STARTED & FINISHED: 
Krosoczka, Jarrett J. (2018). Hey, Kiddo. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2017). Solo. New York: Blink/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
van Gulden, Holly, and Bartles-Rabb, Lisa M. (1993). Real Parents, Real Children: Parenting the Adopted Child. New York: Crossroad.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Mosier, Paul. (2017). Train I Ride. New York: HarperCollins.

[After her grandmother dies and she is without guardianship in Palm Springs, 12 year old Rydr is put on a train from LA to Chicago, where she will eventually live with a great uncle that she doesn’t know.  Along the way, there is an assorted lot of others on the train with whom Rydr interacts to pass the time including Neal, a gay man who works the snack counter and gives Rydr food (she runs out of money early on), a bunch of boy scouts (one of whom introduces her to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and her heart to first love), and Dorothea, the Amtrak employee charged with watching over Rydr on her trip.  Mosier crafts for Rydr a personal journey where she not only learns, from befriending bunch of caring strangers, to forgive those who let her down in her past, but also to forgive and accept herself in order to move forward.  The compressed time frame of the slim novel suits the subject well, giving Rydr’s transformation more immediacy and power, as she goes from initially being coy and telling lies, to building relationships and opening up to the truth, a truth that we become privy to as the novel travels along.  Powerful, moving, and perfect for fans of Holly Goldberg Sloan, Lisa Graff, and the like.]

STARTED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Rereading one of "my" Newbery Honor books before I read the sequel (due in October) that Penguin graciously sent me an ARC of.]

*

FINISHED:
Messner, Kate. (2016). The Seventh Wish. New York: Bloomsbury.

[.]

STARTED:
Tyler, Anne. (2016). Vinegar Girl. New York: Hogarth/Penguin/Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Aston, Martin. (2013). Facing the Other Way: the Story of 4AD.  London: The Friday Project/HarperCollins UK.

[Over 600 pages of year-by-year stories about the history of the greatest record label - and I loved every minute of it.  I'm calling this "4AD February" and making it a point to listen to as much 4AD music as possible (I've got over 240 4AD albums in iTunes).]

STARTED:
Gulik, Robert Hans van. (1965).  The monkey and the tiger (Judge Dee Mysteries). Chicago: University of Chicago Press/Macmillan.

[Patron recommended.]

*

FINISHED:
Tartt, Donna. (2013). The goldfinch. New York: Little, Brown.
[This one was a BEAST that took me WAY TOO LONG to get through - amazing, because I tore through her last book, The Little Friend, in just a few days.  "Long, plodding, uneventful" best describes her current novel.  Don't get me wrong, I think that she's an AMAZING writer, but this one just went on and on without much of a point.  A character study with too much minutia.  I'm finding it somewhat hard to believe that people are falling over it THAT MUCH.]


STARTED:
Ursu, Anne. (2013). The real boy. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]


*

FINISHED:
Rowling, J.K. (2012). The casual vacancy. New York: Little, Brown.


[.]


STARTED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2012). Diary of a wimpy kid: the third wheel. New York: Amulet.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Reeve, Philip. (2011). Web of air. New York: Scholastic.




[.]



Nolan, Han. (2010). Crazy. Boston: Harcourt.

[.]


STARTED:
Cline, Ernest. (2011). Ready Player One. New York: Crown.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Mason, Simon. (2011). Moon pie. New York: David Fickling/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Whitehouse, David. (2011). Bed: a novel. New York: Scribner.

[Saw a "pre-pub alert" about this one and was FASCINATED by the premise...]

*

FINISHED:
Gantos, Jack. (1998). Joey Pigza swallowed the key. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2011). Beyonders: A world without heroes. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Silverman, Sarah. (2010). The bedwetter: Stories of courage, redemption, and pee. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Cottrell Boyce, Frank. (2010). Cosmic. New York: Walden Pond.

[So many starred reviews!]

*

FINISHED:

Lethem, Jonathan. (2009). Chronic city. New York: Doubleday.

[.]

STARTED:
Look, Lenore. (2009). Alvin Ho: allergic to camping, hiking, and other natural disasters. New York: Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

Huxley, Aldous. (1932). Brave new world/Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins.

[Um, this is SO not the book I remember reading in high school English class. Come to think about it, maybe I only read the chapters that I had to do a presentation on. Lots of stuff to think about... Read a bunch of Revisited, but ultimately gave up. I honestly had thought that it was a novel as well - while it is certainly an interesting and thought provoking essay, I just needed to start reading some light fiction again..]

STARTED:
Wilson, N.D. (2007). 100 cupboards. New York: Random House.

[Have heard great things about this one - need to read the sequel, Dandelion Fire, for ACL distinguished list, so I figured it would be a good time to read it.]

*

FINISHED:

Barnes, John. (2009). Tales of the Madman underground. New York: Viking.

[Have yet to write my ACL review. Can't believe it took me SO LONG to finish...]

STARTED:
MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Have been wanting to read this short story (here, with Maurice Sendak's stunning illustrations) because Tori Amos is writing a musical based on it.]

*

FINISHED:

Konigsburg, E.L. (1970). (George). New York: Atheneum.

[.]

STARTED:
Wild, Kate. (2007). Fight game. New York: Chicken House.

[Reading for ACL review.]

*