I is for "I'm Currently Reading______________" AND "The Ivoryton Library Association"

 I is for "I'm Currently Reading _________________"

So by now you've realized that my kiddos and I are hopeless bookworms.  We will read ANYTHING, from cereal boxes, to tabloids, to pamphlets of religious propaganda, to the classics- we are truly equal opportunity readers!  That being said, it should come as no surprise that I am far from a reading snob.  I know some people are very guarded about what they will admit they read- they have some books they'd read at home, and then they have their "public books"- the ones that they feel project a certain image of themselves as  readers.  I also have other friends who will only read "challenging books", and they talk of them like they're mountains to be climbed: "I just read _____________ (insert name of a classic, preferably over 700 pages in length, and add extra points if it has been translated from a foreign language.  Even more bonus points if it was written by someone who is long dead, but when they were alive was wallowing in a deep depression and addicted to some illegal substance)   Man, it took forever, and it was hard, but I was up to the challenge!"  

 O.k., so I don't fit in with either of these groups.  I read things that appeal to me, and this appeal could be based on subject, a current interest, or even be as shallow as the fact that I happen to dig the cover ;-)!  I don't believe that the book I'm carrying should either define me, or be my cross to bear.  My book should enlighten me, delight me, guide me, or somehow make my life easier.  That being said, I thought I'd share some of the books the kids and I have had our noses in so far this summer.  Feel free to add those you recommend in my "comments" section- we always enjoy new material!

Jenn's been reading (with apologies to amazon for shamelessly grabbing their photos):

I LOVE a Parisian memoir!  I've read a whole bunch of them; these are just two I've read this summer.  My favorite of the two was definitely Paris in Love.  Eloisa James is a prolific romance novelist; however, after her mother's death, and then her own battle with cancer, she and her husband decided to take a year's sabbatical, and spend it in Paris with their two children.  The book chronicles the family's year and is written in short snippets that were gleaned from e-mails and journal entries that Eloisa wrote during their stay.  I loved it!

I should've known that Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down was going to be a bit of a "gripe session" just from the title.  I am a hopeless optimist, and decided to give it a go despite my initial impression.  Bad idea.  The book was well written, but I hate to say it-  it "brought me down"!  After two of my own visits to the City of Light, I prefer to maintain my touristy-illusion of Paris.  This book is about the author's disillusionment during the course of a year of living and working in Paris.  Sometime, being a little delusional can be a good thing...so this one was not a favorite.

I can't believe I almost forgot to include this book!  I actually had to edit the post when I noticed it on my night table and realized that I had forgotten to put it on the list.  This is my most recent book purchase, and I LOVE it.  Now to look at me, one would never realize that I adore fashion.  I wear a variation on the same thing (if you can call the same thing in a different color a "variation") every single day.  My shoes are sensible and my clothes are unfailingly from the "cotton and comfortable" collection.  I rarely even buy anything with a numbered size- just a size "M" will do nicely, thanks!  So it is rather surprising (even to me!)  that I enjoy fashion, especially vintage fashion, as much as I do.

This book is another of my favorite illustrative styles, and it is also well-rooted in a great concept.  The author's godmother bequeathed her a collection of dresses that she'd amassed from a wide variety of acquaintances over the years.  This collection includes some iconic pieces, and represents a three dimensional timeline of fashion history!  But that's not what makes this book truly special.  What makes this one a "gotta have it" in my book is the fact that the author's godmother not only left her the dress collection- she also left her a diary with the stories behind the dresses.  We meet the dresses and also read about the person who wore them and for what occasion!  It is a real treasure.  I am currently on the hunt for the first installment of dresses presented by Charlotte Smith in her first book, Dreaming of Dior".  Can't wait to read it!

Always a sucker for a memoir (especially one that involves food ;-), I gravitated immediately to this book, which was recommended by the  Essex library.  Charlotte Silver's parents owned a restaurant in Harvard Square called Upstairs at the Pudding, and Charlotte spent many of her formative years at the restaurant.  This book is her memoir of life washed down with unlimited Shirley Temples!

Oh my goodness, I loved My Korean Deli! A young couple decides to purchase a Korean Deli for the family's matriarch as a way to "give the parents something back".  This memoir is an account of how the family went about getting their deli off the ground while keeping their feet firmly planted on it!  It is interesting, funny, and well written!

I dodged this book for weeks at Barnes and Noble (for some reason, I get stubborn whenever the store features a book.  It's pretty childish really, my "I'm going to read anything I want- you can't MAKE me read this book you have so artistically stacked everywhere I turn!).  Eventually though, I caved (a woman I follow on Twitter recommended it-said she was devouring it during a pedicure.  Why this weirdness  brought about my "tipping point", I have no idea).  This book isn't a memoir, and has nothing to do with France or food; however it does involve a few other things to which I can't help but be drawn- summer on Cape Cod, old preppy/WASP-ish families, a bit of drama surrounding a wedding, and a story that is told from several different perspectives.  This book was written by a young author (born in the 80's!!! Weren't the 80's just like, yesterday???) with tremendous talent.  In fact, the story is so well-told, that you might forget to slow down and savor the author's superior craft! 

This book is one I have waiting in the wings.  Sue (of the famous "Bob and Sue", from my previous post) recommended it.  If you read Sue's R.A.O.K. letter, then you'll understand why I went out and got this one based solely on her recommendation.  Yup, she's that awesome!

I picked this book up at the Terrain Garden Store and Cafe in Westport.  My friend and I had a fantastic afternoon browsing in the store (it's Anthropologie for your home and garden!) and then enjoying a delicious lunch in their cafe.    I never met a book I didn't like at Anthropologie, and their sister store Terrain was no different!  I grabbed Farm Anatomy to use with my class this fall during a unit on farming.   It is an amazing book, done in my favorite style of illustration- watercolor and ink, with lots of cool diagrams!  I can't wait to share this one with my class!

This one gets the award for my priciest purchase.  I plan on using it to help me work within the guidelines of the Common Core.  I love Barbara Mariconda, and I'm going to trust that this one will be well worth the investment.  I'll have to get back to you once I use it for a while!

This one isn't the Paulo Coelho version that would lend me the appearance of a well-heeled intellectual...nope, this one is the first book in the kids' series about "The Immortal Nicholas Flammel".  I bought it because I loved the cover ( literally "judging a book by it's cover") and because my school had a "buy one, get one free" book fair.  I keep starting this one, but not getting too far.  It seems like a fabulous series, and from what I hear, there's going to be a movie made, so I'm going to give this one another chance...

My daughter (almost 12) is currently reading:

She LOVED this series by the author of The Hunger Games.  She's read the entire series already this summer, and speaks very highly of it.  The high action adventure series takes place in the subways and features giant rats as "bad guys".  She stayed up until long past bedtime on many nights, unable to put down a single volume of the series!

This story of an illegal immigrant family was required summer reading from her school.  She enjoyed it; however she didn't talk about it much.  Probably because there are no mythical creatures, magic, or wizardry.  I haven't read it; however, I plan on it.  I crave memoirs the way my kiddo craves fantasy!

My daughter's currently on the hunt for this book.  She has a copy of the sequel (see below) from the Advance Reader's Club at RJ Julia and she doesn't want to read it until she has the opportunity to read this one.  Our search for it at a local library continues!

This is the book she is currently reviewing for RJ Julia.  She won't read it, though until she reads Mistress of the Storm. Here's hoping we find it soon.

The book she's reading until we find Mistress of the Storm. This one's about a girl who is searching for her missing older sister in a forest that is endangered by developers... hmmm....a bevy of issues!

I LOVE Stargirl!  What a great story with a terrific message! My daughter balked at this one for a long time (maybe b/c I was the one recommending it?), but she finally gave it a shot this summer and REALLY enjoyed it.  She's currently working on listening to the sequel, Love, Stargirl to unwind before bed each night.

My son (8) is reading:

O.k., first of all, my son is a nonfiction glutton.  He will read ANYTHING that can provide a fact for him to store in his limitless archive.  He reads or hears a fact once, and it is carved in some stone tablet and filed away for him to draw upon later to either win an argument with his sister or impress his grandparents.  This being said, he is also a nonfiction book "flitter".  He rarely reads nonfiction cover-to-cover.  Instead, he picks up a book, reads it for awhile, drops it on the floor, and reads another.  This makes me CRAZY.  Why?  Because when he goes back to school, we have to submit a list of the books he's read over the summer, and he's read an encyclopedia's worth of snippets, but very few books in the traditional manner- start to finish.  So, I try and remind myself that what is truly important- he's a capable and voracious reader!  Just don't ask me to give you specific titles ;-).  Seriously, though, when he's not reading non-fiction morsels, he has been reading two books he really likes (and a third we're using as a family read-aloud):

He received this book as a gift for his 8th birthday from my brother and his family.  It is the 3rd in a series, and it is chock full of the irreverent humor and action that boys love.  As I was grabbing this picture from amazon, I noticed that there is a 4th book being released in September.  He's going to be delighted!

This one is of a similar "action-packed and irreverent" genre!  He has the sequel to this one waiting int he wings!

This book was SUPPOSED to be released in June- we even had a countdown to its publication! Alas, it wasn't published when it was supposed to be; the author told us that the series is being re-released in the hopes that a new look will help it to sell a bit better.  Well, we're HUGE fans of its current incarnation, and didn't think we could wait for a huge makeover (we read it aloud as a family).  The author is a terrific guy, and sent us an advance reader's copy to hold us over- we couldn't be more grateful, or recommend his series more highly.  To my son, it is the ultimate trifecta: irreverent humor, tons of action, LOTS of nonfiction elements!

So, these are some of the pages being turned at our house...whatcha reading at yours?


Now, more library reviews from my daughter....

 "I is for the Ivoryton Library Association"

How cute!!!

Hi Guys! Sorry  I haven't written in a while. We were so busy with camps the last two weeks that we had no opportunities to visit libraries. We were going to go to Hartford for H; however we were in the Essex area and decided to skip H for now, and and go right to Ivoryton for letter I!

This library was so small and cute!!! It is probably the smallest one we've been to so far being that Ivoryton is really just a "village" of the Essex, Ivoryton, and Centerbrook area. This library is very special since it is still housed in the same building as it was in 1888 and no addition has been made. The library is not provided with money from the town so it relies on donations, book sales and volunteers. 

This library is in the same building as the Ivoryton library in 1888!!

The Ivoryton library had a children's section located in the basement of the building. You have to walk down very steep steps being that it is a very old building. The children's librarian was very nice and carried her (2?) year old boy on her back in a baby backpack- the baby was looking at a book while he rode in the backpack! Ivoryton has a couple of Eagle Scouts that did projects with the library. One amassed a HUGE collection of  children's books to donate, and another created a brick walkway next to the library. 

The cute book drop is right outside the front door. It matches the rest of the house!!

Upstairs the library had a few shelves of the adult section reserved for teens or "Young Adult". They had some good book choices and the librarian told us it was mostly for ages 12+.

The small young adult section - probably the smallest we've seen- but at least they've got the teens in mind!

If you didn't know, Ivoryton was famous for it's ivory importing. All around this library are trinkit's made of ivory and tusks of elephants. Here's some information from the library's website:

The Ivoryton Library, built in l889, is one of the few libraries in the state housed in its original structure that has continued to function as a library for over l00 years. The library has great significance for the village of Ivoryton because much of the present landscape and environment in the community is due to the unique ivory-cutting industry that flourished here during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The library, perfectly placed in the center of this once factory village, was built in part with funds from the ivory factory, Comstock, Cheney & Co. It is difficult to imagine that Ivoryton was at one time the center of the ivory cutting trade in the United States. A photographic exhibit of the Comstock Cheney ivory trade resides in the library as part of a permanent collection. Currently there are 7,850 books on the shelves of the library, including archives on the library history, the ivory trade, and local history.

We enjoyed this library very much and we can't wait to go to "J"!! Its still undecided!!

The tusks by the door.

A historical display of ivory objects and the town's history.