Booking Through Thursday: Mystery Novels

Today's meme at Booking Through Thursday asks:

Do you read mystery novels? If so, why? Is it the mysteries themselves that appeal to you? The puzzle-solving? The murders? Or why don’t you read them? What about them doesn’t appeal?

My guilty secret is that I don't read adult books.  I never have -- except for science fiction and fantasy -- unless I was required.  I read tons of YA and children's books, and I still do, and that's about it.

However... my father hooked me on some mystery subgenre that really appealed to me.  One was the serial killer novel.  I read a whole bunch of those, starting, of course, with Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs.  Anything where I could get into the brain of the killer, either from the perspective of the killer himself or the investigator, was awesome.

I also love mysteries when there's a little bit of supernatural built in -- which I would consider to be an urban fantasy variant.  The series I liked the most was the Pendergast books by Preston and Childs.

I'm a big fan of Sherlock, but it's not because of the mystery component. It's the characters.  So I think that's the key for me -- I like character-driven books, and the genre doesn't matter much.  

Booking Through Thursday: Reviewed

Today's meme at Booking Through Thursday asks:

Do you read book reviews? Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book?

As a librarian, I've been trained to read reviews and to be discriminate about what to purchase for a collection.  I went through the "must buy every starred review!!" stage and emerged with a better understanding of what is appealing for my students and what is a good buy for my school, and what will just sit on the shelf.  Basically, my readers don't read reviews (though I am sharing blogs and websites with my olders).  They hand-sell books to each other.  If a book needs a review, it won't get read unless I put a lot of effort into it.  So I have to watch student interest and changes in grade level curriculum carefully, and select those just-in-time purchases that will appeal to them in the moment.  This is where reviews really come in handy, and concatenations of reviews like the ones on Titlewave are absolutely essential when I'm looking for just the right book.

As a lifetime reader, I read reviews with trepidation because I hate spoilers.   I typically read only as much as I have to to decide if I want to read it or not, and then quickly classify & stick it on my TBR list.  (This is currently on Goodreads and it's working well for me.)  You might notice my list is way, way too long.  I try to tag TBR books thoroughly to help me remember where I got a particular recommendation. This is the time of year when Newbery predictions really get going, so I pay close attention to those and develop a summer reading list of 2011 hopefuls.  Last night I added a 2010-stars-so-far tag to my books on Goodreads to reflect the new additions on Elizabeth Bluemle's fantastic list of this year's starred reviews.  Many of these books were already on my TBR list, but it's good to have one more reason to read a particular book.

So, knowing a book was reviewed positively is usually all I want before I read it myself. but if I'm buying for a collection, I'll read reviews in a completely different way.

Booking Through Thursday: Signature

This week's question on Booking Through Thursday:

Do signed copies excite you? Tempt you? Delight you? Or does it not matter to you?

 I'm starting to care, but mostly I think they're neat when I can get them, and not so important otherwise.  It's the experience of meeting the author that's meaningful to me.  I had a great conversation with Lauren Myracle the other day at my fabulous local bookstore, Nicola's Books.  She had Gary Paulsen visit a few weeks back, but even though it was cool to meet him and get a signature, I don't think I'll carry that memory very far.  Lauren Myracle, on the other hand, made an impression because she took time to talk with each of the people in line (mostly tween girls) and give them her sincere attention.  That's pretty impressive!

Booking Through Thursday: Useful

Booking Through Thursday is a question-of-the-week meme.  This week's question:

What’s the most useful book you’ve ever read? And, why?

I have not posted much about this part of my life here, but once upon a time, I was a doula.   I saw this as a step along the journey to becoming a midwife, which is something I may still want to do someday.  I was privileged to attend several births in different locations, some in hospital and some at home, the effect of which ten years later was to guide my own decision to have children at home.

I've read a lot -- more than, say, fifty -- books about childbirth.  Some were more technical and some were more spiritual.  But the most useful book by far was Henci Goer's landmark text, Obstetric Myths Vs. Research Realities.  Most midwives would point you to Goer's newer and more accessible book, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, but I preferred the earlier one.  It was denser and aimed more at care providers than at pregnant women themselves, but reading it empowered me enormously.

When I hear about women choosing to have babies in the hospital because they are afraid of what might happen at home, I give them this book.

You can read a good portion of it on Google Books here.

I am absolutely thrilled to discover that she is working on a second edition!

Booking Through Thursday: Half

Booking Through Thursday asks:

So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half.

What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?

Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?

Honestly, I don't tend to read books I don't like.  I'm very selective about my  books.  I read from recommended and award lists.  Mostly I love every book I read.  I certainly won't get through a half of a book before I decide I don't like it -- I'll just put it down and read something else.  Sometimes I get back to a book after some time and I do enjoy it. 

I'll say, there are two books I tried reading multiple times and never got past the first chapter.  One was The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein.  The other was Dune by Frank Herbert.  I am a big science fiction and fantasy reader, so I'm sad I didn't get into these books.  It's been over 10 years now; maybe I'm due to give them another try.  

Booking Through Thursday: Grammar

Booking Through Thursday is a question-of-the-week meme.  This week's question:

In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?
More importantly, have you read them?
How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

I am a stickler for grammar and punctuation in my professional life.  I've never been able to fall into the conventions of online chatting or writing quick emails with no punctuation; even my notes to my husband are meticulously grammatical.  Not that I don't ever make a mistake.  And sometimes I even start sentences with "and."  =)

I do a mini-unit each year with my fourth grade students.  This is usually in cooperation with teaching them the conventions of typing: one space after each punctuation mark, two after each period, etc.  We read some funny books on punctuation, correct a few paragraphs with errors and learn to use a checklist for editing our own work.  Student's work improves dramatically in this experience.

I like to start with Punctuation Takes A Vacation by Robin Pulver.  This humorous story, illustrated with childlike paintings, shows what would happen if punctuation left the classroom.  Students One two page spread has punctuation marks writing postcards back to the students.  Later the punctuation from the classroom next door comes over and messes up their work.  It's funny and useful and the kids love it.

The second book I use is Greedy Apostrophe, which goes more in detail about the mistakes one makes using the apostrophe to create possessives where there are not supposed to be any.  This mistake pervades student work, even those hung in the halls, and I tell them in no uncertain terms that it makes them look bad when they use apostrophes in the wrong place.  We do a short worksheet so they get practice putting the punctuation in the right place.

Another excellent and very funny series of books are the picture books by Lynne Truss, starting with Eats Shoots and Leaves, followed by The Girl's Like Spaghetti and Twenty-Odd Ducks.  These books present a sentence twice, with two different ways to punctuate it, resulting in different meanings.  The funny part is the illustration going with each sentence.  Every fourth grader I know thinks these books are hilarious.

Incidentally, when I read the adult version of her book Eats Shoots and Leaves, I was eating alone in a diner at 7 in the morning, falling all over myself laughing.  If you're a grammar and punctuation fanatic like me, treat yourself to her book sometime.

Booking Through Thursday: Twisty

Here's the question for this week's Booking Through Thursday:

1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?

2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?

I love unexpected endings, but not complicated plots.  I can deal with a bunch of characters if there is good dialogue.  I can't handle a ton of description if there are lots of characters, though, because I "see" the characters through their actions, like a movie.  

I am very fond of Holes for the surprise ending.  =)

Sorry for the short post.  I have to be up at 5:30 for the second day in a row to drive a friend to the airport.

Booking Through Thursday: Favorite Unknown

This post is part of the Booking Through Thursday meme.

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

Picture book author: Robert Munsch.   I have the joy of introducing students to Robert Munsch every year.  Because he's Canadian, kids often don't see his books in bookstores in the States. The only Munsch title they are likely to be familiar with is Love You Forever, which is, needless to say, not funny.  He's the one who hooks even the most reluctant listener into gales of laughter.


Chapter book author: William Sleator.  Kids are always asking for scary books.  They eat up the Goosebumps and Michigan/American Chillers and Alvin Schwartz folktale series.  As they get older, I point to this author and whisper, "He's scarier than anything you've ever read."  Interstellar Pig?  Nightmare-inducing.  The Boxes?  Brrrr.   House of Stairs?  Creepy beyond belief.

Teen author: Julian Thompson.  I was obsessed with The Grounding of Group 6 as a teen.  I didn't read any of Thompson's other books until I was in my 20s, but when I did I was pleased to read they were as quirky and strangely compelling as my original obsession.

What authors do you love that no one's heard of?