Check out the "About Me" section. I'm very excited! And it has nothing to do with the caffeine and chocolate. (Although those are good too.)
There are all kinds of changes here today. Also to the right, you may have noticed The Beautiful Blogger Award. Many thanks to Fiona Phillips from Fi's Magical Writing Haven for awarding it to me! By way of following the rules, I'm including 7 random things about myself. I'm talking obsessions this week (although this has nothing to do with the rules of the award.)
1. I have been completely obsessed with this song:
2. My television obsession has been The Voice. (I'm bummed that Tony Lucca didn't win.)
3. My reading obsession has been Sonya Sones' books. I read two this week, one the week before and I've got another one on hold at the library.
4. My writing obsession has been staying above the 25,000 word count. I've hit 25,000 words three times. Each time I get on a roll with new words, I end up deleting older sections and dropping below the count again.
5. My eating obsession is homemade blueberry-banana bread - soooo good.
6. My cleaning obsession has been trying to get our spare room ready for my 16-year-old nephew who is coming up from FL to stay with us.
7. My mental obsession has been trying to convince myself that I'm not dreaming. I really am represented by Kendra Marcus of BookStop Literary. Pinch me.
I'd like to pass The Beautiful Blogger Award on to:
This month I read two novels in verse as part of the Reading Challenge hosted by Amanda at Born Bookish: Stop Pretending by
Sonya Sones and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Let me tell you a little bit
about them. . .
Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy
This book is
based on the true experience of the author and her own girlhood journals.
At the age of
thirteen, Cookie witnesses the frightening changes in her older sister as she has a
mental breakdown. From that point on, everything in her life changes. Not only
does she lose her sister, best friend, and confidante to a lengthy
hospitalization, but also her mother and father become unrecognizable to her
under the pressure of their grief and their inability to comfort each other
through the loss.
Cookie finds herself
lonely and longing to talk to someone about what’s going on, yet she’s afraid
of losing her friends if they find out.
I felt the
honesty of Cookie’s emotions, from her own fear of being crazy, to her
admission that she often didn’t want to visit her sister in the hospital.
Although she desperately missed her, most times she found that she didn’t
recognize the girl who looked back at her. It's heartbreaking to watch Cookie try to navigate through the changes alone. But there is also hope and deep joy as she finds a true friend, and her family begins putting their life back together.
I borrowed this
book from the library, came home and thought I’d just pick it up and read the
first page or two before starting lunch. But I couldn’t put it down. I read the
first third of the book standing in the kitchen. Finally, I stopped long enough
to fix lunch, then sat down, and read the rest of the book. I heartily recommend
Stop Pretending. At just under 10,000 words, it’ll take you on a short but
powerful journey.
I had heard of this book before
but never picked it up. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was put off by the cover,
which I find quite drab. But after reading several wonderful reviews, I put the
cover out of my mind and got the book.
This is the story
of Billy Jo, a fourteen-year-old girl who grows up in Oklahoma during the dust
bowl years of the great depression.
We watch her farming family struggle through drought and loss with a constant shroud of dust that
covers everything from Billy Jo’s mother’s beloved piano to the very food they
eat.
After a terrible accident takes her mother's life and leaves Billy Joe burned and scarred, she and her
father drift through life on currents of their own quiet grief and Billy Jo
dreams of the day she will leave.
When Billy Jo finally jumps a train that will take her out of the dust bowl, she is able to come to
terms with the past and the present, trading in blame for hope, and discovering something about herself in the process.
This is a wonderful book and it rises right to the top of my list as one of my favorite novels in verse.
For a peek into the story, have a look at this 10-year-old actress performing one of the most dramatic scenes in the book. It gives me goosebumps!
If you haven't joined the Novels in Verse Reading Challenge yet, I encourage you to consider it. There's still time to join in, and at the least intimidating level you only need to read one book. I'm a big fan of the format and I've found that the challenge has pushed me to try more than just the authors I'm familiar with. And that's always a good thing.
