1.30.2013

1.28.2013

It's Newbery/Caldecott Day, bitchez.

You're all on the live feed already, but here's the link to explain what these awards are for.

http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/browse/yma?showfilter=no


1.23.2013

The Secret Tree: Review Haiku

The complexities
of friendship and family
hidden in a tree.

The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford. Scholastic, 2012, 256 pages.

1.21.2013

Size 12 and Ready to Rock: Review Haiku

Rock-star-turned-RA
has another teen-pop mystery
on her hands.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot. Morrow, 2012, 384 pages.

1.18.2013

Help, Thanks, Wow: Review Haiku

A bit like filler,
but a good bedside companion.
Ave, Saint Anne.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott. Riverhead, 2012, 112 pages.

1.16.2013

Marbles: Review Haiku

Took me a hundred
pages to realize, "Ohhhh --
Part-Time Indian chick."

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney. Gotham, 2012, 256 pages.

1.14.2013

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities: Review Haiku

One part Incredibles,
two parts Superman, seven
parts awesomesauce.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2012, 320 pages.

1.11.2013

Friendkeeping: Review Haiku

A bit precious, but
meaningful to those of us
of a certain age.

Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate, and Can't Live Without by Julie Klam. Riverhead, 2012, 240 pages.

1.07.2013

Who Could That Be at This Hour? Review Haiku

Perfect absurdity*
from the master of same.
*A word which here means . . .

Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket. Little Brown, 2012, 272 pages.

1.04.2013

Will Sparrow's Road: Review Haiku

Just your ev'ryday
Elizabethan runaway
carnie story.

Will Sparrow's Road by Karen Cushman. Clarion, 2012, 224.

1.02.2013

Happy New Year! Good riddance.

Thank God, 2012 is over. I don't know about you, but it was not one of my better trips around the sun.

So I am looking forward with cautious optimism to 2013. Surely two crappy years in a row must portend better things for this nominally unlucky year. I am not really a resolution person, but I am setting my mind on four goals:

1. Make a positive impact on the universe. I don't mean I need to cure cancer or solve global poverty, but I need to find ways to make my day-to-day activities purposeful -- to believe that what I'm doing is helpful to someone, somehow.
2. Get back on Twitter in a meaningful way. When I left publishing I dropped off the Twitter radar, because I didn't really have anything to say to my book-people followers anymore. Well, that's crap. I should participate again.
3. Reread Shakespeare. I used to be a HUGE Shakespeare person -- wrote my thesis on secondary women's roles in the comedies, in fact -- but I've fallen out of the habit, now that I'm out of the literary world and haven't been in a play in years. I am contemplating a yearlong rereading project, if I can figure out a way to do it without going crazy. Details to come, possibly.
4. Enjoy the heck out of my Cybils judging experience once more. I believe that the finalists have been posted here, so it's off to ILL Land for me.

Happy New Year, friends.