A couple of days ago I talked about an article David Brooks wrote about kids being given books to read during the summer and how it helped their overall performance in school. I’ve also run across another article written by Laura Miller for Salon.com linking books and literacy.

Here’s an excerpt:

“A study recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility found that just having books around the house (the more, the better) is correlated with how many years of schooling a child will complete. The study (authored by M.D.R. Evans, Jonathan Kelley, Joanna Sikorac and Donald J. Treimand) looked at samples from 27 nations, and according to its abstract, found that growing up in a household with 500 or more books is “as great an advantage as having university-educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father.” Children with as few as 25 books in the family household completed on average two more years of schooling than children raised in homes without any books.”

The whole article can be accessed here: http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/06/02/summer_book_giveaway.

For anyone who owns books or feels comfortable going into bookstores and libraries, it may be difficult to imagine living in a home without books. If you’d like to support organizations that can help put more books in more hands, the Campaign for Literacy page at Bookbundlz.com is a great place to find links to many of these types of organizations.

I’m looking at raindrops out my window and gray skies in the distance. I’ve got a long day ahead typing on the keyboard of my computer when what I really want to do is curl up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea or hot cocoa and read.

I’ve got a stack of books just waiting for me to pick them up and turn the pages, and maybe I can carve out some time after lunch to do just that. Here’s what’s on my list of books to read:

• The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages—This story of two girls living with their families in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the development of the Atomic bomb has gotten rave reviews. It’s a story about friendship and the struggle of fitting in set in a historical backdrop.
• The Mother Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick—This is a story of four sixth-grade girls who are coerced (!) into joining a Mother Daughter Book Club where they will read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott as their first pick. Alternating chapters gives each girls point of view. Sound like fun!
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith—Dodie Smith also wrote The 101 Dalmations, which of course Disney turned into a movie. This book has been resurrected recently, but is considered a classic. It’s the story of two sisters who live in a ruined castle in Britain, and it takes place between Word War I and World War II. Their lives change when a wealthy American family move to the area. It definitely sounds like a book that’s good for cuddling up with on the couch.
• What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges—Many people are familiar with this story because of the movie, which featured Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. The book is for mature high school readers and adults. It’s a story about Gilbert, trapped in a small town in Iowa because he’s loyal to his family. We see that family through Gilbert’s eyes and find people who are far from perfect but trying to do their best. I hear the story stays with you long after the book is finished.

As I’m a writer, I also try to get a bit of professional reading in, and I’m currently inspired by Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman and Michael Larsen.

I you had a day just to curl up on the couch and read, what would you pick up?

Cindy Hudson. Photo by Jill Greenseth

Here are a few ideas for great books to give as Christmas presents if you’re still shopping. These books qualify as great gifts because they’re the type your daughters will want to read again and again.

1. Boy and Going Solo by Roald Dahl. I’ve read these books more than once and so has my husband and both of my daughters. It’s a pretty tall order to find something that we all enjoy more than once. Dahl’s stories of his life growing up and his young adulthood in Africa and as a pilot in World War II are fascinating historically. They also give a glimpse into the mind of this author who wrote so many original books for children. They’re both fairly small, so they can be read quickly.

2. Framed and Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. You’ll fall in love with the protagonists of both of these books. Again, everyone in my family enjoyed them. Millions tells the bittersweet story of young, innocent Damian who has recently lost his mother. He and his brother Anthony as well as their Dad are struggling to figure out what life without her means. When Damian finds a duffel of money that drops out of the sky, he believes it is a gift from God, and he must spend it helping the poor. Anthony has different ideas, and while the tension rises throughout the book as the reader knows a resolution must come, it’s all very lighthearted and touching. Framed tells the story of Dylan and his small town in Wales where people are moving out in droves to look for better opportunities elsewhere. When art from the National Museum arrives for storing in the caves outside of town, the reader follows the path of redemption the art brings to the town.

3. West with the Night by Beryl Markham should be on every older girls bookshelf. Markham was the first person to fly solo from Europe to North America, and her story of being an aviatrix in the early 1900s is fascinating. She grew up in Africa with her father, and she knew other well known people such as Denys Finch-Hatton from Out of Africa fame. Her stories of boar and elephant hunts, flying over desert terrain and other stories of African bush life are fascinating to read.

4. Firestarters, 100 Job Profiles to Inspire Young Women by Kelly Beatty and Dale Salvaggio Bradshaw is a great book to help girls explore careers. Everything from the traditional to the non-traditional is included in this book that is easy to digest in bites.

5. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.D. White is wonderful for younger readers. The story of a Louis, a mute trumpeter swan who learns how to make his way in the world is sweet and inspiring.

6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is another book that appeals to a broad range of people. My husband, my older daughter and I all rank it as one of the best books we’ve ever read. Zusak’s writing is so original that I found myself reading the tale slowly to savor every word. The story takes place in Nazi Germany during World War II, and it follows the exploits of Leisel, an orphan living with foster parents near Munich.

Here’s a list of other book club favorites to consider:

• A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck.
• Bloomability by Sharon Creech.
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
• Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang.
• Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
• Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Fililpovic
• I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• Light Years by Tamar Stein

You can shop online for all of these titles at my favorite bookstore, Powell’s, at www.powells.com.

I just started reading Night by Elie Wiesel. It’s a book I’ve heard about for a long time, and my 16-year-old daughter read it in school two years ago, so I thought it was time I read it myself.

I’ve read other of Wiesel’s boos. They’re not for the faint of heart, but they are very thought provoking and Wiesel’s voice is captivating. Some books are important to read even if you don’t expect to laugh or be amused while reading them, and I believe this is one of those books.

While reading this book in high school, members of my daughter’s class played the roles of Nazis, Jews and ordinary citizens. My daughter was assigned the role of Jew, and she wore a yellow star. While she knew it was role-playing and the consequences were not life and death, the exercise made her think of the real-world actions of the Holocaust in new ways.