After you read Marley read...

A Sampling of Dog Books

A Dog Year: 12 Months, 4 Dogs, and Me by Jon Katz, Adult Nonfiction.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, Children's/YA Fiction.

*Dog Stories by James Herriot, Older Children/YA/Adult Nonfiction.

Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune, Children's/YA Fiction.

*The Critter and Other Dogs by Albert Payson Terhune, Children's/YA Fiction.

Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight, Children's Fiction.

*Call of the Wild by Jack London, YA/Adult Fiction.

*Clifford, the Big, Red Dog by Norman Bridwell, Children's Fiction.

*Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day, Children's Fiction.

*Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, Children's Fiction.

*Kipper by Mick Inkpen, Children's Fiction.

Timbuktu by Paul Auster, Adult Fiction.

Melanie Travis Mysteries (series) by Laurien Berenson, Adult Fiction.

*Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Adult/YA Fiction.

* = I have read these.

Magazine inserts

I wonder if there is an easy craft which requires the inserts that fall out of the magazines and newspapers each day at the library?

I must pick up at least three of these a day. Fortunately, we have paper recycling at our library.

I suppose I could look in "Crafts 'n' Things", but I am afraid that something might fall out on me...

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I found some uses:

http://emphasisallmine.typepad.com/emphasismine/five_for_friday/index.html

Five Uses for Those Annoying Magazine Inserts
Five uses for those annoying magazine inserts that, no matter how thoroughly you think you have removed them, always seem to fall into your bath while reading.
-Use as coasters for guests you have absolutely no interest in impressing
-Picking up dead flies in the window sill
-Gather up hundreds (not hard to do) and send them to the Editor of your favorite magazine in protest, hoping they will send you free product as a good will gesture (will not work if your favorite magazine is Foreign Affairs or the like. Sorry Larry)
-To write tardy notes on when your daughter is late for school
-Wet, pound into mush, mold into a pot shape, decoupage and plant your favorite perennial inside (Martha Steward Living inserts only)

Let's Talk About Jewish Literature

I have signed up to read a series of books classified as Jewish literature. This is sponsored by my local public library, a local university, a Temple, and a Community Center. It is brought to us by the American Library Association and Nextbook.
http://www.ala.org/publicprograms
http://www.nextbook.org/
http://www.nextbook.org/ala/index.html

The titles are:
Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B. Yehoshuah
Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel
Neighbors by Jan T. Gross
Assistant by Bernard Malamud
Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen

This does not start until 24 August 2008 (or in the Jewish calendar, 23 Av 5768), so I will report more on this later.

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Nonfiction books

I have been to some workshops and lectures lately about science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction books currently available from publishers.

General trends in publishing:

*The internet, the influence of graphic novels, comics, and manga have lead to better color photographs or more powerful images being used on covers, and inside both fiction and nonfiction books.

*Bestselling books are looking more and more like graphic novels and less boring pictorially. Is less text bad for literacy or does it encourage reading since a picture is worth a thousand words? Time will tell if this leads to shorter attention spans or attracts reluctant readers.

*The success of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies has lead to the publication of a number of juvenile and young adult fantasy books, but not necessarily a lot more adult fantasy books or an increase in quality adult books. Recently I enjoyed the children's book The Floating Island: the Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme by Elizabeth Haydon, but have not read any great new authors for adults.
*****
Thank you to the staff of the Cleveland Public Library and to Brian DeLambre of Joseph Beth Booksellers for sharing information at recent workshops.