Read Aloud Thursday: The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell

Sep17

Mr. O’Dell’s tale of Coronado and the fictional mapmaker Esteban Sandoval and the search for gold was our first homeschool read aloud of the year. We finished it last Friday. I think the urchins enjoyed the book, and it fit into both the history unit for Karate Kid (12), who’s studying world history from 1492-1900, and the history plan for Betsy-Bee (10), who’s studying Texas history. I assume that the urchins were intrigued with the intrigue in the book because there were many requests for just one more chapter. That’s either a sign that they like the book or that they want to postpone math hour. Whatever . . .

I thought I’d transcribe some snippets of conversation that I had with Betsy-Bee and with Karate Kid about the book. These are the pieces of the conversation I remember:

Mom: Did you like The King’s Fifth?

Betsy-Bee: Yes, I liked some parts a lot. I liked the parts where Esteban was in prison and on trial. Some of the rest of it was blah, blah, blah.

KK: Uhhh, it was a good book.

Mom: Why was Esteban on trial? What was he accused of doing wrong?

Betsy-Bee: He didn’t give the gold to the king, the king’s fifth.

KK: The king’s fifth of the treasure of Cibola. He was later accused of killing Captain Mendoza.

Mom: What did he do with the gold?

Betsy-Bee: He buried it.

Mom: Well, not exactly buried it. He threw it in a sinkhole, kind of like quicksand. Who was your favorite character in the book?

Betsy-Bee: Zia.

KK: Captain Mendoza was cool.

BB; I kind of liked that guy who stole all their stuff.

Mom: You didn’t like Mendoza or that guy (Torres). They were the bad guys.

KK: They weren’t the bad guys!

Mom: They were both thieves, and Mendoza told his dog to kill those two Indians! They were obsessed with gold. I actually liked Father Francisco the best. He was good and not gold-crazy.
So, Zia. Why did you like her?

Betsy-Bee: She was a girl, and she liked the horse with the cool name, Blue Star.

Mom: I think you liked her hat with the bells around the brim. Because you like to dress up in costumes.

BB: No, it would be annoying to have to hear that jingle all the time.

Mom: Would you read another book like this one to yourself?

KK: No, I like it more when you read it to us. Actually, I always like books more when you read them to us.

BB: Sometimes you can read boring books, though.

Hymn #31: O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing

Sep17

Original Title: On the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion

Lyrics: Charles Wesley

Music: According to Wikipedia, “In the USA, the hymn is commonly sung to Lowell Mason’s 1839 arrangement of the hymn tune AZMON, written by Carl G. Glaser in 1828. Mason’s arrangement was written as a setting for this hymn. In Great Britain the tune LYDIA by Thomas Phillips or RICHMOND by Thomas Haweis are commonly used, though in larger congregations Thomas Jarman’s stirring tune LYNGHAM is favoured.”

Other tunes: BEATITUDO, John B. Dykes, 1875.
OXFORD NEW, J. H. Coombes, 1784.
NATIVITY, Henry Lahee, 1855.
SELBY, Alfred J. Eyre, 1889.
BELMONT, WIlliam Gardner.

I don’t know about a thousand tongues, but it looks if these lyrics are working toward a thousand tunes, or maybe just eighteen to match the number of verses. This organ version from youtube is LYNGHAM, but I need to hear it sung because I can’t fit the words to the music as played here.

Theme: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.

Wesley wrote this hymn in celebration of the first anniversary of his conversion. The original poem had eighteen verses, but the part we generally sing as a hymn starts with verse seven.

IMG_2524.JPGGlory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

IMG_1830.JPGThen with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

IMG_5692.JPGO for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

IMG_1842.JPGHe speaks, and, listening to his voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Christmas2006-3Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

mexicoworshipMurderers and all ye hellish crew
Ye sons of lust and pride,
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Hymn Studies: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Lifespring! Hymn Stories: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Hymn #32: How Deep the Father’s Love For Us

Sep16

Lyrics: Stuart Towend, 1995.

Music: Stuart Townend, 1995.

Theme:

Matt: “It struck me how utterly incapable we are of coming even remotely close to comprehending the infinite depth of God’s love for us.”

Mary Lynn: “I recently had a student sing this at school – I told her (before this survey) that this one would make my all-time-top-10 list.”

TheeEpiphany: “When I stop to remember His goodness, His patience with me, His everlasting love and promises, everything else seems so less worthy of my attention.”

Mark Moore: “I never thought about adoption as “paying a ransom”. It makes sense when you read passages in the New Testament that talk about us being “adopted” into God’s family. How did that happen? Jesus’ wounds paid our ransom!”

Stuart Townend: “I’d been meditating on the cross, and in particular what it cost the Father to give up his beloved Son to a torturous death on a cross. And what was my part in it? Not only was it my sin that put him there, but if I’d lived at that time, it would probably have been me in that crowd, shouting with everyone else ‘crucify him’. It just makes his sacrifice all the more personal, all the more amazing, and all the more humbling.

As I was thinking through this, I just began to sing the melody, and it flowed in the sort of way that makes you think you’ve pinched it from somewhere! So the melody was pretty instant, but the words took quite a bit of time, reworking things, trying to make every line as strong as I could.”

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treasure!
How great the pain of searing loss!
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon the cross,
My sin upon His shoulders.
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished.
His dying breath has brought me life;
I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything:
No gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer,
But this I know with all my heart:
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer,
But this I know with all my heart:
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Such a new song to be so very popular! Such an old theme!

BBAW: Meme Time

Sep16


Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
Hot chocolate and peanuts. No, the peanuts don’t go IN the hot chocolate.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of
writing in books horrify you?
I write in some books, especially my Bible, but mostly I don’t. Not horrified, but also not inspired to write anything until I’m done.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Ummm, I have the bad habit of laying the book down spread-eagle.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Both, but I read more fiction, and I usually choose nonfiction that tells a story, mostly biographies and history.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
Hard copy. I can’t keep my attention on an audio-book; I suppose I’m not an auditory learner.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
No. I just guess.

What are you currently reading?
The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the old Trail Days by Andy Adams.
Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans by T.R. Fehrenbach.

What is the last book you bought?
I had another answer to this question, but this afternoon I visited this little hole-in-the-wall bookstore while Karate Kid was in canoeing class.
IMG_0264
I bought three books:

Antarctica: Journey to the Pole by Peter Lerangis. It looked good, and I like books about polar adventure.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. Mindy recommended it, and the last book I read on her recommendation was a home run.

A Hole in Texas by Hermann Wouk. I didn’t even know Mr. Wouk (The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance) was still writing. I’m trying to read books about Texas, or set in Texas, and this one is about a guy who works at NASA just like Engineer Husband.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
See above. I always have several books going at once. That way I can find a book to suit my mood.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
Anytime, anywhere.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
Everybody should read something by C.S. Lewis, and if you like fiction, read Madeleine L’Engle.

Hymn #33: Jesus Paid It All

Sep15

Lyrics: Elvina Hall, 1856.

Music: John T. Grape.

Theme: “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’”. Isaiah 1:18.

Mr. Grape was a member of the same Methodist church in Baltimore that Elvina Hall attended. Their pastor, Rev. George W. Shreck, was the instrument to bring words and music together when he “called on me (Grape) to select anything new that I had to offer. On hearing this piece he expressed his pleasure with it and stated that Mrs. Elvina M. Hall had written some words that would just suit the music. I gave him a copy of it and it was soon sung in several churches here in Baltimore.”

(I’m hoping to become just such an instrument for my friend Hannah, even though I know nothing about selling or or produing music. If any of you know about uploading music to iTunes or Amazon and selling it through those sites, please email me at sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom.)

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.

OR

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete
“Jesus died my soul to save”
My lips shall still repeat .

BBAW: Interview With a Book Blogger

Sep15

Gayle blogs at Every Day I Write the Book, and even though her blog is new to me, she has lots of fans. In fact, Every Day I Write the Book was nominated in five categories for Book Blogger Appreciation Awards: Best Literary Fiction Blog, Best General Review Blog, Best Reviews, Best Writing, and Best Book Club Blog, and it’s shortlisted in that last category, Best Book Club Blog.

The first thing I discovered in perusing Gayle’s blog is that we don’t read the same books. I only found two titles that she’s reviewed that I have read, too. This lack of congruence is a great thing as far as I’m concerned because it means I can find lots of books that Gayle’s recommended that I might want to read. I did find several titles that I want to read after reading Gayle’s reviews and teasers, including:

Factory Girls by Leslie Chang.

The English Teacher by Lily King.

Beginner’s Greek by James Collins.

Hello Goodbye by Emily Chenoweth.

Here’s what Gayle has to say about reading and blogging:

How did you start blogging, and why do you blog? Why about books?
When I was in my early 20s, I started keeping track of reviews of books that I wanted to read, mostly from traditional media sources like newspapers and magazines. I was always the one in my book club to make suggestions for our next read. I now work in social media and spend a lot of time reading blogs. One day in 2006, I started thinking about launching a blog to recommend books that my friends maybe hadn’t heard about, and to post my own reviews of books I’ve read. Once I got the idea in my head, I was so excited about it that I couldn’t wait to launch it. I blog now because I love the community of authors, readers and publishers that I have come to know, and I love the fact that so many people tell me that they visit my blog regularly for recommendations.
Why books? I have a very strong sense of what I like to read, and I thought I had something to offer in to other readers. Plus, I love to read – always have – and despite the amount of time it takes to keep up the book blog, it has encouraged me to read more. My reviews tend to focus less on characters and more on writing – I am fascinated by the process of writing fiction, and am in awe of people who do it well.

You’ve been shortlisted for an award at Book Blogger Appreciation Awards: Best Book Club Blog. Tell me about your book club. How does it work? How are the books chosen? How many participants do you have? How did you get started?
The book club component of my blog is probably the part I spend the least amount of time on, but I do enjoy it. It started in December 2007, when the publisher of Kelly Corrigan’s The Middle Place approached me to see if I wanted to host a discussion of that book on my site. Since then, I’ve hosted eight book club discussions on EDIWTB. Either I will select a book I’ve wanted to read, and will contact the publisher to see if they would like to participate, or I will be approached by a publisher with a particular book as a club suggestion. EDIWTB readers who sign up get a free copy of the book from the publisher, and on a pre-selected date, I open the discussion with a post on EDIWTB. The discussion continues in the comments. Usually, the author participates in a Q&A post the week after the book club discussion, answering questions that have come up in the comments.
I usually get somewhere between 20-30 participants. I always look forward to book club days, when the comments start rolling in.
It’s funny, I don’t think of my blog as a “book club blog”, except to the extent that people tell me they get ideas for books for their own book club to read.

What’s your favorite book blog (besides your own, of course)?
I have a few favorites – Stephanie’s Written Word, Booking Mama, Literary License, and Books for Breakfast.

You often blog about books you would like to read, future reads. Do you have a list? How do you decide what’s next up? Do you read more than one book at a time?
Yes, unfortunately, with a fulltime job and 5 year-old twins, I don’t have nearly as much time to read as I’d like. So I end up posting about future reads more often than I post my own reviews. I’d love for that ratio to be reversed… maybe someday. I don’t have a list – it’s basically a large pile of books on the floor of my bedroom. (Actually, it’s three piles and two bookshelves of books piled on their sides). The blog, in many ways, represents my TBR list.
I never read more than one book at a time.
Picking my next read is one of my favorite activities. It’s a rather unscientific process that involves thinking about what I am in the mood for, considering whether I want something very different from what I just read, and reading the first page or two of a few books to see what grabs me at that moment. I don’t participate in many challenges or book tours, mostly because I don’t want to feel constrained when choosing what to read next.

What has blogging done for you, and how do you try to serve your readers? What should a reader expect to get out of a visit to Everyday I Write the Book?
I try to serve my readers by offering honest reviews of what I’ve read, and sharing titles of books that they may not come across in their own travels. I am honest to a fault – even if I am writing about a review copy or participating in the EDIWTB book club, I will say exactly what I think of a book, even if it’s negative. I don’t think sugarcoating or focusing only on the positive is helpful to anyone (except maybe the author). People trust my opinion, and that’s the best I have to offer, so I offer my whole, unedited opinion.
A reader visiting EDIWTB can hopefully expect to learn about a book that may be a bit off the beaten path (but not always – I have read some pretty popular books), and can expect honest and hopefully well-written reviews of the book I’ve read. I also do some author Q&As and guest posts, and attend frequent author readings, which I always write up for the blog.

When do you do your blogging? How much time do you spend on blogging every day?
I do most of my blogging late at night, between 11-12 PM. I usually post 3-4 times a week, and posts usually take me about 45 minutes each.
 
What is the best book you’ve read this year?
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I was late to the party on this one, but it has stayed with me.
 
What are your passions outside of reading?
I used to be a huge TV watcher, but with fewer hours to devote to it, and the everpresent temptation of the laptop, I am a much less engaged viewer than I used to be. I love my 5 year old girls, my basenji, and music, and I am somewhat obsessed with social media.
 
Where do you learn about new books?
I used to learn about new books from traditional book reviews and magazines, but I am getting my recommendations more often now from book bloggers and Twitter. I also get a lot of review copies in the mail, so I learn about new books that way too. One of my favorite activities is browsing the fiction shelves of bookstores I love, on the prowl for new books I haven’t heard of before.

Thanks, Gayle. You can see my answers to some of these same interview questions at Every Day I Write the Book Blog.

Of eReaders and Books

Sep14

There’s a special promotion going on at Book Blogger Appreciation Week in which IREX Technologies is giving away one of their new eReaders. To be in the running, we are asked to write a post about the most important feature in an eReader.

Since I was thinking about Kindles and similar book readers way back last spring, and I jotted down some notes but never transferred those thoughts to the blog, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write about the newest twist to an old technology–books.

Last spring, I wrote:

I think I want a Kindle. For the uninitiated, a Kindle is Amazon’s version of an electronic book reader. You download books from Amazon into your Kindle and read them on a page-sized screen. The Kindle is light-weight, like a book, and the print is supposed to be easy on the eyes. Right now it costs about $350. However, I figure either the price will go down, or the Kindle will acquire more features.

For that much money, I would like for my eReader to be an MPED—multi-purpose electronic device. I want it to be an eReader/Blackberry/iPhone thingy, without gaining weight. I want my MPED to:

* double as a cell phone with a port where I can plug in one of those cool headsets so that I would no longer be tempted to hold my cell phone and drive at the same time.

* get me on the internet to check my email and my favorite blogs just the way my iPhone does. No, I do not want to pay a subscription price per blog, and yes, I do want to be able to download books on the go wherever I can connect to free Wifi.

*receive TV and radio signals. I want to be able to download movies into my eReader, watch TV, and listen to the radio on it, too.

I like the size of the Kindle, lightweight and about the size of a sheet of paper, or an 8 1/2 by 11 inch book. Blackberries and iPhones are too small for reading comfortably, and laptops are too bulky to carry around just for reading. I like that the primary purpose of the Kindle is reading books. Even if it branches out, the focus will remain on books and applications for book people.

I don’t like this little episode. If I pay for a book, on my eReader or in print, I want to own it. No backsies. And I don’t want to be limited to one bookseller; I want to be able to download books into my eReader from multiple sources, just like I can buy songs for iTunes from anywhere.

Come to think of it, an eReader that is just a reader, not a phone or a Wifi internet device or a radio would be fine, as long as I can get books for it wherever I want and as long as they belong to me to do whatever I want with them after I purchase them.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Sep14

Recommended by 3M at 1 More Chapter. Also recommended by Random Wonderer.

I told my Algebra 2 teacher in high school that I hated math. He should have handed me this novel by award-winning author Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder), not that it was even a spark in the eye back then. I still don’t care much for mathematics, but if you can put it in a story, a really good story, I’ll go along with it, and even, almost see the beauty. I always enjoyed the story problems a lot more than I did the ones that were just straight numbers.

The Professor is a brilliant math professor, retired as a result of an accident in which he sustained a head injury. Now he’s a solver of math puzzles living on the bounty of his widowed sister-in-law because The Professor can only remember the last eighty minutes of his life, and everything that happened before 1975 when the accident took place.

The Housekeeper is the fifth in a succession of housekeepers hired to care for the professor —and to be re-introduced to him each morning and several times a day since the professor has no long term memory. The Housekeeper is able to give the professor acceptance and the gift of no expectations. The Professor is able to give the Housekeeper and her son, Root, the gift of friendship and of mathematics. Numbers are the Professor’s friends; and he has the ability to make those numbers and their properties tell stories, provoke thought, and give life to those around him, especially to The Housekeeper and to Root.

The novel includes a bit of mystery: what is the Professor’s relationship with his sister-in-law? Why does she tell The Housekeeper not to consult her about anything concerning the Professor? I’ll even warn you that the mystery is never fully resolved. However, the central relationships are those between The Professor, The Housekeeper, and Root. The book is a lovely exploration of friendship without conditions attached and passion for the depth of God’s creation in the form of mathematics.

And I explored imaginary numbers, triangular numbers, square roots, primes, and factorials, and amicable numbers, painlessly and delightfully explained and illustrated in the life and stories of The Professor. Do you know about the relationship between the numbers 220 and 284? I do now, and it’s rather incredible.

Read the book.

Hymn #34: ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Sep14

Lyrics: Louisa M.R. Stead, 1882.

Music: William J. Kirkpatrick

Theme: Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Proverbs 30:5

Louisa Stead lived an amazing life, one in which events must have tempted her many times to lose trust instead of resting upon His promise. And yet . . .

Louisa had always felt a calling to be a missionary and go to China. But due to fragile health she was kept home in the US. She married Mr. Stead, and the couple had a daughter named Lily. When Lily was four years old the family went on vacation to a nearby beach. While there, relaxing and enjoying their vacation, they saw a young boy drowning in the ocean. Mr. Stead swam out and tried to rescue him, but he was pulled under by the boy and both Mr. Stead and the boy drowned as Louisa and her daughter watched from shore. Louisa was left without any means of support except for God’s care. She and her daughter were in dire poverty. One day when there was no food in the house and no money to purchase any, Louisa opened the front door to find someone had left groceries and money sitting there for her. That same day she sat down and wrote “Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus.” She later became a missionary to Africa, remarried and once again was forced to return to the US due to her health. But once recovered she went back into the missionary field in Rhodesia and later died in Zimbabwe. Her daughter Lily married and became a missionary as well.

1. ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
and to take him at his word;
just to rest upon his promise,
and to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!
How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust him more!

2. O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust his cleansing blood;
and in simple faith to plunge me
neath the healing, cleansing flood!

3. Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
just from sin and self to cease;
just from Jesus simply taking
life and rest, and joy and peace.

4. I’m so glad I learned to trust thee,
precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
and I know that thou art with me,
wilt be with me to the end.

Peggy Nickles of Hymn Blessings sent me her list of favorite 10 hymns when I was taking votes back in May, and she told me about her new business. ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus was on Peggy’s list, a combined list of her favorites and her customers’ most requested hymns. Here’s the short version of how she came to create Hymn Blessings:

“My collection of old hymn books, the ones in really bad shape with pages loose from their bindings, the ones that were battered, discarded, and rescued by me, were the inspiration for the first Hymn Blessing.

A loose page fell to the floor. I picked it up and found it to be one of my father’s favorite hymns Great Is Thy Faithfulness. I had an idea! I mounted the hymn on a very fine ivory linen card stock and painted my father’s favorite yellow roses around its borders. I slipped it into a warm, brown, wood frame, and later realized I had created the first Hymn Blessing.”

Submit your story about a favorite hymn before September 30, to be entered into a drawing to win your own Hymn Blessing.

BBAW: My Favorite Book Blogs

Sep14

There are an awful lot of book blog and book bloggers out there, folks. I’m enjoying discovering new ones by means of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. However, the song we used to sing in Brownies said, “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.”

The following are some of my favorites that were, for some odd reason, NOT shortlisted for a Book Blogger Appreciation Week Award:

Brandywine Books: Phil and Lars are the best at finding interesting book news and recommending good books and just generally writing good stuff.

Mental Multivitamin. Madame M-MV has been a favorite ever since I discovered her blog, not long after I started this one. She’s insightful, opinionated, intelligent, and agrees with me just enough of the time, but not too much. Iron sharpening iron. Oh, and M-MV is my tutor in Bardolatry.

Camille’s blog Book Moot makes me remember why I became a school librarian many, many years ago, and why I miss the job sometimes. Her love of children’s books is contagious.

Mindy Withrow is an author and a great reviewer. She’s the one who told me about Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski, one of my favorite reads this year so far.

Brenda hosts Sunday Afternoon Tea at Coffee, Tea, Books and Me each Sunday, and during the week she’s always a source of calm, frugality, and good book recommendations.

Mitali’s Fire Escape is the best author blog I know. YA and children’s author Mitali Perkins blogs about life and books between cultures, and she asks thought-provoking questions and hosts the discussions that ensue.

There are more, but these are the ones I keep coming back to read —old friends even though we’ve never met in person.