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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Award Winning Reads Challenge

Ashley from Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing  is hosting an "Award Winning Reads Challenge" from May 30th to September 5th 2011.  If you have expressed a desire to read or re-read any of the Newbery or Printz award winning books, here's an opportunity to do so.

Click on the button in the side bar or go here to read about the challenge as well as to find links to the book lists.  There are 4 levels to the challenge so it's something that anyone can accomplish.  I am going for Teacher's Pet - 12 books. Summer reading! Yippee! 

The 18 books that are highlighted, in all those purdy colors, are the ones that I am most interested in reading.  If I get through them all, I will be a SUPER Teacher's Pet. Haha!

Newbery Medal Winners

1.  Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpol
2.  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
3.  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura
     Amy Schlitz, Robert Byrd
4.  The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some 
     Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
5.  The Giver by Lois Lowry
6.  Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
7.  Dicey's Song (Tillerman Family, #2) by Cynthia Voigt
8.  A Visit to William Blake's Inn: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for 
     Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
9.  Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
11. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
12. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
13. The White Stag by Kate Seredy
14. Shen of The Sea: Chinese Stories for Children by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
15. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Newbery Honors

16. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
17. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
18. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
19. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
20. The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1) by Megan Whalen Turner
21. The Blue Sword (Damar, #1) by Robin McKinley
22. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, Richard Cuffari

(Stopped looking at the list at 1975 since it was becoming too unwieldy)

Printz Winners

23. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
24. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Printz Honors

25. The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
26 Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
27. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
28. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
29. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson







Proud to be a book nerd

Not everything on this list applies to this bibliophile, but those that do are so true.

75 Signs You're a Bibliophile (Found via perusing The Avid Reader's blog)


Sunday, May 15, 2011

IMM #1 for 5/15/2011

IMM  (In My Mailbox) is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren.

Welcome to my first IMM posting. HUZZAH! Since this is my first post, I was going to include books that I've gotten over recent weeks, but then when I looked at the piles, thought better of it. Eventually I will be doing a photographic tour of my bookshelves - that will be a huge project - so they will be included at some point. I don't own a video camera nor a webcam so I will be sharing my books via photos. Maybe someday I will get one but that would also mean getting over shyness and stage fright.

Ah well, on with it then.
All books were purchased from Amazon.com. From top to bottom: Two copies of the House at Riverton by Kate Morton; The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente; The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton; Promethea (Books 4 and 5) by Alan Moore and the 2007 and 2008 editions of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.

Why two copies of The House at Riverton, you say? Well I was expecting the copy at the top of the pile, but Amazon sent me the second one. I. Was. Not. Happy. So I sent off an e-mail to customer service and promptly received a response from a lovely gentleman saying that he wanted to make it right for me. The correct copy went out in the mail, via one-day FedEx shipping and I received it yesterday. Now looking at the pic below, you can see why I wanted the one on the left. A cover with a pretty estate with a fountain or one with a staircase. Um, yeah, no brainer. Oh and if you are wondering what that creature is above the books, it's a light-up angler fish that my honey bought for me for my birthday this year.

Angler fish approves of the prettier copy.

I purchased the Annotated Pride and Prejudice because I am gearing up for an all things Jane Austen extravaganza which will be hosted by Misty of the Book Rat. Check out the button in the left side bar and this post too. I was going to purchase the Norton Critical edition but found that I was drawn to this cover more. I also like that there is the text of the novel on one side and the notes are on the facing page, similiar in format to any of the Folger's Shakespeare plays. Go editor David Shapard! I am also expecting his editions of Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion when they come available from Quality Paperback Book Club - darn back orders! QPB e-mailed me begging asking for me to come back, so I couldn't pass up the sweet deal of six books for $1 each.

As I've mentioned before, I've never read a stitch of Jane Austen, so I am excited.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland: In A Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente is really a lovely looking children's book. It was originally published by the author online and I believe it was a story that was mentioned in her novel Palimpsest. Love the illustrations, which kind of remind me of the ones in the Harry Potter series.  I look forward to reading about September's adventures and getting back to Palimpsest at some point.  At the time I found it difficult to get into.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I wanted to round out my Kate Morton collection. I originally purchased a copy on my Nook last year but found that the map that is in the text doesn't show up correctly.  Also the end papers are unavailable in e-Book format and since it is a print of an Arthur Rackham work, I had to have a copy - love him! Ms. Morton's works are inspired by faerie and fairy tales, which are themes right up my alley.  

Books 4 and 5 of the graphic novel Promethea. I've had the first three for ages and finally wanted to finish the collection. I don't really remember much of what I read so I am looking forward to sitting down and devouring them one after the other. Myth, magick and mayhem ensues in this series. Alan Moore also created The Watchmen.  Movie was good but I never seemed able to finish the comic.  I might do a full post on the entire Promethea series at some point.

It's a mission of mine to collect all of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. I got the 2007 and 2008 for less than $10 dollars each. I believe there are 21 years in all and Terri Windling was a co-editor for most of them. Covers are quite gorgeous given that it's the work of Thomas Canty, whose art has graced many a cover of a fantasy novel.

Well that's it for me. So what did you get in your mailbox?

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Jane in June Read-along


The awesome Misty of http://www.thebookrat.com/ will be hosting a Pride and Prejudice read-along next month as part of her Jane in June celebration and I am quite excited because, you see, I've never read a Jane Austen novel. 

There, I said it.  Don't hate me!

Given the huge fandom that Jane has become with all the re-tellings and re-imaginings in fiction and on the screen you would think I would have gotten on the bandwagon at some point. I think I might be one of the last people on the planet who hasn't - or at least it just feels that way.  I think I've only seen two movies - Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma and Masterpiece Theater's Persuasion - and somehow I managed to miss Jane in my college education.  I was an English major too <insert facepalm>. June 2011 shall remedy that.

I consider myself a "Janeite in Training." Here's hoping I will come to love her works.  I think I will because I don't think that her numerous fans can be wrong. 

Oh and to celebrate Jane in June as well as my going from a "Jane Newb" to (hopefully) a "Jane Nerd", there will be a couple of goodies that I will be offering as giveaways via Misty's blog.  More on those next month, so stay tuned!


Book cover eye candy

I've been a fan of Charles de Lint for a good 15 years now.  I was on Amazon earlier looking for some of his books that I've been meaning to buy to round out my collection and I came across this stunning cover for Eyes Like Leaves.  


Too bad I will have to wait until February 2012 to get my mitts on this!  I would love a print of the artwork to hang in my home office.   A red haired woman with antlers, a gown made of moss and leaves and a fox companion.  So magickal!  If I could create this for a convention I so would!  I have a friend who can make the antlers - LindenSidhe has a shop on Etsy. Go visit, you'll love it! -it's the gown that would be tricky.