43 and counting...

that's 43 books read so far this year. If I can keep on track maybe I can crack 100?! nah, doubt it. But I've been in a big reading mood lately. They've been so dark, though! Ugh. I have the not-so-startling realization that much YA fiction is abysmally depressing. Issues and crises and such angst. I really need a light read to cleanse the palate. And I've just started Orange Houses and with it's allusions to a "hanging" in a matter of days I don't think this is going to do it for me. Sadly.

Okey-dokey, I have read quite a few since last post. I think my favorites have been: Hate List, Sunshine, Pretty Dead, Shiver, Wish You Were Dead, and Once. Even from those titles, you can see there's very little uplifting here! But they were all page-turningly good! I also finished the first two books in the Skinjacker trilogy (Everlost and Everwild) and think it has good potential. It'd make good booktalk/recommendation material for both boys and girls. And it was more upbeat than Nothing which I just finished today. I was expecting something more ethereal with that book, and it was jarringly brutal and dark. As a metaphor or symbolic book, I could stomach what those 7th graders did, but on a literal level it just about ripped my heart out. Well written, though, and a good discussion book; but I would find it hard to recommend to middle schoolers.

Still looking for that one standout book that I love....