Stop in the Name of Pants: Review Haiku

Oh, Georgia, Georgia,
you're so bloody boring now
and yet I can't stop.

Stop in the Name of Pants (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series) by Louise Rennison. Harper, 2008,

The Adoration of Jenna Fox: Review Haiku

Teen goes Anakin
in troubling look at modern
medical ethics.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Holt, 2008, 272 pages.

My Dad's a Birdman: Review Haiku

Gorgeous nonsense by
English geniuses with a
knack for flighty fun.

My Dad's a Birdman by David Almond, illustrated by Polly Dunbar. Candlewick, 2008, 115 pages.

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day: Review Haiku

Meet Allie Finkle:
what Meg Cabot sounded like
at nine, more or less.

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #1: Moving Day by Meg Cabot. Scholastic, 2008, 228 pages.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Currently on vacation, reading a lot and trying to stay mostly disconnected. Will post fairly regularly, but I'm pacing myself.

I Shall Not Want: Review Haiku

Clare and Russ at last
get hot under the collar.
Packs a holy punch.

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming. St. Martin's, 2008, 336 pages.

Lock and Key: Review Haiku

What is family?
The ones who leave, or the ones
you won't leave behind?

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2008, 422 pages.

No Talking: Review Haiku

Typical Clements:
Thoughtful kids, complex teachers,
lessons learned at end.

No Talking by Andrew Clements. S&S, 2007, 146 pages.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes: Review Haiku

Crutcher's classic shows
lots of ways to be ugly --
and brave and kind, too.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow, 1993, 216 pages. #38 on The LIST.

Big Read, Big Books quiz

I have the feeling I've taken this or a very similar quiz before, but as [expletive] United Airlines ruined my plans to go home for my uncle's funeral yesterday (and consequently make a little progress on the reading front along the way), I have nothing new to post. So a tip of the bloggy hat to Sarah Miller, from whom I shamelessly swiped this list.

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list. The instructions: Look at the list and:

• Bold those you have read.
• Italicize those you intend to read.
• Underline the books you LOVE.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Great American Novel #1)
6. The Bible (I actually did read the whole damn thing in college.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (Most depressing book EVER.)
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (Okay, I have not read Cymbeline or Troilus and Cressida, but pretty much everything else.)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (taught it; and let me tell ya how much my 12th graders loved it when I read the "f*** you" part at the end)
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Great American Novel #2)
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens (gaaaaak)
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I gave you two weeks of my life with Anna Frakking Karenina, and that's all you get)
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (tried; failed)
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (train couldn't come fast enough)
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (counting this since I read #36 below)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (would you like some allegory with your tea, missus?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (tried; failed)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (read once; on The LIST to read again)
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan (got through 50 pages and wanted to throw it across the room)

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (on The LIST)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (read once; on The LIST to read again)
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (get a job, loser)
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (I take that back: THIS is the most depressing book ever.)
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (HATE)
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White (Great American Novel #3)
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (silflay hraka, my 10th grade English teacher)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (not part of #14?)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I got 53, with 9 intentions. Not bad.

Little Brother: Review Haiku

Government gone wild!
Terrifying take on tech,
terror, and freedom.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Tor, 2008, 382 pages.

The Mouse and His Child: Review Haiku

A clockwork fam'ly
braves villains, defeats, and time
to find their true home.

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban, illustrated by David Small. Levine/Scholastic, 2001, 244 pages. Originally published 1967.

#37 on The LIST.

Swindle: Review Haiku

The Man with the Plan
makes vigilante justice
a group effort. Score!

Swindle by Gordon Korman. Scholastic, 2008, 252 pages.

P.S. Yankees suck.

Pitch Perfect: Review Haiku

Doopsie drama rocks!
But Rapkin wears his contempt
on his snarky sleeve.

Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin. Gotham, 2008, 275 pages.

P.S. Seriously, did no one read this book? "Competetion"? "Songrwriters"? "Cecilia" spelled two different ways IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH?

How to Build a House: Review Haiku

House as metaphor:
When your foundation crumbles,
it's time to rebuild.

How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt. Lamb/Random, 2008, 227 pages.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake: Review Haiku

Sedaris with boobs:
Crosley riffs on ponies, locks,
evil butterflies.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. Riverhead, 2008, 230 pages.

The Titan's Curse: Review Haiku

Fight evil monsters,
ride cross-country, save the world:
All in a day's work.

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) by Rick Riordan. Hyperion, 2007, 320 pages.

The Book of Vice: Review Haiku

Sagal lets readers
indulge in naughty pasttimes
vicariously.

The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) by Peter Sagal. Harper, 2007, 254 pages.

Predictably Irrational: Review Haiku

Ec 10 meets Psych 101.
Think you know why you
do things? Think again.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. Harper, 2008, 280 pages.

Still alive

I spent most of my reading time this week doing work reading, so I don't have too much to blog about. I did finish two books over the weekend, so I'll post haiku (haikus? I can't believe I don't know the plural of this) on them soon.

Spent the weekend doing Stereotypical Fun Suburban Boston Family Things and, truly, having a damn fine time. Took the kids to Tanglewood to see A Prairie Home Companion (though they would surely assert that we took them there to run around and around and around the lawn and play in the rain); then took them downtown to ride the swan boats and see the duckling statues. Then, swimming! Then, ice cream! I am the Greatest Mommy Ever.

More soon . . .

Once again, she's been spying in my house

http://www.sundrymourning.com/2008/06/20/life-as-usual/

Annie on My Mind: Review Haiku

Groudbreaking when it
first came out; fortunately,
it feels dated now.

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden. FSG, 1982, 233 pages.

#36 on The LIST.

The Odyssey: Review Haiku

If I hear "the child
of morning, rosy-fingered
dawn" one more time, I'll . . .

The Odyssey by Homer (maybe). 8th century BC (ish). Listened to on a Playaway device.

#35 on The LIST.

Fearless Fourteen: Review Haiku

How do you know when
sumer is ycumen in?
Stephanie shows up.

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin's, 2008, 310 pages.

P.S. "Excrutiating"? "Garbonzo"?

Peeled: Review Haiku

Bauer's primer on
journalism starts clunkily,
but gets better.

Peeled by Joan Bauer. Putnam, 2008, 248 pages.

Forever Rose: Review Haiku

The true measure of
family is its handling
of life's messiness.

Forever Rose by Hilary McKay. McElderry/S&S, 2008, 291 pages.

P.S. Finally got my haiku shirt. I heart it (though the text lies oddly in my armpits).

Bonk: Review Haiku

Roach takes prurient
interest in the science of
sex. Twelve-year-olds cheer.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. Norton, 2008, 319 pages.

Favorite Authors Meme

I've been tagged by The Bookworm for the Favorite Authors Meme.

Here are the rules:
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your blog, answer the questions, and tag four people in your post. Don't forget to let the tagees know they were tagged, so leave a comment on their blog! And remember to let your tagger know that your entry is posted.

1. Who's your favorite all-time author, and why?
I suppose I should be a good English major and say Shakespeare. He sort of defines "all-time," no?
2. Who was your first favorite author, and why?
A tie between Judy Blume and Ellen Raskin, since they wrote my two favorite childhood books, Superfudge and The Westing Game, respectively.
3. Who's the most recent edition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Emily Jenkins. She is my best example of kick-ass picture book voice in my writers'-conference workshops.
4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, what would pop out of your mouth?
E. L. Konigsburg. Mo Willems. Harper Lee. Lois Lowry. Joan Bauer. David Sedaris. Mimi Smartypants. Susan Beth Pfeffer. Andrew Sullivan. Janet Evanovich. And countless others I can't think of right now, I'm sure.

I tag:
Librarian Mom
Mindy at propernoun.net
Adrienne
Liz B at ACAFATC

Pride and Prejudice: Review Haiku

Two blowhards meet cute
in Austen's classic rom-com.
Paging Colin Firth . . .

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Vintage, originally published 1813, 368 pages. #34 on The LIST. Listened to on a Playaway.

48-Hour Lack of Challenge

So it is becoming painfully clear that I will not be able to participate in this weekend's 48-Hour Book Challenge. I was all set to do it, and then suddenly I realized I have two birthday parties, a three-hour alumni sing, a Youth Sunday rehearsal, and . . . oh, right, two children under 5 and a husband who said (politely) HELL TO THE NO when I mentioned it to him.

But! I am going to try instead to use the month of June as a Read A Whole Heckuva Lot Month. So far it is . . . uh, not going so well (Pride and Prejudice, why are you so long?), but I'll get there, I'm sure. I have the new Joan Bauer and the new Hilary McKay and Bonk and a handful of books from The LIST, and I'm determined to get through them all. Plus I have The Odyssey waiting on Playaway whenever Elizabeth Bennett stops TALKING DEAR GOD THE ENDLESS TALKING and marries Darcy, for frak's sake.

See you soon and often.

Then We Came to the End: Review Haiku

Moments of brilliance,
but who needs four hundred pages
of real, drab life?

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. Little Brown, 2007, 400 pages.

Trouble: Review Haiku

A worthy story,
sure, but the messages are
subtle as mountains.

Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion, 2008, 297 pages.

J. Edgar Hoover: Review Haiku

An accessible
intro to a sad, weird man.
Ten kinds of awesome.

J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography by Rick Geary and Andrew Helfer. Hill & Wang, 2008, 102 pages.

How to Steal a Dog: Review Haiku

The best-laid plans of
hard-luck girls sometimes fail for
all the right reasons.

How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor. FSG, 2007, 176 pages.

Certain Girls: Review Haiku

Helicopter mom
must learn to step the [bleep] off.
Great summer reading.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. Atria, 2008, 400 pages.

Clementine's Letter: Review Haiku

Darling Clementine
learns the power of the pen.
I can't get enough.

Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker. Hyperion, 2008, 150 pages.

Birthday Meme of Five

So, uh, last week kinda sucked. On Sunday I had my recital (which was awesome; no suckage); Monday I took the Boy in for tubes surgery (went well; he is chipper and infection-free but still speaks no English); Wednesday we found out Chloe was dying (sucked); Friday we put her down (SUCKED).

And now today's my birthday! Yeah . . . I won't tell you how old I am, but if I make it through this year I will be Older Than Jesus.

Regular posting will resume soon, but for now, Els of Librarian Mom has tagged me with the Meme of Five. Here it is:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?
Working at my current job (same place, lesser title) and convinced that I would never get pregnant. Probably painting some room of the house. Seldom covered in miscellaneous food droppings/smearings.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
1. FIND BABYSITTER FOR TOMORROW NIGHT'S SOX GAME gaaaah.
2. Finish two freelance jobs.
3. Create database for high school reunion registrations.
4. Write agenda for college choir foundation annual meeting (my last one as president!)
5. Write haikus for two upcoming posts.

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. The discontinued, then happily revived, then sadly discontinued White Cheddar Pringles.
2. Girl Scouts Caramel DeLites.
3. My own chocolate chip cookies.
4. Stacy's Parmesan Garlic and Herb pita chips.
5. Caffeine-free Pepsi.

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Give tons of money to my church, Habitat for Humanity, my choir foundation, the Harvard Crimson, the college fund, public radio and television, microfinance groups like Kiva, and so forth.
2. Redo my kitchen and upstairs bathroom. Vile mold, be gone!
3. Buy my husband a BMW.
4. Go shopping and buy things that aren't even on sale.
5. Hire a housekeeper, because I am a dirty, dirty person. (Although I suppose if I am a billionaire the housekeeper goes without saying.)

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Procrastination (known as "noodling" when it involves the computer).
2. Laziness.
3. Parking too close to my husband's truck in our driveway.
4. Stubbornness.
5. Impatience.

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Rock Island, IL
2. Cambridge, MA
3. Syracuse, NY
4. Jersey City, NJ
5. Bedford, MA

What are five jobs you've had?
1. Box office rep ("boxie")
2. Substitute teacher
3. Newspaper intern, features
4. Literary agency assistant
5. Editor

I now tag five people who have commented here in the past, or whose blogs I've commented on in the past.
Sarah Miller at Reading, Writing, Musing . . .
Miss Erin
Camille at BookMoot (she may still be on hiatus)
Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day
Fiona at Books 'n' Rocks

Too sad to read.

Chloe Wood Schuttler Mitchell. May 1, 1995 -- May 16, 2008. Guileless, fearless, possibly brainless; the sweetest sweetie beagle I've ever known.

The house is way too quiet. And the floor is full of dropped food bits. And I won't be reading #53 on The LIST any time soon.

I've been tagged for the Meme of Five, which I'll do sometime next week. But not today.

Shameless self-promotion!

If you are in the Boston area and are desperately looking for something nice to do for and/or with your mom this Sunday, why not come hear me sing?

I'll be performing "Girlhood, Womanhood, Wifehood, Motherhood: A Recital for Mother's Day" on Sunday, May 11, at 2:00pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bedford, MA. The recital features favorite showtunes from past and present, all revolving around common experiences of women everywhere. It's about an hour long and should be a lot of fun. (Provided I don't forget the lyrics.) A freewill offering will be taken, with all proceeds benefiting Relay for Life, a program of the American Cancer Society.

If that is not incentive enough, please note that I will be wearing a turquoise, 1950s-era prom dress.

Hope to see you there!

And the Chinese comment spam is back

Oh, well. I'll just ignore it unless it becomes a real problem.

My Most Excellent Year: Review Haiku

It's so giddily
unbelievable, you can't
help but fall in love.

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger. Dial, 2008, 403 pages.

P.S. "Ramon Garciaparra" (p253)? Ahem.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors: Review Haiku

Should I review this
one, or just sit back and have
a cup of bush tea?

The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. Pantheon, 2008, 224 pages.

Waiting for Normal: Review Haiku

Another deadbeat
mother story, but Addie's
worth your sympathy.

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor. Harper, 2008, 290 pages.

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched and Big Boned: Review Haiku

Two women, one voice:
One solves crimes, one makes dresses.
Oh, Meg, I heart you.

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot. Avon, 2008, 288 pages (read as ARC).
Big Boned by Meg Cabot. Avon, 2007, 280 pages.

The elements of story, as understood by the Munchkin

Scene: We're in the car, on the way to the mall for dinner. (Daddy's in Germany. What do you want from me?) We pull into the drive-through bank to get some money. The Munchkin spies the stack of deposit envelopes.

Munchkin: Mommy! I need one of those!
Me: Uh, okay. [give her envelope]
Munchkin: I need a pen! I need a pen to write a story!
Me: Not in the car. It's hard to write when the car is moving. Wait till we get to the mall.
Munchkin: I NEED A PEN!
[repeat last two lines ad infinitum as we drive]

Scene: Arrival at Sears. We get ten feet into the store.
Munchkin: I need a pen to write a story!
Me: Fine.
[Give Munchkin pen. She sits down at patio furniture display and begins to write.]
Munchkin: "How do you spell 'fish'?"
[Go through spelling rigamarole: "Well, what letter says /fffff/?" Munchkin scribbles, then finishes with flourish and hands me envelope.]
Munchkin: "Now you write 'for school.' At the bottom!"
[I do. Munchkin folds envelope in half, in vague approximation of book fold.]

Munchkin: "See? There's my book! READ IT!"

Here, in its entirety, is the Munchkin's book.

We needed a fish for school.

I've got to hand it to her -- it's got all the classic elements of story.
Characters: "We"
Plot: "needed a fish"
Setting: "for school"
Tension: Why do they need a fish? Is it an assignment? A class pet? A secret password?

I'm telling you, she's got Newbery written all over her.

The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower: Review Haiku

Crime and punishment
for an innocent mark turned
collaborator.

The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower by Lisa Graff. Harper/Geringer, 2008, 250 pages.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: Review Haiku

Lockhart rocks again:
Eat your heart out, Skull and Bones --
Frankie's got you beat.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

Show me the way to go home

I'm waiting in the Dallas airport for my flight home. TLA was fun; I liked Dallas, everyone I met was nice, and I scored a bunch of great galleys, which I'll surely review in the weeks to come. (I even met a fan of this blog!)

Thanks to all the librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers, and others I met this week. Yee-ha.

Bird Lake Moon: Review Haiku

So many ways to
lose someone; an honest look
at grief, and summer.

Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow, 2008, 192 pages. To be published in May.

TLA note: Last night a bunch of publishers hosted a cocktail party. Kevin Henkes was one of the guests, and at one point he was just a few feet away from me, in a knot of people. I was pretty sure I recognized him, but I wasn't positive it was he, and his arm was holding a drink in such a way that I couldn't see his nametag. Not two seconds later, a fearless librarian walked over, bent her torso ninety degrees, stood up, and reported back to her cluster of friends, "Yep. It's him." Hee.

Dallas: First impressions

Good God, everyone is so . . . nice. It's like I'm back home in the Midwest. And the streets are so wide, and there's so much sky, and did I mention everyone is nice?

Day 1 of my TLA was busy and long, but good. Anastasia and Mitali signed for us, and I met many lovely librarians. The highlight, however, was definitely the Book Cart Drill Team finals. Most impressive.

Thank you, Dallas, for a lovely 24 hours.

Princess Ben: Review Haiku

Empowering or
sexist? Fresh or typical?
I can't quite decide.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. HMCo, 2008, 344 pages.

Ellie McDoodle: Review Haiku

Have pen, will travel:
Very basic plotline, but
charming nonetheless.

Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel by Ruth McNally Barshaw. Bloomsbury, 2007, 170 pages.

I am a dash

. . . which is extra funny if you know that I call my freelance editorial business "EMdash." Get it? Ha! (Okay, "ha.") And that part about money just made me pee my pants a little bit.

You Are a Dash

Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. You're often busy doing something interesting, and what you do changes quickly. You have many facets to your personality, and you connect them together well. You have a ton of interests. While some of them are a bit offbeat, they all tie together well. You friends rely on you to bring novelty and excitement to their lives. (And while you're the most interesting person they know, they can't help feeling like they don't know you well.) You excel in: Anything to do with money You get along best with: the Exclamation Point

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Happy Blogiversary to Me: Birthday Haiku

Two years old today!
Hand over cake before I
start throwing tantrums.

Good Lord, I made it through another year. Thank you for your eyeballs and your comments. It has been fun to expand my circle of professional friends without leaving the comfort of my chair, and doubly fun to put faces to names, when I've met some of you at various conferences this past year.

Last year I set a goal to read or re-read 53 classics (or classics-to-be) in adult and children's literature, fiction and nonfiction. That goal, it seems, was laughably unreachable: I got through over half of them, but am nowhere close to the end of The LIST. Yet, undaunted, I press on: I'll just keep reading 'em till I'm done.

I am off tomorrow to Dallas for the Texas Library Association conference, a whirlwind four days that may involve very large hats and/or the adoption of "ma'am" as a speech tic. If you're there, stop by booth #1534 and say hi. I'll be the one in the Unshelved t-shirt.

FOUR: Birthday Haiku

My little princess:
She'll outpester any pest,
but she's still damn cute.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street: Review Haiku

Emergency MOPS:
Please, oh please, can I be a
Penderwick sister?

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall. Knopf, 2008, 320 pages.

Father Knows Less: Review Haiku

Bill Cosby once asked,
"Why is there air?" This guy tries
to find real answers.

Father Knows Less, Or "Can I Cook My Sister?": One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son's Most Baffling Questions by Wendell Jamieson. Putnam, 2007, 258 pages.

A Confederacy of Dunces: Review Haiku

Pulitzer classic,
but all I kept thinking was,
"Christ, what an asshole."

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. LSU Press, 1980, 416 pages.

#33 on The LIST.

Dude, it's like you're in my house

This, my friends, is why I don't stay at home full-time. Amen, sister.