shouting hallelujah

It’s long, and probably overly detailed.

(Also, I didn’t bother to put authors if I didn’t know it off the top of my head. So there.)

In Summary

• Firsts [and lasts, all for YA lit]:

1. manga: Nightschool
2. graphic novel: Stitches
3. biography of a model: Hungry

• Trends:

1. Africa: First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria;The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency; Scribbling the Cat; Nine Hills to Nambonkaha; What Is the What; Cry, the Beloved Country; Tears of the Giraffe; Morality for Beautiful Girls; The Kalahari Typing School for Men
2. Clergy in fiction: Cry, the Beloved Country; The Power and the Glory; Gilead; March

• 5 Best Fiction:

1. Cry, the Beloved Country
2. Gilead
3. The Penderwicks (so what if it’s for children?)
4. The Hunger Games trilogy (you see what I did there? I pulled a Tolkien and counted three-as-one.)
5. Tuck Everlasting (I have read this at least three times, but it is still lovely.)

• Best Nonfiction:

1. Cold Tangerines (pretty little essays on recognizing and celebrating the beauty in life)
2. Radical Homemakers (on reevaluating the value of career, family, etc.)
3. After You Believe (though it could have been quite a bit shorter)

• Most Miserable Books I Actually Finished:

A toss-up between a book about a girl with an eating disorder haunted by her friend who died of her eating disorder, and a book about a girl who throws out her baby after refusing to admit she’s pregnant. Both YA, obvs. Also, stupid Oryx & Crake.

• Books I’m Proudest to Have Got Through

After You Believe. Old N.T. didn’t make it easy. Also, What Is the What, because I could handle only so much refugee camp at a time.

• Most Embarrassing Books

The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman and The China Garden, both re-reads from my early teens. Outside of my own choice, the Baby-sitters Club for ch lit and Tricks, a verse novel about teen prostitution I read on the bus and reception desk for YA.

• Total Number of Unassigned Books: 33
• Total Books: 74 (not counting two books read twice each)
• Fiction Vs. Nonfiction: 55 to 19 

This morning, I woke up to the snow that’s a week old to everyone else but me, to a sweet snarfly dog, to the comforts of my own little house. Of course, I also put my thumb through an overripe winter squash, struggled to find a clean shirt, and bemoaned the tufts of dog hair festooning that little house. On balance, though, it is a very fine thing to be home.

1. Gosford Park
2. Everybody’s Fine (I know! But J’s going to Korea and I want to prepared with plenty of trash on hand to enjoy in his absence.)
3. Home, Marilynne Robinson (audio CDs to listen to on the bus to and from work so I don’t get terribly, terribly motion sick)
4. A World Lost, Wendell Berry
5. Foxfire 12
6. Crafting a Meaningful Home, Meg Mateo Ilasco

Midway through a head cold, a day away from semester’s end, a few days from J’s departure, I’m anticipating a lot of downtime next week. It’s an amazing feeling when the semester ends and you can start choosing the stuff you read again.