Finally - the latest books

Well, I won't get to 50, but I might get to 40! Here are the latest:
Book #36 - The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander - To be added to the pile of books I'd like to read with my kids -another fun adventure!
Book #37 - Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman. Mom lent this to me to read years ago. The format was kind of interesting, all the various interactions and documents rather than just a narration. The whole issue of rules that exist only for rules' sake and the bureaucracy that keeps her from really getting a chance to TEACH came up over the holiday, too, but I can't remember how. I didn't quite see what finally made up her mind, I thought that was what she'd do, but didn't really see the why from the story. I do plan to lend this to a friend who teaches - she'll probably identify with it even more closely.
Book #38 - Shopgirl by Steve Martin. While I liked his story and his characters, I found the writing style way to simple and pretty distracting. I had the existence of the movie in mind as I read it and that meshed, because the book seemed to read more like a script to me. The "backstory" and character development was very disjointed from the action - much like asides or setup paragraphs before a scene. That said, the movie might be cute - I'll add it to my very long queue.
Book #39 - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - another re-read spurred by a film, but I actually got to this 2 days before seeing the flick. I really enjoyed these books as a kid. As with Coraline, this is high on my list for books for my kids and it too has more depth than The Black Cauldron. I found the movie an excellent interpretation, which kept much of the same tone of the original. One thing the movie didn't do that the book did, and I'm grateful to the movie for this, was the trumped up "court" speech of the 4 right before they find their way back to the Wardrobe. That was annoying. Plan to reread Prince Caspian soon.