Valenti's "Sex Object"

I devoured Jessica Valenti's memoir and found my own experiences mirrored in her pages, as I know most women will. I applaud her wit, vulnerability, strength and ability to say that we as women are living in a society that "hates" us. These are strong words, but as I read other accounts (books, newspaper articles, etc.) about the horrors women endure, from unwanted fondling, to date rape, to acid thrown into our faces and domestic violence that ends up in murder, I agree with her. This is a sobering, funny, compulsively readable memoir.

I am participating in . . .

Amusing Cats

http://denverlibrary.org/blog/amusing-cats

The Lighthouse Family Series for Children

I absolutely adored The Lighthouse Family series by Cynthia Rylant with illustrations by Preston McDaniels.  Children and adults will enjoy reading about this loving lighthouse family: Pandora the Cat, Seabold the Dog and their three adopted mice children, Whistler, Lila and Tiny.  Each book in the series is centered on a new animal friend the family encounters at their lighthouse.  These books are filled with gentle adventure and kind characters.  You will not only love the stories but the illustrations are exceptional and  paint a vivid world you would love to visit.  I wish I had discovered this series when my daughter was younger as I think it is a lovely set to own as well as check out from you local library!

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

I found this story about a couple who experience an avalanche that propels them into an altered reality, incredibly compelling. Masterful storytelling keeps the reader engaged, as the couple experience this new static existence - is it benign or is it horrifying? Joyce's story is ultimately a love story, but with a rare premise. I loved it!

Halloween's Past and Present

A Halloween Reader: Poems, Stories, and Plays from Halloween Past (edition 2004) by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

This is a well researched collection of Halloween stories, poems and plays - which evoke a sense of what halloween was like in the past, when the dead were closer and your future more readily glimpsed.  Read Ms. Bennatyne's introduction to understand why these themes were so prevalent!

Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night (edition 2011) by Lesley Bannatyne

Ms. Bannatyne again provides the reader with a well researched and interesting read - this time she explores how Halloween is celebrated in contemporary America.  Her chapters range from man-made haunted houses and zombie crawls to halloween art and craft collectors!

A quiet tale of love that will envelope you as softly as the first snow of winter.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, is a sparse, mysterious tale that takes place in the Alaskan wilderness of the 1920's.  Seeking isolation and peace, Jack and Mabel, an older couple, must endure the Alaskan wilderness all the while mourning the fact that they are childless.

One magical evening, as the first snow falls, they decide to make a snow child.  In the morning, she is gone and so are the mittens and scarf that adorned her.  Now, through the trees, a young girl is glimpsed wearing the same red scarf and mittens running about with a pet fox.  Is she real or a mirage of their parental desire?  This novel is part fairy tale and part survival story. Ivey spins a quiet tale of love that will envelope you as softly and deeply as the first snow of winter.

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