Sweeping clean

 As we get very close to saying good-bye to 2014, let me just say that I'm not sad to see it go.  It has been a challenging year to say the least.  My husband was treated for throat/tonsil cancer and is still battling to recover from his treatments.  No sooner was he up and about when I fell and rolled my foot, an injury that put me on crutches and in a boot for most of the last two-and-a-half months.  Work was always a great escape, but I felt that I was never fully there from April on.

There were some great things about the year, too.  I was awarded the outstanding alumni award from the University of South Carolina from which I received my Master's in Library and Information Sciences.  One of the best things that has ever happened to me.  I am eternally grateful for that opportunity.  It was a gift from my mother and I try to use it wisely.  I am very lucky to be in a library that is beautiful, has an incredible staff, has an engaged board, and has impressive support from the community.  With the way things are currently, all I can say is life is good.

So, as we sweep 2014 out the door, let's do a bit of catching up.  First of all, I realized that I never announced the winner of this year's Maine Reader's Choice Award.  It was not a surprise at all that Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch walked away with the honors.  She certainly had a tremendous success with this novel and I loved it.  Let's just hope it's not another ten years before the appearance of her next book. 



Even before the voting was finished for the 2014 award we began working on the 2015 entries.  As chairman of the selection committee (a new twist for this year), it was an honor to work with four other fabulous readers.  We worked hard to acquire books, read a meaningful portion of each book, and select 25 to go on to the full committee.  Phew!  That was hard, but very pleasurable, work.  Check out the 2015 Long List and get reading.  I'm very proud of the books we've chosen.  There are a few sleepers there that should have made a few "best of 2014" lists.  My favorite read of the year?  While that's like asking me to pick my favorite child, I'm going to be bold and say the absolute best book that I read this year was.........The Free by Willy Vlautin.  It's an impressive novel that focuses on the rather sad lives of three people who just really can't seem to catch a break - or can they? Mix in a bit of science fiction, a few comments about our current world, and a bit of a chance of redemption and you'll find an entralling read that you just really don't want to end.  It doesn't seem to be too popular with the general readership, but a few of our committee members certainly have been impressed by it.  Could it be the proverbial dark horse?

 

 

Overall my reading didn't come close to matching last year's numbers, but I'm sure that will change for 2015.  I've got lots of award reading to do to help whittle the list down to the finalists.  There are a lot of great books on the counter that are calling me!

 

 

 

So, let's get ready to usher that New Year in!  What better way to celebrate than with the assistance of one of my favorite online feline friends.  Join Lil Bub and me in saying "Welcome 2015!"

 

 





The Finalists!!!!

This year the Maine Readers' Choice Award committee has picked four - yes, four! - finalists for the award.  I consider these finalists the best from our short list.  What stands out for me this year is how important a sense of place is for all the books...Ireland, New York, Las Vegas, and rural Colorado.  In each novel the setting contributes a great deal to the story.  The characters range from the very likable to the very sympathetic to the despicable.  That what makes reading such an adventure!

For those of you who choose to participate in this year's award you have a wonderful array of books.  They're books that can be read at the beach, at night, at lunch (although it will be hard to put them down to go back to work!), at a slow pace, or at a more frenetic pace so you can get to the end.  I also highly recommend two of them as audio books, as that's how I read them.  They're long, but the reader makes the adventure so enjoyable.

Transatlantic by Colum McCann takes you from Canada during the early days of airplanes to modern-day Northern Ireland where George Mitchell is negotiating the Good Friday Peace Accord.  Along the way Frederick Douglass, the African-American statesman, drops in for a visit.  As always, McCann weaves together (or in this case, think of a knitted multi-patterned Irish sweater) diverse tales.  This time the thread that binds is a letter sent on that early Transatlantic flight from Canada.  It's absolutely wonderful.



The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, her first novel in ten years, has captured a number of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.  It's a major work of more than 700 pages that tells the story of a young New York teen who loses his mother when the art museum they're visiting is the target of a terrorist bombing.  As young Theo Decker leaves the museum alone, he takes with him a very rare painting that then becomes the anchor of the novel.  Theo drifts from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York through the next ten or fifteen years.  He is lost and alone, despite surrounding himself with a number of characters that have strong emotional ties to him.  But, it's always the painting that takes some role in the story to move it along.  Lots of unlikeable and curious characters combine to give the book the twists and turns that make it so successful. This is one of the books that I listened to and the reader is excellent.



Kent Haruf's Benediction is a return to the small Colorado plains town of Holt, the setting for his Plainsong and Eventide novels.  Once again the book tells the tale of a close-knit community dealing with life, death, triumphs, and disappointments.  The focus is on the family of "Dad" Lewis, who is dying of cancer.  Woven into the story are a daughter who returns home to care for her father after a disappointing love affair, an estranged son, the dutiful wife, and some very interesting townsfolk - young and old.  As always, Haruf's writing style is simple, languid, and descriptive without going overboard.  You have characters to root for and others to wish away.  This is an extraordinary novel about very ordinary people, which makes it such a beautiful read.



I'm not sure if I would recommend reading or listening to Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni.

It's a magical tale of a Jewish golem and an Arab jinni who both arrive in New York City at the very end of the 19th Century.  Each has their own history and secrets that they must carry with them.  While their mythological origins - she of clay, he of fire - are direct opposites and reflect their characters so well, this is a really an immigrant story.  They both have their struggles  with adapting to their surroundings in their new worlds, despite the attachment to their respective ethnic neighborhoods.  For me, this is the novel where location plays the biggest role.  It provides such a rich background for the story.  Wecker's imagination is marvelous and her writing style brings that imagination to life.  I listened to the audio with George Guidall as the narrator.  He does a fine job with the characters' voices.  It's like having a wonderful bedtime story read to you each time you settle in to listen.

  

I could not have been happier with our finalist list.  It seems to me that 2013 brought forth an extraordinary number of excellent reads.  Our committee considered more than 130 books for the award.  The twenty members were divided into 5 teams.  Each team read just about 25 books.  From there each team recommended two for the short list.  I'm proud to say that TransAtlantic came from our team, The T-ettes, which included Sally Leahey and Renee DesRoberts, both of the McArthur Library in Biddeford, and Maine author/playwright Monica Wood.  With Monica's cat, Miss Minnie, by our side as our mascot, we had lively debates about which books to bring forward - all supplemented by chocolate, cheese, and wine.  Our other recommendation was Visitation Street - another novel where a major character is the setting.  This is a gritty read involving the mystery of a missing girl.  When you're done with the finalists, make sure you add that to your reading list.

As we wait for the public to start reading and sending in their votes, rest assured that we're already on the hunt for outstanding 2014 novels!

My Best of 2013 in the Year of the Unlikable Characters

It has been a great year for reading, fueled mostly by serving on the Maine Reader's Choice Award (MRCA)committee. A notable year for the number of books that I read.  A notable year for the number of books that featured despicable characters who made the books so likable.  Hats off to the authors who accomplished this feat. I feel sorry for those readers who don't appreciate great talent, giving books bad reviews because they didn't like the characters.

As I look back on my lengthy list, I realize that creating a "best of" list for this year isn't an easy task.  Memorable characters, memorable writing, memorable settings and more. So, here's my best effort - no particular order.

This is the book that deserves to be first on the list - Wiley Cash's debut novel, A Land More Kind than Home, which won the inaugural MRCA.  It's a masterfully written book that follows a young boy as he deals with the death of his mentally challenged brother, his mother's relationship with a less than respectable pastor, and the destruction of his family.  The story is told through three voices with perfect harmony.

Kevin Powers' Iraqi war novel, The Yellow Birds, is the book that I voted number one for the MRCA. Powers, a well known poet and war veteran, deals with the aftermath of one soldier's tour of duty in Iraq. Thrown together by the fate of their assignments, two young privates forge a deep friendship, which when destroyed by the war leaves an indelible loss, the inability to overcome the guilt of that loss, and the long-lasting effects of the soldiers' unfortunate circumstances.  The prose is of such a high quality that it brings the telling of a very tragic story to a high level of insight into the book's characters and sense of place.  Some reviewers have used "classic" in their reviews and, in this case, it is certainly appropriate.  The book opens with a line that is most memorable...."The war tried to kill us in the spring." 

Ah, this is the book that hands down wins the despicable characters.  Another MRCA book, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl tells the macabre story of a woman's disappearance and her husband's suspected responsibility for her disappearance.  A very well-crafted story that brings about strong reaction to the characters.  I mostly listened to the book and every night after my commute I'd come home and tell my husband, who had already read the book, how much I hated Nick.  He would get this wry smile on his face and just tell me to keep reading.  Then, I'd come home and say, "I hate Amy."  Again and again I was admonished to keep reading. The end of the book finally came and it offered no solution to the situation. Rottenness through and through. A great psychological thriller that will leave you fuming.

Speaking of despicable characters, here's another book populated with less-than-likable characters...very well-populated.  It's J. K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy.  I don't think there was a single character in the book that had any redeeming qualities - from the youngest to the oldest.  The novel features a small English town that is riled by some Internet hacking. The suspicions of who is doing the hacking grow as do the bad acts of the residents. From the youngest to the oldest the outcomes are sad.  The novel is very well written and it's unfortunate that so many find it unreadable because of the bad nature of its characters.

The faster I go, the behinder I get...........

Okay, okay. I realize that it's been way too long since I posted. Between work, reading obligations, fun, and housework, this blog always seems to be the last to get any attention. Siggggghhhhhhhh.

I've been kept busy reading for the 2014 Maine Readers' Choice Award. This year we divided into five teams and read about 25 books per team. That's a lot of reading. Our team was great!  Thank you, Sally Leahey, Renee DesRoberts, and Monica Wood.  We worked well together (aided by a glass of wine or two...and chocolate, of course!) and had some fun yet serious discussions. It was a very unique book discussion group.  Of the books that our team (affectionately known as "The T-ettes") read we recommended Colum McCann's TransAtlantic and Visitation Street by Ivy Pochada for the semi-finalist list. They are both excellent reads.  McCann's novel is wonderful history-based story that spans the 1860's to the late 1990's with great historical figures playing prominent roles in the story.  Pochada set her nove in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood and the location is a prominent character in the story.  I'm very proud that we recommended these two.  There were other great literary novels on our list, too; but, we felt that these excellently written books would have broad appeal to all readers.

In the midst of all the "required" (read that as really being "privileged") reading, I did manage to finish a couple of other books, too., including Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts.  As a YA read, three teenagers find themselves dealing with issues of family, friendship, loss, and love as all await the arrival of a possible world-ending asteroid.  While the looming destruction takes a back seat to the immediate concerns of the teens, it's a great backdrop that moves the story along.  This is a well-written book of YA angst. The characters and their issues are not out of the ordinary, but the asteroid threat gives the novel the twist that it needs to make it successful. I'd recommend it to all teens, especially for a book discussion group.  Adults should take notice, too. (An advance readers copy was provided by the publisher.)

I am trying to discipline myself to listen to an audio book on my commute home.  It all depends on the mood and my ability to pay attention late in the day.  I had heard good buzz about The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. It neither wowed nor disappointed. I was impressed by how up-to-date their time frame was - well into 2013.  I think I expected more analysis, though.  At times it seemed that it was a mere recitation of bad behavior that was dealt with in ways that you might expect when you're talking about big-time college football programs and stars. The focus of the book seemed to be Mike Leach and his journey through the college coaching ranks. Others are examined (Nick Sabin among them) and their stories are very interesting.  A number of football programs are put under the microscope (Notre Dame included) and some of the reporting is eye-opening, especially with regard to how some schools have bought their way into national prominence.  It was worth the time invested.  It kept my attention without distracting from my driving. It actually made me think about my affection for and interest in college sports.

There are a few more that deserve reviews here, but it's time for more MRCA reading and maybe a little housework..........then it's back to the stacks:

After Life........

Here is the promised follow up to my original post about this book. I finished it last week and I still don't know what I think of it.  It continues to get rave reviews but overall it left me somewhat disenchanted.  I greatly admire Atkinson's writing and the concept of the story but it was just so hard to listen to parts of the story over and over again.  At times it was a case of "enough already!"  The stories within the stories were often based on occurrences that you were already entirely familiar with.  There was just a small twist to the section that brought about a different ending. It got more than a bit tedious toward the end.

The author does attempt to tie things together in the final chapter.  She hints at a reason for there being a "life after life" but there's no real resolution.  Can you say "reincarnation?" Can you really rely on that final chapter?  Can you pick your own ending? 

In reading over my reaction to the book, I feel like I tried as hard as I could to love this book, like so many others. I just couldn't.  Am I glad I finished it?  You bet.  Will I read another Atkinson novel?  You bet. Will it be on a lot of "best of 2013" lists?  You bet.

Double DUH!

Okay, it's been a long time since I've written a good old fashioned rant here.  Just within the last couple of days, I've come across some really stupid corporate moves.  Here goes.........

I left my job with the State of Maine at the end of June.  I was eligible for COBRA benefits, which I thought I was going to need.  Much to my delight I was covered by my new library's policy after just a week.  Thank goodness.  Why?  Because I just received a letter from the State, dated August 22nd, about picking up COBRA.  Well, that's a little late, ain't it?  Hello.........almost two months have gone by.  Oh, and the best part???!!!???  I had to respond by JULY 15th to prevent my benefits from being dropped.  (I will be honest and say that if I had really needed the coverage, I would have been on the phone bugging them about it long before the 22nd of August.) No wonder bureaucracies and bureaucrats get such a bad rep. DUH.

Ineptitude is not limited to state agencies.  We got a call a couple of weeks ago from Downeast Energy, who has been our oil/propane company for several years.  They wanted to know if we had gotten our quote for this year's contract.  I called them back on the 22nd (was there something in the water that day???? See above.) and they said they would send something along.  They never said when and they never gave any sense of urgency to the request.  I picked up the mail on the 24th and there wasn't anything from them.  I didn't pick up the mail again until the 29th and there is a letter with our quote telling us that the offer was only good for TWO days.  Um, it took longer than that for the letter to get to us and I had no need to pick up the mail between then and Thursday.  I called the company and they told me that they would probably honor the price (the CSA said that prices are changing every day....) if I mailed them a check right away, which I did.  If an offer is only good for TWO days, don't ya think ya should tell people when you're on the phone with them?!?!  DUH!

The End Is Near.....

What would you do if you knew that the world might end in the next week as an asteroid capable of destroying the earth was heading your way?  For three teens connected to an island off the Massachusetts coast they are less concerned about the end of the world than they are about figuring out their place in the world.  Zan is dealing with the death of her boyfriend.  Caden is dealing with his relationship with his parents, especially his absentee father.  Sienna is dealing with her mental health issues and family situation.  Boyfriend, family, and sanity just about covers all the issues that teens face all the time - at least the teens that I've talked with and read about.  (All that's missing is school.)

This is a YA debut novel by Alexandra Coutts that should have a somewhat broad appeal.  The characters are interesting as is their relationship to one another.  Toward the end there is a connection that brings the three stories together - more than just the asteroid.

I normally don't make time to read YA, but there was something in the premise of this book that drew me in.  It was a good break from all the adult fiction that I've been concentrating on.  I liked the girls' stories but found Caden's too shallow.  I didn't like certain ways in which his father tried to reach out to him to make up for lost time (one approach in particular left me saying, "Really??????), but I guess when you're down to one week, you really try to cover all the bases (Ouch - bad baseball and sexuality reference). The asteroid should have been an important additional character but it wasn't and the book could have been written without it for the most part.  Overall, a good break and I'm sure that many of the teens who read this will enjoy it.

I  think this author has potential and I would definitely give her another go-around.

This is based on an advanced reader's copy that I received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) through NetGalley.  Thank you both.




If you don't get it right the first time......

I am having a total love/hate relationship with Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. The story focuses on Ursula Todd, born in England on a stormy winter's night in 1910.  She dies at birth.....or does she?  Well, she does and she doesn't.  Ursula is born again, but then she drowns as a young child...or does she?  Well, she does and she doesn't.  Ursula is saved, but then she's raped in a back stairwell by her brother's American friend.  She has an illegal abortion, develops and infection and dies....or does she?  Then there's the abusive husband who tracks her down and bludgeons her to death....or does he? Can you see the pattern here?  Along comes WWII and Ursula dies in London in the Blitz and she dies in Berlin...or does she? Atkinson keeps brining back Ursula, not from the brink of death, but never really letting her die - she is always in different circumstances.  The characters that share the story with Ursula never change, it's just Ursula who lives out what seems to be cat-like nine lives.

Ursula is always a member of the same family - Hugh, Sylvie, Pamela, Teddy, Jimmy and Maurice - her father, mother, and siblings respectively.  They never change.  Hugh is always the staid banker and Sylvie the rather shallow and dramatic mother.  Teddy and Jimmy are the sweet brothers and Pammy is the stalwart sister and confidante.  Maurice represents the dark side of the family with his meanness in childhood and self-importance in adulthood.  Then there's the aunt, Izzy, who as Sylvie's antithesis, provides a safehaven for Ursula at various times in her various lives.

Atkinson is a phenomenal writer, known for her popular Jackson Brodie mystery series.  The stories that she presents in this novel are compelling in and of themselves.  Her characters are well-developed, including Ursula whose life changes constantly.  What is driving me crazy, as I listen to this (Fenella Woolgar is an excellent reader), is the repetition of parts of the story.  Much of the story takes place during WWII.  Ursula always seems to have the same job, but her lovers change and her location changes, all with striking effects upon the story.  Right now, Ursula is part of a search and rescue team attending to a bombed out home where in another part of the book Ursula lived and "died."

Sometimes I feel like I'm reading one of those children's books where you choose your own ending. Other times I feel like these are scenes from the cutting room floor that are retrieved to retell the story until the director gets it right.  What I always feel is that this is a unique reading experience because while there are aspects of the story that drive me crazy, I love the way Atkinson ties everything together with a twist.  You have to keep reading (or in my case, listening) to see what happens.  What will be the ultimate fate for Ursula?  How will her presence in a particular place at a particular time affect the outcome?  How long can this go on and still remain a compelling story?  Well, I'll be happy to let you know as soon as I do.  In the meantime go out and get the book for yourself and enjoy the ride with me.

The Pressure Is Mounting

Well, we're coming up on two months since my last post.  Ugh!  What this really means is that the pace of my reading has slowed down tremendously.  Why, oh why?  Can you say Bejeweled, Papa Pear Saga, and Facebook?  Not entirely to blame, but close.  You would think that I'd be more diligent in my reading since I belong to what I consider a pretty great book club - the Maine Readers' Choice Award.  While we're waiting for Mainers to read our 2013 finalists and vote in September, I have the opportunity to read some great books for next year's award.  Time to get my act together.

I've already recommended a few books for "The List."  Elizabeth Strout's "The Burgess Boys" is the story of a young Maine man whose hate crime causes ripples throughout his family.  Herman Koch's "The Dinner" is another story of a family affected by a heinous criminal act. Even though I'm just about 2/3 of the way through it, Colm McCann's "Transatlantic" deserves a recommendation.  This novel centers around Ireland and spans more than 100 years - from a visit by freed slave Frederick Douglass to the efforts of Maine Senator George Mitchell to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland.  And, it looks like Claire Messud's "The Woman Upstairs" is on it way to a recommendation.  A lonely middle-aged teacher becomes overly attached to a family living in her building.  This looks like it's heading for a disasterous ending - stay tuned.

In the meantime, it's back to reading (after one more game of Papa Pear Saga).  What you can do is check out the Maine Readers' Choice Award at www.mainereaderschoiceaward.org.

An interesting turn of the phrase.....

Now that the finalists have been chosen for the 2013 Maine Readers' Choice Award, it's time to start accumulating a list of worthy entrants for the next round.  I'm paying close attention to what books are generating significant buzz in print and online.  It's a challenge but I'm loving it.  One that I've suggested to our committee is The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch, a disturbing novel about a hideous crime, sibling rivalry, and family secrets.

However, another book that has caught my attention because it seems to be everywhere is Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs.  While I'm not that far into the book, I have to pause to comment on a particular phrase the author uses.  The author describes a maple tree "ruffled against the spotless 9/11 sky..." I'm not exactly sure why, but reading this caused me to pause and think.  Was it because it's so hard to forget just how clear and blue the sky was that horrible day?  Was it because using "9/11" seemed to trivialize that horror?  Or, was it because "9/11" is such a part of our national psyche that we instantly identify with any reference to that day?  I would say that my reaction to it was a combination of all three.  No matter what, it does what a good book should do - catch your attention and make you pause and think.

As I said, I haven't made much progress in reading this book, but I'm beginning to understand the attention being showered upon it.  I'm seriously thinking that this will make the list of recommended reads for our committee.

And the finalists are................

Yes!  We've finally chosen our finalists for the inaugural Maine Readers' Choice Award.  We'll be asking Maine readers to choose among A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers come September.  The winner will be announced at the Bangor Book Festival, which is the first weekend in October.

I am very happy that these are our finalists.  With my own vote I had Cash's and Powers' books one and two, respectively.   Flynn's book was number four on my list.  I had Richard Ford's Canada in third place. They are all excellent reads.  I highly recommend them for book groups.  They will generate a lot of discussion, especially Gone Girl.

I am thrilled and honored to be a part of this effort.  It has me rededicating myself as a serious reader.  I've read books that I would never have picked up - period.  The Yellow Birds or Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain would not have been on my radar.  I'm just not into stories that are war-based.  While I put Fountain's book in last place, I appreciated the challenge of reading it. My thanks to all the authors who gave us such excellent reads in 2012.

A Race to the Finish......



As I race to finish the last of the books for the Maine Readers' Choice Award I'm beginning to feel like my furry avatar to the left...well, at least my eyes are looking like his.  I've completed six of the ten books and have pretty much enjoyed all of them.  I have my favorites and my not-so-favorite.  With only one of them in the "I-really-don't-care-for-this-book" category, it's going to be hard to order them.  The first three are pretty well set and those are the votes that matter.  I may be switching the order a bit, but these were the outstanding books to me.  Congratulations to all the semi-finalists.  Looking foward to announcing the winner at the end of next week.  Stay tuned..............................................



2013 Maine Readers' Choice Award

Yeah!  Finally we're on the Net!  Thanks to my brother-in-law, Bill Oleszczuk (http://www.williamo.com/) for designing our logo and to Holly Valero (http://hollyworks.com/) for getting our website up and running.  Thanks also to Valerie Osborne, Maine State Library Consultant, Northeastern District, for spearheading this effort and being the inaugural chair. This has all been very exciting and I hope that you'll share that excitement with us as we work toward our final list.  Our finalists will be posted in early May.  You'll then have the summer to read the books and vote for your favorite in September.  We have tentative plans to present the award at the Bangor Book Festival in October.

In the meantime, you can see our shortlist of books at http://mainereaderschoiceaward.org/the-2013-shortlist/.  I've made great progress.  I've completed three of the books (Canada, Harold Fry's Unlikely Pilgrimage, and Gone Girl.)  I am just about finished with Beautiful Ruins.  I'm well into The Lifeboat and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.  I've started Yellow Birds.  To say that I'm enjoying this is an understatement.  How do I like the books?  Well, it's hard to say.  Each book, so far, has something to recommend it being on our shortlist. But, overall, nothing has really jumped out at me.  I'll begin posting reviews shortly. 

Why don't you read along with me?

 



Ya gotta love this......

Everyone who knows me knows that I love hockey. I'm always arguing that it is a great sport that requires the most athletic players of all. Yeah, there are times when the fighting can get to be a bit much. I wish the refs would step in sooner than they usually do. However, when it's all said and done, there's a nice

camaraderie in the sport.

Well, speaking of camaraderie, here's a video that will showcase the best of sportsmanship. I believe this is from a "special" hockey program in Kitchener. The little guy is getting a helping hand in scoring a goal. The video will just leave you cheering and maybe wiping a tear or two from your eyes. The music's not too shabby either and was composed and performed for this hockey program. Enjoy!!!

 

 

Video: Helping Out a Friend

 

Lyrics: Yes I Can!

 

March Madness

I absolutely love this time of year!  The endless games, the upsets, the close calls, and, yes, even the disappointments as long as my teams get to the Big Dance to begin with.  However, this year I have a gripe with the women's seedings. 
  
I don't think teams should be seeded in regions that give them an incredible home court advantage unless it's equal for everyone. No. 1 women's seeds: UConn (Storrs, CT) playing in Storrs, CT; Stanford (Stanford, CA) in Stanford, CA; and Baylor (Waco, TX) in College Station, TX. Notre Dame (Notre Dame/South Bend, IN) in Notre Dame? Nope, Iowa City, IA. 300 miles and 5 hours away. Oh, but wait a minute! It's ND and with its legions of fans, ND never has an away game.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, NCAA Selection Committee.  Who cares that you've violated your own rules.

Sorry that the ND MBB team didn't make it out of the first round.  They were truly outplayed by Iowa State.  Congratulations to Tom Knight of Dixfield, ME, on a great Senior season.  Great to see a Maine connection at ND.  Best to you, Tom Knight .

Good luck to the ND WBB team.  Go Irish!  Beat Skyhawks.

Head "Straight" to Your Local LYS

Another break in reading for the book award. It's always a treat to have some knitting eye candy if you don't have much time for anything else except browsing through patterns, magazines, or books.  Well, this week I've hit the jackpot because I have another excellent book to recommend.  This is one that you'll be looking at and making things from for a long time to come.

Knit Your Socks on Straight: A New and Inventive Technique with Just Two Needles by Alice Curtis (Storey Publishing, June 2013) presents the knitter with an updated and simple method for knitting socks on two straight needles instead of the cumbersome and challenging double pointed needles.  Curtis is a yarn shop owner and teacher.  In response to her students' quest to make socks more easily, Curtis goes back to the old-style straight needle patterns only to find them too complicated or with seams in a place that make wearing the sock uncomfortable.  In mastering the technique, Curtis also ended up with about 15 patterns to showcase the method.  All of the patterns are well-written, stylish, and looking like a lot of fun to make.  With sock names like "Cirque du Sole" and "Slainte," I just won't be able to resist putting down other projects to start these.

Curtis starts off the book with the usual knitting fundamentals such as casting on and swatching, which are illustrated.  She takes the usual one step beyond to give a really good mini-course in sock construction and the different styles of toes, something that I had not paid attention to prior to this.  Then there's the "secret" to using the straight needle technique.  While I didn't get to try it, the instructions are clear enough to read and understand without out knitting an entire piece.  For me that always deserves special mention.  If I can figure out a pattern without knitting it, chances are I'll be successful. The same kudos go for the patterns themselves.  They are quite understandable and easy on the eyes. The book rounds itself out with hints interspersed throughout, excellent lists of materials needed and gauges in boxes, and a quip or two at the start of every pattern description to entice you.

A unique technique and a great presentation make this a book that you should go straight to your local shop to pick up.  It's due out in early June so you can have some perfectly sized and fun projects to take with you anywhere you go this summer.  Enjoy!

Will one skein be enough?

Taking a break from my book award reading, I spent a good deal of time tonight looking and working my way through an absolutely delightful knitting book that will be available in September, just in time for holiday gift knitting.  Put it at the top of your "to-buy" list. 

Lace One-Skein Wonders: 101 Projects Celebrating the Possibilities of Lace by Judith Durant (Storey Publishing, Sept. 2013) offers a fabulous number of enticing lacy knitting projects for all levels of knitters using just one skein of yarn. The simple projects will appeal to advanced knitters and the advanced projects will entice beginners to challenge themselves to hone their lace and overall knitting skills. You'll want to cover your head, hands, feet, shoulders, and home with these knitted treasurers.  The projects are trendy yet timeless.

The book presents each project with a jazzy little introduction.  The basic information for each pattern is contained in an easy-to-read colored box.  The patterns are well-written and the accompanying charts are complete.  Since many items involve carefully structured decreases, the charts and written instructions go together very well.  Helpful hints are interspersed along the way.  The stitch glossary at the end of the book covers well a number of different techniques used. 

The patterns range in size from very small not-your-run-of-the-mill headbands to beautiful shawls that provide style for either accessorizing or chasing off a chilly breeze.  It's amazing that some of these projects can be knit from one skein, but the yardages listed for the suggested yarns seem adequate. 

This is a knitting book that will keep its value for a long time to come.  It's the best of the "One Skein Wonders" series so far.  If you are planning on knitting holiday gifts, you'll want to also make time for making several for yourself. Grab your needles, a bunch of skeins (one skein will not be enough!), a good audiobook, and enjoy.

 



Booking it.....

I've had the same 75 pages left to go in one of our award books all week.  It's such a good book that I hate to see it end.  I've knocked off about 30 pages today.  Right now I'm very close to tears. I've got to finish!

I've also started a galley of a book that's gaining a lot of momentum.  It's "The Dinner" by Herman Koch, translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett.  This is a very suspenseful novel that revolves around a single dinner shared by brothers and their wives at a very chic restaurant.  Each couple has a 15-year old son, both of whom have committed some horrible crime.  I'm about a quarter of the way through it and I've already recommended it for our "best of" list for next year.

Maine Readers' Choice Award - 2012

We're off and running.  We've narrowed our initial list of 44 "best of 2012" books down to 10.  They now have to be read by May.  I haven't read any of them (just what exactly did I read last year, anyway???!!!), so this is a tall order for me, the world's slowest reader.  The titles are being kept under wrap until we have a website up and running.  I've started 3 of the books.  One I'm just about 3/4 of the way through.  Excellent.  The other two hold great promise, so it will be a difficult decision.  We have a fine committee put together so there should be some spirited debate as we work our way through the list and a fine list of 5 at the end for Maine readers to vote on.  Stay tuned ...

Best book of 2012.....

Last year when the Pulitzer Committee failed to name a fiction winner, a library consultant colleague, Valerie, took the bull by horns and formed a committee to read the finalists and determine a winner.  As you may expect and can see from a previous post, we had a great time with it.  My choice ("The Pale King") came in last.  (I couldn't get through the winner, "Swamplandia.")  It was fun and I loved the pressure to read more.


Well, now we're taking the project one step further.  Valerie has formed another committee to select the best book of 2012.  This time it won't be just the committee making the determination, but a cross-section of librarians, booksellers, reviewers, and literacy advocates.  We're still in the formation stages, but we're making great progress.  We have a name, "The Maine Readers' Choice Award."  And, we have a plan.  Right now we're narrowing a list of 44 "best of" books down to 10.  The committee will read the 10 semi-finalists.  A list of 5 finalists will then be determined by the committee.  The list will be given to libraries and booksellers to promote to all Maine readers.  They'll have the summer to read the books and select a winner which will be announced in September.  What will Maine readers say?

I am certainly up for the challenge.  I had read only one from the list of 44, as 2012 wasn't my best reading year.  The semi-finalists will all be new reads for me.  I'm a slow reader, but I will get through them.  I'm anxious to work with the committee members to hear what they say makes a great book.  The judging criteria simply says that the book must be fiction, well-written, and tell a compelling story. 

What makes a book great?  For me it's how all the elements of the story are woven together.  The characters have to have some substance.  They don't have to be likable people but they have to have a good story to tell.  The writing needs to flow well, not just clever or flowery language, but words strung together to convey emotion and sense of place. 

I look back at some recent reads and think about how well they stood up to my personal standards.  "Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling didn't have a single likable character.  It was filled with sad, broken people - they dealt with OCD, passive/aggressive behavior, spousal/child abuse, addiction, and much more.  However, the way that Rowling tied their stories was outstanding.  "Margaret from Maine" by Joseph Monninger didn't do quite as good a job.  The story is beautifully written.  Monniger certainly writes beautiful sentences that created beautiful scenes that set the stage for the story.  However, the characters weren't quite up to snuff.  They never really dealt with the angst that their story presented to them.  I will definitely read more by the author because he writes so well - you just won't see that book on my "best of 2013" list.

So, off I go into my next reading adventure.  I probably won't be able to discuss the books themselves as we make our way to our five finalists, but there will be a lot to say about the process.  Stay tuned....