[RaeE Posts: 140 Status: Offline]

I'm reading DEAR GENIUS. Again. And I might have the LETTERS OF EB WHITE at hand so I can try to piece together their correspondence. Again. I wish I could hide in a corner of Ursula's office for a day or two. The stack on my nightstand is thirteen books high so I should make Ursula wait, but I can't. This is me -->  : Stacks of books, and I keep coming back to the same old one.

[mirrorsandmagicfrogs Posts: 37 Status: Offline Must have coffee! WWW]

The Shadow Throne!

[Nanci Posts: 31 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Time for some adult nonfiction - Your Soul's Gift, The Healing
Power of The Life You Planned Before You Were Born.
Interesting!

[Jennifer D G Posts: 669 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Last year I read and enjoyed Jo Knowles' SEE YOU AT HARRY'S so the other day I walked past LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL and decided to pick it up. I have about two chapters to go and I have to say, I really like Jo's writing.

[J-Bert Posts: 257 Status: Offline WWW]

I read two great middle grade advance copies recently. One is coming out next week--UNDER THE EGG by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. It's an art history mystery and very well done. Great characters. In the vein of CHASING VERMEER and FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES . . . The other one won't be out until July, but it is so much fun and one of the best middle grades I've read in the last year, so I'd definitely keep an eye out for it or pre-order. It's called ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman, about a middle schooler who loves to cook and accidentally becomes a restaurant critic for a prestigious newspaper. It's her dream come true, but she has to keep the fact that she's a kid a secret. There's more to the book than that, but it's a great read.

[olmue Posts: 3,528 Status: Offline WWW]

Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson. It's 1000 pages long and the second in a series. Everyone at my house is a Brandon Sanderson fan, which means that every time someone puts the book down for a moment, someone else swipes it up. So we're all reading at the same time, in the round.

[Pons Posts: 2,465 Status: Offline]

I just finished Flora and Ulysses by DiCamillo. It took a few pages for me to get into it, but by the end I realized it's pretty dang amazing. It uses a combination of cartoon physics and quirkiness to bring a group of emotionally wounded people to a place where they can heal. That makes it sound much heavier than it is. It is also whimsical and delightful. I would love to read this with a fourth grade class and discuss it.

My one note (and this probably just me) is that William Spiver was a tad too quirky. I would have toned him down a bit, but it's not my book, so, there ya go.

Laurel

[onestepp Posts: 139 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

"The Lonely Man" by Michael J. Fox.  A biography about the actor and advocate for Parkinson Disease.  It was somewhat interesting too!     

[JodiG (MamaG) Posts: 7 Status: Offline WWW]

Sadly, I am STILL trying to finish ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth. I swear I'm going to run away from my life until I can finish this book

[mirrorsandmagicfrogs Posts: 37 Status: Offline Must have coffee! WWW]

Avalon by Mindee Arnett (YA sci-fi)

[Shannywriter Posts: 507 Status: Offline Believe in yourself and never give up WWW]

Reading Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood. I stole this from the daughter and I love it!

[olmue Posts: 3,528 Status: Offline WWW]

S (Ship of Theseus), by "VM Straka" aka JJ Abrams & Doug Dorst. I'm not sure the best way to read this thing... (There's the Book of Theseus--which a grad student leaves behind in the library by mistake, found by an undergrad librarian, and they write notes about the book and to each other in its pages. There are several layers of story in the book, and it's a bit like having all your kids talking to you at once, in different languages, and expecting you to answer them.)

[Betsy Posts: 2,106 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS WWW]

Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-tegmark/good-morning-inflation-he_b_4976707.html?utm_hp_ref=science


Today's momentous discovery validates Tegmark's ideas. Here's what some of the implications are:

"Today is a great day for most scientists except multiverse skeptics -- at least in this particular universe. Alex Vilenkin, Andrei Linde, Alan Guth and others have shown that inflation generically predicts a space that is not merely large but infinite, teeming with duplicate copies of our civilization living out countless variations of our lives far far away."

If you have trouble with the idea of infinite copies of you--well, I have to admit that I do too.

[Pons Posts: 2,465 Status: Offline]

Just finished Water Castle by Megan Blakemore. Elizabeth Bird had short listed it for the Newbery and, although it didn't win, I can see why she liked it so much. It's sci/fi with a touch of Tuck Everlasting plus a treasure hunt. Blakemore weaves all the threads together in a subtle pattern while avoiding cliches that would be so easy to fall into. I liked it.

[hairaplenty Posts: 1,414 Status: Offline Don't ever quit!]

Just finished Please Ignore Vera Dietz--Liked the alternating POV and the humor with a pretty gripping story and ending which I didn't guess.
Now reading FanGirl. I like Elanor and Park.

[jacquelyn.brimley Posts: 1 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I'm just making the rounds at the library and bookstores to digest as many picture books as possible.

[Writergirl099 Posts: 1 Status: Offline WWW]

I'm currently reading The Secret Garden and Cobweb Bride. I'm having an immense time with both.

[Lwrites Posts: 159 Status: Offline]

I just read VANISHED by Sheela Chari. It was a really awesome MG mystery about a possibly-cursed musical instrument (a traditional Indian instrument called a Veena) which is stolen. It's one of the best MG books I've read in quite a while!

[Pons Posts: 2,465 Status: Offline]

The Year of Billy Miller by Henkes. This book would be a great read aloud for the first or second grade or for parents of first or second graders. I don't think there are many 6 or 7 year-olds who could handle it though, and that is one reason why I like it. I remember reading the Ramona books to my children and how much we enjoyed them. My children were young enough to identify with Ramona but not old enough to read the books on their own. Billy Miller is like that.


It goes against all the advice we hear about making our MC's older than our readers and I'm glad to see the publishing world take a chance on something a little outside the envelop.


Billy Miller also avoids a lot of cliche situations that would have been so easy to fall into as Henkes helps him figure out life and relationships.


Laurel

[G.R. Posts: 633 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

A Week In Winter

Maeve Binchy's last book (barring any future posthumous releases). The heart of the story revolves around a hotel in a small Irish seaside town; the first three chapters lay out the backstories of owner Geraldine "Chicky" Starr and her two employees (business-minded niece Orla and bad-boy-turned-family-man Rigger), while the other seven chapters develop the various characters who would be guests at the hotel during its first week in business: a nurse and her new boyfriend's mother, an American movie star, an English couple reeling from tragedy, a Swedish accountant / musician, a couple who won their hotel stay as a 2nd-place prize in an essay contest, an ill-tempered retired headmistress, and a librarian's assistant. I spoil nothing by saying that the titular holiday will be life-changing for them, but it's sweet to see how different combinations of characters come together, share secrets, bond, make major decisions and so on.

[rab Posts: 541 Status: Offline WWW]

I'm loving The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, a debut YA novel by Kate Hattemer. Here's the teaser from the back cover: "Can four best freinds and a heroic gerbil save Selwyn Academy from a seedy reality-tv show?" It takes place in an arts high school in which a reality tv show is being filmed. The narrator and his friends are smart and savvy and funny, and the writer has a lot of respect for them. The voice hooked me before the first page was over. Also, it has a great cover.

[jenklein Posts: 76 Status: Offline WWW]

Just got DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Paige and hoping to crack it open this afternoon. It's a twisted re-telling of OZ and it already has interest in the TV world so I'm excited to get into it.

[ChristineSarmel Posts: 228 Status: Offline WWW]

A book that everyone else has already read and I missed along the way - THE BOOK THIEF.

[Monica Rondino Posts: 81 Status: Offline I love kids' books! WWW]

I'm reading Living,Loving and Learning by Leo Buscaglia. Very interesting

[J-Bert Posts: 257 Status: Offline WWW]

I just finished PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky, and wow that's a great book. YA, strong characters and voice. In some ways it reminded me of the movie DAZED AND CONFUSED.


I'm also reading MAKING STORY: TWENTY ONE WRITERS ON HOW THEY PLOT. The title pretty much says it all. It's interesting to read different writer's approaches, and it's a good reminder that there's no one way to write a book.

[LadySlipper Posts: 174 Status: Offline]

I'm Re-reading Melina Marchetta's Lumatere trilogy.  (If there is perfect, these are it).  And for the first time--finally, Gone Girl. 

[Stacy McAnulty Posts: 8 Status: Offline I love kid lit. WWW]

Just started THE RAVEN BOYS. Loving it so far.

Jenn, I REALLY liked PERKS. So good. I've read most of it twice.

Anyone have a suggestion for male protag books, contemporary YA? I've done all the John Green, WHERE THINGS COME BACK, THE SPECTACULAR NOW, THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING, THE ABSOLUTE TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, FORGIVE ME LEONARD PEACOCK, A REALLY AWESOME MESS, BREATHING UNDERWATER, and BUSHMAN LIVES.

[AnneB Posts: 3,753 Status: Offline]

So many of my favorite adult series authors have died, most recently Sue Townsend (the Adrian Mole series). Last week I was thrilled to discover that the late Tony Hillerman's daughter Anne is continuing the his series about Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Navajo Police officers Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito. 

I'm almost finished Spider Woman's Daughter and can report that it's another good read in the same tradition. If I didn't know it was another author, I might not have noticed; there are subtle differences but they complement rather than detract.

[Barbara Etlin Posts: 2,257 Status: Offline WWW]

Recently got caught up on a couple of Blueboarders' MGs, THE SECRET OF FERRELL SAVAGE by Jennifer Duddy Gill, and THE MARBLE QUEEN by Stephanie J. Blake. They're both fun reads.

Read GUILT, an adult mystery, by Jonathan Kellerman. I'm rarely disappointed by Kellerman's Alex Delaware series.

Next up: CALL ME AMY, an historical MG by Blueboarder Marcia Strykowski, and the writing text, THE WRITER'S JOURNEY: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler.

[J-Bert Posts: 257 Status: Offline WWW]

Stacy, Have you read Conrad Wesselhoeft? His latest is DIRT BIKES, DRONES, AND OTHER WAYS TO FLY. Matt de la Pena? Chris Crutcher and Walter Dean Myers? Ned Vizzini? I've also heard good things about ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE. KING DORK by Frank Portman.