One of my favorite booktalks each year is for the AP Language classes because it’s all nonfiction and each student has to have a different book than every other student across the multiple classes. And my opening lines to start the booktalk each year always have to do with curiosity; essentially, permission to love what you love without fear of judgement by others.
Serial killers? Sure!
Psychology? Done!
Mongol Empire? We’ll make it work!
Animals? I’m your woman!
I use the example quite frequently that little kids love to read about animals and you don’t have to grow out of it. I haven’t. I’m more into animal books as an adult than I ever was as a kid. I recently read a 2023 book that got me thinking about my love of these types of stories. Here are my recommendations.
The day before Thanksgiving I turned the page to chapter 40 (a bookish pun I couldn’t resist). Coming up on the day, I thought about the fun little things I could do to make it special because I was excited about moving to another age bracket. So I came up with a list of 40 books that I would reread this year– generally books I own because books I own are books that I had previously read and knew I needed to own.
But I admit that I rarely reread books. It’s either a committee assignment that forces a book reread, an upcoming author visit, or in the case of Saga, a comfort read during the pandemic. It’s still rare. Yet, I wanted to recapture the feelings I had years or decades ago with this retrospective over the course of this upcoming year.
These books have changed my thinking, warmed my soul, or hearken back to another time in my life. I’ll be updating my journey periodically on Instagram. Here were the books I settled on.
Last year I was training for a 15K in the summer which would lead to running my first half marathon in the fall. Eight years ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I was going to be a runner. And seven years ago, I would have laughed (as I did my friends and colleagues) if you told me you listened to audiobooks while running. Because I was decidedly *not* a runner, I could only imagine getting pumped up to run with music.
Fast forward to last year’s training and I couldn’t imagine running WITHOUT an audiobook. I’m sure there were mornings where I ran farther because I didn’t want to stop reading. And even now, now that we’re also dog owners again, the daily walks also include audiobooks if I’m not walking with another family member in addition to any running I do. Here are a few of the memorable audiobook runs and walks.
This was my first ever audiobook run. You can never go wrong with Steve Sheinkin’s nonfiction.
My first Colleen Hoover book was this audiobook while running. Spicy!
Nugent’s Little Cruelties was so complicated, deliciously messy, and screwed up (in all the best ways) that I remember my eyes bugging out a little while I was running. What was I listening to?!?!
Beautiful storytelling and a vivid setting combined to immerse me in a mystery that absolutely took me to another time and place. I definitely ran longer than I had planned to keep reading.
This poetry collection includes nature sounds while the the multiple narrators share the poetry and while you’re actually walking in nature, it was captivating.
When books are memoirs, you need to have an audiobook narrated by the author. This one was not only perfectly executed as an audiobook, but it also spoke to me on a deeper level that I ended up buying the book to own in addition to listening to it a second time.
In a recent professional development, the portmanteau romantasy was dropped and in the last 48 hours I’ve used it and seen it used in publisher emails. With the publication of certain new titles that are making book nerds swoon, it has officially entered the lexicon heavily. Then there are the romance titles which have been heavily requested for the last several years. And happy love stories that lay on the cuteness. Here’s a short list of some favorites in the three categories:
A First Time for Everything by Santat– cuteness
You Bet Your Heart by Parker– romance
Always Never by Lafebre– romance
Julieta and the Romeos by Andreu– romance
Horimiya by Hero– romance
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese by Muniz– cuteness
Finally the boxes arrived! We had a teaser box come the day before- the final box of the order arriving before the first set of boxes were shipped. Of all of the books in the boxes, I’ve been looking for one in particular– volume three of Fangirl: The Graphic Novel who has had an eager reader asking daily about when it will arrive. So my first free moment today, I started tearing into the nine boxes. Can you guess which box had the book in it? You’re right, the LAST box I opened.
Knowing that we have a set of ninth grade classes coming in tomorrow for their second round of books for independent reading, I wanted to try to get as many stickered as possible so we can lend as many as we can. Simply because nothing beats that new book smell.
Among the newly published, repurchases, and additional copies– some of my favorites that I spied in the boxes include:
Anatomy by Dana Schwartz
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
The Hate U Give and On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Death Note volumes 1-13 by Tsugumi Ohba
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson AND Carrie by Stephen King
I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t have visions, but I do have my friend and co-presenter Stacey, dozens of books read, and lists to forecast for the upcoming Youth Media Awards.
Last night I spent several hours with librarians, reading teachers, and other specialists talking about the Youth Media Awards and putting together predictions. It included a Kahoot to open, a break for dinner, then a K-12 discussion of books to put on our radars or preliminary thoughts of titles that have been read from the group. It was a good, bookish night that even after a day of work is uplifting and enriching.
We’ll follow up virtually in January to discuss the winners, honors, and losers.
No cooler words have been spoken by a character in fantasy, right? Cool like the millions of copies of the Inheritance Cycle series sold by Christopher Paolini and the many more now that Murtagh is out in the world. Cool to be the kid who started writing Eragon at fifteen because he was bored and wanted a challenge. Cool like the dozen high school students of mine who spent a dinner with him, getting signed copies of his books, and generally having a good time before his presentation through the New York State Writers Institute and The Book House. Cool like the student who had their cheek signed by him. Cool like the hundreds of people that showed up to share their express gratitude that he wrote the books because they saved them in some way whether it was the dragons or lines like “Die puny human.”
Over the last week, my lunch reading consisted of David Levithan’s September 2023 publication Ryan and Avery. Reading the book during lunch was even more delicious than whatever I had brought for lunch that day including a homemade tiramisu cupcake today when I finished it.
The book is a testament to gentle books everywhere. The books that aren’t niche reads for specific teen readers but for the average teen reader but approached with a tenderness that can still be appreciated by teens, allowing them to slow down and feel things. Currently my teens would rather be reading bloody slasher stories and heart-pounding mysteries, but they would make room for this one. Like they would for a similar book, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant.
From the start, meeting Ryan and Avery, one gay teen boy and one teen trans boy, with their colorful coifs, was like meeting them in person. They have their obstacles to overcome but nothing is as sweet as their dates. Chapters are told based on the date but in a nonlinear fashion allowing readers to connect the dots about their relationship because life gets in the way. And by life, I mean bullies, unsympathetic parents, play practice, and their pasts.
Yet the comfort and joy they find in one another is stunningly realistic. The warmth they emit from how they think about one another to how they dress for a date give ME the butterflies of going on a first or second or third date.
Books move us. You’d be a cold-hearted unempathetic heathen to not feel something reading this book.
Last week was spring break. Naturally I planned a lot of reading time into each day along with other relaxing activities, plus housework and to-do list items. There are the quick reads, the fast-paced reads, the slower reads, the savory reads, the brain breaks, and the in-betweens. Based on my interest level or mood, I can tell pretty quickly what kind of book it’ll be.
I had been sent a galley copy of Ali Hazelwood’s YA due out this November called Check & Mate. This is where I confess that while I’ve seen Hazelwood’s books for adults everywhere, I haven’t read one yet, but a YA, now that was music to my high school librarian ears. And it’s punny chess title was also a bonus. Another confession- I’m not an avid chess player, I can rarely hold my own against my teenage sons, but I do play a little. I also watched The Queen’s Gambit. And I have joyously celebrated the return of raucous chess matches in our library (years ago that’s all our teens did was play chess, we had 5-6 that went out per period, then there was a die-off, but now it’s back again).
Back to the book. I picked it up off the pile and thought it would be an enjoyable stopover before the next book. What I got was an intense sprint/marathon battle for the next several hours. I literally wanted to sprint through it to know how it all ends (of course I knew how it HAD to end, but just in case). And I literally wanted to pace myself too because I didn’t want to it to end because if it ended it would be over and I couldn’t go back again.
I loved the prevalence of chess in the story– not too much, not too little. I fell in love with Mallory and her family, especially her littlest sister and the indifference when readers meet Mallory at the beginning of the story. Cue Nolan. Then came the witty banter, the sly hints about the past, the tournaments amplifying the pressure. It was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I needed. And when I found out I would have to stay up WAY past my bedtime to pick up my sons returning from a trip, I continued to sip my tea and read. I brought it in the car as I waited in the parking lot. I was thisclose to the end. The boys were back home and it was close to midnight. Do I wait until morning to finish it just so I can extend it a few more hours?
No. I must finish it.
And that I did. I fell into bed tired and book drunk. Is that a thing? It needs to be. The enemies to lovers trope won’t ever get tired in the capable hands of Hazelwood. Nor will romance ever be dead. The last thing that I want to give credit for is the topic of sex in the book, from the humorous scenes to the serious ones. It’s an age relevant topic and I want more of this in YA.
It’s not out until November, so you have plenty of time to sign up for publisher giveaways and preorder it, but put it on your list.
Readers Be Advised 