Beats snow shoveling What are you reading in January

Author Birthdays:
Phyllis Naylor who brought us Shiloh the dog.
Michael Bond who brought us Paddington Bear
Robert Cormier and his The Chocolate War


Lloyd Alexander who brought us Taran Wanderer and many other goofy characters.

I'm reading Crash which has interesting character interaction.

And The Life of Pi which is really an adult book, but the protag is 16. Borders shelves it in both YA and adult sections. Right now, I'm enjoy the author's play with fact and fiction, as well as his wonderful description of animals and their behavior.

I decided to give Tomorrow, When the War Began a try. I saw the movie and I thought the book could do better so here I go. =)

Abracan, I'd love to know what you think of the book once you've finished it.

I first read it about 15 years ago and have an imense soft spot for the series (along with many other of Marsden's books). I saw the movie, too (and loved it... but I suspect that's just because of the aforementioned soft spot). As always, the movie wasn't as good as the book, but still enjoyable. I was wondering how it would fare for those you hadn't read the books. Not great, judging by your opinion!

As for my reading, I finished Shrimp by Rachel Cohn the day before yesterday and just this morning started Cupcake the final (?) book in the Gingerbread series.

After that, I'm hoping to read E Lockhart's Real Live Boyfriends which, fingers crossed, should arrive soon.

I finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. All I can say is "wow". I might even turn that into my review; a one-word entry: "Wow".

I'm reading Fever 1793, one of the few books by Laurie Halse Anderson I hadn't read yet. I'm enjoying it, but it's nothing like Speak, Wintergirls, or even Chains. You can see how much LHA's style has evolved since she wrote Fever, though.

I'm just about finished with StarCrossed and I'm really starting to enjoy it. Not that it hasn't been good from the beginning, but it took me awhile to be able to get behind a character who doesn't always do the good, right, and noble thing. The main character is a thief, so by her very nature she is forced to perform tasks that might betray characters that you as a reader know she ought to be protecting. Because of that, it's been great to see how she evolves as a character.

Finally got my hands on I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett! So far I'm liking it a lot more than I did the previous book in the series, Wintersmith, which is what I was hoping for. Hopefully it stays this good :)

I also read about a quarter of The Whim of the Dragon on my plane ride back to school, the final book in Pamela Dean's Secret Country series. I think I've read this series over three years, which isn't something I usually do when all the books are already out, but the story has held up and I've been able to follow it no problem. More people should read these books!

I'm reading Stefan's Diaries: Origins by L.J. Smith and I also started The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan.

I'm reading Paper Towns by, John Green this is my first book by him its ok so far.

>#8- I got I shall wear midnight for xmas but have to read an ER book first then I'll be starting that one!

#10 - I'm waiting for a few ER books to arrive in the mail so as soon as they get here I'll be putting I Shall Wear Midnight on hold.... And Paper Towns was my least favorite John Green book aside from Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which he co-wrote with David Levithan. Don't give up on Green until you've read Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines!

# 10, 11 - I really liked Paper Towns. It also was my first book by John Green. I will certainly be picking up more books by him.

I liked An Abundance of Katherines a lot, and Paper Towns not as much. I've heard good things about Looking for Alaska.

Just finished The Pilo Family Circus--NOT YA, but a great read!

Started My Most Excellent Year last night--I have had this book on my Amazon Wish List since it came out and my parents got it for me for Christmas. I was literally laughing out loud a couple of times.

After that, a trip to the bookstore to spend some giftcards!

Oops

Sorry. I didn't mean to hit "Submit" after I changed my mind about posting. (Two of my titles are out in the car, and I can't remember the exact titles)

I am genetically incapable of leaving an empty message line under my name.

MerryMary> LOL, and you're so honest about your faults! You could've run to your car, hit the edit button and quick typed them in and we would've been none the wiser. Or you could've told us you picked up a few obscure novels on your travels to used bookstores in Timbuktoo and their names were, ouswlkj, a native girl and poqiujalopq, the trials of a snow monster... and we might have believed you.

Real Live Boyfriends still hasn't arrived so I've started Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger which I've head good things about.

On the John Green topic, I've not been disappointed in any of his books. Obviously some are better than others, my favourite being An abundance of Katherines. Also, I really enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson. But then I do tend to like David Levithan's collabs.

And finally,
Punky> I absolutely LOVED My Most Excellent Year. It was definitely one of my top 5 reads of 2009. I wish more peolple would read it. It's one of my favourite book to recommend!

Just finished Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, which was delightful. I definitely recommend it!

Aerrin> You're not the only one that's raved about HMC,N on this thread. I'll have to move it higher up on my wishlist.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got the rec off this thread myself!

I finished A Girl Called Boy by Belinda Hurmence, it was in the TBR pile for 3 months. I never read anthing by her before. I think I will read another one of her books in 2011.

Stranded> Looking at Steve Kluger's other books, they all seem similar, but I'll definitely be picking them up!! ;)

Started The Gates last night. I LOVED his Book of Lost Things and hopefully this one lives up to it!!

Also, at the book store last night--BTW, if you guys haven't been to BAM lately, a lot of stuff on clearance, and some ones that were actually on my wish list!! **thud**

If I Stay
Bliss
Paper Towns
Side Jobs Not YA, but Dresden Files series is fantastic!!

23: What is BAM?

I'm reading Touching Spirit Bear and really liking it. Unfortunately, the library does not have the sequel. I'm going to suggest it to them so hopefully they will be able to get it.

Punky, I read another of Kluger's books after enjoying My Most Excellent Year so much. Almost like being in Love (which is not YA) was also a favourite 2009 read of mine. It shares MANY elements of MMEY (GLBT, baseball, musicals, politics, adorable small children) but I still loved it to pieces. I recently bought Last Days of Summer (also not YA) which I hope to read sometime in the coming months.

I am reading the Beatrix Potter mystery novels by Susan Wittig Albert. Also just finished Sinister Sprinkles (Donut Shop Mystery) by Jessica Beck--much better than the previous badly written one in the series.

I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's new book Pathfinder. It was excellent!

I've just started reading Tony DiTerlizzi's The Search for WondLa.

Also, though, I've been getting hold of some of Marion Garthwaite's books on eBay, Amazon, and Abe, along with the July through November '59 issues of Jack and Jill Magazine, which serialized her Holdup on Bootjack Hill (and which, it seems, she later expanded to book length). Bootjack's something that's stuck in my mind since childhood, a mystery story of a "Tom Sawyer" sort except that Tom's an 11-year-old tomboy. I've just finished re-reading Bootjack's Jack and Jill serialization, and Coarse Gold Gulch came in the mail on Friday, so I think I'll go on to that as soon as I finish WondLa.

I'm going to have to get some reviews posted of Garthwaite as I finish the books. (I'm holding off on a Bootjack review until I've also read the expanded book version.) She was a children's librarian born in 1893 who started writing children's books in, it seems, late middle age and flourished in the 50s and early 60s. She seems mainly to have written for the 8-to-12-year-old age group, and a lot of her work was based on California history.

The Bootjack serialization, in any event, is every bit as good today as I remember it from a half-century ago.

> 27

I've been eying Pathfinder and wondering whether it was worth picking up. I nearly threw Card's recent Ender in Exile across the room, but maybe I'll give it a shot.

I just finished an ARC of Tiger's Curse and I think I will be starting To Kill a Mockingbird since i never got a chance to read it in school. I also got The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for Xmas. I just got a package from B&N.com with 9 books, so I'll have plenty to chose from :)

@30>> As a suggestion for To Kill a Mockingbird, you might want to consider the audiobook reading by Sissy Spacek, which is absolutely out of this world and perfectly captures Scout's voice. My only caution with this audiobook is that the story is set in Alabama in the 1930s so the N*****-word is used all over the place, which means you want to be careful that no one overhears the audiobook playing and misunderstands what it's all about.

To Kill a Mockingbird is in my top ten books. I hope you like it.

31> That's the trouble with audio books. I used to live in a very small apartment with very thin walls... and I came down with mono that year so I was too tired to even hold up a book, but audio books were cool. One day I was listening to John Irving's The Water-Method Man. I should have known Irving's work well enough to know I didn't want everyone in the hallway hearing my book! Mega cringe when the first sentence played "Her gynecologist recommended him to me."

Forever Princess by Meg Cabot. (Last book in the series.)

I have read a couple of YAs this month so far: The secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy both by Frances Hodgson Burnett. then Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski.

I am currently reading Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins and I am really loving it.

Mind you it is not winter where I am - I live in the tropical north of Australia - so no snow shoveling for me :)

Revolution by, Jennifer Donnelly believe all the Hype this is a great book!

Just started Whip It last night! Enjoying it so far. I really liked the movie so I'm interested to see how they compare.

A friend sent me a whole pile of YA books for Christmas that she thought I might like, including Wings by E. D. Baker, Wildwood Dancing by Juliette Marillier, and City of secrets by Mary Hoffman. As the Hoffman is book 4 in the series, I of course had to buy the others ... so they will keep me busy through January.

>35 sally906: I really want to read Hex Hall but the UK cover is terrible compared to the US one, so I will wait till my next trip and buy it there. (Yes, these things are important to me!)

>36 susiesharp: I read Revolution a few weeks ago and loved it, loved it, loved it.

Am now reading A Northern Light by, Jennifer Donnelly after reading and Loving Revolution I plan on reading everything she's written!

40> I loved both A Northern Light and The Tea Rose which isn't YA, but still has YA appeal. I just requested Revolution and Hold Me Closer, Necromancer from the library.

I recently finished The Red Pyramid and Last Sacrifice. I've never read the Percy Jackson series, but I can see why Riordan is so popular.

I picked up Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Hope it's good!

#14 & 18, My Most Excellent Year was also one of my faves last year! I actually gave copies of it to my adolescent daughter and to my elderly uncle (who writes books on baseball) because I thought they'd both love it--and how rare is that, that a book spans generations so efortlessly.

I'm reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman...What an incredible book.

I'll chime in on the awesomeness of Revolution as well. I wasn't too impressed with The Tea Rose, so I was quite pleased with what she did in this book. I may just have to check out A Northern Light if this is indicative of what she does with her YA novels.

I liked Revolution a lot, and at some point will check out Northern Lights as well.

Northern Light is great, it made me go and read An American tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, which is based on the same incident. Donnelly's book is a lot more readable though!

Just finished and reviewed Ship Breaker. My ARC of Across the Universe finally arrived, so I've now started that.

Trudging through Sapphique by Catherine Fisher. It's moving just barely fast enough to keep me from stopping.

>48 AngelaCinVA:: It looks like I supposed to be getting Ship Breaker through SantaThing -- I can't wait for it to arrive so I can dive into that one. Everyone I know who has read it has had nothing but good things to say about it.

I just received my ER copy of Where She Went this morning and I already finished it (it was just a little thing at 242 pages). It's been awhile since I read its precursor, If I Stay, and I remember enjoying that, but not overly so, since it was depressing as all get out (not the type of book that is generally my cup of tea). This book seemed to wrap up the story of Mia and Adam in a much more satisfying manner. I'd recommend it, though I think it would have made a much bigger impact with me if it hadn't been so long since I read the first book.

Reading Sisters Red and Caleb Kate right now. I think i need to check out Revolution

51> Ooooh, let me know if Sisters Red is good. I've been curious about it.

Among others, I'm reading My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. So good. I love books like this that let me peek into the mind of people I admire.

And by the way, I read as good an explanation as there is about why Gone With the Wind resonates so strongly in American literature - even though we recognize the flaws and know Scarlett is not an admirable heroine. I love this book.

Sisters Red was good. Different. I gave it 3 stars.

54> Cool. I'll put it on my wish list.

MerryMary

I read My Reading Life a few weeks ago. I loved it.

Opps, I forgot to add that I just finished a book I highly recommend:


One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.
It is stunningly, superbly written. The impact haunts long after the last page is read.

Eleven year old Delphine has a story to tell, unsure of the ending, she is ever ready to vocalize her thoughts and feelings. She is upset, confused, angry, spunky and self righteous.

Her mother Cecile left seven years ago, slamming the door as she never looked back. Abandoning Delphine, tiny little baby Fern and two year old Vonetta was effortless. While their father and grandmother provided love and security, young Delphine became mother to her siblings.

In the summer of 1968, they were sent to Oakland, California to stay with a mother who was none too happy to see them. Instead of embraces, they received neglect. Instead of a welcome, they were once again reminded they were not wanted.

Instead of spending time with her children, Cecile sent them to a summer camp run by members of the Black Panthers.

Deftly weaving this important historical time frame with the poignancy of three struggling little girls, the author does a superb job of depicting both the turmoil of the civil rights movement and the internal tumult of the children.

This is more than a coming of age story of a young girl; It is also a tale of a movement struggling to succeed against incredible odds.

During one crazy summer Delphine learns more than she bargained for, including the fact that like the Black Panthers, her mother's beginning was filled with complicated obstacles.

The author is a master of telling a poetic tale of three little girls in search of a mother's love and the difficult struggle of anything in life that is worth fighting for.

Read, laugh, weep and sigh at the sheer beauty of a complicated situation filled with the contradictions of anger, hurt and understanding leading to forgiveness.

Highly recommended.

Wonderful review, Whisper1. Thank you so much.

Yes, great review! I hadn't heard of One Crazy Summer before.

Me either, Whisper1. One Crazy Summer sounds like a really good one.

I'm reading a good YA graphic novel set in NYC, called The New York Four by Brian Wood. This is an author I like a lot.

I read Matched by Allie Condie, and I have to say, I was really disappointed. I had been looking forward to this one since I first read a review of it. This book had very little to add to dystopian fiction. The world was 90% the same as The Giver, with odds and ends from 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. The characters weren't very interesting, either. This is one that I think I'll pass on recommending this one to kids, unless they really want a girly dystopia book and are too young or sensitive for Hunger Games.

I haven't read much YA this month (despite having read more overall than I normally do in a month). So far, only The Ring of Solomon, which I enjoyed but I think not as much as the original three Bartimaeus books. And I've just started The Spook's Nightmare.

I also read The Ring of Solomon! The original trilogy was better, but what can be expected?

Started Bliss yesterday and finished this morning..

REALLY different YA book. Some parts had be shuddering from creepiness (not scary, just off). Loved the quotes, and the interweaving of the Manson Tate/LaBianca slayings.

Wow. Just Wow.

Read Leaving Paradise over the weekend. I liked it. Now I'm afraid to read the sequel as most say it is not as good.

>61 weener: Matched is on my tbr pile. I only picked it up because Robin McKinley wrote a great review of it on her blog, and she is one of my favourite writers. I hadn't felt interested in it til then. I will have to read it soon and see if my first impression, which I think is closer to your response, was correct!

I'm about halfway through an old-timer, Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and finding it quite charming.

>67 jnwelch: I just finished that about a week ago! It is lovely isn't it? I wish it had been longer though, I wanted to read lots more about Betsy's transformation and education.

>30 VykiC37: I saw Tiger's Curse at Barnes and Noble this past Sunday and the cover and description really caught my eye. I've requested it from the library.

Last night I started Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead and am enjoying it so far. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series ends.

>68 Sakerfalcon: Sakerfalcon Yes, I finished Understood Betsy, and could have spent a lot more time with Betsy and Molly and the Putneys, and followed more of her growing up. Great book.

Now I'm in the contemporary Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, with all the infighting, delusions and angst of high school. Major culture shock after Understood Betsy!

The new thread is up here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/109020

Whisper1 - I started it off with One Crazy Summer. :)