Sunday afternoon. I'm slowly getting the hang of this thing, but there are still kinks to work out.

I just added a "Quotation of the Week" section. This, by Alexander Pope, is one of my favorites. Everyone knows the first line; not so many know the conclusion. Changes the whole tone and meaning, doesn't it? (Perfect for cynics like me...)

I read two totally different books over the weekend; I really enjoyed both of them. The first was Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell. Tobin McCauley is the the 7th grade protagonist, and his mother's death a few years ago has nearly destroyed his family. We are talking dysfunctional with a capital D! Often funny & always touching, you will cheer Tobin on. One of the things I like best about this book is that there is no nice neat resolution; life's not really like that, is it? And there are unanswered questions that you will wonder about. So, what do chickens have to do with it? Meet Miss Blue & the rest of the crew to find out...

After this emotional wringer I needed a change of pace, so I picked up Blake Nelson's They Came from Below. This book is heavy on message (our polluting of the planet), but it delivers that message in an amusing and entertaining way. Can teenage girls really fall in love with aliens? Can aliens really look like Brad Pitt? I leave it to you to determine.... By the way, this combination of fantasy, ecology and teen social life has a jaw dropping ending. I'm still speculating about it!

signing off...