Let's Just Relax!

Today is a day for...

finding my bin of boots in the basement...



making creamy butternut squash soup...


making the no knead rolls that the lovely Cake Duchess made...


watching Ohio State and Michigan play football...



helping Lucy Grace model her new camo hoodie!



Happy Saturday!

Pumpkin Pie For Breakfast!

With all the pre Thanksgiving exhaustion of ordering Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods...why not have pie for breakfast?
Yum!
Plus today is like a free day...the only thing I am not going to do today is shop!
I want to read, watch movies and eat a turkey sandwich!

Reading and loving this book...it is a fantasy to savor...think about this...the entire world has been stopped for three days while brother and sister...Ricky and Allie...are swept up and away into the night time sky to another time and place!
Sandy Klein Bernstein...the author...has such a fun personality...and she is a teacher! I will have a giveaway for this book on Monday!


Happy Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful day with family and friends!

Since we bought our entire Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods...already cooked...we can pop it all in the oven when we are hungry...for Den that has been since early this morning!




Sometimes living with my husband is like living with a 5 year old...I am forever answering the question...when are we going to eat?

I have spent a lot of this day reading...this...yummy fantasy...it's been the perfect book for today!




A review and awesome giveaway are just around the corner!

Let's Talk Books Again!

There Were Dinosaurs Everywhere
by
Howard Temperly...illustrated by Micael Kline

My "in a nutshell" summary...

Hey everyone!!! This is a delightful colorful lively fun entertaining rhyming beautifully illustrated book about dinosaurs!

My thoughts after reading this book...

I knew from the moment I opened and smelled the pages that I would love this book. It smelled like a picture book should smell. It is just the right size for little hands and the rhyming was fun and easy to follow. It is a great book for a primary classroom and a great book to have at home. It is the kind of book that can be picked up and read over and over again. And...because of the way it is written there is no need to always start at the beginning. I know that your favorite child will eventually have favorite Dino poems...the only problem with that is that the rhymes might never leave your head!
As a teacher...I see the many varied teachable moments that this book can provide in a classroom. Poems can be reprinted on chart paper and hung around the classroom. Young learners can find the words that rhyme as well as learn about dinosaurs. The rhymes in this book are just a little stepping stone to a wealth of activities.
This book explains much of what you might want to know about dinosaurs...but with a unique sense of humor! I loved the order of the book...the categories...we meet early dinosaurs and flying ones and dinosaurs at sea. We learn what they ate, how they lived, what their brains did and why they died. The pronunciations are there for children to see and to help the reader, too! The book was perfectly organized!

What I loved about this book...

OMG...the clever not so realistic illustrations...loved them...one of my faves? You will have to picture this...a poem about DESMATOSUCHUS...the plant eating reptile that left the sea to breathe air and was responsible for starting everything! The author has beautifully written about Lady GaGa, Shakespeare, Dickens and J.K. Rowling in this rhyme. I loved the combined humor and knowledge in this book.

What I didn't love...

Hmmm...I loved it all! I reread poems I loved them so much! They were too funny!

Final thoughts...

A funny exciting book filled with poems about everything related to dinosaurs...probably best suited to primary aged children. This book would be an awesome book to give to any dinosaur loving kid that you know!

One of my favorite poems...

SCUTOSAURUS

This scutosaur is a sorry sight,
I do not think it sleeps at night.
Its belly sags, its skin is slack,
It has a mountain on its back.
It looks as if its life's a bore.
I'm glad I'm not a dinosaur.


Just a few of the arresting illustrations!

Let's Talk Books!

My "in a nutshell" summary...

Friends and family living in NYC share their lives one chapter at a time.

My thoughts after reading this book...

New York, private school, divorced parents, gay father, gay friend, sexual identities...this book pretty much has it all. It sort of centers around Wesley...a 15 year old and his friend Theo. Theo sort of announces that he believes he is gay and the novel seems to take its shape from that announcement. This book was also about all of the complicated relationships that involved Wesley. Wesley seems to talk more easily to his dad's partner, George, but every chapter in this book is yet one more character figuring life out. Each character gets to muddle over things and think about their choices and work on their lives. A traumatic thing happens to Theo and Wesley...you can sort of imagine what that might be..repercussions from Theo's announcement affect their lives at school. They stick together and deal with it. There are more thoughts and more discussions and the story ends.

What I loved about this book...

I so enjoyed reading about Wesley...he just seemed like a wonderfully questioning young man. The book was funny...the author allowed his sense of humor to come through and I loved it. New York stories are always fun for me and this one was filled with theatre talk and lots of great food gathering. Wesley's dad's partner is a true foodie with a love for food prep and the theatre...I loved this aspect of the book.

Final thoughts...

I enjoyed this book and its characters. New York was a fabulous setting. Nothing earth shattering happened and I enjoyed each character...some more than others. People had issues, lives to deal with, stuff to ponder over, stuff to come to terms with. It was an interesting look into a different kind of family.

If you are a reader who loves quirky character driven books...you will truly enjoy this author's work.

An interesting note about the author...


Richard Kramer is the Emmy and multiple Peabody award winning writer, director and producer of numerous TV series, including Thirtysomething, My So-called Life, Tales of the City, and Once and Again. His first short story appeared in the New Yorker while he was still an undergraduate at Yale. This is his first novel.

Yep...It's Monday!

Still reading this...we were out and about all weekend...dinner with a lovely dear friend...shopping...Thanksgiving dinner ordering...sitting on the deck in the sun sunning...so not much reading was done...plus catching up on Elementary...the Sherlock Holmes series that I love...love...love...with Lucy Lui!
Anyway...the book...love it...it's another one of those books where the author stops to chat with the reader...the way Lemony Snickett does and the author of The Templeton Twins does...the HardScrabble family lives in a town that smells of peppermint from the gum factory in town...I love this book! It is clever...very clever.




Books that popped into my mailbox this week...both mysteries.








This one...an ebook...sort of a bloodthirsty adventure quest! Oh boy...more nightmares!


Happy Monday!

A Contemplative Sunday...

Pretty much today is newspapers, SNL, football and Den napping...later tacos or leftovers...whatever is in the refrigerator. Life is lazy today and we want to enjoy every minute. There was a section of today's NYT devoted to victims of this past hurricane. I think I read every story. The people who lost their lives ranged in age from 3 to those in their 90's. They were every day ordinary people who were trimming trees, sitting in their living rooms or just stepping outside for a moment to snap a hurricane photo...it was extremely sad reading about them. Yet one more reminder of how precious every moment should be.



We are staying here for Thanksgiving...not what we normally do...but Den is still getting over his flu stuff and he is totally exhausted...the thought of actually not packing and driving is what he needs...and sometimes I like changing traditions. Thanks to Whole Foods I won't cook everything...we sort of ordered a cooked turkey and other things...so the day will be peaceful without any cooking stress.

Happy Sunday!