Books of 2008

I love that I've found a New Year's resolution I can actually keep: Read more books than I did during the previous year.

2008 kicked the pants off of 2007. This year I needed to read 58 books... well I read 81! Next year I better at least read 82.

1. Frindle by Andrew Clements
2. Speaking with the Angel edited by Nick Hornby
3. Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff
4. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
5. Six of One by Rita Mae Brown
6. Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the Storycorps Project edited by Dave Isay
7. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
8. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
9. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
10. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
11. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
12. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
13. Compost by Clare Foster
14. Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson
15. Mike McGrath's Book of Compost by Mike McGrath
16. Slam by Nick Hornby
17. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
18. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher
19. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
20. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
21. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
22. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
23. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
24. Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
25. Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler
26. Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky
27. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
28. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
29. The Moffats by Eleanor Estes
30. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
31. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
32. When I Was Elena by Ellen Urbani Hiltebrand
33. Control Theory in the Classroom by William Glasser
34. Holes by Louis Sachar
35. How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas by Joseph Collins, Stefano DeZerega, & Zahara Heckscher
36. Strider by Beverly Cleary
37. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
38. The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
39. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
40. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
41. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
42. Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage
43: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
44: The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
45: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
46: The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck
47: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
48. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
49. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
50. Hold On To Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way by Bryan Charles
51. Dishwasher by Pete Jordan
52. God's Harvard by Hannah Rosin
53. Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
54. Bachelor Girl: 100 Years of Breaking the Rules, A Social History of Living Single by Betsy Israel
55. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
56. Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
57. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
58. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
59. Shopgirl by Steve Martin
60. Geek Love by Kathrine Dunn
61. Little Children by Tom Perrotta
62. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
63. Criss Cross by Lynne Mae Perkins
64. Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney Book of Lists by the editors of McSweeney
65. Amy's Answering Machine: Messages from Mom by Amy Borkowsky
66. Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas edited by Sarah Brown
67. Tales from the Teacher's Lounge by Robert Wilder
68. Stories from a Moron: Real Stories Rejected by Real
Magazines by Ed Broth
69. Recycle with Redworms: The Red Wiggler Connection by Shelley C. Grossman & Toby Weitzel
70: Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
71. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
72. My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary
73. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
74. The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
75. Crazy Lady! by Jane Leslie Conly
76. The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer
77. Who is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? by Martha Freeman
78. The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
79. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
80. Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles
81. Everything On A Waffle by Polly Horvath

Bond Children's Literature Conference

Last Saturday was the 5th annual Bond Children's Literature Conference at Western Washington University. I went last year to hear Lois Lowry speak. It was fantastic. Did you know part of her childhood she grew up in Japan, living in a completely Americanized sector?

This year a far-off friend wanted to meet up for the conference. When I found out the speakers... I was more than happy to pay out my hard earned money. To put it bluntly, it was a sausage-fest of a conference.

Christoper Paul Curtis, Newbery Award winner
John Rocco, illustrator linked to Shrek (the movie)
Eric Rohmann, Caldecott Award winner
Chris Crutcher, banned book author extraordinaire.

As most conferences go... some speakers are good, others are great, and some you kinda wonder what they are talking about and why. That being the case, I'll focus on the highlights.

Christopher Paul Curtis:
Not only an incredible writer, but an incredible public speaker as well. He told his story of going from a factory worker to Newbery award winner, with humor and humility. To summarize a bit... right after high school he entered the factories of Flint, Michigan. During down time on the job he took up writing. When he fell in love with a girl several miles away and killed two cars visiting her, he took up writing. When that same girl told him to take a year off work to take up writing, he was in heaven. He also has extremely large hands. When he signed my book we shook. Just big hands, that's all. His works include: The Watson's Go to Birmingham 1963, Bud, Not Buddy, and Elijah of Buxton. Curtis was a real treat.

Chris Crutcher:
Now probably my main draw to the conference was Chris Crutcher. In high school my favorite teacher was highly distraught that the book Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was being challenged or banned somewhere (I have no idea where). Now, I didn't have the slightest clue as to what this book was about, but I figured if it was being banned... I better read it. Crutcher has many many challenged and banned books. There's even a pamphlet for teachers about teaching banned books with his photograph on it! I was dying to know what he would say to defend/explain/justify/glorify his writing. Ok, so he didn't really do that. At all. But he did read excerpts from his autobiography, King of the Mild Frontier. Luckily, I'd purchased it that morning on a hunch because his reading was hilarious and all the copies sold out. Reading the book now I have Crutcher's voice in my head, making all the delightful bits that much more delightful...("I was working my sphincter muscles like a body-builder.") I also like how he explains moments in his life that later play into his writing. Plus, his unique background as a family therapist enriches the characters and situations he writes in his books. I love banned books. They only make adolescents want to read them all the more.

Other conference notes:
Next year, bring own lunch. Two years in a rough of tough eggplant and soggy bread sandwiches are enough for me. Plus, my sandwich was half the size of my friend's.
Next year, don't drink water at lunch. No matter how hard you try you can't get down to empty before the speakers come on... and hearing stories about someone nearly wetting their pants does not take the focus off your own situation.

My purchases: