Favorites are underlined.

Realistic Fiction
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton***
- Battle Dress by Amy Efaw
- Liar by Gary Paulsen
- Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Romance
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Historical Fiction
- Cold River by William Judson**
- Flygirl by Sherri Smith
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- The Book ( Read more... )

My mind is racing and I can't decide if it's glee about feeling well again, coffee, or if I'm just high on life.

1. I've been reading Carrie Jones' Captivate and I love the way she's tied the pixies into a deeper mythology. I fell asleep reading Captivate last night and woke up with a head full of whole scenes for my own novel. How is it that ( Read more... )

PERCY JACKSON!!! You guys know that I have mad love for this series, so I was very excited to see the film version of The Lightning Thief last night. I recently re-read the book, and I've read it about 8 times total (including using it as a read-aloud to my students, so that's 6 times!) but I remembered how doing re-reads has ruined several ( Read more... )

What I Read, 2009

Fiction
- Classics
○ Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
○ Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

- Contemporary
○ My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
○ Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

YA/Middle Grade Fiction
- Historical Fiction:
○ The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by Boyne
○ Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner ( Read more... )

- FINALLY got to see The Time Traveler's Wife this weekend with JQ. It was a similar experience to watching the Harry Potter movies for me-- Henry and Clare are like real people to me after reading and rereading the book and calling it my favorite since the first read-- I was so happy to see them. Good job, McAdams and Bana ( Read more... )

( May contain spoilers if you haven't read the book )

Then again, they don't give Newberry Medals to people who write *ordinary* books, do they?

"Bod was thrilled. He imagined a future in which he could read everything, in which all stories could be opened and discovered." - Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, p. 46 ( Read more... )

This is a great, truly American story: From Migrant Worker to Brain Surgeon.

Most of the books I've ordered so far for my classroom library from Amazon and Alibris have been trickling in, two or four at a time. I just finished Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Lawson in my quest to work through the Virginia Readers' Choice picks for 2008-09. I loved this ( Read more... )