Growing Bookworms Newsletter: May 28

Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I usually send the newsletter out every two weeks. However, I've just returned from vacation, and so have a three week interval this time. 

Newsletter Update: In this issue I have seven book reviews (picture book and young adult) and three posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently (including a separate roundup dedicated to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign). Not included in the newsletter, I posted:

• A news release about the 2014 Eric Carle Honors selections; and
• An announcement about the 8th Annual Kidlitosphere Conference.

Reading Update: In the last three weeks I read one middle grade, one young adult and five adult books. This is not my typical reading breakdown, but as I was on a computer-free vacation, I wanted to read books that I would not feel obligated to review (and that were available on Kindle). I read:

• P. J. Hoover: Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life. Starscape. Middle Grade. Completed May 10, 2014 (printed ARC). Review to come, closer to publication.
• William Campbell Powell: Expiration Day. Tor Teen. Young Adult. Completed May 10, 2014, on Kindle. My review.
• Daniel Suarez: Influx. Dutton. Adult Fiction. Completed May 11, 2014, on MP3. This is an interesting near-future thriller about a secret government organization that hides (and steals) technological innovations. 
• Meg Cabot: Size 12 Is Not Fat. William Morrow. Adult Mystery. Completed May 16, 2014, on Kindle (library copy). This is the first book in Cabot's Heather Wells series, adult mysteries featuring a former teen pop star who is the size of the average woman. 
• Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner: Think Like a Freak. William Morrow. Adult Nonfiction. Completed May 24, 2014, on Kindle. This is a follow-on book to Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics. Instead of giving interesting examples of data-driven conclusions, however, Think Like A Freak is about teaching the reader to think in an experimental manner. 
• Sue Grafton: V is for Vengeance. Putnam. Adult Mystery. Completed May 24, 2014, on Kindle (library copy).
• Maeve Binchy: Chestnut Street. Knopf. Adult Fiction. Completed May 27, 2014, on MP3. This is truly Binchy's last book, a collection of short stories that she wrote over the years, all featuring people who live on the same Dublin Street. Her husband gathered them for publication after her death. I am not generally a fan of short stories (I need long, complex plots and extended time with characters to hold my attention), but I enjoyed listening to these. 

I'm currently reading The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson in print and All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior on Kindle. I'm listening to Any Other Name by Craig Johnson (a Walt Longmire mystery).

We haven't been reading to Baby Bookworm as much as I would have liked these days. We took books on our trip, of course, but we've had a lot of long days (we were in Disney World), and she has conked out early on several nights. As you might imagine, I was thrilled when the first thing she asked to do with her babysitter yesterday (our first day back in our regular routine) was read a book. I also found Moldylocks and the Three Beards extremely helpful in keeping myself calm during an interminable wait at Hertz.  

What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms. 

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.