January: House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne, Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
February: Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, Burning Bright by John Steinbeck, Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
March: The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson
April: The Warden by Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
May: Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men On A Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
June: Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
July: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
August: Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer, Frederica by Georgette Heyer, Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer, The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer, The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
September: Mary Barton and Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
October: Casebook for Victor Frankenstein. Peter Ackroyd.
November: Middlemarch by George Eliot and Silas Marner by George Eliot
December: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Becky's Top 36
Top 36 of the year...
Top three from January:
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Top three from February:
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr.
Brendan Buckley's Universe And Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
Top three from March
Jack Russell: Dog Detective: Dog Den Mystery by Darrel & Sally Odgers
Dingo by Charles de Lint
The Rules of Gentility by Janet Mullany.
Top three from April
Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Ever by Gail Carson Levine.
Top three from May
The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
Greetings From Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor.
Top three from June
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee
Top three from July
Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats. by Philip Reeve
Paper Towns by John Green.
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Top three from August
Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell.
Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer.
Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones.
Top three from September
Zombie Blondes by Brian James. 232.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam.
Top three from October
Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty.
Something Wicked by Alan Gratz.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
Top three from November
Ten Cents A Dance by Christine Fletcher.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Top three from December
The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher.
Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.
12 Honorable Mentions from throughout the year
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin.
The Humming of Numbers by Joni Sensel
The Trouble Begins at 8 by Sid Fleischman.
Facts of Life #31 by Denise Vega
Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank You Notes by Peggy Gifford.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson.
Savvy by Ingrid Law.
A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Translated by Richard Pevear.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Top three from January:
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Top three from February:
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr.
Brendan Buckley's Universe And Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
Top three from March
Jack Russell: Dog Detective: Dog Den Mystery by Darrel & Sally Odgers
Dingo by Charles de Lint
The Rules of Gentility by Janet Mullany.
Top three from April
Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Ever by Gail Carson Levine.
Top three from May
The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
Greetings From Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor.
Top three from June
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee
Top three from July
Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats. by Philip Reeve
Paper Towns by John Green.
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Top three from August
Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell.
Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer.
Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones.
Top three from September
Zombie Blondes by Brian James. 232.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam.
Top three from October
Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty.
Something Wicked by Alan Gratz.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
Top three from November
Ten Cents A Dance by Christine Fletcher.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Top three from December
The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher.
Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.
12 Honorable Mentions from throughout the year
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin.
The Humming of Numbers by Joni Sensel
The Trouble Begins at 8 by Sid Fleischman.
Facts of Life #31 by Denise Vega
Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank You Notes by Peggy Gifford.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson.
Savvy by Ingrid Law.
A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Translated by Richard Pevear.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Love That Dog
Creech, Sharon. 2001. Love That Dog.
I can't believe I never knew about this little book. It is so very, very good. It's a book in verse--a verse novel. The narrator, Jack, is in English class. His teacher, Miss Stretchberry, requires them to write. This *appears* to be a journal-assignment. But I could be wrong there, but these poetic entries are written by Jack and read regularly by his teacher...so draw your own conclusions. Jack is your typical boy--he doesn't like reading poetry, analyzing poetry, or writing poetry. In that way, this book becomes very humorous as he slowly but surely starts to see life a little differently. As he becomes a poet himself.
There are SO MANY things I loved about this one...Jack's voice, Jack's poems, the inclusion of the poems that Miss Stretchberry's class studied in the first place, the fact that Jack wrote a fan letter to Walter Dean Myers, that the book included an author visiting a school, the running gag that with each new poem/poet studied that Jack was curious to know if they were alive or not, the fact that Jack used poetry to help heal his brokeness after his dog's death...I could go on and on. This one won't take you long to read...and it is so worth it!!
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
The "You Had Me At Hello" Awards
These are the best of the best. The first lines that have stuck with me through the entire year (2008) and left a lasting impression:
Tell me about the fire.
My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted.
There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
T.S. Eliot was wrong.
"This is a story of what happened to Wombat on Tuesday. I could tell you about Monday, but nothing happened on Monday. So Tuesday it is."
"The longest day of my life began tardily."
On the morning of the best day of her life, Maud Flynn was locked in the outhouse, singing "The Battle Hymn of the Rupublic."
I knew it would begin with the end, and the end would look like death to these eyes.
"There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart's Desire. And while that is, as beginnings go, not entirely novel (for every tale about every young man there ever was or will be could start in a similar manner) there was much about this young man and what happened to him that was unusual, although even he never knew the whole of it."
This is a story about darkness and light, about sorrow and joy, about something lost and something found. This is a story about Love.
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
----------
First Place: My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted.
Second Place: There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
Third Place: On the morning of the best day of her life, Maud Flynn was locked in the outhouse, singing "The Battle Hymn of the Rupublic."
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Monday, December 29, 2008
December Firsts
These are the first lines that 'had me at hello' in December of 2008.
If you'd told me at the beginning of sophomore year that I was going to end up a government operative, I would have thought you were crazy, but if you'd told me I was destined to become a cheerleader, I would have had you committed, no questions asked.
Tell me about the fire.
Some girls have journals. I talk to my poster.
The decoder card to the universe wasn't included in the box of cereal God gave humanity.
Junior year was supposed to be all about Brian Harrington, the prom, and becoming editor-in-chief of the Crestview Courier. Instead it was all about handcuffs, hormones, and headlines. But in a good way. Not in a skanky way.
There they were--the worst words in all of the English language, scribbled in my mother's perky handwriting. "Let's Talk."
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you'd told me at the beginning of sophomore year that I was going to end up a government operative, I would have thought you were crazy, but if you'd told me I was destined to become a cheerleader, I would have had you committed, no questions asked.
Tell me about the fire.
Some girls have journals. I talk to my poster.
The decoder card to the universe wasn't included in the box of cereal God gave humanity.
Junior year was supposed to be all about Brian Harrington, the prom, and becoming editor-in-chief of the Crestview Courier. Instead it was all about handcuffs, hormones, and headlines. But in a good way. Not in a skanky way.
There they were--the worst words in all of the English language, scribbled in my mother's perky handwriting. "Let's Talk."
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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