Books, Books, Books

It's Tuesday, and that means it is time for two book features.

First up, I'm going to do this week's reading question from Callapidder Days.  She asks:
When you read a book, do you read EVERYTHING? In other words, do you read the dedication, the acknowledgements, the foreword, the afterword, the prologue, the epilogue, the appendices, etc.? Or do you just read the “meat” of the book? Or is your approach somewhere in between?

I read everything.  Okay, I might skim over acknowledgements if they are just a long list of names.  But I actually have fun finding names I recognize in the acknowledgements of Southern California authors.  Plus, since I pretty much read fiction, the prologue and epilogue are an important part of the story.  I do still tend to read everything if I am reading non-fiction.  I figure if it was important enough to include, I need to read it.

And, since it is the fourth Tuesday of the month, that means it is time for 5 Minutes for Books' What's on Your Nightstand.

Late last week, I finsihed NERDS: M is for Mama's Boy, the second book in a fun series by Michael Buckley.  Michael is probably best known for his Sister's Grimm books, but these are very different.  NERDS is a group of 5th grade super spies who have some upgrades that give them quasi-superpowers.  They go on missions around the world and still make it home for dinner.  This book finds them facing off against someone who is inventing a ray that makes all machines obey him and someone who is using squirrels to rob banks.

No, there is nothing serious about the books.  They take themselves seriously enough that we care about the outcome, but the plots are over the top and that much more fun for it.  And there are tons of jokes to keep you laughing the entire way through.  Frankly, I think parents will get more of the jokes than their kids will.