Donate your books!

                                              

What can you do with the books you no longer want or need, books your children have outgrown?
Well, I have offered mine to our local Preschool, but was told that they had no need for them..I live in a comfortable, affluent area of Southern California where libraries are well stocked and children here have lots of  learning resources available to them.

But, but...there are so many places around the world where books are scarce or nonexistent, where a school library might have 10 books or less, where children don't have the magic of reading at their fingertips to help them escape the harsh realities of their everyday lives.

Donate, donate! Love Libraries Without Borders; contact them, check out their web site and see if you can help a kid somewhere read better, dream better and aspire higher.

http://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/about-us/

I found this list on boston.com. It's a non extensive list of blogs compiled by

Mitali Perkins, which talk about cultural diversity and multicultural books,education and adding diversity to our kids' reading materials. The book reviews are enlightening and I will be following these blogs regularly to get ideas about new books to read to my kids.

• A Wrung Sponge

• American Indians in Children's Literature

• Brown Bookshelf

• Brown Paper

• Color Online

• Crazy Quilts

• Happy Nappy Bookseller

• Lee and Low

• PaperTigers

• Reading in Color

• Shen's Books

• Smithsonian's Book Dragon

• World of Words Currents

Mitali Perkins (www.mitaliperkins.com) lives and writes in Newton. Her newest book for middle-schoolers, Bamboo People (Charlesbridge), received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly

Bestselling Books

From The New York Times bestseller lists:

COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK FICTION

1. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James
2. FIFTY SHADES DARKER, by E. L. James
3. FIFTY SHADES FREED, by E. L. James
4. GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn
5. BARED TO YOU, by Sylvia Day

COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK NONFICTION

1. PATERNO, by Joe Posnanski
2. THE AMATEUR, by Edward Klein
3. UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand
4. WILD, by Cheryl Strayed
5. OBAMA'S AMERICA, by Dinesh D'Souza

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn
2. THE INN AT ROSE HARBOR, by Debbie Macomber
3. WARDS OF FAERIE, by Terry Brooks
4. THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS, by M. L. Stedman
5. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, by George R. R. Martin

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. OBAMA'S AMERICA, by Dinesh D'Souza
2. THE AMATEUR, by Edward Klein
3. UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand
4. WILD, by Cheryl Strayed

PAPERBACK TRADE FICTION

1. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James
2. FIFTY SHADES DARKER, by E. L. James
3. FIFTY SHADES FREED, by E. L. James
4. BARED TO YOU, by Sylvia Day
5. THE BEST OF ME, by Nicholas Sparks

Found on some random joke web site; claim it if it's yours, please:

  Every nation has to write a book about the Elephant:

The French book - The Sex Life of the Elephant or: 1000 ways to cook Elephant
The English book - Elephants I have shot on Safari
The Welsh book - The Elephant and its influence on Welsh language and culture
The American book - How to Make Bigger And Better Elephants
The Japanese book - How to Make Smaller And Cheaper Elephants
The Greek book - How to Sell Elephants for a Lot of Money
The Finnish book - What Do Elephants Think about Finnish People
The German book - A Short Introduction to Elephants, Vol 1-6.
The Icelandic book - Defrosting an Elephant
Switzerland: The Country Through Which Hannibal Went With His Elephants
The Canadian book - Elephants: A Federal or State Issue?
The Swedish book - How to reduce your taxes with an elephant.

 

I must admit that, although I am an avid reader, I have not read a single book from the above lists.  "Between the Oceans" sounds like an interesting book (just judging the title, I like original titles), so maybe that will make it on my reading list. 50 shades of gray will not. I don't even know why I'm not interested, but I am not. Perhaps overexposure, over hype..I don't know. Maybe once all the dust settles in a few years I'll give it a try.

 

A Depressing Title For A Book!

What are some of your favorite books and why?