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Christmas break
Dec. 26th, 2012 06:07 pmAhhhhhhh. So nice to have a break from school and bedtime and getting kids up and forcing them to do homework. It's snowing and snowing and all we have to do is sit around and read and eat chocolate. We've had a very nice holiday so far. This neighborhood seems to have been built on a steady stream of chocolate and other friendly gestures, and there has been much giving and receiving. (While we were out bringing treats to people the other night, one family even carolled us in our car!) We had a lovely Christmas Eve, which usually consists of listening to the King's College Christmas Eve service from the BBC, and doing our own candlelight reading from Luke and Matthew, and singing carols and eating more chocolate. I love it that my kids are getting better with musical instruments because we could have piano and violin and cello to back up our singing. We aren't professional by any means, but for *us* it was fun. And then our kids woke us up at 5:45 on Christmas morning for the present opening demolition. Some of them had been awake for an hour already. No wonder why some people aren't feeling so good today...
One thing I like about this time of year is hearing from friends from far away, updates about their families. I think we have a lot of interests in common with people where we currently live, but there have been places where we have felt a bit odd and out of place. I love reading letters from old friends because it makes me realize that we are not freaks--or if we are, there are a lot of other freaks out there, too, raising more freaky kids! :) The kids with the book fixations, or moms having to make laser-eyed whale costumes for their kids (a la Whales on Stilts by MT Anderson), or being into stringed instruments or hiking or whatever--I love it. It's so fun to see how much like our kids our friends' kids are, even if they have never met.
Writing goals while everyone is home are sort of low, but I'm hoping to at least figure out the book I need to finish next so I can get on it after the holidays. In the meantime, I'm also trying to cram as much reading in as possible. It helps to remember what it's like to read a story at normal speed. Usually I'm moving among the molecules, it feels like. This time of year I usually put up a book list, too, but I still have Christmas books to read, so I'm not done yet! But here are a few I've read recently:
The Unwritten Girl and also Fathom Five, by James Bow. I seem to have an unusually large concentration of books from this particular corner of Canada. I think there is something in the water there. They are all different (James Bow, Erin Bow, RJ Anderson), but there's an indefinable thread in them, too, that's similar. I imagine some kind of ore in the ground that seeps into the drinking water and provides writing magic or something. :) Anyway, I'm enjoying this small fantasy series. The books aren't long but are engaging.
Blood Red Road, by Moira Young. I know, I'm slow. It's been out for what, a year? I'm not much into dystopian, which my husband well knows, but he thought the main character, Saba, sounded compelling and strong, so he got it for me. It was really good. Especially impressed with how the author made me like Saba and feel for her even if she wasn't very nice to her sister at the beginning. It's a really hard trick to pull off, making you like a character who has a lot of growth to go through, and Young succeeded.
Zombie Mommy, RT Anderson. This is the latest in the Pals in Peril series, which is hysterical. (See Whales on Stilts! above.) The series satirizes all those middle grade packaged book series, from the Hardy Boys to MG horror to those It-girl books about fashion and New York. All the characters in the books star in their own book series except for Lily. Katie's family features regularly in horror books, and Jasper Dash is the 1960s Boy Technonaut! Well, it appears that since Lily's been in several of these books (Pals in Peril) already, she is now in a series, too. Her mother has noticed, and her mother is scared. "Do you know what happens to mothers in books?!" she demands. And then takes steps to preserve her life, which sets off a funny series of events involving dangerous spiders and ghosts and well-described New York fashions. If you have ever read children's packaged book series, you should read these.
Unspoken, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Very cool concept! Kami's always had an imaginary friend--except that hers is real. As in, she talks, he talks back. And then one day, he moves to town--for real. I thought Brennan did a great job showing how peculiar that would be, to know someone from the inside so well and then have to get to know them as a stranger when they meet in person. It's a YA paranormal, so be prepared for creepy people who can do creepy magic.
The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater. I finally got to read this one, too. It's paranormal in the sense that Blue can see the "ghosts" of people who will die in the next year. There's been a prophecy that if she kisses her one true love, he will die. Then she meets a group of boys who go to the nearby private boys' school, and one of them is the "ghost" she saw (supposedly her one true love, even though it's his friend that she likes). At first it was a little hard to keep all the characters straight (four guy friends and some of their family backgrounds), but in the end I wanted to take Adam home and give him a peaceful place to live, and I could sympathize with Gansey's frustration when he tried to do something right and people kept misinterpreting him because of his inherited privilege.
How's your Christmas and/or winter break going? Any good books in your stash?
One thing I like about this time of year is hearing from friends from far away, updates about their families. I think we have a lot of interests in common with people where we currently live, but there have been places where we have felt a bit odd and out of place. I love reading letters from old friends because it makes me realize that we are not freaks--or if we are, there are a lot of other freaks out there, too, raising more freaky kids! :) The kids with the book fixations, or moms having to make laser-eyed whale costumes for their kids (a la Whales on Stilts by MT Anderson), or being into stringed instruments or hiking or whatever--I love it. It's so fun to see how much like our kids our friends' kids are, even if they have never met.
Writing goals while everyone is home are sort of low, but I'm hoping to at least figure out the book I need to finish next so I can get on it after the holidays. In the meantime, I'm also trying to cram as much reading in as possible. It helps to remember what it's like to read a story at normal speed. Usually I'm moving among the molecules, it feels like. This time of year I usually put up a book list, too, but I still have Christmas books to read, so I'm not done yet! But here are a few I've read recently:
The Unwritten Girl and also Fathom Five, by James Bow. I seem to have an unusually large concentration of books from this particular corner of Canada. I think there is something in the water there. They are all different (James Bow, Erin Bow, RJ Anderson), but there's an indefinable thread in them, too, that's similar. I imagine some kind of ore in the ground that seeps into the drinking water and provides writing magic or something. :) Anyway, I'm enjoying this small fantasy series. The books aren't long but are engaging.
Blood Red Road, by Moira Young. I know, I'm slow. It's been out for what, a year? I'm not much into dystopian, which my husband well knows, but he thought the main character, Saba, sounded compelling and strong, so he got it for me. It was really good. Especially impressed with how the author made me like Saba and feel for her even if she wasn't very nice to her sister at the beginning. It's a really hard trick to pull off, making you like a character who has a lot of growth to go through, and Young succeeded.
Zombie Mommy, RT Anderson. This is the latest in the Pals in Peril series, which is hysterical. (See Whales on Stilts! above.) The series satirizes all those middle grade packaged book series, from the Hardy Boys to MG horror to those It-girl books about fashion and New York. All the characters in the books star in their own book series except for Lily. Katie's family features regularly in horror books, and Jasper Dash is the 1960s Boy Technonaut! Well, it appears that since Lily's been in several of these books (Pals in Peril) already, she is now in a series, too. Her mother has noticed, and her mother is scared. "Do you know what happens to mothers in books?!" she demands. And then takes steps to preserve her life, which sets off a funny series of events involving dangerous spiders and ghosts and well-described New York fashions. If you have ever read children's packaged book series, you should read these.
Unspoken, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Very cool concept! Kami's always had an imaginary friend--except that hers is real. As in, she talks, he talks back. And then one day, he moves to town--for real. I thought Brennan did a great job showing how peculiar that would be, to know someone from the inside so well and then have to get to know them as a stranger when they meet in person. It's a YA paranormal, so be prepared for creepy people who can do creepy magic.
The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater. I finally got to read this one, too. It's paranormal in the sense that Blue can see the "ghosts" of people who will die in the next year. There's been a prophecy that if she kisses her one true love, he will die. Then she meets a group of boys who go to the nearby private boys' school, and one of them is the "ghost" she saw (supposedly her one true love, even though it's his friend that she likes). At first it was a little hard to keep all the characters straight (four guy friends and some of their family backgrounds), but in the end I wanted to take Adam home and give him a peaceful place to live, and I could sympathize with Gansey's frustration when he tried to do something right and people kept misinterpreting him because of his inherited privilege.
How's your Christmas and/or winter break going? Any good books in your stash?
