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January 2008

Hi folks!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I was so fortunate to get to spend a lot of time with my family, and a little less fortunate to come down with strep throat (along with the rest of my family). Anyhow, Brassell General Hospital ensured we all spent a lot of time together. 

I have been reading a number of great books. I am longing to go on a trip around the world again, and I truly enjoyed Dyan Sheldon’s On the Road Reluctantly, along with Craig Nelson’s hilarious Let’s Get Lost. I find myself addicted to anything written by Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, The Tipping Point) and got a kick out of Live From New York by Tom Shales and James A. Miller (a history of Saturday Night Live). I’ve also been keeping busy with reading a ton of young adult books that publishers have been sending me (yes, middle school boys may be the toughest audience to interest in reading…but a number of good titles are coming out: stay tuned).

Anyhow, enjoy this month’s book selections below. I hope you are all reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me all about them. If you're an author or a publisher and would like to send me review copies of your book(s), please send them to the address listed for authors and publishers.

I hope you are reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me about them by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Have a wonderful January, and enjoy your books!

Danny ;-)
A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works

A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works

By Jonathan Swift 64 pages Adult

Danny Says

I wanted to begin the new year with a book that could make everyone laugh, cry and think, and I could not think of a finer writer to capture all human emotions than the expert satirist Jonathan Swift (best known for Gulliver’s Travels). This book contains a wonderful collection of Swift’s essays that should bring joy to anyone who is trying to decide who to vote for in 2008’s elections (I have not seen any candidate make as bold of a proposal as Swift’s “modest” idea for solving hunger and overpopulation by encouraging poor Irish folks to eat their babies). This is one of the books that actually attracted me to literature as a teenager (while almost all other reading assigned to me quickly decimated any interest I had in the classics).
Buy on Amazon
The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde 64 pages Adult

Danny Says

This is the perfect type of book for the lazy reader who wants to sound “cultured” at a cocktail party. At under 80 pages, this classic is a terrific introduction into the quick wit of one of literature’s most prized humorists. The play is easily adaptable for modern middle and high school students, as well.
Buy on Amazon
People First

People First

By Jack Lannom 150 pages Adult

Danny Says

The great thing about the start of the new year is the vast amount of potential that each of us has. I included this book because it is a quick-read and reviews some simple considerations for improving a variety of life skills. We each have the power to change our own lives, and I enjoy books like this to reinforce that concept.
Buy on Amazon
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker

The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker

By Cynthia DeFelice 160 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

One of the best pieces of young adult historical fiction that I have read in the past five years. A boy apprentices for a doctor in the 19th century and searches for a cure to the consumption that is killing everybody in town, including his own family. I used this book for a class that was discussing advances in medical technology (it worked great with my impression of Steve Martin acting as a middle age doctor/barber in a hilarious old Saturday Night Live sketch).
Buy on Amazon
Making Up Megaboy

Making Up Megaboy

By Virginia Walter 64 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

I am a huge fan of the great Japanese film director Akira Kirosawa, and one of Kurosawa’s most provocative films is Rashomon, the story of a woman’s rape told from different perspectives. Walter attempts to do the same in this book by telling the story of a teenager who kills an elderly store owner, as told through 18 different first-person perspectives. I have heard many teachers gripe that the book offers no definite resolution, but that is precisely one of the things I like about the book. It makes for intense book discussions. 
Buy on Amazon
Something Like An Autobiography

Something Like An Autobiography

By Akira Kurosawa 205 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

Alright, the Megaboy book got me thinking about Kurosawa, so of course I wound up re-watching some of my favorite Kurosawa films (The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran, The Hidden Fortress). If you have never heard of Kurosawa, just know that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg idolized him, and his movies inspired all sorts of American adaptations (e.g. The Magnificent Seven, High Plains Drifter, Star Wars). Because of Kurosawa, I have managed to get a lot of middle and high school students interested in foreign films and Joseph Campbell. This brief autobiography is great and should whet your appetite for the much longer The Emperor and the Wolf (about Kurosawa and his turbulent relationship with his favorite star, Toshiro Mifune).
Buy on Amazon
Kissing Tennessee

Kissing Tennessee

By Kathi Appelt 132 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

Appelt’s collection of short stories revolving around a middle school dance makes for a great book discussion among middle schoolers, especially girls. Appelt captures the voice of teen girls as well as any current young adult author. I have even shared this with grown-ups who were moved by the writing.
Buy on Amazon
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

By Judi Barrett 32 pages Children

Danny Says

One of the most popular read alouds in any classroom or bedroom, Barrett’s delightful tale of the town of ChewandSwallow is sure to interest young children in a place where food literally falls from the sky. This should be in every home library.
Buy on Amazon
Eliza's Kindergarten Surprise

Eliza's Kindergarten Surprise

By Alice B. McGinty 34 pages Children

Danny Says

This is my four-year-old daughter’s current favorite book to read before bedtime (my wife and I always read at least five picture books before she and her brother go to sleep). A lovely story of a girl who finds different items in her school that remind her of her mother, and she constructs the items into a doll that she keeps in a pocket by her heart. A trick I use to keep my daughter interested in the story is by substituting her name (Kate) for the main character’s name (Eliza). Children tend to enjoy stories more when they read about characters with their names.
Buy on Amazon
Snoozers

Snoozers

By Sandra Boynton 18 pages Children

Danny Says

Maybe it is because I am a father of two young children, but I think Sandra Boynton is just about one of my favorite authors in the world. Her books are always wonderfully illustrated and filled with funny rhymes and mischief. I’d recommend any books Boynton writes (my children especially love Dinos to Go).
Buy on Amazon

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