131 Books in 2012

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a reader. I remember going on trips with my parents when I was a little girl and having my floorboard piled with books that would inevitably be read by the time we got to our vacation destination. As an English major in college, my “pleasure reading” took a backseat to assigned readings that I wasn’t always overjoyed about reading, but after graduating, I returned to reading with a vengeance. Three years ago, a few of my students got into a conversation about how many books they thought I read in a year, and I realized that I had never actually tracked that. Using Shelfari (a website sponsored by Amazon.com), I have tracked my reading for the past two years. Each year, I set a reading goal. The first year of tracking, the goal was 100 books. I think I finished up with 104 that year. This past year, my goal was 120, and at the end of the year, I’d read 131. This year, my goal will be 150. Let’s hope I reach it.

Quite a few people have asked about the books I read in 2012. I am posting my list here, but I want to express that not all of the books are great. That’s what happens when we read. If you haven’t already, you need to read Wonder by RJ Palacio and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Both are excellent.

Books Read in 2012:

1: Wither

2: Ten Things We Did

3: The Mockingbirds

4: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

5: The Declaration

6: Enclave

7: LoveSick

8: Providence

9: The Peach Keeper

10: Requiem

11: Beautiful Disaster

12: Entwined

13: Flat-Out Love

14: Torn to Pieces

15: Relatively Famous

16: Need

17: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

18: Dirty little secrets

19: Beyond Belief

20: The Shattering

21: Captivate

22: Beautiful

23: Anna Dressed in Blood

24: The Fault in Our Stars

25: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

26: The Fox Inheritance

27: Before I Fall

28: How to Save a Life

29: Blood on My Hands

30: Wish You Were Dead

31: Hatteras Girl

32: Rain Song

33: How Sweet It Is

34: Restorations

35: Almost Home

36: To Win Her Heart

37: A Billion Reasons Why

38: Broken Laces

39: Simon's Choice

40: For Now And Always (Stevens Island)

41: A Friendly Arrangement

42: Between Shades of Gray

43: Insurgent

44: Just Like That

45: Eden

46: HELPER12

47: The Resistance

48: Annexed

49: Epic Fail

50: The Mind Readers

51: Scars

52: Moving Neutral

53: A Little Piece of Sky

54: The List

55: Almost Perfect

56: Zelah Green Queen of Clean

57: Everybody Sees the Ants

58: Easy

59: A Long Walk to Water

60: Slammed

61: Point of Retreat

62: Between the Lines

63: Where You Are

64: Pulled

65: Take This Regret

66: Wonder

67: The Boy Who Sneaks in my Bedroom Window

68: Almost

69: See You at Harry's

70: Roadside Assistance

71: Hooked

72: Thoughtless

73: The Earth, My Butt, & Other Big Round Things

74: Nineteen Minutes

75: Effortless

76: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

77: Eli the Good

78: Waiting

79: Bitter End

80: Why We Broke Up

81: Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls

82: Falling Under

83: Shatter Me

84: Paradise

85: Sister Wife

86: The Ghost and the Goth

87: Queen of the Dead

88: The Selection

89: Girl in the Arena

90: Body & Soul

91: Lola and the Boy Next Door

92: Fools Rush In

93: Dry as Rain

94: Swinging on a Star

95: What She Left Behind

96: Made to Crave

97: It Had to Be You

98: Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions

99: Gone Girl

100: One Perfect Day: A Novel

101: A Great and Terrible Beauty

102: The Bridge

103: Rebel Angels

104: Learning

105: Leaving (Bailey Flanigan Series)

106: Longing

107: Loving

108: Blackberry Winter

109: I'm Not Her

110: If I Tell

111: Catching Jordan

112: Stealing Parker

113: Unmaking Hunter Kennedy

114: The Perfect Game

115: Favorite

116: Chance Encounters

117: The Truth About Faking

118: Girl Over the Edge

119: The Cardturner

120: The Edge of Never

121: Crazy Little Thing

122: The Pact

123: One Pink Line

124: From Ashes

125: Hopeless

126: Tidal

127: Ten Tiny Breaths

128: Devoured

129: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

130: One for the Murphys

131: Beneath a Meth Moon

*Starting 2013 off right!*

I'm Slack...I Know

How have I not blogged since Halloween? I know that you all will forgive me because most of the people who read my blog, with the exception of my family (Hi, Mom, Dad, and Nanny!) are teachers, so you know and understand that teachers are busy people. The past two months have flown by in a whirlwhind, and now I'm standing here in 2013, wondering where the last year went!

In October, my Teacher of the Year adventures took me to Notre Dame for the Excellence in Teaching Conference. My mom traveled with me, and it is a trip we will always remember, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity. Notre Dame in October was beautiful, and the speaker, Ann Anzalone, was fascinating. Everything she said made perfect sense, and I found myself asking why we still do things in education that we KNOW don't work.

Since then, I've traveled a good bit, talking with Teacher Cadets, Teaching Fellows, and some really awesome educators. I wanted to take a minute to tell you about one.

There's an internet meme going around that showcases what teachers think they do, what society thinks teachers do, what teachers' families think they do, etc. You can see it here, just in case you haven't already.

Our profession is definitely a unique one. Some people think we do this for summers off, for the "great" retirement or benefits, or for the easy hours. While we're at work, there are people who think we sing songs or make bulletin boards or read fun picture books all day. I say it all the time to Teacher Cadets or education major or underappreciated teachers, but people who follow that train of thought aren't worth the breath it would take me to argue with them. Teachers do so much more every single day.

I am fortunate because I have had some phenomenal teachers, and now, I know really great teachers that give it their all in their classrooms every single day. A few weeks before Christmas, one of my friends who teaches kindergarten at a local public school posted on her Facebook that one of her students was not going to have a Christmas. The child's mother has an illness that lands her in the hospital sporadically, so holding a job isn't an option for her. My friend, her teacher, had a business who said they would sponsor the child for Christmas, but a few weeks before the holiday, they said they couldn't. Many people would have been upset, and that would have been the end of it. They might have tried to get a few things for the child and called it a day, but remember, my friend is a TEACHER. A teacher who didn't enter the profession for money, or vacation, or retirement, or accolades. She became a teacher because her heart is the size of Texas. She became a teacher because a child not having gifts to open at Christmas wasn't an option for her. So she did what many of us do, she went to Facebook, and simply let people know the situation. According to her, gifts came pouring in. Additionally, her student had always wanted to be a Girl Scout, but that costs money. Money that the little girl's family didn't have. Again, her teacher wrote a letter to the Girl Scout headquarters, explaining the situation, and they donated a "scholarship" to her...all because her teacher cared. My husband and I gave a few gifts to help out, and this week, we got the most precious card that my friend and the little girl had made with pictures of her opening her gifts. I was immediately so thankful that God had placed both of them in that classroom in August. I am convinced that they needed each other, and that's the way it is for so many of us and our kids.

As teachers, we play many different roles, but none of them are as important as the role we play as people who care about kids. Whether it's as big and noteworthy as making sure they have Christmas, or as simple as making sure they get a smile or a positive word from us in a day, we are important. We can't ever forget that or let anything diminish it.