Books I Read In January

For the first time in my life, I successfully kept a list of a month’s worth of books read (not counting picture books, books I read to the children, or comfort books I was re-reading). Here's the list, in all its glory. I wish I had the time to write properly about many of these books—if anyone is curious about any of them, let me know!

At the beginning of January, I was still frantically trying to read books for the Cybils, so this lot were read (quickly, but carefully and lovingly) in about four days. They are all worthy books, well worth reading.

Bloom, Elizabeth Scott
Tamar, Mal Peet
Finch Goes Wild, Janet Gingold (here’s my review)
Cassandra’s Sister, Veronica Bennett
Total Constant Order, Crissa-Jean Chappell
Before, After, and Somebody In Between, Jeannine Garsee

Next I moved on to a few Christmas present books:

First Term at Ash Grove, Mabel Esther Allen (1988. I’m a sucker for English Girls Going to School stories)
Operation Sea Bird, Monica Edwards (first published 1957. This is one of a long series of books about 4 kids running around with boats and horses in the south of England. They are being republished by Girls Gone By Press)
Spring Comes to Nettleford, Malcolm Saville (1954. More English kids, this time camping out while trying to keep egg thieves from robbing the nest of some Peregrine Falcons)
What I Am, Meg Rosoff (2007; here’s my review)

Then came the pleasure (denied to me during my Cybils reading, but I’m not complaining—it was totally worth it) of going to libraries and getting things that caught my fancy (with the exception of Homefront (2006) , these are all 2007 books).

Homefront, Doris Gwaltney (this takes place in rural Virginia, just as WW II is getting going. Our young heroine’s life is disrupted when her English cousin and aunt come to life with them for the duration. Isn’t it an unappealing cover?).
Into the Wild, Sarah Beth Durst (what fun!)
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, Orson Scott Card (that Mr. Card sure is smart. But (getting political here) how can someone so smart admire our president so very much?)
A Crooked Kind of Perfect (an excellent read. I’m glad she got a piano in the end)
Rider and Ralynx, by Sharon Shinn (a good fantasy, but lacking in the numinous, if you know what I mean)
Second Fiddle: Or How to Tell a Blackbird from a Sausage by Siobhan Parkinson (an Irish middle grade book, with a great spunky heroine).
Repossessed, A.M. Jenkins (a Cybils shortlist title in Sci Fi, with good reason)
Someone named Eva, Joan M. Wolf (I kept getting distracted by thoughts of how I would have coped had I been Eva—would I really have forgeten my own language?)

And from its publisher, I got an ARC of
Sweethearts, Sara Zarr (see my review here; I’ll also be putting up my interview with Sara on the 11th)

And some random books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while:

Gloria, Ballerina (whose author totally escapes me and which I will try to remember to find once I go home again. This is a not bad story about a girl in 1950s NY city who wants to do ballet but is thwarted.)
Tomboys at the Abbey, by Elsie Oxenham (one of a long, early to mid 20th century, series about English girls, folk dancing, an old Abbey, and female bonding)