Books for Christmas!

New Books for Christmas!!
(stuff we all got, not just me)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
(both already read, but I just had to HAVE them!)
The City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Magic Street by Orson Scott Card
Half Magic by Edward Eager
Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruit Cake by Barbara Park
The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum
A Love Like Lilly by Kay Lynn Mangum
Books 2 and 3 of the Jimmy Fincher Saga by James Dashner

Then we had $75 to spend in gift cards at Barnes and Noble, and $35 at Borders. So from both those places, we came home with:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld (sequel to Peeps)
Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
Diary Queen by Catherine Murdock
The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks
Oil! by Upton Sinclair
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Utah’s Incredible Backcountry Trails by David Day

Wow! What a list! I can’t wait to get reading!

Booking Through Thursday: Highlights

Booking Through Thursday

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

I was going to do this anyway, since it's and end of the year tradition with me!

Top Ten Books of 2007:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald
Zorro by Isabel Allende
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (even though it’s a re-read!)

Honorable Mentions

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors

Favorite YA Books (not counting the ones already in the main Top Ten List!)

Kiri Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Booking Through Thursday: And The Nominees Are.....

Booking Through Thursday

What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)

What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)

And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

I didn't think I'd read much "new" stuff, but then I looked at my list and I actually do have a few... and they are all ones I LOVE and would be willing to put on a "best of" list:

• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Austenland by Shannon Hale
• Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
• Extras by Scott Westerfeld
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

I don't think I read any new non-fiction.... I barely read any non-fiction at all. I need to really try harder with this category!

Oh, and yes, I love "best of" lists! So yes, they do influence my reading quite a bit!

My 2008 TBR Challenge List

The other day when I should have been doing many other things, I ended up staring at my bookshelves (aka. the Too Be Read Pile) trying to determine what I'd be in the mood to read this next year for the TBR Challenge. I think the rule is that they must be books I've had for six months at least... and still haven't read and I'm assuming there can be a few crossovers with other challenges.

So, here's what I've come up with for my new list of 2008 TBR's:

1. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
2. Magyk by Angie Sage
3. The Secret Hour (Midnighters book 1) by Scott Westerfeld
4. Messenger by Lois Lowry
5. Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
6. Quentins by Maueve Binchy
7. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
8. Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins
9. The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
10. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
11. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
12. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Alternates:

1. Sabriel by Garth Nix
2. The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
3. The Moon Below by Barbara Bickmore
4. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
5. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

I can't wait to get going on a new year of reading!

As for this past year's challenge? I still have one more on my list to read, but I can't find it anywhere. I KNOW we had that book! So I may try one from the alternate list and hopefully have time to read it before the year ends. Anyway, all the results of that will be in another post!

Book Club Tonight! Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Book Club today at my house!! All are invited! Who’s coming???

We’re discussing Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, perfect reading for this time of year. If you haven’t read the book, you may have seen the movie Christmas With The Kranks. I’ve not seen it, but the trailer makes it look pretty much identical to the book.

So, who’s thinking of skipping Christmas about now? I know that some time in the future, I’ll be skipping it because my husband has been campaigning for this for years. He’d LOVE to go on a cruise over Christmas and bag all the hoopla! Me? Well, I’d go for it, as soon as I don’t have little kids. However, I think that even big kids and/or grandkids would be hard to leave at Christmastime. I don’t know I guess we’ll see, huh?

But even if I did skip it, I don’t think I could skip everything. I’d still want to bake, and eat. And blast the music, and do crafty things, and ..... so... yeah... it might be pretty hard for me to skip it.

Well, so if you can’t come to book club tonight, there’s always the comment section! :) Let’s hear what you think! Are you in favor of skipping it or not?

Booking Through Thursday: Catalog

Booking Through Thursday

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))
If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I started using one a long time ago called Bibliophil. But then I gave up, and then everyone started using these other things, then I feel like I have to start all over if I want to join in with everyone, then I get overwhelmed..... so then I do nothing! So... at this point, I'm not keeping track of my books anywhere, though it does look fun and I'm always tempted.

I don't keep track any other way either! No database, no cards, no notebook! It's all in my head, and I'm starting to run out of memory space up there! I especially notice this at this time of year when I'm getting books for the kids and I can't remember if we have it already! But I love it when my kids will need something for school, or they bring home a list of possible book choices, and I can go down the list and say, "Yep, have that one! Yep, that one....that one... nope not that one... yep, that one!" But some day maybe they could get on the computer and just see what we have in our own personal library on their own! Yep, some day!

I Got a Package!

Yeah! My Secret Santa package arrived yesterday! The mailman delivered it right to my door and the first thing I noticed was the Star Wars stamps all over it. Cool!

So, of course I opened it. Inside I found two hard back books, one I'd heard of Peony in Love by Lisa See and one I haven't heard of, The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell... I'm so excited about both of them!

Then for the fun part... opening the card to see who they were from.... thank you so much to Lisa from Pfeiffer Booknotes! I was so not expecting hardback books! I can't wait to read them. Thanks for the bookmarks too.

This has been such a fun idea... figuring out what to send, waiting for a package to arrive and reading about what everyone else is receiving. Very fun. Way to go Nymeth!