It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is a meme hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey. A weekly check in to see what you are currently reading and what is coming up. Head over to Shelia's blog to see what others are reading this week.

What am I reading now.

Spartacus: The Gladiator - Ben Kane

This was sent to me by the publisher for review. I'm not far into it, but think it's going to be quite good!


Whatever It Is, I Don't Like It - Howard Jacobson

This was our book group read for April. Book group was on Sunday. I hadn't finished and I'm fairly sure I'm not going to.

What am I listening to.



Cloudstreet - Tim Winton

So I am driving again, but the other week I forgot to take my Kindle with me to listen to The Potato Factory so I borrowed this...and because it's a library audio I need to listen to it first so I can return it on time. Poor Bryce Courtenay, still waiting for me!

The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtenay

I will get back to it eventually, I promise!

Blog recommendation this week.

This weeks blog recommendation is Vodkamom. Vodkamom is an American kindergarten teacher who tells the funniest stories about her kids. In between she also blogs about her kids - teenage girls Bitchy and Sassy and her son Golden Boy. In the past couple of years her marriage has broken down so there is a bit of that there too.
To illustrate the funny things her kindergarteners say, I give you this:

We were working in our journals during Kid Writing today, and it was the girls' turn to sit at my table. They were working on their pictures, and I was helping with the words when SOMEHOW the girls got on the topic of pierced ears. (We had spent the last ten minutes searching for the tiny, clear BACK to one of Sasha's earrings, only to miraculously find it on the carpet. I'm surprised jack hadn't eaten it, but that's another story altogether.)

"When I get big, I'm gonna get my nose pierced AND maybe my LIP!" Lily said dramatically.
Sasha looked at me and raised her eyebrows. "Well," she said matter of-factly, sitting with her legs crossed as she colored, "I might get my nose pierced, but never my privacy. No girl, not my privacy."


um.


(Omg. I don't know HOW I hold it together. I just don't know.)

Source: http://www.vodkamom.com/2012/04/honestly-some-days-im-convinced-im-just.html

And she does other cool things with them, like grass heads!

Source:http://www.vodkamom.com/2012/04/i-turned-my-back-for-one-minute-and.html

Love my Vodkamom!

What I Read In the Last Two Weeks
I missed out on Monday's post las week, so this week you get two weeks worth of finishes!

Ishamel and the Hoops of Steel - Michael Gerard Bauer

Don't Call Me Ishmael - Gerard Bauer

The Golden Day - Ursula Dubosarsky

The Dead I Know  - Scot Gardner


They are all younger readers and all from the The Children's Book Council of Australia Older Reader's Short list.  Except Don't Call Me Ishmael. If you are into YA fiction I strongly, strongly recommend The Dead I Know. I still have three other titles in the Short List to read, but they will have to be spectacular to beat The Dead.


What's next?
The rest of the CBCA Ollder Readers short list is a pretty high proprity at the moment - with the added bonus of being good reads!
So what are you reading? Leave me a link, I'd love to know!

The Dead I Know

Title: The Dead I Know
Author: Scot Gardner
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - library

From the Blurb:  You wake up in the middle of the night. Your arms and feet are pinned by strong hands. As you thrash your way to consciousness, a calm voice says 'steady, we're here to help.' Your mind registers a paramedic, a policeman, an ambulance. You are lying on the lookout at Keeper's Point, the lookout Amanda Creen supposedly threw herself off, and you have absolutely no idea how you got there.
Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep. He has dreams he can't explain, and memories he can't recover. Death doesn't scare him - his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn't discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up.

What I thought: This is the third book from the The Children's Book Council of Australia Older Reader's Short list. 
Wow. If you read only one book from the short list - make it this one. I have another three to read after this, but they will have to be very impressive to out do this. You feel for Aaron. On top of the sleepwalking and recurring dreams, his Mam is not well and their neighbours at the caravan park they live at are not doing anything to make life easier. Gardner draws you into Aaron's mind, you feel his fear, his confusion, his desire for this to work, but the barriers he also struggles against. I think a quote by John Marsden on the back says it best - I have never read a book more gripping, nor a book more triumphantly alive. I love how it haunts me still. I swear, I will never forget The Dead I Know.

Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge

The Golden Day

Title: The Golden Day
Author: Ursula Dubosarsky
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - library

From Goodreads: There were only eleven of them, like eleven sisters all the same age in a large family. Because it was such a very small class, they had a very small classroom, perched at the very top of the school - up four flights of stairs, up in the high sky, like a colony of little birds nesting on a cliff.
'Today, girls,' said Miss Renshaw, 'we shall go out into the beautiful Gardens and think about death.'
In the Gardens they meet a poet. What follows is inexplicable, shocking, a scandal.
What really happened that day? And do the little girls know more than they are letting on?

What I thought: This is the second book from the The Children's Book Council of Australia Older Reader's Short list. 
I'm a fan of Ursula Dubosarsky. I find her to be an original and thoughtful writer. The Golden Day is no exception. To tell you the truth, when I first finished it I was a bit nonplussed...but I kept coming back to it, thinking about the events and the outcome. Dubosarsky is a master of not saying things, letting the reader discover secrets and clues through the interactions of the characters and at a point where you just about despair of ever knowing the truth. And in the end, your still not 100% sure what happened, but you do know the events of that day will effect those girls for the rest of their lives.

Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge

Don't Call Me Ishmael

Title: Don't Call Me Ishmael
Author: Michael Gerard Bauer
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - library

From Goodreads: There's no easy way to put this, so I'll say it straight out. It's time I faced up to the truth. I'm fourteen years old and I have Ishmael Leseur's Syndrome. There is no cure. And there is no instant cure to not fitting in. But that won't stop Ishmael and his intrepid band of misfits from taking on bullies, bugs, babes, the Beatles, debating, and the great white whale in the toughest, the weirdest, the most embarrassingly awful...and the best year of their lives.
 
What I thought: I didn't intend to read this so quickly after reading Hoops of Steel, but as it happened I forgot to take my book to work and so I pulled this off the shelves to have something to read during lunch.
Don't call me Ishmael takes us back to year 9 at St Daniel's and the beginning of Ishamael's stunning career as a debator and admirer of Kelly Faulkner. What I am really enjoying about this series is it portrays teenage boys as something other than meat head sports players or geeky outsiders. I believe in Ishmael and his friends. They are a mixed bunch drawn together through debating, but they are what I imagine the vast majority of kids in high school are like. Bauer is easy to read, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable.

Ishmael and The Hoops of Steel

Title: Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel
Author: Michael Gerard Bauer
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - library

From the Blurb: Ishmael has made it to the Senior School and things are really looking up. His nemesis and chief tormentor Barry Bagsley has finally decided to leave him alone, while his dream girl and chief goddess Kelly Faulkner has finally decided not to. Has he broken free of Ishmael Leseur's Syndrome at last? Could his remaining two years at St Daniel's College actually be described as 'normal'? Absolutely not.

What I thought: This is the first book from the The Children's Book Council of Australia Older Reader's Short list.  This is the third book in a series, however, despite the fact I haven't read the first two books, I was easily able to pick up the story. It most probably helps that the book begins at the start of the school year so it is like starting afresh.
Ishmael and his mates - Ignatius, Scobie, Bill and the Razzman - are set to make their final two years at St Daniel's ones to remember. But along the way, as always there are challenges and room for improvement.
I quite enjoyed this - enough to borrow the first two in the series. Bauer's characters are believable, but amusing. Their escapades could happen and their support of each other everything we hope for our boys. Knowing how Ishmael ends up, I look forward to going back and reading where he comes from.

Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge

10 Years of Sharing Books

Ten years ago today, I produced this

How clever was I! Unfortunately, he chose to scare the hell out of us and less than 24 hours later, he was like this

Thanks to the brilliant staff at the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Canberra Hospital, less than two weeks later I took home this

 Today, there is this

Last night he chose to scare the hell out of us again with severe abdominal pain. Bad enough that his dad took him to hospital. In the end it's turned out to be nothing. Today he is fine and totally he enjoyed his day off school.

The child was lucky enough to be born into a house where both parent read, so that's what we did. Here are a selection of favourites over the past 10 years.

Baby/Toddler Years

The first book he ever "read" to me. He still pulls it out now and then.

Don't ever attempt to read this after a few wines - very funny!

A favourite from Nanna and Pops house.

Anyone for a wild rumpus?

Chapter Books to Share

A great series we shared that he now reads independently

Is any childhood complete without this?

My husband and I raced each other to be the one who read each night during this.

Books that boys love.

Funny, funny books. The whole series is brilliant.

A wonderful Australian author - a great beginner fantasy series

Totally disgusting - perfect for boys. Other titles by this author include The Day My Bum went Psycho and Zombie Bums from Uranus.

 Following in his father's footsteps

And this is what he is reading now. It appears my son may be a fantasy buff, just like his dad.

Happy birthday baby boy, I am so proud to be your mum!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is a meme hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey. A weekly check in to see what you are currently reading and what is coming up. Head over to Shelia's blog to see what others are reading this week.


 What am I reading now.

Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel - Michael Gerard Bauer

The first of the CBCA Book of the Year Older Readers Short list books. I have five of the six and after spending several minutes trying to decide which one to read first, I decided to go alphabetically!

Whatever It Is, I Don't Like It - Howard Jacobson

This is our book group book this month. It's ok, but I think I've picked another dud...

 The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtenay

 

Surgeon tomorrow and I'm hoping he'll tell me I can drive so I'll be back to listening to this in the car.

Blog recommendation this week.

This weeks blog is Enjoying The Small Things. As anyone who has been reading this blog over the last couple of weeks will know, Kelle Hampton (who writes Enjoying the Small Things) blogs about her gorgeous family and their journey with Nella, their two year old who has Down Syndrome. For me it's the photos that make this blog.

 

 

 

 

 

The gorgeous Nella.

 

 

 

Source: http://www.kellehampton.com/2012/04/enjoying-small-things.html

Kelle found this book store decoration in NY!

Source: http://www.kellehampton.com/2012/04/big-apple-adventure.html

I also love the up beat feel of this blog. Kelle and her family really do take time to Enjoy the small things!

 
What I Read This Week

Two finishes this week.

Pyramids - Terry Pratchett

Bloom - Kelle Hampton

What's next?

Hoping to push through the Children's Book Council of Australia Older Readers short list pretty quickly so that will likely be my focus for the next few weeks. I also start back at the library on Wednesday so lord knows what I will bring home from there!
So what are you reading? Leave me a link, I'd love to know!