Family Friday

Family Friday is a composite of the books my wide-range of readers in my family are reading.  There's a tween with a love for realistic and fantasy fiction, a teen who could read dystopian novels all day long, a husband who loves his nonfiction and myself, the Teacher Librarian by day and lover of all books by night.

For the tween, she is reading ...

 

We have enjoyed reading this sweet book together during our transition to Quito while we have been waiting for our own new kind of normal.  Addie, the main character, has struggled in her own nonchalant way to create her own "family".  Her mom is absent...she comes home infrequently and spends the time watching a "Judge Judy" type of show and chatting on the computer.  Addie cares for her both physically and emotionally.  All Addie wants is to have a "normal" life.

Goodreads Summary:
Addie is waiting for normal.

But Addie's mom has an all-or-nothing approach to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or gloom, her way or no way.

All or nothing never adds up to normal.

All or nothing can't bring you all to home, which is exactly where Addie longs to be, with her half sisters, every day.

In spite of life's twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic. Someday, maybe, she'll find normal.

Leslie Connor has created an inspiring novel about one girl's giant spirit. waiting for normal is a heartwarming gem.

The teen in our life has been reading...



Not exactly dystopian, for once, The Adventures of Alfred Kropp, is more like a dooms day adventure book. Alfred Kropp is an awkward teen with a strange and sad family history trying to find his "talent".  In comes an opportunity to help his uncle, and now he is involved in a "King Arthur-esque" adventure.  This is a hard one to put down.  Now we are on our own search for the next book in the series.

Goodreads Summary:
Alfred Kropp was just trying to survive high school when his guardian uncle gets him roped into a suspicious get-rich-quick scheme that changes his life forever: stealing Excalibur—the legendary sword of King Arthur. But after Alfred unwittingly delivers the sword into the hands of a man with enormously evil intentions, he sets off on an unlikely quest to try to right his wrong and save the world from imminent destruction. This gripping, fast-paced, hilarious novel is both a thrilling adventure story and an engaging account of one boy’s coming of age.

  

The nonfiction lover is reading... 

 


 








My husband loves books about outdoor activities and adventures.   This intense book does just that and gives wonderful science to back up the story.  The PE teacher and coach in him is getting new information to teach students about how their bodies work. 

Goodreads Summary:
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

And for me...




I just finished the best book that I have touched in a long time.  I actually found it through my public library's online ebook library and read it on my Kindle.  It mesmerized me with the background story of a world that is altered by longer days and nights.  The unpredictability of this new world has everyone scrambling to adjust.  Julia and her family show us how a marriage, a child going through puberty and their surrounding community deal with these new challenges.  This book definitely stretched the power cord at night when I couldn't put it down errr turn it off.

Goodreads Summary:
On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life--the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.

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Happy reading,
Mrs. G-M