Summer Reading Oddessy

I love reading books and can't imagine a life without reading.  As a child I loved books and relished the opportunity to buy or be given a new book, and the Lucky Book Club (Scholastic) leaflet was always anticipated with delight because my Mum (pretty much) always let us order one or two books each time. 


This has not changed as an adult.


I love getting a book for Christmas or birthday presents.  I can rarely go through a mall without browsing Paper Plus or Whitcoulls or any other bookshop that I pass.  I love buying books and I have favourite shops I frequent.


As a teacher I also love children's books and have a huge number.  I have my own collection of books I love.  I have books I share with the students for them to use as part of my reading programme.  I have books I have purchased to support various units I love to teach (I have a large number of books about Anzac Day for example).


The benefits for children and adults of reading books are outlined below in this awesome graphic (see credit bottom left of graphic):

After finishing some pretty heavy reading for my Masters I headed into the summer with some books lent to me by a friend, two gifted as Christmas presents (one I specifically asked for), one I bought for myself, one I wanted to re-read and one that my Dad got for Christmas.

The only book missing from the list is the one I re-read to get my happy place... I've lent Chocolate Cake for Breakfast to my sister in law.  This book is fabulous.

I was feeling a bit lost for a few weeks without a book to read, but my Dad finished another book and passed it on to me.  This is what I am reading currently:

I have a backlog of reviews to complete and publish.... so prepare for the onslaught of what I've been reading.  And here are a few quotes about reading that explain what reading and books mean to me....







The Life and Art of Lynley Dodd by Finlay Macdonald

Wow!!  This was a spur of the moment purchase.  I had not even heard that this book had been published at all.  But back in March I was trawling through Paper Plus in the Downtown Plaza in Hamilton, trying to hunt down the third book in the Hunger Games series, and my eyes rested upon this volume.

I'm not a fanatical biography reader, my previous biographies read being mainly All Blacks Josh Kronfeld, Tana Umaga and Mils Muliaina, so this is new territory for me.  However Lynley Dodd is a New Zealand treasure and her books are must haves in my opinion - not just as a teacher or an aunty - I enjoyed them before I became either.

The Life and Art of Lynley Dodd by Finlay Macdonald (another writing legend of New Zealand) is just gorgeous.  Feast your eyes on the front, back and inside covers for starters:

  

The inside covers were actually a mini autobiography which Lynley Dodd produced in 1995 for In Flight magazine.

Macdonald has had access to pictures, notes and letters right back into Dodd's childhood.  There are scribbles she did at primary and secondary school, beautiful drawings from Art School, the doodles she did as an art teacher and young mother.... it is all there, cataloguing her evolution to become one of New Zealand's most beloved authors and illustrators.

All the way through the book are the mock ups as well as the final illustrations that make it into a published book by Lynley.  She discusses her obsessive perfectionism she has towards the pictures and words, how even when the book is sent off to the printers and arrives in its final form that she can barely look at it because she knows she want to re-draw all the pictures again. 

Her long time collaborators Ann Mallinson (publisher until 2009) and Margaret Cochran (designer) talk about her high standards and the degree of the control she and her small team have asserted to keep the Hairy Maclary brand from being diluted and exploited.

Throughout the book there are excerpts from various books that I couldn't help but read out loud to the cat because the language is so much fun.  Scott Optican (associate professor of law from Auckland University) informed  Lynley in 2009 as she received a distinguished alumni award from the University of Auckland that she was using anapaestic tetrameter as her method of writing rhyme.  Lynley responded that she did not know what that was and was surprised by his observation.  She said she 'just wrote what sounded good to me'.  This timing is used by Dr Seuss and in the story The Night Before Christmas.  It seems Lynley has used it by instinct and it is a timing that works beautifully for a child's picture book.

This book is a beautiful insight into one of New Zealand's most celebrated children's authors.  She is not only celebrated by children, but by parents and teachers as well, as there is so much in her books that endears them to adults too.

It gives a real eye-opener into what it takes to produce a book to the standard which Lynley Dodd has set for one of her children's books.  It is also and insight into the evolution of an author and how they approach their work.  It also shows that New Zealand authors can foot it on the world stage and can create books that are beloved around the world.

Finlay Macdonald has approached the writing of this book in the same way that he used to present the television show on books he once spearheaded: gently, factually, warmly.   It is an easy read with wonderful illustrations that relate to the period of Lynley's life being discussed and photos that chart her life.  I've been able to dip in and out of this book over the last six or seven months and soak up the charm it exudes.  As a teacher I am inspired to share parts of this book to demonstrate that professional authors have to work hard to create the books that my students love.

This book is a celebration of not only Lynley Dodd, but one of New Zealand's most beloved characters, Hairy Maclary, and his friends.  I'm so glad I gave into impulse and purchased this book.  I know it is a book that I will dip in and out of for years to come.  This is a book I will cherish.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Like I said in my previous review The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I jumped on the bandwagon for this series after watching Catching Fire at the movies.  Having read the first book a few weeks ago, I went and purchased the second book... and soon I will be on the hunt for the third book.

So here is the front cover and the blurb on the back cover:

As I said in the review of the first book, there are things that you read in the book that can not always be accurately portrayed in the movie.  The book will describe to you what a character is thinking, seeing and doing in a more specific way; whereas the film will tend to 'show' you visually.

So reading the movie after the book I of course picked up on some big differences of things that were and were not in the movie compared to the book; and I was filled in on some of the thinking Katniss was having.

Right from the beginning of this book I was engaged in the torment Katniss is experiencing from her time in the Hunger Games arena.  You are soon under no illusions that President Snow does not believe that Katniss is in love with Peeta and he is worried about the implications of what Katniss and Peeta did to win the Hunger Games. 

As Katniss and Peeta tour the districts they discover an uneasiness, and then the worst possible thing that can happen to all the living victors of the Hunger Games takes place - the Quarter Quell.

Right to the end you are invested in what will happen to Katniss and Peeta.  New characters are introduced and you are not sure which way their alliances lie or how trustworthy they are.

The ending of this book gives some satisfaction, but mostly is a cliff hanger... needing you to go to the next book to find out the outcome of who lives and loves in the future.

Right... I better be off to purchase the next book then and put myself out of this misery!!

Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

I was on my OE in London when I first really heard about Bridget Jones's Diary... probably because the film was coming out that starred Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.  Also the flat I was dossing in just happened to have a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary conveniently on the shelf in the lounge room.  It was a cringe fest and too funny not to laugh out loud.

I enjoyed that book so much I bought the second book Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and laughed and cringed my way through that book too.

So I was quite excited to find that Helen Fielding had written a third book... then devastated to find through the publicity machine that she'd killed Mark Darcy off!!!  I couldn't possibly think of how that could have occurred.  Luckily this third book does eventually explain it.

Anyhow, here is the front cover and blurb for Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy:

 

So Bridget is now a mother... and if you remember how chaotic she was as a Singleton (remember the blue leek soup?), well she isn't much better as a mother.  She is desolate still at the loss of Mark, despite it being five or so years down the track since he died.  She is trying to get a career again, get back in the dating game, come to grips with technology like Twitter and texting, and of course there is that perpetual old chestnut, her weight issues. 

Just to add some more colour to the story are the men she dates, her crazy friends with their own dating/love life issues, a mother who is still on a completely different planet, and a barely holding it together Daniel Cleaver. 

And then there are her two kids, Billy and Mabel, also still coming to terms with the death of their father, coping with their mother's grief and just being your typical kids.

The text swings between your traditional diary entries, lists, graphs, tweets on Twitter, emails and texts.  Chapters are generally short.  There are still the laugh out loud moments and the pure cringe that only a character like Bridget can bring.  There are situations in the book that are so obvious the worst will happen that as you read it is like watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion.

At 386 pages long it is a solid read.  I kept it by the bed and read it bit by bit during the term... but I did go some long periods between reads so had to re-read some parts to get the gist again.  There were other days that I feasted on the book.

If you loved how riridiculously funny first two books, you won't be disappointed by this book (apart from sharing Bridget's sorrow at the loss of Mark Darcy).  It is a good solid completion of Bridget's story.  I'd be hard pressed to see how Helen Fielding could write another book about Bridget before she hits the retirement village now!!

Why am I starting this blog?

I love reading.  I've been reading since I started learning to read as a nearly five year old and I took to it like a duck to water.

Early in Term 4 of 2013 I went to a workshop run by the National Library service for schools.  We started off with introducing ourselves and what we were currently reading/had recently read.  Luckily I had read a book during the recent term break, so I could actually say something apart from reading the newspaper online, emails and the kids' writing in class.

But I'm one of those readers who usually only reads during the term breaks and summer holidays.  Why?  Well, once I start reading a book, everything goes out the window.  No housework gets done, well balanced meals are an enigma and definitely school work doesn't get a look in.  I blame Dad and my Aunty Ellen.... they do the same thing.

So usually my term time reading is what is in the newspaper (online or in hand), magazines like Woman's Day and Cleo (but I haven't even read all my Cleos the last six months!), emails, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and what the children are writing/reading.

After that workshop though, I got a bit inspired, decided that a bit of reading for my own pleasure should take place.

So what have I been reading recently?

See below:

 
 

 

 

And what am I planning on reading over the summer holidays?

As well as the latest Wilbur Smith book Vicious Circle (Dad's Christmas present this year - don't tell him - so I have to let him read it first!), Bryce Courtenay's last book Jack of Diamonds (Dad's Christmas present last year that I've yet to read!) and my cousin just got I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with her ghost writer (there are a lot of people in line to read this!)... so you can see that I have ambitious plans.