Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is the book I read last weekend. I am not sure where I first heard about it...it looks like something you might see in the book section at Target. Young Henry Lee is a Chinese American boy living in Seattle during World War II. He becomes friends with a Japanese American girl, Keiko. It goes back and forth from the 1940's to the 1980's. It made me think a lot about how minorties have been treated in the past by others...and maybe are still are. If I taught high school English I would encourage my students to read it.

The Handiest Things in the World

The Handiest Things in the World by Andrew Clements with photographs by Raquel Jarmillo is a great picture book to read to preschool or school age children. The book shows how people use hands. It then shows what people have created to do the same job. The text is brief so it could engage very young children, and the subject matter is definitely appropriate for elementary age children. The photographs are fantastic and make the book appealing.

National Letter Writing Week

January 9 through 15 is National Letter Writing Week. I realize many of those of you who read this blog do write letters and even send them in the mail because I am the recipient of some of those letters. If you don't write letters often, I would encourage you to do so this week. I'm not sure how I became enamored with letter writing, but it probably helped that people I wrote letters to responded by sending letters of their own or postcards (my aunts and uncle). Some of my friends, my sisters and I still write letters. Some of the letters I recieved in college are worth saving-my grandmas, dad, and younger brothers and sister wrote letters that brightened my day. Some of the more memorable ones included sketches or song lyrics written on the envelopes.

Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Deal is the game I got for some of my nephews for Christmas. We tried playing it on Christmas and it didn't go so well because we did not read the rules very carefully. When I played it with my other nephew and his family, it went much better. I would buy it again for a gift. The game is much faster than regular Monopoly, but it is probably takes closer to 30 minutes than the 15 minutes that it says on the box. I like it because it isn't a lengthy game and of course the size is nice because you could tuck it in your bag while traveling without taking a lot of space.

quilts of 2010

This year I completed 6 quilts-5 for gifts and one for me. The quilt above I made for my brother's fortieth birthday. It has some Minnesota fabric from the 2009 Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop. I made three different baby quilts-one for a friend (click here for picture), one for my nephew born in August(click here for picture), and one for my cousin's son. I also made a quilt for my aunt's 60th birthday. It is a nine patch in red, white, and a bit of orange. The flannel quilt I made for myself can be seen here. My two favorites are my quilt and my nephew's quilt.

books

I read 58 books this year. Above is a stack of some of the good books that I read. The ones that have the titles listed below have a link to what I wrote about them after reading them.

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

Listen by Rene Gutteridge

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Plain Jayne by Hillary Manton Lodge

Saving Sailor by Renee Riva

I don't think that I could choose just one favorite out of the books, but there is a good chance I would read any of them again.
If you like mysteries read Listen or Anathema or The Thirteenth Tale. If you like adventure, read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or The Mountain Between Us. I had to read Poetry Matters for one of my classes this summer and would recommend it to anyone that wants to get better at writing.

What good books did you read this year?