The Top 10 Books I read in 2012

The year is coming to a close and I am thisclose to finishing my goal of 100 books (I have 1/4 of a book left and one day to finish it).   A number of the books I read this year were pretty hefty, meaning over 1000 pages!  Most of those were from George R. R. Martin and his Game of Thrones series.  In total, I read 100 books for about 41,000 pages.  Of those 100 books here are my ten favorite ones:

10.  Legend by Marie Lu

9.  The Mark of Athena (book 3 in The Hero's of Olympus series) by Rick Riordan

8.  The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima

7.  The Invaders (book 2 in The Brotherband Chronicles) by John Flanagan

6.  Insurgent (book 2 in the Divergent series) by Veronica Roth

5.  Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix

4.  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

3.  The Shadow series by Orson Scott Card

2.  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

and finally...

1. My Antonia by Willa Cather

Honorable Mention goes to: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ( I am about 75% done with this and have loved it.  I didn't want to include it on the list though if it bombs at the end.  I have been burned before on endings.)

I loved each of these books for different reasons.  I believe that each person has a very specific taste in literature so I know that my type of book may not be another person's preference.  However, each of these authors are excellent writers.  I adore how they are able to bring their characters to life.  How they are able to describe something so well that I can actually envision it in my head.  I encourage you to check these books out on Goodreads or Amazon and see if they might be something that you would be interested in.  I would write a description about each one but I don't feel that I would do the books justice.  Because I read so much I do know how terrible am I at writing.  I wouldn't want my deficiency to keep someone from trying out any of these books!

My reading goal in 2013 is going to be much smaller.  I have made some ambitious running goals for the year and I know that I will have to give some things up to accomplish those goals.  So, instead of attempting to 2-3 books a week I am cutting it down to one.  My 2013 reading goal is to read 52 books.  Hopefully I will be able to read more but we will just have to see how the year plays out.  Happy Reading my friends!

Emma W. Strikes Again!

On Friday I received a text from Emma's teacher that said, "Emma W. strikes again!  I'll call you later with the details:)".  I have to admit that after I read that I was half curious to know what Emma had done in class and the other half of me wasn't sure that I really wanted to know.  With Emma, honestly, it could be anything.  I figured that since her teacher had added a smiley face at the end of the text it meant that the story wasn't going to be a bad one.  She at least wasn't in trouble so that was a small relief.  I was finally able to hear the story of Emma W. tonight and it is a doozy.

Here is some background information about Emma's classroom.  Emma's teacher has set up a small box in the classroom where a "Book Fairy" comes and delivers books and other materials for lessons that she has planned.   The kids in the class have no idea who the Book Fairy is or how she decides to pick the books and projects that they work on. 

Here is a little background information about Emma.  She recently has really taken an interest in chapter books.  She can't really read them yet but she sure tries.  She has been bringing different books from home in her bag to school.  She likes to read them on the bus.  Lately she has been rather interested in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  She has brought the book to and from school for a number of days.  She has often told her teacher how she has read the whole book herself! She likes to try and "read" the other chapter books that her teacher has out too.  So, now you know the background information to the latest Emma W.  story.

On Friday, Emma's teacher goes to open the book box with the class to see what the Book Fairy has left for them to work on that day.  She was really struggling to pull the items out of the box because something had been put in the box that wasn't supposed to be in there.  As it turns out..it was Emma's Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.  Well, you can imagine the teachers surprise as she pulls out the book.  All the kids start getting excited and asking if they are going to be reading that today.  Of course they are not.  It was not part of her lesson plan.  Out of the crowd of talking 5 year olds Emma W. says, "Hey that's my book!  How did that get in there?"  Now, Emma says this in complete amazement.  Never once through this whole story will she break character.  Emma tells the class that the Book Fairy must have come to her house in the night, grabbed her book and then put it in the book box.  You should know that according to Emma's teacher all the kids bought this story.  When the teacher tried to tell the kids that maybe it was not from the Book Fairy the kids all told her how would she know?  She doesn't know who the Book Fairy is either!  As everyone is trying to figure out who the Book Fairy is and how the book got in the book box Emma then yells, "I've got it!  My mother, Heather W. is the Book Fairy!  She took the book from our house and brought it to school." Again, all the kids in the class believe that this might be true!  I, Heather W. , could very well be the Book Fairy.  Emma's teacher tries to play it off a bit saying that maybe it really was me.  I mean, Heather W. really does love books but we will never know for sure.

Emma was given the book back and told to go ahead and put it back in her locker since it was her book and not the classes.  I am pretty sure that the book is still sitting in the bottom of her locker with a bunch of other random things she has carted off to school.  I am still pretty amazed by this story an hour after it has been told to me.  The amount of acting and never giving herself up just kills me.  Does Emma really believe in the Book Fairy?  Does she know that it is her teacher and was just trying to catch her?  Did she just love the book so much that she thought she should just sneak it in and hope that everyone would just think that it was the book fairy and not her?  Why in the pete sake did she call me Heather W. instead of just mom?  So many questions that I will never know the answers.

There you have it, Emma W. strikes again!