Adult Summer Reading in Whatcom County

Create some Book Buzz! Share your favorite titles with other readers.

Bloom, I Can’t Tell You, and Pieces of Georgia August 4, 2008

Filed under: Teen, share a book list — adultsummerreading @ 11:09 pm

Kyla says:

I read Bloom by Elizabeth Scott. This book is about Lauren, a girl in high school is dating the most popular boy in school. She feels like that is what is expected of her especially since she is not really that popular. Lauren lives with her dad since her mom left them both when she was younger. Lauren and her dad don’t ever really talk about feelings or anything of any real importance. Then Lauren runs into Evan. Evan’s mom and Lauren’s dad once dated and ended things on a sour note. Lauren starts to fall for Evan even though he is not popular. Lauren has to decide what is more important to her, her popularity or actually finding someone that she loves. The book was ok. It was a little too predictable for me but I would still recommend it to others.

I read I Can’t Tell You by Hillary Frank. This book is about Jake, who is starting his freshman year in college. Jake gets into an arguement with his best friend and ends up telling him some things that he shouldnt’ have. His friend stops talking to Jake even though they share a dorm room. Jake decides then that he is not going to talk anymore because it just ends up getting him in trouble. He decides that writing messages to everyone is the way to go. He uses whatever is handy to write on, including napkins, scraps of paper, and paperbags. Jake starts to fall in love with a girl in his dorm. He uses the notes to try and get his feelings across. I thought that this book was extremely interesting. The beginning was a little tough since the entire book is written in notes and the speakers are not really identified. I did enjoy how it was written though once I was able to figure out who was speaking. I thought it was an interesting way to tell a story.

I read Pieces of Georgia by Jen Bryant. This book is about a young girl named Georgia. She lives near a farm with her father. Her mother passed away when Georgia was younger. Georgia is an artist but she feels like she can’t really share her art with her father since her mother was an artist also and it seems to make her father sad. Georgia has been classified as “At Risk” by her school since she gets nervous easily and doesn’t have a lot of friends. She is given a journal by her counselor to try and get some of her feelings out. Georgia really starts to enjoy her journal. She starts to figure out her dad and her best friend. She starts to actually be able to share her feelings with them. This is a good story about family and friendship.

 

Apples, Gadget Nation, The Fairy Tale Detectives June 4, 2008

Filed under: Historical, Humor, Nonfiction, share a book list — adultsummerreading @ 5:56 pm

Philirya says:

This is going to be a long dark summer for me as my favorite television series ended in a cliff hanger. To distract myself, I’m taking off my floaties and jumping in the deep end of the reading pool, hoping to read books outside my comfort zone.

My first book is Apples are from Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins.
 If you are anything like me, the only things you know about Kazakhstan are the name, and that it is a former Soviet Republic.
What I didn’t know before reading this book is that wild apples originated in Kazakhstan and spread around the world from there. I also didn’t know that both Fyodor Dostoyevsky  and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn were exiled there.
The book covers a year’s stay by Mr. Robbins as he takes a tour and learns the history of Kazakhstan.

The second book is Gadget Nation by Steve Greenberg.
 Mr. Greenberg profiles American inventors and their strange and sometimes useful inventions. For instance, Clocky, the alarm clock on wheels. When you press the snooze button, Clocky rolls off your table and across the room, forcing you to get out of bed if you wish to shut if off when the alarm goes off again.
Also there are Mac and Cool bowls. You place Mac and Cool bowls in the freezer. After you make supper, you place it in a Mac and Cool bowl.  This way, your child can eat supper when it is the right temperature for them.

Last, I have The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley.
 It is the first in a series of books about Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, descendants of Wilhelm Grimm. They are surprised to find out that Grimm’s Fairy Tales are a chronology of actual events as experienced by Wilhelm.
They are sent to live with their grandmother Relda Grimm because their parents are dead and there is no one else to care for them. When they come to live with Granny Grimm and her lodger Mr. Canis, they meet Puck, Jack the Giant Killer, and Mayor Prince Charming.
At this point, either you get why Mr Canis living with Granny is clever, or you don’t. Look up ‘canis’ if you don’t. I’ll wait.

See, wasn’t that clever? Granny Grimm takes the girls to find out why a local farmhouse appears to be flattened, with an imprint of a foot surrounding the wreckage. When Granny and Mr. Canis are kidnapped, it’s up to Sabrina and Daphne to save the day.

 

BookSense May 30, 2008

Filed under: share a book list — adultsummerreading @ 10:54 pm

Lisa says:

BookSense is website that collects and advertises the wisdom of independent booksellers across the country.  Each month, booksellers from stores large and small review what they think is really hot; the best of these reviews are collected in a list called BookSense Picks.

Click here to see what their monthly picks are for this month!

 

Back to the Sixties May 30, 2008

Filed under: Nonfiction, share a book list — adultsummerreading @ 7:28 pm

Lisa says:

The popularity of Sheila Weller’s Girls like us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–and the journey of a generation expresses the desire to revisit (or learn about) that magical, stormy time in our history (also on CD).  If you are on a waiting list for a copy of this tri-ography, there are plenty of other titles steeped in sixties culture to keep you preoccupied.  Here’s a list of some recent publications to get you started.  Use the comments to add your favorites to the list!

Boom: voices of the sixties by Tom Brokaw (also large type, CD, Playaway and downloadable audio)

A freewheelin’  time: a memoir of Greenwich Village in the sixties by Suze Rotolo

The hippie narrative: a literary perspective on the counterculture by Scott MacFarlane

Laurel Canyon: the inside story of rock-and-roll’s legendary neighborhood by Michael Walker (also CD)

Prime green: remembering the sixties by Robert Stone

The sixties: photographs by Robert Altman

The sixties rock experience (3 CD set)

Sixties style by Judith Miller

The sixties: the years that shaped a generation produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting (DVD)

 

 

Road Trips May 6, 2008

Filed under: share a book list — adultsummerreading @ 6:26 pm

Lisa says:

Summer brings out that longing for a road trip.  If you’re avoiding high gas pump price tags and need to road trip vicariously, here are 81 road trippin’ adventures to satisfy your wanderlust.

 

Gentlemen of the Road: a Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon / Mother Road and Song of the Road by Dorothy Garlock [Route 66 series] / Eureka by Jim Lehrer / Find Me by Carol O’Connell / Gardenias for Breakfast by Robin Gunn / American Purgatorio by John Haskell / White Widow by Jim Lehrer / Handling Sin by Michael Malone / Loop Group by Larry McMurtry / Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech / No Man’s Land by GM Ford / 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak / Wakefield by Andrei Codrescu / Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane / Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski / / Wolf Point by Edward Falco / As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner / Mad River Road by Joy Fielding / Society of S by Susan Hubbard / Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson / The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver / Mission to America by Walter Kirn / Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips / Sideways by Rex Pickett / Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish / Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel / Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg / Roads of the Heart by Christopher Tilghman / Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler / Gateways: A Repairman Jack Novel by Paul F. Wilson / Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie / So Long and Thanks for all the Fish! by Douglass Adams / The Christmas Train by David Baldacci / Night Over Water by Ken Follett / Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy / Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo / The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty / Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey / Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore / Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire / Stardust by Neil Gaiman / Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins / Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier / The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy / Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler / Thousand Country Roads by Robert James Waller / The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg / Old Boyfriends by Rexanne Becnel / Dreaming Southern by Linda Bruckheimer / Cupid’s Corner by Annie Jones / Double Heart Diner by Annie Jones / Lost Romance Ranch by Annie Jones / Free Bird by Greg Garrett / Spinsters by Pagan Kennedy / First Lady by Susan E. Phillips / Easy Money by Jenny Siler / Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra / Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu by Stephanie Rosenfeld / Heart Seizure by Bill Fitzhugh / Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke / By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee by Tama Janowitz / After Lucy by Daniel Jones / Living Other Lives by Caroline Leavitt / The Late Child by Larry McMurtry / Bright Angel Time by Martha McPhee / Cruisers by Craig Nova / Getting Mother’s Body by Suzan-Lori Parks / A Cure for Gravity by Arthur Rosenfeld / Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas by Davy Rothbart / Zanesville by Kris Saknussemm / Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters by Timothy Schaffert / Coyote Dream by Jessica Davis Stein / Almost Heaven by Marianne Wiggins / Leavin’ Trunk Blues by Ace Atkins / Fatal Glass of Beer by Stuart M. Kaminsky / License to Thrill by Lori Wilde / Murder on the Caronia by Allen Conrad / Send a Fax to the Kasbah by Dorothy Dunnett / Wheels by Arthur Hailey / The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood