Monday, April 19, 2010

It's Monday 4/19! What Are You Reading?

Whew, what a week here!  I have to first apologize - I didn't have any time at all to visit blogs last week.  Besides the usual after-vacation back-up of things to do, my week was packed full with soccer practices, school stuff, my mom's visit, and dentists appointments (in fact, I'm sitting in the dentist's waiting room again right now!).  Also, as soon as we arrived back in Delaware, my allergies hit hard, causing a severe flare-up of my immune system disorder, so I spent much of the week (in between all that running around) resting.

Fortunately, things seem to be slowly returning to normal.  I finally found a combination of meds that keep my allergies managed well enough that I don't feel completely wiped out all the time (just partially wiped out).  We finished unpacking and vacation laundry this weekend.  And I even posted our Louisiana vacation pictures online at our Road Trip Blog - take a look if you're interested (scroll down to April 1, 2010 to read/view the posts in order).  Today, I need to tackle those remaining 300 unread e-mails...

So, enough of all that - what you really want to hear about is our reading week, right?
  • Since I was feeling so crummy, I chose a light read for my next book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.  Believe it or not, I have never read this classic before, and Craig was working on it in English class, so I finally picked it up.  It's wonderful; I love all the clever wordplay!  And it was just perfect for my semi-functioning brain last week.
  • Jamie, 15, read one book after another last week as usual!   He started with a fairly recent release, The Wizard of Rondo by Emily Rodda.  This is the sequel to The Key of Rondo which he enjoyed last year.
  • Jamie finished that book and said to me, "That was great!  I had forgotten what a great writer Emily Rodda is.  I'm going to re-read the Deltora Quest series" (a middle-grade series by Emily Rodda that he loved when he was Craig's age).  So, last night at bedtime, I asked him, "Are you really going to re-read the entire series?"  He held up the book he was reading and said, "Yeah, there are thirteen, and I'm already on book 3!"  Classic Jamie - he loves to re-read old favorites (and hates to ever get rid of any books).  So, that should keep him busy for awhile...maybe a week or two!
  • Craig, 12, is enjoying The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, the first book in The Book of Ember series that Jamie and I both loved.
In addition, I posted reviews last week of  In Search of Watson, the third book in the Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars series and Incarceron, an amazing new teen fantasy that we listened to on audio during our trip.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Book Journey).

5 comments:

Andrea said...

Oh The Phantom Tollbooth. I haven't read that in so long. It use to be one of my favorites.
Happy reading!

Jan von Harz said...

My male students loved the Deltora series, and when they first came out I had a hard time keeping them on my shelf. I actually turned on one of my relectant readers to the series this year so they are still great reads for the middle school.

Hope your allergies calm down and you Jamie and Craig have fun reading.

Unknown said...

The Phantom Tollbooth is such a great book. If you can find it you should follow it up with the old animated film because I remember it being fairly close to the book and it really gave great visualizations of some of the scenes.

Sue Jackson said...

Rosalia -

Thanks for the tip! I'll look for the movie, especially since my son is reading it in class, too.

Sue

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I have not read The Phantom Tollbooth - sounds like one I need to check into :)