Yeah, I Did Some Reading

I am back from Retreat Week. While it wasn't the most retreating Retreat Week I've ever done, I did do some professional reading, which I'll be writing about this week.

First up, I saw some interesting things in the Jan./Feb. Horn Book.

1.Both Code Name Verity and The Brides of Rollrock Island made The Horn Book Fanfare list of Best Books of 2012.

2. The Gail Carriger YA novel, Etiquette & Espionage, is reviewed. It publishes next month. I find the idea of a YA novel from Carriger interesting because one of her adult books made a list of adult books for YAs sometime in the last couple of years. I liked the book. In fact, I may own it. I own several of her books. I just don't see anything about it that makes it of any more interest to YAs than any other adult steampunk book about vampires and werewolves. So it is interesting that Carriger wrote a YA, which I look forward to reading.

3. Days of Blood & Starlight is reviewed. This is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, which I liked. So, again, I'll be looking forward to reading that.

4. Reflections: On the Magic of Writing by Diana Wynne Jones is reviewed in the "Of Interest to Adults" section of the mag. I've been hearing about this book for months and want to read it also.

5. Also reviewed in that "Of Interest to Adults" section is Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices  by Leonard S. Marcus. I've never been a L'Engle fan, though I did enjoy hearing her speak once years ago. And I do like Leonard S. Marcus. Plus I think I might have read at least part of the "controversial 2004 New Yorker article" referred to in this review. So if I were to stumble upon this book somewhere, I could read it.