Camp Halfblood

Calling all Percy Jackson fans... you too can attend Camp Halfblood!

JJ would give anything to go to this camp. Too bad it's in San Antonio......

YA fairy books

The NY Times included their special section on children's books in the Sunday review this weekend. I was especially taken with this article that looked at the spate of fairy-themed YA books, many of which we (well, I) have read recently without really noticing that it seems to be a trend.

Facelift for Classics

I saw them! All three of them towering on the book table at Costco the other night. This is the only place I could find all three of the novels with their newly released covers by Harper Collins. You have to hand it to their marketing department, the books look lovely. If this doesn't get Twilight fans checking out some good, classic stories, I don't know what will!

Seasonal gifts

I ran across this article this summer and kept meaning to get back to it and share it with all of you. I was intrigued by the idea of the story of how whichever book came into your life. I do remember quite vividly the way in which I acquired certain books, whether they were gifts or purchased with my hard-earned babysitting money. I got my first Nancy Drew as a Christmas gift from a family I babysat--it took me about a year to read it, because I thought it looked too scary! I thought my parents were completely bereft of book ideas the year they gave me The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Yet, my dad's efforts later, from Danielle Steel to a Mrs. Pollifax mystery, were always so touching. And do you think I can get rid of that Danielle Steel? Of course not! Countless garage sales or used book sale piles have come and gone and every time I see that book on my shelf, I know I can't give it away just yet.

Now, with the holidays fast approaching, I am once again thinking about that most perfect of gifts--books. I want to be the one. The one who finds that perfect book for one of the kids in our lives that they just can't believe I knew about. Always willing to take suggestions of course, but some years, I will go on a hometown kick, and try to challenge myself to finding Minnesota titles and authors that are just right for each recipient. Other years, I stick to classics or bestseller lists. This year, with the release of Catching Fire, I think there is a sixth grader in need of The Hunger Games. And for his brother, I think it's time he learns of Smekday. The girls always seem easier, once I figure out at about what level they can read, I'm off and running!

National Book Awards

I saw a piece in today's Strib about this year's National Book Award finalists. Of course, we're happy to see a couple of MN connections, but I was pleased to see a Carleton connection with the inclusion of TJ Stiles. I knew him via my Carletonian days and even checked out his Jesse James book a few years ago when I saw it in the Voice. I bet we can all guess where his interest in that figure may have begun!

I'm always surprised by some of these lists, there are so many titles I don't really know. In fiction, I only know of two titles very well and in the young adult literature, I only recognize a couple of the authors, not the works. It's humbling, because between libraries, bookstores, print sources, you guys, goodreads etc, I feel like I have a pretty wide area in which to pull my reading choices!

Art imitates life

After the premiere of Castle the other night, I went to the ABC website, because I thought EW had mentioned different authors than Connelly and the ubiquitous Cannell that showed up at the poker table. I was right and wrong, I think I had remembered a mention of Patterson from the first season. However, imagine my surprise when I learned you can read chapters of the new Nikki Heat novel, Heat Wave for free at ABC.com. They have 7 chapters ready to go!
Being the inquisitive sort, I followed the information about purchasing said book and discovered it will be released next week! (Amazon was cheaper than the ABC link, of course!) What a great marketing crossover tool for the folks at ABC and Castle.
Now, if I could just figure out if NF will be going out doing author signings as Richard Castle. Maybe he'd sign J's Dr. Horrible DVD too...

Pumpkin Harvest

I should've mentioned that we (that is, Eric) harvested our pumpkins a couple of weeks ago. He grew them in our "other garden" - we have a plot at a community garden where there's more sun than in our yard, but the soil is worse and there are no deer fences. They wound around the tomatoes and along the sides of the plot and did pretty well, but then the vines were dying off and some of the pumpkins looked like they might rot, so he harvested the lot of them and put them in the garage. A few were pretty greenish but turned more orange in the cool of the garage, and I cut up and cooked the ones that looked soft. There were a dozen; I've been trying to cook and puree them a few at a time so I don't go crazy on pumpkin production. I've found that cutting them into chunks and steaming is the easiest, though I need to strain out some of the liquid.

Besides having pumpkin puree in the freezer, I baked several batches of pumpkin-chip muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin-chip loaves, and the long-awaited pumpkin pie...but I forgot the sugar in the pie. Aaauggghhh! I've never done that before. Luckily it tastes fine if you sprinkle A LOT of sugar on top.