By the NumbersTeen: 243
Tween: 143
Children: 162
Standouts
Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I picked my yearly standout from a pool of each month's standout. You'd think that would make it easier than a
regular month. It doesn't.Teen: Right Behind You by Gail Giles
Giles' real triumph in this book is making her main character so immediately familiar and sympathetic, without softening or excusing his horrific past in any way.
Tween: Genesis Alpha by Rune Michaels
What could have been a ripped-from-the-headlines bit of tripe became a meditation on nature vs. nurture, sibling relations, and the source of evil.
Children: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
This book is surprisingly contradictory--dreamy fairy-tale feel
blended with a modern, independent heroine, who defies her parents without once losing respect or love for them.Sources
I don't have any numbers for this, but I obtained the overwhelming majority from the library. A few were obtained via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and more were swapped online or bought at my favorite local used-book store.
This was the year of the Liar cover controversy and of the FTC regulations brouhaha. This was the year I got onto Twitter, and got more involved in Facebook. Life was made easier by LibraryThing adding a collections function in June, making it possible to sort books into wishlist, available at the library, etc, and then into other categories once I'd read them.
What was your favorite thing about this year?
3 comments:
Here via the comment challenge! Super impressed by how many books you read this year - I thought my slightly-over-100 was impressive (mostly YA, with a couple of middle grade and adult titles).
This past year I really got into the swing of blogging regularly over the last four months or so of the year. I had the chance to attend a variety of book events here in New York, from the teen author's fest to Book Expo to all sorts of signings. I'm finally beginning to feel at home, both on my blog and in my new city!
I loved Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, too: a gem of a book for early-middle grade readers, and it works as a readaloud, too. My favorite thing about this year was the Cybils panel discussion (I was on the middle grad sff panel) -- it was great to talk with people who had read the same set of books, with the same purpose, as I had! Definitely recommend it!
Genesis Alpha was just returned yesterday, and the boy who read it said it was the best book EVER!
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