Holiday reading update

Nothing says the Holidays quite like doing something you don't want to. Wait. That didn't used to be true! Well, this year, like it or not, that is my reality. Yesterday was all about spending time with family (including my hyped up 3 year old nephew who was still so excited about Christmas that he was playing with his fire engine in bed at 11:30 p.m.), eating lots of delicious food, and opening presents. Today is about hunkering down in the much-anticipated blizzard and reading.

Last night I treated myself to the last book of the remaining 10 that I actually had an interest in reading: Adele Griffin's Picture the Dead. It's my second Adele Griffin book this year, having read and reviewed The Julian Game for School Library Journal. While Julian didn't really do it for me on a personal level, I quite enjoyed Picture the Dead. I can't think of too many Civil War historical fiction titles that take place in Brookline, Mass., and I enjoyed the local connection. I must admit, I also enjoyed the really short chapters, as my attention span was limited due to frequent interruptions by my nephew. The packaging on this one is absolutely gorgeous -- no wonder Bryan Selznick blurbed it -- and I will be keeping it, since I allowed my nephew to color all over the inside of it during the Christmas Eve Mass.

I'm taking a little break from Lish McBride's Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, my second book in a row about the dead (actually, I think a good percentage of my remaining to-reads are about the dead or the undead). I just read the most startling scene out of this entire year's worth of reading. Which is kind of weird because until that point, the book had been pretty funny with hints of weird stuff under the surface. Only 8 5/6 books to go!

The one's I've been putting off

I'm down to the final 15 books I have to read before BFYA. Some of these books I've been putting off reading for a long time, others just so happened to be among the last few nominations, and a few only just now came in via inter-library loan.

That said, I would be lying if I said that I was really excited about any of these books. A quick glance shows that there are no contemporary coming of age stories left. They were gobbled up nearly instantaneously. What remains are the ones I've been squeamish about, and for a wide variety of very random reasons. One of them uses a very small font; I don't care much for very small fonts. One that didn't make it into this photograph is about a pegasus. I've never been a big fan of, umm, pegasi? Needless to say, when I look at this pile and I have to choose what to read next, there's a big of cringing and trepidation. Sort of like when Buddy the Elf decides to ride the escalator. It's like, do I really have to? And yes, I do. I really have to. I'm soooooo close to having read all 191 nominations. The clock is ticking.

Let's see if there are some hidden gems here. I'll be posting my reactions over the next few weeks. In the meantime, a clip from Elf: