For my Cybils judging responsibilities this year I read 84 of the 151 books nominated. I still have more that I would like to read in the next couple of months. Of those 84, these are my twelve favorites:
Princess Academy Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. The only one of these favorites I didn’t get around to reviewing, but it’s Shannon Hale and it’s wonderful. I closed the book at the end with a happy and satisfied sigh.
The shortlists of Cybils finalists for 2012 in all of the categories are posted today at the Cybils website. Take a look and add to your reading list from these well-written, high kid-appeal books for young adults and children–all published between November 2011 and October 2012.
Children: “you must never ever light a fire yourself, unless under the close supervision of a responsible adult pig with advanced circus training.” Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan by R.A. Spratt.
“[P]eople run deep and complicated like rivers, hold their shape and are carved upon like stone.” Crossed by Ally Condie.
“Listen to your second thought, or the third might be too late.†Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Truth is when your gut and your mind agree.” Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff. Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze. Words can sing.†Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“An idea is like fire under ice. You can try to put out the fire, but the melting has already begun.” Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Once someone is picking a lock, there’s not a lot you can do except stand in front of them to block them from view and whistle. . . Whistling is probably optional.” ~Project Jackalope by Emily Ecton.
“If one does not know how one will cross a bridge, one best figure that out before one reaches it. Otherwise, it is just poor planning.” ~Beauty and the Beast by Wendy Mass.
“[N]ot everyone who lives on a pretty street is a good person, and . . . even in the rottenest places you might find someone you can trust with your life.” ~Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey.
“Youth is overrated. Anyone can be a genius at twenty-five. The trick is to be one at fifty.” Degas in Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss.
“All mirrors are magic, or can be. They show you yourself, after all. Really seeing yourself, though–that’s the hard part.” ~In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz.
“There are other ways to be brave without demonstrating it with the sword. Most battles are won by changing minds and turning hearts. Sometimes that’s all the bravery you need.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“A real princess engages with the world in a state of grace. It is with grace that she listens and with grace that she speaks. A princess loves her people , no matter what their birth or station. Even ugly jailers.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“Love [is] sharp and hot and dangerous. . . Love transforms our fragile, cowardly hearts into hearts of stone, hearts of blade, hearts of hardest iron. Because love makes heroes of us all.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.” ~Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
“You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning.” ~The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherine Valente.
“Sometimes the best decision is a painful one, but it is never one made out of anger.” ~Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
“It is better to light a lantern than to bemoan the darkness.” ~Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves–say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
As for methods of prayer, all are good, as long as they are sincere. ~Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
Young Adult Fiction: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow.
Adult Fiction: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Since everybody and her dog was recommending this psychological thriller, I decided to read it. It was intelligent, well-plotted, psychologically astute, crude, profane, and ultimately repellent. The ending was especially disturbing. Call of Duty by Charles Todd.
Nonfiction: From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism by Chris Haw. Gray Matter, A Neurosurgeon Discovers the Power of Prayer . . . One Patient at a Time by David Levy, with Joel Kilpatrick.
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.†~Abraham Lincoln
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
TODAY, SATURDAY December 29th, is a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So link to yours, especially if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. Scroll down to see the lists I’ve already linked to along with book advisory suggestions from yours truly. Perhaps you’ll see something in all these lists that will call to you and set your reading agenda for the next week or even year.
If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky below, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours, especially if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. I’ll be posting each day this week, leading up to Saturday the 29th, a selection of end-of-the-year lists with my own comments. I’m also trying my hand at (unsolicited) book advisory by suggesting some possibilities for 2013 reading for each blogger whose list I link. I did this last year, and I don’t really know if anyone paid attention or not. I do know that I enjoyed exercising my book-recommending brain.
If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky on Saturday, December 29th, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
Shari Speaks: Best Books, 2012. Shari might like Life After Lucy: The True Story of Keith Thibodeaux by Keith Thibodeaux since she seems to be interested in that particular sitcom.Also, I would suggest anything by Bret Lott, particularly Jewel and A Song I Knew by Heart.
Scott McKnight: Jesus Creed Books of the Year. Mr. McKnight might appreciate a book I read on my Kindle, From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism by Chris Haw and also this YA fiction book about an ultra-orthodox Jewish girl, Hush by Eishes Chayil.
Across the Page: Books Read in 2012. For Janet, I have a suggestion that dovetails with her “movement outward into discovering the natural world”: Exploring Nature with your Child by Dorothy Edwards Shuttlesworth. I read this older title quite a while ago, but I remember it being quite useful and inspiring when I had preschool and primary age children to educate in my home. Also, Janet and her students might enjoy an animal story which made its way into my Cybils reading this year, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
That’s all for now. Come back later for more lists linked in the Saturday Review of Books starting this evening. And consider the book suggestions my Christmas and New Year’s gift to you all. Thank you, readers and book bloggers, for making my TBR list so very long and my reading life so very enjoyable.
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours, especially if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. I’ll be posting each day this week, leading up to Saturday the 29th, a selection of end-of-the-year lists with my own comments. I’m also trying my hand at (unsolicited) book advisory by suggesting some possibilities for 2013 reading for each blogger whose list I link. I did this last year, and I don’t really know if anyone paid attention or not. I do know that I enjoyed exercising my book-recommending brain.
If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky on Saturday, December 29th, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
Chrisbookarama: A Bookish Look Back at 2012.Chris read Les Miserables in 2012, and it seems to have been a favorite and also a monumental task. (I’m re-reading Les Miz now, and it is more of a task than I remember, but very rewarding.) Chris said last December that she hasn’t read any P.D. James. James’ mysteries would be a welcome contrast to Les Miserables, and Chris should try one, perhaps starting with the first one Cover her Face. For a Daphne Du Maurier fan, Anna’s Book by Barbara Vine might be a good fit.
Amanda at Dead White Guys, Etc. has a list of the finalists for the Morning News Tournament of Books, and she says she’s going to read every book on the list except the ONE I’ve already read (John Green’s The Fault in our Stars). Oh, well, looking at the list there’s at least one I would skip myself if I were going to read them all, Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. I tried Wolf Hall, and I hated it. Amanda’s going to be busy, so I won’t suggest any more reading for her. But I’ve heard really good things about at least one of the books on the list, HHhH by Laurent Binet.
The Book Lady’s 10 Best Books of 2012. Rebecca Schinsky reads “literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and some memoirs.” At the risk of aggravating Amanda (see above), but since Rebecca says she only read one YA novel this past year, I’ll suggest two YA novels from 2012: The Fault in our Stars by John Green and the one I just finished, Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow.
Justin Buzzard: Best Books of 2012. Mr. BUzzard is a pastor and an author, and his reading reflects those callings. I wonder, has he read A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins, an old favorite of mine, and Culture Making by Andy Crouch, a new favorite?
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours, especially if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. I’ll be posting each day this week and next, leading up to Saturday the 29th, a selection of end-of-the-year lists with my own comments. I’m also trying my hand at (unsolicited) book advisory by suggesting some possibilities for 2013 reading for each blogger whose list I link. I did this last year, and I don’t really know if anyone paid attention or not. I do know that I enjoyed exercising my book-recommending brain.
If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky on Saturday, December 29th, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
12 Books to Read in 2013. Mr. R.J. Moeller suggests 12 of his favorite books, mostly classics, for your reading enjoyment in 2013. I’m with him one almost all of his suggestions from Dostoyevsky to Moby Dick, with the exception of Ayn Rand. I would suggest that if he hasn’t already read it, he would like Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, a chunky classic like Moby Dick well worth the time and energy it absorbs in the reading.
The other Carrie at Reading to Know has a list of Favorite Books Read in 2012. She also reminds me that I still need to read Bleak House. Last year I suggested for Carrie, Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft because I know she’s a C.S. Lewis fan. It’s an imaginary dialog between John F. Kennedy, Aldous Huxley, and Lewis, three famous men with very differing philosophies of life who died on the same day. I also think Carrie would like My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay, a book I very much appreciated when I read it in 2010. I still think she would enjoy those two, plus I’ll give her another tip: Edith Schaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking.
Devourer of Books lists 26 favorites out of 187 books reviewed in 2012. I’ve not read a single one of her favorites, which gives me a lot of recommendations to peruse but not much information to go on for reader’s advisory. I’m going to suggest a biography I enjoyed this year, Catherine the Great by Robert Massie and for fiction the wonderful Christy by Catherine Marshall.
The Ink Slinger’s 2012 Year in Review: Nonfiction.Fiction. Oh, this young man has some good reading choices on his list: Dostoyevsky, Marilynne Robinson, George Orwell and several others. I would suggest that now that he’s read Crime and Punishment, he should also read The Brothers Karamazov. I also think he’d want to read the companion/sequel to Gilead, Home by Marilynne Robinson. For nonfiction, perhaps The Ink Slinger would like a book I just finished, Gray Matter by David Levy and Joel Kilpatrick.
Books in the City: Top Ten Books of 2012. Colleen reads her books in New York City, and I haven’t read any of her favorites from this year, although I did enjoy an almost-ran, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Since Colleen likes books set in Ireland, I commend to her Stephen Lawhead’s Patrick, Son of Ireland and How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.
That’s ten (or more) lists for today. Come back tomorrow for more, and don’t forget to to add your year-end booklist to the Saturday Review of Books on December 29th.
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours, if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. I’ll be posting each day this week and next, leading up to Saturday the 29th, a selection of end-of-the-year lists with my own comments. I’m also trying my hand at (unsolicited) book advisory by suggesting some possibilities for 2013 reading for each blogger whose list I link. I did this last year, and I don’t really know if anyone paid attention or not. I do know that I enjoyed exercising my book-recommending brain.
If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky on Saturday, December 29th, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
Tony Reinke, author of Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books, shares a list of the Top 12 Books of 2012 at John Piper’s Desiring God blog. Several of these sound really good, including Jared Wilson’s Gospel Deeps and Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything by Steve DeWitt. I hesitate to recommend anything to such a well-read author, but fools rush in. Perhaps Mr. Reinke would benefit from and enjoy a couple of books that have helped me this year: Equipped to Love by Norm Wakefield, an excellent teaching book on the contrast between idolatry and real love, and Phil Vischer’s memoir (which contains some choice nuggets of spiritual truth), Me, Myself, and Bob.
LitLove at Tales from the Reading Room has a Best Books of 2012 list that includes Willa Cather, Ann Patchett, Kate Summerscale, and Lianne Moriarity, among others. She might like the mystery I just finished, A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd, or as I suggested last year, something by Edna Ferber or Wendell Berry.
Ready When You Are C.B.: Favorite Reads of 2012, the Longlist. Because of Mr. James’ list and several others, I’m going to have to read HHhH by Laurent Binet, and I think something, probably Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. I’m going to go out on a limb and recommend The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky to Mr. James, based more on his favorites from 2009. That one ought to keep him busy for a while.
Book Diary: My Best Books of 2012. I saw several books on this list that I want to check out, too: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, Brain on Fire by Susanah Cahalan, and In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner. I think Kathy might like The Mascot by Mark Kurzem (nonfiction) and My Enemy’s Cradle by Sara Young (Fiction, both set during World War II.
O.K. that’s ten (or more) lists for today. Come back tomorrow for more, and don’t forget to to add your year-end booklist to the Saturday Review of Books on December 29th.
“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.†~E.M. Forster
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours.
I once tried reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, but both the plot and the humor eluded my grasp. I did better, or Mr. Fforde did, with The Last Dragonslayer. The humor in this book reminded me of The Princess Bride or Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. High praise indeed.
Almost-sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange is temporary manager of Kazam Mystical Arts Management, an employment agency for sorcerers, magicians, and wizards, most of whom are almost out of “wizidrical” energy. Magic has been waning in the UnUnited Kingdoms for the last four hundred years, give or take, since the initiation of the Dragon Pact. The dragon population has also been dwindling, and now the kingdoms are down to one last dragon. And one last dragon-slayer.
I think this book will appeal more to teens and young adults rather than middle grade readers. The humor is wry and witty and based on making fun of human materialism, greed, and warlike tendencies. Jennifer, the protagonist, does a lot of running around trying to figure out what’s happening and how she can manage the magical events that are mostly out of her control. Other than that, not much really happens. But it is funny. As a sidekick Jennifer sports a Quarkbeast, a “ferocious beast” who looks like “an open knife drawer on legs” and whose only line is “Quark,” spoken at appropriate intervals. And the book also features aging wizards and dragons in various stages of decrepitude and disrepute, a crazy, greedy king, and a Slayermobile (Rolls-Royce). What else could a reader ask for? I can picture this book as a movie. Maybe it’s already been optioned.
Two more books are coming in the series, The Chronicles of Kazam, The Song of the Quarkbeast and The Return of Shandar. The Song of the Quarkbeast has already been published in the UK, but it’s not yet available in the United States. I’m looking forward to reading both of them.
The Prairie Thief by Melissa Wiley.
