Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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A Year of Reading and a Verse Novel Challenge Reminder

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I have a few days left to finish my 100th book of the year, XVI, by Elevensie and 2k11 classmate Julia Karr.
Here are the books I’ve read in the last twelve months:
(December 31st: read one more and discovered one title I hadn’t included earlier. Grand total = 102)

  1. The Gypsies of Spain – Jan Yoors (NF)
  2. If I Stay – Gayle Forman (YA)
  3. Catalyst – Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
  4. Fat Cat – Robin Brande (YA)
  5. Wintergirls – Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
  6. Freedom Crossing – Margaret Goff Clark (MG)
  7. The Rights of the Reader – Daniel Pennac (NF)
  8. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare (YA)
  9. Th1rteen R3asons Why – Jay Asher (YA)
  10. The Last Treasure – Janet S. Anderson (MG)
  11. Twisted – Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
  12. Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell (NF)
  13. Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell (NF)
  14. Henry and Ribsy – Beverly Cleary (MG)
  15. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Laura Ingalls Wilder (MG)
  16. Blink – Malcolm Gladwell (NF)
  17. On Writing – Stephen King (NF)
  18. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
  19. Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman – Dorothy Sterling (MG)
  20. Leaving Gee’s Bend – Irene Latham (MG)
  21. Flash Burnout – LK Madigan (YA)
  22. The Midnight Fox – Betsy Byars (MG)
  23. The Crimson Cap – Ellen Howard (YA)
  24. Riding Freedom – Pam Munoz Ryan (MG)
  25. Blessing’s Bead – Debby Dahl Edwardson (YA)
  26. Story of a Girl* – Sara Zarr (YA)
  27. Alabama Moon – Watt Key (YA)
  28. If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period* – Gennifer Choldenko (YA)
  29. The Long Winter – Laura Ingalls Wilder (MG)
  30. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
  31. Fog Magic – Julia L. Sauer (MG)
  32. Ramona the Pest – Beverly Cleary (MG)
  33. Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
  34. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple – Karen Cushman (MG)
  35. Three Rivers Rising – Jame Richards (YA)
  36. Four Perfect Pebbles – Lila Perl and Marion Lazan (MG)
  37. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (MG)
  38. The Dead-Tossed Waves* – Carrie Ryan (YA)
  39. A Wedding in December – Anita Shreve
  40. Luddie’s Life – Cynthia Rylant (YA) novel-in-verse challenge title
  41. Aleutian Sparrow – Karen Hesse (MG) novel-in-verse challenge title
  42. Love, Hope, and Ivy June – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (MG)*
  43. The All-Of-A-Kind Family – Sydney Taylor (MG)
  44. The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie
  45. Hugging the Rock – Susan Taylor Brown (MG)
  46. The Hollow – Agatha Christie
  47. The Yearling – Marjorie Rawlings (YA)
  48. The Wednesday Wars – Gary D. Schmidt (YA)*
  49. Little House in the Big Woods – Laura Ingalls Wilder (MG)**
  50. Before the Lark – Irene Bennett Brown (MG)
  51. The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (YA)
  52. The Texicans – Nina Vida
  53. The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
  54. Each Little Bird that Sings – Deborah Wiles (MG)
  55. Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Jeff Kinney (MG)**
  56. The Water Seeker – Kimberly Willis Holt (MG)
  57. Forest – Janet Taylor Lisle (MG)
  58. The Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell – Lynda Durrant (MG)
  59. Far From You – Lisa Schoreder (YA) novel-in-verse challenge title
  60. Part of Me – Kimberly Willis Holt (MG)
  61. Watership Down – Richard Adams**
  62. Cat Among the Pigeons – Agatha Christie
  63. Dumb Witness – Agatha Christie
  64. Love That Dog – Sharon Creech (MG) novel-in-verse challenge title
  65. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken (MG)
  66. Hickory Dickory Dock – Agatha Christie
  67. Zel – Donna Jo Napoli (YA)
  68. Faithful – Janet Fox (YA)
  69. The Year of Miss Agnes – Kirkpactrick Hill (MG)
  70. First Light – Rebeccs Stead (MG)
  71. A Great and Terrible Beauty – Libba Bray (YA)
  72. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins (YA)
  73. The Opposite of Love – Julie Buxbaum
  74. Hank the Cowdog #56: The Case of the Coyote Invasion – John R. Erickson (MG)**
  75. Things Left Unsaid – Stephanie Hemphill – (YA) Verse novel challenge title
  76. Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater (YA)
  77. Livvie Owen Lived Here – Sarah Dooley (MG)
  78. Dirty Little Secrets – CJ Omololu (YA)
  79. The Magician’s Nephew – CS Lewis (MG)**
  80. Phoenix Rising – Karen Hesse (MG)
  81. Prisoners in the Palace – Michaela MacColl (YA)
  82. Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds – Lyndell Gordon
  83. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Paterson (MG)
  84. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda – Tom Angleberger (MG)
  85. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis (MG)**
  86. Freak Magnet – Andrew Auseon (YA)
  87. The True Meaning of Smekday – Adam Rex (MG)
  88. Your Own, Sylvia – Stephanie Hemphill (YA) Verse novel challenge title
  89. Witness – Karen Hesse (MG) Verse novel challenge title
  90. East From Granada: Hidden Andalusia and Its People – Merrill McClane (NF)
  91. See You Down the Road – Kim Albon Whitney (YA)
  92. The Invasion – Animorphs #1 – AK Applegate (MG)
  93. The Horse and His Boy – CS Lewis (MG)**
  94. The Preacher’s Bride – Jody Hedlund
  95. We Hear the Dead – Dianne K. Salerni (YA)
  96. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth – Jeff Kinney (MG)
  97. Que Gitano! The Gypsies of Southern Spain – Bertha B. Quintana (NF)
  98. Illegal – Bettina Restrepo (YA)
  99. Carver: A Life in Poems – Marilyn Nelson (MG) verse novel challenge
  100. XVI – Julia Karr (YA)
  101. Big Nate Strikes Again – Lincoln Pierce (MG)
  102. Dangerous Neighbors – Beth Kephart (YA)
* listened on CD

** family read aloud


Here are my reading goals for next year:

I’m participating in the Story Siren’s Debut Author Challenge and hope to read well beyond the required ten titles. I’ll also be starting a recurring post called One Sentence Debut Reviews, where once or twice a month I’ll share my thoughts on books about to launch.


My very unofficial Clear-Off-Your-Shelves Challenge will continue as I try to work my way through books I’ve owned but haven’t read. Join me if you like!


My last goal I’m calling my sentimental re-reads. As my own publication date draws nearer, there are certain books I’d like to read again — The Prydain Chronicles, one of my favorite childhood series, and the Selected Journals of Lucy Maude Montgomery, volumes 1-5, to name a few.


While I’ve loved the challenge of aiming for 100 books this year, I’m also looking forward to reading without a numeric goal. If you’d like to check in on and discuss what I’m reading, I’ll keep a list in the pages section of this blog (the links under the happy stone-carved man).


And finally:

For those of you who have participated in the verse novel challenge, now’s the time to let me know what you’ve read! Those of you who have finished will be entered to win an (eventual) copy of an ARC of my verse novel, MAY B.




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Filed Under: books and reading, poetry, this and that

Comments

  1. Theresa Milstein says

    December 29, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    100 books?! WoW! I’m impressed.

    I joined the same challenge in July. At that point, I’d only read 20. I’ve read over 40 more, but didn’t make it. Maybe in 2011.

    We’ve read a bunch of the same books. I like Malcolm Gladwell too.

    Reply
  2. Solvang Sherrie says

    December 29, 2010 at 10:00 pm

    Like you, I’m glad that I made it to 100 books this year, but I’ll also be happy next year not to have that pressure. There are a number of books I want to re-read for sentimental and/or craft reasons and some that I just want to linger over certain passages. So I’m not going for a big number of new reads in 2011.

    I will clear off my shelf with you, though! That’s a good one. I read a lot of debs this year and I enjoyed all my books in verse as well.

    Happy new year!

    Reply
  3. Lenore says

    December 29, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    Congrats on finishing the challenge with flying colors. I had aimed for 200 this year, but fell short. Oh well!

    Reply
  4. Jemi Fraser says

    December 30, 2010 at 12:51 am

    Congrats on reading the 100 – that’s awesome!! 🙂 You’ve got some terrific books on that list!

    Reply
  5. Faith E. Hough says

    December 30, 2010 at 1:10 am

    I need to enter a challenge like that so I actually keep track of the books I’ve read…
    I LOVE L. M. Montgomery’s journals. She was such a beautiful person and I loved getting to know her through her journals.

    Reply
  6. Jody Hedlund says

    December 30, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    I’m super impressed with your reading list! That’s an awesome number. But I can understand the need to read without numeric pressure too. Glad my book made your list! 🙂

    Reply
  7. Kiki Hamilton says

    January 1, 2011 at 7:19 am

    OH. MY. GOSH. You read 100 books this year?????? I bow down in awe to you! My goal for this year is 50 books – which is like one a week! (in case you couldn’t do that math…ahem!) and I’m feeling daunted by that! You are an inspiration!!!

    Hope 2011 brings you every good thing, Caroline!

    Reply

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