THIS JUST IN! Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown) has just won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. For a full review of Alexie's book, see my post for Tuesday, November 13 below.

Congratulations to Sherman Alexie for his truly awesome first venture into literature for young people!

Other winners just announced are as follows:

POETRY: Robert Hass, for Time and Materials (HarperCollins)

The 2008 Newbery Award winner, Laura Amy Schlitz's Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village, seems to have been somewhat of a dark horse, not numbered in many of the usual "Best of..." lists.

Because it's March we are placing a special emphasis on College Basketball. So here's our Regular Season Awards.

ACCPlayer of the Year- Tyler Hansbrough, UNCCoach of the Year- Frank Haith, MiamiFreshman of the Year- James Johnson, Wake Forest
Big 12Player of the Year- Michael Beasley- KSUCoach of the Year- Scott Drew, BaylorFreshman of the Year- Michael Beasley- KSU
Big EastPlayer of the Year- Luke Harangody, Notre DameCoach of the Year- Jim Calhoun, UConnFreshman of the Year- Donte Green, Syracuse

I miss the Golden Globes. The fans miss seeing their favorite stars win awards for their favorite movies and tv shows. The Writers' Guild Awards have also been downgraded to a news event. All the writers who were nominated deserve their moment in the spotlight. And the Academy Awards... That's threatened too. Added to all the economic difficulties created by the strike, why not just let the

The first Book Awards challenge is coming to a close and the second one will be starting soon. The rules are slightly different this time. From August 1, 2008 - June 1, 2009 I need to read 10 books that represent 5 different awards (in other words, they can't all be from the same award) This list can be made as we go and changed at any time. I'll post some tentative reads after I give it some thought.

United Hollywood has secretly obtained a transcript of one of the earlier negotiating sessions which illustrates just what the writers are facing at the bargaining table...

WGA: We'd like a whopping four pennies more on each DVD sold.
AMPTP: We're going to punch you in the face and take your dog.
WGA: We'd like to be compensated for our work that's distributed over the Internet.
AMPTP: We're going to punch you in the face and take your dog.
WGA: We don't think it's fair you're trying to have short-form content written non-guild.
AMPTP: Fine. We won't take your dog. That's off the table. After you shout from the rooftops and thank us, which proposal are you going to take off the table?

Hollywood Homecoming, an event honoring the veteran writers, directors and stars of yesteryear who helped form and shape the unions we are fighting to protect, will be held this Friday, November 30th, from 10AM-12PM at Sony Studios in Culver City.

But your help is needed getting the word out and locating those trailblazers of Hollywood's Golden Age.

So who do you know? Is Shirley Temple your next door neighbor? Do you go to church with Esther Williams? Are you related to Mickey Rooney? Do you live next door to an Academy Award winning director from years past? Was your grandfather one of the writers on "The Wizard of Oz?" Did your great aunt work as the assistant to David O. Selznick? Does your family have a long history in the biz?

Help locate these guests and join us to pay tribute to them.

For my own notes (thanks to ABookGeek for the idea)

Need to Read for Challenges:
Through a Brief Darkness by Richard Peck (by Dec. 1)
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (by Dec. 1)
Strays Like Us by Richard Peck (by Dec. 1)
Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Merry Christmas Babies by Tara Taylor Quinn
Eve's Christmas by Janet Dailey
Booked to Die by John Dunning
Bookman's Wake by John Dunning
Bookseller of Kabul by Anne Seiersted
Red Rage by Rachel Ward
Leaving Simplicity by Claire Carmichael

Need to Finish for Review Books:
Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh
For Parents Only
Last two in above list as well

Hope to Finish for Group Reads:
Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

Ha ha! Another one from Literary Feline: (this is fun!)

Take the nearest book next to you and answer the following questions:

Title and Author: Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Is the book dedicated to anyone? If so, who? It says on the inside "For Meredith, Faith, Kristen, and Sarah"

What is the first sentence? "The fire had gone out, and I didn't know what to do."

Turn to page 47. Please share the first sentence of the first full paragraph. "Wouldn't have worked."

Stolen...(again lol) from Literary Feline.... (thanks!!)

1. Plans and schedules keep me sane, but routine bores me (go figure!)

2. I'm happy when things are calm.

3. The last thing I drank was a bottle of water.....(excuse me, bathroom break!)

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is right now.....my health for my unborn child!

5. I like pepperoni and green peppers on my pizza.

It is that time of year, isn't it? I've been seeing round-up posts popping up everywhere, and there is something quite satisfying about quantifying what you've been doing all year. Of course, this time of year also makes me realize I will never have enough time to read all the books I want to, probably not even all the books I have on my shelves. But I will keep trying, nevertheless. 2007 was a good year for reading - all the encouragement and suggestions from bloggers and our many challenges kept me picking up one book after another. How pleasant!

Books Bought 2007

I finally decided what I'll be reading for my Jewish Literature Challenge from Dec. 4, 2007 to April 26, 2008

The Christmas Revolution by Barbara Cohen
The Rabbi's Girls by Johanna Hurwitz
A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua
Emil and Karl by Jacob Glatstein
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
The Illuminated Soul by Aryeh Lev Stollman

Plus I'll be reading Picture books and Children's Non-fiction on Hannukah and Passover that I just pick from the library at the time.

E for Excellence is a blog award for all of you out there who have Excellent Blogs. By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to ten more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least ten.

You like me! You really like me! Okay, I'm no Sally Fields, but Bonnie from Bonnie's Books thought enough of me to give me the E for Excellent Award. Since Bonnie has an excellent blog herself, I'm very flattered. Thanks Bonnie.

I feel lazy today so I'm skipping the Friday Book Buzz. I'm going to try the Friday Fill-Ins Meme instead. (Love that poppet).

1. On my laziest day I like to stay in bed and read! (It rarely happens, unless I'm really sick)
2. Cleaning makes me feel like I'm being productive.
3. I love little baby feet and big cups of coffee.
4. This summer I want to swim a lot, travel a bit and enjoy some beautiful weather.
5. Reading Challenges made me start my blog.
6. Red tulips and orange pumpkins are 2 things I love to look at.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out with the hubby, tomorrow my plans include errands and Sunday, I want to have fun at a baby shower!

How's that?

The NCAA Tournament is about a month away and I absolutely cannot wait. Here's our current projections of the top 4 seeds and conference winners.

1 Seeds
Memphis- Should easily be a 1 seed with the C-USA schedule
UNC- I think they'll prevail, once Lawson is back and to full strength they should just about win out and win the ACC Tourney
UCLA- they will win the Pac 10 tourney which should secure the 1 seed
Tennessee- the SEC is down this year and no one is really posing that much of a threat to them

2 Seeds
Kansas- should be a 1 seed, but Texas or A&M could easily knock them off in the Big XII tourney
Duke- I see them losing to UNC and possibly in the ACC Tourney
Georgetown- still have to play Louisville, Marquette, and UConn but two of them are at home. I see them at least making the Big East Tourney Final
Texas- playing as good as anyone now but tough schedule coming up

3 Seeds
Butler- Could easily win out but being a mid-major and easy schedule won't get them a 2 seed

The gentlemen at Hardwood Paroxysm polled a very wide range of bloggers and established a series of really cool awards. (Basketbawful got a nod in the "Coach Blogger of the Year" category.) Go check it out to see a list of some of the coolest NBA-related blogs out there.

This was begun by Simon at Stuck-in-a-book, but I saw it first at A Work in Progress. Upon a bit of research, I see that many others have given this a go; Juxtabook, LizzySiddal, Kirsty, Iliana, and Litlove, among others.

The goal of this is to list favourite authors according to last name (with a representative fave book as well). Here's mine, though with the caveat that it was really difficult to fit everyone in. I kept thinking of more authors with names beginning with the letters I'd already filled, and how can a decision be made between two or four or eight favourites? But I finally chose a few, and have included some of the children's books I've loved for a long time. This meme provided much entertaining rumination over the past couple of days, so thanks Simon!

Austen, Jane / Pride and Prejudice

So let's just pretend my predictions on Sunday never happened shall we? Anyways, I'm taking a mulligan on the national championship game.
(2) Boston College vs (4) Notre Dame

In two shocking results, BC and ND advanced to the championship game by dominating the two highest seeded teams remaining in the field. Even though the Notre Dame-Michigan game went into overtime, Notre Dame physically took it to the Wolverines and showed that while Michigan was the most talented team in the field, sometimes extreme effort is enough to overcome that talent gap.

It's here! Challenge graphic coming soon.

Check out all the details here.

Basically I'm reading a minimum of three books from March 1/08 - June 1/08

1. How Big Is Your God by Paul Coutinho
2. Spiritual Parenting by David Carroll
3. The Way of the Labyrinth by Helen Curry
4. The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck (Also A to Z)
5. A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua spiritual? (Also for Jewish Literature)
6. A Year Inside Radical Islam by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (Also for In Their Shoes)

Brasyl, by Ian McDonald

My latest book review for Pajiba is up. This one's for science fiction fans: Ian McDonald's Brasyl.

Brasyl has won the 2008 British Science Fiction Association Award and was a finalist for both the 2008 Hugo Award and the 2007 Quill Book Awards.

You may click here to read my review. If you'd like to read the first chapter, click here -- be aware, though, that the first chapter doesn't really do it justice.

In a nutshell: Brasyl is a must for science-fiction fans, but be prepared to work for this one.

Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars

It is not only the weather that is changing around here at Eco Child's Play: change is in the air. All I can say is we have big plans, all of which should be ready in time for San Francisco Green Fest. At this point, I will give you one clue: Green Options. Stay tuned...

1. The last compliment I got was from my husband; he/she said I was doing great on a project I have undertaken.
2. I'm reading The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.
3. I woke up today and thought T.G.I.F!!!!!!!

This is day 2 of our bowl predictions. Enjoy...

Humanitarian BowlGeorgia Tech vs. Fresno St.
TSF's Take: Two words: Tashard Choice
Sun Bowl
South Florida vs. Oregon
TSF's Take: Oregon hasn't been the same since the loss of Dennis Dixon and the Bulls have some impressive recent wins.
Music City BowlKentucky vs. Florida St.

Milt Schmidt
Boston Bruins 1937-1955

The New York Daily News had its Top 10 sports stories of the year in their paper today. Most, but not all of the stories, had a New York slant to them as you'd expect. Here is their list:

1. The Mitchell Report
2. Torre's Farewell
3. Bonds' Record, and Record?
4. Mets Fall Apart
5. A-Rod Being A-Rod
6. Debacle On 33rd Street (Knicks)
7. Bad Newz for NFL (Michael Vick)
8. Bye-bye, I-Man
9. They're Not Done Yet (Yankees comeback)
10. News Catches Ankiel

My very first award ever! Sarah at PussReboots awarded me the You Make My Day Award. This is the first award any of my blogs have won. I'm honored thanks!

Winners of this award are to award it to at least 10 more people. So without furthur ado, Bloggers who I believe deserve this award!

A Gaggle of Book Reviews - the first book review blog I ever read, the one that got me thinking of becoming more active with my blog.

Once there were four kittens who had never seen snow."
Caldecott Award artist Eric Rohman's brand-new picture book, A Kitten Tale, begins with four curious kitty siblings, three striped and one gray, checking out a mailbox. The fourth kitten, obviously the most daring of the litter, climbs up and rakes postcards out of the mailbox. As they land on the ground, the kittens look at the snowy mountains pictured on the cards with wonder.

"Snow scares me," says the first.

"When winter comes the snow will fall and fall and we'll be cold." says the second.

"Cold to the tips of our tails," says the third.