Arlene on the Scene by Carol Liu with Marybeth Sidoti Caldarone

Title: Arlene on the Scene

Author: Carol Liu with Marybeth Sidoti Caldarone

Original Publication Date: 2010

Date I First Read: 2013

Basic Category:  Juvenile Fiction (The main character is in fourth grade.)

Basic Summary:  Arlene is starting the fourth grade . . . but over the summer, she has acquired new purple leg braces.  She has a disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, which makes her legs and hands  weak.   With the braces, she can walk better.  Still she worries, so she concocts a plan to prove herself.  First, she convinces the school principal that fourth graders should be able to run for student government, not just the fifth and sixth graders . . . and then Arlene starts campaigning hard! She learns a lot about her classmates in the meantime.  

What, from this book, has stayed in my mind:   Arlene's speech in front of the student body just prior to the election.  

What I Took Away From the Book:  This is a book I would have loved to read when I was in third or fourth grade - maybe because Arlene is so unlike me at that age.  Not because of physically abilities, but because of her outgoing personality.  I would never imagine doing anything like she does in this book!  Go, Arlene! 

I also learned about Charot-Marie-Tooth.  It is a neuropathy disorder that is usually inherited, but sometimes it just shows up (as in the case of Arlene and her mother, and in the case of the co-author Marybeth Sidoti Caldarone and her daughter.) 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.5  

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Title: This World We Live In

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Original Publication Date: 2010

Date I First Read: 2010 (Reread in epub format in 2013.)

Basic Category:  YA/Teen Fiction

Basic Summary:  This is the third book in the Last Survivors series.   Here is the author's blog for this book: http://thirdmoonbook.blogspot.com/

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Miranda, who through her diary narrated the first book, which I love, titled Life As We Knew It, is now back writing in her diary.  It had been a year since the moon was shoved closer to the earth and all h-ll broke loose.  Her mother and brothers have survived.  Her brothers go off to fish, and Matt brings him his new young wife.  And then her father shows up with his wife, new baby, and three more people who are like family now.  

What I Remember About the Book: Before I re-read it, mostly all I remembered well was the food and van Miranda and Alex found, and then the disaster near the end of the book. I don't want to give away too many spoilers.   

What I Took Away From the Book: That I will never really survive a disaster unless I have access to a good pharmacy with allergy and asthma meds in stock.  

Rating (1-5 stars):  5 

Notes:

1)  There is a new book in this series coming out in August 2013!  It is titled The Shade of the Moon.  
2) One of the earlier "chapter" books I remember reading was also by Ms. Pfeffer.  It is titled What Do You Do When Your Mouth Won't Open?  I read this book about thirty years ago now, and it was something that I understood . . . it happened to me daily.  I chatted at home quite a lot, but outside to other people?   A very difficult task!

5 Apps (Only Some of Which Pertain to Books)

The theme for today for the WordCounts 30-Day Blogging Challenge is 5 Favorite Apps.   I don't have a device at present that really uses apps!   I use my husband's iPod touch sometimes, and sometimes my mom's iPad.  Otherwise, I have been a big Facebook app user for six years.  Does that count?  The problem is that some apps are not for PCs (I have a laptop that I use regularly.)

 On Facebook, Words with Friends,  Farm Town (not Farmville, which always rather sucked in comparison), and now Candy Saga.

On Chrome - Angry Birds.  Yes, I first got this for my son (for free), but I admit to playing it sometimes! It's difficult!

On devices that I don't own but use occasionally - Scramble with Friends (no app for PC - annoying!).

Other apps that I would use if I could -
Myfitnesspal.com
LibraryThing.com (actually, I don't know if they have an app, but I am on the website all the time.  I have had a paid account there for over five years.)

I used to have a weather app years ago on a previous laptop.  I was a meteorology major for a year of my life - nearly twenty years ago now.

Ah . . . I do use an Adobe Digital Editions app (or is it just software?) to download books from the library in epub format and load them onto my Kobo.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

Title: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Authors: Judi Barrett

Original Publication Date: 1978

Date I First Read: Summer 1980ish

Basic Category: Children's Fiction / Picture Book

Basic Summary:   The town of Chewandswallow has unusual weather with no need for grocery stores.  All of their food needs came in with the weather.  That is until things started going awry!  

What I Remember About the Book: The bacon and eggs in the tree before the weather took a turn for the worse, and after, the giant pancake (with syrup) on the school.  

What I Took Away From the Book: Weather can be really fun!  

Rating (1-5 stars):  5 

Notes:  I have re-read this many times over the years.  I even bought a new copy for myself after the old copy from 1980ish from my cousin fell apart.  I have used this book for preschool storytimes. 

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Christ Crutcher

Let me just preface this by admitting the following:  I graduated from high school twenty years ago today.  In celebration, I post about a book I first read that year.  In fact, I will post a book by a well-known author who I had a chance to meet a full ten years later!  

Title:  Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Authors: Christ Crutcher

Original Publication Date: 1993

Date I First Read: Summer 1993

Basic Category: Fiction / YA/Teen Fiction

Basic Summary:   Eric and Sarah Byrnes were childhood friends because they were both different - Eric was fat and Sarah had burn scars from early childhood.   Sarah is now catatonic, and Eric is trying to help her.  And then there are the school scenes - a Contemporary American Thought class, where different classmates have different views, and Eric ends up being injured.  

What I Remember About the Book: The hypocritical views on abortion among the classmates. The classmate who was always spouting conservative Christian rhetoric in class. . .  and then his girlfriend became pregnant, and he encourage an abortion.  I was stunned by that at the time. I always thought that if you really believed in something, you should stand by those beliefs. This made me start question - more than I had already - what I personally believed.   

What I Took Away From the Book:  I loved this book the first time I read it.  I walked around thinking about it for days.  I have been afraid, honestly, to re-read this book.  What if I feel differently twenty years later?  I have an autographed copy of this book in the paperback edition from 2003.  

Meeting Mr. Crutcher and hearing him talk either in late 2003 or early 2004 was great.  He does put much of his experience as a counselor, etc,  into the books 

Rating (1-5 stars):  5 (At the time.  I am thinking about re-reading it.) 

Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

Data, A Love Story: How I Gamed Online Dating to Meet my Match by Amy Webb
Original Publication Date:  2013
Date I First Read: 2013
Category:  Nonfiction/Memoir

Summary:  Ms. Webb thought she would meet her future significant other while on international journalism assignments.  After some rather bad relationships, she decided to try online dating.   That wasn't working out so well, either, until she signed up as a man, and tried to see what men liked in the most popular profiles of women.

What I Liked About the Book:  I picked up this book because I, too, decided to joined an online dating site and create a profile.  And I found my eventual spouse quite quickly!  In fact, Ms. Webb got into online dating at the same time I did.   When she started mentioning instant messaging, I dated it as 2005, and I was correct.  I enjoyed getting another perspective on it . . .  it rather validated the idea that we did the right thing.  We aren't the only ones!

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5 Stars 

The Lost Husband by Katherine Center

(I just want to note that I am not being paid in any way at this time for my reviews.  I mainly get books to read from my local public library.  Occasionally I get picked to receive an Advanced Reader Copy from LibraryThing, in exchange for a review. That is it at this time.)

 The Lost Husband by Katherine Center (2013)

Sometimes I have trouble getting into fiction that is intended for "adults" that is not supposed to be full of humor.   This was was not full of humor, but indeed, I had trouble putting this book down.  At the gym I, in fact, opted to walk on the treadmill so that I could keep reading! (This was a week ago.)  

Libby Moran's husband died suddenly a few years ago in a car accident after picking up their daughter Abby.  Abby's leg was crushed at age four in the same accident, and now at age seven, she still has a small limp.  Libby worries about her quite a bit.  Her younger child, Tank, doesn't remember his father at all.  Libby moved back in with her mother after discovering the financial mess her husband had them in (he cashed in his life insurance for an investment at some point.)   She and her mother don't get along very well.  Her mother has been in search of something her whole life, but has no idea what that may be.  Libby finally receives a letter from her aunt Jean, inviting her and the children to come live and work on her goat farm.  Libby accepts, and discovers a whole new life.  

I highly recommend this book!

Rating (1 to 5 stars): 5