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.

What Shall I Read? - Audio Books, Please!

Monica over at educating alice left a comment on my last post in which she said "I'd go for Austen myself (or how about Dickens? I'm having a wonderful time listening to them. Just finished Nicholas Nickleby --- fantastic yet again!) ."

Listening. Hmmmmmm. This option never even crossed my mind. While I have been updating my iPod and making music choices, I haven't thought a whit about audio books. I noticed that in the comments section of Kelly's recent post entitled Books That Make Me Ask: "Am I Alone Here?", several folks responded that they found their experience with the audio version of The Book Thief to be very different (and generally more positive) from the written word. The only book I have ever read by listening was Dennis LeHane's Mystic River, and this was only because I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie. I was moved by the narration, the prose, and word choice. Listening to it while on a 10 hour drive to Buffalo and again back to Richmond made the time fly, though it did little in the way of improving my driving skills. In the end, I did not see the movie, not wanting to ruin the experience of listening to this amazing story.

So, this is a long-winded introduction to the question of what to include in my listening library. Since I have no real experience with audio books, what do you recommend? What stories have you listened too and been moved by or just simply found pure enjoyment in?

What Shall I Read? - Recommendations Please!

I do not like to fly, and the thought of the 14+ hours from Chicago to Toyko, not to mention the legs from Richmond to Chicago and Tokyo to Taipei have me wondering what I'll do with the time. I am already collecting a pile of books to take with me. I have some new books I have not read, but do not want to weigh my bag down with hardcovers. So far my pile includes:

• The Fetch of Mardy Watt by Charles Butler - Thanks to Michele at Scholar's Blog and the author himself, a signed copy arrived on my doorstep a short time ago. I am saving this one for the trip.
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman - Okay, I'll reluctantly admit I haven't read this, largely because I read several reviews comparing it to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book of which I've never been particularly fond. But thanks to the enthusiasm of Fuse #8 and others for Mr. Gaiman and his work, I am ready to jump in.
• Well-worn and loved copies of Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are ALL on the pile. I never travel without one copy of Jane Austen, though I'm not sure which it will be at this point.
• I'm also quite fond of the works of E.M. Forster. Perhaps Howards End, A Room With a View or A Passage to India may make the trip.
  

I would love to take copies of the recent Newbery books, but alas, they are all still in hardcover. So, what are your thoughts? What paperback reads do you recommend for this long trip across the planet?