First things first! The Cybils nominations open at MIDINIGHT, pacific time. (Which is about 2 a.m. here. Is it bad that I’m hoping for a bout of insomnia?) Anyone is welcome to nominate their favorite book in our categories…. in fact the more nominations, the better! (I’m not a Round 1 judge this year, so I can say that.) You have your list ready?? I do! (And back-ups for my back-ups, in case my favorite books are already nominated.) Not sure what to nominate? Check out the category descriptions. I’m sure you’ve read one book that was published this past year that you’d like to nominate.

As for my reading this month, my favorite, hands down (which is eligible for nomination, by the way), no questions:

The Whispering Skull

SO good. Soooo good.

And the rest (all the kids stuff is eligible to nominate. I’m being nice and sharing.)….

Middle Grade:

The Night Gardner

Rhyme Schemer

YA:

Afterworlds

Belzhar

Chasing Before

Graphic Novel

Amulet: Escape with Lucien

Mr. Pants: It’s Go Time!

Shadow Hero

This One Summer

Non-Fiction

The Boys in the Boat (audiobook)

Gulp

What did you like this month?

The end of yet another month and I didn’t read nearly as much as I wanted to. I did read some really good books this month, though. It was hard to choose. In the end, this was my favorite:

Just Call My Name

It was wonderful. Period.

As for the rest…

Middle Grade:

The Fourteenth Goldfish

Life of Zarf

The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher

YA:

Demon Derby

Isla and the Happily Ever After

Ruin and Rising

Adult:

Landline

The Vacationers

Nonfiction:

Parenting Teens With Love and Logic

What were your favorites this month?

I don’t know about you, but the end of July pretty much marks the end of the summer here in Kansas. The girls go back to school on August 12th, and while I’ve got my John Green book club through the end of the month (the 3-5th grade one died, unfortunately), my responsibilities at work are kind of pulling back. Though I’ve got a project in the works that hopefully will be Fun and a lot of people will want to participate. More later.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time watching movies — both Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings with A; Say Anything with C; Howl’s Moving Castle with K; Godzilla with Hubby — and a lot of time at the pool, so I didn’t get much reading done. I am thinking, though, that I’m due for a good dose of non-fiction. Maybe as the weather starts cooling off..

I didn’t really have a strong favorite this month, but I did thoroughly enjoy this one:

The Glass Sentence

 it really was a wonderful world and a gripping story (once it got going; it really is slow to start).

As for the rest:

Middle Grade

A Horse Called Hero

Loot: How to Steal a Fortune

Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time Capsule Bandit (audio)

The House of Pooh (audio)

Adult:

The Lost

YA:

The Bitter Kingdom

Keeping the Castle (audio)

The Summer Prince

I read two John Green books, but I didn’t feel a need to re-review them.

Graphic Novel:

Cleopatra in Space

Non-Fiction:

The End of Your Life Book Club

What were your favorites this month?

I really did mean to get this up this morning, but things just didn’t work out that way. Instead, I’m in a hotel in Billings, Montana (where the population of cows outweigh that of people), trying to get it up before bed. I reread a few this month and didn’t write reviews of a couple of them; I felt like I didn’t have anything new to say.

My favorite this month was, because it was just so much fun:

The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw

As for the rest:

MG:

My Basmati Bat Mitzvah

The Screaming Staircase

YA:

The City of Heavenly Fire

Conversion

Everything Leads to You

Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleader

The Geography of You and Me

Girl in Reverse

Graceling (reread)

I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister

The Riverman

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (reread)

The Fault in Our Stars (reread)

Graphic Novels:

A Game for Swallows

Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite

Wil &Whit

Adult:

The Chocolate Thief

The Cuckoo’s Calling (audio)

What did you enjoy reading this month?

School is out, summer is pretty much here; I just spent yesterday mowing the lawn and planting the garden, and didn’t get a speck of reading done. Thankfully, next weekend is the 48 Hour Book Challenge, and I’ve been putting together my pile of diverse books to read. I’m also looking forward to a summer of rereading John Green’s books so I can lead our summer book group for teens (and others). (I’m also being dragged — not unwillingly — to The Fault in Our Stars next weekend.) And the YAckers have decided to make a summer project of reading the Graceling series. It’s been too long since I’ve visited those books.

As for this past month, my favorite was:

The Great Greene Heist

I’m not just saying that because we’re in the middle of the #GreatGreeneChallenge at work. I honestly thought the book was a lot of fun.

Middle Grade:

Mouseheart

The Secret Hum of a Daisy

Non-fiction:

Lifesaving Lessons

The World’s Strongest Librarian

Graphic Novels:

Explorer: The Lost Islands

Fairy Tale Comics

Primates

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl

The Lost Boy

Hilda and the Bird Parade

Adult:

So Long a Letter

YA:

All these Things I’ve Done

Dorothy Must Die

Half Bad

The Inventor’s Secret

The Road Home

What were your favorite reads this month?

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

As for the rest:
Adult:

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

YA:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Fangirl

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Slated

We Were Liars

Reality Boy

MG:

The Shadowhand Covenant

A Snicker of Magic

Under the Egg

Wanderville

Non-fiction:

Dad is Fat

Killing Jesus

What were some of your favorites this month?

Another month, come and gone (where do they go??). The big news here is that M came back from India. Her first request when getting off the plane? A hamburger.

It’s interesting what you miss when you’re out of the country.

My favorite read this month was a tie. I honestly can’t choose between my adoration for

The Winner’s Curse

and my love for

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing

both are fantastic. And so I choose not to choose.

As for the rest:

Graphic Novel

March (Book One)

YA:

The Killer’s Cousin (audio)

Landry Park

Middle Grade:

Lord and Lady Bunny — Almost Royalty

Mark of the Dragonfly

Sky Raiders

Will in Scarlet

Non-fiction:

Zealot

What was your favorite read this month?

I think I figured out why I was in a reading slump. Look at my adult titles? So far, this year, I’ve read 9 of them. Which is a quarter of the total I read for the entire year last year. And the year’s not even a quarter done. And I’ve only read 12 middle grade and YA books COMBINED. Now I know: adult books make me grumpy. I’ve been reading MG and YA books for the past week and I’ve been SO much happier.

That said, my favorite last month was:

The Crane Wife

I know it’s an adult book, but it’s Patrick Ness, and I forgive him for that. It really is a charming book.

As for the rest:

Middle Grade:

The Year of Billy Miller

The Westing Game

What the Heart Knows

Jinx’s Magic

Adult:

The Art Forger (audio book)

Cloud Atlas (DNF)

One More Thing (audio book)

Non-fiction:

From Scratch

YA:

Cress

Grasshopper Jungle

The Tyrant’s Daughter

What did you enjoy reading this month?

Happy January! (ugh) I have found myself in the middle of a reading slump. I’m still reading, but in many ways, it feels like I’m doing it because I have to, not because I want to. I’ve always found that it’s better for me to push through these slumps (too many books to read to completely give up!), but that means everything I’ve read is all kind of… meh.

Except for this one, though it was an audiobook, so I don’t know if it counts:

One Summer: America, 1927

As for the rest:

YA:

Allegiant (DNF)

Dangerous

The Impossible Knife of Memory

Graphic novels:

Bluffton

Middle Grade:

Fablehaven

The Last Present

Better Nate than Ever

Adult:

S.

The Importance of Being Ernest

That one was my favorite review this month, though.

The Rosie Project

What was your favorite this month?

Another year gone, another Cybils season ended. My panel is got together (virtually, of course) to decide/finalize our shortlists yesterday.I’m excited; I love this part of the process and we have a great shortlist! Though I think I’m going to take a bit of a break from middle grade fantasy. I have both S. and The Rosie Project on tap right now.

My favorite this month was one of the middle grade ones, but since that’d give away some of our shortlist, I’m going to pick my other favorite:

Just One Year

I’m a sucker for a romance that takes me all over the world.

As for the rest:

Middle Grade:

Beholding Bee

The Garden Princess

How to Catch a Bogle

How I Became a Ghost

The Screaming Staircase

The Lost Heir

Magic Marks the Spot

Parched

The Real Boy

Rose

Sidekicked

Sky Jumpers

What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World

The True Blue Scouts of Sugarman Swamp

The Vengekeep Prophecies

The Wells Bequest

The Year of Shadows

YA:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Adult:

Absolution by Murder

Longbourn (audio)

Stay tuned for my best of the year post tomorrow and then the Cybils shortlists on Wednesday. And then 2014! Wow. The question is: how long will it take me to remember to write ’14 as the date?