Space Station Mir

See everyone's Top Ten Tuesday posts over at the Broke and the Bookish . Characters That Remind Me of Myself 1. Jo March from Little Women 2. Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time 3. Harriet from Harriet the Spy 4. Lena from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 5. Emily from Emily of New Moon Characters That Remind Me of Someone I Know in Real Life 1. Oscar from The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 2. Bridget from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 3. Ron Weasley from Harry Potter 4. Charlie Blackwell from American Wife and I'm out.

While I'm drooling over all the new books coming out this summer, this is more of a wish list than anything else. I'm about to start teaching my Reading and Writing Workshop, so I'll be re-reading the books for the course, as well as selections of poetry and short stories (If you have any ideas for the latter categories for rising third and fourth graders, I would be DELIGHTED to hear them). 1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth I can't believe I still haven't gotten to it yet! 2. The Queen's Lover by Francine du Plessix Gray I saw a review in the Washington Post about this new historical fiction from the point of view of Marie Antoinette's Swedish lover. 3. The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot My mom bought this for me, historical fiction about Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence, who married the kings of England and France respectively in the thirteenth century. 4. The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller This book got such great reviews and I often

20. The Dwarves by Markus Heitz The "sheer bloodymindedness" and "stubbornness" of dwarves is on display in this epic adventure starring fantasy's traditionally sidelined warriors. I never felt that the dwarves got fair billing. Even in The Hobbit , where they compose the majority of the characters, they're used either as an example of the corruption of riches or comic relief. Lord of the Rings , to its credit, does not use its one dwarf, Gimli, in either of those manners, but the movies do pigeonhole him into the comic role. So when I saw the title of Heitz's book, I knew I had to read it. Heitz's dwarves, the guardians of a set of kingdoms known as Girdlegard, are what everyone expects of dwarves-and more. He shows how dwarves' loyalty, determination, noted skills in fighting as well as the practical arts, from metalwork to masonry to diamond-cutting, make them heroes, worthy of the readers' sympathy and attention. He creates five d

19. Fables Vol 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham Sadly, I did not find the second volume as charming as the first. Animal Farm attempts to riff on the Orwell novel of the same name and on William Golding's Lord of the Flies , in my opinion, less than successfully. This story is darker and more grisly than the last. Its most redeeming quality, in my view, is its inclusion of some extremely obscure fairy tale characters; among my favorites, Weyland Smith. It's likely that more Fables will appear on my reading list, however, as they come recommended and supplied by a friend and have the virtue of being easily consumed in 1-2 hour sittings. In other news, I'm almost finished with The Dwarves and very excited to talk about it some more!

1. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger 2. Silver by Rhiannon Held 3. Gilt by Katherine Longshore 4. Graceling by Kristin Cashore 5. Divergent by Veronica Roth 6. Fable series by Bill Willingham (You could probably go through 2-3 per day) 7. Eragon books by Christopher Paolini 8. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares 9. A Year in the World by Frances Mayes 10. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld I've geared my list toward fun, light reading since I think that's essentially what "beach read" is shorthand for. However, I don't tend to read the type of books that are usually beach read fodder, like mysteries or romances or "chick lit" like Jodi Piccoult, Jennifer Weiner, or Sophie Kinsella. I've never read a book from either of the latter two and of Piccoult, I've read only My Sister's Keeper . I want to recommend something like Eat, Pray, Love -but I haven't read that either. I almost never go t

17. Graceling Finished listening to Graceling , re: last post. My thoughts didn't change too much-I like the world and the characters, but I also think they have much more potential than they're realizing. The exposition is really overdone and makes the plot sadly predictable in a way that's not okay because it's the type of book that's relying on plot to hold interest. The language is well done, but more simple than I would like at times. I'd recommend the book to teen girls, but it's nowhere near counting as SFF Lit. Personally, I'm interested in reading Bitterblue , but not necessarily Fire . 18. Silver by Rhiannon Held Silver was a quick read. I received it for review from Tor Original Paperbacks. Andrew Dare is the enforcer of the Roanoke pack, i.e. the werewolves living on the East Coast of the United States. He follows the trail of a lone Were to force her to explain herself and expel her from his pack's territory if necessary. The

It's Top Ten Tuesday rewind, so I picked an old topic I hadn't done before. If only there weren't so many other reasons not to have ten kids! 1. Eowyn from LOTR If I have a daughter, her first or middle name will be Eowyn. I love the way the name sounds. The suffix "wyn" means joy in Old English, and "Eo" means horse, representing the importance of horses to the Rohirrim. Eowyn is the strongest female character in Lord of the Rings , even more so than Arwen or Galadriel. She takes action into her own hands, in love and war. That's a legacy I'd want my kid to have. 2. Galadriel from LOTR Galadriel is such a beautiful name, in Elvish (specifically Sindarin), it means "maiden crowned with a radiant garland." I might give a daughter this name, although I've thought of having a dog named Galadriel for a long time too. 3. Madeleine L'Engle I would love to name a girl Madeleine after Madeleine L'Engle, author of some o

Recently Finished: 16. The Syndicate by Shelena Shorts I received the ARC for review at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. Vasi Petrescu is a member of an elite group called the Syndicate, which eliminates monsters called Hybrids that infect and take over human bodies. This is teen paranormal romance, emphasis on romance. Shorts is an author local to the DC area and this is her fourth book. Currently Listening To: Graceling by Kristin Cashore I took a looong road trip and we managed to go through nine of eleven discs. Gracelings are people born with special abilities, marked by two different colored eyes. In six of the seven kingdoms, the Graced are considered cursed and their abilities belong to the king, for his use or rejection. In the seventh kingdom, Lienid, the Graced are considered blessed and they belong to themselves. Katsa is the niece of Randa, king of the Midlands, and she has a very particular Grace-killing. Forced to do Randa's dirty work and feared throug