What a list like this means

I held off on posting my 2007 Reading List, thinking I'd squeeze in one more book before Tuesday, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. (Too much cooking and eating and game-playing planned for New Year's Eve.) But as I read back over this list, I'm profoundly grateful. Having a list like this means:

• I know how to read. (Thank you, Mom and Dad.)
• I have access to books. (Thank you, public libraries, indie bookstores, and the Internet.)
• I'm free to read what I want. (Thank you, intellectual freedom, and all who defend it.)
• There are so many books worth reading. (Thank you, children and YA book authors everywhere. You are truly my heroes and heroines. You write the finest books on the planet, you love what you do, and you inspire me.)

In no particular order, what I read in 2007:

Children's and YA

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Jack Gantos)

Joey Pigza Loses Control (Jack Gantos)

The Twenty-One Balloons (William Pene du Bois)

Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange (Elizabeth Partridge)

Leepike Ridge (N.D. Wilson)

White Time (Margo Lanagan)

The True Meaning of Smekday (Adam Rex)

The Arrival (Shaun Tan)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (Sherman Alexie)

How to Steal a Dog (Barbara O'Connor)

Robot Dreams (Sara Varon)

Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets (Paul B. Janeczko)

Evil Genius (Catherine Jinks)

Story of a Girl (Sara Zarr)

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County (Janice Harrington)

Punk Farm (Jarrett J. Krosoczka)

Oliver Finds His Way (Phyllis Root)

What Baby Wants (Phyllis Root)

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (Adam Rex)

Flotsam (David Wiesner)

Cassie Was Here (Caroline Hickey)

Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature (Robin Brande)

The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (Laini Taylor)

D.A. (Connie Willis)

Hattie Big Sky (Kirby Larson)

The Talented Clementine (Sara Pennypacker)

Rules (Cynthia Lord)

The White Darkness (Geraldine McCaughrean)

Flora Segunda (Ysabeau Wilce)

The Plain Janes (Cecil Castellucci)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)

Framed (Frank Cottrell Boyce)

Going for the Record (Julie Swanson)

An Abundance of Katherines (John Green)

Looking For Alaska (John Green)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)

Notes From a Liar and Her Dog (Gennifer Choldenko)

American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)

Spanking Shakespeare (Jake Wizner)

Frindle *re-read (Andrew Clements)



Adult Reads (Mostly Non-fiction)

Take Joy: The Writers Guide to Loving the Craft (Jane Yolen)

99 Ways to Tell a Story (Matt Madden)

Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up (Patricia Ryan Madson)

Naked reading: uncovering what tweens need to become lifelong readers (Teri Lesesne)

Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)


In addition to

A daily newspaper (sometimes two)

Magazines: Real Simple, Cooking Light, InStyle (no, I'm not embarrassed...I like reading about shoes I'll never own) and Golf for Women

The Horn Book

Professional bulletins for SCBWI and The Authors Guild

Poetry (mostly online or from anthologies I own) Here's one by Mary Oliver, which Endicott Redux reminded me of, just today.

My own manuscripts, more times than I really wanted to

Many, many, many lovely blogs, of such a number that I'm currently refusing to admit it to myself. Thank you all for my daily doses of beauty, wit, wisdom and fun.

The only thing I regret is that my 2007 list seems far too short. In fact, it is much shorter than many of those compiled by you super-hero-powered readers, who I think, must have two extra sets of retractable eyes or simply, more dedication and fierce word hunger than I do. But in my defense, I also launched my first novel, and wrote my second, which must count for something. :)

Hey! Isn't 2008 a leap year? That'll give me one more day to read!

Why Everyone Needs Writers

This makes me laugh whenever I read it.

From Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's joint press statement about the writers strike:

"We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers, we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

Okay, NOW I really am going on a blog break. I'm ambivalent about it, but I'm doing it anyway.

Poetry Friday: 96% of the Universe is Dark

After reading this article in The American Scholar, I was inspired to create an occasional poem. This is dedicated to all my readers, on the longest night, which is also the beginning of the light.


96% of the Universe is Dark

Open the door

and greet the moment
the dark begins. 

The dark, like a road
poured to your door
has brought to you the world,
to shelter from brilliance.

Open the door 

and greet the moment
the dark begins.

The world spins
by a twisting dark scarf
pulled from its shoulders.

Open the door 

and greet the moment

the dark begins.

Every hand! All hands! 

To to edge! Catch hold 

of the dark that unrolls

before your door.

Open your door.
Open your door. The moment.
The moment the dark begins.

All! Pull! Strive!
We must turn

the earth ourselves

this night.

Sink your hands into the dark
cloth, fold upon fold.
Plunge your hands in,

your little warmed air,
coddled in closed throat,
rips from you,

breath taken by the
fierce strings.

Hold to. Hold to. 

Lean back and pull.

Not every door has opened this night.
Not every hand has taken hold.

Not every breath sacrificed.

But enough.

Enough, if you pull.

Pull! Take hold of the night!

The dark cloth, the heavy bolt,
the hours and hours
you roll into your hands,

strand by strand,
you put away the longest night
like a beloved carpet,
rolled tight against wear.

Each takes a little inside,
a thin fiber of dark breath
hidden until called out,

when night has starved
itself into summer
and cries stars.

Come out and greet

with me the moment 

the dark begins

and you will have rooms

and rooms of beauty

each other day,
every other day,
every other thread

all the night and day
will be yours.

----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

I read this poem out loud at my poetry page, A Cast of One.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by AmoXcalli.