I had a really good weekend, Y’All.  I came sooooo close to finishing the magazine (it’ll be out this week–promise!), The Taste Tester gave me a box of new cameras (all of them much older than I), it’s no longer January, and I discovered a reading list in the library book I was reading (a book I was reading to review for the magazine at that).  So, I can’t turn down serendipity (at least in this case).  I’m going to read all the books on the list this year (along with all my regular reading).  Here’s the list (minus the one being reviewed in the magazine so as to maintain the surprise) for posterity:

The Heart Broke In by James Meek

The Salt God’s Daughter by Ilie Ruby

Paris in Love: A Memoir by Eloisa James

We Are Now Beginning Our Descent by James Meek

Of Men and Their Mothers by Mameve Medwed

Have you read any of these?  What have you been reading lately?

When things get a little rough around the edges, I start fantasizing about going back to the land.  I play the Five Acre “Farm” Fantasy game and pretend that The Taste Tester and I could be self-sufficient on that little acreage (yeah, we probably could but…).  My “farm” will have regular row crops and fruit trees and olive trees.  Beehives, of course.  Also some sheep.  And chickens.

Although T3 and I certainly haven’t ruled out fleeing the city for country life, we haven’t made any steps in that direction either.  Instead, I feed the flames of fantasy by reading books about people who have actually made the switch.  If this is your fantasy too (and we’re certainly not alone if the number of titles about this subject is any guide), the following books will make for great escapism:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball

The Quarter Acre Farm by Spring Warren (this one is about staying put but growing/eating locally)

Farm City by Novella Carpenter (this is also about staying put and creating an urban farm…I woudn’t keep bees on my balcony, though)

Tomorrow, April 23, is UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day.  April 23 also marks World Book Night.  April 23, which is why they chose the date, is also the death date for Shakespeare (maybe even Shakespeare’s birthdate), Cervantes, and El Inca Garcilaso.

© Dowhawon & Kim, Hyo-Sup 2012/ © UNESCO

UNESCO is particularly highlighting the 80th anniversary of their Index Translationum, an index of international translations of published works.  It’s pretty cool (and was actually started by The League of Nations) and sometimes surprising–Barbara Cartland, for example, is the 6th most translated author (Agatha Christie is first).  Read something in translation today (for ideas see the “Interchange” column in the Winter 2011/2012 issue of Quarterly Speed Bump Magazine.

World Book Night started last year in the UK and Ireland.  The US is joining in this year with a day “to bring attention to books for adult readers, with a few young adult books to be included” and “is intended to be thousands of individual interactions and celebrations of reading and giving that day.”  Books are given away (it’s too late to be a book “giver” for this year) and this year’s World Book Night book list contains the following:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Blood Work by Michael Connelly

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Zeitoun by Dave Eggars

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The Stand by Stephen King

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Just Kids by Patti Smith

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Go read a book!

Have you seen the list of the 100 Greatest Books for Kids (it’s been all over the Web so nothing new here–I’m just jumping on the bandwagon) put out by Scholastic’s Parent & Child Magazine?  I’m a sucker for these types of lists.  My own list would be different but this is a good jumping off point.  What do you think?  I really want to know what you loved, what the young people in your life love, and what you think really should have made the list and didn’t.

And what did you read over and over again when you were a kid?  I was partial to series books since they wouldn’t run out too quickly.  Off the top of my head (and this all seems to be what I was reading around the age of 8-10…must have been a stressful time to have to re-read them so often but I don’t remember that part):

The Mary Poppins books by P.L. Travers

The earlier Nancy Drew books by “Carolyn Keene”

The Borrowers books by Mary Norton (also her Bedknobs & Broomsticks)

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Littles books by John Peterson

The earlier Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Almost anything by Judy Blume.

I’ve finally started reading the Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny.  At the moment there are seven books and I’m only on the third.  But, I read the first two books in two days and didn’t wait to start the next one so I have high hopes for the rest–enough that I’m recommending them to everyone before reading the entire series.

Mostly set in the seemingly idyllic village of Three Pines (in Quebec, Canada) not too far from either the US border or the big city, Montreal, these books are mysteries and reflections on life and emotions. We learn a little about the francophone/anglophone outlooks on life and culture.  We meet the extremely quirky townspeople of Three Pines.  Throughout, there is homicide detective Gamache who is gentle and wise; interested in teamwork over self-promotion; compassionate; and trying, always, to do the right thing. This has stalled his career to some extent and we get glimpses of something ugly happening within his department, the Sûreté du Québec, that doesn’t look good for him at all.  He is aware but continues to do his job: listening, observing, finding the murderers, and trying to do the right thing.

Book the First

In order (and you really do need to read them in order so you won’t spoil things for yourself), the series contains:

1. Still Life
2. A Fatal Grace (titled Dead Cold outside of the US)
3. The Cruelest Month
4. A Rule Against Murder (titled The Murder Stone outside of the US)
5. The Brutal Telling
6. Bury Your Dead
7. A Trick of the Light

I’ve heard the books described as “cozies” and that’s true to some extent. There are murders but little gore and guts.  However, evil does lurk.  If they sound interesting, give ’em a go.  I think you’ll be sucked into Gamache’s world.  It’s a pretty good place to be.

What’ve you been reading?