Nothing to do with books

Joan, this one's for you:

Honeybee

Naomi Shihab Nye is the author of my favorite YA novel, "Habibi".  The novel read like poetry in many places, so I was excited to see this book of poems.  One of my favorite poems in "Honeybee" is one that I came upon several months ago on a poetry blog.

Consolation

This morning the newspaper

was too terrible to deliver

so the newsboy just pitched out

a little sheaf

of Kleenex.

Another one that I really love is:

Don't Say

God said.

You made it up

then put it in God's pocket.

God may have thrown it out already.

Much of Nye's poetry is centered on peace.  She has little use for the Bush administration, as evidenced in this poem:

Culture of Life

George W. Bush believes

in a "culture of life."

This is very interesting to those

who have recently died

because of his decisions.

They discuss it regularly.

What could they have done

  differently?

to be alive?

If only they had been born

  in another country

or lived in a different neighborhood,

the culture might have included them too.

Actually they liked life a lot.

They can't stop thinking about 

their teacups and blankets.

The scent of sheep wool

in a warm room.

Click of almond shells

in a bowl.

That simple coming-home feeling

when someone happy to see you 

greets you.

Never could they have imagined

being dead and thinking about teacups.

There are also poems of little things in life that having nothing to do with war or politics.  This one made me smile.

While You Were Out

A crow

with a yellow Post-it note

stuck to its beak

paused on the feeder

beyond the window

looked around twice

nodded its head

then flew away.

Big Day

at the office.

Like most poetry, this book was very nice to sit and read for a few quiet minutes every day, and not all at once.

Also, I feel like I should disclose that I was not a huge fan of the poems about Honeybees.  

Kissing Tennessee by Kathi Appelt

 I love this book!  It's a series of short stories all about one dance at a middle school in East Texas.  I felt like it perfectly captured the essence of self-involvement that we all have at that age.  Every person is the main character in their own story and the whole world is watching them.  Anybody remember that feeling?  It's beautifully written and appropriate for 7th and 8th graders on up.

(Oh, and I believe that's a dress on the cover...NOT a tunic, Joan!  Although there are also pants.  This could be a whole new thing for us, ladies!)

Melting Stones

This book begins what I hope is another Quartet for Pierce.  I love that Pierce sticks with characters for so long, and that they make appearances in some of her other books as well.  This particular book is about Evvy, a young stone mage who has been asked to accompany two adult plant and water mages to an island to discover why everything is dying.  

Evvy was rescued from the streets and also has memories of war which make trusting those around her particularly difficult and lead to a number of problems throughout this story.  She does begin to thaw a little, but not so much that we are left with a tidy happily-ever-after ending.

It's been so long since last Evvy was in a book that I wished I had reread "Street Magic" before picking this one up.  There were holes in my memory of her story.  Still, it was enjoyable and I look forward to the rest of the quartet.

(AND it shows a girl wearing a dress on the cover.  I just mention it...)

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Cute and funny in a way that only Neil Gaiman can make fraud, murder, and voodoo cute and funny.

Charles Nancy learns his father has died and then he learns that his father was Anansi the Spider. Hilarity ensues. I should say chaos, then hilarity interspersed throughout...but sort of an understated, sarcastic hilarity.

The Measure of a Lady

This book was enjoyable, but predictable. A good light read. I enjoyed the description of early San Francisco and how fast it grew.
The most significant thing about this book is that it fits into our favorite genre, books with covers featuring pictures of women in dresses from the waist down. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to put a picture in the post, and you'll see for yourself.