Giving Thanks, book-wise

Today I am thankful that I will have a chance to sit in front of the fire and read. And I am thankful that, if yesterday was anything to go by, my boys will be joining me. Because yesterday, and I am so thankful for this, my seven year old truly became A Reader. He started the first Harry Potter in the morning, and by bedtime he had only three chapters to go. Yep, he read over two hundred pages in one day, and resented having to stop...."I feel that I really am Harry," he said to me. Precious child. My ten-year old, whose reading has always fretted me somewhat, devoured The Wyverns' Treasure, by R.L. LaFevers, in less than an hour, read two chapters of the first book of the Edge Chronicles, and blogged about a non-fiction book he loved at his own site, Pickled Bananas (his fiftieth post!). Just for the sake of completeness- my husband, whose reading doesn't worry me, read Un Lun Dun.

Today I am also thankful that authors are writing excellent books, publishers are publishing, that I have a public library system that gives me access to all the books in over thirty public libraries, for free, and a job that's secure enough so that I can buy books the library doesn't have. And I am very thankful indeed to the authors and publishers who think enough of my blog that they send me books to review, and to the publisher who have supported the Cybils by sending review copies.

Here are some authors I'd like to give especially thanks to from my reading in the last year (I'm eschewing any mg sff thanks, because of being a Cybils Panelist--it would feel odd to start talking about my favorites, since these are my shortlisted books...)

Thank you, Hilary McKay, for writing Wishing for Tomorrow. You gave me a sequel to a book I love, A Little Princess, that manages to be its own wonderful thing.

Thank you, Megan Whalen Turner, for A Conspiracy of Kings. I am so happy your books are in the world!

Thank you, Leah Cypess, for Mistwood--not only did I enjoy it very much, but it makes me happy to anticipate more books from you!

Thank you, Sarah Rees Brennan, for The Demon's Covenant, especially with regard to the hotness of Alan...

Finally, thank you, all of you who read my blog, and thank you, all you writers of the blogs I read!

(and I guess I am thankful that even though the stove's oven doesn't work, we can still cram a small chicken into the convection oven. And I guess I am thankful that two of the sixteen windows in the upstairs sun room are back in place, newly painted and glazed, and I suppose it could have been worse, and each window could have taken 48 hours of work instead of 24 (not including the days of letting the paint stripper work and the week you have to let the glazing dry) and it hasn't really been that cold yet....and I guess I am thankful that our two chickens are still alive, but it would be nice if they started laying eggs again (it was a difficult Molt for them)...and I guess I can be thankful that one of my co-workers is going into the office today, so I will be able to call him to see if I left my purse there (with my own set of work keys attached to it), because I think I was so busy bringing a large box of books home that it didn't occur to me I was leaving my purse behind. At least, I hope that's what happened. Sigh.)

edited to add: my purse and I are now together again, for which I am, indeed, thankful.