-Erin
This month's pick - A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I've never read Hemingway before which actually kind of shocks me since I am usually drawn to tragic stories mingled with love and loyalty.
Happy reading Sage Room! Or should I say happy not happy reading.
-Lisa
So if you haven't heard, an ice/snow storm is supposed to hit our little town this afternoon. And Tulsans, God bless em, are in a bit of a frenzy making preparations. With good reason, no doubt, after the storm of '07 left many of us housebound for days and without power for over a week. Grocery stores are running out of staples, hardware stores are cleaned out of generators, and gas stations are flying through propane tanks. But GOOD NEWS--I just checked and the library is not running out of books! I stopped by to grab a few extras in case I get the privilege of doing a little reading by flashlight tonight. I picked "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott (hard to believe I haven't already read it), "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway (this month's book club pick), and "If You Give a Mouse a Party" (in case I have company in bed tonight). Ice storm, bring it on! Now I'm ready!
-Anna
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In thinking about it, I can't help smiling. I just liked it.
I liked that Miranda was helping her mom practice for the game show $20,000 Pyramid (I loved this show growing up). I liked that Miranda loved to read, but really only loved to read A Wrinkle in Time. I liked the chapter titles. I liked the puzzles Miranda has to solve: the mysterious clues to future events, the mysterious actions of Marcus, the mysterious reactions of Sal, the mysterious disappearance of the $2 bills. And I liked the connectivity between Miranda's favorite book and her own life.
And while the reading level probably falls under independent reader or early young adult, I think Stead's writing will easily engage and entertain readers of all ages. And I definitely, definitely think it is a great book to read aloud to kids. In fact, I chose this book because my husband heard a blurb about it on NPR. Apparently a teacher read this book aloud to a classroom and when she came to the end, all the students clamored for her to read it again.
The twelve year old in me concurs! Read it again!
-Anna
I would have liked to do this at the close of 2009 or even earlier this month, but well, as you can see I'm just now getting around to it. It being a quick summary of the books I read in 2009. I've decided to just make a list and rank them. If anyone wants more in depth info on any of the books, feel free to ask! (Ranked from favorite to least favorite, some being equal).
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
208 Pages
Young Adult
2010 Newberry Medal Winner
Sixth grader Miranda is faced with a few questions: Why did her best friend, Sal, stop wanting to be friends? Who is leaving her notes that disturbingly and accurately describe future events? Will her mom win the $20,000 Pyramid?
Check back soon to see The Sage Room's reviews on When You Reach Me.
-Anna
I was sulking. My husband asked, why? I replied, because, I didn't like the end of my book. He responded, what are you six? I thought, maybe.
But really, I did not not like the conclusion of Tara French's, In the Woods, and it put me in a bad mood.
The novel follows two Dublin detectives on the Murder Squad who are trying to solve the murder of a 12 year old girl. To complicates matters, the murder is in the same location as an unsolved case that is linked to one of the investigating detectives. Sounds intriguing, right? It is. It's well written, I liked the characters, I maintained during some of the drawn out details of the investigation. But I was really let down by the ending. Blarg.
The thing is, French has other novels out (coming out), that I'd be interested in reading. But now, I'm wary. I don't want to invest 400 pages and then be let down. Reading can be risky business.
-Anna
Because there are few things better than a good book and a long soak in a hot tub on a rainy, winter's night.
-Anna
Okay, so technically it's E's turn to pick.
But she was crazy busy with her first ever photography show:
Using a random number generator...
The winner is...
Congrats! Email your address to erinconrad@gmail.com and we will send your book to you soon.
And thank you to everyone for playing. We will DEFINITELY do this again sometime! Plus I'm excited about checking out all of your suggestions.
One of our favorite reads for 2009 was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. We liked it so much in fact that we want to give YOU a copy! Seriously, you have to read this book.
All you have to do to enter the contest is to leave us a comment before midnight this Thursday (Jan 14th) telling us what one of YOUR favorite reads was in 2009.
We'll pick a winner and announce it on Friday.
That just made Monday worth it right there.
-Erin
I was looking back through some favorite pictures of 2009 and stumbled upon these. You may or may not know that the Sage Room took a trip to New York City this summer to celebrate our birthdays. Apparently we did some reading along the way. Or at least we LOOKED like we did.
Anna.
Lisa.
E.
And of COURSE we dressed up like Harry Potter at FAO Schwartz.
Here's to a 2010 filled with just as much fun AND lots of reading!
-Erin
Hi there, 2010. Welcome to our little blog. With the start of the new year and the new decade, we at the Sage Room are hoping to have our own little fresh beginnings as well. Over the next few weeks you will (hopefully) start to see some changes around here. But change is good they say.
First we are going to host our first giveaway at the end of the week. We're also going to spruce up the blog a bit. It's quite a task keeping track of all these books we've read over the past two years!
And we are starting a section entitled "52 Reasons the Sage Room Loves to Read". These will be random, funny, spontaneous and listed once a week as they come to our minds. At least that's the goal. Feel free to play along and leave us a comment with a reason why YOU love to read. It's always fun to compare and make fun of each other. I mean. Compare and smile together :)
Note: each of us will list our own reasons which may or may not be a reflection of the other two members.
So for our initial installment of why the Sage Room loves to read:
#1 - Because Snape was essentially good. And I knew it the entire time.
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