Some light summer reading between blueberry picking and baseball games.

At last, we've made it to the long, dog-days. Get out your flip flops, put on your blueberry earrings, and lather on the SPF. Summer has arrived.

I've spent the past week or so bouncing between my mom's house in Indiana filled with nieces, grandmas, and other assorted family members and Dave's new apartment in Michigan filled with Dave and fresh air. It has been a week of long runs, driveway basketball, ice cream shops, minor league baseball, and late night reading marathons. Of course, I've also engaged in my fair share of driving, unpacking, repacking, job interviews, and transcript requests, but no one wants to hear about that.

My mom and I visited the local public library (love!) earlier this week, and I grabbed a few middle grade novels. It was a bit ambitious with the to do list I've got going, but I'm shooting to get through them before I head north Monday. After all, you can't take library books on canoe trips. Oh no.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, 1990

Just read this dang book, MC. Just read it. Who hasn't heard of it? A classic of young adult literature, Maniac Magee (Newbery winner) is the story of a young orphaned boy who runs away from his home with his aunt and uncle and becomes a legend. Intriguing, right? Also, Spinelli is the author of one of my all time favorite YA reads...Stargirl!

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, 2010

A 2011 Newbery medal winner, Moon Over Manifest is set in Kansas in the heart of the Great Depression. All signs point to a nice read about a girl discovering herself as she unearths her father's mysterious past. I like that kind of thing.

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick, 2010

And I know next to nothing about this book except that it keeps showing up on new must read lists for teens and is receiving sweeping praise. So sure. I'm hip. I'll do it. It is also important to note it is a sequel to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, but apparenlty, it stands alone as the story of a teen whose cancer is in remission.

For now, I'm off to chat away the evening with my lovely, best neighbor friend. And then rise and shine in the AM to pick blueberries with my mom and grandma. It should only top out at about 100 degrees tomorrow. What's there to worry about?!

*Pics from BarnesandNoble.com!

My Antonia by Willa Cather, 1918

Willa Cather has been floating in and out of my orbit for a while now as one of those "great American writers" that I just must read. And it feels like I've always known a little about her what with her Nebraska roots. One of Cather's most famous works is titled O Pioneers! Come on. Given my weakness for all things Little House on the Prairie, she seems like my kind of gal. So when my brother Matt picked up his Calvin and Hobbes at the Harvard Bookstore, I decided to be sophisticated and purchased My Antonia, a novel of Cather's that is sometimes heralded as her finest work.

And before I go any further, it should be noted that Antonia actually has an accent over the first A, but my keyboard skills are hurting so please tolerate its absence. Also, I spent the better part of this read debating exactly how one pronounces Antonia (with an accent). Thoughts?

Jim Burden is the narrator of this novel. He tells his personal history of leaving Virginia as a boy after the passing of his parents and riding a train to Nebraska to live with his grandparents. On the train is where Jim gets his first glimpse of the book's namesake Antonia. The Shimerda family is completing the last leg of their long journey from Europe and settling in the sweeping plains of Nebraska. Jim begins tutoring Antonia in English and a friendship is soon formed. Through the many hardships of life on the plains in the late 19th century, Jim and Antonia grow into adults and into Nebraskans.

Remember all that stuff I said about being prone to nostalgia? Well, My Antonia is the perfect book for a Midwestern girl who spent a little time on the east coast and is longing for her homeland. It is heavy with yearning for not only a place out of reach but a time and a person. To our narrator Jim, Antonia is his youth, his Nebraska, his past. And these days, it is always out of reach. Similarly, Antonia spends the better part of her life missing her village in Europe, missing her father. This book is a celebration of the past and an acknowledgement that you can never truly go back.

Again, to someone like me who gets a heavy heart reminiscing, this book is a great read. However, I can see where it might grow a bit tiresome for those who can't handle maudlin nostalgia. Also, it has  that very plot driven, simplistic prairie style of writing without flowery language or metaphors. I suppose some of Cather's motivation for writing My Antonia was her personal experience. After all, she was born in Virginia, raised in Nebraska, and spent most of her adulthood in and around New York. Jim Burden is Willa Cather. And I, for one, can always appreciate a champion of the Midwest.

I've been thinking about naming a future child Willa. She would be strong and of the prairie. I suppose it's better than Herman (Melville) or Bram (Stoker).

*Thanks again for the image BarnesandNoble.com!

The Ghostbusters will save the library.

Apparently I've been out of the public library loop in a big way. But I spent the better part of this morning getting right back in it after hearing a story on NPR about the planned renovations of the New York City Public Library's "flagship" 5th Avenue branch. You know the one I'm talking about. Bryant Park. Lions. The face of NYCPL.

Before we get to the topic at hand, let us remember a scene that haunted my childhood:

Whew. Now that that's out of the way, the short and sweet version: the library is shipping an undisclosed number of books from its seven stories of stacks (somewhere between 1 and 2 million) to some locale in north Jersey to make way for the operations of two other well-used NYCPL locations, a mid-Manhattan branch and the Science, Industry, and Business Library. These other 2 well-used branches will close and their services will relocate to 5th Avenue. Read more here.

Let the public outcry ensue.

I don't know enough about it to have strong feelings one way or another. Maybe the reasons for the reconfiguration are questionable? On the other hand, I once worked a circulation desk at a library with off site stacks. And they always delivered ordered material promptly and efficiently. As in, they never made a mistake. Ever. No exaggeration. It is a great thing for that particular library. Maybe this new system could be great for this branch?