A Hole in Our World

Earlier this week, when I found out about the death of
book blogger extraordinaire Dewey of The Hidden Side of the Leaf, I sat at the desk in my office and cried. Dewey's absence is being - and will continue to be - felt throughout the book blogging community. I really don't have the words to express my condolences to her husband and son, nor can I adequately explain the impact Dewey had on me. I didn't know her "in real life," but I certainly considered her a friend.

I miss you, Dewey!
(Button courtesy of Bethany.)

• One of my first interactions with Dewey was an interview she did of me about a novel I'd recently reviewed. (Click for Dewey's post.)


• Seventy-two hours of the most fun I've had in the past two years were spent participating in the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon Dewey hosted three times. (I'm so pleased that some of the co-hosting helpers plan to continue this tradition as a legacy to Dewey.)


• It was through Dewey I first discovered the powerful young adult novel Thirteen Reasons Why, and Dewey is the one who sent my daughters and me the graphic novel The Plain Janes (and she helped build my appreciation for the genre).


• I've sporadically participated in others of Dewey's many book blogging projects too, including Weekly Geeks and the Bookworm Carnival. I've always enjoyed the community building she promoted! (And, again, I'm happy to know that others will be continuing these projects.)

Weekly Geeks No. 23

This week’s theme: Fun Facts About Authors.

Since I'm currently reading The Truth About Forever, I have decided to choose Sarah Dessen as the writer about whom I'll post.

(Collage from a post on Dessen's "latest news" blog.)

• Born June 6, 1970.


• Lives in North Carolina.


• Graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, with a degree in English.


• Mother of Sasha Clementine, who was born September 2, 2007.


• Her ninth YA novel to be released June 2009.


• Enjoys shopping at The Gap.


• Fan of UNC basketball.


• Voted for Barack Obama in the recent election.


• Official site.

Other Weekly Geeks' author fun facts:

• Alexander McCall Smith (juliann)


• Christopher Moore (ali)


• Dean Koontz (naida)


• Astrid Lindgren (lou)

Weekly Geeks No. 19

This week’s theme: Top books of 2008.

It appears that so far this year I've read nine books published in 2008. My three favorites (with links to my reviews) are as follows:

• Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult


• The Host by Stephenie Meyer


• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Weekly Geeks No. 18

This week’s theme: Catch up on ... something.

Boy, this theme is pertinent! I am behind on my reviews, behind on updating the challenges in my sidebar, not to mention behind on my reading!

I need to get my Fall into Reading list ready for Monday. I've never made a list for the Book Awards Challenge II. And I've not written my "I've Completed the 'In the Pub' Challenge" post.

I'd like to put my "Bookish Blogs I Like to Visit" list into the new Blogger blog list gadget. I need to update my list of sci-fi things for the 42 Challenge. And I'd like to update my "read" list in goodreads to make sure that everything I've read this year is listed and linked to my reviews.

Given that we've only got a little over one-quarter of the year to go, I also need to make a good plan for what challenges I'm actually going to complete and what I should likely abandon now.

Where has the year gone?! Where do I start?


Just thinking out loud here:

The books I've read but still need to review are the following:

• Anatomy of a Boyfriend


• Violet on the Runway


• Eat, Pray, Love

My status in the A~Z Reading Challenge: Of the 52 required reads, I've completed 34 - 15 of the authors and 19 of the titles. That's about 5 books off the necessary pace to complete the challenge by December 31 - and I'm getting down to some of the harder letters.

The authors I have left are F, I, J, N, O, Q, R, U, V, X, and Z. I'm thinking Fforde for F, Jenoff for J, Quindlen for Q, Rehak for R, Unger for U, Voight for V, and Zusak for Z. Does anyone have any suggestions for I, N, O, or X?

The titles I have left are I, M, Q, U, X, Y, and Z. I'm thinking In Her Shoes or Interworld for I, The Mercy Rule or Mermaids in the Basement for M, Zombie Blondes or The Zookeeper's Wife for Z. Does anyone have any suggestions for Q, U, X, or Y?

I wonder if I can complete the eighteen I need for this challenge for Fall into Reading as well.

Weekly Geeks No. 4

This week’s theme: Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.

The organization that I work for has been lobbying over the past few years - unsuccessfully - for some legislation in our state protecting young people from dating violence. Until we can convince our illustrious leaders that this is, indeed, an important issue for the safety and well-being of our young people, we will just continue with our education efforts, including promotion of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week.

These are my book picks on this important issue - three young adult novels, one of which I've already read (and loved!), an autobiographical account of an abusive relationship, and a non-fiction guide for parents.

Speak

Just Listen

Inexcusable

Not Another Sarah: Avoiding and Escaping Abuse

Saving Beauty From the Beast:
How to Protect Your Daughter From an Unhealthy Relationship


By the way, I've heard Sarah Southerland speak about her experience as an abused wife - a situation that should have been recognized before her marriage - and she has created the NAS Foundation "to provide and promote Action Campaigns to improve Public Awareness of Healthy Relationships and Prevention of Abuse and Sexual Assault."

Weekly Geeks No. 1

Hosted by Dewey of The Hidden Side of the Leaf.

Task for Week One: Discover New Blogs.

Visiting participants' blogs I've never visiting before:

• Ann Darton at Table Talk
  (Ann's got a very pretty blog, made on a Mac.)


• janiejane at So many book reviews...
  (janiejane loved Life As We Knew It and is hoping to participate in Becky's online book discussion in May. I picked the book up at the library and am hoping to participate too.)


• Ravenous Reader at Bookstack
  (it appears that ravenous reader likes to post without using capital letters, just like i sometimes do!)


• Ashleigh at Random Field Notes
  (Ashleigh, who is currently living in the UK, has a "definition" of herself in the sidebar that I loved and a fun post about Peeps. She does also blog about books.)


• The Literate Kitten
  (The subtitle of LK's blog is "A splendiforous smorgasbordial smattering of ideas to promote literature, literacy and all things literary." How can you not love that?!)


• Mrs S at 50 Book Challenge
  (Mrs S seems to be a busy book blogger with lots of things going on. She's also a fan of Jodi Picoult, like me.)


• Katherine at A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore
  (Katherine has an interesting quote in her sidebar from Steve Jobs about the new Amazon Kindle product: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore.” Well, we're showing him he's wrong, aren't we?!)


• Kristi at Passion for the Page
  (Kristi's blog has a red roses theme - my favorite flower! I'd actually visited Kristi once before - via a link in the Spring Reading Thing - but it'll be fun to make Kristi one of my regular reads.)

Well, that's eight new book blogs for me to visit, find recommendations from, and compare notes with. Woohoo!

Weekly Geeks

I was just over at SomeReads and discovered that the creative, talented Dewey is at it again: Weekly Geeks is her latest idea, and I just have to participate! You should go check it out too (if you haven't signed up already)!