read, read, read, read... i gotta read 3 books per week for my current class. i have a whole bunch of choices so am balancing out the books i really want to read (typically at the older-young-adult end of the spectrum) with short ones (meant for middle schoolers), some of which i'm looking forward to, such as sold and hoot.

so far...

forever by judy blume (doesn't this book bring back memories?)
bright lights, big city by jay mcirney (this dude has a cool style of writing. me gusto.)
i know why the caged bird sings by maya angelou (surprised with the fact i liked it since i had to trudge through the first buncha chapters)
jacob have i loved by katherine paterson (cried at the end, but i cry all the time so that's not saying much)
girl with a pearl earring by tracy chevalier (wanted to read this bc. i like the painting, but the back of the book never enticed me into actually reading it. so glad i did; reinforced the fact that i like historical fiction. such a nerd.)

on deck...

snow falling on cedars by david guterson
maus by art spiegelman (really looking forward to this)
hoot by carl hiaasen (yay, burrowing owls!)
fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury (i wanted to re-read this or re-read 1984 and this one won since it's half the other's length)
wrinkle in time by ...? (only reading this because it cost .25. maybe it'll surprise me.)
esperanza rising by pam munoz ryan
house on mango street by laura cisneros
out of the dust by karen hesse
sold by patricia mccormick (read this a while back. it's about a girl sold into sexual slavery. don't remember much now except that it was extremely moving.)

anyone read any books appropriate for an 11- to 21-year-old that knocked your socks off? honestly, some of the books are just normal, adult books (snow falling on cedars is 450 pages, for chrissakes!) that somehow made it onto the booklist for the class. so mostly anything is OK as long as it's not fluff. i need a few more, particularly for the poetry/drama unit, sooooo... help would be appreciated.

i've hit a few thrift shops to get books and ideas lately, which is cool because they sell books for like .25. so now after i finish all this school reading, i have the second installment of bridget jones to read. (i have a hunch that i should feel silly admitting it, but i really enjoyed the first one v. much, so i don't even care. :)

now off to crack open snow falling on cedars!  ¶ 10:09 PM