As best I can tell, this song hasn't ever been played 'round these parts, and it feels like an appropriate way to close out my guest DJ week.
In all seriousness, thanks to everyone for voting and commenting and just generally making this week far more fun than I ever expected. 😘
Book pairing: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Loading... Not true--y'all are the best! I just happen to also like this song.
Book Pairing: All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)Loading... Happy Friday Book Music Day! I had no plan for this week of guest DJ-ing until I was on my way to a gathering of book people a week ago, and suddenly it became obvious what I needed to do. So I'm curious, do the rest of y'all have song/book pairings you'd suggest? Also, please drop your lists.
Sorry, CoC, this probably wasn't what you were expecting me to play today. 😉
Book Pairing: A Map into the World by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Seo Kim
(6 votes, average: 8.83 out of 10)Loading... I was recently reminded of the fabulous comments generated by this song, so I decided to check out whether Sleigh Bells had any live songs about topics other than A Machines and B Machines. Turns out, there were a bunch of options to choose from.
I wasn't expecting to really like what I found, but I actually like it quite a lot.
Book Pairing: Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derek Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
(2 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... Speaking of orphan tags and indecision, HJ did you ever get less undecided about Dessa?
Book pairing: The Roots of Rap by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison
(5 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... Can today match yesterday's amazing comment to vote ratio? Probably not, but a girl can dream!
Book pairing: The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10)Loading... Welcome to Pepper week!
DG played something else by this quartet last year, which let me to this wonderful piece composed by Gabriella Smith.
And if you're curious (as I was), according to their website, "the Aizuri Quartet draws its name from 'aizuri-e,' a style of predominantly blue Japanese woodblock printing that is noted for its vibrancy and incredible detail."
Book pairing: Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown.
(4 votes, average: 8.75 out of 10)Loading... The jalapeño's baseball season came to an end last Monday with a loss in the first round of the playoffs. On Tuesday, he volunteered to be 3rd base coach at his brother's t-ball game, on Thursday he went to the championship game for a team a bunch of his friends were on, and last night he watched Field of Dreams for the first time. The season may be done, but the obsession lives on.
I've been reading memoir in verse recently. In June I read Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson and immediately after that picked up This Is the Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy, both of which were excellent.
I don't always think poetry is a great fit for nonfiction topics--poetry is often works well to distill a topic to its essence and prompt readers to see something from a fresh perspective. I don't think poetry is typically good at conveying background information and putting events in a larger context, which is often what I want from nonfiction. But in the case of memoir, poetry can get to the heart of a story and keep things moving along--because even a really interesting life surely contains plenty of mundane details that readers won't really care about.
The latest books I have from the library are not poetry, and every time I look at them, I think about how very many words are on each page. I should probably start one of those books soon, though.
What have you been reading? Have you encountered books that you thought you wouldn't like that surprised you?
