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

Here's a meme I saw Danielle and Kate do this week, and it is intriguing to look back at this time of year, so I'll give it a go also. The purpose of this one is to post the first lines from each month's first post, and see what results.

January: Audrey Thomas' Graven Images is one of those books that just appeared in my collection somehow; I was intrigued enough to read it, even though I'd never heard of it.

Up on the Roof / P.K. Page
Erin, ON : Porcupine's Quill, c2007.

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.

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.

It's the end of May, and I'd better mention two books I've read for John's Canadian Book Challenge. Almost done now...but I don't know if I'll make it to all 13 this time around. Still have that pesky Nunavut to read about! But there's always the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge...
Anyhow, I've recently read two which I'll mention here in brief review:

The Ukrainian Wedding / Larry WarwarukRegina, SK: Coteau, c1998.

I was able to complete another book yesterday which brings my total for January to eight. I am pretty happy with that. I managed three chunksters in January. However, my challenge reading got sidetracked a bit by some of the ARCs that I received. For the most part, I have enjoyed them so I don't mind. I will try to catch up on my challenges in February. Here's what I read:

A Hard Witching / Jacqueline Baker
Toronto : HarperCollins Canada, 2003.

The Canadian Book Challenge run by John at The Book Mine Set has sent me off onto a side path; after beginning a number of novels set in varied Canadian provinces, I've left them all half done and sadly unattended as I take a detour into three books about the beginnings of CanLit. I'm reading through them, fascinated by the glory days when Canadian literature started becoming more than an oxymoron. They are all by or about men - I'll have to search out a few others soon - but for now I am finding them oddly riveting.

moar funny pictures

This is the last day of NaBloPoMo and I made it! Wahoo! A whole month of daily posts. I feel a little blog burnout. It was a challenge but it was one I met. Hopefully, they were all 'blog worthy' posts. And no I won't fall off the face of the earth now. Anyway, what's the buzz?

• Norman Mailer wins the Bad Sex Award. I read the excerpt that won all this acclaim. Oh yeah, he deserved it.

Today's recommended read for our Prime Minister is Le Petit Prince. In French. Yann Martel's letter to the PM about this book is also in French. In Canada, at least, this could be construed as a bit of a political statement. We are a bilingual country after all, and PM Harper has not shown what anyone would consider great warmth toward Quebec or official bilingualism. (However, when talking about PM Harper, I don't think he's been to known to show warmth to anyone or anything.) The good news is, I've read this one. Not in French, but still.

My blog's birthday was this month. It was actually January 7th. I meant to celebrate it in a more timely fashion but I actually thought it was later in the month than it is. Still, I decided that even though I missed it, we can still celebrate.

I have completed the Pub'08 Challenge! I have been fortunate to receive several ARCs of books published in '08. For the most part, I have enjoyed them all. Here's what I read:
**Click on the title for reviews.**

For your amusement:

Here's a friend of mine dressed up for a Come-as-your-favourite-literary-figure party. Shaving would have made the resemblance really eerie!Who would you go as?

On January 14 the American Library Association is set to announce their prestigious 2008 awards for children's literature--the Newbery Award for authors and the Caldecott Award for illustrators, the primary American awards for achievment in children's and young adult literature.

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

Whoopee!

Sarah has gifted me with the You Make My Day award. I've been having a crappy day and this was an instant pick-me-up. Thanks, Sarah!

Now I have to choose 10 bloggers to pass on the award. I've stuck to those blogs written by a single blogger as well as those blogs that stick to either books or writing as topics. Otherwise, this list would be impossible to limit to 10. Enjoy!

1. Chiron over at RabbitReader
2. Kristin over at Books 4 Breakfast
3. Linda over at Another Good Thing
4. Kelly over at A Book in the Life
5. Erin over at The Paperback Stash
6. Indigo over at Full Steam Ahead

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

And, folks–Becca was nice enough to nominate Booking Through Thursday for a Blogger’s Choice Award–while you’re here, why don’t you head over and vote for us, too. Because, a vote for BTT is a vote for all of us who play each week!

Janice Erlbaum
342 pages
Reason for Reading: I received this ARC from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Okay, maybe not popular demand, but a few of you said you missed The Friday Bookish Buzz. Honestly, I liked hearing that because I wondered if anyone was reading! Anyway, I'm still reeling from last night's Lost season finale. Whoa!

*Wondering what to read this summer. Some popular authors give their picks.

*I stole this from Kookie: Nerdic as a second language.

* Christine has a Giveaway of Awesomeness.

*Got some extra cash? An interesting auction may be for you.

* John has Munro vs O. Henry. Sign up for the Canadian Book Challenge (2) while you're there.

*They're really pushing e-books at us.

Blackouts / Craig BoykoToronto: McClelland & Stewart, c2008.

The Island means Minago / Milton AcornNew Canada Press, c1975.
I've been so busy making reading plans for the new year, I haven't been looking back enough -- and I have a slew of reviews to catch up on. I'll call this my week of reviews and try to talk a bit about some of the books I read as the year was turning over.

Smuggling Donkeys / David HelwigErin, ON : Porcupine's Quill Press, c2007.

I've been reading quite a lot of Ukrainian writing, in preparation for my trip to Ukraine, coming up in a few weeks. I've read a few collections of historical fiction, some history, and looked through travel guides and language cds. Here is some modern Ukrainian writing I discovered through serendipity -- and I've just finished: From Three Worlds : New Ukrainian Writing (Somerville, MA : Zephyr Press, c1996.) It's part of a series of collected Soviet writing, thus the title; influences come from the 3 worlds of Ukrainian, Russian, and Western/English literature. It's a great collection, full of stories of all types, traditional, surreal, serious, blackly humorous, as well as photo essays and quite a lot of poetry.