Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for Printz Award] 

It's Back! The Second Incarnation of the Award Winning Reads Challenge is here! Who else is totally excited for this?! I know it can't just be me!!:)
Last year, Jacinda and I hosted this reading challenge from May through September. And it rocked. I have personally been meaning to read all the Newbery and Printz books for years. And I've found some absolutely phenomenal books because of it. (Umm hello and thank you — Jellicoe Road, my absolute most favorite book ever.) And last years challenge gave me the motivation I needed to pick my list back up and get reading. (I think I read 16).
Because it was so awesome last year, Jacinda and I decided that this year, it would be a year long challenge of awesome (with extra awesome during the months of the original challenge).
My goal for this year is even bigger. I am so close to finishing both award lists. (Just the winners, not the honors). I only have 4 Printz winners and 13 Newbery winners left to read (including the 2012 winners to-be-announced). I would love to finish these lists next year.
So that is my goal. But I would like to read more than only 17 of the books on the list, so my official goal is going to be 24. That's only 2 a month, totally do-able.:)
To see the books on either list that I've already reviewed on the blog, you can click the corresponding tags below
Newbery Award
Newbery Honor
Printz Award
Printz Honor

And now — Onto the rules!:)

I'm warning you right now — this is going to be a bit of a long post. But I promise it will be well worth it!

For all of those participating in the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by myself and Jacinda at The Reading Housewives, or any of you thinking you might want to participate but haven't decided yet, this post is for you.

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In our intro post to the Challenge, both Jacinda and I made promises for lots of great prizes and giveaways for participants. This post is just to offer a little more detail and explanation for how each giveaway will work.

To start — The most basic:

For each level of participation, there will be a specific giveaway. So those who sign up to read three books will have a drawing independent of those who sign up to read nine. Each of the four levels will have one winner.

Jacinda and I both have a selection of books that we are going to donate, with titles from both the Newbery and the Printz list. Some are brand new, some look brand new, and some are gently used. This forms our prize pool. A full list will be provided at a later date.

To be chosen as the winner from your reading level, you must complete your goal. You can read more than your challenge level, but you must at least reach it. This will earn you one entry.

For every book you read past your reading goal, you will gain an additional entry.

For every review you post a Newbery or Printz honor or award, you will gain an additional entry.

To encourage people to sign up for the reading level they think they are capable of, and not just sign up for level one and then read 100 books, the number of books you can win increases with each level increase.

The winner from Level one will receive 2 books from the prize pack.
Level two will receive 3.
Level three will receive 4.
And Level four will receive 5.

We are also going to have a giveaway for one random participant, whether you complete your level or not. Everyone who signs up and agrees to participate will be eligible for this prize, although if you win the prize pack for your reading level, you will not be able to win this one.

The final giveaway that is for sure going to happen is a special giveaway, just from me. Jacinda and I are on the same page with the whole challenge, and are working very well together, but I wanted to include this giveaway, because I am a book pusher. I like the idea that other people are reading my favorite books, and that authors I find especially gifted are getting extra love.

So, I decided to offer the participants of this challenge a special incentive for reading my favorite books. Below, I have compiled a list of 10 (ish) books each from both the Newbery and the Printz award lists. I've included a Goodreads and Amazon link to each title for your convenience. If you want more information about a book, or if you want to know why I seriously think you should read it, just ask! Comment, email, tweet, whatever!:) I love talking up my favorite books!

Anyone who reads any of these books will be entered in to win a special drawing. Reviewing the book will gain you an additional entry as well. (Note — if you don't have a blog, that's totally okay! Posting a review anywhere will count! Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books A Million etc etc etc. As long as it's a review, it's online and you can link me, it counts!)

The number of winners and the prizes to be won for this giveaway are yet to be determined. Part of this is going to depend on the number of participants, some will depend on how my pocket book is feeling come September, and some will depend on how excited I am that (hopefully) so many people are reading my favorites. At this point, it's likely to include at the very least a book of your choice from the complete awards lists, but I might also include some of my own personal favorites in there as well. Suggestions and preferences are welcomed. And now:

THE LIST: Printz: * Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Award) * The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Honor) * The Book Thief (amazon; goodreads) / I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak (amazon; goodreads) (2007 Honor/ 2006 honor, respectively) * Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Honor) * Monster by Walter Dean Meyers (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Award) * The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (amazon; goodreads) (2003 Honor) * Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Honor) * Going Boving by Libba Bray (amazon; goodreads) (2010 Award)
* how i live now by Meg Rosoff (amazon; goodreads) (2005 Award)
* The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci (amazon; goodreads) (2001 Honor)

Newbery: * When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (amazon; goodreads) (2010 Award) * Rules by Cynthia Lord (amazon; goodreads) (2007 Honor) * The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Spear (amazon; goodreads) (1959 Award) * Dicey's Song (amazon; goodreads) / A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (amazon; goodreads) (Books 2 and 3 of the Tillerman Saga) (1983 Award/ 1984 Honor, respectively) * Walk Two Moons (amazon; goodreads) / The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (amazon; goodreads) (1995 Award/ 2001 Honor, respectively) * Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (amazon; goodreads) (2003 Honor) *Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl (amazon; goodreads) (1971 Honor) * The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (amazon; goodreads) (2008 Honor) * The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (amazon; goodreads) (1991 Honor) * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Award)
I can't wait to see what everyone plans to read! Stop by here or over at The Reading Housewives tomorrow for our kick off posts. I'll be including links to previous Newbery/Printz reviews here on the blog and giving you a peek at my tentative reading pile. I believe we will also have a linky with the post, so feel free to link up your starting post!
Tomorrows the day! Happy reading!
*Ashley and Jacinda reserve the right to change the number of prizes for each level. We will keep you informed of any and all decisions regarding prizes. Three months is a long time. I can't guarantee that everything in this post is going to remain exactly the same. But take heart. This also means we can give you more books!:)

A few years ago, I made the goal to read every book that has been, or will be, awarded the Newbery Award and as many of the honors as possible. Every year, beginning in 1922, the Medal is awarded to the book considered to be the most distinguished contribution to children's literature of that year. A year or so after I decided to read all of the books on the Newbery list, I decided to add the winners of the Printz Award as well, which is the YA equivalent of the Newbery.

I've never been quite about this goal, and it's actually been, for the most part, an amazing and rewarding experience for me. Although I've read some winners that I feel less than favorable towards, for the most part I've loved the experience, and I've discovered some very, very favorite books through these two lists. I mentioned something about these lists on Twitter and Jacinda from The Reading Housewives mentioned that it would make a great challenge idea. And so, here we are.

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For a long time, this has been an individual and personal goal for me. My sister mocks me regularly for being stuck to a list, citing The Story of Mankind, Gay-Neck and Hitty for reasons I should stop, overlooking the absolute love I now have for The House of the Scorpion, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and Jellicoe Road, all books I would have either overlooked, ignored or never heard of without these lists.
So now, along with The Reading Housewives, I am extending an invitation to all of you to join me in my quest to read these two amazing book lists. I want to share the love I have for these lists, and I've gotten Jacinda all excited about it too!
So — onto the *Rules *Details *Guidelines *General Information
The challenge will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day — May 30th until September 5th.
There will be 4 levels of participation-
Level 1 — Underachiever: Read 3 books
Level 2 — Nerd: Read 6 books
Level 3 — Brainiac: Read 9 books
Level 4 — Teacher's Pet: Read 12 books

No matter which level you chose to participate in, you must read at least one book from each of the award lists. You can focus primarily on one or the other, but there must be at least one Printz honor/award and one Newbery honor/award.
There will be giveaways throughout the challenge as well. There are a lot of giveaway details, so there will be separate post specifically for the giveaway information. But, I will tell you now, that there is a guaranteed winner from each of the 4 levels, as well as a few other winners, including a super special giveaway that you can enter only by reading some of my very favorite titles from the list.:) Ya, I'm a book pimp. So what?!
Anyway — We would LOVE to have a lot of participants in this challenge. We have decided to keep it pretty low key — You can sign up for whatever level you think you can make (everyone should be able to handle one book a month!) and reviews are completely optional — although they will gain you an extra entry into the giveaways!
So what are you waiting for?! I'm staring a lovely pile that constitutes less than half of the books I'm going to be giving away, my lovely friends at The Reading Housewives have books to offer as well, and if no one enters, we are just going to have to keep all these lovelies for ourselves! Each of the following links will take you to a Goodreads page listing each of the winners of both the award and honor for the Newbery and Printz. Makes it really easy to just pop over and add it to your tbr!
Newbery Winners Newbery Honors Printz Winners Printz Honors
Come on and fill out the form, grab a button and start prepping those lists!

Hey everyone! This is an update post for everyone participating in the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by me and Jacinda at The Reading Housewives. If you are not yet participating, we are still taking sign ups! You can sign up as late and anything that you've read since May 30 counts toward the challenge!

Personally, I've been very productive. I've read a lot that fits with this challenge, because it's been a personal goal for years and when I get motivated to do something, I get motivated.: P

Personally — I've read 10 books for the challenge, some of which I have reviewed, some I have not and some of these will be future Award Winning Wednesday reviews. I've linked the ones I've already reviewed on the blog-

1 — Fat Kid Rules the World — K.L. Going (Printz Honor)
2 — Stolen — Lucy Christopher (Printz Honor)
3 — King of the Wind — Marguerite Henry (Newbery Award)
4 — Shadow of a Bull — Maia Wojciechowska (Newbery Award)
5 — Daniel Boone — James Daugherty (Newbery Award)
6 — Please Ignore Vera Dietz — A.S. King (Printz Honor)
7 — Rules — Cynthia Lord (Newbery Honor, reread)
8 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor)
9 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, reread)
10 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor)

I had originally planned to read 12 books for the challenge, but since I'm so close and this is the time in the challenge we are opening it up to everyone to adjust their goals, I'm now aiming for 24. I know it's not an actual level, but I'm the host, so I'm running with it.: P

I would like to encourage all the participants to offer a check-in post of their own! I really want to see how everyone is doing! I want to see what you have gotten read, what you plan to read, whether you think you are going to be able to meet your goal, etc. Use your check-in post to link up your reviews and then come link it up to us!

If you do not have a blog, but would still like to post an update, email me at basicallyamazingbooks [at] gmail [dot] com (or Jacinda at readinghousewivesofindiana(at)gmail(dot)com) and we would be more than happy to post something for you so that you have a place to share your updates as well.

As mentioned above, this is also your chance to update your challenge level. If you don't have as much time as you'd hoped and think that a lower level would be less stressful/more attainable, or if you are reading at a faster pace than you thought you would and would like a chance at a slightly larger prize pack, this is the month to make that happen! Just fill out the form below (that is also the giveaway form) and select your new level. If you don't remember which level you signed up for, contact me or Jacinda and we can get that information to you. To refresh, the levels are:

Level 1 — Underachiever: Read 3 books Level 2 — Nerd: Read 6 books Level 3 — Brainiac: Read 9 books Level 4 — Teacher's Pet: Read 12 books
For the giveaway, one participant will have a chance to win the book of their choice from the prize pool. To win this, you MUST be a participant of the challenge, and you MUST have completed at least one book that fits in with the challenge.
The prize pool is below. I promise I will update this soon with a picture, but things were a little crazy today, so I don't have it right now. The books I have available are
Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta Fat Kid Rules the World — K.L. Going The Summer of the Swans — Betsy Byers (used, very good condition) Adam of the Road — Elizabeth Janet Gray (used, good/okay condition) Postcards from No Man's Land — Aidan Chambers
Hope was Here — Joan Bauer When You Reach Me — Rebecca Stead The Watson's Go to Burmingham — Christopher Paul Curtis Dear Mr. Henshaw — Beverly Cleary
This giveaway will end in one week, last day to enter is July 5th! So, don't put this one off! You also only have a week to change your reading level! There will also be an email sent out to all participants, just in case you somehow missed this post.
in my blog TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY AND/OR CHANGE YOUR LEVEL!!
Best of luck to you all!

Don't forget to link you reviewsposts!!

Yesterday, the winners of the 2012 Newbery (MG) and Printz (YA) Awards were announced, along with the other ALA Award winners (Caldecott (illustrations) Morris (debut), Alex (adult w/ YA crossover appeal) etc).

I apologize for both being a bit absent from the online world lately and not getting this posted yesterday. I had every intention of posting yesterday, but had to be to work before they were even finished announcing the winners. ANYWAY

THE WINNERS!! (With commentary, of course: P)

Newbery Award Winner:

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos: I'll be honest with this, and admit that I'm disappointed. I don't actually know anything about this book, but I've read all four of the Joey Pigza books (book 2, Joey Pigza Loses Control won a Newbery Honor) and I have read his memoir(ish) book, Hole in My Life, which won a Printz Honor and I was not impressed with any of them. I'll read this one, but if I feel for it the way I've felt for his previous novels, it will be my last Gantos no matter what new awards he's won.

Newbery Honors:

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai: This is one that I'm really excited to see. It has come highly recommended to me by Shannon at Books Devoured. It's also historical fiction, about the Vietnam era, which I think is very under mentioned in literature. And, it's a verse novel! I'm a huge fan of verse novels and love anything that gets them more attention! This has been on my TBR for a long time now, but knowing that it's won a Newbery Honor is going to push this to the very top of my TBR!

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin: I hadn't heard anything about this book prior to the announcement. But now, I've had a chance to look it over, and I'm definitely intrigued! It actually sounds like it could be really amazing!

I'll say that I'm quite surprised that out of three award/honors given., all are historical fiction. That's not something I think I've ever seen before and I find it very interesting. (In a good way, but interesting nonetheless).

Printz Award Winner:

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley: Ginger over at Greads raved about this one a little while ago and her review was just so awesome that I immediately added this to my TBR/close watch list. It sounds absolutely amazing and although I haven't read it, I'm thrilled that it won because from everything I've seen, it's exactly my kind of book.

Printz Honors:

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Holder: This is a book that I was really surprised to see on the Printz list. I haven't read it yet, but it is one that has been on my list to read. But everything I had seen about it made is sound like more of a fun read than anything really serious. But it shall be interesting to read it and see what I actually think of it!

The Returning by Christine Hinwood: This is another book that I knew nothing about prior to the announcement. Looking at Goodreads, it seems to be one of those books that you either REALLY like or you really... DON'T. But... umm... MELINA MARCHETTA BLURBED THIS BOOK. I WANT.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey: This makes three books I had never even heard of before the announcements. It looks like it's another Historical Fiction, and the summary sounds intensely amazing. It sounds like there is really a lot of room for that book to just Wow and amaze you. Definitely one I'm going to need to get my hands on as soon as possible.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: This is the only book on the list that I've actually read before and it is, sadly, not a book I was a fan of. I won't get too detailed, but basically it's 390 pages of absolutely nothing exciting (although some of it is interesting and beautifully described), with about 10 interesting pages scattered throughout the novel and 10 exciting and climactic pages right and the very end. I can, however (almost) see why some people really love this one, and do think Maggie is a talented writer, even if this one wasn't for me (because no amount of pretty writing is enough to make up for nearly 400 pages of extreme nothing.)

So there you have it! The winners of the Newbery & Printz awards as narrated by me!

What do you think?! Any of these books you are excited for/about!? Do you agree/disagree/dislike/like my commentary?! Do you even pay attention to or care at all about the awards? Let me know what you think & how you are feeling!!

AND — Stay tuned for tomorrow, because both Jacinda and I will be posting for the Award Winning Reads Challnege (have YOU signed up?!) and these books DO count!:)

My cousin, Emily, blogs over at In Which Ems Reviews Books and she and a friend have started a weekly Sunday feature. I have been a bit absent so far this year (my apologies) but when I saw her post today — the first post of the new feature and saw the topic, I decided this was something I had to take part in. I mean, I never miss an opportunity to talk up my favorite books and today's topic is to pick a favorite and talk about why it's special to you.

Any guesses as to which book I'm going to pick?:)

So there's this book... It's kind of a big deal to me. I talk about it all the time, and it's gotten to the point that if I send certain people a tweet saying — Ask them — they all know which book I'm talking about.

I decided several years ago that I was going to read all the books on the Newbery award list, and when I learned about the Printz award, and it is to YA what the Newbery is to MG, I decided I would read all of those too. And I read a brilliantly funny/witty/hysterical/intelligent Honor winner from 2009 called The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. And let me tell you, I loved that book. It remains one of the smartest funny books I've ever read. But, that is not the book I'm going to talk about today. Because after I finished that book, I wondered why it didn't win the actual award. So I sought out the winner of the Award that year, wondering if I was going to be disappointed that this was the book that ultimately won.

But friends. Do you know what book won the Printz Award in 2009? DO YOU?!

I'll give you a hint... It's this one:

This book wrecked me. It tore me to pieces, pulled apart my heart and pulverized my soul. And then it put me back together again, different, but better. I am never at a loss for words, but I never feel like I can truly articulate what this book did to me. It just... consumed me. I was so incredibly captivated and involved with this book, these characters and their lives.

I've felt sad before, finishing a book and knowing that my time with the characters was over for now, and I've actively wished that some of the people in the book were real. But not even with Harry Potter do I remember being so overwhelmingly devastated that these people weren't real because I just felt them that much.

I have never come across a writer with an ability like Marchetta's before. Something about her writing just hits me, in that perfect way. I tend to get overly dramatic when I talk about Marchetta, specifically when referencing this book and I saw things like — Melina Marchetta owns my soul. And when I'm reading one of her books, she does.

I tell you what — Never have I read anything like this book. It causes me genuine physical pain when I hear that someone didn't like this book. Physical pain. (and I'll be honest and admit that the secret, shameful place inside of me wonders about their mental stability... But only for a minute).

I don't think I will ever run out of positive things to say about this book, but I need an ending point somewhere, so let me also just add this (because I still make giddy/squeaky noises every time I think about it)

After Just Contemporary month, when I emailed Melina (*dies*) I got a surprise package in the mail. From Australia. And I opened it to find this:

I cried.

Hey all! Today is the official end of the Award Winning Reads Challenge. I've had a lot of fun hosting the challenge and I'm so glad that Jacinda from The Reading Housewives agreed to co-host!

I do want to encourage people to continue reading from the lists, whether it's a goal to read every book on the lists, just one list, only winners, or even just to pay especial attention to winners for possible reading choices. Honestly, there have been some books I picked up only because they were on the list and I didn't enjoy them. But, there have also been some that I wouldn't have picked up without the list that I have absolutely loved. And you know what, Jellicoe Road, which is one of my all time absolute favorite books is a book I picked up because of it's Printz Award. I might have read it anyway, but it was on my radar because of the Printz and it is such an amazing book. I can list so many others that are like that for me, and I love these two lists.

I strongly encourage participants of the challenge to keep going, and non-participants to maybe pick up some of the list books (I'm more than happy to recommend good starting places, if you'd like!:) ) and let's keep giving these two lists some love!:)

Anyway, at the last check in, I mentioned that I had read 16 award winners, and was hoping to finish off the Printz list. But... alas. I didn't get any new reading done, but I'm still very satisfied with the progress that I've made! I think I'll have to reform my goal for the end of the year, and we'll see where that gets me.:)

So now — We have the final check-in/accounting and giveaways! If you'd like to write up a finish line blog post, we'd love to see it! Love to hop over and check out your progress. If you don't have a blog, or don't want to write a post, just go ahead and fill out the form below. Jacinda and I will be contacting the winners of the giveaways this Saturday, the 10th, which gives you a week to fill out the form.

If you completed your challenge level, you are entered to win a giveaway for your level. If you signed up for the challenge, but didn't complete it, you are still entered to win a randomly drawn prize.

AND, if you read any of the award winners from the list I posted in the initial sign up post, you are entered to win a special giveaway, just from me! So make sure you list all the books read in the form or your completion post and show us links to your reviews, no matter where they got posted so we can tally it all up!:)

Also, please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you all for participating! Let me know if this is something you'd like to see happen again next year!:)

Make sure you don't forget to link up! Link your finish line posts, and/or any reviews!!:)

Last week Becky asked for posts about the book award winners -- predictions, analysis, lists, or reviewing award winning books.

Sherry looked ahead and tried to predict the winners of the Printz Prize (a literary award for YA literature). Similarly, Jen did some predictions for many of the ALA Youth Media Awards.

Puss Reboots shared that she's a Cybils Award judge for the graphic novels (can I tell you how jealous I am?). She couldn't tell us winners just yet, but she did show the book she's getting to consider.

Laura, a new participant in Weekly Geeks, looked at award winners from her childhood.

Becky got into things, by posting lists of all the major winners on Monday with some of her own impression of the picks. Keeping with the YA themes, Suey looked at winners for both the Newbery Award and Printz Prize, plus pointed out some on-going challenges for both awards.

Bookwormans did a spotlight on previous Newbery Award winning books including a couple of my favorites, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Number the Stars. KT also highlighted some of her favorite Newbery Award winners including and The Westing Game and Julie of the Wolves.

Hey everyone! It's now August, which means month two of the AWR Challenge has just ended. I hope you all are doing well and on track to meet your goals!:)

I would love to hear about how well everyone is doing with their challenges! Feel free to link any reviews after this post, and link up your July check-in as well! I want to know how everyone is doing!

Since the beginning of the challenge, I have read 16 award winners. 8 of those have been from the Printz list, 8 have been from the Newbery list and 3 have been rereads. I know that I have met my goal of 12 books in three months, but I'd like to do even more. I'm only three books away from having read each of the Printz Award winners (although I've still got about 25 of the honors to read) and I'd love to finish the list by the end of the challenge. I own two of the winning books that I've yet to read, and my library has a copy of the third.

As for the Newbery list, it's significantly larger, but I've also been working on it longer. But, I'm really close. At least, I feel close. I only need to read 13 books to finish that list (and I haven't even counted the Honors I'm missing). I'd like to get closer to finishing this list as well by the end of the challenge and think I'll set my goal for this list to 2, maybe 3 additional books my Labor Day.

Wish me luck!: P

Don't forget to write your own post, link up and let me know if you have any questions! I'm always good for a recommendation or a book push!:)

This past Monday, the American Library Association announced their awards. Some you've probably heard of: Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc. Some you might not be as familiar with: Geisel, Sibert, Batchelder, Odyssey, Schneider, etc.

This week you can do any one of these activities:

• Write a follow-up post discussing your thoughts on who won. Which winning books have you read? Which winning books do you want to read? Where there any surprises or shockers? Are you happy with this year's selections? (Include honor books, of course!)
• Choose an award (like the Printz and Newbery) and look at the list of previous winners/honors. Which books have you read and enjoyed? Are there any that you hated? Share a few 'favorites' with your readers. (If you haven't read any lately, maybe you might want to write up a post listing a few you'd be interested in reading soon.)
• Review a new-to-you award-winning book this week.
• Write a post discussing why awards matter, or don't matter. Are you influenced by awards and best lists? Do you seek out award winners? Or avoid them? Do you think award-winning books should be timeless? That they should always stay in print? Do you think time is a better judge of quality than an award committee?

So, I'm sorry guys — I know Wednesday is supposed to be my review day for the Award Winning Reads Challenge and I've got a lot on my plate right now.

So, instead, I'm just going to tell you to go forth and read!! And, since you are going to be reading, why don't you pick up a copy of Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta? It's the 2009 Printz Award winner and I tell you, it will blow your mind. It is one of the strongest, most amazing books I've ever read. In my entire life. (And I read a lot... So that's kind of a big deal.) Melina Marchetta is a writing Goddess and I find her abilities as a writer simply astounding. So do yourself a favor and read this book. Don't believe me? I come with references. (available on request) I've got people lined up who will tell you that I coerced convinced them to read Melina Marchetta and they've decided she is simply brilliant.

Not sure you are in the mood for tough stuff? Then try The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. This has got to be one of the most wittiest, entertaining, hysterical and brilliant books of all time. I tell you what. You are going to love Frankie. She is a phenomenal character, one I would love to know in real life! She's smart and is not afraid of that. She knows she's smart and she wants to use her brain to it's full potential. I had my best friend borrow this. The one who really only reads non-fiction? Ya. She read it in one sitting. It really is most excellent. And I'd be totally gruntled if you'd give it a shot!

(Oh ya, and both of these books are on my 'special' list, which means if you read it, you are entered for a special prize!)

Don't forget to link up to your reviews!! I'd LOVE to see what you've been reading!:)

In most Memory Monday posts, I talk about a specific book or series that I remember strongly from childhood, although there have been a few posts devoted to authors as well. Today, I wanted to do something a little different.

I hope you've noticed that starting today, Jacinda at The Reading Housewives and I are hosting a summer long challenge devoted to reading books from the Newbery and Printz award lists. If you come back later today, I will have a post talking about what you can expect from me throughout the next three months in relation to the challenge, but I thought I'd also use my Memory Monday post to give some more love to the Newbery List.

The Newbery Award has been around since 1922, but I wasn't really aware of it until I was in college. Not specifically anyway. I had a vague idea of what it was, but nothing more than that. Then, I started noticing that an awful lot of the books I had read and loved as a kid had received either a Newbery Medal, or the Honor. It started me to thinking more about the Award and what it means to reading, and I pulled a complete list from ALA's website. I started going through the list, marking off those books I had previously read, looking up some of the books I hadn't and I decided that there was a lot of good to be discovered on this list and that I was going to read it. ALL.

So, here is a list of the Newbery books I especially loved as a kid (probably not complete, but forgive me... It's been a long time since I've read some of these) Seeing a book on this list does not count as their 'official' Memory Monday post. Some of these books or authors have already been spotlighted, some have plans for a spotlight in the future, and some, well, who knows.

* The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder — Oh man oh man oh man. My parents gave my older sister a boxed set of all nine Little House books for Christmas when I was around 7 or 8 and she wasn't terribly interested in them. But I ate them up. I devoured those books, and I wanted to be Laura. I used to play prairie in my backyard. Five of the nine books in this series were awarded honors in the 1930s & 40s.

* Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech — I read this book in (I think) 5th grade and I couldn't keep my excitement about it to myself. I went and asked my teacher for special permission to do an extra book report, complete with a diorama art project because I wanted everyone to know how wonderful this book really was. It also inspired a Sharon Creech binge and I've loved her ever since.

* The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley — I know I've mentioned these books before, but these books are the reason that I was willing to give the entire fantasy genre another chance. My friend bribed me to read them in 8th grade and I was completely blown away.

* Dicey's Song and A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt — These are books 2 and 3 in the Tillerman Sage and oh my goodness are these books powerful reads. The whole series is full of wonderfully real characters, full of pain and sorrow, hope, truth and trust. I've never met anyone else like Dicey, either in fiction or real life. She is one of the most fully drawn characters I think I've ever come across and every story that connects to theirs is powerful. These are the only two that made it on the list (a Medal and an honor, respectively but I believe that all of them easily deserved it)

* Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright — I never should have read this book, and it most certainly isn't a book I would have picked up on my own at that age. But, I had tried to buy a book through one of those Scholastic book orders and they ran out of the book that I had ordered. Rather than send us a refund, the book order sent replacement books they thought we would like. How they went from a book about the sinking of the Titanic (I was crazy obsessed) to a book about a girl on a farm, holding a pig on the cover is completely beyond me, but I read it, because I owned it, and figured, Might as well. But I didn't really expect much from it. But I read it over and over and although I still have that same copy, it's obvious looking at the book that it has been very well loved.

* Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine — This is one of the first books that introduced me to fairy tale retellings. This wasn't my fairy tale retelling, but it was incredibly influential in sparking my deep love for the genre, and it was (I think) the first I had read that took some serious liberties with the story, and deviated in an obvious and blatant way from the original. And I loved every second of it.

* Charlotte's Web by E.B. White — I shouldn't like this book. I'm not an animal person. Even as a kid, I never really wanted a pet and even when I was excited about an animal, the novelty worse off with astonishing speed and I was done. I also don't normally like reading books narrated by animals, especially when those animals think/talk/act like people do. But this book was wonderful. I read it over and over again and was just thrilled anew every time I read about the wonderful words in Charlotte's almost magical web.

So, these are some of my very favorite Newbery reads from childhood, and each of these was a large part of why I decided to read the list in its entirety. Do you have any old (or new) favorites from the list? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

* Just realized that I didn't actually post this at 5:30 like I thought I had... So I'm posting it now. Hours later. My apologies.: P Update: Day 2 — 5:30
Total Books Read: 9
Total Pages Read: 2049 Books Read Since Last Update: 2 Pages Read since last update: 619 Total time read: 16 hours How I'm currently feeling: Good! I'm excited that I've made so much progress, and I'm hoping that I'll get at least one more book read before 8. Shouldn't be too hard! I'm sure I can get it done!:) List of books read- 1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder 2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor) 3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, Reread) 4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom 5 — Dobry- Monica Shannon (Newbery Award) 6 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor) 7 — Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls (Reread) 8 — After the Kiss — Terra Elan McVoy 9 — Scars — Cheryl Rainfield
So, here is my update post for day two! It is now about 11:30. I went to bed about 4:00 last night and now I'm up and plan to get lots more reading done!

Really fast update before I disappear to read:

I read one more book before falling asleep, which brings my current total to 7 books and 1430 pgs. I finished Where the Red Fern Grows, which has been a very, very favorite since 4th grade and never fails to make me cry. Hard. It had been a long time since my last reread, so I was due.:) I've read the book somewhere over 50 times and it never gets old, never gets dull, and never fails to touch something emotional within me.

I will do a more indepth update later.:) For now, I'll answer the update question and get to reading!

Book I think should be taught in school?

I definitely agree with Enna that The Book Thief is amazing and would go over well in a classroom.

But for this question, I think I'm going to pick Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. It's one of my all time favorite books. I love it so, so much. It's a powerful book about learning who you are, living, moving on, forgiveness, trust, death, life, pain, grief, happiness, etc. etc. etc. There are so many things happening in this book, powerful, wonderful things. It also makes great use of flashbacks and dual story lines. Seriously. I think everyone should read this book.

AND if you start it, you HAVE to finish it. Every single negative review I've read of this book came from people who didn't finish. Of people who have read the whole thing, I have never talked to anyone who didn't end up really liking, if not loving this one. Seriously folks.

The Spring into Summer Read-a-Thon is over! It did end about 3 hours ago, but I was off hanging with a friend... So, I'm just now getting it posted.: P

Survey:

Give us an end of read-a-thon status update:

Total Books Read: 10 Total Pages Read: 2129
Books Read Since Last Update: 1 Pages Read since last update: 80 Total time read: 17 hours How I'm currently feeling: Awesome!! I got a lot of reading done, and I'm definitely feeling good about the progress that I made! List of books read- 1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder 2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor) 3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, Reread) 4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom 5 — Dobry- Monica Shannon (Newbery Award) 6 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor) 7 — Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls (Reread) 8 — After the Kiss — Terra Elan McVoy 9 — Scars — Cheryl Rainfield 10 — Animal Stories Daddy Told Us — Innocent Emechete
What is your favorite book you read during the read-a-thon? Such an impossibly difficult question to answer! I read and really enjoyed quite a few books! Where the Red Fern Grows is one of my favorite books of all time, but it's also a reread, so I feel kind of like I'm cheating to mention that one, so I'll have to keep it with I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Seriously folks, Lisa Schroeder is awesome! Did you participate in any mini-challenges? Which ones? Not too many. I did the book titles, which book I think should be taught in schools and... I think that might have been it... : / Which mini-challenge was your favorite? Probably the book titles. It's always a fun one to see what people come up with. What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon? Having a reason/motivation/excuse to sit around and read. Read-a-thons are incredibly motivating to me. Especially when I talk with a lot of other people, sharing progress, cheering and being cheered etc. Are you satisfied with how much reading you got done? Did you do more/less than you expected? I am pretty satisfied, yes! Although, I do wish that I had spent more time reading. I spent 17 hours reading, which is a lot, but out of 36, it's just about half. Which means, I could have gotten a lot more read if I hadn't wasted so much time. I spent more time that I would have liked on Twitter & checking/writing updates.: P But, I still got 10 books read in 2 days, and I refuse to feel bad about that progress.:) As for expectations, I intentionally didn't give myself any, other than read a lot, because if I meet my goal, I feel like I can stop. But if I don't meet my goal, I feel really bummed and down. So, my only official goal was to 'read. A lot.' I did make a few smaller goals after I had judged my current progress, and that seemed to work really well. What did you think of the updates? I liked them okay, but as I mentioned before, I thought there were too many of them. For the most part, I was more interested in reading my books than other peoples updates or writing my own. I really like end of day/end of event/mid-point surveys, but don't love regular updates, which I'm sure you can tell, because I didn't post very many of them. I feel like so many updates forces me to take artificial breaks in my reading time. If you could change one thing about the read-a-thon, what would it be? See above. Would you participate again? Most definitely!! Any last comments? Thank you! I had a lot of fun & would definitely participate again, so... You should definitely host again!:)

This is the last official Award Winning Wednesday of the challenge! I've loved having a reason to review an award winner once a week, since I read so many of them! I hope you all have enjoyed them as much as I have! So, be sure to wrap up your reading, wrap up your reviews and link up!

For my last official AWW post, I decided to review Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King which won a Printz Honor this year. It's the story of Vera, a teenage girl who just wants to make it through high school and out of her town as far off the radar as she can. But things don't always work out, and when her best friend Charlie starts acting like a total pr*ck and then has the nerve to up and die on her, she's left totally conflicted about what she's supposed to feel, what she wants to feel, and what she wonders if she's allowed to feel.

First, let me just say that I absolutely love the way this book was written! Like, seriously. Vera is the main character and the main narrator, but every few chapters we get A word from the dead kid (aka dead ex-best friend Charlie), advice and discussion from the dad (complete with flow charts) and a few thoughts from the Pagoda (yup. An inanimate architectural eyesore gives us a commentary). And each of them are given their own distinct voice, their own attitudes, their own way of speaking that I didn't need the headers announcing which narrator was being given voice, because it was just so surely theirs that it couldn't have been anyone else talking.

The story itself is also so well told. This is again why I love Contemporary YA. Seriously. It's a raw and emotional story of trying to deal with all the crap life throws at you in high school, and Vera has definitely had her share of the major crap. As the story progresses and you learn more and more of what Vera has gone through, more and more of what happened with her and Charlie, or to Charlie, the more your heart breaks and the more you just sit there and hope that there is going to be a way to happily settle the story. But when several of the chapters are narrated by the dead kid, it's not like he's going to be coming back.: (

But even with that, Vera is such a strong character. She is the type of person that I would love to know in real life. She's got just enough attitude and sarcasm to be funny and witty without being obnoxious or a total b*tch. One of my favorite lines from the book, one that I feel illustrates the large angst of the novel as well as both Vera and Charlie as characters perfectly is — "Let me tell you — if you think your best friend dying is a bitch, try your best friend dying after he screws you over. It's a bitch like no other."-pg. 7 And that right there my friends, is Vera.

I honestly and truly cannot think of one single thing that I didn't love about this book. Everything about it feel authentic and believable and it's just so incredibly real. This is a book that I could read over and over again and never tire of. There is just so much to this story and I absolutely loved it. Honestly and truly, Please Ignore Vera Dietz has been one of my favorite recent reads. This is the type of book that makes me love reading award lists. Because without the Printz Honor, I might have missed this one. It wasn't really one I'd seen around a lot. But it would have been a shame to have missed this one, and it's one that I highly recommend you go out and read. Now. (But no, seriously... Make this one a priority. If you haven't read it, go. Get it. Read it.)

Because this is a much bigger post than an update, I'm going to post it separately.

Click the image to learn more!
I decided that midnight would be my stopping point for this post because (unless my math is horribly off) this is the midway point, halfway between start and finish. So, here is my first official reporting!

First of all, give us an end-of-day status update.

Total Books Read: 6
Total Pages Read: 1218 Books Read Since Last Update: 2 Pages Read since last update: 394 Total time read: 9 hours How I'm currently feeling: SO great! I think I'll read for a while longer, but I'll probably go to bed at a semi-reasonable time (meaning, of course that it's still going to be around 2 or 3 before I finally turn off the lights)
Books read:
1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder
2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor)
3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, reread)
4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom
5 — Dobry — Monica Shannon (Newbery Award)
6 — Repossessed- A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor)

What is the favorite thing you have read today? I've actually been quite pleased with everything I've read today, except for book five. But, if I had to pick a favorite, I'd say it was probably I Heart You, You Haunt Me. It's the second book by Schroeder I've read and I've officially decided that I love her. She's incredibly talented and she is a perfect example of why novels written in verse can be so powerful.

Which mini-challenge was your favorite? I haven't really participated in the mini-challenges today. I've been too busy reading.:) The only one I actually participated in was the book title sentence, so I guess I'll pick that one.

What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon? An excuse to just sit and read and munch on junk food.: P I also love that it gives me more motivation. I'm motivated to read more, so I get more done. It's not everyday you get through 6 books!:)

What has been your LEAST favorite thing about the read-a-thon? Nothing really. The only thing that I don't love is how quickly and often the update posts are up. When I'm reading, especially during a read-a-thon, I don't want to be stopping. My preferred way to read is straight through, getting the whole book read in one sitting. Which means I either miss the updates or I have to pause my book, which throws off my reading groove. I think I'd have liked it better if they were either spaced out more, of left 'open' longer.

Are you on track to meet your goals? Yes! Completely! It's actually quite the rush!: P I initially just wanted to get as many books read as I could, not really putting a number to it. But shortly after my third book, I realized I was only 3 books behind on my GR challenge, something I've been far behind on all year because I started the year in a reading slump.: ( So, I decided that I was going to try and get all caught up today, and I finished my 6th book 15 minutes before midnight!:)

Will you be participating tomorrow? Do you have any new goals? Definitely!! I'm am most certainly going to be participating tomorrow!! I'm not all the way sure about goals yet, although 6 more books would definitely be amazing! Not sure I can manage that though, because I do plan to get some sleep tonight, so really, I just want to read as possible! I'm thinking I will probably read one more book tonight, two at the most before I need to go to bed, and then waking up at a (hopefully) decent hour and getting more reading done.

It's here!! Today marks the official start of the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by myself along with Jacinda from The Reading Housewives! Thank you for joining us!:)

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I think this challenge is going to be a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see what everyone ends up reading and how they feel about the books they select!

For a recap of the rules, see this post here: Award Winning Reads Challenge

For additional information about the giveaways, (that also includes the list of my personal favorites you can read for a special giveaway) go here: Award Winning Reads Challenge Giveaway/Prize Information

I am going to try and get as many books from the two lists read as possible this summer. My personal owned TBR is getting completely out of control, and many of those books come from these two lists. So, while not all of the books I'm aiming to read are books I own, a great many of them are.

This is also a very tentative list for me. I can already guarantee that I will not read every book on this list and I will read some books that didn't make it onto this list. That's just how I seem to do things. But, it's nice to have a little guideline to give me an idea of where I'm going. I'll update as I go as well, either here, in additional posts, or on the Challenge page (that will soon be created).

Newbery:

After the Rain by Norma Fox Mazer
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (reread)
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (reread)
King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
Dobry by Monica Shannon
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan

Printz:

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (reread)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (reread)
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
Postcards from No Man's Land by Aiden Chambers
Monster by Walter Dean Meyers (reread)
Stolen by Lucy Christopher

So, leave us a comment with a link to your starting line post (if you have one) or just let us know in the comments some of the books you are hoping to get read this summer!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, or just need some great book recommendations, let me know! I'm always happy to help!:)

Monsterby Walter Dean Meyers was the first recipient of the Printz Award in 2000. It's the story of a young black kid on trial as an accessory to murder, although he's being tried as a full participant in the crime. 16 year old Steve is confused, scared and alone. The ADA calls him a monster, his court appointed defense lawyer thinks he's guilty, and his own parents aren't really sure who he is any more. Shoot, he's not even sure who he is anymore.

Because he's so confused right now, Steve decides to try and make sense of things the only way he knows how. He decides to turn the entire court and prison proceedings into a screenplay. He was taking a film class in school before being arrested and now uses the knowledge he gained there to try and cope with his situation. Interspersed throughout the screenplay are also journal entries from Steve where we have a chance to hear him talk openly about what he's feeling and struggling with.

I loved the format here. I loved viewing the court and all the proceedings through the lens that Steve puts on himself. The screenplay is not only his way to make sense of and cope with things, on some level, it's also his way of distancing himself from what is happening. This court case is going to completely change his life. If he's convicted, he'll be going to jail for a minimum of 20 years. That's a lot of a 16 year old kid to handle, and there are moments when he just needs to make it take a back seat.

Steve's thoughts are also unclear for most of the book. We are never actually sure if Steve is guilty, because I'm not sure Steve himself really understands if he is guilty or not. As we watch catch glimpses of his memories and are able to see more of how the events unfold, we are able to get a better idea of how Steve got to be in this situation. He wants to fit in with the tough guys in his neighborhood, wants to be tough like them, so he starts spending more time around them and through a series of bad decisions and moments where he let good choices go by, Steve finds himself with all of his time split between prison and court.

It's hard to watch Steve go through this. It's hard to see any young teen who might completely lose their freedom because of a series of bad choices, even though they are generally a good kid. I thought Meyers did an excellent job bringing enough ambiguity to Steve's character that we never really know if he's guilty, we never really know how involved he was, but we are also given enough information about him to know that he isn't a bad person. The scenes with Steve's family are especially painful. How do you talk to your kid when he's facing a murder charge and while you desperately want to believe he's innocent, deep down you aren't really sure?!

This one is a reread for me. I read it for the first time a few years ago and have been wanting to reread it for a while now. And I have to say, it's just as powerful now as it was then. It's not one to be missed.

Are you among those anxiously waiting for Monday's announcements?! Which announcements, you say, well ALA's BIG announcements, of course! On Monday, January 18th, we'll learn who has won the Newbery, the Caldecott, the Printz, and the Coretta Scott King awards. Of course, those are just a few of those that will be announced. Do you follow any of these awards? Do you seek these winners out to read?

This week you can do any one of these activities:

• write a prediction post (before Monday) discussing which books you hope get some love and attention
• write a follow-up post (after the announcements) discussing your thoughts on who won. Which winning books have you read? Which winning books do you want to read? Where there any surprises or shockers? Are you happy with this year's selections?
• choose an award (like the Printz and Newbery) and look at the list of previous winners/honors. Which books have you read and enjoyed? Are there any that you hated? Share a few 'favorites' with your readers. (If you haven't read any lately, maybe you might want to write up a post listing a few you'd be interested in reading soon.)
• review a new-to-you award-winning book this week.
• if you've got another idea on what to write about that fits in with this general theme, go for it!

Top Ten Tuesday is one of my favorite memes/features. It's hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I don't participate all that often, but sometimes the topic just speaks to me, and I just have to participate. Getting some attention on 10 of my favorite books that I don't think enough people read isn't something I can pass up.:)

So here are my Top Ten AWESOME books that I think more people need to know about:

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder — While I do prefer Lisa's The Day Before, it's been getting a lot of attention lately. Lisa is one of my very favorite verse writers. She's incredible, and I don't think enough people have read her.

Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert — It's not often that a writer can make a solid & life long fan of me in just one book, but this book did that and more. It's such a strong and powerful book. The book itself is marvelous, but the addition of the individual character Ballads — absolutely stunning. (My review)

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick — I don't really know how many people are aware of this book, but I can tell you right now that it's not enough. This is one of the most phenomenally written books I've ever read. The relationship between the main character and his four year old brother just touched my heart. I love the strength of family here. I probably won't recommend this one to moms... Something about reading four year old with cancer is harder for moms with young kids (my sister avoids them like the plague) but for everyone else — This book is amazing.

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta — Well, Melina Marchetta in general actually. Her better known book, Jellicoe Road is one of my favorite books of all time. And, given that it won a Printz award, I'm surprised it's not better known. But, given that Saving Francesca isn't as well know, it's my 'official' pick for Ms. Marchetta. But really, if I could get every person on the planet to read a Marchetta book, I'm pretty sure I could die happy. She's... She's... Well, words just can't describe her. I LOVE her books. So go read it. (Here is my review if you need more convincing.)

Daughter of the Flames by Zoe Marriott — This could just as easily have been The Swan Kingdom (my review) , because both are legitimately amazing novels, but I think I like Daughter just a teensy bit more. But Zoe is another of those writers that I just gush over. And guess what, she's not contemporary! Gasp, I know! She writes fantasy! The Swan Kingdom is a fairy tale retelling, but Daughter is straight up fantasy, and boy does it rock my socks off! So, you should go read it!!

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson — Laurie is incredibly well known for her amazing novel, Speak and I feel that sometimes, her other books get lost in its wake. But if I'm being honest, I think that Twisted is even better than Speak. There is no argument on the importance of Speak and the fact that it's amazing, powerful and important. But Twisted is all of those things too, but somehow, just a little bit stronger. It is also one of the absolute best male pov characters I have ever read from a female author.

Wise Child by Monica Furlong — I don't know that I've ever talked to another person who has read this book (other than my sister, who I stole it from as a kid) but it's a great book. It's fantasy, but it's not heavy or intense like much fantasy tends to be. As I've mentioned before, I did not like fantasy when I was a kid and if I knew a book was fantasy, I usually wouldn't even start it. But I loved this book. I've read it numerous times and love it just as much every time.

The Novels of a Kingdom by Cynthia Voigt — Best known for her brilliant Tillerman Saga, Cynthia Voigt also wrote a series of novels set within the same kingdom, each about two generations apart. And again, I don't know very many people who have read them. But they are phenomenal! Strong characters, believable interactions and wonderful plot lines. There are 4 novels, Jackaroo, On Fortune's Wheel, The Wings of a Falcon and Elske. Each is its own story, but there are subtle traces that carry over from one to the next. I loved finding each of these connections and am definitely due for a reread of these four soon.

Tenderness by Robert Cormier — This is such a strange and interesting book that left me incredibly conflicted. The bad guy here is also the main character and he is very, very bad. He rapes and murders women and his manipulation of the system made my stomach turn. But somehow, I also liked him. It shocked me immensely, but I was left very conflicted by the end. (My review)

You Don't Know Me by David Klass — This is another book I haven't heard anything from anyone else about. I bought it on impulse at the library during my internship, because it looked barely used, I didn't have hardly any of my own books with me, and it was only like 50 cents. And it's probably one of the best impulse buys ever. It's a very well written book, one that definitely touched me and one that I want to read again soon. Give this one a chance. It is so worth it.

There you have it. My top ten, today at least. I thought about, and almost included an honorable mention list for the titles I couldn't include, but when that became longer than my actual list, I figured I had to stop.

Have you read any of my ten? Link me to yours so I can come check 'em out! I'm always looking for new hidden gems to read and love!