Forest Park Enters the Fray

Greetings from Forest Park:

Testing. Testing. OK I am going to guess the mic's working. Here goes:

January 2012- Karen Kacer
1. Betty Crocker's Cooking Calendar - Betty Crocker 176 pages
2. Catholic Customs & Traditions: A Pop. Guide - Greg Dues 214 pages
3. Elvis Is Dead & I Don't Feel So Good Myself - Lewis Grizzard 269 pages
4. The Life Millennium 192 pages
5. The New Guide to Home Remedies 256 pages
6. 20th The Eventful Century: The World at War 91939-1945) 160 pages
TOTAL: 1267

February 2012 - Donna Bakke

1. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 384 pages
2. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins 391 pages
3. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 390 pages
4. Mile 81 - Stephen King 80 pages
5. Doctor Who: Dead Air James Goss (Unabridged audiobook) 130 pages
6. South of Bixby Bridge - Ryan Winfield 299 pages
TOTAL: 1674 pages

YTD: 2941 pages

Fantastic Flying Books Wins Oscar!

For those of you that have yet to witness the absolutely delightful animated short, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore", you are truly missing out.  This beautiful little film just took home The Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and boy did it deserve the win.  If you have a chance, take 15 minutes out of your day to wonder at the beautiful tale of a man's love of books and how that love inspires his life as well as his death.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to pick up pen and paper so that you too, may join the house of the Flying Books.  Enjoy!

"Rules of Engagement"

We are required by our district to post this to our blog.  We present to you our Social Media Participation Guidelines.

http://blogs.stlcc.edu/participation-guidelines/

Poor Abby, All Alone at Wildwood

Our brave and valiant compatriot at the Wildwood Campus has reported in with her very impressive totals for the month of January.  The woman is the only one there to participate, but Hot Diggity Dog did she pull her weight.  Way to go, glad we're all playing on the same team.  Impressive numbers!

1 participant
8 books
2955 pages!!!  :-o

Here's what she read:
1.     The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (300 pp)
2.     Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson (388 pp)
3.     The Inverted Forest by John Dalton (325 pp)
4.     A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (273 pp)
5.     The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (346 pp)
6.     The South Beach Diet Supercharged by Arthur Agatston (337)
7.     Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George (610 pp)
8.     The Island by Heather Graham (376 pp)

Well, I don't know about the rest of the FV folks, but I vote we adopt our Wildwood partner.  ;)
Outstanding!

Now where are those Forest Park folks.....

Florissant Valley Campus Reporting In

Gooood Monday Morning!
Well the good folks at the Florissant Valley branch have been hard at work reading, reading, and reading some more.  Here's where we stand for the month of January 2012:

10 Participants
49 Books
9,181 Pages

And the crowd goes wild!  Not a bad showing for the first month of competition.  Some of the other campuses may have done slightly better than we did, but don't you worry.  This fight is still young, and we will be VICTORIOUS!

The books we read, plus a funny cat pic at the end.  :)

1.     Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (468 pp)
2.     Missed Connections: Love, Lost and Found by Sophie Blackall (128 pp)
3.     The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler (185 pp)
4.     The Marriage Plot  by Jeffrey Eugenides (406 pp)
5.     Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (305 pp)
6.     The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai (324 pp)
7.     60 Hikes Within 60 Miles, St Louis by Steve Henry (259 pp)
8.     With a Little Luck by Caprice Crane (308 pp)
9.     The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (387 pp)
10.   Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill and John Archambault Martin Jr. (36 pp)
11.   Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3  by Archambault Martin Jr. (40 pp)
12.   Just Saving My Money by Mercer Mayer (32 pp)
13.   Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Capucilli (21 pp)
14.   Scat, Cat by Alyssa Capucilli (32 pp)
15.   Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton (32 pp)
16.   Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman (40 pp)
17.   The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell (32 pp)
18.   The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer (32 pp)
19.   The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson (40 pp)
20.   A Color Clown Comes to Town by Jane Belk Moncure (32 pp)
21.   The Care and Keeping of You by Valerie Schaefer (104 pp)
22.   Living the Mindful Life by Charles Tart (252 pp)
23.   Waking Up by Charles Tart (323 pp)
24.   Western Civilization by Jackson Spielvogel (28 pp and still reading)
25.   Luring a Lady by Nora Roberts (161 pp)
26.   Guilty by Karen Robards (58 pp)
27.   Skyjack: The Hunt for DB Cooper by Geoffrey Gray (302 pp)
28.   Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (103 pp)
29.   A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (339 pp)
30.   The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson (465 pp) - 2 people read this one.
31.   London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew (280 pp)
32.   The Help by Kathryn Stockett (48 pp)
33.   Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon (35 pp)
34.   Dead Cert by Dick Francis (150 pp)
35.   Mark Martin: Driven to Race by Bob Zeller (20 pp)
36.   Dave Navarro: Don't Try This at Home by Neil Strauss (253 pp)
37.   The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steif Larson (503 pp)
38.   The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith (213 pp)
39.   Zero Day by David Baldacci (436 pp)
40.   As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong (371 pp - 7hr, 40 min.)
41.   Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (277 pp)
42.   Eau Claire Leader Telegram Newspaper 1/01 - 1/05 (120 pp)
43.   Newsweek 1/09, 1/23, 1/30 (197 pp)
44.   The Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Clause: A Novel by Tim Slover (162 pp)
45.   Miles Standish by Daniel K Davis (118 pp)
46.   Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (205 pp)
47.   Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen by Sarah Jane Downing (63 pp)
48.   After America: Get Ready for Armageddon by Mark Stevn (424 pp)
                 (Remember Dragon Tattoo was read by two people. 
                         Didn't think it was necessary to list again.)

Our top reader for the month was Karen Sprong with a grand total of 17 books and 2056 pages.  Yay, Karen!  Three other participants read over 1000 pages in one month.  Congrats to all.  We rock!

Oh yeah, I promised you all a funny cat pic..... :)

Meramec January titles

Here's the whole Meramec list for January, 46, count'em, 46 books:

• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, 232 pages. 
• The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, 383 pages. 
• Dog Days: A Year in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile by Dave Ihlenfeld, 217 pages.
• Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, 519 pages.  Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 630 pages. 
• Roam, Dan. The Back of the Napkin 278 pages
• Quinn, Spencer. The Dog Who Knew Too Much. 308 pp.
• Beaton, M.C. As the Pig Turns. 292 pp.
• Murphy, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Telling Tales 373pp
• Caldwell, Joseph.  The Pig Comes to Dinner. 255pp.
• Patterson, James. Now You See Her. 383pp.
• James, P.D.  Death Comes to Pemberley. 291pp.
• Goldberg, Lee.  Mr. Monk on Patrol. 289pp.
• Clement, Blaize. Cat Sitter’s Pajamas. 260pp.
• Brown, Peter.  Children Make Terrible Pets.  20pp.
• Up in the air by Walter Kirn (AUDIOBOOK – 9 1/2 hours) (count as 303 pages)
• The weekend by Bernhard Schlink (AUDIOBOOK – 5 1/2 hours) (count as 215 pages)
• Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay   337 pages
• Left Neglected: A Novel by Lisa Genova, 327 pp.
• Dreams of Joy: A Novel by Lisa See, 349 pp.
• The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn, 308 pp.
• The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by David McCullough.  17 hours (558pp. equiv.)
• Oliver, Neil.  A history of Scotland, 2009, 389p.  
• Otsuka, Julie.  Buddha in the attic, 2011, 129p.  
• Zuckoff, Mitchell.  Lost in Shangri-la: a true story of survival, adventure and the most incredible rescue mission of World War II, 2011, 384p.  
• Sea of Poppies (Amitav Ghosh) 471pp.
• Cain (Jose Saramago) 159pp.
• The "Hunger Games" Trilogy (The Hunger Games,  374pp. Catching Fire,  390pp. Mockingjay, 391pp.)
• Lady in Red Hawkins, Karen  384pp
• Seduction of Sara. Hawkins, Karen. 376pp
• Abduction of Julia. Hawkins, Karen 373pp
• Affair to Remember. Hawkins, Karen 372pp.
• Confessions of a Scoundrel. Hawkins, Karen 374pp
• Belated Bride. Hawkins, Karen. 374pp.
• How to Treat a Lady. Hawkins, Karen 375pp.
• And the Bride Wore Plaid. Hawkins, Karen. 360pp.
• Little Tiger’s Big Surprise. Sykes, Julie 20pp.
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett  353 pages. 
• Twain. Life on the Mississippi 429 pp.(Audio)
• Deaver . Cold Moon 401pp (Audio)
• Ridley. The Drift 269pp. (Audio)
• Ferguson. American on Purpose 268 pp.(Audio)
• Punk rock etiquette : the ultimate how-to guide for punk, underground, DIY, and indie bands, by Travis Nichols.  126 pages
• Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia by Fudge, Thomas. 2010.  367 pages
• Words That Hurt, Words That Heal  by Telushkin, Rabbi Joseph. 1996.  188 pages
• Silesia—A Pearl in the Bohemian Crown: Three Periods of flourishing Artistic Relations by National Gallery of Prague. 2006.  82 pages

Meramec January totals

Meramec campus is off to a flying start! We have 12 participants reporting 46 books and 11,717 pages read (the page total includes the equivalent of 75 hours and 53 minutes of audiobooks). Damaris read the most books at 10, while Betty is the champion for number of pages, an astounding 3008 pages in 9 books!

Highland Park Instructional Resources for January

HPIR's 8 participants read 39 titles, for a total of 10809 pages. Our champion reader for the month was Marian, who read 2433 pages! The three runners up were Jim (1816 pages), Sheila (1748 pages), and Jane (1651 pages). Let's see what the campus libraries can muster for the Reading the Dream Team.

For your edification, here's what we read:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
Falling Man by Don DeLillo
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott
Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir
Left Neglected
Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Bad Return by Amiee Bender
Scarlet (King Raven Trilogy, bk 2) by Stephen Lawhead
Tuck (King Raven Trilogy, bk 3) by Stephen Lawhead
Three Seconds by Anders Roslund & Borge Hellstrom
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Now You See Her by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
Little Bee
One for the Money by Janet Evanonich
Shards by Ismet Prcic
Harper's (Dec. 2011)
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City
Shock Wave by John Sandford
The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb
Taken by Robert Crais
Man Down by Dan Abrams
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Shut your eyes tight by John Verdon
The Accusers by Lindsey Davis
This Old House (Mar 2012)
The Woman Who Could Not Forget by Ying-Ying Chang
The Weekend: a novel
2012 Pushcart Prize XXXVI: Best of the Small Presses
The Best American Essays
And Furthermore…
Quite Enough of Trillin: 40 Years of Funny Stuff
A Year in the Village of Eternity: the Lifestyle of Longevity in Campodimele, Italy
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Sun Magazine (Nov. 2011)
Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger's Life and Musical Journey by Bill C. Malone
What You Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell