9.26.2007

Fall Fever!

The summer seemed so languid and calm...but autumn craziness has arrived! This is going to be a long round-up! Here's all the news:

  • Educating Alice has a brilliant post on her blog about teaching with blogs. Truly, it was glorious to read – why the hell isn’t this sort of philosophy incorporated into our public schools? Why do you have to teach in a private school to create such innovative activities in your classroom? I’m frustrated for our public school teachers – being so bound by standards. I want to immediately transfer my daughter to her school – only I’m guessing that 1) I could never afford it, and 2) my daughter probably wouldn’t get accepted to a school that boasts Adam Gopnik’s children as students. Alas! Nevertheless, I love reading about what is out there, about all the wonderful possibilities.

  • Anne Schwartz, of Schwartz & Wade Books, was on a panel and shared a fun anecdote about Ian Falconer. Thank goodness he’s so talented! In this same article, David Levithan talks about the “curse of Goodnight Moon.” In grad school, my mentor talked about a similar curse – the curse of James Marshall.

  • Not Your Mother’s Bookclub is advertising their event with Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier, and they’ve put the poster up on the blog. I love the picture – Justine looks all literary and gorgeous, Scott looks dead sexy. Why can’t Adam and I be friends with them?! They’re completely brilliant, and it would be a dream to make them dinner, drink wine, and talk all things literature. But what would I possibly make for them?

  • Again, I have to talk about Sarah Miller and her lovely blog. Which is embarrassing because I’m guessing that, since I’m linking to her site, she’ll see that I’m all gushy over her. Check out the story of her signing at Pooh’s Corner (I want to go there NOW) and her post commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine yesterday (appropriately simple – let the picture speak for itself). Not to mention that she regularly lists the books she hand-sells in her bookshop, and I swoon over the quality of them. Lastly, she has The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield listed as a “Book of the Moment”. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds like a great read. And if the kids’ books she hand-sells are any indication, Thirteenth Tale will be a fantastic read. (All these bloggers work in children’s bookstores – it’s making me wish I did too!)

  • Lastly, and probably most importantly, MotherReader has put up the MEGALIST of 2007 “Best of…” books. Fantastic list. But god, why is there so little time in the day?! I haven’t read Emily and the Incredible Shrinking Rat! I haven’t read Emma-Jean Lazarus! I haven’t read Aurora County All-Stars! I haven’t read Leepike Ridge!

    Aaaaaaaargh!

    *collapses in a state of complete overstimulation and exhaustion*

1 comment:

fusenumber8 said...

I'm reading "Aurora County" right now (I'm a little meh on it) but you must must must read "Leepike Ridge". Like, right now. Please!