Thursday, December 20, 2012

Book Nerdiness

Random bookish thoughts for the end of 2012 and the beginning of the holidays for school:

- I ordered a school jacket. On one arm it has my last name. On the other side I had to put my 'team position' - eg, left wing, first flute, etc. I put booknerd. No one could argue it and everyone agreed (one child did want me to put best librarian person but I thought that might be a bit much.

- Read 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl' last night. I had seen so many blogs lately comparing it to 'The Fault in our Stars' and had to try it out. Formulating a response to it - I think I need to get someone else to read it. I wish it didn't have so many swear words in it - it would have been a good companion for our level twos in basic when the level twos in academic do 'Fault in our Stars'.

- Also finally picked up 'Going Bovine'. Trying to get a copy of 'Code Name: Verity' to read over the break.

- Students are often mesmerized by my office. I've had people drag their friends to the library, sometimes for the first time ever, to see my office. Full of toys and sparkle, it does make me happy and makes me feel at home. I've since gotten comparisons to a person on a show I don't watch - Garcia on 'Criminal Minds'. Sometimes I think providing a bit of magic and personal sparkle gets kids to buy what you're selling - in my case, web 2.0 applications and YA lit.

Reading top ten (or five or seven) lists of books for the year has been fantastic - and expensive!

Trying to get my mind around a book outline. I have some ideas but need to get it written out.

Must figure out goals for the new year. Personal resolutions, bah! Professional resolutions are the way to go!

Monday, December 17, 2012

My 2012 Favourites

Recently I saw a Wordle on The Hub (why yes, I'm doing some professional reading) which deals with the top YA fiction of this year - 2012. I've been inspired to create my own top ten list of what I've read this year, from this year. I kept it to either the introductions of series or stand alone books, unless the book in the series stood out by itself as opposed to being a continuation of a story.

This is hard!

  1. ’The fault in our stars’ by John Green. Beautiful, smart and funny.
  2. ’Cinder’ by Marissa Meyer. Cinderella with a twist.
  3. ’I hunt killers’ by Barry Lyga. I didn't expect to enjoy a serial killer book so much but the nature vs nurture debate was fantastic.
  4. ’Skinny’ by Donna Cooner. A different Cinderella story as well as a different look at body image.
  5. ’Enchanted’ by Alethea Kontis. Another twisted fairytale (sensing a pattern here).
  6. ’Chopsticks’ by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. A relationship told in pictures.
  7. ’The List ‘by Siobhan Vivian. Painful look at high school
  8. ’The Diviners’ by Libba Bray. Historical, supernatural, dark and light. I’m still thinking about it.
  9. ‘Friends with Boys’ by Faith Erin Hicks. Graphic novel about fitting into high school – with a spooky element to it.
  10. ’Tempest‘ by Julie Cross. Time travel and love story rolled into one.

Honorable mentions go to ‘The Selection’ by Kiera Cass, ‘Ripper’ by Stefan Petrucha, ’Born Wicked’ by Jessica Spotswood, ‘Masque of the Red Death’ by Bethany Griffin, ‘The way we fall’ by Megan Crewe and ‘Illuminate’ by Aimee Agresti.

Plus, series continuations that I anticipated and enjoyed: ‘Insurgent‘ by Veronica Roth, ‘City of Lost Souls’ by Cassandra Clare, ‘The Golden Lily’ by Richelle Mead, ‘Fever’ by Lauren DeStefano, ‘A Million Suns’ by Beth Revis, ‘Pandemonium’ by Lauren Oliver, ‘Reached’ by Ally Condie, ‘Girl of Nightmares’ by Kendare Blake, ‘Beautiful Redemption’ by Kami Garcia, ‘Such Wicked Intent ‘by Kenneth Oppel, ‘Goddess Interrupted’ by Aimee Carter, ‘Fear’ by Michael Grant, ‘Underworld’ by Meg Cabot, ‘Rise of Nine’ by Pittacus Lore,

This list was made that much more difficult by having to determine what came out in 2012 and what I read in 2012. That list – what I read in 2012 – would be much longer and involve books from the last few years! (‘The Name of the Star’ by Maureen Johnson, ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness and so on…)