Yup! Fortunately a lot of signings in my area.

@alyson: you went to a book signing?! whoaaaww! none of the authors i like ever come to my country. *sigh*

Lament The Faerie Queen's DeceptionI loved Shiver so much I decided to try Stiefvater's Lament.

Alyson wrote: "Shiver I just finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and loved it. I would also recommend The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson"

I'm reading Shiver right now!

cheeseflavoredcorncurls wrote: "im suggesting The Angel's Game because i just bought a copy. ahaha. and people say its good. :P"

You're so funny... Angel's Game is really good. We just went to the book signing a few weeks ago and the author's great!

Shiver I just finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and loved it. I would also recommend The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

im suggesting The Angel's Game because i just bought a copy. ahaha. and people say its good. :P

By the way, apparently Gaiman is doing a sort of chapter by chapter tour reading of The Graveyard Book, and he's up to 8 chapters. In case you're interested: http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.asp...

Ender's Game

The Penderwicks A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

Short ones (less than 200 pages)

Living Dead Girl

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

Wintergirls
OR
Chains

I'm going through all of my previous posts and erasing ones that we have either chosen or are no longer considering as a future choice.

Jen wrote: "So - this Unwind looks really good - scary - sort of reminds me of the Last Book in the Universe - also good and scary, too. I wish I could get my urban Af-Amer. kids more interested in sci. fi. -..."

I hope you try Unwind. I think it's really good.

Hmmm.... I'm trying to think of a sci-fi that stars black kids, but I can't seem to think of one. I don't really read a lot of sci fi myself; I prefer fantasy. What do you mean by "real-life" fiction? Like high school kids contemporary fiction-- Freedom Writers? Or historical fiction -- Toni Morrison?

The House of the Scorpion

So - this Unwind looks really good - scary - sort of reminds me of the Last Book in the Universe - also good and scary, too. I wish I could get my urban Af-Amer. kids more interested in sci. fi. - they're all about the real-life fiction starring black kids (no big surprise there, really). :) Well - maybe next year I can push for one as a part of the curriculum.

Alethea wrote: "I tried reading Asleep.

But I kept falling asleep."

ahaha. i can kinda sorta imagine you doing that. :P

Maybe that was the whole idea of the book, Alethea!

I tried reading Asleep.

But I kept falling asleep.

oho! i thought id just suggest this. i havent read it yet but ive read one of her books, Goodbye Tsugumi, and it was great. :D

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

The Dust of 100 Dogs

Whereas for me, 5 stars means I freakin' loved it (at the time of rating)

hahaha! I think a lot of it is that I'm pretty stingy with my reviews. I try to go by what it says when you hover over the stars, so "one" means "I didn't like it" and "two" already means "it was okay."

Yeah, I'll have to get to it soon. You know, comparing books, you hated a bunch of the books I loved! So I'm pretty sure I'll like Ruby etc.! ^_^

*grin* Well, I've read The Ruby in the Smoke - the whole series, actually - and I hated it. I kept hoping it would get better and it got worse! But I'd love to discuss it with people who DID like it, you know, to see what they liked about it.

Clix wrote: "Can I vote for a book I hate?"

Sort of! The original members get to choose the monthly official and the unofficial picks, but everyone can *suggest* books to read or not to read.

I always suggest to people *not* to read The Book of Dead Days. There are better ways to spend 4 hours of your life.

Can I vote for a book I hate?

The Ruby in the Smoke

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Graveyard Book

I just thought you were really tired from Finals. It's ok. I am too.

Oops!

P.S. stands for Perennial Series, an edition of Harper Perennial publishers. We pretty much all work or have worked in bookstores and tend to pick and choose when it comes to our personal copies of books.

I believe Roxy gets to pick the January book--we cycle in order (more or less) through the original members of the group throughout the year.

The read for Jan 7 is Wildwood Dancing which is now available in paperback. And of course, you can always borrow from the library!

Don't worry, if she picks Coraline, that's like a $6 book even when it's new! The children's edition is almost always cheapest.

What is a P.S. edition?

And have we decided on a book to read together? There are so many that look so good - but my husband is going to kill me if I order twenty new books! :) I've been ordering - or going to the used book seller for - books like mad since Thanksgiving. ;) Yep - haven't been assigning too much that I actually have to read with the kids.

Jen

Boo! I already bought a copy, and it's not the one that I listed. I like that cover too.

Ooooooh, let me know if anyone finds the P.S. edition specifically--I like that cover a lot! I've never seen that one at the store before...

I'm going to check for the isbn at work.... it might be available from Powells.com, it looks like. Let me know if anyone's interested in ordering from them.

See jacket flap and excerpt up to p. 66

I've heard of this before, but also it just won the YA equivalent of the National Book Award (Young People's Literary Award):



Has anyone read this? I definitely think it should be one of our picks next year.

ahaha. yeah. thats where i got my name from. i was eating cheesecurls by jack&jill and its description was cheese flavored corn curls.i couldnt come up with a user name that wasn't already taken so...i guess you know what happened already. ahaha.

poison study? i dont think that any of the book stores have it here yet. i've checked fullybooked, bibliarch, powerbooks, a different bookstore,and even national bookstore. but i cant find it. well, that was last week, maybe they'll have it now. :D

^_^ Good job! I keep wanting to call you Jill, that's what your name reminds me of--Jack & Jill corn curls.

Just keep bugging the bookstore people, I don't know how stuff gets published in the P.I. but they might be interested in anything that sells half as well as Twilight. ;-)

Do you know if Poison Study is available there? I keep asking my cousins to check Fully Booked but they haven't gotten back to me. I would think they could get it there, Harlequin/Mira has a huge audience in the Philippines!

well if i were to suggest a book, it would have to be The Shadow of the Wind. its the only book that i would recommend 100% to anybody i know -- and do not know -- for now. :)

oh. i wanna read Hunger Games and Graceling but i cant find them anywhere. :(

yey, im participating. ahaha. (i'm lookin' at you, al. ahaha. :P )

Hunger Games was just HIGHLY recommended to me. :)

Thank you for the welcome, Alethea.

omg. is that me?? whoa. *looks around nervously*

Yay! Hi, Jeannine :-) I'm the opposite on YA books, I think I'm about to O.D.! I'm trying to read a grown-up book, just one, before I dive in to Hunger Games.

You're more than welcome to join us, not just for reading suggestions--if you read or have read any of our older picks, you are welcome to discuss them here if you wish.

That goes for anyone who is lurking around here too, you don't have to be in L.A. to be in our group (c.f.c.c., I'm lookin' at you :)

Thanks, Alethea! Before/After just came out in paperback and Say the Word will be out in March.

I totally need some new YA books to read so I'll be watching this thread. I'm currently in withdrawal. :)

I got friended on jacketflap by Jeannine Garsee.

This one was an Original Voices selection last year.

is new and I think it's going to be pretty good.

Also, here's the link to The 2008 Cybils Awards if you need more titles to browse.

I saw this a week ago and briefly resisted the urge not to buy it. If I find it tomorrow, though, I probably will.



The Smile by Donna Jo Napoli

Probably not an official read, as this is really an adult novel, I think:

Read a review here: http://www.caribousmom.com/

Oh by the way if you haven't checked our website in a while, I have been posting there. At YABC you'll find a link to the Cybils awards, and the nominees for those awards are chosen by the general public from all the children's titles published in 2008. They're a great shopping/need a book suggestion resource.

I spotted some really cool stuff last week:


Looks so cool, I bought it on the spot


Kind of -like. Jeff Kinney gave him a good blurb on the back of the cover.

And customers have been raving about this one:


I have Looking for Alaska but I thought it would be too depressing for us...