Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Dec 15, 2009, 6:58 am
Oh boy, where to start? Reviewing a book by the likes of Barbara Kingsolver is daunting when I'm not, well, madly in love with the book. I want to be able to say, "I was mesmerized! I couldn't...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Dec 13, 2009, 12:04 pm
I've been a s-l-o-w reader lately, and suddenly I am faced with the need to read, and quickly! I have three new books that are in high demand at our local library, which means they won't be ab...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 29, 2009, 11:47 am
It's not been a fabulous reading month. I had to take at least 2 books back to the library, overdue, that I really wanted to read. I spent too much time on books that were only so-so or that I gav...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 28, 2009, 7:48 am
The most recent Weekly Geeks challenge is to come up with a Top 10 of 2009 list. These have to be books actually published—not just read—in 2009. My choices were limited, as apparently I've on...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 27, 2009, 8:33 am
While searching for books for our next Literature Circle class, I found this one by Nikki Grimes on the Coretta Scott King Book Awards list. Paris and her brother, Malcolm, have been in one foster hom...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 21, 2009, 6:48 am
I have been meaning to read this book by Joanne Harris for, oh, 10 years, and at long last I picked it up at the library. I was prepared to be wowed. I was, instead, woefully underwowed. So the story...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 14, 2009, 6:57 am
In trying to decide which book to read next for the high school World Lit/World Geography class I teach, I picked up Children of the River by Linda Crew. Recommended for grades 7 and up, the book tell...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 3, 2009, 3:28 pm
Imagine, book lovers, a world in which all of your books were destroyed. In this novel by Dai Sijie, set during China's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, two young men—sons of intellectu...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Nov 1, 2009, 6:38 pm
Books Read and Reviewed Dancing Under the Red Star (loved it) Cowboy and Wills (give-away--leave a comment if you're interested!) Day After Night by Anita Diamant (loved it!) Skeletons at the Feas...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 31, 2009, 4:35 am
Subtitled "The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag," this book really is an amazing story. Author Karl Tobien was an adult before his mother e...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 20, 2009, 7:38 am
When three-year-old Wills is first diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, his mom takes him to buy an aquarium. From that point onward, Monica Holloway rushes to the pet store in an effort to comfor...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 18, 2009, 7:43 am
These past two months I gotten way behind on posting reviews, but I'm nearly caught up now. I've hit some really excellent books this fall. Click on the titles for my reviews: Skeletons at th...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 16, 2009, 7:39 am
I haven't read anything by Anita Diamant since The Red Tent, which I absolutely loved. Browsing the "newly arrived" shelves last week at the library, I saw Day After Night and knew I must break my...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 14, 2009, 2:50 pm
Why have I not read anything by Chris Bohjalian before? Skeletons at the Feast is my first, and I'm excited to have a long string of other Bohjalian novels to read. In this novel, World War 2 is c...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 13, 2009, 7:48 am
Sadie Jones's debut novel, The Outcast, is a tragic, heartbreaking novel—but well worth the read. Jones is an excellent writer. Her characters are rich and the story is thickly woven. Set in Eng...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 10, 2009, 6:59 am
Carolyn Parkhurst has a handle on dialogue, and I'm a sucker for excellent dialogue. The Dogs of Babel is the story of a man's quest to find out the circumstances behind his wife's death. ...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 5, 2009, 9:01 pm
I've had The House on Mango Street on my TBR list for a long time, and I'm so glad I finally read it. This is a story told in a series of simple but eloquent vignettes about the life of Espera...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Oct 3, 2009, 9:07 pm
I haven't taken part in Sunday Scribblings in such a long time, but this one kept calling to me. I was torn between the first significant kiss and the first significant kisses. I went with the Fir...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 29, 2009, 8:53 pm
Every year for my birthday, I can count on Dr. H. buying me the year’s best collection of stories from the South. I love short stories. I used to be a voracious reader of short stories, and now I se...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 28, 2009, 6:16 am
After reading Prayers for Sale last month, I was determined to read through the rest of Sandra Dallas’ novels. I’ve already read most but her earliest, so I was left with these two and just a coup...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 15, 2009, 8:42 pm
Miss Smith pulled out a paper that I recognized as mine and began to read aloud. My mouth was dry and my stomach felt twisted. When she finished, she paused. My heart pounded. Then Miss Smith said, "W...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 13, 2009, 7:19 am
I'm back in my reading groove, which makes me so very happy. The Count of Monte Cristo was amazing, but a month devoted to one book totally threw me off my own self-imposed reading schedule, which...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 12, 2009, 6:18 am
I've long been a fan of Isabel Allende, but somehow I missed her very first novel, The House of the Spirits. I went back and read it partly because I'd always meant to and partly because a few...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Sep 5, 2009, 7:18 am
It's been a long, long time since I read this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Pearl S. Buck. I believe we read this in about 8th grade, possibly 9th, and I have vivid memories of the feelings the ...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Aug 25, 2009, 7:13 am
Sandra Dallas is an author I am thrilled to have discovered a few years ago. Alice's Tulips was my first Dallas novel, and I absolutely loved last year's Tallgrass, a story of one girl's e...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Aug 20, 2009, 8:50 pm
Twelve-hundred and forty-three pages with really small print—and The Penguin Classic unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo was well worth it. Again, I must ask as I did with the classics T...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Aug 2, 2009, 6:37 am
Books Read and Reviewed in July Funny in Farsi People of the Book The Reason Why Big Thick Book And that's pretty much July at SmallWorld Reads. I have a 14-hour car trip coming up this week (a...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Jul 31, 2009, 8:36 pm
So while searching for books to use for a World Lit class I'm teaching this year, a college friend suggested Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. Lucky for ...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Jul 26, 2009, 7:32 am
I was a bit mortified to realize that I haven't reviewed a book in nearly three weeks. I've been having an odd reading summer since I've been concentrating on re-reading classics or readin...
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Sarah S. posted an article on SmallWorld Reads - Jul 9, 2009, 10:18 am
Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders was on my Top 10 list from last year. Absolutely fantastic. She won the Pulitzer with March, which I've not read yet, and she is going strong with her newest,...
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