GOOD NEWS ON A CLOUDY MONDAY

1. My oven is fixed! I've reserved my turkey and am excited to try this new recipe that calls for champagne. I feel festive already!

2. Yesterday sweet hubby and I went to see BREAKING DAWN. I'm not even going to read any of the criticism about the movie because I completely loved it -- and I want to savor that. (Hubby says I love anything that involves a BABY. He might be right. But I also love LOVE scenes. So, yeah, that, too.)

3.  I've abandoned my writing funk. That's right: think of me writing this week in between the family fun times.

4. I'm especially excited about these two books on my nightstand:






5. Thanks to Amazon, most of my Christmas shopping is DONE. And we already have our tree, although it is not decorated yet. Saving that for the weekend.

Happy Monday, everyone!

FOR THE LOVE OF RUSSIAN POETRY

Have I mentioned that I've been on something of an ice-y, cold-life kick, ever since reading THE WHITE DARKNESS this past spring?

It's like this frostbitten world is chasing me -- and it's beginning to emerge in my poems.

Which is why I want to share some Russian poetry with you today, by Anna Akhmatova, whom I just discovered in the book we read for book club (We meet tomorrow night! Woohoo! I've missed you gals!) WINTER GARDEN by Kristin Hannah. Each section of the book opens with an excerpt. I'm in love:

All is for you: the daily prayer,
The sleepless heat at night,
And of my verses, the white
Flock, and of my eyes, the blue fire.
 
-- from the poem "I Don't Know if You're Alive or Dead"

 And raspberry-colored bonfires bloom,
Like roses, in the snow.

--from the poem "How Can You Bear to Look at the Neva"





Along the hard crust of deep snows,
To the secret, white house of yours,
So gentle and quiet – we both
Are walking, in silence half-lost.
And sweeter than all songs, sung ever,
Are this dream, becoming the truth,
Entwined twigs’ a-nodding with favor,
The light ring of your silver spurs... 

-- from the poem "Along the hard crust of deep snows..." 

But listen, I am warning you
I'm living for the very last time.
Not as a swallow, nor a maple,
Not as a reed, nor as a star,
Not as spring water,
Nor as the toll of bells…

-- from the poem "But Listen, I am warning you" 

For more great poetry, visit Tabatha (who shared an original poem by Eva, sister to Jack of Beanstalk fame. So creative!) for Poetry Friday Roundup!

NEW BOOKS ABOUT FAMILY FOR FAMILY STORIES MONTH

As many of you know, I love to write family stories. And, ever since LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE,  I love to read them too.

So, for Book Talk Tuesday, I thought I would share about a few new titles I've read in recent weeks:

JUNONIA by Keven Henkes.

It's a quiet story about a turning-ten-years-old only child named Alice who's looking for a junonia shell during her family's annual trip to Sanibel Island in Florida. Some kids might not have the patience for it, but put it in the hands of your avid readers and see what happens. See Eva's Book Addiction for a complete review.

 WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE by Tess Hilmo. 1950's Arkansas. Ollie is the oldest daughter in a preacher's family who stumbles upon a murder mystery. You get the tent revival lifestyle without in-your-face religion. Booking Mama has a really nice review.

ICEFALL by Matthew J. Kirby. Solveig is the middle child in a Viking-like family  -- and yes, here's another murder-mystery. I bet you won't figure it out. :) READ THIS BOOK. Fellow Tenner Kirby had me with his first novel A CLOCKWORK THREE. This one is even better. Don't believe me? Read the review at Fuse #8.

WORDS IN THE DUST by Trent Reedy. For readers who like to be transported, this book is for you. I was fascinated by Zulaikha's struggle to find her place within her family in Afghanistan. It also provides an "other side" view for those who question America's role/efforts in that country. Check out the review at Madigan Reads.

What family stories have you read lately? And for more book reviews, don't forget to visit Kelly at the Lemme Library for Book Talk Tuesday.

A VIEW FROM A DREAM

 

In my dream, Artelia Bendolph in 1937 Gee's Bend, Alabama, looks out her window to see...

  
...little Lauren smiling and spinning and dancing with a character she (Artelia) inspired:
 
Ludelphia Bennett from LEAVING GEE'S BEND.

Authors: do your characters make odd appearances in your dreams?

THE DAY MY OVEN EXPLODED AND OTHER DISASTERS

I confess: I take a lot of things for granted.

Like my oven, for instance.

When I made a special trip earlier this week to Fresh Market for red bell peppers and organic zucchini and those gigantic mushrooms, I pictured myself drizzling on the olive oil and garlic and pepper, sliding that tray into the oven, and I was thinking, mmmmm, roasted vegetables.

So I did all that. And not two second later, there was a sizzle, a boom and a blast of light.

Once my heart settled and I dared place my hand on the oven door handle and pull, I found withered vegetables with a gritty grey coating of something that probably causes cancer, or at the very least, a stomach ache.

Out with the vegetables, and in with the repairman.

Of course the repairman was busy with other jobs and couldn't come for a few days. And when he did, took one look and said, Sorry, lady, we can't fix this. Get yourself on down to Lowe's for a new one.


Which I did.

But guess what?


Apparently this is the worst time of the year to get a new oven. With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, everyone is getting a new oven. And because my kitchen is so darn special (read: outdated), it's not like you can just roll out the old oven and insert a new one. There will be cutting and sawdust involved. Which means....

it's not going to happen for a while.

Which REALLY means... no turkey for Thanksgiving. No sweet potato casserole. No cornbread dressing.

And I have 27 people coming!

(Not really, but I did think about saying that, just in case it moved me up in the service queue.)

And yeah, I know: it's not really a disaster -- there are a multitude of other eating options.

But it is an inconvenience. Because we do use the oven A LOT around here, for things such as these:

(Just so you didn't think we were all vegetables around here. :)

BECAUSE WE CAN MAKE DO WITH SO LITTLE

Dear Friends,

It's been a crazy week for me, stressful (more on this next post), and I have returned again and again to this little poem for comfort. I hope you love it as much as I do.

For more great poetry, don't forget to visit Roundup at Teaching Authors where the theme is thankfulness.

American Life in Poetry: Column 346

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

It seems to me that most poems are set in spring or summer, and I was pleased to discover this one by Molly Fisk, a Californian, set in cold midwinter.

Winter Sun

How valuable it is in these short days,
threading through empty maple branches,
the lacy-needled sugar pines.

Its glint off sheets of ice tells the story
of Death’s brightness, her bitter cold.

We can make do with so little, just the hint
of warmth, the slanted light.

The way we stand there, soaking in it,
mittened fingers reaching.

And how carefully we gather what we can
to offer later, in darkness, one body to another.

 
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Molly Fisk from her most recent book of poetry, The More Difficult Beauty, Hip Pocket Press, 2010. Reprinted by permission of Molly Fisk and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.

You can subscribe to this column by submitting your e-mail address at http://www.poetryfoundation.org. 

THE GEE'S BEND QUILTERS ARE HERE!

This week at the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, the Gee's Bend quilters and a group of mud cloth makers from Mali called Groupe Bogolon Kasobane will be working on a collaborative quilt project. They will be set up in the lobby, working away, and you're invited!

Also, tomorrow at noon, I will be there talking about my love for the quilts and the quilters and how Ludelphia's story was born in a little book called Leaving Gee's Bend.

Oh, and here's our family's contribution to the community quilt project:

(It's batik. Youngest son created it with the help of honorary grandmother Liz Reed. Thanks, Liz!)

EXCERPT ALERT! (DON'T FEED THE BOY)

I posted today over at Smack Dab in the Middle, where our monthly theme is "gratitude."

Indeed, I have much to be grateful for.

And my characters in DON'T FEED THE BOY feel the same way-- although not all of them speak English. Check it out!

2011 GOODREADS AWARDS LIST FOR MIDDLE GRADE

Have you seen the list?

Two of my very favorites made the list:

I can't even vote, because I can't decide which I prefer... please, no one put me on any Awards Committees! I love books for different reasons -- there are just SO MANY good ones.

To name the "most distinguished" of the ENTIRE year, like those fabulous librarians do for the Newbery?

Uh-uh. Can't do it.

Did any of your favorites make the list? Which ones??