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Yesterday I did an on-line chat with several readers at Donlin Drive Elementary School in Liverpool, NY. THANK YOU! to librarian Mary Fulton and the students who did a great job preparing for the session--I hope they had as much fun as I did!

Now on to a few thoughts about my recent reading. During any given stretch of time, I always enjoy reading a variety of genres. There is a broad general pattern--mysteries, nonfiction, food and travel books for adults; novels for young people; several picture books every week; a poem every day (at minimum, and several more on Poetry Fridays thanks to all the great poetry bloggers!) It's pretty haphazard; I've always said that I'll read anything as long as it's GOOD. I can recall only one stretch during which my reading was deliberately structured: For several months during 2006, I read exclusively novels for young people because I was on the panel of the National Book Awards, and for several months after that, I read mostly adult books in an attempt to even things out.

So I have no idea why this most recent batch skews so heavily to adult. Doubtless it will even out again, after I pick up the usual haul of riches at ALA in June....

Fiction:

AN UNCOMMON READER, by Alan Bennett. Adult hardcover, gift (thanks, Betsy!). A bite-sized novella by one of England's leading lit lights. Terrific premise: What if the Queen (yes, as in the current queen Elizabeth II) became an avid reader? If you're an Anglophile, a bibliophile, a humor (humour)-ophile, you'll love this perfect mouthful of a read.


LIQUOR and SOUL KITCHEN, by Poppy Z. Brite. Adult, library. A very reliable source recommended these books (are your ears burning, Joe Monti?). They're both set in the restaurant world of pre-Katrina New Orleans, but not in the silly surface way of many 'food novels'. Brite depicts the restaurant kitchen in all its UNglamorousness, the heat and the knives and the killing hard work. There's a third in this series (PRIME, which actually comes between the two above) that my library didn't have. Must request it.


Aside: I'm on something of a New Orleans kick at the moment. In addition to the Brite books, my nightstand holds copies of THE GREAT DELUGE (nonfiction) and A CONFDERACY OF DUNCES (fiction)--the latter on that endless list labeled 'books I've never read that I really MUST get to SOON', the former recommended strongly by Deb Murphy, a Harper Collins sales rep. (By the way, most of the sales reps I know are TERRIFIC sources for answers to the what-should-I-read question.)


THE WILLOUGHBYS, by Lois Lowry. Middle-grade, ARC. Do you like your icons skewered? A story that takes on what seems like every cliche in children's literature and pokes wicked, good-natured fun at them all. Orphans, babies left on doorsteps, nannies, a scary neighbor...with the bonus of a hilarious glossary at the end.

(I also read another ARC, but will blog about it closer to its pub date.)

Nonfiction:

TRUTH AND BEAUTY, by Ann Patchett. Adult memoir, paperback loan (thank you, Nancy Werlin!). Patchett on her lifelong friendship with another author, Lucy Grealy (AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE). I love-hated this book: some great writing, an interesting look into the MFA-workshop-fellowship path chosen by many adult fiction writers (which caused me to once again thank the stars that I somehow ended up published in children's instead...), a moving recollection of a friendship. But I also found myself irritated at times by the solipsistic nature of both the writing and the subject. If you like TMI*, you'll get it well-written here.

*Too Much Information


ABOUT ALICE, by Calvin Trillin, Adult memoir, library. Trillin's paean to his wife, who died too young from cancer. Perhaps best appreciated if you have followed the author's career over the years--his food books, essays for The New Yorker and Gourmet--laughing yourself into a sideache over his self-deprecation and acute icon-skewering (I guess I have a thing for icon-skewerers....). But I think anyone who's ever been in love will love this book, as slim and elegant and witty as its subject.


THEY POURED FIRE ON US FROM THE SKY, by Benson Deng, Alephonson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak. Adult memoir, library. Three Lost Boys from Sudan take turns narrating their perilous journeys from their home villages to new lives in the U.S. The structure is a little confusing--I lost track of who was who several times and had to keep turning back to check--but all three stories are remarkable.


BASEBALL, by George Vecsey. Paperback purchase. Part of the Modern Library series in which a writer tackles a seemingly boundless subject within the confines of a couple hundred pages. A salute to the author, who manages to include many of baseball's most beloved stories while including some I had never read or heard before. Favorite moment: a heartbreaking quote from Oscar Charleston, the great Negro Leagues batter who never got to play in the majors. "Just one swing," he said. Just one swing in the majors--that was all he wanted....



Coming soon: the full schedule of events for my West Coast tour!

If you are interested in reviewing books for the January and February issues of The Edge of the Forest, please let me know. I recently shipped out many review copies, but still have lots of great 2007 titles left. I'm ready to send out more books next week if you're interested. Here are the rules:

• Reviews will be published at The Edge of the Forest first. If you then want to publish them on your blogs you may either put a teaser up and link back on the day of publication, or publish the full review a week or so later with a link back to the Forest.
• I mostly publish reviews of recommended titles. If you really dislike a review copy I have forwarded on to you, you are welcome to donate the book to a library or give as a gift (no selling of review copies on ebay, etc.).
• Okay, those are the rules. Not too draconian, right?

There are new rules here at Big A little a. The first of these is no more review copies for this blog. I plan on reading and reviewing what I seek out in the future here.

There's always a caveat, however, and here it is: I'll still be accepting review copies for The Edge of the Forest. I'll be dealing with those review copies in the following way:

• Six times a year I'll send out packages of review copies to outside reviewers.
• I won't be keeping track of to whom each individual book was sent.
• Reviewers will review the books they love for the Forest and donate those they didn't.
• I will send review notifications if a review is published.
• I may review a book here or over at Book Buds, but my choices will be idiosyncratic.