WE'RE GOING STEADY - chapters 2-4

We're back!

Before I get back to Patty and Ginger, this gorgeous girl is my mom, Janie, she is a wee bit older than these girls. She's probably their age in this picture, but it was a few years earlier. Still, a cute high school girl (who was GOING STEADY with my my future dad) and a Christmas tree, it kind of fits. 

I have decided to just put bullet points of the action for each chapter. If you want a better narrative, well, I might be the only game in town for this one. The only Goodreads review said, "I have loved every Lambert book that I've read but this one is just okay. " and that kind of sums it up. It is still fun to read, but sometimes reading Lambert I realize that I am in her mindset, but not today. 

Here are my observations/recap for Chapter 1. I am using bullet points because I am too lazy to tie sentences together. 

•  The high school is described as "the Mecca of her day."
• Patty is fixated on the popularity that going steady brings. Even though she'd rather just walk with Ginger, she'd miss the "envy of all the chattering groups of girls." when she gets to school with old Steve holding her books. 
• Patty and Ginger have a fight about how dull Steve is and Patty by extension. 
• We also learn that Steve is a cheerleader. I can't even... Because he has practice after school, he won't be at "the Cent" (the teen center) she can't go because she can't dance with another boy because she's GOING STEADY!!
• When she gets home, she tries to vent her frustration on her mom by complaining about her brother and his girlfriend being so aggressively physical. Her mom responds by pointing out how much more acceptable their brand of GOING STEADY is than Patty and Steve's.
• Steve calls to let her know that he is at the teen center waiting for her. Patty hops on her bike at his command and big brother Douglas and Mom start talking PDA. Steve says, "What do you want me to do? Act as if I don't like the girl, then go off and neck in the car." To which Mom replies, "Yes, son. Then we can all pretend it isn't happening." JK
• Douglas sets out an argument about how his love is forever and Patty is boy-crazy. And he isn't wrong.
• Patty comes back later with the happy glow of a girl who is completely fooling herself.

Chapter 2

• Patty is complaining about costumes for the dance while her parents are watching TV. She (and I am not making this up) "scowled at the screen where a foreign correspondent fought off an Arab." Why, Janet? Why??
• Patty has a great Christmas tree costume, but she wants to be Raggedy Ann to Steve's Raggedy Andy because they are GOING... oh never mind...
• I guess Patty bought herself a chrysanthemum to look cool, but it backfired because a bunch of girls had flowers from their beaux in the freshman section. An entire week's allowance pissed away.
• She turns down Ginger's offer to go to the drugstore to see the team, but when Steve asks, she's all in. 
• After, at home, she has a shoe emergency and her mother lets her borrow some heels and she practices walking in them. It's pretty cute.
• Bonnie, her future sister-in-law helps her put on a non-skanky lipstick and gives it to her as a little gift. Call me crazy, but I think that Bonnie is going to be a good influence. 

Chapter 3

• They get to the dance and Janet describes it wonderfully. 
• Ginger's date, Tim, is dressed as a polo player and he and Patty have a moment when they are introduced.
• But when he confidently asks her to dance, Steve informs him "Patty's my steady date." and it sounds so awful, even I start believing that going steady is wrong!
• Ginger is having a grand time with her blind date, even though her balloon girl costume keeps getting popped. 
• Patty looks great, but she's bored to tears just dancing with Steve in a desultory way, even though she claims otherwise. 
• Then Patty win's "most original girl" in the costume parade and "the evening became suddenly wonderful." She has won a diary - weird prize, but okay.
• Her brother asks her to dance and while it sounds like it would be embarrassing, it is the highlight of her night - after her win, of course. She gets to hang with "Bonnie and the older crowd" and is disappointed when she has to go back to Steve the snooze. 
• When she gets home Patty tells her parents basically what I just said in the last bullet point. Then she writes in her diary before bed and it's kind of adorable how Janet captures the teenage girl writing voice.

So we are about a third of the way through and I can't help but think the excitement of going steady is already wearing off for all of us. Steve seems like kind of a buzz kill and that Tim is dreamy as heck. Do you think Patty is going to be able to put two and two together here? I sure hope so!

WE'RE GOING STEADY by Janet Lambert [chapter 1]

Janet Lambert REALLY hates going steady. She has a definite game plan for her girls and that involves playing the field, even if they do have a young man already picked out. It goes without saying that her heroines don't do anything physical except maybe the occasional kiss, but NO TONGUE! She is a prude, no getting around it. But here's the thing, she's not entirely wrong. 

I just read BAD GIRLS NEVER SAY DIE by Jennifer Mathieu and it shows how dangerous it could be to "go all the way" in a pre-pill USA. An unmarried pregnancy was no joke. And many an unhappy marriage came about because of one. And don't get me started on homes for unwed mothers. 

But not Janet's girls. They stayed squeaky-clean. Hence Patty and Ginger. These two ninth graders are best friends, but oh so different. Patty is very pretty and very invested in being in with the in crowd. Even if that means she's going steady with someone she can barely be bothered with.  Ginger is a good time girl - not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter - she gets caught up in fun and doesn't care what her hair looks like if she is laughing and enjoying herself. 

The book begins exposition-ing us into Patty's world. She lives in a nice - but not too nice - rural suburb outside of Philly which does not appear to exist in real life. She is a bit self-centered and loud and obsessed with the telephone. Your typical 1958 teenager. One thing I love about Janet is that there is no judgement here. She remembers that the typical teen isn't out to hurt her parent's feelings, they are just a hot mess of hormones. Hormones that they can and WILL conquer!

She loves the after school dances at the teen center. I mean, they're not real dances they are really just the equivalent of a group-hang. Unless you have the misfortune of GOING STEADY. Spoiler: Patty is going steady. 

It is amazing how things changed even with the advent of the cordless phone. I have said many, many times that I am glad that there were no cell phones in the 1980s - and they were rarely seen in the 90s. I got into enough trouble with the regular old phone, thank you very much. Someday I will write the stories of my early cat-fishing days. What?? I could have been a cute college girl and not a pudgy 15 year old nerd when I called all those late night disc jockeys to flirt. It's just that I wasn't. Anyway back to Patty.

She has a jones for phone, but her mother will only let her talk on the extension in the master bedroom if she calls Ginger and doesn't call Steve, like a fast girl. It's okay, Patty far prefers to talk to Ginger and it doesn't even make her think about the health of her relationship with Steve. Oh, Patty, I remember so well learning to figure this shit out. It's a process, honey, don't worry.

They talk about Steve, then there is a family dinner worthy of an MST3K short at which older brother Douglas' girlfriend Bonnie allows him to hold her hand - "OPENLY,  RIGHT ON THE TABLE BESIDE HIS DESSERT PLATE!" (all caps, my edit...) Bonnie is nice girl, poised and headed for Vassar when they graduate high school at the end of the year.

The family has a full house that evening: the parents are having the Allstairs over for bridge. Oh I could write another chapter of my memoirs about bridge night! How I loved it! My parents would have 3 other couples (and their kids) over for cards and we would all watch Nanny and the Professor, The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family with some rando kids we only saw once a month at bridge club. I remember VIVIDLY a trip to the grocery store to get snacks for Bridge Club and I could not have been older than 10. It loomed large - classiest thing my parents ever did! No, just kidding, my mom was, and usually remains, pretty classy.

But I digress... 

Patty is resigned to the bedroom when Ginger comes to sleep over and they pick up the conversation right where they left off. Horrible news - Ginger has a blind date (it deserves all caps, but I really must learn to restrain myself) It's her rich aunt's best friend's grandson. And since Aunt Mag is the rich relative that helps pay for stuff, Ginger has to put out. And by "put out" I mean put out the hand of friendship to welcome this young man to the dance.  It's sure to be a mess! Stay tuned...

...........................................................................................................................................................................

So I just recorded myself reading the first chapter and am putting up the video so you can hear the whole thing. Or if you prefer my reading aloud without as much of my face, feel free to just listen to the audio. 

I have this idea for a podcast,  called THE FIRST HIT IS FREE, where I read the first chapter of a bunch of old books, probably most of them out of print. If the writer is still around, maybe I invite them to talk about it. Maybe if I learn a bit of editing, and how to be more interesting, I even add some commentary. Who knows! But for now, it is much easier to just upload a video to youtube. 

I firmly believe that I may be the only audience for this and that is okay, I love the sound of my own voice and I love to read out loud. But if you want to hear the whole megillah - well, here's your chance. And be warned that I didn't do any editing so, it's basic. But I had fun!

To be clear, I have been taught that 10% of a work is fair use for copyright. And hopefully, if you like what you hear you will go to IMAGE CASCADE PUBLISHING at https://imagecascade.com/ and buy the heck out of some 20th century girls' books! They are not an advertiser - And how sweet of you thinking that I would have an advertiser! - but they are awesome and I love them. 

SO here is the link to the video - https://youtu.be/LjSMKe9-_jA

And here is the audio file* - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YH5l4jy5UnFLGRZ0-hvzIhRfk2zIT6lW/view?usp=sharing

*Upon listening, I realize I only love the sound of my own voice in my head. Recorded...well...maybe your standards are lower than mine. 

Patricia Clapp Makes Me Love America part 2 (But it's only a little bit about Patricia Clapp and mostly about BEAUTY by Robin McKinley)

About 5 years ago, when this blog was just a young whipper-snapper I wrote a piece about how much I love Patricia Clapp. And in it I bemoaned the fact that she didn't have a Wikipedia page.

Well, I just did a search for Robin McKinley because I was trying to find a story I KNOW I have written down somewhere but can't find anywhere about how her book BEAUTY had an impact on my life. Alas, I will write it again. With feeling. 

But before I do, I must revisit my Patricia Clapp post to say that I wrote a Wikipedia page for her right after I wrote the blog post, and with the help of a 9th grader at my school got it put up. 

You're welcome world 

And now, on to BEAUTY.

Back in the summer of 1977 my family moved from a post-war subdivision in the Cleveland suburbs to an upper-middle class town on Long Island. Not super-rich, but fancier than I was used to. Also, I was going from an elementary school where I was about to have my top-of-the-heap sixth grade year and it was going to be amazing. 

I don't know if any of you lived through being a chubby girl with glasses who loves to read and is maybe a little bit too much of a know-it-all for her own good, but I did. At Spruce School, I was popular, it took a lot of work, a lot of pretending to care about the band Boston and stealing my dad's cigarettes, but I had made it. I was in the cool crowd.

At New York Avenue Junior High School I was NO ONE! I was just another new sixth grade baby, but one that NO ONE had gone to elementary school with. I was going in there friendless. My beautiful older sister had it easy. Our whole neighborhood was filled with teenagers and she had a horse. And her acne was clearing up. She was effortlessly cool. 

But this is about me. And Robin McKinley. Back to the story. 

So I made some inroads. I had some funny, smart friends who I occasionally ate lunch with, but the summer before 7th grade one moved away, one went to private school and the other two made kick-line and got super popular, and frankly, kind of mean. (I hope that someday you read this Missy and Diane and that you are REPENT!)

So I started eating lunch in the library. Alone. I didn't really mind being in the library, I loved being able to read, and I didn't mind having to sneak-eat my lunch because of the no food in the library rule that Mr. Costello, the librarian, didn't seem to care too much about. But I didn't like the feeling of having no friends. 

Mr Costello was an old man in a cardigan who sat behind the desk and nodded and said hello as I came in. I didn't pay him much attention, he was a bachelor in his 40s - far too ancient to be interesting.  

Anyhow, there I sat, sad, alone and sneaking raisins out of my purse. And one Friday Mr. Costello came over to me and handed me BEAUTY by Robin McKinley. He said he noticed I was a reader and he asked if I would be interested in reading this new book and letting him know what I thought about it. 

It looked cool (see the large original white cover above) so I said sure, I'd give it a try. 

That weekend I read it and, of course, I adored it. A Beauty who isn't really beautiful meets a Beast who isn't really a beast - what's not to love?

Monday lunchtime I was back in the library. I gave the book back to Mr. Costello and told him that I thought it was great and he said he would put it in the collection since I thought it was worthy. Just like that! My opinion was enough for him to put this book on the shelf of the library for anyone to read. I felt amazing. 

It seems so simple looking back. That book is a no-brainer for a middle school library even today and he was definitely going to put it on the shelf anyway. But he took the time to notice a sad, lonely kid and not just take an interest in her, but give her tangible proof that she mattered. 

So now I am a high school librarian and I see kids sitting alone and I remember how important it was for me to be seen and valued and I try to be like Mr. Costello and notice those kids and while most of them would probably not enjoy me handing them a book and asking them to read it, it costs nothing for me to ask what they are watching on their computer and taking an interest. Just treating them like fellow humans. 

When I decided to go to graduate school to become a school librarian, I thought about why I wanted to do it, and my mind went back to the memory or being handed BEAUTY and all that it meant and that is what I wrote me application essay about. Which I really wish I could find, but alas... It was 17 years ago. And in those 17 years I have been working at the best job ever. So thanks, Mr. Costello for the inspiration.

Barb's Best Books of 2021

Welcome to my 2021 round-up, friends. Every single book on this list that wasn't written by Janet Lambert is damn near perfect. I put them in order of how much I personally enjoyed reading them, not in any order of quality. I try not to be too enthusiastic and use the word "adored" too much, but you know how I am. I adored every single one of them. Now I am a super-easy grader, but also, if I don't like something, I just put it aside. Life is too short. 

This year, at the beginning of December, I began reading for the Mass. Teen Choice Book Award committee and it is making me stick things out a bit longer and stray from my comfort zone a bit, at least in YA and Middle Grade. My adult fiction is still straight up Middle-Aged Lady books, and I am okay with that. And this year I have pulled out middle grade fiction and audiobooks and given them their whole own posts! (That is mostly because I had planned to do whole posts for every subset, but that died on the vine due to my inherent laziness.) So here are my favorites - enjoy!

YA Fiction

Young Adult Fiction - it is my bread and butter. I love it most of all! This year I have read 41 new (to me) YA titles. Okay, 20 if you don't count Janet Lambert, but still, that's a lot.  So my top seven (I chose seven for no other reason than the pictures look cool in groups of seven.) are thus:

1. NOT MY PROBLEM takes place in a foreign country and even though I usually stick to American writers because I am incredibly lazy with regard to reading about other lands, I loved it. Okay, the foreign land is Ireland. They speak English there and I've seen DERRY GIRLS so I know what it looks like. But honestly, Ciara Smyth doesn't explain any of the deep Irish stuff like Camogie and Gaelic and Craic. (I knew the last two, but barely.) This book is a combo of a screamingly funny high school caper, a look at socio-economic disparity, a sad tale of a girl having to parent her alcoholic mom and a sweet lesbian romance. But it doesn't feel busy. It is a freaking gem.
2. IN THE WILD LIGHT is the story of a teenaged boy and his best friend who go from Appalachia to a Connecticut prep school. It is also the story of him losing his mother to an opioid overdose and watching his grandfather struggle with emphysema. Doesn't that sound like a fun read? Right up my alley? Despite the many sad bits, which I have been trying to avoid in these covid times, it ended up being a favorite in a very strong year. 
3. THE GIRL'S I'VE BEEN is probably the tightest book I read this year. Most of it takes place in one barn-burner of a day. There are also some flashbacks and a wee epilogue-ish bit. The many-named heroine is the daughter of a con-artist and when she gets caught up in a bank robbery, well, it is not the bank robbers' lucky day by a long shot. The story has a lot going on and yet it doesn't feel over-crowded. And it is damn near impossible to put down because it just keeps going. I am going to need to reread it because I read it SO FAST because I just needed to know how it turned out. 
4. BAD GIRLS NEVER SAY DIE is by Jennifer Mathieu who wrote MOXIE, another favorite. This is not a re-telling of THE OUTSIDERS, but it is set in the same era and in the same size city - Houston to S.E.Hinton's Tulsa - and it has the same soc vs. greaser vibe. And it is from a female perspective. I think Mathieu is a genius at showing the way society treats teenage girls without making her characters victims. 
5. LOVE, JACARANDA is a sweet retelling of DADDY LONG LEGS that I read quickly on my road trip and I don't remember much about it other than it went down like a cold beer on a warm afternoon and I kept giggling as I read it. 
6. To say I enjoyed LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB would be imprecise. It has a touch of sadness that never quite dissipates, but it was a fascinating look at life in a time when gay Chinese girls were pretty much punished 24-7 for just being who they were and how love sneaks in anyway.
7. And finally, PUMPKIN! Oh, how I long to put an apostrophe at the end of the word, but if Julie Murphy can resist it, so can I. I adore Murphy's take on being fat. She empowers her larger than life characters, while not shying away from the emotional impact of the world constantly telling us that we are not enough by virtue of being too much. Oh, did I just make this about me? She does have a way of making me live her characters' lives. This is the story of Waylon who is a fat, gay, twin and all of those definers take their turn in propelling the story. He lives in Clover City, Texas - setting of Murphy's other YA novels - but plans to kick the dust of that one horse town off his cute boots and go to Austin for school ASAP.  But in the meantime, he dabbles in drag, mistrusts others and runs for prom queen. Characters from DUMPLIN and PUDDIN make appearances - which adds to the fun. 

Middle Aged Lady Fiction Tier One

I love everything I read. But I love these just a little bit more.

1. MARY JANE was a gift from a friend and I usually hate it when people give me books because I can pick my own damn books. But this one was a doozy! I wrote a full review here - feel free to read it!
2. Everyone loves Stacey Abrahams because she helped save democracy. But I ALSO love her because she wrote WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS which was another book I read on my road trip that kept me hooked from the first chapter. It's a Grisham-y thriller about a young clerk at the Supreme Court with a messy past who ends up, well, saving democracy. 
3. THE GUNCLE was the rarest of rare things - a book club book that I actually adored! Patrick takes in his niece and nephew when his sister-in-law dies and his brother goes to rehab. He is currently mourning the loss of his partner, while trying to live mostly anonymously in Palm Springs despite his former sit-com fame.  Spoiler - everybody, except the people who are already dead, gets better. 
4. THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO was wonderful. Everybody has already read it, for good reason. You can google it. 
5. GOOD COMPANY was also pretty popular. It slams around in time and is the story of a cadre of actors, two of whom are married, perhaps not as happily as they thought. 
6. THE OTHER BLACK GIRL got a ton of great press and, while I am thrilled it did, it also did a bit of a number on me. I read it kind of lazily. (I'm sure that comes as a huge surprise.) It turns out that it was something completely different than I was expecting, the ending blew my mind, and now I have to wait until I have forgotten much of it before I can reread it and see how it all came about. 
7. Ooh, fat girl romance, I love you so! IF THE SHOE FITS is a lovely, reality TV creampuff. I don't watch the stuff (well, I was a little indoctrinated into the Below Deck franchise this year, but I insist on calling it Below Decks so that people don't think I take it seriously) but I do enjoy it as a backdrop to novels. 

Middle Aged Lady Fiction Tier Two

These ones are all tied for eighth most enjoyable read of the year. 

1. THE HOUSE AT TYNEFORD, in which a wealthy Jewish girl leaves Vienna to become a housemaid during WW2 and finds love, was another book club book that really hooked me.
2. THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, in which a suicidal woman enters a library that contains all the possible iterations of her life and finds love (sometimes), was a little sad for me, but also joyful. 
3. HOW LUCKY, wherein a young man with a medical condition that leaves him nearly immobile possibly witnesses a crime and tries to solve it with the people he loves, was a nice little thriller with some great dialogue. 
4. HOW THE PENGUINS SAVED VERONICA, wherein a lonely elderly woman decides to leave her fortune to save some penguins and instead finds out that she has a grandson and decides to take an interest even though her life has been virtually free of love, made me rethink my "no books set in the arctic" policy.
5. THE SUMMER SEEKERS is pretty much HOW THE PENGUINS SAVED VERONICA except with driving Route 66, and no penguins or grandson. And since I am a sucker for Route 66 I ate it like candy.
6. ON TURPENTINE LANE involves some prep-school faculty shenanigans, a late midlife crisis of a Dad and a new house all told with Elinor Lipman's perfect sharpness this was my middle-of-the-night-read-on-my-phone book. An ebook! How modern!

Graphic Novels & Graphic Nonfiction

I love reading graphic novels because I whip right through them almost always in one sitting. But that is mostly because I just read the text and don't pay much attention to the pictures. But I still love the format, and I am getting better about looking at the art. 

1. DANCING AT THE PITY PARTY made me cry a lot. It is Tyler Feder's story of the loss of her mother. It was also hilariously funny. It's frankly the best. 
2. SOLUTIONS AND OTHER PROBLEMS was also extremely funny. And had some sad bits. Is this a theme with graphic novels? Are they trying to give me whiplash? 
3. DRAGON HOOPS was the story of a championship basketball team, but also about the history of basketball, and a slice of life at a high school and an illustration of a man coming into his genius as a graphic novelist. It's all kinds of interesting. 
4. NUBIA REAL ONE is a super-hero story with a strong black female bent and a lot to say about being involved in social justice.  
5. ALMOST AMERICAN GIRL is an immigrant story that feels incredibly true because it is. 
6. ON TYRANNY scared the living daylights out of me, but I am glad I read it and I think everyone in America should. 
7. WENDY MASTER OF ART started out annoying me and I almost put it aside, but darned if that little cloud of doom, Wendy didn't charm me by the end. 
8. DISPLACEMENT was a beautifully drawn and interesting to read look at the internment camps that Japanese-Americans were forced into during WWII. I liked it, but I did keep catching it trying to teach me things. I like books that just let me learn things without looking like they are trying. 

Nonfiction & Memoirs

.              

Okay, they were all memoirs. I read some nonfiction, but it was all boring crap for Jeopardy. But I am a fool for memoirs! So I messed up the sizes in the picture here, but the order is the same. 

1. My favorite was NOBODY WILL TELL YOU THIS BUT ME because it was a weep-fest! Beth Kalb tells writes in her her grandmother's voice as she tells her life story and it is to die for. 
2. YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO LACEY is the funniest thing I read all year. Lacey is comedian Amber Ruffin's sister and she lives a regular old normal live where people behave bizarrely around her. Seriously, she is a magnet for weirdness. I hurt myself laughing. 
3. Shockingly, in YEARBOOK I don't remember a ton of belly laughs, although I am sure they were there. But I love Seth Rogan. He is my celebrity little brother. I remember seeing him in FREAKS AND GEEKS and it's not that I thought he'd be as successful as he has been, it's just that I found him fascinating as a performer. Go figure. And his memoir didn't disappoint. 
4. MY LIFE AS A VILLAINESS is straight-up the best written of this group because Lippman, is an actual writer of novels, unlike the rest of these authors. And you can tell. Her prose is magnificent, but I like my memoirs more sparkly and famous. I once had a drink in a bar with Laura Lippman at the Betsy Tacy convention a few years ago.  (Sure, there were a bunch of other people there, but still...)  And just like US magazine says - Stars: they're just like us! 
5. I WANT TO BE WHERE THE NORMAL PEOPLE ARE is my favorite cover of the year. Seriously Rachel Bloom, it's like you read my diary. 
6. WE'RE GOING TO NEED MORE WINE reminded me of how much I love Gabrielle Union. I read a review of her new memoir in the New York Times (which I read every day, cover to cover, and brag about to the point of absurdity) and while I was waiting for my interlibrary loan of that one, I read this in one sitting.
7. A VERY PUNCHABLE FACE is my favorite memoir title of the year. I couldn't have given a fig for Colin Jost before I read this. Someone donated it, I love a celebrity memoir and I didn't have anything to read in line when I was going into the post office and I grabbed it. Could not put it down. 

Rereads - 

I love all these books - hence the rereading! 

1. THE FIRST FEW FRIENDS I read fairly often when I was younger but I haven't reread it in a few years so it was lovely to learn that I still adore it. And as an extra treat, I got to meet Marilyn Singer (via Zoom) to interview her for a talk I gave at the public library. 
2. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES is second because I haven't read that since I was in my 20s and had completely forgotten how hard it makes me cry! It was also for the talk, but only because I needed to read RILLA OF INGLESIDE and couldn't jump into it without reading the other books in the series. 
3. ELLA OF ALL OF A KIND FAMILY is my least favorite of the series, but a friend told me that it holds up and when I read it, independent of its better sisters, it did. 
4. I was a group-read leader for DADDY LONG LEGS on the Betsy Tacy listserv and also experimented with recording myself reading it aloud. I think I did a nice job, but I read WAY too fast. If you'd like to read my take on it, it begins here. 
5. FIFTEEN was another group read books which has always been a favorite. Reading it along with the many, many Janet Lambert books I read this year gave it a bit of a boost.
6. ALL OF A KIND FAMILY UPTOWN was both a group read lead AND fodder for my public library talk! It has always been my favorite of the series, my reading experience of ELLA this year notwithstanding. 
7. I reread ELEANOR & PARK because my book club at school was reading it and those girls are brutal when I don't read the book. Plus, every time I read it, I am thrilled by the delicate work Rainbow Rowell has done of illustrating first love at the same time she shows the cruelty that can exist alongside the happiness. 

Children's and Middle Grade

You can read a separate post about these here.

Audiobooks

You can read a separate post about these here. 

and finally... Janet Lambert -

I have read a bunch of these they are just in chronological order because, well, because I'm me. If you want to read the reviews, just click the title! (Ya big nerd...)

Where the Heart Is
Treasure Trouble 
Little Miss Atlas
Confusion by Cupid
The Reluctant Heart
Star Dream 
Miss America 
Don't Cry, Little Girl
Summer for Seven 
Rainbow After Rain 
Welcome Home, Mrs. Jordon 
A Dream for Susan 
Cinda 
High Hurdles 
Love Taps Gently
Song in Their Hearts 
Fly Away, Cinda 
Myself & I 
The Precious Days 
Big Deal 

We're Going Steady - still haven't recapped it yet because it was a LOT. I will just tell you, Janet Lambert HATES going steady!

I also put most of this together before I read these two -

and they were both lovely.

That's it! If you want to look at my actual stats here - feel free.

Or I can just tell you it was 34,659 pages.

Children's and Middle Grade

Here are my top 5 children's and middle grade books of 2021. Spoiler - they are all middle grade. Usually I find a lot of children's gems in December when I pillage the public library so that I can up my numbers. But since I had such a respectable year this year, I only read four picture books. And they were fine. But it's just not my area of interest. Moving on...

My fifth favorite was this adorable epistolary novel. When Bett and Avery's dads fall in love, they decide to anti-parent-trap them out of it.  I love a summer camp setting, and this is a great one. I also love letters (or emails, in this case) and I love kids trying to manipulate grown-ups. OOH! There's also an awesome granny and a theater subplot. So much to love here. 

This cover is dreadful but FAMILY SABBATICAL, my fourth favorite, is a pure delight! Carol Ryrie Brink was heretofore known to me only for CADDIE WOODLAWN, but a group read on the BETSY TACY listserv introduced it to me. It was published in 1956 and the tone reminded me of Rosamund and Judy duJardin's JUNIOR YEAR ABROAD. But this was also very, very funny. It feels its age a bit, but the interplay of the kids with their new surroundings and acquaintances is timeless.

The next three are all damn near perfect and it is hard to choose the order so I am going in order of how much suffering they contain. BLACKBIRD GIRLS is set during and after the Chernobyl disaster, so, lots of suffering. It also has a sub-plot set during the Holocaust so Blankman really doubles down. She creates the feeling of what it was like to be a tween in the USSR from the ingrained antisemitism to the mistrust of everyone. It is also a beautiful story of kindness and friendship, so go figure. 

I am a huge LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE fan, and yet I was not at all conflicted at the ALA decision to rename the Laura Ingalls Wilder award to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. I can love and appreciate those books while still seeing their flaws. I thought this book, set in the same era, performed that same magic of setting me into another time. I read some review on Goodreads that said basically that there weren't enough "history lessons" in it to which I reply - GOOD!! Park builds the world, she is not trying to indoctrinate children. She is showing not telling. We have the freaking internet now, kids can google whatever they have questions about. Anyway, it is the story of Hannah who is half-Chinese, new in her unwelcoming South Dakota town and longing to be a dressmaker. I am usually such a story-girl. I read ravenously just dying to find out what happens next. This book made me slow down and look at what was going on in the corners. It was beautiful.

My favorite middle grade book of the year was recommended by Janet Dawson of A Kids Book A Day and it has so many of my favorite things going for it:

• Scrappy orphans - gotta love them
• Lonely librarians - ditto
• Terrible foster parents - in fiction ONLY, please!
• WW2 evacuees
• Books, books and more books

A friend described this as THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE but not quite as painful. And I concur.  I mean, Anna, Edmund and William don't have parents, but they do have money. (I know it's not a fair trade, I've seen Good Will Hunting!)  William, at least, remembers a loving mother and he passes these memories on to his siblings. When their grandmother (who has raised them competently, but coldly) dies, they are evacuated out of London with other wartime refugee children. Albus does a great job showing the prejudices against the evacuees. The kids are scoping out possible families at the suggestion of their solicitor, but the pickings are slim. I just loved the way that this played out. I worried for these kids, but I also knew that they were going to be okay because they have each other. 

Audiobooks - who knew?

Last year I listened to two audiobooks. This year I listened to 28. Clearly, that is an uptick due to being able to leave my home. I have to say that driving is really the only time I have been listening. Although if I am listening to something I have already read I do play it whilst doing a task because if I miss some important information, well, it's still there in the dark recesses of my mind. Probably.

My audio rereads this year were the HUNGER GAMES series and the HARRY POTTER series and THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE. With all of these books, it was surprising how many details I picked up that I didn't notice the first time around. If you aren't familiar with these books - Welcome to reading! Is this your first time??

Two new (to me) series that I listened to were the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES books and Maureen Johnson's TRULY DEVIOUS series. I had only read the first of Montgomery's series and was charmed - and occasionally irritated - by the rest. RAINBOW VALLEY didn't make the cut. It felt cloying to me so I just read a recap and moved along to RILLA OF INGLESIDE, which was my favorite after the initial AoGG which I read in paper format. The Johnson books were a nice combo of mystery and boarding school caper. I don't think of myself as a Maureen Johnson fan, but I've never been disappointed by anything I've read by her. 

Early in the year, I had to do some Jeopardy prep - science and geography are definitely my weak areas - so I listened to Bill Bryson's A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING which was fun. I also enjoyed PRISONERS OF GEOGRAPHY by Tim Marshall. Nearly all of the information I learned from either of these books has completely fallen out of my head by now, but we had a good run.

One of the books that I listened to for BHS summer reading prep was WE CAME WE SAW WE LEFT by Charles Wheelen. It's the story of a family who took a gap year to take a 'round the world trip in 2016. It was a little Bryson-y and an absolute hoot. The other one was A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT which I have been pretending to have read since high school, but I am pretty sure I just Cliff's Note-d it. Well, the version I listened to was read by Carl Reiner and the combination of Twain's sarcasm and Reiner's "I've seen it all" tone of voice was a delight. 

I took a summer road trip, as per usual, and I was thrilled to have Rob Lowe along with me! His STORIES I ONLY TELL MY FRIENDS was a funny and honest and I felt like I had the most interesting man in the world sitting next to me as I drove through Indiana. THE LOST APOTHECARY had three different narrators, two of whom were tremendous and one of whom was just grating. The story was interesting enough, but if it hadn't been a book club book that I felt obligated to read, I would have dropped off about a quarter of the way through. Nevertheless, I persisted and the payoff was pretty good. And thinking back on it, the author did a spectacular job of making me visualize the settings, which is not something I am particularly good at. Finally TAKE A HINT DANI BROWN was entertaining and educational.  I raved about Talia Hibbert last year when I read the previous book in her Brown Sisters trilogy, and I think I liked this one even better. However, one caveat - Miss Talia does NOT hold back in her descriptions of the act of love. Seriously, I was driving into a crowded rest stop with my windows down just as Dani and her "friend" got going and I nearly killed myself turning the volume down. Yikes!

The last two stand-alone listens were two of my favorite books of the year. 

SIMON THE FIDDLER is a companion piece to THE NEWS OF THE WORLD. I desperately wanted to like NEWS, but if I remember correctly, the author does that thing where they don't use quotation marks and I will not stand for that. However, in audiobook format, it makes no difference at all! It's a win for me. The story of a young man conscripted into the confederate army and his experience after the war, trying to survive and find the love of his life - it broke my heart all over the place. And it focuses on music as well. I adored it. 

And finally, THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA was recommended by many school librarians and with good reason. It is perfect. It is the story of a lonely mid-level bureaucrat who finds the family of his heart when he is sent to an "orphanage" for children who are not "normal" children. It was screamingly funny as well as being so full of love that I sometimes had to stop the book to get ahold of myself. 

So here are my top 5 audiobooks of the year:

1. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

2. A Connecticut Yankee in Kind Arthur's Court (Carl Reiner reading) by Mark Twain

3. Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

4. Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery

5. We Came We Saw We Left by Charles Whelan