Finish Line - 48 Hour Book Challenge

So, I am calling it done as of 6pm  (Friday night I started at 6:30 pm).  Here are my stats, for those of you who are curious:
Friday night I read for 4 hours.  I read two books - The Trouble Begins at 8, and The Flight of the Maidens.
Saturday I read for 2 1/2 hrs, and didn't finish anything.
Sunday I read for  4 1/2 hrs, and finished Jepp, Who Defied the Stars and Real Solutions for Busy Moms.  I also read part of Blink & Caution.

Total number of hours: 11 (sigh!)  

I would definitely participate again next year - I did get some books out of my To Be Read pile.  This weekend turned out busier than I thought - we had three playdates and dinner with friends, and I walked a half-marathon on Saturday morning.  The 4:45 am wake-up time and 13 miles definitely cost me when it came to reading time later in the day.  By the time we got home from dinner with friends, I was exhausted.  Today included a playdate with friends, a birthday party and a tasting get-together, so it was pretty full.  I am now making dinner and folding laundry and trying to catch up with the weekend!

A fun way to spend the weekend, and a good reminder that I can always carve out time for reading.

Real Solutions for Busy Moms

This is actually the picture of the devotional that actually goes with this book, but it will work for my purpose.  This book took me a long time  to read.  It was on a list of books I had checked out from my old library, years ago, and then I finally got around to reading it.  I'm not sure why I wanted to read this book in the first place - although I suspect that I was looking for actual solutions to the problems I saw in my life.  This is not the book to solve my problems, though.  I found a couple of little quotes in it that I liked, but in reality I didn't find Kathy Ireland very believable.  The book has a Christian tone to it, which didn't resonate with me either. I'd love to de-clutter my house, put myself first, and talk to my children about all of society's evils, but that just isn't necessarily going to happen for me. I had had this book for more than six months, which probably says something about me and my priorities. I am glad I finished this book, so  I can move on to other things in  my To Be Read pile, and that's what this challenge was all about.

Real Solutions for Busy Moms - Kathy Ireland.  Howard Books, 2009.

from my personal collection

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars

Before I start with my review of this book, I have to say this challenge has been really great for me in a number of ways.  I am at hour 8 1/2, and I have gotten three books read so far.  If it was a regular weekend, I may have finished one book at the most. It's made me realize that many times I don't take advantage of my time to read.  I woke up this morning at 7am, and realized I should just get up and read.  And I did, gaining about 45 minutes before Gloria woke up.  I read two hours this morning, including scrambling eggs with Jepp on the counter next to the stove - perilous, but it worked out fine!  Yesterday I had very limited time to read (only 2 1/2 hrs), but I'm hoping to include more time today.  But today my girls are home, and so far they've had a lot of needs (that is the nice way of saying I've been a short-order cook), so we'll see how the rest of the day pans out.  Now, on to Jepp.

I read this because it had been one of the books in the SLJ Battle of the Books.  At first I thought it would not be my kind of book – after all, it is historical fiction, which isn’t one of my favorite genres.  But Jepp’s questioning , intelligent, thoughtful nature is all-encompassing, and you tend to forget that it is also historical fiction in a way.  Jepp is a dwarf who is living in his mother’s inn, contentedly, when he is approached by someone from the Infanta’s court, who wants Jepp  to become a court dwarf.  This sets off a series of events that leads Jepp to question the fate that he has been dealt by the stars, and what he can make of himself.  By the end of the book, I was wowed by the work that went into including a huge cast of characters, each of which has some crucial place in helping Jepp determine his destiny.  Jepp, too, is a remarkable character – someone who knows himself, even at the beginning of the book, but continues to learn more and more about who he has been and who he will become.  There are so many real, historical figures in this book, and the reader also gains so much knowledge about the time period of the late 1500’s and Europe.  Amazingly written.

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars.  Katherine Marsh.  Hyperion, 2012.

Flight of the Maidens

I don't usually review my grown-up reads on this blog, but since it's for the 48 Hour Book Challenge, I will.  I finished this book last night.  It was recommended in the May/June 2010 Horn Book by someone who has loved it, and it sounded interesting to me, so I thought I would give it a try.  It is about three young women, who are friends in England after WWII.  They are all on their way to college, and this book takes place in the summer before they leave Yorkshire.  Each of the girls - Una, Hetty and Liselotte - have a very different experience.  One finds love, one finds herself, and one solves the mystery of her family.  While they each have different experiences, there is a lot for them to learn about life outside their sheltered village.  I didn't love this book, but then I don't love books about World War II anyways.  There is a lot of pain in this book,and angst, and while I think Gardam handles it well, it just didn't connect with me very much.  It took me an abnormally long time to read (maybe it's been in my To Be Read pile for more than a year?) which definitely says something.

The Flight of the Maidens - Jane Gardam.  Penguin, 2000.

from my personal collection

The Trouble Begins at 8

This is a rollicking, fun biography of Mark Twain, focusing primarily on the time he spent in Nevada, California and Hawaii.  Fleischman has a great way of writing, and his tone is very well-suited to Twain’s story.  He is pretty careful to point out where there are questions about Twain’s claims, which there are many.  He doesn’t necessarily dispute what Twain says, but he does include quotes from Mark Twain about telling the truth.  I took a class on Mark Twain in graduate school, and I don’t remember much of this information about Mark Twain and his life, but I found it very interesting.  One of the things I found so interesting about his biography was how many get-rich-quick schemes he and his brother were involved in, including mining, a newspaper, and other ideas that lost them both money (of course).   Life then was all about money, how to earn it and stay afloat.  The back matter is very rich, including an excerpt from The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, a timeline of Clemens’ life, references (one of my favorite things for encouraging additional research), and an annotated bibliography.  This book tied in so nicely with the review I did a few weeks ago of Bambino and Mr. Twain - the events of that book happen later in Twain's life.   This was a surprisingly quick read for a biography, and made me want to read more Twain.  On to the next book!

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West - Sid Fleischman.  Greenwillow Books, 2008.

borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library

Getting Ready to Start - 48 Hour Reading Challenge

So, for the first year EVER, I am excited to announce that I am participating in the 48 Hour Book Challenge (hosted this year by Ms. Yingling Reads.  

 I know that most of you are thinking "But what about Frances and Gloria??"  I am just going to do my best to read as much as I can, working around the girls and their schedule.  They are with their father until 4pm tomorrow, and then have a birthday party to go to Sunday afternoon, so I'll try to maximize my time.  And realistically, they may watch a movie or two this weekend!

But not only is it a challenge having young children and participating in this challenge, but I am also doing a half-marathon in the morning!  I am a walker, not a runner, so it will take me about three and a half hours to do that.  However, I expect that when I am done, I will look forward to spending the rest of the day reading on the couch.

Without further ado, here is a picture of my weekend TBR pile. 

I am not going to read these in the order they are pictured, but most likely in the order mentioned below (to get as many overdue library books out as possible!):

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West  - Sid Fleischman

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars - Katherine Marsh

Doll Bones - Holly Black

The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories - Harold Courlander

Blink and Caution - Tim Wynne-Jones

The Flight of the Maidens  - Jane Gardam

The Orchid Thief  - Susan Orlean

Real Solutions for Real Moms - Kathy Ireland

Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids - Dr. Kathy Markham

So Brave, Young and Handsome - Leif Enger

Love Medicine - Louise Erdrich

I am really looking forward to the reading.  I'll be sharing reviews of them as I finish, but they will be shorter than my usual posts.  I still have a couple of hours more work to get done this afternoon, plus some errands and cleaning to do, and a blog post I am hoping to get written this afternoon, so I am anticipating beginning around 5pm.  I can't wait to see what others are reading!

Minette's Feast

It is interesting to me how sometimes related books come into your life.  Does this ever happen to you?  You read a fictional book set in South Africa, for instance, and then you come across an informational book on Desmond Tutu.  Or you pick up two seemingly unrelated books from your library's new books shelf and they have a historical figure in common.  That happened to me not that long ago when I read Dodger (a Printz Honor winner) and Splendors and Glooms (a Newbery Honor winner) and found the same character (a historical figure) in both.  I love when connections between books reveal themselves.  This year while I was on the Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book panel, it happened again.  Two picture books on Julia Child were nominated - Bon Appetit! by Jessie Hartland and the book I am going to write about today, Minette's Feast.

When the books arrived in the mail, I couldn't wait to read them.  After all, I discovered Julia Child at about the same time everyone else did - when the book Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously came out.  My then-husband bought it for me since it combined some of my loves - cooking, reading and blogging.  I continued to read about Julia's life over the years, and couldn't wait to see how it was interpreted for children.

But then I began to wonder if children would sustain the same interest in the subject of Julia Child as I had.  After all, I was interested in how Julia learned to cook, her cool job during WWII, and her connection with France.  Would a child (remember these are nonfiction picture books) be interested in any of that?  If Gloria and Frances are any indication, they don't care how their food is made or what technique I used, just that it is served in a timely fashion!  I don't have a good sense of whether kids really would seek out books about Julia Child, but I suspect not.  So Reich uses a different point of view to examine Child's life - through the eyes of her cat.

Even before Minette comes to live with Julia and her husband, their life in Paris is full of cats.  When they walk down the road, cats peek out of the alley; they curl up on seats in the cafe.  And then the couple decides that "A house without a cat is like life without sunshine" and adopt Minette.

When Minette first comes to live with them, Julia isn't a cook.  And that is fine with Minette, who would prefer to hunt her own birds and mice to eat.  But soon Julia becomes inspired by living in France, exploring the markets and getting advice from the locals.  She wants to really learn to cook, and enrolls at Le Cordon Bleu.  All of the enticing smells are alluring to Minette, but ultimately Minette prefers mouse.  Then one day Julia brings home a large cut of meat.  As she prepares it, Minette shows interest, perching on Julia's shoulder while she cooks.  It develops its flavor on the windowsill for three whole days.  Julia serves the meat to dinner guests who rave over it.  When all the leftovers are finally gone, Minette gets what she's been waiting for - the bone!  She rubs on the bone, chews on the bone, and plays with the bone.  In the end, no matter how much Minette loves that bone, though, she would still rather eat mouse.

Reich's writing brings life and rhythm to the story.  Many of the cooking terms are alliterative, and lend a swinging rhythm to the reader's voice.  For instance, as Julia learns to cook, "She baked and blanched, blended and boiled, drained and dried, dusted and fried."  It's quite a feat to assemble a dinner, and this particular combination of words emphasizes the whirlwind effort Julia goes through.  Reich also uses the terms appropriately and the rhymes make them fun to say.

The same thing happens when Minette is given the bone, with a tiny bit of meat left on.  She sniffs, then pounces, then attacks: "She frisked and flounced, darted and batted.  She tiptoed and hopped, danced and pranced."  Here, too, Reich uses lists of words to convey movement.  The words flow together effortlessly, like a dance.  You can envision Minette (or any cat, really) attacking, prancing and hopping.  These are typical cat behaviors that any cat owner will be familiar with.  After all of Minette's effort, "she licked herself all over and took a nice long nap".  That sentence is all cat!  

My only complaint about the writing is that this mysterious cut of meat that Julia prepares for three days is never named in the text.  We can tell that the meat is delicious - not only do the guests rave about the meat, but Julia and Paul savor the leftovers for days before Minette gets the bone.  We see Julia preparing the meat - both rubbing it with herbs and spices before its time on the windowsill and cooking it with vegetables.  But this recipe is never named (nor is any other).  Child's techniques are described, but it seems like this would be an appetizing place for a recipe.

Minette is the star of the illustrations too.  Bates creates these in pencil and watercolors, and they are fairly realistic.  I've talked before about books with historical figures in them (like The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau) and Bates does a great job of drawing Julia Child and giving readers the impression of her personality without perfectly imitating her.  This allows Bates to work within her own style, but still give a feeling of authenticity to her illustrations.  And she also adds period detail, bringing France to life for readers.

Bates also does a terrific job of conveying Minette's personality through her illustrations.  In the scene at the end of the story, when Minette attacks the bone, there are a multitude of spot illustrations scattered across the page.  You can clearly see the frenzy of activity, legs akimbo and whiskers twitching.  Minette's movements are hilarious and very realistic.  The final full-page spread shows Minette eye to eye with a mouse clutching a crumb of cheese.  It encapsulates Minette's personality perfectly.

The back matter is rich in this book.  There is a two page afterword that summarizes Child's life.   Reich includes notes of all the citations for the quotes used in the story - she used quite a few, and I love seeing them treated seriously here.  There are also additional sources of information on Child's life, including a link to an online exhibit of Child's home.  And there is a glossary and pronunciation guide for many French  terms used in the story.  I didn't talk about it, but I really appreciated the way Reich not only used many French phrases and vocabulary, but also incorporated their definitions in context very naturally.

The last piece of back matter is very important to me.  It gives the author's personal connection to the story - Reich met Julia Child in 1993.  But it also explains why Reich created this story, and how she used Minette to make the story more relatable to children.  Reich notes "...Julia never actually said that Minette preferred mouse."  So some of this story is fictionalized, but I still think it does a good job of bringing the unusual aspects of Child's time in France to life for children.  I am still not wholly convinced that a child would request a book about Julia Child, but this one does combine facts with fictional elements in a natural way.  And its strong back matter satisfies my expectations for children wanting to continue their research.  It's a book that will stay in my collection of books about Julia Child.

Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and her Cat.  Susanna Reich; illustrated by Amy Bates.  Abrams, 2012.

sent by the publisher for  Cybils consideration

Note: I am on the Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book panel, but this blog post does not represent the committee's thoughts about the book.  It only represents my personal ideas and thoughts.