Audiobooks

With two children under 4, three student teachers and hundreds of pounds of fruit to preserve, I find myself with little time these days for actually sitting in front of the computer.  Luckily, with the miracle of the iPhone, I can still stay caught up with email and Facebook posts, but I haven't yet figured out a quick method of blogging on the iPhone.  

I am, however, feeling excellent about listening to audiobooks on my commute to and from work. Here's what I've been listening to:

The Amulet of Samarkand by Stroud.  At first, my reaction to listening to this book was, "Yikes, it's Arthur Dent pretending to be a genie!"  But that was quickly lost in appreciation for Simon Jones' excellent narration.  The book is hilarious.  I immediately put the second book in the trilogy on hold at the library.

The Thief Lord by Funke.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to reading Funke's first novel for children!  I am swooning with joy for her character development.  Yay, three-dimensional characters!  Yay, unusual turns of phrase!  Yay, unpredictable plot!  Plus, Simon Jones again.  Excellent.

Strawberry Hill by Hoberman.  Okay, excellent book, but this is where audiobooks can sometimes get in their own way, because I was just wondering if the narrator could be any more annoying?  It made an already precious book a little over the top.  I would have appreciated this one more in text form, I think.

Walk Two Moons by Creech.  I've been wondering about Creech's recent works, because they haven't quite lived up to my memory of the quality of her Newbery winner.  I'm happy to say it's just as good as it was fourteen years ago.  The narrator was very funny, too.

The Not-Just-Anybody Family by Byars.  Last year I read a bunch of Byars' junior fiction and was hooked, so I thought I'd try this old series about the Blossoms.  I think it's stood up well over 47 years.  The new covers will give it some life to new readers, I think.  

Ivy and Bean by Barrows and Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Schlitz are next.  

Summer reading catchup

If you hadn't noticed, my daughter Ivy and I took the summer off to enjoy being outside.  That doesn't mean we stopped reading, however!  Before I return them all to the library, let me post a Wordle of some of the books we read this summer.

And, for those of you who like things more orderly, here's the same in list form.  I put a star by those we read more than once.

*Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban

"I Have A Little Problem," said the bear by Heinz Janisch

Hook by Ed Young

*The Story Tree: Tales to Read Aloud retold by Hugh Lupton

*The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas

*A is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet by Stephen T. Johnson

Roawr! by Barbara Joosse

*Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey

*Peter and the Wolf by Chris Raschka

*I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

Yes Day! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos

Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey

*A Birthday for Cow! by Jan Thomas

*The Doghouse by Jan Thomas

*What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas

Bippety Bop Barbershop by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

*Edwina, the Dinosaur who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems

*Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and the Three Cups of Tea by Mortensen & Roth

*When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat by Muriel Harris Weinstein

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Little Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You A Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis by Robbin Gourley

*Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli

Hello, Baby! by Mem Fox

*Bertie at Bedtime by Marcus Pfister

*Little Beauty by Anthony Browne

*A Book by Mordecai Gerstein

*There's Nothing to Do on Mars by Chris Gall

Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa

Crinkleroot's 25 More Animals Every Child Should Know by Jim Arnosky

*Walt Disney's Cinderella retold by Cynthia Rylant

*The Way We Work by David Macaulay

I didn't read nearly so much on my own.  Mostly I re-read old favorites (the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga by Bujold, the entire Liaden series by Lee & Miller, and Sunshine by McKinley), a book for my neighborhood book club, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and a book for my professional book club, Reading Is Our Business by Sharon Grimes.   I'll post my review of The Problem With the Puddles by Feiffer, which I started at the beginning of the summer and finished yesterday.

I hope everyone had a great summer!  I look forward to being back here more often this fall.

Library Loot

Quoting from Amanda at A Patchwork of Books:

"Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!"

Thanks, Amanda, for alerting me to this great event.  This is pretty much the way I get books all the time -- I put stuff on hold, I pick them up on a regular basis, and I throw in a few serendipitous finds each time.  

So here's my loot from last week:

Matilda and Millions videos - following a conversation on good/bad movies of children's books on CCBC

The Unincorporated by Dani and Eytan Kollin - following a review on Unshelved

When You Reach Me by Stead - following... well, everyone.  Where have you been??

Yuki and the One Thousand Carriers by Whelan

Machines Go to Work by Low

Redwoods by Chin

Time to Pee! by Willems - a request by Ivy

Dinosaur Woods by McClements

DinOTrux by Gall

Yes Day! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Surprise Soup by Rodman

And What Comes After A Thousand? by Bley - a book about death recommended by a parent

The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-To-Be by Grey - I put this on hold after I tried to tell Ivy the Princess and the Pea story and failed

Button Up! by Schertle

Hook by Young

Little Oink by Rosenthal - following Amy's awesome call to my daughter Ivy earlier this summer to read her a book

My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life by Feiffer

These are to add to the vast to-read shelf I already maintain... I really need to find some time to actually read them.  *sigh*