05.31.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Friday Six at 11:39 am by Bridget Zinn
One week in Madison left!!!!!!!!!
1) Last day of work at Madison Public Library yesterday. I did three presentations about the summer library program for elementary school kids and seeing their reaction when we told them that everything we do is free was totally satisfying. That, I’ll miss.
2) I’m reading The Disreputable History of Frankie Banks Landau by E. Lockhart and it’s pretty good. It takes place at a ritzy east coast boarding school and reminds me a little bit of the Gilmore Girls world.
3) I’m also reading In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan which I’m really enjoying. It’s a totally different take on diet and nutrition than what’s out there — he has a big picture view of things. It’s probably the last thing I should be reading right now since our eating has gone all to hell with us moving and everything being half packed and we don’t even have a table to sit down at to enjoy meals per his recommendation, but it’s still a good read.
4) Packing has consumed my life.
5) Who knew I had so many piece of paper in my life that needed to be gone through?????????
6) Have I mentioned we’re moving in one week??????????? Aaaaahhhhh!!!!!
Have a great weekend!
Bridget
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05.23.08
Posted in Friday Six, Writing at 8:34 am by Bridget Zinn
We’re counting down to our last two weeks in Madison now and this week “lasts” were coming around like crazy.
The lasts (for now anyway):
1) Last CCBC Book Discussion — the books were so depressing this month too! Three of them were about war and one of them was a kidnapping/creepy guy story. I’ve been going for five solid years. I don’t think I’ve missed more than maybe one a year and even then I read the books just so I could keep up. I picked up the list for next month, but I don’t know. I always went because it’s a great experience and great people, AND I read a lot of books (ten a month) I wouldn’t have read otherwise. Which is just it — now I don’t have any reason to read them. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!! I can read whatever I want!!! No more depressing books!!!!! I’m feeling an exhilarating sense of freedom. Without the CCBC Book Discussion discipline am I going to disintegrate into a chic lit only bum???? I’m sure after one month, I’ll be all okay, I’ll read them even though they might kill me. Maybe I can find other writers and librarians who talk YA and children’s books in Portland. There must be something like that, right?
2) Last in person writers group with my larger critique group (we really need a name). I love my group! They were all sneaky and got there early to put quotes on and sign a gigantic umbrella (thanks, Georgia, for the photos!). I can’t live without them so I’m going to keep participating electronically. It won’t be the same though — I’m going to miss them!
3) Last walk down the lakeshore path. I went before the CBCC Book Discussion. This shouldn’t be a big thing, as I only go down once or twice a year now, but my first residence in Madison was in a dorm on the lakeshore path, so we’ve spent some time together.
4) Last book checkouts at MPL. I’m returning all of MPL’s books back to them, except for a couple to get me through until just before we leave. I had to buy three books to get me through the flight out there — I hope they last until I can get a library card in Portland.
5) Last time writing at the Ancora on Monroe St., my favorite coffee shop in Madison.
6) Then there are all the lasts I missed because I didn’t know they were going to be lasts. Last storytime, last outreach, last SCBWI-WI event (as a current WI resident — I plan to fly back for them when I can because SCBWI-WI rocks!), last farmer’s market, last bike ride downtown… so, so strange. Even if we come back, things will definitely be different — we’ll be practically different people.
Have a great weekend!
Bridget
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05.16.08
Posted in Friday Six at 2:42 pm by Bridget Zinn
1) How can I be coming down with a cold in May? Especially since I’ve never been so well vitamined in my entire life (I don’t want to move a bunch of vitamin bottles to Portland, so we’re taking them liberally).
2) Reading The Calder Game by Blue Balliett. It has a nice tone to it for a not quite clear thinking almost sick person. A little mystery but not too dark.
3) As opposed to the other books I’m reading which are all dark, dark, dark. Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer — I haven’t gotten past the first page that’s told from the perspective of a creepy stalking lurker guy, The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartaletti which is a really well written novel about Nazi Germany but which I can only read in short doses because the Nazi Germany is so horrid, and Queste which I would think of as sort of light fluffy fantasy but which seems strangely scary today.
4) Speaking of dark books, when did the Penderwicks go dark? I thought surely the new Penderwicks would be just as light as light can be and in the first chapter someone is dying of cancer.
5) Maybe because I have a sort throat and all, and because I’m going to be purchasing one in the near future, but I’ve become obsessed with beds. Like this one. Who wouldn’t want to sleep on the same bed as the King of Sweden? Granted it’s like $60,000 BUT they have an economy model for only $4,000. It’s a steal! Of course, we only budgeted like $600 for a new bed. But the King of Sweden sleeps on one!!! It must be worth it. My second choice would to be to sleep on a snuggly sheep bed, like this one. Doesn’t a cozy wool sheep bed sound really nice?
6) Going to go have some ginger tea now. I’m counting on it to be the miracle cure.
Have a great weekend!
Bridget
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05.09.08
Posted in Friday Six at 4:49 pm by Bridget Zinn
Happy Friday!
1) Thanks for posting the Twilight trailer on your blog, Judy. I’m so excited too!
2) I finished My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger this week. I loved it! Now I’m dying to know what everyone said at the ccbc book discussion last time. I fell for everyone in the book and I want to be Augie when I grow up. It’s told from the perspective of two guys and one girl in high school and they are each quirky and irresistible in their own way.
3) Next month is the last ccbc book discussion I’ll get to go to for awhile. If anyone can go, it would be fun to chat books with you one last time! (for now anyway) Here’s the reading list.
4) The Charlotte Zolotow Award Ceremony last Sunday at the CCBC was really nice — there was a decent turnout considering what a gorgeous day it was outside and that Greg Foley’s pretty new on the scene. His speech was great though and he’s got a unique background. I think we made a good choice going with the fruit and cheese platters from Willy St. Co-op and cookies from Manna Cafe. It is really going go be much harder to go to CCBC events when I’m living in Portland. Not impossible. Just harder.
5) We got the bike riding/environmentalist apartment in Portland. Woo hoo! I will greatly miss my dishwasher, but I think I can handle it for six months. It’s a super cute two bedroom with a courtyard one block away from Forest Park and Macleay Park and only six blocks away from a boulangerie. Can’t you just imagine strolling through the park, eating pain au chocolate?
6) We’re moving in one month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great weekend!
Bridget
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05.08.08
Posted in Book Reviews at 8:10 am by Bridget Zinn
I just finished Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell. It’s an insider’s look at being part of an Army Family during the Vietnam War — Jamie believes in the Army and in war and is upset that she’ll never get to experience it first hand, being a girl. When her brother enlists, her father, the Colonel, tries to talk him out of it, totally blowing Jamie’s mind. After training them up to love the whole system, why was he backing out now? Then her brother begins sending rolls of film home from Vietnam for her to develop and she starts to get it. There’s this whole lovely bit with photos of the moon that connects the story together.
I mentioned the book to Barrett and he showed me a short video clip called War Game that WGBH (Boston’s Public Television) has on their website. It’s a first hand account of a family who has the same strong belief in war that the characters in Shooting the Moon had and then a sudden realization that war might not be everything it’s cracked up to be. It’s worth watching.
Bridget
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