, just start singing “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band to override the song-that-won’t-go-away. See and listen here for a refresher if you ever need this tip. Nah nah nah nah nah nah . . . My blood runs cold/My memory has just been sold/My angel is a centerfold/My angel is a centerfold. See? It really works). Oh and I know we’re talkin’ anthologies here, but — while we’re on the subject of Mother Goose and Hillenbrand — check out his picture book adaptation of the rhyme “Down by the Station” in which we find out who exactly rides the children’s zoo train early in the mornings (2002; Harcourt Children’s Books). You. can’t. go. wrong. with. this. book. Exuberant, I tell ya. And you can’t go wrong with Yolen’s anthology.



5. Baby Goose by Kate McMullan and illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre (2004; Hyperion Books for Children) — McMullan here has loosely re-created traditional Mother Goose rhymes to include baby protagonists in each, such as The Baby Duke of York and Baby Foster (who went to Gloucester). It’s baby-centric, as Publishers Weekly put it — and it’s baby-tastic, I dorkily add. Lemaitre’s pen-and-ink drawings are light and fun (very cartoon-like in style). The dancing sausages, who promenade across almost every page after making their first appearance, are . . . well, odd. But it still works. One of my favorites. Much fun to see what these Mother Goose babies are up to in their whimsical, fancy-free nursery rhyme world — with absolutely no adult intervention.

So, there it is. Whose edited anthologies are Honorable Mentions? Lucy Cousins, Tomie dePaola, Helen Oxenbury, Dan Yaccarino, and Clare Beaton for sure (click on the book images to read more information).

And I know I stuck to anthologies, but since I must try to work Sendak into every post, if possible, there’s also his Hector Protector and As I Went Out Over the Water: Two Nursery Rhymes (originally published in 1965). But which anthologies do I need to read now? And any interesting titles on the history of Mother Goose folks can give me? Do tell (if you’ve, uh, made it this far).

If you still have “Centerfold” in your head, my apologies. Happy Poetry Friday to all.