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BBAW: Best General Review Blog

Voting is now open at the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards.

100 Scope Notes features children’s literature news and reviews, including all the news that’s fit to print concerning sock-related cover art. Good updates on the news in the children’s book world.

Books on the Nightstand “Books on the Nightstand is the blog and podcast of Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman. We are friends and colleagues who work in the publishing industry. That means that we talk about books all day long to other people who love to talk about books. But sometimes, those conversations have to end before we’re ready to stop talking. Thus, this blog.” This reading challenge introduced me to Beowulf on the Beach, a book I now must find to see what it’s all about. Great title.

She is Too Fond of Books Dawn writes great reviews (some have been linked to the Saturday Review), and her feature Spotlight on Bookstores will be a great resource when I get to go on my tour of the U.S., visiting all the bookstores I can in the process. It was Dawn who connected me with The End of the Alphabet by C.S. RIchardson

Rebecca Reads Rebecca has a List of Lists, too. What is it with readers and lists? Rebecca on classics: “I can’t describe why reading a classic feels like a relief, it just does. It’s great, and stretching it out makes it real and physical, rather than a by-passed pleasure. I’m not reading to turn pages. I’m reading to read.” I like that, reading to read.

The Zen Leaf Amanda shops at Half-Price Books; there’s a point in her favor. Amanda herself is “a slightly neurotic writing reading stay-at-home mom,” and she has “very particular tastes” in books. So do I, Amanda, so do I–I’m just not sure how to describe them. Ummm, I know a good book when I see it?

It’s hard to choose between all these great reviewers, but my vote goes to Rebecca Reads because of her love for books both old and new and because I enjoyed her recent post on John Donne.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Voting Is Now Open

Semicolon has been shortlisted for one of the award categories: Best Spiritual/Inspirational or Religious Book Review Blog.

bestspiritThank you to the person who nominated this blog and to the judges who worked extremely hard and decided on a great shortlist of book blogs in various categories! Some of my favorites are listed: Mother Reader, Jen Robinson’s Book Blog, Shelf Elf, Fuse 8, Becky’s Book Reviews, Maw Books, 5 Minutes for Books, Collecting Children’s Books, A Work in Progress, and others I missed or have yet to discover.

Voting ends on Saturday, September 12 at 11:59pm EST. Please do go vote!

Over the next couple of weeks before voting is over, I plan to explore some of the many book blogs that were shortlisted and see what all the fuss is about. I hope you’ll go exploring with me as I post about some of my favorite finds.

For those of you who are coming here to see what Semicolon is all about, here’s the list of posts that I submitted to the awards panel for their judging:

12 Best Reading Lists for 2008

Under the Radar:Christian Fiction

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin

12 Projects for 2009

Scroll down and KEEP SCROLLING for the Saturday Review.

I Wanna GO!

News bulletin from Mother Reader:

It is officially time to sign up for the KidLitosphere Conference taking place on October 17th, 2009 at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel. The conference is open to bloggers – and wannabe bloggers – in children’s and young adult literature. Yes, this includes YA/Kidlit authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers who blog or would like to blog.

So what’s the conference like, other than awesome? The day starts with breakfast from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m, where you can catch up with old friends or meet new ones. The sessions go from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will cover:
-The Blog Within: An Interview With Your Inner Blogger
– Building a Better Blog: Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips
– Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
Better Book Reviews/Writing Ideas for Blogging Authors
– Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
– Authors, Publishers, Reviewers (and ARC’s): A Panel Conversation
– Coming Together, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy, and the Reading Message (KidLitosphere CentralPBS/RIF/Literacy)
There will also be a Meet the Author time at the end where writers and illustrators can bring their books. A fun dinner to mix-and-mingle is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. with the continuing party moving to the hotel bar. The registration fee for all of this – including the breakfast and dinner – is only $100. It’s a total bargain.

Informal outings will take place on Friday and Sunday. We’re hoping to arrange a Library of Congress tour for Friday afternoon and we’ll gather for dinner near the hotel around 6:00 p.m. Sunday’s expedition may involve a local DC bookstore, Politics and Prose. If I can get some authors to register soon, we may even be able to arrange a reading.

Rooms are currently on hold at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel for the amazing rate of $109 a night. They will only be held until September 16th, and if our block is filled before that low rate may not be available. Book soon. Since I’ve held rooms with two double beds, you could bring your family along to visit DC or share with a blogger buddy.

It should be noted that the hotel is a mile from National Airport and free shuttle service is available. A Metro Station is on the same block and goes to Washington DC in minutes. In fact, Downtown DC is only two miles away. The hotel is right next to the Crystal City Shops and a few blocks from the upscale Fashion Center at Pentagon City. If you want more information about the hotel, visit the website of the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel.

The registration form is available at KidLitosphere Central. There are a limited number of spaces available, so please sign-up soon.

Texas Independence Day

Texas Independence Day is the celebration of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. The Texas Declaration of Independence was created by the Convention of 1836, which took place at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Texas Independence Day is an official holiday in the State of Texas.

Reading THrough Texas: Children’s Books about Texas

Austin Isn’t in West Texas: Adult fiction for a flavor of West Texas

Texas in the United States: An Uneasy but Proud Alliance

Quintessentially Texan: A List of Texas Icons

San Angelo, Texas: My Hometown

Lenten Blog Break 2009

Today is Fat Tuesday, and tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For the past two years I’ve taken a break from Semicolon and from blogging for the forty days of Lent. I’ve been blogging since October 2003, and I plan to continue blogging. I just feel that this break is a good time of rest and reevaluation for me and for my family.

I will continue to post the Saturday Review of Books each week, but I may not be able to read your reviews until after I get back in April. I also have a few posts and re-posts and links set up to come online on certain dates while I’m gone. The subject, for the most part, will be heaven, a wonderful place to think about during Lent and during this time of economic hardship for many people.

However, things will be a little slow here at Semicolon for the next few weeks. I hope your Lent is a time of worship, contemplation, and joy as we follow the year into the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, this year on Sunday April 12th.

Books for Lent to Lead You into Resurrection

Lenten Links: Resources for a Post-Evangelical Lent by iMonk.

At a Hen’s Pace: An Anglican Family Lent

Semicolon Lenten Thoughts 2005

President’s Day in Poetry and Prose

Leetla Giorgio Washeenton by Thomas Augustine Daly.

More Washington Poetry.

O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman.

White House site with mini-biographies of all 44 U.S. Presidents.

More information on the Presidents for President’s Day.

Recommended Children’s Books about the Presidents:

The Buck Stops Here by Alice Provensen.

So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George and David Small.

Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull.

A Book of Americans by Rosemary Carr and Stephen Vincent Benet.

George Washington and the Founding of a Nation by Albert Marrin

George Washington’s World by Genevieve Foster

The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz.

Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People by Albert Marrin.


Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered
 by Barry Denenberg

Unconditional Surrender: U. S. Grant and the Civil War by Albert Marrin.


If You Grew Up WIth Abraham Lincoln by Ann McGovern

Bully For You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz

The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America by Albert Marrin.

Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman.

Kennedy Assassinated! The World Mourns: A Reporter’s Story by Wilborn Hampton.

Dickensian Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dickens!

Born on this date in 1812, Mr. Dickens has been delighting readers for over 150 years.

Dickens Novels I’ve Read: David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend

DIckens Novels I Have Yet to Enjoy: Hard Times, Dombey and Son, Bleak House, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Little Dorrit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Favorite Dickens Hero: Pip, Great Expectations

Favorite Dickens Villain(ess): Madame Defarge, Tale of Two Cities

Favorite Tragic Scene: Mr. Peggotty searching for Littel Em’ly (Is that a scene or an episode?)

Favorite Comic Character: Mr. Micawber, David Copperfield

Favorite Comic Scene: Miss Betsy Trotter chasing the donkeys out of her yard, David Copperfield

Strangest Dickens Christmas Story We’ve Read: “The Poor Relation’s Story”

Best Dickens Novel I’ve Read: A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield is a close second.

Dickens-related posts at Semicolon:

LOST Reading Project: Our Mutual Friend by Charles DIckens.

Scrooge Goes to Church

Dickens Pro and Con on his Birthday.

Quotes and Links

Born February 7th

Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley

A Little More Dickens

Other DIckens-related links:
Mere Comments on Dickens’ Christianity.

A DIckens Filmography at Internet Film Database.

George Orwell: Essay on Charles DIckens.

Edgar Allan Poe Meets Charles Dickens.

An entire blog devoted to Mr. DIckens and his work: DIckensblog by Gina Dalfonzo.

And finally, here’s a re-post of my own Dickens Quiz. Can you match the quotation with the Dickens novel that it comes from?

1. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

2. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

3. “I would rather, I declare, have been a pig-faced lady, than be exposed to such a life as this!”

4. “It’s over and can’t be helped, and that’s one consolation as they always says in Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong man’s head off.”

5. “If the law supposes that,’ said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass–a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience–by experience.”

6. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”

7. “We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one.”

8. “It is a sensation not experienced by many mortals,” said he, “to be looking into a churchyard on a wild windy night, and to feel that I no more hold a place among the living than these dead do, and even to know that I lie buried somewhere else, as they lie buried here. Nothing uses me to it. A spirit that was once a man could hardly feel stranger or lonelier, going unrecognized among mankind, than I feel.”

(HINT: these come from the eight DIckens novels that I have read. Which is from which?)