That Book About Harvard: Review Haiku

Just like my freshman
year -- except, uh, not.
(Widener D-basement, dude. Sheesh.)

That Book About Harvard: Surviving the World's Most Famous University, One Embarrassment at a Time by Eric Kester. Sourcebooks, 2012, 352 pages.

It's Newbery/Caldecott Day, bitchez.

You're all on the live feed already, but here's the link to explain what these awards are for.

http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/browse/yma?showfilter=no

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: Review Haiku

A dangerous book
for an MBA with dreams
of self-employment.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch. St. Martin's, 2012, 304 pages.

The Secret Tree: Review Haiku

The complexities
of friendship and family
hidden in a tree.

The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford. Scholastic, 2012, 256 pages.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock: Review Haiku

Rock-star-turned-RA
has another teen-pop mystery
on her hands.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot. Morrow, 2012, 384 pages.

Help, Thanks, Wow: Review Haiku

A bit like filler,
but a good bedside companion.
Ave, Saint Anne.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott. Riverhead, 2012, 112 pages.

Marbles: Review Haiku

Took me a hundred
pages to realize, "Ohhhh --
Part-Time Indian chick."

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney. Gotham, 2012, 256 pages.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities: Review Haiku

One part Incredibles,
two parts Superman, seven
parts awesomesauce.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2012, 320 pages.

Friendkeeping: Review Haiku

A bit precious, but
meaningful to those of us
of a certain age.

Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate, and Can't Live Without by Julie Klam. Riverhead, 2012, 240 pages.

The Good Girls Revolt: Review Haiku

Can't believe how recent
this recent history is.
Rock on, ladies.

The Good Girls Revolt: How The Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich. PublicAffairs, 2012, 288 pages.

Who Could That Be at This Hour? Review Haiku

Perfect absurdity*
from the master of same.
*A word which here means . . .

Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket. Little Brown, 2012, 272 pages.

Will Sparrow's Road: Review Haiku

Just your ev'ryday
Elizabethan runaway
carnie story.

Will Sparrow's Road by Karen Cushman. Clarion, 2012, 224.

Happy New Year! Good riddance.

Thank God, 2012 is over. I don't know about you, but it was not one of my better trips around the sun.

So I am looking forward with cautious optimism to 2013. Surely two crappy years in a row must portend better things for this nominally unlucky year. I am not really a resolution person, but I am setting my mind on four goals:

1. Make a positive impact on the universe. I don't mean I need to cure cancer or solve global poverty, but I need to find ways to make my day-to-day activities purposeful -- to believe that what I'm doing is helpful to someone, somehow.
2. Get back on Twitter in a meaningful way. When I left publishing I dropped off the Twitter radar, because I didn't really have anything to say to my book-people followers anymore. Well, that's crap. I should participate again.
3. Reread Shakespeare. I used to be a HUGE Shakespeare person -- wrote my thesis on secondary women's roles in the comedies, in fact -- but I've fallen out of the habit, now that I'm out of the literary world and haven't been in a play in years. I am contemplating a yearlong rereading project, if I can figure out a way to do it without going crazy. Details to come, possibly.
4. Enjoy the heck out of my Cybils judging experience once more. I believe that the finalists have been posted here, so it's off to ILL Land for me.

Happy New Year, friends.