Conversations With J.K. Rowling by Lindsey Fraser

It is hard not to pick this book up. If you've read the Harry Potter series and enjoyed it (of course you did), then you'll probably want to know something about the amazing woman who wrote the series.

This book is great for a quick read. It is only 96 pages and you will rifle through them in no time. The font is quite large so the writer has cheated a little. As well, about 30 to 40 pages are filler stuff that you won't want to bother with - like summaries of the books (um, like you would read this book if you hadn't already read the series?). However, the first half of the book is broken into questions and answers and that is the best stuff and well worth reading.

I enjoy reading every word that Rowling has to say. She is an inspiration. This book is a fun, quick read and I think you will enjoy it. You should pick it up at the beginning of a reading room period and you will be able to get at the best parts before the period is over.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. By the way, don't you just love the cover? The artist did such a good job of the picture. It's cute, isn't it? And it is so appropriate to have her sitting down at the coffee shop with a pen and paper - just the way she wrote a lot of her books!

3/5 stars

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Amazon.com:

It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules.

As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. But Aya doesn't care; she just wants to lie low with her drone, Moggle. And maybe kick a good story for herself.

Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.

I really enjoyed the Uglies trilogy so I thought I'd read the fourth book in the series (fourth book in a trilogy???). In fact, it placed 8th on the Teens' Top Ten list last year so a lot of people read and enjoyed it.

It took me almost two months to read this book. That pretty much sums it up. It was okay and if I had read it right after I read the first three books I suppose I might have enjoyed it more. However, it wasn't nearly as good as the other three and with so many other incredible books out there to read I would recommend you give this one a pass (unless, of course, you loved the Uglies series).

The story actually has an interesting premise. In one of the cities that grew out of the newfound freedom after the liberation of people following the Uglies trilogy, the people live in a world where the economy is based on fame. I liked the idea and it was the highlight of the book I guess. However, the interesting setting of the book doesn't make up for the relatively annoying main character and generally uninteresting storyline.

I give this one 3/5 stars (because I'm being generous and because other readers will probably enjoy it more than me).

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

Amazon Product Description It's a brand-new year and a brand-new journal and Greg is keen to put the humiliating (and secret!) events of last summer firmly behind him. But someone knows everything – someone whose job it is to most definitely not keep anything embarrassing of Greg's private – his big brother, Rodrick. How can Greg make it through this new school year with his cool(ish) reputation intact?

The Wimpy Kid is sweeping the country. I went to Best Eastern a couple months ago and bought the first book in the series after searching all the bookstores for weeks to get one. They had just received a shipment and had quite a few in stock. A couple of weeks later they were sold out of part one, but had the second one in the series so I grabbed it. Now, you can have all the Twilight books you want, but you can't get a Wimpy Kid.

This is the second book in the Wimpy Kid Series. I really enjoyed the first book a lot and the second book was fun too. It is a quick book to read and it has a number of funny parts to it. As usual, the drawings add to the enjoyment. I think you will like it. It is so easy to read and is bound to make you laugh.

I will give this one 3/5 stars. It's a solid follow-up to the first book.

For a preview of the book, click here.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Amazon.com Review:

In A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin.

If nothing else, A Walk in the Woods is proof positive that the journey is the destination. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through. Whether you plan to make a trip like this one yourself one day or only care to read about it, A Walk in the Woods is a great way to spend an afternoon.

I've been telling my students to try reading a book you wouldn't normally read. Try something a bit different. I'm doing that myself.

Right after I finished Bryson's Made In America I picked up this book. Once more, I thought, "There is no way I'm going to read this. How boring could this be?" And once again I read the first few pages and before I knew it I had read the whole book. It's so weird.

Anyway, the characters in this book are really funny. I've met crazy people like the ones described by Bryson and I've had weird experiences like he has. I've done a tiny bit of mountain hiking and a little hiking in the woods so I can kind of relate to what he is talking about.

Bill made me laugh. His hiking partner Katz had me rolling on the floor.

Once again, there are parts of the book that will put you to sleep. I probably won't make it hiking on the path he describes in the Eastern United States so some of the detail gets to be a bit too much. That said, I read about 75% of the book and I quite enjoyed it.

You may want to take a quick flick through this book and see if something interests you. Read the first chapter and see if Bryson can get your attention. He just might.

3/5 Stars

Made In America by Bill Bryson

Amazon.com Review:

Readers from Toad Suck, Arkansas, to Idiotsville, Oregon--and everywhere in between--will love Made in America, Bill Bryson's Informal History of the English Language in the United States. It is, in a word, fascinating. After reading this tour de force, it's clear that a nation's language speaks volumes about its true character: you are what you speak. Bryson traces America's history through the language of the time, then goes on to discuss words culled from everyday activities: immigration, eating, shopping, advertising, going to the movies, and others.

Made in America will supply you with interesting facts and cocktail chatter for a year or more. Did you know, for example, that Teddy Roosevelt's "speak softly and carry a big stick" credo has its roots in a West African proverb? Or that actor Walter Matthau's given name is Walter Mattaschanskayasky? Made in America is an excellent discussion of American English, but what makes the book such a treasure is that it offers much, much more.

A few weeks ago one of the teachers at my school mentioned a book she had read by Bill Bryson and she told me he had found a way to make history interesting and easy to read. In particular, she said it was funny how he would describe people and places and you'd think, "Hey, I know what he means." Maybe you've met somebody just like the person he describes.

The next time I was in the reading room I picked up one of his books. It was called Made in America. I was thinking that I probably wouldn't like it much. Since Bush, I've found it really hard to like Americans and it was going to be a big stretch for me to like reading about American history.

Anyway, I thought I'd read just a few pages. But a few pages became a few chapters and before I knew it I had read the entire book. Weird. Actually, I'm lying. There were parts I skipped. Sometimes Bill gets just a little too excited about some topics I'm just not interested in. For example, he will get very involved in the origin of words, but even as a language teacher I find he gets just a bit too enthusiastic sometimes.

That said, there are a lot of interesting chapters and I generally enjoyed most of the book. I found myself laughing out loud sometimes. It is interesting to know how things came to be in America and if you can start from the beginning and get a good feel for what has happened over the years there, I think it gets increasingly difficult to dislike Americans.

If you get a chance, you may want to take a quick flip through this book. It won't all interest you, but stuff like how Hollywood began might catch your eye.

3/5 Stars