Readathon Update, 5:00 p.m.

Well, my reading has been constant since the last update, but going slowly because my kids wanted to start the next Ranger's Apprentice book with me. I'm glad to involve them in my reading in whatever way they're interested (neither of them is excited about reading to himself today), even if it means I don't get as much read. After 5 chapters they've gone outside to skateboard and I can get some serious reading in while Chris makes dinner. I'm looking forward to getting back to Flygirl.

Title of book(s) read since last update: Flygirl and Ranger's Apprentice, book 4
Total number of books read so far: Still have only finished the one!
Pages read since last update: 131
Running total of pages read: 480
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 3 1/2 hours
Running total of time spent reading: 9 1/2 hours. Wow, really?
Mini-challenges completed: Not completed yet, but I'm heading over right now to join Bookcrossing for Debbie's mini-challenge. I'm really excited to see this challenge because I've been meaning to join Bookcrossing for a while. So, here I go!

TSS: Reading diary

It's been a glorious Sunday here in Portland, the sun finally found its way through the clouds for more than an hour at a time! My boys spent the afternoon selling homemade felt cat toys at a homeschool craft bazaar and I think they did a respectable business, though with half the proceeds going to charity it wasn't a big haul in the end. Fun, though!

I'm currently reading Christopher Moore's Fool. Expect a whole post later this week to help you decide whether it's the right book for you or not, because it's definitely not for everyone! I want to make a flow chart but I'm not sure I have the software to do that right. In any case: it's probably going to be my third favorite Moore book, after #1, Fluke and #2, Lamb.

With my kids, we're on the third book (The Ice Bound Land) in the Ranger's Apprentice series. As read-aloud series' go, this one rivals Harry Potter in how much it's captured all of us. I love when we find a series that has equal appeal for all the age groups represented in our family, and this one just keeps getting better with each book in the series. It's realistic fantasy (no magic, no dragons, and more emphasis on the adventure than the mystical creatures that do show up every so often), the characters are richly loveable, and they make us laugh.

If you haven't seen the new C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call weekly meme, I hope you'll check out this week's posts and participate in its debut week. (And if you have seen it, sorry to keep harping on it, but I'd like to have at least 10 participants this week and we have...let me check....three. Including me. But the next question won't be posted until Friday, so you have all week to join in!

Traveling Thursday

I didn't have a chance to post a Sunday Salon post this week, and I've been on the road ever since, which leaves me with not enough concentration to post an actual book review, so I've decided to post a sort of salon-ish post here in my motel room.

Our dear David Copperfield wasn't invited to come along to southern Oregon because, frankly, he is too fat. I wanted paperbacks that could be tucked easily into a backpack along with my writing folder and my knitting.

So, here's what I brought along:


At our rented beach cottage, I read Kevin Fitzpatrick's A Journey Into Dorothy Parker's New York. This is one of several of the ArtPlace series by Roaring Forties Press I'll be reviewing in the months to come, and I can't wait to get my thoughts together and tell you all about it--both good and bad. I learned so much from this book! Which wasn't hard to accomplish, since I knew very little about Dorothy Parker to begin with--but I also learned about a lot of other people and places I hadn't expected.

Once I'd finished Dorothy Parker, I moved on to Something Like Beautiful, by Asha Bandele. The first few chapters were kind of frustrating for me, because Asha tends to repeat herself. A lot. She repeats herself quite a bit, in fact, (Get it? Like that.) writing in circles around ideas or events to the point where an entire paragraph or two seem to be devoted to a single thought. On page 72 I put it down to go to bed, and at our hotel between the coast and southern Oregon the next night when I went to pick it back up . . . I didn't.

Instead, I picked up Philipp Meyer's debut novel, American Rust. I'm on page 40 right now, and I'm definitely into it. It's not a quick read--a little Faulkner-esque, in its third person stream-of-consciousness style. Meyer switches points of view in each chapter and I'm loving the way the third-person narrative voice changes with each new point-of-view character. Lots of early action, too, for those who like a good dose of plot with their cool narrative effects.

And here's what the whole family is reading together on our trip:

Both of these have been great family reads, in that they're entertaining to all of us. On the curvy roads we're listening to an mp3 of Pictures of Hollis Woods, that I downloaded from the library--my first time doing this successfully. The story of a girl who has bounced from foster home to foster home. We're about a third of the way through it. When we're not in the car, and during the straight parts of the drive, I'm reading the first Ranger's Apprentice book aloud. It's great! I hope they'll want to read the rest of the series with me--even though it's impossible to do the voices the same way Ben heard them in his head when he was reading Book 1 to himself!

The books, the weather, the people who've attended the presentations I'm here to give, and the people I get to hang out with every day (who've been keeping the bickering in the car to a bare minimum) have all conspired to make for some lovely time away from home. And now, my blogging hour is done--time to get back to my book and help the kiddos settle down for the night.

Rangers Apprentice series

The sixth book of Ranger's Apprentice, John Flanagan's YA fantasy series is coming out this summer in the U.S.!

My 12-year-old discovered this series in September, finished the first book in a couple of days and immediately started the second one. He had nearly finished it when he got distracted by all things skateboarding. If there was skateboarding in The Ranger's Apprentice he'd have read the entire series in a week or so. Keep that in mind, ye writers of boy-friendly fantasy: an X-treme sport or two never hurts a boy book.

He's ready to get back to the series now, and he's been filling me in on the first two books. The series begins with fifteen-year-old Will hoping to become a warrior but alas, he's too small. When Ranger Halt chooses him to be an apprentice ranger, he's pretty bummed. It seems Rangers aren't as cool as Warriors. But Will turns out to be rather good at this Ranger stuff and he likes it more than he expected. Adventure ensues.

According to Ben, while there's some action, Flanagan is all about the characters. Ben's favorite is Ranger Halt, who reminds him of Quest on the cartoon The World of Quest, "except he doesn't kick Will over a fence or anything" and is nicer. Just for fun, here's a sample of Quest:

So, the Ranger is a man of few words and even fewer displays of emotion. Ben describes one especially memorable scene from the second book: "Will defeats a boar and everyone's like, Yay!! and the Ranger just sort of nods politely toward him, and another character says, 'For the Ranger, that was like 3 cheers.'"

Ben also liked the way the book shifts perspective occasionally, so every few chapters the reader is following another of the boys who's training to be (I believe) a warrior.

Any recommendations for realistic fiction with a contemporary setting for a 12 year old boy, preferably with skateboards? What fantasy book (child or adult) do you recommend to people who don't love fantasy?