Happy Reading for the New Year

You can follow Fabulous Lorraine and her Fiends as they enter 2009 in their many time zones!: http://lorraineamalena.blogspot.com.

Well, Happy New Year wherever you are; let's hope 2009 brings as many wonderful books as this year has.

I love many books of many genres but most of the books I read this year, and that actually came out this year, were in the Young Adult category.

My Top Nine (could not pick ten; most of the books I read this year were from previous years!) YA Books I Really Liked of 2008:

10. ... Maybe I will think of something later!

9. Huge by Sasha Paley

8. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (kind of a kids' book, but Harry lovers of all ages will like this one)

7. Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee

6. Almost Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

5. The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt

4. The Death of Jayson Porter by Jaime Addoff

3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2. The Game of My Life by Jason McElwain

1. Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

...

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. I believe in confidence and determination all year round, but not in New Year's Resolutions.

May this year make for happiness, plus happy reading, for all of you.

~Emily

Frozen

Oops, can't go to storytime this morning. The car doors are frozen shut.

~Emily

Packing Peanut Butter (and Other Things)

I did a lot of holiday community service work today -- had so much fun. We lifted boxes packed with soup cans and jars of peanut butter (the boxes of peanut better were so pretty -- with all its brightly colored lids; although the peanut butter boxes were quite astoundingly heavy) and sugar and flour and stuffing mix and corn and baked beans ...



I loved it. Tomorrow I get to play pseudo-librarian while the regular librarian at my library reads books to storytime attendees. After that is the really fun part -- my playtime with the kids.



My weeks have been extremely busy since ... maybe ... October-ish, when I started babysitting regularly. Of course, they've been a lot busier since I got out of the hospital.



Monday:



Storytime



Lunch



Research (at other local library)



Tuesday:



Babysitting



Lunch



Doctor



Then this week there's a holiday party in the evening.



Wednesday:



Doctor in afternoon



Thursday:



Freedom



Friday:



Storytime



Lunch



Storytime



Babysitting



Saturday:



Freedom



Sunday:



Freedom



Also must get a few little gifts for friends and family. The holidays draw near (Hanukkuh begins tonight!).

Oh, and here's a picture of Nina. I just wish I could get a bit closer on her face. She was with me all the time in the hospital.




~Emily

Making the Blog Sparkle a Bit

I went to a local Christmas concert last night -- I'm sure you'll soon be able to read about it at http://emilyssweetpeach.blogspot.com/ (the author is a different Emily). It was really wonderful; I might post pictures ...

Tomorrow is supposed to bring a foot of snow. I find myself looking forward to this, even if it means I won't be able to babysit.

Plus I love Fridays.

I feel really guilty about the blog lately. I can't really think of anything to blog about but do want to keep up with the blog. The truth is that I am really not very good at blogging (except perhaps about books!). It's time I started brightening up the blog with photographs. I don't have a digital camera, but I can download photographs with computer discs. (I sound straight out of the seventies, don't I?) Here's one to start. This was taken back in August by a friend who actually did use a digital camera.

See? Straight out of the seventies, and trying to win a staring contest with a plant.

~Emily

Rather a Miserable Kind of Day

You know you're lucky to have the brother you do when you step in front of him in the hallway and say, "Thanks for your cold," and his very sincere reply is, "Oh, I'm sorry!"

I was rereading Padma Venkatraman's Climbing the Stairs this morning. It is really such a wonderful book -- heart-breaking, infuriating, hilarious, and important.

It is a very miserable day but William and I will play Mancala together. He's played about five games and is already an expert. We'll probably read Coraline too. He loves it so far.

I hope the weather is sunnier or snowier for you than it is here (very gray and damp, with the wind howling like a wolf).

~Emily

The Peachy Little Things

This picture shows some of the best parts of my hospital stay. There's the spry batch of red-and-yellow carnations my mother and brothers brought to me. If you look very closely you might see the Harry Potter book peeking from the lower right-hand corner. On the left shelf sits the package of The Vicar of Dibley DVD's and, on the top shelf, the Oragami penguin my brother Ben folded for me.

It wasn't all bad.

Well, yes it was. But the flowers and penguin were great.

~Emily

Snow and Tea!

It's funny how the house smells different, first thing in the morning, when snow has fallen overnight. Is it because the natural scents we take for granted are muted somewhat? I don't know ... but I love the first snow of the season, and it happened last night. It's still coming down outside.

I have a hot cup of apple-chamomile tea sitting before me. I feel good.

~Emily