Quickly:
Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck - A great fun read for anyone. My husband enjoyed it a lot too.

I also struggled with another YA for a couple of days. Usually I give books 50 pages at most and if I’m really not into it then I quit reading. I stuck with this longer because I really wanted to like it and because I’ve met the author (no one who reads this blog), but I just couldn’t get into it and this morning I thought to myself I have to finish that tonight so I can go on to something else and then I thought, “Why?” and I quit and I feel much better. I’d read 180 pages (about 2/3)!

Yesterday I sat in the blue chair (Big, Velvet, Luxurious) and read EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY straight through. Of course, any of you who know me already know how I feel about the Betsy-Tacy books. EODV is also by Lovelace and is set in the same town. Emily is a couple of years younger than Betsy and doesn’t know her, just of her, but their paths do cross in this book. Oddly enough, the scene with Betsy is rather didactic instead of familiar and nice like one would expect. The rest of the book is lovely though. It’s self contained, there aren’t any others about Emily, although she is quite interesting. I think I read this book about twenty-five years ago from the library. Maybe more. I just purchased it for my collection though. It was OP until just recently and I’ve heard it is OP now, but I had no problem getting a new copy, so I’m not sure about that. I enjoyed it, but it’s a very mild, sweet story. If you like reading books about innocent girls set back then (1912), you’ll probably enjoy it. It kind of reminds me of Beverly Cleary’s FIFTEEN or SISTER OF THE BRIDE.

So my foray into nonficiton this week was Sarah Ban Breathnach’s recent book Moving On. You may remember her from her bazillion copy seller, Simple Abundance (which changed many, many things in my life for good, by the way). This book was not what I expected. I thought I was going to get something organized more along the lines of SA, you know a daily meditation or action kind of thing to help me reduce the clutter in my house. It was nothing like that and on one hand, I think it’s pretty poorly organized. On the other, I found it an enticing read and parts of it spoke to me very clearly. I’m glad I read it and I think it will definitely have an impact on us as we finally finish getting rid of the clutter that accumulated when we had to move things from my mother-in-law’s house into ours (over a year ago!).  I feel inspired and have found a few important things to really think about and give attention to. SBB and I have traveled similar roads over the last ten years (me without the bazillion copy selling book, but still similar in many ways) and so the book was good for me in a spiritual way. All I can really say is read it if you want to but don’t think it’s a must read just because you may have liked Simple Abundance. They’re not really the same.

Taking a break for some non-fiction. That always takes me longer to get through. Back soon with more YA. Probably by the weekend.

J-

I just finished reading Megiddo’s Shadow by Arthur Slade. As always, his writing is excellent. I’m a bit squeamish so I’m not sure I would’ve read it all if he weren’t my friend, but boy am I glad I did. A most excellent book. And very exciting too. 

Way to go, Art!

I just read AMAZING GRACE by Megan Shull. I really liked it a lot. The woman can do setting. And the plot was fun and believable, and even glam at times. I guess that’s why KIRKUS said “A chick-lit grand slam.” 

Hmmm. In the end, it doesn’t really matter if it is CL or not, but I’m curious if any of my hoards of blog readers have read it? What do you think?

Let’s talk about series today. Of course any of you who know me, know I must start by saying my all time favorite series is Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. I could really leave it at that, but I won’t!

I love series because there are always more. Or hopefully there are! As long as the author’s still alive and writing.

The reason I’m thinking about series is because I’ve become infatuated with some of the British ones. Now this could be because I love all things England, or it could be because I love the fact that I understand the slang without using the glossary so I feel all smart, but I think the real reason is because a lot of them, even the ones people might write off as “chick lit” are so well done. Today I’m going to talk about the ones that people would consider “for girls” or “chick lit YA”. Of course I love Harry Potter and the adult series, Not All Tarts Are Apple is just oh-so-good, but that will be another post.

Have you ever watched a British sit com (or Brit-com as PBS likes to refer to them)? Have you ever noticed how even the actors with one line are BRILLIANT? Well, I think that’s true of a lot of British YA series; the supporting characters are interesting, funny, and likeable.

These are the series I like:

The Calypso Chronicles (Pulling Princes, Stealing Princes, Dueling Princes, Dumping Princes) by Tyne O’Connell

By my calculations, there should be at least seven more before Calypso finishes school. I like these because not only are they very funny, but there’s a whole fencing thing going on which I find really interesting (as in sabre, not selling stolen goods).

The Angelica Cookson Potts series (My Cup Runneth Over, My Scrumptious Scottish Dumplings, My Saucy Stuffed Ravioli) by Cherry Whytock

When I read the first one I practically cried. I was writing a book about a girl who wanted to be a chef and I was going to include recipes. As it turned out, the ACP plots are a soufflé (light and funny) compared to my more meaty stew (angst and relationships, but hopefully funny!), and the recipe thing didn’t really fit in my book after all, so now I just enjoy them.

The Georgia Niccolson Series (you’ll have to look up the titles yourself because they’re so complicated and I don’t own any of them…I think the first one is Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging) by Louise Rennison

What can I say about Georgia? She’s not a princess, she’s not rich, she doesn’t go to boarding school. But oh my, she is laugh-out-loud funny. And she was first.

So Super Starry and So Super Stylish by Rose Wilkins

I’m not sure this counts as a series quite yet since there are only two books, but I liked the first one enough to read the second one (when I can get my hands on it).

Let’s hear from the Canadians!

While I am enamored of the Brits, I have to say that Canadian Susan Juby has thrown a wonderful series into the mix with her Alice series and it’s not to be missed. Talk about weird-hilarious!

And of course, here in the good ole US of A, we have a “few” series of our own. To be honest though, the only ones that have really hooked me are both by Meg Cabot. Yep, I’ve fallen for Mia and her bodyguard. I’m an avid follower of The Princess Diaries, but honestly, my heart belongs to Suze. I think The Mediator Series KICKS ASS. I will buy that series someday.

What series have I missed that I need to check out?