19 May 2010

The Really Really Really Good Book Challenge

art work by The Big Sister
This is the Big Sister speaking spelling to you!  We just finished reading a book out loud and I liked it so much I started reading it to myself and this is how I got inspired for The Really Really Really Good Book Challenge!


You know when you reach "The End" of a book and you say, "I really liked that book!"   Do you know that feeling?  This Challenge is where you can tell the world about the books that give you the "I really liked this book" feeling.


I hope to hear from you!  Share us with your friends.  (And please take the poll, tell us how many books you read a year!)



Please use the following format for your comment:
Title of Book, Author, and your thoughts on the book: why you think its a really, really, really good book!

16 comments:

  1. Thank you Big Sister for this fantastic idea --we needed a place to shout from the roof tops about good books! It's a good follow up to The What are you Reading RIGHT NOW challenge too --since my REALLY REALLY REALLY good book is one listed there!

    The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan and Peter Sis

    What got me to pick this book up was the offer of insight into Pablo Neruda's Childhood. Between the simple prose and pointillistic illustrations I was easily swept into Neftali (Neruda's) childhood and found myself seeking out the poetry of nature, noticing the color of the sky, the leaves as they unfold...

    While this is a young adult title, it is a balanced book of history, poetry, and inspiration for any age.

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  2. Grandmothers Counsel the World by Carol Schaefer

    A few years ago, The Mom recommended this book to me so I picked it up and read it and recommended it and passed it around and bought copies to give people and reread it more than once.

    It is a collection of the wisdom of 13 indigenous "grandmothers" - women elders from tribes around the world - who came together, without knowing one another, yet fulfilling an ancient prophecy. As they shared their stories and their insights with one another and with me, I got a profound sense of the underlying unity and community permeating all of creation, and of my participation in and responsibility toward it. Though the focus is, understandably, on the role of woman, this is a message for all of humankind. This is a REALLY REALLY REALLY good book

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  3. The Princess Plot (aka Skogland, in its original German) by Kirsten Boie --we found her website, but its in German, so you might need to translate! (www.kirsten-boie.de) The Sister's have listened to the book on tape, here is what they have to say about it:

    The Little Sister likes it because "its kind of adult humor --that I like, in French I think it would be funny. If you like dogs there are dogs. She acts like a princess but she's really not!"

    The Big Sister says, "it is exciting, it's REALLY good, it's in a make believe place in modern times. The plot hooks you, you get sucked into it and then all of the sudden its over. And I have to read it again!!"

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  4. Wings
    by E. D. Baker

    A fairy tale set in modern times about a girl who has always been different and in the book she realizes why. Some of the background is Midsummer Night's Dream characters Titania and Oberon and a whole lot of mythical creatures! I like it so much that as soon as we finished it, I had to read it again --in one day I am already on Chapter 5.

    You can read the first chapter here www.edbakerbooks.com/wingsfront.htm

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  5. Anonymous12:38 PM

    The Three Questions
    Jon J. Muth

    There are times when I'm having a tough day...that I've found myself in the children's book section of the library or a bookstore and I feel great comfort by letting my eyes wander over the titles. I picked this book up one day and it changed my life!

    It's a book for children and adults and asks three important questions...and the questions are ANSWERED!

    I dearly love this book and I love giving it as a gift...to children AND especially adults.

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  6. Family Matters
    By Rohinton Mistry

    This book is about aging, regrets, compassion, and how at times, despite our sincerest efforts, history can repeat itself. Set in India, Mistry delicatly unfolds this family story in a way that is so touching I didn't want it to end.

    The true sign of an amazing book is when you are sad to realize that you only have one chapter left.

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  7. There are soooooooo many wonderful books i've read. hmmmm. one i really like:
    Walk Two Moons
    by Sharon Chreech

    in this book the main charecter, Salamancea, notices the little things about people. it involves a wise old woman, an over-reactive freind and Sal's Gram who is always saying huzza,huzza. this book gave me a laugh.

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  8. Anonymous10:41 AM

    Red Pyramid
    Rick Riordan
    It was more than awesome! It connects the real world to egyptian mythology(which is my favorite subject) while also using real places real history and just spicing it up. it kept me on my toes the whole book and I can't wait for the next one! It was funny, suspenseful, with things that people can relate to like losing a family member or being separated from a sibling but made them seem like signs for cool things you could never imagine! While also being smpathetic and making them seem real. Rick Riordan never ceases to amaze me!

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  9. People of the Book
    By Geraldine Brooks

    Inspired by a true story, the book traces the Sarajevo Haggadah through centuries of intrigue, exile, and war. Artifacts (an insect wing, wine stains, salt crystals, and a white strand of hair) found in the book’s binding by the heroine, a rare books expert, lead to an incredible journey of fact and fiction through the centuries.

    All in all, the book uplifted me (besides being a superb mystery) by the bonds of good shown by diverse people everywhere throughout the ages.

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  10. The Higher Power of Lucky
    by Susan Patron

    I've been tired lately (perhaps from the holidaze!) and I needed to just relax and READ. At the library I selected this book solely on the way it looks. The cover art (by Matt Phelan) is of a young girl, one arm clutching what looks like an empty flower vase reaching the other arm toward the title of the book -that and the golden Newberry Medal which is positioned perfectly above her head. (The "vase" is actually an urn which contains her mothers ashes.)

    Well, this book is perfection. At first I thought, "I know just where this is going." And I did, but the path it takes pulls heart-strings and elevates even the biggest non-believer to look toward a search for their own "Higher Power".

    And Lucky lead me back to another book I love: The Tree of Life by Peter Sis (I love his illustrations) all about Darwin.

    Simply put: this is a really really really really good book and I will put it on the list I will eventually read with The Sisters.

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  11. Book Sphinx7:01 PM

    "Kafka On the Shore" by Haruki Murakami. Hands down one of the best novels written by a Japanese master. A little magic, a little love and a historical complex to end all complexes

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  12. The Cookbook Collector
    by Allegra Goodman

    This book fed me in many ways: my love of books, my interest in the internet, love, intrigue, religion, hippies (both young and old), wine, history...

    And any book that manages to weave one of my favorite cookbooks (The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen) seamlessly into the story gets my vote.

    The only downside: this book left this vegetarian salivating over descriptions of meat and seafood. The upside: it left me feeling good about about religion, 9/11, computers and love.

    Yup, it's a really really really good book!

    Follow this LINK to more from NPR!

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  13. oh! i need to reserve these at the library - what a treasure trove!

    i just finished a LOVELY book, by the always awesome robin mckinley - it's called chalice, and is a magical tale that is a story about BEES!! since my brother is a beekeeper, it made me really, really happy. and, of course, i had to have hot tea with honey to accompany my reading. :)

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  14. Oooooh, I have another Really Really Good One:

    Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (don't you just love that name?) I am a little claustrophobic and the first part of the book had me wondering if I could get through it. I have big worries about Global Warming and since the book is set in a post Global crisis I wondered if I could finish it. I worry a lot about kids who have rough lives to live and wow the main character in this book has a rough row to hoe, so I wondered if my heart would break. But Paolo works magic with words --a wizard for sure. I read the whole thing easily and was somehow comforted by the humanity woven into horrific situations and wild science fiction scenes set in Dystopic New Orleans.

    I was on the edge of my seat (or of the bed rather) last night and finished the book --giving it to The Dad, sure he would love it as much as I did and want to get started right away. But he is almost done with The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's nest completing the trilogy... but he will read Ship Breaker next. And I am betting he will love it too!

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  15. Whoops, That last post was by The Mom --forgot to use my own account!!

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  16. Wow, The Little Sister and The Mom just finished reading: The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl.

    Wow, so much fun! We read it in one sitting and with singing and accents.

    Need a read for a cozy winter morning? Read this one aloud and enjoy!

    Here is the link to find it at a library near you: find it!

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