Teaser Tuesdays

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people [...]

LA Times Festival of Books and Bloggers!

This weekend I attended a super-fun two day event, the LA Times Festival of Books. That would have been exciting enough for a book geek like me, but what made it super-fun (as opposed to just regular fun) was getting to meet some of my blogger friends in real life.  What a treat! The plan [...]

The Film

The paper came home with the fourth grade girls yesterday- the one that says they’ll soon be watching “the film”. “Mom!  You have to sign this!  We’re going to see a film about growing up and I can’t watch it unless you sign!”  She is excited, of course.   My 4th grader is immature physically [...]

Review: The Mechanics of Falling by Catherine Brady

Title: The Mechanics of Falling and Other Stories Author: Catherine Brady ISBN: 9780874177633 Pages: 248 Release Date: February 28, 2009 Publisher: University of Nevada Press Genre: Short Stories, Contemporary Fiction From the publisher’s website: The stories in this collection explore those moments when the seemingly fixed coordinates of our lives abruptly give way – when [...]

Interview: Catherine Brady, author of The Mechanics of Falling

Today I welcome the lovely and talented Catherine Brady, author of The Mechanics of Falling and Other Stories (reviewed HERE).  I wanted to find out more about her after reading her outstanding collection of short stories, and she thoughtfully answered all of my nosy questions for your reading pleasure. BOTB: Where were you born and where [...]

A Kid’s Review: Slob by Ellen Potter

Slob by Ellen Potter Product Description from Amazon.com: Twelve-year-old Owen Birnbaum is the fattest kid in school. But he’s also a genius who invents cool contraptions— like a TV that shows the past. Something happened two years ago that he needs to see. But genius or not, there is much Owen can’t outthink. Like his [...]

Sunday Salon: Scenes from a Stay-cation

With the kids on spring break this week, I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done.  I reviewed one book (Shanghai Girls) and read another one (Foreign Tongue- not yet reviewed), but that was it. I did, however, have a blast with my girls!  We couldn’t go away (dad had to work) but it’s [...]

Jokesters

L:  Mom, you’re smart.  You’ll be able to get this.  It’s a 6th grade joke. Me:  Ok. L:  Take the F out of way. Me: (thinking for a sec).  There IS no F in way.  (The lightbulb comes on) Hey!  Wait a minute! L & K: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!  Get it?  Get it? [...]

Ready, Set, READ!

The 24 hour Read-a-Thon is in full swing!  Hour 3 is just beginning.  I’m participating as a cheerleader, so please note my unusually sunny and cheery tone!  Go, readers, go.. YOU CAN DO IT!  Give me an R!  Give me an E!  Give me an A!  Give me a D!  YAY!  (Cartwheel, back handspring, flip, [...]

Review: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is the tale of two sisters.   The book opens in Shanghai in 1937, where Pearl and May are “beautiful girls” who model for an artist and whose faces appear on calendars and advertisements selling everything from soap to cigarettes.  They make money, but it all goes into supporting their expensive [...]