Here’s a HUGE list of suggested authors and titles in case you’re joining – or thinking about joining – the 2012 Ireland Reading Challenge.

(If you already know what you’re reading for the challenge, and simply want to vote on the read-along book, please scroll to the bottom of the post. )

Irish authors:

Cecilia Ahern
John Banville (also writes mysteries under the name Benjamin Black)
Samuel Beckett
Brendan Behan
Maeve Binchy
John Boyne
Declan Burke
Thomas Cahill
Eoin Colfer
Seamus Deane
Frank Delaney
Emma Donoghue
Siobhan Dowd
Roddy Doyle
Anne Enright
Patricia Falvey
Tana French
Andrew Greeley
Seamus Heaney
James Joyce
Patrick Kavanaugh
Cathy Kelly
Mary Pat Kelly
Marian Keyes
Morgan Llywelyn
Antonia Logue
Colum McCann
Pete McCarthy
Frank McCourt
John McGahern
Eoin McNamee
Stuart Neville
Edna O’Brien
Flann O’Brien
Brendan O’Carroll
Sean O’Reilly
John Patrick Shanley
Christine Shea
Bram Stoker
Colm Toibin
Patrick Taylor
Oscar Wilde
Robert McLiam Wilson
W.B. Yeats

Megan at Po(sey) Sessions pointed me to this database of science fiction and fantasy set in Ireland.

I’ve also created a review database of Ireland Challenge Reviews that has a ton of titles with links to reviews.

Now there’s no room for “I don’t know what I’d read” when it comes to the Ireland Challenge! Click over and join – I dare you.

If you are interested in joining a read-along in March, please vote here:

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ireland reading challenge, read-alongs

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~ J.K. Rowling announces Pottermore, says the owls are gathering. What could it be?

Discussion starters:

~ Galleysmith: Standards, organizations, and relationship building

~ Caribousmom: The ugly side of literature

~ Bookalicious: Is dystopia becoming formula?

~ Galleysmith: What’s your status?

Book reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene, reviewed by Wendy at Caribousmom

~ Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky, reviewed by Michelle at Galleysmith

~ Island Girl by Lynda Simmons, reviewed by Darlene at Peeking Between the Pages

~ Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

Book to movie and/or television news:

~ Tom Hanks to produce HBO miniseries based on Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

~ Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are set to star in a film adaptation of Labor Day by Joyce Maynard.

Other bookish links:

~ CBS News: A father’s gift of reading – I love this story about a single father who read aloud to his daughter every single night from 4th grade until she left for college.

~ Bookshelf: The bookshelf of the future? – As someone who has yet to purchase an e-book reader, I found this comic particularly amusing.

Non-bookish links of interest:

~ 29 Ways to Stay Creative

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, book to film, book to tv, harry potter, neil gaiman, reading aloud, TBR list

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This is the second book in Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and the second one I’ve read aloud to my kids. We loved this one just as much as the first. Riordan has done a good job of giving us an over-arching mystery (the prophecy surrounding a child of one of the “Big Three” gods at age sixteen), but also giving us a rollicking, fun tale in the meantime. Percy, Annabeth, and a young Cyclops named Tyson head out to the Sea of Monsters to rescue Grover and prevent him from becoming a Cyclops’ bride. Like the first book, modern culture is woven together with Greek mythology, making for some very funny and hair-raising adventures.

Title: Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life
Author: Selected and introduced by Robert Hass
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: The Ecco Press
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from the public library

Like many anthologies, I loved a few poems from this collection, liked a lot more, and didn’t care for some. But what makes this one stand out is the format. When Robert Hass was United States Poet Laureate, he started a nationally syndicated poetry column that ran in many national newspapers. He compiled those columns by season and put together this book, which includes not only the poems he chose to share with the American public, but also his thoughts on the poem, as well as as a bit of biographical detail about the poet. Most of the poetry is American, with a few exceptions, and much of it is very good. I enjoyed reading Hass’s notes on each poem and his explanation as to why he chose that one for his column.

Title: Waiting for Columbus
Author: Thomas Trofimuk
Genre: Contemporary fiction, literary fiction
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Imagine a man standing on a rocky shoreline looking out to sea, pondering the question, the same question we whisper when we look up at night into a star-crazed sky – swirls of light millions of years old – everything moving away, or toward, or around: What’s out there?

What can I say? I read this a couple of months ago for a read-along with some other bloggers, and some of them disliked it as much as I loved it. All I can say is that I thought it was brilliant. Beautifully written, lushly sensual with details of taste, touch, smell – and an intriguing mystery as well. A man washes up on the beach in Spain. His belief that he is Christopher Columbus lands him in an insane asylum, where his detailed tales of Columbus’s life intrigue the nurse who cares for him. Who is he? What happened to him to cause him to have such a slip from reality? And why is she so drawn to him? Trofimuk answers all of those questions, and gives us a beautiful story of love and loss.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, middle grade fiction, poetry, read-alouds

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Cameron Smith is dying of Mad Cow disease. Instead of wasting away in the hospital, he heads out on a road trip with his new dwarf friend Gonzo to find the mysterious Dr. X, save the world, and find a cure. This book defies description. Coming-of age, road trip, paranormal fantasy, buddy story, ode to Don Quixote, celebration of life. This book made me both laugh harder and cry harder than any book has done in a long time. I LOVED the characters, loved the writing style – and Erik Davies, the actor who read the audiobook edition, does a perfect job. I could have done with a little less of the main character describing the reactions of “Mr. Happy” to the girls he meets, but I suppose that was realistic for a seventeen-year-old boy. Highly recommended. (Definitely on the upper age spectrum of YA)

Title: Down the Long Hills
Author: Louis L’Amour
Genre: Western fiction, historical fiction
Publisher: Bantam
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy borrowed from my dad.
First line: When Hardy Collins woke up, Big Red was gone.

My dad is a huge Louis L’Amour fan. I mean huge – he owns all of his works in the expensive leather-bound editions. When the boys and I started studying westward expansion, I asked him for a read-aloud idea that would give the boys a good idea of what life was like during the days of the wagon trains. He suggested the absolute perfect book: the story of a seven-year-old boy and four-year-old girl who are the only survivors when their wagon train is attacked by Indians. Hardy and Betty Sue set out on Big Red, Hardy’s father’s stallion, heading toward Fort Bridger, where Hardy’s father is waiting. Relying on the wilderness and survival training he has learned from his father, Hardy must protect Betty Sue from the wildlife and the Indian tracking them. I admit that the western isn’t my favorite genre to read, but any book that keeps the boys engrossed and teaches them a bit about stepping up to responsibility is a positive.

Title: Wives and Daughters
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Genre: Classic fiction
Publisher: Various
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Read online through DailyLit
First line: To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood.

I’ve been wanting to read a Gaskell for a while now, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Molly Gibson is perfectly happy being raised by her widowed doctor father, but as she reaches her teens, he is convinced she needs a woman’s touch. He marries the thoroughly selfish and manipulative Widow Kirkpatrick. The new Mrs. Gibson comes with a daughter, Cynthia. The story tells of Molly’s adjustment to her stepmother, her friendship with Cynthia, and the two girls’ experiences with courtship and romance. Gaskell is a bit like a wordier Austen, and I enjoyed the characters in this book. It was not finished before she died, but is only missing a few chapters. Her editor had her notes for how the book would end, and so he wrote an epilogue that filled the rest of us in on her plans, none of which were surprises to me – it ended the way I thought it would, and the way I wanted it to. This will definitely not be my last Gaskell.

Title: The Game
Author: Laurie R. King
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery
Publisher: Bantam
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Jenny Sterlin
First line: Travel broadens, they say.

This is the seventh novel in Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. King is a master of writing not only an intriguing mystery, but is a fantastic painter of setting and character as well. This time the setting is India, as Holmes and Mary head out to find Kimball O’Hara, the famed Kim of Rudyard Kipling’s novel. O’Hara was working as a member of the British Survey in India, which is a polite way of saying he is a spy. When he goes missing, Holmes’ brother Mycroft tasks the couple with locating O’Hara. Along the way, Mary and Holmes pose as itinerant magicians, meet up with an American marxist, and get held captive by a mad Maharaja. This Russell novel is the first one I’ve listened to on audio since the first, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, and it reminded me how much I loved Jenny Sterlin’s reading. I wish our library had the rest of the series on audio!

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, classics, fantasy, historical fiction, laurie r. king, magical realism, mary russell, mysteries, read-alouds, sherlock holmes, speculative fiction, westerns, YA fiction

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Belladonna Johnson, the main character in Spellbinder, can see ghosts. And it’s not creepy, only inconvenient, because she often can’t tell the difference between a dead person and an alive one – and it doesn’t exactly make you fit in with your peers if you often appear to be talking to someone who’s not there. Her gift, which is hereditary, is particularly handy because her parents are dead. And although she still grieves the loss of being able to hug them, they are still waiting for her every day when she comes home from school. The school authorities believe she lives with her grandmother, who also has the sight.

Belladonna’s world is turned upside-down when suddenly the ghosts start to disappear – including her parents. Her father’s last words are, “The doors are closing.” Belladonna, with the help of Steve, a boy from school, and Elsie, one of the only remaining ghosts, goes on a quest to the Land of the Dead to discover why the ghosts are gone – and how to get them back.

I read Spellbinder aloud to my four kids, and although it took a little bit for us to get into it, once the story grabbed us, we were hooked. Belladonna, Steve, and Elsie make an odd team – and their interactions made for some humorous situations. The author has created an unique world with its own history and myths and symbols, and the last few chapters had my kids hanging on my every word, wanting to know how things were going to turn out.

When I said, “the end,” Noah’s first words were, “Is there going to be a sequel?” He was very happy when I checked the author’s web site and discovered that book two has been sent to the publisher and she is currently working on book three.

(I received an ARC of Spellbinder from the publisher for the purpose of review. The above link is an Amazon affiliate link. If you click on it and subsequently purchase anything, I will receive a small percentage in commission.)

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, fantasy, middle grade fiction, read-alouds

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On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is one of our favorite read-alouds of the year, if not all time. My sincerest thanks go out to Jen at Divinest Sense – I won the first two books in Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga in a giveaway on her blog.

Janner Igiby lives in Glipwood, a little town bordered by the Dark Sea of Darkness and the Glipwood Forest, which is full of horrible creatures like Horned Hounds and Toothy Cows. Glipwood, as well as the rest of the land of Skree, is ruled by Gnag the Nameless, and his Fangs of Dang rule the town by fear and intimidation. When Janner and his brother, Tink, and his sister, Leeli, run afoul of Slarb, a Fang, their life is turned upside down. Gnag has been seeking the lost Jewels of Anniera, and for some reason, he has it in his head that Janner’s mother, Nia, and grandfather, Podo, know where they are. The Igiby family is in for the fight of their lives, and Janner will have to learn to face his fears and to protect his brother and sister, and trust his mother and grandfather to explain everything when the time is right.

We always enjoy read-aloud time at our house, but every once in a while a book comes along that has us wanting to spend more and more time in the world it creates, and On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness was one of those books. Peterson writes with wonderful description, wry humor, and immense imagination. There were times when the kids laughed out loud; other timed they were very, very quiet, hanging on my every word. They loved the creatures that inhabited the world of Skree – and cheered for ex-pirate Podo, strange but lovable Peet the Sockman, and most of all the Igiby children. As a mom, I loved the relationship that the Igiby children shared – their loyalty and intense love for each other was a huge example to my children of how they should feel about and treat each other.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness has an ending, but one that makes it obvious that there is much more of the Igiby family’s story to tell. We are very much looking forward to reading book two, North! Or Be Eaten!, together.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, fantasy

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book lists, read-alouds

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100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson is an enthralling children’s fantasy, with a great mixture of humor, adventure, and scary moments. I read this aloud to my four kids (Natalie, 12; Noah, 10; Jonathan, 9; and Josiah, 7) and we all loved it – and were on the edge of our seats during the final chapter.

Henry is 12 years old, and his parents have been kidnapped. He hopes they get home safe, but meanwhile, he’s enjoying his stay with his Uncle Frank and Aunt Dotty and their three daughters Penelope, Henrietta, and Anastasia on their farm in Henry, Kansas. Henry’s parents were extremely over-protective (they sent him to boarding school with a helmet to wear during P.E.), but Henry’s Uncle Frank believes in letting boys be boys, and Henry is thoroughly enjoying the newfound freedom of a pocket knife and learning to play baseball – without a helmet.

One night, as Henry is sleeping in his bed in the attic, a piece of plaster falls on top of him. He inspects the wall, and finds a small cupboard door under the plaster. Over the next several nights, Henry removes all the plaster from the wall and discovers 99 small cupboard doors. As he continues to investigate, he learns that each door leads into a different world. One of these worlds seems strangely familiar, while another is downright meancing. Of course, these doors are tiny, so there isn’t a way to actually visit any of these places – or is there?

This is a great read-aloud – I enjoyed it as much as the kids did. It had a great balance of fantasy and adventure and Henry learning how to be in a family. My only complaint is that some of the descriptive metaphor was a bit over-blown, resulting in my having to stop reading and explain something in response to the puzzled looks I was seeing in my younger two boys’ eyes. I also wish the author had more fully addressed the issue of Henry’s parents – what happened to them, and why Henry doesn’t miss them.

After finishing this book, we knew it had to be the first in a series. We will be reading book two very soon, because the kids can’t wait to find out what happens to Henry and his new family.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, fantasy, read-alouds

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