You guys, shame on you! What conspiracy is this? How come I’m only finding out about Shel Silverstein now? Everyone on the internet seems to have a memory associated with his poems and stories and I only heard of him because of Amy’s comment on my previous post (I’m not American, so I guess that might have something to do with it).

After Amy’s recommendation I got curious and the samples I found online hooked me so much that I immediately ordered his three poetry books: Falling Up, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic.

All three are wonderful and perfectly capture what I remember about being a kid: the slightly gross and wacky humor, the rebellion combined with pure tenderness, the uncontrolled imagination. They are the perfect read-aloud material, not only for the poems but also for Silverstein’s own illustrations, which often add something to the meaning of the text. I’m only sorry his play on words must be really hard to translate, which limit his audience.

My favorites poems are the “no-nonesense funny” ones, like EARLY BIRD

Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early early bird-
But if you’re a worm, sleep late.

But I also love the ones about exploring the world and its endless possibilities, like LISTEN TO THE MUSNT’TS

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’Ts
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.

Don’t you just get a little knot in your throat reading this? I can’t wait for David to be big enough for me to read it to him. Some poems have subtle lessons that will also be fun to explore with little D. What will he make of this (and the one with the masks below)?

FISH?

The little fish eats the tiny fish,
The big fish eats the little fish-
So only the biggest fish gets fat.
Do you know any folks like that?

I don’t usually go for surreal poetry or literature (really didn’t get into Alice in Wonderland, for instance), but there was something about Silverstein’s writing that hit a cord. He created characters who eat the universe, who write poetry from inside a lion, who invent a light that plugs the sun and a boy who watched so much TV he turned into one. The kind of stuff a child would actually come up with, so t’s a real gift for an adult to pull that off.

Shel Silverstein’s books are often challenged and banned exactly because of this tongue-in-cheek humor. There is also an undeniable leftish, anti-system, free-thinking, rebellious vibe to his work. One poem instructs kids to kill themselves so that parents will feel guilty about not doing what they want, another called “MA AND GOD” ends with “Either Ma’s wrong or else God is”. It does teach defiance and questioning dogmas, but I suspect the parents who get offended may have forgotten what it’s like being a kid.

Thanks once again Amy for the tip. I’m sure these books will become a family tradition.

Look what I produced!

Little Sleepless (such an appropriate name…) – aka David – was born on the 4th March and since then I’m enjoying the whole full-time-mom experience.

We’re anxiously waiting for the first smile, but I think he already enjoys our play-time, especially the trippy baby books - apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, right? If you have any recommendations for 0-3 months books let me know.

Most days I have no idea where my time went, but I’m going to try to slowly go back to a normal blogging life. I’ll try to post mini-mini-reviews soon because, amazingly, I actually managed to listen to some audiobooks and even read a couple of graphic novels.

Last year I chose the History category, had lots of fun, but failed miserably in my prediction. After seeing the 2013 nominees I’ve decided to stick to History, even though, as last year, there’s an overwhelming focus given to American History (and the world so big!).

Here they are:

Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
Toby Lester
Read by Stephen Hoye (Tantor Media)

The story behind the Vitruvian Man – the nominee I’m most curious about.

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Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love
David Talbot
Arthur Morey (Brilliance Audio)

A history of San Francisco in the crazy years between 1967 and 1982, “when the city radically changed itself—and then revolutionized the world“.

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L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City
John Buntin
Read by Kirby Heyborne (Tantor Media)

After San Fran in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, enter LA in the 50s. Portrayed as ”the white spot of America“, it hid “crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters“.

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Twelve Desperate Miles: The Epic World War II Voyage of the SS Contessa
Tim Brady
Read by Joe Barrett (AudioGO)

How cool does this sound? It’s a movie in the making:

“The Dirty Dozen meets Band of Brothers in this true story of how a rusty old New Orleans banana boat staffed with an unlikely crew of international merchant seamen, a gang of inmates from a local jail, and a French harbor pilot spirited out of Morocco by O.S.S. agents in the trunk of a Chevy, were drafted into service in WWII — and heroically succeeded in setting the stage for Patton’s epic invasion of North Africa.”

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret
Kent Harman
Read by Dan John Miller (Tantor Media)

A book about the West Coast’s recording studio scene of the ’60s. A bit too similar to Season of the Witch, but it still sounds… groovy.

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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
Ian W. Toll
Read by Grover Gardner (Audible, Inc.)

Pacific Crucible tells the story of the first months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history (Pearl Harbor) and seized the strategic initiative.

I though military war, especially naval, was not my cuppa until I started reading Patrick O’Brian. I’m hoping this book will have the same effect.

Overall it’s an easy and ok read, but the Booker Prize did its work and I started out with very high hopes.

The story is about Tony, who takes us on a trip down the memory lane of his youth, his group of four best friends and his first girlfriend. The problem is that neither Tony or any of the other characters are terribly appealing. There’s nothing wrong with flawed characters, unless their main flaw is their boringness.

I found Tony in particular a pretty uninteresting person (and the important question is always: did the author want to make him that way?).

He always seems to have a very mild and detached approach to everything. A detachment that at points seems self-serving, which is confirmed by his sad current life: a failed marriage, a distant relationship with his daughter, a complete lack of friends. He goes out of his way to convince us and himself that he’s actually a caring and considerate person and bends his memory to show it. This careful re-arrangement of memories was probably the best part of the book. Made me think how we all do it, even if just for the sake of self-presentation.

I also had high hopes for the ending of the book, and not only because of the title. I knew from other reviews I could expect a big revelation, but after closing the last page I had to go online just to confirm that I really got it and if that was really all there was to get. Unfortunately, it was. I’m not even complaining about the loose ends (“blood money“?), but the resolution felt a bit (dare I say it of Julian Barnes and a Booker Prize?) unsubtle. And more so because it’s presented as a Dramatic Mystery Resolution.

Also, for those of you who’ve read the book, was I the only one who thought this was a Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus story? Every single woman in it is incomprehensible and/or unbalanced, but again I can’t tell if it’s because we see them thought Tony’s eyes or if Barnes meant them to be like this.

I’m usually a big fan of Julian Barnes, but this one I’ll have to archive in the ok-but-don’t-get-the-fuss shelf.

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Other thoughts: Asylum, Pages Turned, So Many Books, The Literary Stew, Tales from the Reading Room, Shelf Life, Aquatique, Shelf Love, Stuck in a Book, nomadreader, Always Cooking Up Something, She is Too Fond of Books, Book Atlas (yours?)

Credits: Cathy Thorne

Hi there *waves*, just wanted to let you know that all is well on this side of the line. The baby in still inside and we’ve entered the last month. This last trimester is taking longer than that other two put together.

About three weeks ago I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, fortunately a mild case and so far it just means I need to be monitored closely and often. Still doing my normal life and working, but it sort of unbalanced my routine and blogging was one of the victims. Then last week I had The Flu To End All Flues and that didn’t help either.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 OF DOWNTON ABBEY

When I told friends about the pre-eclampsia some of them mention Lady Sybil’s untimely death (thanks you guys!). That also led to a bit of an embarrassing exchanged with my doctor:

Me: Do you watch Downton Abbey? There’s a character there that dies of eclampsia. Lots of friends mentioned it, it comes up high on Google when you type the condition.

Doctor: You’ve just spoiled it for me. I’m still at the Christmas Special…

Me: Ups?

/SPOILERS

I’m still reading, and audiobooks in particular have been a blessing when my brain was too scattered to concentrate on the pages.

Recent books included The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (I don’t get all the fuss), How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough (interesting, but not what I expected), Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (gimmi more John Green!) and Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman (so many thoughts on this one).

Hopefully I’ll still be able to do a few more posts before putting The Sleepless Reader on an official hiatus while I try my hands at this maternity thing everyone keeps talking about. For now I had to press “read” on all posts in my Google Reader – let me know if I missed something important!

I don’t think it’ll be in mine, but it was still a very good read. Lots of other books and movies came to mind while reading it, from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Firebrand (my favorite book about the Trojan War), to Brad Pitt’s Troy.

It’s very cleverly told: the paragraphs were short, the writing beautiful without being whimsical or overly poetic (always a risk in stories about myths). There weren’t lots of lengthy descriptions or endless impossible-to-memorize names, but it didn’t feel dumbed-down at all, on the contrary, it was accessible and engaging.

I was expecting that, as usual, the fact it was about a gay relationship would be the driver of the plot, so it was refreshing to see it practically as a non-issue and that the demi-God and human factor created much more emotional tension. I wonder if it felt like that because the story is told in the first person, turning a him + him and into a more “generic” me + him.

Lots of other thoughts and wonderings. The biggest was about whether Achilles really did love Patroclus, which may be blasphemy for those of you who cried buckets at the end.

Patroclus is the real hero of the story. Unlike Achilles, he feels fear, but still rescues Briseis and the other women, and goes into battle to save Achilles’ honor. Achilles is the strongest, no one can beat him, and he knows it. His only fear is to be forgotten. He prefers to go into a sure death and win Eternal Glory than have a safe, ordinary life with Patroclus. What if the Gods had told him: you’ll only be famous if you leave – or worst, kill – Patroclus? Agamemnon killed his own daughter – would Achilles do the same?

Odysseus was great. A smartass, but great. Good to see someone using wits over brutal force. In a book where loving relationships are so underrated, his passion for Penelope was really touching and human. Of course there’ll be a certain Calypso in his future, but who’s counting?

In the end, I didn’t cry like everyone else. It’s strange, because I’m usually a literary cry-baby and at the moment that’s exacerbated by crazy hormones. My questioning about Achilles’ real feelings probably distanced me from the expected tragedy. It was still a good read (a first novel –  respect!) with lots of food for thought, it just didn’t pull at my heart-strings as I was expecting.

Also, where’s the Horse?! I was looking forward to the Horse!

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Other thoughts: Book Twirps, Fizzy Thoughts, Always Cooking Up Something, Rivers I Have Known, The Allure of Books, Eve’s Alexandria, What She Read, Lazy Gal Reads, 2606 Books, Fleur Fisher, Novel Insights, Devourer of Books, Nomad Reader, Vulpes Libris, Savidge Reads, Iris on Books, chasing bawa, Farm Lane Books (yours?)

But parenting is much more intellectually appealing. I don’t mean the technical details about schedules, potty-training and feeding, but the ones about raising happy, honest, confident, connected, fulfilled people.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, mostly about how I was raised, what I’d try to copy, what I’d change, and the kind of parent I’d like to be. I try not to think too much about the person I’d like my son to be because it might be unfair to him (although we got excited about raising an Olympic champion during the Games… and what if – gasp! – he’s not A Reader?!).

I am curious about all the theories out there but also don’t want to read too many parenting books. I know the conflicting information can be daunting. Some titles however, are impossible to resist, like How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.

Paul Tough set out to bust the myth that

(…) success today depends primarily on cognitive skills — the kind of intelligence that gets measured on I.Q. tests, including the abilities to recognize letters and words, to calculate, to detect patterns — and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.

and replace it with the notion that

(…) noncognitive skills, like persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence, are more crucial than sheer brainpower to achieving success.

I first heard about it in a forgotten list of 2012 notable books and the premise really struck a chord as my experience also tells me that IQ is overrated. I haven’t read the book yet, but I hope that with “success” Tough means much more than financial or career paths, which my experience also tells me is only a part of the success equation.
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I’m also oddly attracted to all the culture-specific books, like Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother or the French-loving ones such as French Children Don’t Throw Food and Bringing Up Bébé (interesting article Why the French don’t need parenting books).

This probably happens because I live in a very international environment, with lots of double-nationality babies and different ways of raising them. One of the most popular conversation subjects in Brussels is how to best raise a bi-, tri- or tetra-lingual baby (e.g. Portuguese mom and Polish dad who speak English among themselves, kid in a French- or Dutch-speaking nursery).

It’s all fascinating, although I have the feeling that gut-feeling, pure instinct (and maybe trial-and-error?) will put all theories in a corner when push comes to shove.

Do you have any favorite parenting book? I’d be really interested in your input!

I don’t like talking animals. Don’t like them in books, movies and especially don’t like them in commercials. I’m ok with anthropomorphism is general – loved Tangled’s chameleon and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon – I just don’t like it when they talk. It’s like it takes my suspension of disbelief too far.

It’s probably because of this that some of the dragon books I’ve read before didn’t quite do it for me, including Eragon of His Majesty’s Dragon. So I had my expectations in check when I let myself succumb to the book blogosphere’s love of Seraphina.

A bit of plot: an unstable peace exists between humans and dragons in the medieval kingdom of Gorred, where dragons walk the streets in human bodies, so as not to frighten people. Outlawing dragons’ natural form is one of the cornerstones of the peace treaty signed 50 years ago between the two races. But when a royal family member is murdered in a suspiciously draconian way just days before the treaty’s 50th anniversary celebration, Seraphina, a talented Court musician, must be careful to hide the truth about herself.

The story, which basically a whodunit, develops somewhat slowly, but that’s not a problem when there are so many interesting  details to discover about Seraphina’s world, her past, her profession and her fellow courtiers. Everything about the worldbuilding is interesting, from the descriptions of the cobblestone-covered Medieval city, to the pieces of the history between dragons and humans and the well-thought-of religious beliefs (comparable to the detail George R.R. Martin puts into his ’s Seven/Old Gods system). Lots of stuff to further develop in upcoming books.

Add finely nuanced characters (a shout out to Orma, dragon scholar and Seraphina’s teacher), shapeshifting dragons fascinated by human art and a society balancing mistrust and infatuation and you have a winning combination.

(Spoiler alert, although for something that’s revealed pretty early on) I know most posts about this book focus on Seraphina dealing with her half-breed status, and indeed it’s all done in a very subtle and engaging way, (/mild spoilers) but for me the best part of the book was the dragons vs. humans dynamic. It often brought to mind Star Trek and the relationships between the rational and logical Vulcans (and even droids like Data) and the more flawed (is that the word?) Humans. There’s tension, but also a mutual fascination and need to understand and be understood that can be applied about many inter-human conflicts around the world today. Fascinating stuff!

A short note on the romance bit just to say it was very satisfying without overpowering the book or creating the ANGST that’s ruined so many YAs for me.

One of the best of 2012 and I gladly add my voice to the rest of the enthusiastic choir.

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Other thoughts: things mean a lot, Stella Matutina, Magnificent Octopus, The Book Smugglers, Steph Su Reads, Wear the Old Coat, Charlotte’s Library, intoyourlungs, Books Without Any Pictures, The Readventurer, Anna Reads, The Book Swarm,  Good Books & Good Wine, Book Sake, Beyond Books, Iris on Books  (yours?)

When I first read The Priory‘s blurb I immediately complete the whole story in my mind.

The plot I was given: in 1939 England a family of four faded aristocrats live independent lives in the same country mansion. The money is disappearing fast through a mix of pride, incompetence and irresponsibility, while their heads remain firmly in the sand. Cue the innocent woman on the verge of spinsterhood that agrees to marry the widow father. She’s in love, he’s hoping for help getting his finances and house in order.

What I imagined: fairy-tale story of how the bride arrives and over time brings together the family, magically fixes the financial situation with her bare wits and restores the house to its former glory.

This was my first Dorothy Whipple so I don’t know if it’s always her style, but I was hit in the head with her realism. No fairy-tales here. Even though the ending comes wrapped with a nice bow, it’s still at heart a very authentic story about families – families forming, breaking up and reshaping.

Maybe it’s because I’m a mother-to-be, but the way children change everything in these people’s lives really stood out. Anthea (the bride), turns from needy girl-wife into the determined mistress of a household and Christine (one of daughters of the house), goes from sheltered teen who lived all her life in a mansion’s nursery to a low middle-class worker in the gloomy side of London.

This also ties to another strong topic in The Priory: a generation of untrained, poorly educated women, unfit for anything other than marriage and motherhood, but that are suddenly faced with the changing post-War society.

Please don’t get the idea that it’s a heavy book, full of difficult topics. It was actually a very quick read and it felt surprisingly light, probably because of Whipple’s most excellent writing and even more excellent characterization:

“It was a great pity, she thought, that all the violence of life should fall on the young, before they have acquired any resistance to it.”

“Victoria was one of the hardy people who like rudeness to be met by rudeness. Then rudeness becomes a sport in which the players belabour each other to their mutual satisfaction.”

“Since he was very economical in everything that did not directly affect his own comfort, the household had to wait for light until he wanted light himself.”

I love being surprised by characters, to start with a strong first impression and then see them develop, gain layers and make me re-adjust my (often snappy) judgment. A lesson for real life as well?

The Priory was my first Dorothy Whipple, but not my last. Any recommendations on where to go next?

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Other thoughts: My Porch, A Book a Week, Hannah Stoneham’s Book Blog, A Girl Walks into a Bookstore, Gudrun’s Tights, Books and Chocolate (yours?)

• Got pregnant!
• Touched a stone that came from the Moon
• Flew a kite for the first time (a kite I made myself!)
• Climbed the Etna Volcano in Sicily
• Watched Firefly for the first time and became a committed Browncoat
• Watched Doctor Who for the first time and became a committed Whovian
• Learned how to cook Brussels sprouts to perfection
• Tasted Key Lime Pie in Key West and Muscat d’Alsace in Alsace
• Touched the oldest tree in Belgium: Caesarsboom

I also did pretty well in the books department (considering), although I didn’t read as many as in 2011 – 84 books (minus 15). What I’m really proud of are the results of my 2012 Literary Commitments. They were:

Less challenges, more read-alongs and other community-building events

I only joined two challenges but participated in lots of other events* such as read-alongs, card and book swaps, special days, joint-reads, etc. They were all successful in making me interact more with the book blogging community, which was extremely rewarding. If I had to choose my favorite event of year I’d go for the 1st edition of the Armchair Audies organized by The Literate Housewife and The Guilded Earlobe.

Read more in different languages

Unfortunately I didn’t pick up any Spanish books, but I did read six in Portuguese and three in French.

Re-read more

I re-read seven books (only three in 2011) and they were among the best of the year.

Read War & Peace

Check!

Celebrate Dickens & Shakespeare

Dickens was never a favorite, but because of his anniversary I was determined to honor him. I ended up doing it by reading Claire Tomalin’s biography and A Christmas Carol.

I had never read anything by Shakespeare until 2012, when I tackled A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth. Also, I watched two of his plays: A Comedy of Errors and Henry V (a great midnight session at the Globe Theater in London).

At the Globe Theater, in good company, waiting for the show to start…

Like I said, feeling pretty good about these commitments

Now a bit of geekish statistics (2011 figures between brackets).

Format

All pretty much the same, except there was a slight increase in ebooks, probably because of the Project Gutenberg Project.

Genre

Disclaimer: not an exact science, just some figures to give me an idea if what I’ve been up to (e.g. a classic can also be historical and a mystery, a YA can also be sci-fi or fantasy, etc).

Last year, the top “genre” was fantasy but apparently this was a classics year (only 4th place in 2011). Interesting to see the slight decrease in “uncategorized fiction”. Children’s books also had a relatively big cut (something tells me that will change in the upcoming years…).

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Type

Also not an exact division (at least one graphic novels was non-fiction).

The supremacy of fiction once again, no surprise there. I’m proud of my adventure into theater and my intro to poetry.

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Languages

Better, but not quite there yet. Would love to increase the other two languages and include Spanish (which I actually read better than French).

Looking at my list I notice I’ve only read one translated book – War & Peace – but then again, I can argue that for me reading in English is reading translated lit…

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PLANS FOR 2013

No plans

With a baby on the way it’s best if I really don’t make any big plans for 2013. I can only say that I’ll try to be around as much as possible and read as much as possible. Some general ideas:

• Continue to re-read more (thinking about 84 Charing Cross Road, another Guy Gavriel Kay, another Austen, North & South)
• Continue to read in different languages. Before the baby news hit, 2013 was suppose to be my year to learn more about Portuguese history. I’ll still try to give it a go.
• Participate in the Armchair Audies 2013

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Happy 2013 everyone!

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*2012 book blogging events, for posterity:

Read-alongs
The Importance of Being Earnest, Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastards #2), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth

Challenges
Southern Literature Challenge, Africa Reading Challenge

Special Days
Ada Lovelace Day 2012, The Daphne du Maurier Season, Shakespeare Reading Month

Swaps
All Hallow’s Read Swap, Virtual Advent Tour 2012, Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange

Buddy-reads
The Meantime – Nine short stories from Brussels (with Joanna), Tea With Mr. Rochester (with Shannon) and O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo (with Francesca)

Other projects
Where in the World are you Reading?, Armchair Audies, Reading Shakespeare Project: a Play a Month, Book Blogger Buddy System, Small Press Fortnight, Project Gutenberg Project (cont. from 2010)