What's on my Nightstand: November

Here's what was on my nightstand last month, and how I did:

My Father's Paradise (Ariel Sabar): Loved it. Reviewed it.
The Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson): Loved some of it. Mini-reviewed it.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Mary Pearson): Didn't care for it much. Mini-reviewed it.
Little Brother (Cory Doctorow): Was able to renew this library copy, so managed to put it off a little longer.
Cures for Heartbreak (Margo Rabb): Liked it. Reviewed it.

Coming this week, reviews of Where Am I Wearing (Loved it) and Santa Responds (Liked it). I also read and reviewed The Plain Janes (loved it!), and The Ultimate Guide to Wilderness (had fun with it), and mini-reviewed three books: Time of My Life, Escape from Special, and Madapple (didn't love any of 'em).

Currently on my nightstand: Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki and Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz.

And on my reading list:

The Anatomy of Story (John Truby): This was recommended on a writing blog, I think it was Through the Tollbooth. It's due in 3 days, though, so I may not get to all of it.
Comfort Me with Apples (Ruth Reichl): This is for the New Classics Challenge, which I'm failing splendidly at.
My Most Excellent Year (Steve Kluger): For the Mock Printz Award workshop.
Beige (Cecil Castelluci): Author of the graphic novel The Plain Janes. This one's not a graphic novel, just a regular YA novel.
Letters to My Daughter (Maya Angelou): I tend to like the idea of Maya Angelou more than I like the actual books, but I want to give this one a try.

My kids and I read and reviewed Peak and See How They Run, a nonfiction book about politics. We also finished Rick Riordan's Sea of Monsters, which they liked very much. Next on their list is the next book in Riordan's Percy Jackson series (I think it's Sea of Titans, Ben could tell you). We're also trying to read Bat 6: A Novel, but at this point they're not enthused.

What's on Your Nightstand is a monthly carnival hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. Click on the link to participate.

What's on my Nightstand: October

Here's what I planned to read last month, let's see how I did:

Sweethearts (Sara Zarr) Loved it. Reviewed it.
Cures for Heartbreak (Margo Rabb) Still on the stack.
Attack of the Theater People (Marc Acito) Loved it. Couldn't review it due to a conflict of interest.
The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) Had to return it to the library unread, alas. I'm not doing very well on my New Classics list.
Blue Genes (Christopher Lukas) Read half of it. Set it aside for now.
My Father's Paradise (Ariel Sabar) Reading it right now. Loving it!
The Longest Trip Home (John Grogan) Read half of it. Decided not to finish it. Read another review and changed my mind.

I also read some other stuff, and I could link to the reviews here or you could just scroll down the page and there they'd be, like magic!

Currently on my nightstand: Breakfast in Bridgetown, which I reviewed but am still savoring one breakfast at a time and My Father's Paradise.

I have a huge pile of books to read. Next on my list:

The Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson) : Many people loved this. I'm sitting on a library copy that's due November 12th, so I hope to be able to finish it by then.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Mary Pearson) : On my Mock Printz Award list, and due at the library November 22.
Little Brother (Cory Doctorow) : Also on the Mock Printz Award list. I was hoping to put this one off til last because it's not my favorite genre of YA but it's also due back on the 22nd. Hopefully it will suprise me. Or enough people will return their copies by then that I'll be able to renew it after all.
And, again, Margo Raab's Cures for Heartbreak, which I really hope to get to this month.

Here's how my kids and I did:

Maze of Bones (Rick Riordan) Finished it. Haven't reviewed it yet. My kids liked it a lot, I thought it was just OK.
Peak (Roland Smith) We're about halfway through.
Night of the Howling Dogs (Graham Salisbury) Haven't gotten to it yet, and it's no longer next on our list because we must read...
Sea of Monsters (Rick Riordan): We went to see Rick give a reading and it motivated my kids to want to get back to this one, which we paused in the middle of this summer when it wouldn't renew. So we'll read it first, as soon as we finish Peak, which is good but slow going, as you might expect when reading a YA novel to an 8 year old.

What's on Your Nightstand is a monthly carnival hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. Click on the link to participate.

What's on my Nightstand

The only book that's literally on my nightstand right now is a book of Ron Carlson's short stories, At the Jim Bridger. But, here are the books, currently spread throughout my house, which I'm planning to read over the next month:

Sweethearts (Sara Zarr) I loved Zarr's About a Girl, so really looking forward to this one.
Cures for Heartbreak (Margo Rabb) I stumbled acorss Margo's blog and have been enjoying it so much I had to check out her book.
Attack of the Theater People (Marc Acito) I'm taking a class with Marc, which was a good reminder that I wanted to read his latest.
The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) From my New Classics Challenge
Blue Genes (Christopher Lukas)
My Father's Paradise (Ariel Sabar) An Advance Reader Copy I received from Algonquin Books.
The Longest Trip Home (John Grogan) Another A.R.C., received from Harper Collins, due to be published October 21.

I'll also read some of the books listed on my post below. I don't have any of those yet, but I expect they'll start appearing this week.

And here are the books I'm planning to read with my kids:

Maze of Bones (Rick Riordan) We're in the middle of this one right now. My husband took the boys to see the author (who also wrote the Percy Jackson series--The Lightening Thief, and so on) talk about this book, which is the first in a new series.
Peak (Roland Smith) A finalist for the Oregon Book Award (Young Adult category)
Night of the Howling Dogs (Graham Salisbury) Another finalist for the Oregon Book Award (young adult).

What's on Your Nightstand is a monthly carnival hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. Click on the link to participate.