In the Shadow of No Towers

Spotting a sale sign at a bookstore always activates a panic button in me. It never fails to elicit that heart-pounding, wide-eyed excitement at the prospect of finding a book  to add to my shelf, and after years of practice I think I’m fairly proficient at spotting a gem in the bargain bin.... 

Source:  Bookmarked!

Christmas Picture Books (The Flash Review Roundup)

It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! I’ve been having trouble updating my blog because of the sheer busy-ness of the season, with Christmas parties left and right, endless shopping and giftwrapping, and I’ve been attending the dawn masses (at 4:30 am) at church as well (today was... 

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The first of the flash reviews

I’ve been meaning to catch up on some reviewing backlog, because the to-be-reviewed pile doesn’t seem to be  going down. I was saving some books for thematic reviews but the stacks have been driving me crazy, and  I’m way off my target for this year, hence I’ve decided to write... 

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Bah, Humbug!

I saw the Christmas Carol movie this weekend, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the animation was amazing! Five years has certainly done wonders for 3D performance capture — compared to Zemeckis’ 2004 Polar Express, Christmas Carol looks phenomenal! The musical score (especially... 

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More Po-Mo picture books (Picture book roundup 10)

I’ve been fascinated with postmodern picture books ever since I took a course in children’s books back in college. Since then I’ve been building up my collection of po-mo picture books, and I’ve now got over 20 of them, mostly from rummaging through bargain bins. I love how po-mo... 

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Funny Famous Faces

Impulse buying at the bargain bookstore has gotten me a lot of books I have no earthly use for (as you probably know), but I like buying them anyway (as you probably also know). This is another one of those books — Famous Faces by Norman Messenger (#174 for 2009).  I found among the stacks of... 

Source:  Bookmarked!

Chicklit Capers

I discovered Lauren Willig while browsing through a bargain bin and unearthing a hardcover copy of The Masque of the Black Tulip. The story summary appealed to me, so I bought it and looked it up online, only to find that it was the sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, which meant [...]... 

Source:  Bookmarked!

Yodelayheehoo! (The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip)

Lane Smith (of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and many others) is one of my all-time favorite illustrators, and I’ve got a growing collection of his books (mostly the result of foraging in bargain bins!). I’d... 

Source:  Bookmarked!

Trivia, trivia

I’ve thrived on a steady diet of trivia books since childhood,  because I’ve always been a sucker for useless information. The compulsive book-finisher that I am, I like trivia books because I can read them in fits and starts, and I don’t have to worry about losing the storyline.... 

Source:  Bookmarked!

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