The Tales of Olga da Polga by Michael Bond

Olga da Polga was a guinea pig. It was funny when Olga thought Noel was the panther. That was the best part of the book. Another good part was when Olga da Polga got better. The end.

--Zoe

Daddy Needs a Drink

"Daddy Needs a Drink" by Robert Wilder

No worries, it's just to the right, right now.

Gen X guy pulls at my heartstrings. The brilliant parts are about the younger child who is a little wild (and sucks his middle fingers) (bold statement? I will not judge).

I, as a stay-at-home dad enjoyed this read. Funny, poignant, relevant (to me). More relevant than "Alternadad".

Happy Trails...

Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson

#1 I would like to report that I read 46 books last year, the most since I have started keeping a book journal (if you are not keeping a book journal, I urge you to start now).

A recent book that I finished (not the most recent, that is another (again) Arryhay Otterpay (it is just nice to be in that world for awhile)) (and now I would like to report that the cat was unsuccessful at deleting this post...and now he his trying (and failing) again) was "Conversations With Hunter S. Thompson" edited by Beef Torrey and Kevin Simonson.

Is this Hunter's best work laid out for all to see? No. Is it sometimes repetitive and derivative? Well, yes. Are the interviewers always on top of it? Are they trying to hard to be "Gonzo" sometimes? Is it a good read for fans of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "The Curse of Lono"? Yes. (It also helps a great deal to have read "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" and "Hell's Angels").

I read it through, mostly laying on the couch. New information? Not so much. Inhabiting Hunter's world? Sometimes. Does it make me want to be a Gonzo journalist? Not like Fear and Loathing (then I faint away from imaging too many drugs and alcohol (what a pansy)).

Happy Trails...

Hello Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

There is a slowpoke. The showoff cure. There was the crybaby cure. And the bully cure. The whisperer cure.

The whisperer cure was the best because it was so funny. Because two little girls kept whispering and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gave them Whisper Sticks. The Whisper Sticks took their voices away.

The end.

By Zoe

Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary

I liked Ralph S. Mouse. It was a good book. I liked it. Ralph rode a motorcycle. He liked his motorcycle, but his little relatives couldn't ride it, so Ralph got a new car. The End. I liked when Ralph rode his motorcycle.

-- Zoe

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Four kids lived in England. Their names were Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund. They went into Narnia. Lucy went in first. Lucy met a faun. The faun's name was Mr. Tumnus. Lucy went to Mr. Tumnus's cave. The witch was magic. She turned animals and people into statues.

They all fought the witch. Aslan helped them. The magic worked backwards.

I liked this book. It was a good book.

--Zoe

Tehanu

Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin. A great end to a great series. I read them, four in all, over the course of a couple of years. I highly recommend her. The first book is, A Wizard of Earthsea. Another great book by LeGuin is The Lathe of Heaven, voted one of The 100 Oregon Books from the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (check this out if you like books from Oregon authors).


-Jeff

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

This book is about pictsies. Pictsies drink and fight and steal. They help Tiffani. They fill buckets up with milk and they help her fight the Queen. The Queen likes stealing children. She stole Wentworth, Tiffani's brother.

The best part about the book was when everyone was OK. And that's all I can remember. It was a good book.

-Zoe

Rock On! by Dan Kennedy

This is a non-fiction memoir of Kennedy's stint in the record business. It's from the perspective of someone who loves music, but then gets a job in the music industry which has very little to do with "music" and a lot to do with "industry." Moderately amusing.
-Amy

A Long List from a Lazy Blogger

February 9: Horseradish by Lemony Snicket. A book of anti-inspirational sayings.

February 25: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. A YA book with all the themes Alexie loves to throw in - poverty, racism, alcoholism, basketball, and finding your identity. A good read.

March 1: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I reread this because my 8th grade class was studying it. It's a lovely, rich book.

March 2: Define Normal by Julie Anne Peters. A YA book about finding your identity (hey, is that a theme of teen-lit?) and not judging people until you get to know them.

March 4: Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. A graphic novel loosely based on some fairy tales.

March 6: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. Written from the point of view of an autistic boy who is trying to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog, and in the process discovers some things that his parents thought should be hidden. Very interesting because of the point of view.

March 8: Down the Street by Lynda Barry. A collection of cartoons. She rocks.

March 12, 22, and 27: Harry Potter books 1, 2, and 3; sometimes it's really nice to reread some escapist fiction.

March 26: The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland. A YA novel about a boy in medieval England who has a connection with the legendary King Arthur. Well written.

Whew! I'm glad I haven't been reading that much, or this laziness in blogging would have taken a lot longer to fix.

-Amy

Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry

Euh [shoulder shrug]. Nothing special thriller. He does mention Medford, however.

-Jeff

The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman

Okay, okay. Tony Hillerman is my guilty pleasure. I have read all of his mysteries at least once: this is the second or third time for The Dark Wind. If you like the southwest and you like mysteries, you will probably like Tony Hillerman. Pick one up (they don't take long to read).

-Jeff

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

A very good translation. The rhythm is never stilted and there are no forced rhymes. If you haven't read Beowulf, or haven't read in a while, this is a good one. And don't forget: there is lots of blood and drinking of mead.

-Jeff

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm by Betty MacDonald

It was funny when the little girl, Phoebe, is afraid of everything. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle does everything that a farm needs to do. She helped the people by curing them: The Can't Finder's Cure; the Fraidy Cat Cure; the Forget Her Pets Cure. All of them were my favorite ones. It was a good book. And that's all.

-Zoe

Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary

It is about her (Ramona's) father getting a job. I liked when she dressed up like the sheep. The dad decided to stop smoking. That was hard. But it made Ramona and Beezus happy.

I liked the book.

-Zoe

Ramona the Brave

by Beverly Cleary.

I liked when she got her shoe back from the dog. I also liked on the first day when she went to first grade. We are going to recommend it to people.

-Zoe

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I liked when Almanzo hauled the logs. He hauled them with a bobsled. It was a little silly when he got up in the middle of the night when it was Christmas. I also liked the part about Almanzo's birthday because I liked when he got the yoke. This was a good book.

-Zoe

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

This was an amazing book. I would recommend it to everyone in the whole world, but it would be very difficult to read if you don't know any Spanish, which is peppered liberally throughout the book. It is also full of references to various sci-fi and fantasy tales (many metaphors are from The Lord of the Rings), but even though it is the tale of the people in a family which is cursed, it is not a fantasy book. Even though it is a tale of surviving (or trying to survive) horrible circumstances, it is not an Oprah book. And even though I learned a great deal about the Dominican Republic, it is not a history book. It was a very good book, and I really liked it.

-Amy

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

Bertie Wooster is an upper-class twit, and Jeeves is his genius butler. There is a silver cow creamer, a stolen policeman's hat, and several quasi-romantic misunderstandings. Wooster has a very verbose style with plenty of unexpected metaphors that I enjoyed. This book was an Agatha Christie, without the mystery, crossed with a Monte Python sketch.

-Amy

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, by Chelsea Cain is a parody of sorts. Nancy Drew claims that the story of her life was told less factually than it was actually lived. In "Confessions" we get snippets of cases that explain and follow Nancy's life until her death in the mid 1990s.

All in all, it is a fun read, even for someone who has never read a single sentence of a Nancy Drew story.

-Jeff