Slice of Life: #MustReadin2017

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, Melanie, and Lanny

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

I started this blog post sometime near the end of January, and then I found myself at the hospital with a new grandson on the horizon and my sticky notes with book titles scribbled on them at home.  I managed to retrieve my sticky notes, but the last time I went by the house, I hurriedly emptied my bag of things I didn't need for one more night with baby boy and his parents.  And wouldn't you know?  Those sticky notes were left at home.  It started snowing on Sunday night, so I didn't go home as planned yesterday.  So this is my best shot at finishing this post without my sticky notes.   

I'm weighing in with a list for Carrie Gelson's #MustReadin2017.  I love the way Carrie describes this list:  "A list to lure you back to a reading path you have set for yourself."   I've watched so many of my blogger friends participate.  And wondered if I really need one more "thing to do," but reading over their lists inspired me to take the plunge and join them this year.  Hopefully, I'm not too late . . . 

1.  The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill - It won the Newbery, my book club loved it, and I just finished my book for my adult book club.  So it's next on the list!

#s 2 - 5 are books from the March Book Madness Middle Grade New Classics list.  I love this list and out of sixteen titles, there are only four that I haven't read.  So these titles come right after #1 in order of priority:
2.  Booked by Kwame Alexander 
3.  El Deafo by Cece Bell
4.  A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielson
5.  Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

#s 6 - 12 are not in any particular order:

6.  Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley and Jillian Tamaki - 
When I heard Gertie compared to Ramona Quimby, I knew this book belonged on my must read list. 

7.  When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin - This is a title that I considered when I was selecting titles for our Mock Newbery 2017.  And I read and loved so many dog stories in 2016!

8.  Beautiful Blue World by Suzanne La Fleur - When I fell in love with this cover, Lori at Island Books gave me the ARC.  My daughter read it first and highly recommended it  to me.  And I just saw that the sequel, Threads of Blue (also a beautiful cover in blue), comes out September 12th.

9.  Flying Lessons & Other Stories by Ellen Oh - I rarely read short stories, so this is a good stretch for me.  I think I will enjoy sharing stories from this book at our after school book club. 

10.  The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon - Daughter Sara is currently reading this, but I picked up her copy at the hospital and read a bit.  I can't wait to get back to it.  

11.  Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes -  I heard Nikki Grimes present at Poetry Camp this past fall.  She autographed my copy of Words with Wings.  Novels-in-verse are a favorite genre.  This novel uses the Japanese poetic form of tanka, a form similar to haiku that uses syllable counts and is five lines long.

12.  The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner -  I can't believe I still haven't read this book.  The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, also by Kate Messner, is one of my all-time favorite books.  

And that's it - my dozen titles for #must read in 2017.   I look forward to the accountability piece that joining this group (if they will still let me in at this late date) will provide for me.  And now, I'm off to take advantage of some precious reading time before my new grandson, Jack, wakes up.