Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 178
January 10, 2010
Top Ten Children's Novels Poll
Fuse #8 is looking for your top ten middle-grade children's books of all time. She's compiling another list along the lines of her Top Ten Picture Books Poll from last year:
Vote for your top ten middle grade books of all time (not just this year or last year) by 11:59 Eastern on January 31, 2010. This will NOT include young adult books (for kids 13 and up) or early readers (like Mr. Putter and Tabby or Frog and Toad Are Friends).
More details here. My brain is spinning at the notion of...
Delicious Links for January 10, 2010
Have resolved to make better use of my Delicious account to keep track of books I read about online and want to remember to check out. Such as:
The Miss Rumphius Effect: National Puzzle Month – Great Reads – "Here are some books and/or series that will encourage readers put on their thinking caps. Also included are links to related puzzling resources." I keep forgetting to check out Winston Breen. Flagging this post so I'll remember!A Year of Reading: Predicting the Caldecott and Newbery...January 9, 2010
Post It
A quick list of post topics I have in the hopper, lest I forget.
• the ways I use social media and how I might improve/streamline
• making chicken tikka masala and naan for the first time—so yummy!—and a couple of questions I have
• I have more to say about The Kitchen Madonna
• TBR pile crackdown
• kids' sewing books/kits—I never did do the series of reviews I was planning on this topic back in Lilting House days
• my favorite gardening literature
• I have such a great interview with author...
January 8, 2010
Kidlitosphere Happenings
1) It's time for the Comment Challenge! Combox discussions can be one of the best things about a blog, but I freely admit I am terrible, terrible, at clicking through from my reader to actually type out a comment. So often I'm reading while nursing the baby, or on the iPod (which, for all its fabulosity, is a serious pain to type on), and so I very seldom comment anywhere. Out loud. I am exceedingly chattery in my head. Your blogs provide such excellent discussion fodder! Well, for the next t...
You Know You Share Everything When…
…your husband begins a story with, "So I forgot to tell you about the cashier at 7-11."
January 7, 2010
Booknotes: The Kitchen Madonna
Gregory never forgot things—"He's like a small elephant," said Father—and a week later, while Gregory, Janet, and Marta were having tea in the kitchen, he took his chance. Marta had made a wonderful cake-tart of apricots glazed with jam and they had eaten and drunk and laughed. Marta's usually sallow cheeks were quite red; her eyes, which were often so dull, were bright. There was not a trace of sadness in the air until Gregory put down his cup and asked in his small, quiet way, "What did...
Books My Kids Have Asked Me to Read
Pronto, please.
Everything by Shannon Hale, starting with The Goose Girl. (I have read Hale's adult books, Austenland and The Actor and the Housewife.)
The Percy Jackson series—they have been after me to catch up on these for ages.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (book #2 in the series—you know how much I loved the first one).
The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle (and I think this was sent to me as a Library Thing review copy, so I really need to get on the stick).
Countless...
January 6, 2010
"Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree…"
Scott and I have decided to do a kind of book club with Jane, focusing at first on short stories. Today, having read the news story of the death of a man who survived the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I chose Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" as our first selection.
The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint. The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here...
All's Quiet at the Bird Feeder
Gee, I wonder why.
Blurry photo. Couldn't be helped. Baby tugging on arm, etc. This fellow was perched atop our back fence about three feet from the bird feeder. Later, Scott saw him plummet out of the sky into our bushes. Sorry, little sparrows.
January 4, 2010
Organization Fail
Because I have email addresses for both my married name and my pen name, I wound up with two Google Reader accounts, which of course got to be unwieldy and silly. So I merged them.
"RBJ" stands for "Rainbow Jane," which is a kind of quilt. So that makes, yes, FIVE handcrafts-related folders between two accounts. What is wrong with me??
Imagine if I stopped reading crafty blogs—with all that extra time I bet I could make something, like, say, a quilt.
