Mock Newbery Award Committee

Mock Newbery Award Committee
Originally uploaded by pmcbranson

Anxiously awaiting the announcement of the 2009 Newbery Award Winner.

Sunday Salon - selling Bibles

If I can stay awake long enough today, I hope to finish The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgarton. I love CE's books, favorites are Raney and Walking Across Egypt. If you're looking for humor, southern life-style, and a good read, you'll enjoy these books.

The Bible salesman, Henry, walks the roads of North Carolina selling Bibles and happens to meet up with Clearwater, a car thief. The story begins as Clearwater, offers Henry a job driving stolen cars. Of course, Henry has no idea and believes Clearwater works for the FBI and has just been offered an opportune job as his assistant. The drama continues and the humor escalates.

Clyde Edgarton reading an excerpt aloud.

The Last Lecture

... by Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch, computer science professor and father of three, is the author of this book. He was asked to give a Last Lecture at Carnegie Melon University just after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As fate would have it, his "last lecture" became a real last lecture.

His lecture became so popular because it was so inspirational and encouraged so many to follow their dreams. After the widespread popularity via Internet, appearances on Oprah, etc., he decided to write a book about his experience preparing for his lecture and his death. His story reveals his childhood dreams, and how he achieved them.

His book reveals his determination to spend what time he had left with his children and family sharing happy moments instead of sad, and to inspiring other people to live life to the fullest. His premise for his lecture was, "If I could leave a legacy for my children what would it be?" Thus, his lecture was about life not death.

Although a story of reflection to be shared with his children one day, his story also offers real life lessons that we all need to learn. As a college professor and teacher, he taught everyone that "your childhood dreams are possible to achieve." His story emphasizes the importance of being a dreamer and being happy. Go for your dreams and let the "brick walls" be a lesson in determination.

Sunday Salon

Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World...by Vickie Myron

A touching story about an "alley" cat that found a home in a small town library and became the love of the town. Dewey, a yellow, frozen, starved kitty was rescued from the public library book drop on one of Iowa's coldest days. He quickly became very attached, not only to the library staff, but to the entire community, just as they, also, developed a special bonding with him. It seems this little stray kitten saw the town and the library through 18 years of devastation, happiness, and changes and created a bond within the community that also brought fame and fortune to Spencer, Iowa. A wonderful story about how one small kitten affected so many lives.

Sunday Salon Again

I haven't had a chance to participate in weeks but, alas, I'm back. So far this morning, it's sleety and rainy so I'm staying in curled up with Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicky Myron. Lovely story so far but holding off checking out all the web info until I read more. But if you're interested, check out Dewey's job description and learn a bit more about him.

If you've read this book join me at Sunday Salon and share your opinions and reactions to Dewey...

Photo from website for Spencer Public Library

Yeah! A "Big Girl" Book!

I've been reading and reading, books that were published in the US during 2008 for the last forever! I've organized a Mock Newbery Award Committee and we've been reading pretty hard - it's vacation and I'm actually reading a "big girl" book! The Shack by William Young - a tough and not so cheery Christmas story.

The Shack is Mack (Mackenzie) Philips' story about how he has dealt with life during the time since his daughter was abducted during a family vacation. Her body was never found, however, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack that indicated she had been brutally murdered by a serial killer who preyed on young girls. As the story opens, Mack mysteriously receives a strange note that is apparently from God and is invited to return to this shack where his daughter was murdered. He visits the scene of the crime and there has experiences a encounter with God.

The Shack does exhibit good and bad and is a very touching story. With all the rave reviews, I expected so much more. It is a story needing to be told, but to compare it to some of the greatest works in literature, Pilgrim's Progress, mmmm... no, no way. Also, I find issues with the theological basis regarding the Trinity and other scriptural references, especially for someone that is new to Christianity.

Sunday Salon in Florence, Italy

I'm sitting on the deck, drinking hot Chai tea and recapping my reading today. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant has kept me captivated all afternoon. I did suspect that it would be a bit more detailed and harder to follow but I'm enjoying this one immensely. The book starts out with the most incredible, unbelievable... a nun with a Renaissance style tattoo. Mmmm... I'm thinking that's what's going but not real sure - we've left that scene totally and I'm just not sure where this is going.

Review from Reading Group Guides:

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.

But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola's reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.

The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain's most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

Going back in now to read some more! See you next Sunday.