January 4, 2008

THE BIG BOOK BLOG-O-RAMA

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This year, I also had the joy of hearing parts of (so far) unpublished books by the fabulous and talented members of my critique groups.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 Wood Memorial Book Drive. This year, thanks to the generosity of friends, organizations, schools, businesses and a great kid named Todd, the book drive delivered 1,700 books to the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition. Hooray!

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. Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial – Ronald Kidd

* 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 Tehran – Marina Nemat

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 California – Mary Hershey

* 40. A Long Walk: Rediscovering America Along the Appalachian Trail – Bill Bryson

* 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 – Sherman Alexie

Happy reading in 2008,

Donna

6 comments:

Obsessedwithlife said...

Cancer Vixen was a fun read...Bringing it up brought back memories of reading it by the pool this past summer!

Rach

Wild About Words said...

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

Obsessedwithlife said...

Wow, such a good day--it's another friend's birthday too! Good to know!

Rach

Anonymous said...

We have read a LOT of the same books. We must have similar tastes.

Wild About Words said...

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!

The Supreme Court of Awesome said...

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.