Golden Globes? No, I want the Newbery Awards!

So I completely went to bed last night forgetting that today was the day that the ALA announced their awards, including the Newbery and Caldecott winners.

I was randomly checking my email and checking out my blogs when I saw something on the side of a page and realized that it was book related and the NEWBERYS were going to be announced today. I immediately did some crazy fast internet searching to find out when the winner's would be listed and I got onto twitter to check out ALA's twitter page and found out the winners, but I didn't find the whole list.

But I found an article online that said they were posting the press release at 10:30EST and since I live in CST I looked at the right hand of my computer screen and saw it was 9:31 my time and I refreshed my page and I got the results! Here are the winners and honors for 2010!

I'm going to go put a whole bunch of books on my to-read lists on goodreads.

Music Stats 2009

The Top Played CDs of 2009
(according to my iPod)

These are the CDs that I played over and over again. The CDs that I could tell you the first line of the next song because I had listened to them so many times. As you can see, 2009 was the year of Relient K with three CDs I was maniacal about. Family Force 5 also had two CDs I listened to a lot. But what is actually surprising is the newcomers And Then There Were None who totally dominated my Top Played Playlist this year, kicking Family Force 5 out of the top 25.
Here are my top played CDs in alphabetical order by title:

“The Birds And The Bee Sides” by Relient K
“Dance Or Die” by Family Force 5
“The End Is Not The End” by House Of Heroes
“Family Force 5’s Christmas Pageant” by Family Force 5
“Forget And Not Slow Down” by Relient K
“Galactic Conquest” by Eleventyseven
“Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer” by Relient K
“Make Some Noise” by Krystal Meyers
“Ordinary Dreamers” by Group 1 Crew
“The Seattle Sessions” by The Classic Crime
“Who Speaks For Planet Earth” by And Then There Were None

Top 25 Most Played
(to even get on this list you have to have a play count of 57 or higher).
1. Backstabber – Jonezetta – Popularity
2. Crazy Daisy – Neon Horse – Neon Horse
3. LCM – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
4. Action Is The Anecdote – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
5. Murmurs Of… - And Then There Were None - Who Speaks For Planet Earth
6. John Orr The Arsonist – And Then There Were None - Who Speaks For Planet Earth
7. All My Balloons – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
8. Reinventing Robert Cohn – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
9. Homemade Valentine – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
10. The Hospital – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
11. The Atmosphere – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
12. Cloak And Dagger – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
13. You Know We’re All So Fond Of Dying – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
14. Right Here Waiting – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
15. Time And Wasted Bullets – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
16. Even Sleeping – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
17. The City – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
18. Bed Of Nails – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
19. Search Warrant – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
20. Thank The Watchmaker – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
21. The Alamo – And Then There Were None – Who Speaks For Planet Earth
22. Ditches – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
23. A Chance To Say Goodbye – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
24. Samantha – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3
25. Mock The Music – Children 18:3 – Children 18:3

The Best Books of 2009

The Best Books of 2009

This year I read over 400 books, and I've kept track of my books on goodreads. I thought it would be a cool idea to list all the books I gave 5 stars this year. I also decided to categorize them by genre. So...bold = juvenile books; italics = children’s books; normal = young adult; and underline = adult books.

The Best Books (in order of when I read them):
1. Kamishibai Man by Allen Say
2. Knitting Never Felt Better by Nickey Epstein
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Panda Whispers by Mary Beth Owens
5. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
6. The Dirt on Sex by Justin Lookadoo
7. The Dirt on Drugs by Justin Lookadoo
8. Knitting Beyond the Edge by Nicky Epstein
9. Savvy by Ingrid Law
10. I Like Myself! By Karen Beaumont
11. Good Babies: A Tale of Trolls, Humans, a Witch and a Switch by Tim Myers
12. Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines by Kay Gardiner
13. Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on Top of the World by Nicky Epstein
14. Ask Me Anything by J. Budziszewski
15. Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
16. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
17. Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse by Judy Schachner
18. Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner
19. Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble by Judy Schachner
20. Old Bear by Kevin Henkes
21. Watch Me Throw the Ball by Mo Willems
22. Forest Born by Shannon Hale
23. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
24. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
25. Sexy Girls: How Hot is Too Hot? By Hayley DiMarco
26. Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice by Judy Schachner