Blogging doldrums

I've been going to the public library several times a week, but I am easily distracted and frequently find myself in the adult section. When I am reading book reviews and requesting that the Library Link bring me books, I feel compelled to be super focused and only request new children's books. I've been reading, but I feel deliciously wicked and unfocused. It is, after all, summer.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake.
Got the book AND the movie. Interesting story of an Indian family's relocation to the US in the 1960s, and how their son come to reconcile his ethnic heritage with his life as an American. The author won a Pulitzer AND the book was on the best seller list, so I feel very Adult.

Bennett, Alan. The Clothes They Stood Up In.
Was looking for An Uncommon Reader to give Older Teen Girl, but the library no longer has that fictional story of what happens when Queen Elizabeth wanders into a book mobile. Instead, this tiny volume chronicles the lives of the Ransome family after every single thing in their apartment is removed. I like Bennett's writing, but he has a bad habit of randomly sneaking in bad words and sex, completely gratuitously, and rendering his charming stories unsuitable for 12-year-olds. Sigh.

Also picked up Hoffman's Kid Stuff: Great Toys from Our Childhood, which I must have read before, and a biography of the Rolling Stones.

Actually bought Lauren Myracle's Eleven and Twelve for Picky Reader(since there were so many reserves on them), and have been luxuriating in them. I have never been a big fan of books that feel a need to talk about shaving legs and wearing bras, but it doesn't seem to embarass my daughter the way it always has been embarassing to me. They are to her what Beany Malone is to me. I don't have the foggiest idea why I didn't like Myracle the first time out; I now feel that I should reread Peace, Love and Baby Ducks, too.