What I'm Reading: Because of Winn-Dixie

Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press, 2000

“It's hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.”

Summary in a Sentence:

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.

Read it if...

you're in need of something homey and comforting, or if you want to read a great 'dog' book that doesn't end sadly! 5 stars.

Read The Reviews:

Maw Books |  The Novel World | Reading Rants

Mini Reviews: Kitchen Counter Cooking School, Ramona Forever, and The Kitchen House

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School
by Kathleen Flinn
Viking, 2011

Summary in a Sentence:

Writer Kathleen Flinn, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, shares stories and lessons to inspire home cooks.

Read it if...

you like to cook but often don't due to lack of confidence or lack of knowledge about which knife to use. 5 stars.

Ramona Forever

by Beverly Cleary
HarperCollins, 1984

Summary in a Sentence:

A lot happens during Ramona's year in third grade, highlighted by the arrival of Howie's rich uncle, a change in her after-school situation, a surprise wedding, a death and a new arrival in the family, and her father's getting a job.

Read it if...

you're a lifelong Ramona fan like me! I'm revisiting all the Ramona books this year and hoping to introduce Ramona to a great many of my students at the library.  4 stars.

The Kitchen House
by Kathleen Grissom
Touchstone, 2010

Summary in a Sentence:

After seven-year-old Lavinia is orphaned on the journey from Ireland to the United States, she begins work in the kitchen house of a tobacco plantation and bonds with the slaves who become her adopted family, but when Lavinia is accepted into the big house, her loyalties are challenged.

Read it if...

you enjoy historical fiction mingled with a little too much tragedy and histrionics. It was a veritable soap opera of disaster. Please remember I am in the minority on this opinion. Most reviews were glowing. Me, not so much. 2.5 stars.

Libraries in the News

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

-Isaac Asimov

Librarian Twitter Bingo

Joe Hardenbrook writes: “You ever think, ‘Wow those librarians are always tweeting about the same thing’? Well, now you can play a game: It’s called Librarian Twitter Bingo. Every time you see a librarian tweet about one of these topics (right), cross it off. When you get a whole row, yell ‘Bingo!’ P.S. I myself could probably cross off at least 13 of these boxes with my own tweets.”...

Mr. Library Dude, Mar. 22

Why ebooks need libraries
Beverly Goldberg writes: “About a week ago, an ALA colleague popped into my office with an epiphany. ‘Libraries will never die out. You know why? If they didn’t exist, people would be inventing them.’ As you might imagine, that got us to talking and finding examples—and it certainly wasn’t hard. Little Free Libraries, anyone? When you think about it, as AL’s Librarian’s Library columnist Karen Muller has, the Occupy libraries movement sprung from the same human need to share ideas, and often there’s no better vehicle for that than the written word.”...
AL: Inside Scoop, Mar. 28

You can buy Harry Potter ebooks now
The Pottermore ebookstore is open earlier than expected, with all the Harry Potter ebooks and digital audiobooks available (not DRM-free) for sale for the first time March 27. Wait until you see what they worked out with Amazon’s Kindle. While the interactive community portion of Pottermore is still in beta and set to open to a general audience in April, the bookstore is open now. It looks as though Pottermore has done a great job making the ebooks available across every possible device....
The Digital Reader, Mar. 27

Mini Reviews: Confederates in the Attic, A Thousand Lives, and Malaria Dreams

Confederates in the Attic
by Tony Horwitz
Vintage, 1998
Non-Fiction (History)

Summary in a Sentence:

Tony Horwitz, a former war correspondent, tells of his journeys to Civil War battlefields and the colorful people he meets along the way.

Read it if...

you've ever noticed that the 'War Between the States' continues to live in so many issues still with us, or if you're simply a fan of good narrative non-fiction. 5 stars.

A Thousand Lives

by Julia Scheeres
Free Press, 2011
Non-Fiction (Religion)

Summary in a Sentence:

Presents an account of how Jim Jones' followers who started out seeking a Utopian dream, soon found themselves trapped in a work camp run by a madman, and ended in the mass murder-suicide of 914 members in November 1978.

Read it if...

you remember what happened at Jonestown or have ever heard the phrase "don't drink the Kool-Aid" and were curious about its derivation. 3 stars.

Malaria Dreams
by Stuart Stevens
Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989
Non-Fiction (Travel Writing)

Summary in a Sentence:

Recounts an adventure, by Stevens and a companion, across the wildest part of Africa that includes Cameroon, Lake Chad, Niger, Timbuktu, the Sahara, and ends at the shores of the Mediterranean.

Read it if...

you love armchair travel with hints of hilarity, or if you'd like to really know what Africa was like in the late 1980s. 5 stars.

Evil Question...

I'm shamelessly stealing this question from Barnes and Noble because it made me so angry...

If you could only read one author for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Let the games begin.

P.S. Mine's a tie between Roald Dahl and Jane Austen.

Attention School Librarians!

In honor of School Library Month, Matthew over at Busy Librarian has issued a fun shelf challenge. Check it out over at his blog.