I spent the weekend reading, as stated in the last post, as part of Mother Reader‘s annual 48-Hour Book Challenge. The minimum goal of participation was 12 hours, which is just about what I managed.

During that time, I read five books:

1. The Skin I’m In: Sharon Flake’s debut young adult novel focuses on Maleeka Madison, who is trying to get through 7th-grade unscathed. She’s got a best “friend” who shares clothes with her and tolerates her company in exchange for completed homework assignments, a classmate who sings unkind songs about how dark Maleeka’s skin is, and now a scarred English teacher whose interest in her potential are just going to bring down a heap more trouble on her head. (171 pages/2 hours)
2. Walk Two Moons: Sharon Creech’s middle-grade Newbery winner tells the story of Salamanca Tree Hiddle, a 13-year-old who is on a road trip with her grandparents from Ohio (where she and her dad moved the previous year) to Idaho (to where her mother suddenly announced the previous spring she was going to take a solo trip). While on the road, she regales them with the story of her classmate, Phoebe, whose own mother also left home recently, and of adjusting to her new life.

   Sal and her mother are part Seneca Indian (she prefers that term to Native American) and share a love of their tribal folklore and of nature, although she does note that her mother had thought their tribe name was originally Salamanca, when she’d named her daughter. As for the diversity of the book, Creech’s portrayal of Native Americans relies heavily on the somewhat outdated late-20th century vision of Native Americans as being particularly in touch with nature. It was nice that the main character had some Native American blood in her from several generations back, but it seemed mostly peripheral to her life.

   That said, the book was still quite enjoyable and touching and her grandparents (who once were arrested when visiting D.C. for trying to borrow a couple tires from a senator’s car when theirs had flats) were hilarious and now rate high on my list of favorite grandparents in literature. (280 pages/4 hours)

3. Nowhere to Run: Claire J. Griffin set her young adult novella in D.C. and dedicated it to her Montgomery College students. Calvin is a senior at a dilapidated public high school, but he only stays in school because he’d made a deathbed promise to father to graduate and because he is a sprinter on the school’s track team. He loves to run more than pretty much anything. So when a local gang leader threatens to break his legs (after Cal asks the guy to stop harassing his mom about protection money for her nail salon) and then settles on Cal throwing the District championship, Cal is stressed out. Other things that stress him out as the year inches toward that race are his school principal, who suspend him on wrongful charges of possession; his mom, who wants good things for him, and his kid brother, who looks up to him; his girlfriend, who is a daddy’s girl and who maybe thinks his best friend is a bad influence; his best friend, who is, in fact, a bad influence, but who also has always been there for him until he’s suddenly asking a lot more from Calvin; and his boss, who tries to get Cal to look at the long view and who reminds him that everything in life is a test.

   While I liked the local setting, this book stressed me out unbelievably and I kept putting it down every six pages or so to untense my muscles and to give myself some headspace. While I am not fond of the type of ending the author opted for, I can see it generating good discussions, particularly among teenagers who really do have to make hard decisions in their lives. (110 pages/3 hours) [Thank you to the book’s publisher, Namelos, for sending me a review copy.]

4. Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream: Written by Jenny Han, this elementary school chapter book portrays 3rd-grader Clara Lee, who very much wants to be the Little Miss Apple Pie winner this year. She can see herself standing on the float, wearing the traditional Korean dress her grandfather brought back for her from his visit there, but to get there she not only has to beat out older girls at her school — and a classmate who has ties to the founders of the town — but also give a speech about what makes her town special in front of her whole school.

   Aimed at younger kids, I think this book will be a hit with its target audience. Clara Lee has an annoying, but supportive younger sister (she kind of reminded me of DJ from the Arthur series), parents who are realistically well-rounded and emotive, and an adorable grandfather, who jots down unfamiliar English words and idioms in a notebook to look up later in his Korean-English dictionary, fixes Clara Lee’s hair every morning, gardens, and helps interpret her dreams. While the main character is a girl, I don’t think there’s anything in the book that would keep a boy from finding it just as enjoyable as a girl would. (148 pages/1 hour)

5. The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez: Raisin has just moved across the country after her mother remarries and begins a secret blog to share her new life with her two BFF’s back in California. She’s working hard to fit in at her new private middle school and to make friends with the most popular seventh-grade girls, but, somehow, things just never quite go her way (like when she invites one of them over to study for a math test and Raisin ends up having to remove the remnants of a bra from her step-sister’s dog or when she joins the soccer team without knowing the rules of the game).

   I picked out this middle-grade book by Judy Goldschmidt particularly because the drawing of the main character on the book’s cover featured a girl with brown skin. However, were it not for a Latino surname and a single mention by the main character of her “brown skin,” this book could have been about a middle-schooler of any ethnicity. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but may be something potential readers want to know. With several pop-culture references and its use of technology, this book, the first in a series, can feel a little dated at times, as well as somewhat insubstantial. Cute, but I bet I won’t remember it in a year. (202 pages/2 hours)

Thanks to Mother Reader for a weekend full of books. I enjoyed my first time doing the challenge, and will be back next year.

I’ve got some time this weekend, so I’m going to take part in MotherReader’s Ninth Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge. I’m listing my start time as 7 a.m., as that’s the latest start time to correspond to 48 hours from the conclusion, but let’s all understand that at 7 a.m. on a Saturday I am “reading” with my eyes closed with my head on a pillow and the lights off.

The goal for the challenge this year is to read books featuring a variety of characters in support of #WeNeedDiverseBooks.

First up is The Skin I’m In, by Sharon G. Flake, whose Pinned I read and loved two years ago when I helped judge the Cybils.

Other books I have out from the library that feature multicultural characters are The Summer Prince, Walk Two Moons, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns. And I’ve got a bunch in the home-owned piles, too.

Let’s get reading!

Designed by Amber of Shelf Notes

Today’s Armchair BEA genre topic focused on shorter works:

“Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors?”

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of short stories and novellas. With novellas, I find the length awkward and usually end up wishing they’d been novels or short stories. And with short stories or, rather, short story collections, I find they tend to be a little darker than I’d like my fiction to be and I often end up liking only about half of them. I’m not sure why if I only like half the songs on an album, I’d consider that acceptable, but not so with stories, but that’s the way it works for me. I do tend to like essay collections, so again, it’s clearly not the length that’s the problem.

That said, I have enjoyed a certain number of short story collections over the years. Here are a few I’d recommend:

• Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson: A trio of related short stories dealing with teens at Christmas during a blizzard. This was my introduction to all three of these YA heavy hitters, and while I don’t know I would have been wowed by any of the stories singly, as a group they worked for me.
• Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis: Possibly my favorite short story collection. There were definitely a few clunkers in this group of sci-fi/fantasy-leaning Christmas tales, but they were the exception and I still think of several of the individual stories every year around the holidays. Probably means it’s time for a re-read next winter.
• Any and all of the Paddington books by Michael Bond: These classic children’s stories focus on a marmalade-loving, trouble-attracting bear from the depths of Peru and are my go-to reads when I’m feeling under the weather.
• Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros: A group of feminist/womanist tales focusing on immigrants, the poor, and Latinas. Cisneros’ words are poetic and you can’t help but feel immersed in the stories she tells.
• You can’t go wrong with a good fairy tale collection. The Grimms or Andersen or Perrault are all solid places to start. Phillip Pullman recently revisited some of the tales and put a fresh spin on them, and I hope to find a copy soon to read.

How about you? Got any short stories, collections, or novellas that really work for you that you’d recommend I try? I’m not against checking some out from the library and giving them a shot.

Designed by Amber of Shelf Notes

One of today’s Armchair BEA topics focuses on interacting with authors:

“Let’s talk interacting with authors IRL (in real life) or online. This is your opportunity to talk about your favorite author readings that you have attended. Or, you can feature your favorite author fan moment (i.e., an author sent you a tweet or commented on your blog). Maybe you even want to share how your interactions have changed since becoming a blogger or share your own tips that you have learned along the way when interacting with authors as a blogger.”

I am fortunate to live in Washington, D.C., which is home to the National Book Festival and to Politics and Prose, which hosts readings and signings nearly every night of the year. Because of that, I’ve been lucky enough to meet several authors I like an awful lot:

Barbara Kingsolver, 2009

Jacqueline Winspear, 2011

Michael Scott, 2011 (He is my favorite author to attend readings for, because he’s awesome at answering every question every kid in the audience has and for taking their questions and comments very seriously.)

Jasper Fforde, 2010 (I once got to ask him about his lack of thirteenth chapters in his Thursday Next books.)

Rainbow Rowell, 2013 (She is hilarious and very accessible on Twitter. I highly recommend following her there. We chatted briefly about the series finale to Dawson’s Creek, which we both liked. Also, she has fantastic shoes.)

Eliot Schrefer, 2013 (He shares great stories about bonobos and other apes in his Twitter feed.)

Just in case you envied me these experiences too much, though, I thought I’d reprint this story that I originally shared after the 2006 National Book Festival when I got a book signed by Doris Kearns Goodwin:

…Authors tend to leave me tongue-tied and all the kind, gushing things I think of to say to them while I’m waiting in line leave me as soon as I get up to the table.

What went through my brain in this instance was, “I really loved this book [Wait ‘Till Next Year]. It was on an endcap at the library in my old town and it demanded to come home with me one evening even though it wasn’t remotely what I was looking for. And then as I was reading, I was magically transported back 50 years to the ballgames of yore, and I immediately knew that my dad needed to read it. And that I needed to buy copies for my baseball-loving friends. It was the gift-book of the year. And then I eventually had to buy my own copy because I knew it was a story I’d want to re-read. You really do have a gift for making history come alive.”

What came out of my mouth was, “Sorry about your Red Sox.” She smiled patiently at me and said, “Thanks. There’s always next year.” I might as well have been a nerdy middle schooler telling the boy I like “I like your hair.”

Designed by Amber of Shelf Notes

Last year I discovered Armchair BEA, the book blogging community’s answer to the industry convention (Book Expo of America). I wrote posts, took part in Twitter chats, visited a lot of blogs, entered (and won) a few contests, and generally had a lot of fun.

However, you may have noticed that book posts have been noticeably absent this year and for a good part of last year. I was working on the wrap-up post on the day Rudi got injured in January, and I haven’t been able to force myself back to it — or to move forward without it. I have been reading, as you’ve probably surmised from the Yarning Along posts I share some Wednesdays, but summarizing or evaluating or anything formal just hasn’t happened yet this year.

Because I’ve been largely absent as a book blogger, I’d planned to skip this year’s Armchair BEA. But then it started today and I had a little pang.

Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize those pangs. They’re my psyche’s way of smacking me upside the head and saying, “Hey, dummy, you want this!” So I just signed up and offer this (and the following answers to some of the questions posed for the formal intro post) as way of saying hello:

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

Hi, my name is Sprite. I blog from the Burrow, the apartment my partner and I share with three cats. I’m into my ninth year of blogging here at Sprite Writes, a birthday present from my partner back in 2005, for purposes of doing the writing I claim to love and never do.

Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details so we can connect more online.

Sprite Writes is a lot like me: highly disorganized, active in fits and spurts, and filled with what I like best — including books, knitting, friends, cats, gardening, and music. I also write on Twitter, where, as @spritewrites, I write about all those things (just more concisely), as well as life in D.C. and liberal politics.

What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year?

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan topped my list last year. I loved his use of AIDS victims as a Greek chorus and the way his multiple storylines got more and more intense and overlapping as the book neared its climax.

This year, I’ve read a number of good books, but I think the most recent floats to the top as my favorite thus far: A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd is the story of Felicity Juniper Pickle, a 6th-grader who just arrived with her itinerant mom, little sister, and dog in the once-magical Tennessee town her mother grew up in. Felicity is a word catcher, capturing those she learns and those she sees emanating from the world around her in a book and on her sneakers, but she has difficulty sharing these words back with people outside her family. If she can harness the snicker of magic that remains in the town, it’s possible she can turn things around for herself and for Midnight Gulch, but her mother’s got that glint in her eye that means the open road is not far away.

What does your favorite/ideal reading space look like?

A bower? A hammock? A cushioned window seat? The Beast’s library? Jo’s apple tree? Under a comforter on a rainy afternoon? In a park? At the beach?

So from this, we can deduce my favorite spot to read might be in a window seat under a comforter in a formal library of a cottage when I feel like reading inside and then moving outside into a hammock beneath an apple tree in the surrounding park that overlooks the beach.

Actually, that does sound pretty fantastic.

What book would you love to see as a movie?

Gayle Forman’s Just One Day and Just One Year would make great films. A love story! International settings! Fun secondary characters! Mmmm!

So that’s a little bit about me. I’ll be back tomorrow (seriously!) with more bookish talk. See you then!

I admit my socks look much like they did a fortnight ago (I’ve added one icord of 14), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting.

The square is for a quilt being made in remembrance of an acquaintance of ours. He was hit by a car last fall, suffered serious traumatic brain damage, and died last month as a result of complications from the surgery to close his scalp after the swelling had finally gone down. Rudi learned the quilt was being made and asked if I’d be willing to knit the square from us. He picked out and bought the yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Marigoldjen Yarns worsted in Paradise Islands), and I did the knitting. The heart, which I decided to add at the last minute and which is hard to see in this photo, isn’t centered vertically, but I think it’s okay the way it turned out. I’ll block it tomorrow and Rudi will be able to send it off to the knitter who’s collecting the squares and putting them together as soon as it’s dry.

The other knitting is a gift, so I won’t talk about it much, but knitters will recognize it as a Color Affection shawl, which I made for myself several years back and which I wear all the time. I’ll share more information about it once it’s done and with its recipient, but I’ll say that’s nice, mindless knitting, good for multi-tasking.

On the reading front, I’ve got three things going on: My book books are Arabel’s Raven, about a young British girl and her troublemaking pet bird, Mortimer, and A Snicker of Magic, about a young American girl whose mother has brought her and her little sister back to the small town where she grew up — a town once renowned for its now-defunct magic.

My audiobook of the moment is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was one of my favorite books of 2009. It’s performed by a cast of voice actors and I’m enjoying hearing the letters read aloud as much as I’d enjoyed reading them myself five years ago. I’d been thinking it might be time to revisit the book, and when I saw it was available in audio format, I recalled co-author Annie Barrows saying that they’d done a particularly good job with it. It’s perfect for keeping my attention while knitting.

How about you? Are you reading or knitting anything particularly enjoyable?

(Yarning along with Ginny.)