It’s cold, gloomy, and I’m not feeling 100%.� This is prime book reading weather and I am silently praying that Mikey’s baseball game is canceled tonight.� Mama has a stack of books she wants to read and doesn’t feel like doing anything more complicated than shifting the pillow behind her back so that it rests “just so.”� Who’s with me?
Raise your hand if you are one of the lucky ones with a library who hands out a free issue of BookPage every month. I am, although I didn’t know until today when the boys and I went to a second library for books. Yep, two libraries. The heart wants what the heart wants and my heart wanted a book at a different library from our usual haunt.� Now my heart wants an entire library of other books thanks to this complimentary book lover’s digest.
For example, according to “buzz girl,” David Sedaris will release in October a collection of illustrated fables entitled Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.� I own everything David Sedaris has ever written, so I won’t wait for this to hit the library.� There are authors you read on loan, and authors you pay for full price.� Sedaris is a pay full price author.� He could author a collection of Campbells Soup Recipes and I would buy it without or without my Border’s rewards card.
I never read any of the Sweet Valley High books from the 70s and 80s (I wasn’t allowed, as if you couldn’t guess) but I know many of you did (including Susannah and Zakary, if memory serves).� Well, guess what?� In early 2011 we will see Sweet Valley Confidential, a look at Elizabeth, Jessica, and their Sweet Valley friends not into their late 20s and 30s.� I don’t even know what this means.� I had to Google and research Sweet Valley High to make sure I got the names right.� They were twins, right?
Wait a minute.
Does my beloved Google deceive me, or are there really 150 books in the series?!� Hmmm.� And here I thought they were resurrecting a treasured childhood series that was over 20 years old.� Turns out the last one was released in 2007.� So much for my plans to read “five or so books” to see what I was missing in the 8th grade.
Wait a minute.
The series had ghostwriters?
I have a sneaking suspicion that today’s obsessed Twilight moms were once obsessed Sweet Valley High fans.
I totally read Sweet Valley High in middle school and probably part of high school. I remember they tried to do a spin-off series that followed Elizabeth moving to Europe or something but it got kind of skanky so that was the end of SVH for me. I also loved Babysitters Club :) Don’t worry, I read quality books as well (Boxcar Children, anyone?)
I was a latecomer to SVH – late as in I was in my 30’s when I first came across them. I love the quick read – it’s like literary junk food. Only not as fattening and greasy. :)
Fontana supposedly has a great new library – is it wrong I would want to go without my kids?
hehe i’m a little embarrassed. i was totally a sweet valley high fan & would read those novels way late into the night. and i confess, i just watched twilight & new moon, and they’ve got me gripped.
The author of Sweet Valley High has written some pretty good other books. But I’m just giddy about the David Sedaris news!
I loved the SVH books and was sort of “girl crushy” on Jessica and Elizabeth. Today, though, David Sedaris will win out every time. I looooove him, especially on audio cd.
So help me I kinda’ want to read about Jessica & Elizabeth as adults. Crap. But I swear if I do I will temper it with shots of Faulkner, Joyce, etc.
I feel jipped. No Book Page at my library. Help, my brain is turning to mush! Do a follow up post on what’s on your nightstand pretty please. I seriously need a good suggestion.
Shhhh… don’t speak … no, don’t speak. Don’t tell me about any new books. I can’t know these things! The minute I lost my job a couple years ago I went out and purchased new books. I may have gone hungry, but by george I would be well read! I just pre-ordered the new Janet Evanovich novel … and threw in an Everyman’s Library Mansfield Park … so I wouldn’t have to pay shipping. I paid an extra $25.00, to save $8. Sure, makes perfect sense …
I preferred Sweet Valley Twins to Sweet Valley High – but I was in grade 5/6 myself, so all the high school stuff was a little over my head.
You could kinda tell they were written by various people, though, like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew – some sounded slightly different.
I’ve only read one Sedaris book (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) but I just loved it!
I don’t get this BookPage thing of which you speak, but, I work in a library. So, “go me” anyway? I wasn’t allowed to read SVH books either, but speaking of ghost writers — did you know that Laura Lee Hope, author of the Bobbsey Twins series, NEVER EXISTED?! They made her up. The books were written by a whole slew of authors, none of whom were even named Laura. Or Lee. Or Hope. I adored the Bobbsey Twins as a kid (I wanted to be Nan. So calm. so mature. so good-natured, pretty, & a brunette just like me!) and this realisation really shook my world. At least Maud Hart Lovelace actually lived… (Betsy-Tacy anyone?)
Susannah–I LOVED Twilight, so I am in no position to judge what anyone reads. :)
I will tell you the books I have loved reading in the last month, but I’m warning you guys right now: Mama doesn’t read fancy anymore.
i hate to admit it but count me in as someone who read sweet valley high! what a blast from the past! i can’t believe they’re coming out with something with them now, how funny. oh, and i’m with you – i read anything david sedaris writes…this upcoming book sounds great!!
I guess I’m in the minority when I say that I am not embarrassed to admit that I read the Sweet Valley books (SV Twins, SV High, SV University, etc.) and I loved them. I STILL own all the books. I was quite the bookworm growing up and all those years reading about Elizabeth and Jessica made them seem more like friends than fictional characters. I doubt SV Confidential will be anything wonderful but it will be interesting to see what they try to do.
I wasn’t allowed to read SVH either, lol. However, I did read a few by sneakily borrowing from friends and going to the school library and reading them during study halls (good thing I’ve always been a speed reader…). Wow, I totally forgot about those! Now the ADD in me wants to read the SV Confidential – but I feel like it’s going to be a tame spin off of SATC, especially if they’ve been relying on ghost writers for SVH!