Bought:

• Life: An Unexploded Diagram, by Mal Peet (YA)*
  
• You Killed Wesley Payne, by Sean Beaudoin (YA)*
  
• The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, a novel by Allan Wolf (YA)*
  
• The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander
  

Read:

• Magic on the Hunt, by Devon Monk (library)
  
• Magic on the Line, by Devon Monk (library)
  
• The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer (borrowed)
  

Despite having nothing but time on my hands, all of that time seems to be going to crafting and busy work and almost none to reading…

*Went to an event at the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books at National Louis introducing the Booklist award winners and favorites of the year and bought these at the book sale afterward. Not that I should have, but…

My friend Carrie’s dog Bella died yesterday and I’m oh so so so very sad about this, I couldn’t even express to you how much. I loved her very dearly.





She was super camera shy as you may have been able to tell but I’m so glad I took her picture anyway.

I’ll miss you sweet sweet girl.

Bought:

• Awkward and Definition, The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag (GN)
  
• The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel
  
• Northlanders Vol 1: Sven The Returned, by Brian Wood
  
• Northlanders Vol 2: The Cross + The Hammer
  

Read:

• Y: Last Man–Unmanned, by Brian K. Vaughn (GN)
  
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
  
• Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick
  
• The Trouble with Thirteen, by Betty Miles (re-read)
  
• The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin (library)
  
• Ten Birds, by Cybele Young (library)
  
• Don’t You Know There’s a War On? by Avi (borrowed from classroom)
  
• The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel
  
• Where do you think you’re going, Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz (library)
  
• Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Patterson (library)
  
• Northlanders Vol 1: Sven The Returned, by Brian Wood
  
• Northlanders Vol 2: The Cross + The Hammer
  
• Educating Esme, Diary of a Teacher’s First Year, by Esme Raji Codell (library)
  
• Feed, by M.T. Anderson
  
• The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander
  
• The Demon Trapper’s Daughter, by Jana Oliver
  
• Life as We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (borrowed from professor)
  
• The Ocean Between Us, by Susan Wiggs (borrowed from laundry room)
  
• Honeybee, by Naomi Shihab Nye
  

My two new favorite albums that I am listening to obsessively over and over and over again are:

• Tyler Lyle “The Golden Age & The Silver Girl” — available at Bandcamp for only $6! It’s poppy and fun and pretty and some of it’s super bouncy and it has lovely lyrics that of course sound completely nonsensical when taken apart from their songs and I listen to it every morning and dance at the bus stop and get psyched up for my day!
• Empty Orchestra “One More Time, All Together Now” — You may know that I know a few people in this band. well, guess what? They are STILL awesome even though I know them! And they make great music! And you can get it for FREE just by tweeting/twittering about it and helping spread the word about them. Srsly. They describe their music as a FISTFIGHT and it doesn’t really get any better than that: Our songs are fistfights of traditions and generations and genres and tempos and hope and doubt and death and punchlines.

There you go, two awesome music recommendations for the price of less than one. Don’t say I never gave you anything!!

Bought:

• Trickster, ed. by Matt Dembicki (graphic collection)
  
• It Was the War of the Trenches, by Jacques Tardi (graphic novel)
  
• Choice Words, by Peter H. Johnston
  
• Stitches, by David Small (graphic novel)
  
• When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
  
• Epileptic, by David B. (graphic novel)
  
• Ben’s Trumpet, by Rachel Isadora
  
• The Enemy, by Davide Cali & Serge Bloch
  

Read:

• Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest (YA)(iphone/kindle)
  
• Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi (YA)
  
• Watchtower, by Elizabeth A. Lynn (re-read)
  
• The Dancers of Arun, by Elizabeth A. Lynn (re-read)
  
• The Northern Girl, by Elizabeth A. Lynn (re-read)
  
• Weed Flower, by Cynthia Kadohata
  
• The Enemy, by Davide Cali & Serge Bloch
  
• Maizon at Blue Hill, by Jacqueline Woodson
  
• Lockdown, by Walter Dean Myers
  
• Stitches, by David Small (graphic novel)
  
• The Getaway Car, a practical memoir about writing and life, by Ann Patchett (iphone/kindle)
  
• The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (graphic novel / wordless picture book)
  
• Fortunte’s Bones, by Marilyn Nelson (poetry)
  
• Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt
  
• Trickster, ed. by Matt Dembicki (graphic collection)
  

Note: I did not include most of the picture books I read for my children’s and YA Lit class, although I did include fiction and graphic novels.

An iphone/kindle impulse buy.

A policewoman who is also a summoner of demons. A sexy powerful demon lord struggling to free his bonds. Some evil.

Entertaining.

Random Oscar blurbing (here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) and two weeks of what I’ve been watching on TV. There you have it.

As snarky and sarcastic as you would expect, if you read his blog. Far more tender and sweet than you would expect, if you read his blog.
Whereas the Jason Brown stories were primarily about relationships or interconnections — friends, lovers, families — the characters in Goldberg’s stories are much more loners or those who have been alienated, by either choice or circumstance; suicide attempters, people on the fringe of their own lives. Some of the stories seem right out of the everyday; others have a little sprinkle of the kind of fantasticalness that one would find, say, in an Aimee Bender story (particularly “The Jesus of Cathedral City” and “Comeback Special”).
Strong. Good. Compelling. I’m impressed!

Jenn: Screw Voxtrot. Saw them at Webster Hall a couple weeks ago. They sound like Billy Joel singing current indie rock tropes. Lunch break for this little girl. The curry fries were good.

[the rest of us sitting far away, eating]

Tracy: They sound pretty good but like every other sort of skinny pants indie band that I’ve heard for the last five years. Very recognizable sound.

Carlos: They sound allright.

Duff: Bouncy and fun like a lighter “pop”-ier version of Kaiser Chiefs. Fun but nothing that distinctive.