It's been a busy year, with lots of writing assignments. Will I be able to hit the magic 100-book mark this year? I need to read an average of two books a week, and fell a week behind last quarter. Let's see if I managed to make it up during the second quarter.
04/09/10: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (classic, 3 or 4)
04/10/10: Joan Aiken, Mansfield Revisited (H, 1)
04/12/10: Caroll Spinney, The Wisdom of Big Bird^ (memoir, 1)
04/19/10: Joan Aiken, The Youngest Miss Ward (H, 1)
04/24/10: Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles (F, 1)
04/24/10: Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (SF, 1)
04/25/10: Walter Dean Myers, Scorpions (MG, 1)
04/26/10: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game (SF, 10+)
04/29/10: Card, Ender in Exile (SF, 1)
04/30/10: Jane Gillespie, Ladysmead (H, 1)
05/02/10: Jacqueline Woodson, Hush (MG, 1)
05/03/10: Card, Speaker for the Dead (SF, 10+)
05/03/10: Woodson, After Tupac and D Foster (MG, 1)
05/08/10: Victor Gordon, Mrs. Rushworth (H, 1)
05/11/10: Woodson, The House You Pass on the Way (YA, 1)
05/13/10: Robert Cormier, The Rag and Bone Shop (YA, 1)
05/17/10: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (graphic memoir, 1)
05/29/10: Judith Terry, Version and Diversion (H, 1)
05/30/10: Michael Grant, Gone (YA, SF, 1)
06/10/10: Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution (YA, 1)
06/13/10: Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls (YA, 1)
06/18/10: Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (YA, SF, 1)
06/23/10: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (classic, 1)
06/26/10: Frank Portman, King Dork (YA, 1)
06/27/10: Carrie Bebris, The Matters at Mansfield (H, M, 1)
06/30/10: Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock (YA, F, 1)
Whew! I made up a little bit of ground, reading 26 books this quarter, making a total of 49 for the year. Of those 26:
23 I read for the first time
11 were middle-grade or young adult
8 were sci fi or fantasy
7 were Austen or Austen-related
And what was my favorite new read of the quarter? Well, I found Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home fascinating and haunting, and Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls confirmed to me what an astounding writer she is ... but I think my favorite book these past three months was Jennifer Donelly's Revolution, a young adult novel that somehow mixes a modern girl's angsty issues with the French Revolution and totally rocks it. When you read a book and you finish it with utter satisfaction and yet a bit of surprise, you keep thinking about it for days afterward, and you pick up one of the author's other books next time you're at the bookstore, then you know you really liked it. I'd recommend it to you, but unfortunately you won't be able to read it until this fall; I am special and got an advanced readers' copy from the publisher, because I'm attending a seminar conducted by the book's editor.
Will that seminar (at the end of this month) keep me from catching up on my reading allotment next quarter? Or will my well-deserved, long-delayed break from writing assignments give me a chance to speed ahead? Check back in three months to find out.
Curious to hear next week what you thought of Finnikin. I am just starting Revolution!
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