Reading List

What is Mrs. Van Arsdale Reading?

2013-2014 School Year
October
The Midwife by Jennifer Worth.  This is the biography upon which the PBS series "Call the Midwife" is based. 
 
September
Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. Published in Feb 2013, this won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. It discusses how the big food companies hooked the American public and kept them coming back for more and more processed foods by altering the salt, sugar, and fat content in the foods we purchase.

Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley. This is the 5th installment in the Flavia de Luce mystery.  Flavia does not fail to disappoint (again!).  I still the the 2nd book is my favorite, but this is a great read.
Summer 2013
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. This is historical fiction at some of its best. If you love history and like the period of Abe Lincoln, this is a must read.  Told from the perspective of Mrs. Lincoln's African American dressmaker, the ideas about slavery, emancipation, the Civil War, and the assassination of Lincoln seem new.
 

Beasts by Joyce Carol Oats- a very dark look at college co-eds in an east coast all girls college, this is not for the faint of heart. It's characters are all flawed to the point (almost) of no-redemption

Room by Emma Donoghue- a beautiful but horrifying tale of two captives, told from the perspective of a five year-old boy. It is extremely compelling and difficult to put down.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabelle Wilkerson - a non-fiction account of "the great migration" of African Americans from the south to the East, North, and West.  This is a sweeping look at how the population shifted from the Emancipation Proclamation until the 1990's!

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. This novel is great historical fiction.  If you enjoy reading about the 1920's, aviation, or Lindbergh, this is your book. 

2012-2013 school year

May- The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore. A fun, quick read about friendships in a small town.

April- March by Geraldine Brooks - this won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  It is the story of Mr. March (the father in Little Women and what this author imagines he does while he is away at war.  A very compelling read!

March - State of Wonder and Bel Canto both by Ann Patchett.  Wow, love her writing style!

February-

January-

December - The Finish - The Killing of Osama Bin Laden by Mark Bowden.  This is the true story of how U.S. military forces found Osama Bin Laden and what lead to his killing.  It is really interesting in terms of foreign policy and military tactics.

The Lacuna by Barabara Kingsolver.  I am still in the middle of this one but enjoying it.  I love her novel The Poisonwood Bible so I have high expectations for this!

November- The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. If you like Downton Abbey, you might like this book.  I thought it was kind of a cheat, but not a bad read. There wasn't much depth to the characters and it was a little too sentimental for my tastes.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harness. This was not my favorite read.  It was too much paranormal romance but meant for adult.  I think this author had a real opportunity to write something interesting, but she sold out.  It's the beginning of a trilogy so the story doesn't really end wholly.  I did not enjoy the romance aspect of the witch and the vampire and I thought her writing got really sloppy.  There were some great ideas that just didn't go anywhere.

OCTOBER - this month I kept up on professional reading mostly by reading back issues of School Library Journal.  There were some really interesting ideas for implementing ipads into the school and also an article about the timeliness of the Dewey system.

SEPTEMBER - The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway  -Wow, this was a powerful story.  Beautifully and sparsely written, I highly recommend this one.  Here's a review from "A Book A Week":

"Review, from - A Book A Week: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Becky Holmes on Friday 05/18/2012 6:00 pm
The title of Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo refers to a real person, though the book is fiction. In 1992 Vedran Smailovic, a member of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, played his cello in a bombed-out town square in Sarajevo for 22 days in honor of 22 people who were killed in a mortar attack during the Bosnian War. In choosing this method to call attention to the random horror of war, Smailovic put himself in daily peril from sniper fire, though he was never hurt. He eventually escaped from Sarajevo and lives now in exile in Ireland.
Galloway has taken this event and used it as the inspiration for his book, though the novel is more about the characters who react to and are inspired by the cellist rather than about the cellist himself, who remains unnamed in the novel. Instead Galloway focuses on a handful of characters who are managing to survive the siege of Sarajevo and the various strategies they have developed to cope, both physically and emotionally."

SUMMER 2012 - this summer I read quite a few books.  For our faculty book club we read The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  The common read for the whole school was Outcasts United by Warren St. John.  I also read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.  Believe it or not, it was a really fun book!  Grahame-Smith does a fabulous job of weaving history with fiction is this surprisingly (almost) believable plot about one of our most amazing presidents.  It's not high literature, but a lot of fun.

2011-2012I am a new Library Media Specialist this year so I thought I would keep a list of books that I am enjoying. 
Perhaps you will enjoy them, too?

May book:

April book: On Writing by Stephen King.  The prolific horror writer had a really interesting beginning.  I think he has a great philosophy on  writing, on becoming famous, and on life in general.  This book also details his recovery from an horrific accident where he was hit by a van along a rural road.

March book:  Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.  This non-fiction piece follows the lives of 3 people in the slums of Mumbai.  Boo investigated and interviewed for 3 years prior to writing the book.  She is a Pulitzer Prize winner & staff writer for The New Yorker.  I'm anxiously anticipating the rest of this as I'm just on page 10!  This is our faculty book read for Thursday Sept 29th. Feb/March book:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  This work of historical fiction details the first marriage of Ernest Hemingway.  I enjoyed reading about Hemingway as a real character & as a struggling writer.  The view from his wife, Hadley, is an interesting one. Feb book:  The Other Wes Moore- by Wes Moore. This non-fiction work details the life of an African American man who became a Rhodes Scholar.  But as he read the newspaper blurb about his own accomplishments, he noticed a story about a crime involving the death of a police officer.  One of the men charged was about his age, grew up around his neighborhood, and was also named Wes Moore.  This book takes a look at two men with the same name who, by just a few narrow choices, end up in polar opposite positions:  one Wes Moore works as an aide to Condeleeza Rice and the other is in prison for life. Jan book:  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- by Jonathan Safran Foer.  The narrator is a nine-year old whose father is killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.  The narrator has a unique relationship with his dad and this story really explores the difficulty and beauty of grief. This is currently a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and I wanted to read the book first. This was a very interesting novel!  Definitely not linear and my have  objectionable content for some readers. Dec book:  I am Half Sick of Shadows - by Alan Bradley.  This is the 4th in the Flavia de Luce series.  It was another fun mystery.  Of the four, I would most recommend the 2nd in the series,  The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, if you only have time for one. Nov/Dec book:  A Red Herring Without Mustard - by Alan Bradley.  This is the 3rd Flavia de Luce mystery.  The 4th comes out in the spring, so I'm trying to savor this one! Nov book:  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - this is our faculty book club read for January.  It is the SUPER compelling true story of Olympic runner and WWII bombardier, Louis Zamperini.  If you are not usually into non-fiction I would recommend this to you....it will jump start your interest in "real" life. I probably read 1 non-fiction book for every 10 fiction that I read.  It has to be VERY good non-fiction for me to really enjoy.  This fit the bill.  If you are a history, sports, or war buff, you won't be able to put this down.  Oct book: The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley -this is the second of the Falvia de Luce mysteries, and the follow-up to my Sept book. Sept book:  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - this 2009 winner of the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, this mystery stars an 11 year old who is obsessed with chemistry. Aug/Sept read:  The Book Thief by Markus Zukas - the faculty will discuss this read on Oct 6th.  It is a beautiful, complex novel.  One thing I can say to get you to read this: Death is the narrator-