Sunday Synopsis: March 7, 2010

DISCUSSIONS:

• Reading Challenge Check-In:  February 2010
• Fairy Tale Fridays:  Cinderella
• Literary Locals:  March 2010

GIVEAWAY:   The winners of the Fairy Tale Giveaway were announced; however, two people did not respond!  Therefore, I have listed the new winners below.  You will have until Wednesday, March 10th at 12:00 Midnight Central time.

• J.T. Oldfield
• Nancye

REVIEWS:  None (again)!

CURRENTLY READING:  

• The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (audio; disc 6 of 8)
• Magic Tree House #4:  Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne (reading with my son!; page 27 of 67)
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner (page 13 of 374)

BOOKS RECEIVED:  

• The Shack by Wm. Paul Young (library sale)
• Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman (library sale)
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (library sale)

REVIEWS TO COME:

• Magic Tree House #3:  Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne
• Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale 
• Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
• Across the Endless River by Thad Carhart
• Magic Tree House #2:  The Knight at Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Magic Tree House #1:  Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne
• Only in New York, Darling by Virginie Sommet
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Shimmer by David Morrell
• Royal Blood by Rona Sharon
• The End of the Beginning by Avi
• Matchless by Gregory Maguire
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Daniel X: Watch the Skies by James Patterson & Ned Rust
• King by Right of Blood and Might by Anna L. Walls
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Arthur's Audio Favorites Volume 2 by Marc Brown
• A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi
• Dancing with Ana by Nicole Barker
• George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World by Tracy Kidder
• Fool by Christopher Moore
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
• The Little Island by Golden MacDonald and Leonard Weisgard
• Black and White by David Macauley
• Mei Li by Thomas Handforth
• Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Rocky Mountain Snow Ghosts by Patti Hurst
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary
• Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Survival of the Fittest by Jonathan Kellerman
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• S is for Save the Planet by Brad Herzog
• The Ugly Duckling by Jerry Pinkney

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE:  

• Don't forget that this week is Share-a-Story, Shape-a-Future!!!  I hope to check in every day this week in addition to getting a couple of other things posted!  I'm soooooo excited!!
• Sylvan Dell Publishing is offering FREE access to Panda's Earthquake Escape e-book the entire month of March to help explaining to the younger crows about the earthquakes that are devastating those many affected recently.  It's a very informative story with lots of related activities available online, and beautiful illustrations.  I highly recommend that you check it out!
• Tasha over at Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books (formerly known as Heidenkind's Hideaway) featured a while back a post on The New Dickens.  She weighs in on her thoughts about who is the modern tale master of tales.  My personal vote is Stephen King!!  I think he has some brilliant work, beyond the horror genre.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I had a great first book club meeting this last week!  I only had a couple people show up, but we had some great book chat and voted on our book choices for the next six months.  For those interested, I have listed our books below:

• April:  The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
• May:  The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
• June:  Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
• July:  Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
• August:  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• September:  The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger