Welcome to 2008!
May the promise of this year fill your days with hope and happiness.
Quiz-O-Rama: I’ve written award winning poetry, stories and novels for adults before writing a young adult novel that won a prestigious award this past year. I’ve also done stand-up comedy, and a movie was made based on my short stories. Who am I? (Answer at the end of this post.)
Each year I read approximately 50 books. This year I made it only to 45, but hey, I was busy WRITING books.
Books only make it to my list when I finish them, so this year, a gem -- Blindsided by a Diaper, edited by Dana Bedford Hilmer -- a collection of essays about parenting, including ones written by my friends Beth Levine and William Squier – didn’t get included because I didn’t finish a couple of the essays. The ones I did read, especially the one by Moon Unit Zappa (funny and real) and Andrew Corsello (wow!) were hilarious and touching and true.
This year, I also had the joy of hearing parts of (so far) unpublished books by the fabulous and talented members of my critique groups.
For a list of "best books of the year," check out Publisher’s Weekly. (Scroll down for the children's list.)
And to do something randomly nice and put good karma into the world, take a gander at Kiva.org.
Speaking of good karma, every year hubby and I help Christina Wood collect children’s book for the
The answer to the Quiz-O-Rama in the beginning is none other than Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. So far, he’s won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. I’m sure there are more awards in the future for this wonderful book.
Now, onto the list of books I read (and completed) in 2007. (Adult books are denoted by an asterisk.) Please let me know if you’ve ready any of these books or if you’ve read something else that you’d like to share.
BOOKS I READ IN 2007
1. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
2. Side Effects – Amy Goldman Koss
3. Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie – Jordan Sonnenblick
* 4. Cancer Vixen – Marisa Acocella Marchetto
5.
* 6. Deaf Like Me – James Spradley & Thomas Spradley
7. Wait for Me – An Na
8. Crank – Ellen Hopkins
9. Geography Club – Brent Hartinger
10. The Amazing Life of Birds (The Twenty Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech) as Discovered by Gary Paulsen
11. American Born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang
12. Totally Joe – James Howe
* 13. Teenproofing – John Rosemond
* 14. akiane – her life, her art, her poetry – akiane and foreli kramarik
* 15. 19 Minutes – Jodi Picoult
16. How it Feels to Fight for Your Life – Jill Krementz
17. Grief Girl – Erin Vincent
18. Wrecked – E.R. Frank
19. Rules – Cynthia Lord
20. Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Jeff Kinney
* 21. Worlds of Childhood – The Art and Craft of Writing for Children (Jean Fritz, Maurice Sendak, Jill Krementz, Jack Prelutsky, Rosemary Wells, Katherine Paterson) – Edited by William Zinsser
* 22. Prisoner of
23. Poetry Matters – Ralph Fletcher
24. Scribbler of Dreams – Mary E. Pearson
25. The Higher Power of Lucky – Susan Patron
26. Lawn Boy – Gary Paulsen
* 27. Pursuit of Happyness – Chris Gardner
28. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl – Tanya Lee Stone
29. Eggs – Jerry Spinelli
30. Forever – Judy Blume
31. What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know – Sonya Sones
32. Avalon High, Vol. 1 – Meg Cabot
* 33. Which Lies Did I Tell? (More Adventures in the Screen Trade) – William Goldman
34. Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
35. I Am the Messenger – Markus Zusak
36. A Field Guide to High School – Marissa Walsh
37. Deadline – Chris Crutcher
* 38. Life on the Refrigerator Door – Alice Kuipers
39. The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in
* 40. A Long Walk: Rediscovering
* 41. About Alice – Calvin Trillin
42. Story of a Girl – Sara Zarr
43. Taken – Edward Bloor
44. If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period – Gennifer Choldenko
45. The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian –
Donna
6 comments:
Cancer Vixen was a fun read...Bringing it up brought back memories of reading it by the pool this past summer!
Rach
Rach,
Just saw your piece in Cure Magazine. Guess what? July 5th is not only your parent's anniversary and your wedding date. It's my birthday. Good karma, girl!
Donna
Wow, such a good day--it's another friend's birthday too! Good to know!
Rach
We have read a LOT of the same books. We must have similar tastes.
You know the saying, "Great minds think alike." In our case, it's probably, "Funny minds think alike." Can't wait to add your chicken books to my list this year!
Only 45? :) Very impressive as always. I can't imagine our house without a big ol stack of books in one place and several littered throughout the rest of the house. And And one of my goals is to read Book Thief this year. And your list reminded me that I left About Alice and I Love You, Beth Cooper off of my book list.
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