What Am I Reading These Days?

A meme has been making the rounds in the kidlitosphere that I have sadly been ignoring. Elaine at the Wild Rose Reader tagged several folks at the end of her response to this question. She ended by saying "I would have tagged Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect--but she's too busy getting ready for her big adventure!"

While I have been getting ready for China, I have spent nearly every waking minute of free time reading student work. When I am overwhelmed with work like this, I find it hard to read anything that requires me to engage for any length of time, so I generally read poetry and cookbooks. I still read to William every night, but I don't count my read-alouds to him as my books (though I probably could). So, here's what I have been reading in fits and starts this week while working on my grades.

Poetry

• all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth
• Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet's Life by Allan Wolf
• The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms edited by Ron Padgett - (I've been reading this for a while and experimenting weekly with writing different forms of poetry.)

Cookbooks

• The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook by Jan Brown and Cresent Dragonwagon - I received this as a shower gift 13 years ago and I still pull it out regularly for inspiration and a great read.
• Starting With Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook by Aliza Green - This was a Christmas gift from my husband. I pull it out when I see something new at the farmer's market and want to experiment with a new recipe.

Even though my reading has been a bit thin in the last two weeks, I am looking forward to making up for it with a terrific group of titles while on my trip. I have been saving the new edition of The Horn Book Magazine, even though it's been hard! I will be taking two beloved favorites, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. I also decided to try some audio titles, so I'll be listening to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Finally, I am looking forward to reading a few new titles, including American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, An Imperfect Lens by Anne Roiphe and Waiting by Ha Jin.

Thanks to all the folks who recommended books for my trip. Those titles that aren't making the trip with me will make an appearance during MotherReader's Second Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge.