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The Phantom Tollbooth | Norton Juster

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The classic children's book, in which Milo receives a mysterious tollbooth that leads him on an adventure to save the princesses Rhyme and Reason. 

This has been on the top of my librarian pile of shame for years. It was such a relief to finally read and love it. The tale is clever and delightful, a wonderful journey more akin to the Wizard of Oz than the standard fare hero quests. I like that it was moral based without being moralistic. After reading so many e-books, this copy smelled delightful and felt so much more substantial in my hands. 
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Aurorarama | Jean Christophe Valtat

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A Victiorian science-fiction story set in New Venice, a city in the Arctic, where tensions run high between the Eskimos and citizens, a treatise against the current governmental regime has been released anonymously and a mysterious black airship hovers above region. 

The writing is brilliant and cinematic, so clever, but I wasn't nimble enough of a reader to follow pace. I was gripped by a constant fear that perhaps I'd misunderstood and this was a sequel, because the background stories received such a casual treatment, as if we were all familiar with the moment Helen stopped time. 

There were elements that I truly loved -- Stella's tattoo, the magic show, Blankbate and the scavengers -- but it took forever to slog through and I alternated between loving and dreading it. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley. 
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The Curiosities | Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff

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A collection of short fiction from Merry Fates, the three authors' collaborative writing website.

I enjoyed the project's playfulness, although a taste of these three storytellers is never enough. Date With a Dragon Slayer was my favorite story. 

The digital copy of this ARC was borked on my Nook Touch, though. Part of the beauty of this collection is the handwritten marginal notes, charts and asides -- which showed up as blank boxes here or there or not at all in the formatting. To compensate, I switched back and forth between Adobe Digital Editions and my e-reader, which sounds annoying but was totally worth it for the full effect. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley. 
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The Age of Miracles | Karen Thompson Walker

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Julia awoke that morning to discover that the Earth's rotation has inexplicably begun to slow. As the days grow longer, it is not just the physical properties of the world that change. 

A coming of age story woven into a science fiction tale, strongly reminiscent Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It. I like the mood Walker evoked -- how middle school is the time of miracles and what that would look like in an altered context. The confrontation scene in the garden will stay with me a long time. 

ARC courtsey of NetGalley. 
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The Information Diet | Clay Johnson

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A call to action for better information habits combined with a recommended information diet.

Moderation, moderation, moderation -- the key to everything, it seems, yet so easy to forget when you have to check your tweets and Facebook and Pinterest and have three (or four) digit numbers in your RSS unread folder only to loop through it again and again, in between personal e-mails and work e-mails and television shows between Netflix movies. 

Johnson's political perspective provided an interesting focal point, as did his comparison between information and nutritional behaviors provide a unique lens. I can binge on the Internet just like eating Tostitos -- mindlessly. As a librarian, I know better, but this book was a reminder that just because we have access to information doesn't mean we shouldn't be conscious of how we consume it.

I liked the emphasis on a four-prong process: search, process, filter and share. It is the backbone of the curriculum I one day dream of providing to a school library, although this book made me wish that instruction was to undergrads rather than middle schoolers. I also enjoyed developers being called out as the best minds of our generations, using immediate problem solutions on a small-scale as opportunity for larger change and growth. (Additional points for not using "change agent", a phrase I loathe).

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The Dust of 100 Dogs | A.S. King

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Emer was just about to get out of the pirate game... but then her lover was killed and she was cursed with the dust of 100 dogs. Many canine lives later, she finds herself returned to a human body with one goal in mind -- to find that buried treasure. 

You know it's a great book when it takes you just about as long to book-talk it to someone as it took you to read it in the first place. There's pirates, dogs, reincarnation, trailer parks, kissing, long-lost loves, stories spread out over centuries -- I mean, what else can you really ask for in a book? 

I loved how the story unfolded over the progression of time and the concept tying the whole story together. I appreciated A.S. King's interview, conducted by Lelia Roy of Bookshelves of Doom, at the end. I had read the story  making a particular set of assumptions about the character, that where then challenged in those few pages, allowing me to enjoy the story twice as much as after finishing the very last line. 
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All There Is : Love Stories from Story Corp | Dave Isay

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A collection of love stories collected through the Story Corp project.

Quick, but moving. Read with a hanky, don't read the 9/11 story in public unless snotty cries on trains are your thing.
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Mr. Fox | Helen Oyeyemi

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When Mr. Fox's muse, Mary, comes to life, the two become caught in stories of their own devising. But will he write his way back into the arms of his wife or those of the woman who inspires his stories? 

This book is playful and clever, which was -- in equal parts -- interesting and exhausting. Oyeyemi's writing is so beautiful that it is easy to overlook the latter. The ten short stories written by the characters are a bit more fulfilling than the actual plot itself, but if you like innuendo rather than resolution you'll find this a real gem. 

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Blood Red Road | Moira Kelly

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When Saba's twin brother is taken, she must leave the only home she has ever known to find him.

TWO WORDS: CAGE MATCH.

The rest of my notes verbatim: Emmi! Jack! Kissy bits! Garg bargh ending. 

At first, I was taken aback by Saba's voice, the cadence, language and misspellings so visually jarring and rough to read phonetically. But once the adventures began, I quickly fell into the story. And how can you not -- Saba is the fiercest character I've read in a long time and even SHE didn't know it. 

Very much looking forward to the next installment. 

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Juliette Gordon Low : The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts | Stacy A. Cordery

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Biography of the Girl Scouts of America's founder. 

The facts I remember about Juliette Gordon Low from my days as Girl Scout are scattered. She became deaf when a piece of rice was lodged in her ear at her wedding. Her family affectionately referred to her as Daisy. She founded an organization that meant the world to me. 
The book was a little bit drier than I expected, but I appreciated the thorough research that went into it. I liked watching the story of the woman I though I knew begin to flesh out -- her romanticized notion of men, her failed marriage, the strength it took to leave her husband, her travels, the way her childhood pleasures became her lifelong passion and the breast cancer that would eventually kill her. 

I liked reading stories like this:

When a good friend's speech seemed to be falling flat, Daisy thought to inspire listeners to greater support by applauding during the pauses. The fact that she could hear nothing of what was being said did not stop her from clapping and shouting, "Hear, hear!" "It was only afterward," Daisy related, "that I found out her speech had been all about me and must have sounded like this: 'Mrs. Low is a very remarkable woman.' (Hear, Hear! from [me]) 'It is a marvelous piece of work to have founded the Girl Scouts of the United States.' Loud applause from me, while the audience remained in stony silence!"

There's a similar story about her goading a blind man into helping her cross a log bridge over a stream before realizing his disability. She's totally my people.  

But there were parts that broke my heart to learn about, like the arguments over which group of girls would become sisters to the Boy Scouts and her opinions on suffrage and segregation. 

I was drawn to this biography for selfish reasons, as I start a scouting related project of my own. Within the next few months, I'll begin working on the Eagle Scout requirements and writing about it at tomboyscout. Why Boy Scouts? Well, that's a question I needed to read this book to start answering and I think I found it in this paragraph: 

World War I had temporarily resolved the dilemma at the heart of Girl Scouting -- the simultaneous promotion of traditional female domestic training and traditional masculine outdoor activities. But sound national leadership in the new decade located a middle ground between reactionary forces that would have Girl Scouting concentrate only on marriage and motherhood training, and their opposite, calling for full emancipation. Daisy Low, who personified many of the social contradictions of the time, believed Girl Scouting should be adaptable and was willing to always be guided by the girls. "The girls will decide whether the plan is good or not, and reject it if it isn't," she preached "You can trust them to know."  

Those were the words I needed to read to know that I was headed in the right direction.  You see, Daisy had a vision that Girl Scouts would have experiences allowing girls to hone domestic arts and outdoor activities. Because I was a Girl Scout, I had so many wonderful opportunities to serve and to learn. I chose to attend Douglass College, where I became part of a large community of strong woman. I chose to become a civil servant, to give back to my community and to speak before crowds as large as hundreds of people. The verb here is chose. That choice was a gift. 

But I was a city girl growing up in the 90s. Our camping trips involved bunk beds. I cannot identify poison ivy. I was in my mid-20s when I took my first hike. Crafts -- oh, I've got crafts. Assisting at nursing homes -- SO GOOD at that. But there was a loss of that "masculine outdoor activities" component that I hope tomboyscout will fill. As I speak with other girls who scouted during the years I did, I get such a rush of positive energy related to the project that I just know would make Daisy whoop and cheer. 
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