Life was at full throttle with family and other issues for the first three weeks of January, so I did very little no blogging – but I still stole away in the evenings to read in bed. Here’s what I managed to finish – with reviews for most of them to come.

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay
Set in 1860 Manhattan, this is the story of young Moth, who ends up in the clutches of a madam who grooms young girls to be bought as ‘the virgin cure’ for syphilis. Gritty and compelling. (4½ stars)

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The last in the famous Little House series. I read this for my Books That Made Me Love Reading Challenge. It retains all its charm, and then some. (4½ stars)

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
A summer in 1956 Arkansas is the setting for this story of preacher Samuel Lake & his wife Willadee and family. Their eldest is 11-year-old Swan who is the focus of the struggle between good and evil that defines the summer. (4 stars)

I Am Half-Sick of Shadow by Alan Bradley
The latest in the Flavia deLuce mystery series. I found this to be much better than the previous book which had been stretching the bounds of my “suspension of disbelief”. In Shadows, Flavia is her usual determined self, solving the murder of the lead actress of the film crew who has rented her father’s home for a movie shoot. (4 stars)

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock
An illustrated novel, Griffin and Sabine is a beautiful book. I don’t think I really give anything away by telling you that Sabine somehow “shares (Griffin’s) sight” and can see his paintings as he creates them. Sabine is also an artist and the artwork of the two adorns the postcards and envelopes that they exchange. (4 stars)

Sabine’s Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues by Nick Bantock
Once again, the story is told in strangely beautiful postcards and richly decorated letters that must actually be removed from their envelopes to read. But Sabine’s Notebook is also a sketchbook and a diary. (4 stars)

The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes by Nick Bantock
The last in the trilogy. Told in the same epistolary manner as the first two. This set is a feast for the eyes and fun to read besides. (3½ stars)

Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker
Non-fiction middle-grade book about the horrendous explosion in Halifax in December 1917 that killed 2,000 people, injured many many more, and left a fifth of the city’s population homeless. Recommended for anyone of any age who wants to learn about that catastrophe – and why Nova Scotia sends a Balsam fir tree to Boston for their Common every Christmas. (4 stars)

Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwarz
A sequel to Reservation Road which I did not read, although I don’t think that that compromised my enjoyment or understanding of this story in any way. It examines the continuing impact of a (solved) hit-and-run accident twelve years before – especially on the man who hit the boy, on his son, on the boy’s family. (3½ stars)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Read for the Reading Shakespeare event hosted by Risa at Breadcrumb Reads, this is not a play I would have chosen. Although I wasn’t crazy about the story (more in my review), I did enjoy the language and the poetry. (3½ stars)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
I found this classic overlong and preachy, but still a powerful anti-slavery message. In its day, it was controversial and politically divisive. A good story hidden among the verbiage. (3½ stars)

The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
Another good story hidden – this time by the profanity throughout. The antagonist is actually the protagonist in this story of a man who, because of his physical size (6’4” at 14) attained a certain status among his acquaintances – and how it all came undone. I would have rated this book higher if the profanity had not been so ever present. Long-listed for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize in 2011. (3½ stars)

The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett
I read this for the Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge. This was Pratchett’s first children’s novel and also his first published (1971) novel, which Pratchett substantially rewrote and re-released in 1992. A fantasy of about extremely tiny peoples who inhabit—what else?—a carpet. (3½ stars)

Dove Creek by Paula Marie Coomer
I might be willing to believe that this seemed as disjointed as it did because I read it on my Kindle, but you’d have to make a pretty strong case. I’m not sure of the point or the plot of this novel which centers on a woman who, after her divorce, becomes a public health nurse on reservations in the west. Two stars for the info about the native lifestyle issues on the reservations But, otherwise – sorry, Paula – I think it’s a dud. (2 stars)

Links for Canadian readers:
The Virgin Cure
These Happy Golden Years
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
Griffin & Sabine
Sabine’s Notebook
The Golden Mean
Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917
Northwest Corner
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The Antagonist
The Carpet People
Dove Creek

Kindle editions:
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Novel
Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917
Northwest Corner
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Uncle Tom’s Cabin FREE
Dove Creek

At the beginning of the year, our three-year-old grandson and his mom were living with us. That encouraged me to sign up for a couple of challenges that I would not have otherwise considered: the Picture Book Reading Challenge and the 3660 Minute Challenge for which I must read 10 minutes each day to a child.

But Laura and Steven left suddenly mid-month as an urgent family matter called them back to Vancouver. That left me with only 130 minutes of reading time logged with Steven – and a keening for him in my heart.

So I decided to have a story-time with Steven by phone every day, rain or shine (a new term he learned reading Madeline). His mom puts the headphones on him and he lies on his bed or the floor while we talk – because it isn’t just about reading, is it? It’s about asking questions, learning new things, and finding out what your child is thinking. Our times have ranged from 10-20 minutes and most days he’s fully engaged even though he can’t see the pictures in the books.

I’m pleased with the ongoing contact I’m maintaining with my grandson and hope that soon he looks forward to Gram’s story-time every day.

Here’s what we read together in January before he left, with links to reviews for all:

1. Dog in Boots written by Greg Gormley and illustrated by Robert Angaramo

2. The Market Square Dog written by James Herriot and illustrated by Ruth Brown

3. Giraffe and Bird written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender

4. I Want My Hat Back written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

5. Coyote Sings to the Moon written Thomas King and illustrated by Johnny Wales

Written by Greg Gormley, illustrated by Robert Angaramo

Dog In Boots is a lovable brown and white terrier-type pooch who reads a “brilliant book” about a cat with a truly magnificent pair of boots and thinks he would like the same. Happily (or not), the local shop owner has just such a thing – but our dog finds that perhaps they are not such a good idea after all. After a number of attempts at finding the ideal footwear, Dog finds the perfect paws for his activities.

This is a gentle tale about being happy with what you are that seemed to go over three-year-old Steven’s head, although I quite enjoyed the imaginative uses and problems of various types of footwear.

We both loved the colorful illustrations. Dog is an earnest sweetie who wears his dog heart on his sleeve, and simple emotions on his face. There were just enough details in the pictures (frightened fishes, doggie friends, a curious bird who appeared often) to keep a child’s interest and to provide opportunity for ancillary questions as we read, but not so many as to overwhelm a young listener.

I was particularly tickled by the end papers which showed Dog with his various footwear at the beginning of the book, and, at the back of the book, with an assortment of hats that he might have worn after reading Little Red Riding Hood as the story closed.

Overall, Dog In Boots is a lovely book. (4½)

Buy Dog in Boots at Amazon.com
Buy Dog in Boots at Amazon.ca

Written by James Herriot, and illustrated by Ruth Brown

Just what you would expect from Herriot: a lovely, rather meandering tale of a stray dog in the market. The story was perhaps a little too meandering for a three-and-a-half year old, but Grams sure liked it.

The beautiful water-color-like illustrations show us mid-century Yorkshire in its glory, and maintain the cozy mood (and happy ending) of the story. (4 stars)

Buy The Market Square Dog at Amazon.com
Buy The Market Square Dog at Amazon.ca

Written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender

Giraffe and Bird act like they can’t stand each other – and that’s what they say. But deep down, they need and want each other. Some of the situations they get each other into are amusing.

In families with a lot of squabbling, this book would make a valuable point. But Steven couldn’t get it – if you like someone, you treat them well. Really, you try to treat everyone well.

We did get some laughs – when giraffe sneezed because Bird was preening his feathers – and that makes Bird fall upside down. And some days Bird eats extra berries (that contain lots of fiber…)

Anyway, what make this book are the illustrations. Bender has captured facial expression, especially on the giraffe, that are hilarious. (4 stars)

Buy Giraffe and Bird at Amazon.com
Buy Giraffe and Bird at Amazon.ca

Written and illustrated by Jon Klassen
Bear has lost his hat and is making his way through the forest asking each of the animals in turn if they have seen it.

This is a delightful book to read to young children. It was fun for me to narrate, as the story is told completely in dialogue. Three-year-old Steven loved back & forth interchanges between the bear and the other animals.

The illustrations are primitive in style and mostly sepia toned, but Steven loved them, identifying the different animals easily and quickly.

For beginning readers, the word choice is basic; for those who are just learning to follow along with the text, the voices of the different animals are in different colored ink.

The story twist, though, that I found so delightful went right over Steven’s head. He didn’t recognize the different speech pattern used by the liar – either the hat thief or the bear’s final declaration.

The book pleased Steven at three & a half and will likely continue to do so for the next year or two as he grows and learns to distinguish truth from lies, and appreciate the unsaid as well as the obviously stated. (4 stars)

Buy I Want My Hat Back at Amazon.com
Buy I Want My Hat Back at Amazon.ca

Written by Thomas King and illustrated by Johnny Wales

Every evening, Old Woman and the animals gather at the pond to serenade the moon. They won’t let Coyote join them because they think he has a terrible singing voice. His feelings hurt, Coyote insults the moon, who hears him and decides to go on a vacation.

Without the moon’s light, Old Woman and the animals stumble about in the dark. When all efforts to entice the moon back fail, they ask coyote to join them in one last desperate scheme.

I wasn’t impressed with either the art work or the story in this book, but Steven loved it. After a difficult day, he sat enthralled while I read about the interactions of the forest animals and the moon.

Perhaps he liked the ‘singing’ bits where Grams tried to howl like a coyote (and he joined in). (3½ stars)

Buy Coyote Sings to the Moon at Amazon.com
Buy Coyote Sings to the Moon at Amazon.ca

I told myself on December 31 that I had signed up for all the reading challenges that I was going to do…”no more,” I told myself. But challenges continued to trickle in in January and weaken my resolve and I saw a few that I could do without adding more than one or two titles to my burgeoning 2012 reading list.

The ‘challenge’ part is becoming keeping track of all—wait for it—63 challenges I’ve entered. Yup – that’s right-sixty-three. It’s hard to believe, I know, but there some that I really wanted to join but just couldn’t this year (for example: African, Middle East, Eastern European, Irish, Edgar Winners, Read the Bible…and so on)

Anyway, I promise that this is it. All the sign-up posts are up today and that’s it. From here on in, I read and review.

I hope you’ve had a great start on your reading year!

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t read and didn’t love it.

My brother was born when I was 13 months old and my mother read to me to keep me occupied while she nursed him. I was reading when I entered kindergarten just before my fifth birthday, and in first grade I was called out of class once a week to read a story to my brother’s kindergarten class. (He was not impressed since he was already a reader himself.)

Dave & I spent many summer afternoons in the children’s section in the basement of the old library in St. Thomas. We could take only four books at a time and so we were there several times a week, replenishing our stock of entertainment. Dave favored Freddy the Pig books, although I could never get into them. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and Trixie Belden.

The Books That Made Me Love Reading Challenge, hosted by Emlyn Chand, allows me to re-read the books that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

I’ll also reflect upon what made me love them the first time around and discuss how my impressions changed upon reading them again.

I haven’t determined yet which books I’ll read for this challenge (one per month is required), but I’m enjoying searching my memory and finding old friends.

January: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Entering the Color Coded Reading Challenge, hosted by Bev over at My Reader’s Block required that I add a number of books to my already long reading list for 2012, but I just couldn’t resist. I love category challenges!

Here are my tentative choices:
1. A book with “Blue” in the title: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
2. A book with “Red” in the title: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell
3. A book with “Yellow” in the title: The Mystery Of The Yellow Room by Gaston LeRoux
4. A book with “Green” in the title: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewllyn
5. A book with “Brown” in the title: TBD – any suggestions?
6. A book with “Black” in the title: Crime at the Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
7. A book with “White” in the title: The Woman in White by Wilkie Colllins
8. A book with any other color in the title : These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. A book with a word that implies color: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

So, yes, I’ve already entered Library of Clean Reads’ Short Story Reading Challenge which requires me to read entire collections of short stories.

But the Short Story Reading Challenge hosted by Dead Book Darling asks me to read 12 individual short stories. This will allow me more latitude to find a variety of authors. I’m looking forward to this!

Over the past year, I’ve started following a number of bloggers who promote Australian literature. I must admit that my exposure to authors from down under has been somewhat (although not entirely) limited.

To stretch myself this year, I’ve decided to join this Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge, created by Elizabeth at The Devoted Eclectic. I’m just going in ‘casual’ this year at the ‘Stella’ level of 3 books and I’m going to ‘dabble’ in more than one genre. Here’s my tentative reading list (although the first two are pretty firmly set because they are next in the pile on my bedside bookcase):

The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville
Bite Your Tongue by Francesca Rendle-Short’

Do you have any other suggestions for me?

What books were published the year you were born, or the birth year of someone special to you? The Birth Year Reading Challenge encourages you to find out, and then read some of them.

I really couldn’t get excited about anything published in my birth year, so I decided to do an Honors Challenge and read books published in 1973 – the year my beautiful baby girl came into the world. (Love you, Jen!)

A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek
The Temptations Of Big Bear by Rudy Wiebe
Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie

The BYRC is hosted by the Hotchpot Cafe.

Emmanuelle at Words and Peace is hosting the Books Published in the First Years of My Life Challenge.

What is this challenge-that’s-a mouthful all about?
Easy: pick up and read a book that was published in the first years of my life; 1 book per year.

I originally thought I would complete this challenge (at the Toddler level) by reading adult books, but the challenge logo puts me in mind of snuggling up with a book as a child – and so I think I’m going to read some of the books I might have read then. Here’s my list:

1954 – Horton Hears A Who! by Dr. Suess
1955 – Eloise by Kay Thompson
1956 – Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Kristen at Strawberry Splash Reviews is hosting another A – Z Reading Challenge. I say ‘another’ because I’ve already joined one of these.

Kristen, however, has a ‘double whammy‘ category that takes this ‘eh’ to ‘zed’ experience to another level: not only must I read books with titles that start with the letters of the alphabet, but also I need to read books by authors whose last name start with A to Z. FUN!

Cassandra over at Wickedly Delicious Tales is hosting the 2012 Amazon Best Books of 2011 Reading Challenge.

Since four of the books on my 2012 reading list are Amazon editors’ picks for last year, I’m going to enter this at the Novice level which requires me to choose another, for a total of five books.

Here’s the Amazon list.

Here’s my choices for this challenge:
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
TBD – any suggestions?

In completing the second annual Criminal Plots Reading Challenge, I’ll be reading six books between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012. One book should be read that fits into each of the following categories:

1. Novel with a weapon in the title: Sign of the Broken Sword by G.K. Chesterton

2. Book published at least 10 years ago: Crime at the Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

3. Book written by an author from the state/province/etc. where I live: Murder: a Crafty Business by Lila Phillips of Truro, Nova Scotia

4. Book written by an author using a pen name: Death on the Oxford Road by E.C.R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett)

5. Crime novel whose protagonist is the opposite gender of the author: Cape Cod Tavern Mystery (handyman Asey Mayo) by Phoebe A. Taylor

6. A stand-alone novel written by an author who writes at least one series: Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

The Challenge: Read any non-fiction book, adult or young adult. That’s it. I can choose anything. Poetry? Yes. Memoirs? Yes. History? Yes. Travel? Yes. You get the idea? Absolutely anything that is classified as non-fiction counts for this challenge.

So – I’m going in at the Master level which requires me to read 16 – 20 non-fiction books this year.

The Dewey Decimal System Reading Challenge is hosted by Jen over at The Introverted Reader.

1. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

This Books In Translation Challenge, hosted by The Introverted Reader, is pretty self-explanatory. The goal is to read translations of books.

Any genre and any age range qualifies. Crossovers with other challenges are fine. Any format that I choose is also acceptable.

Since I’m already committed to reading Montaigne’s essays this year, this seems like a good fit. And who knows what else I might run across that’s been translated?

Kailana at The Written Word and Lu at Regular Rumination have started a monthly poetry blog-along. I haven’t posted my sign-up yet, so I’m combining this month’s post with that.

On the last Tuesday of every month, I’m going to join in and blog (very) informally about some of the poetry that I’ve read over the past month.

For January, I thought I’d share some of Shakespeare’s thoughts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In Act III, scene ii, Hermia has awakened to find her love, Lysander, gone without explanation. She accuses Demetrius, his rival, of harming him:

Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou driv’st me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Has thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numb’red among men.
O, once tell true: tell true, even for my sake
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake!
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?

I can just feel the pain, anger and contempt in Hermia’s words!

My favorite lines from this play, though, are Helena’s in Act 1, scene i:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.