I was looking for new reads, so yesterday I turned to a talented source: my friends on Facebook. "I want to read new books written by you people," I posted. "If you wrote a book published (or forthcoming) in 2013, could you drop the title, publisher, and target audience in the comments?"
Here are the eclectic, inspiring results, sorted by genre (there may be others, but these were submitted by friends who happened to stop by Facebook yesterday):
Picture Book
When You Wander, A Search and Rescue Dog Story | Margarita Engle | Holt
The Kite That Bridged Two Nations: Homan Walsh and the First Niagara Suspension Bridge | Alexis O'Neill | Calkins Creek
Ghost in the House | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Candlewick
Bogart and Vinnie: A Completely Made-up Story of True Friendship | Audrey Glassman Vernick | Walker
Children's Fiction
Little Women and Me | Lauren Baratz-Logsted | Bloomsbury
Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom | Tym Byrd | Outlaw Moon Books
Cartwheel: A Sequel to Double Eagle | Sneed Collard | Bucking Horse Books
Emma Emmets. Playground Matchmaker | Julia Rozines DeVillers | Razorbill
Mountain Dog | Margarita Engle | Holt
Seeing Red | Kathy Erskine | Scholastic
4 Zeke Meeks chapter books | Debra Green Garfinkle | Capstone
The Four Seasons of Patrick | Susan Hughes | Red Deer Press
Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War | Helen Frost | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent | Beth Kephart | New City Community Press
Odette's Secrets | Maryann Macdonald | Bloomsbury
Rules for Ghosting | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Walker
The Nelig Stones | Sharon Skinner | Brick Cave Books
Children's/YA Non-Fiction
When Rivers Burned: The Earth Day Story | Linda Crotta Brennan | Apprentice Shop Books
The Lightning Dreamer, Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist | Margarita Engle | Harcourt
Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree | Jane Kohuth | Random House
Young Adult Fiction and Fantasy
Cameron and the Girls | Edward Averett | Clarion/HMH
No More Goddesses | Kim Baccellia | Zumaya Thresholds
Graffiti Knight | Karen Willsey Bass | Pajama Press (Canada)
Brother, Brother | Clay Carmichael | Roaring Brook
The Gleaning | Heidi R. Kling | Coliloquy
Dream Girl | S.J. Lomas | Scribe
Paradox | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Random House
Dead is a Dream | Marlene Perez | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Faerie After | Janni Lee Simner | Random House
Feral Nights | Cynthia Leitich Smith | Candlewick
The Language Inside | Holly Thompson | Delacorte/Random House
Adult Fiction
Dark Descent | Marlene Perez | Orbit
The Bargain: A Novel (Plain City Peace) | Stephanie Reed | Kregel
Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding: An Antique Print Mystery | Lea Wait | Perseverance Press
Adult Non-Fiction
The Disrespectful Interviewer: Thirteen Interviews with Authors (e-book) | Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Handling the Truth | Beth Kephart | Gotham
Preaching and Ethnic Diversity (Title to Come) | Lisa Washington Lamb
Making Our Way Through The Traffic: A Christian Response to Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking | Glenn Miles | Regnum
Blindsided: A Game Plan for Grief | Mark Scott | Clements
And Greg Hatcher added, "Probably not your thing, but I wrote a hell-for-leather adventure story starring the Black Bat for one of Airship27's 'New Pulp' anthologies."
Congratulations, one and all. Proud to be in your company, because a book is no easy thing to create. As John Butman notes in "Should You Write a Book?" (published in the Harvard Business Review and well worth a read), "There are many valuable roles a book, and only a book, can play in taking an idea public and gaining respiration for it — that is, making it come to life and breathe on its own."
Here are the eclectic, inspiring results, sorted by genre (there may be others, but these were submitted by friends who happened to stop by Facebook yesterday):
Picture Book
When You Wander, A Search and Rescue Dog Story | Margarita Engle | Holt
The Kite That Bridged Two Nations: Homan Walsh and the First Niagara Suspension Bridge | Alexis O'Neill | Calkins Creek
Ghost in the House | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Candlewick
Bogart and Vinnie: A Completely Made-up Story of True Friendship | Audrey Glassman Vernick | Walker
Children's Fiction
Little Women and Me | Lauren Baratz-Logsted | Bloomsbury
Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom | Tym Byrd | Outlaw Moon Books
Cartwheel: A Sequel to Double Eagle | Sneed Collard | Bucking Horse Books
Emma Emmets. Playground Matchmaker | Julia Rozines DeVillers | Razorbill
Mountain Dog | Margarita Engle | Holt
Seeing Red | Kathy Erskine | Scholastic
4 Zeke Meeks chapter books | Debra Green Garfinkle | Capstone
The Four Seasons of Patrick | Susan Hughes | Red Deer Press
Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War | Helen Frost | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent | Beth Kephart | New City Community Press
Odette's Secrets | Maryann Macdonald | Bloomsbury
Rules for Ghosting | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Walker
The Nelig Stones | Sharon Skinner | Brick Cave Books
Children's/YA Non-Fiction
When Rivers Burned: The Earth Day Story | Linda Crotta Brennan | Apprentice Shop Books
The Lightning Dreamer, Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist | Margarita Engle | Harcourt
Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree | Jane Kohuth | Random House
Young Adult Fiction and Fantasy
Cameron and the Girls | Edward Averett | Clarion/HMH
No More Goddesses | Kim Baccellia | Zumaya Thresholds
Graffiti Knight | Karen Willsey Bass | Pajama Press (Canada)
Brother, Brother | Clay Carmichael | Roaring Brook
The Gleaning | Heidi R. Kling | Coliloquy
Dream Girl | S.J. Lomas | Scribe
Paradox | Ammi-Joan Paquette | Random House
Dead is a Dream | Marlene Perez | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Faerie After | Janni Lee Simner | Random House
Feral Nights | Cynthia Leitich Smith | Candlewick
The Language Inside | Holly Thompson | Delacorte/Random House
Adult Fiction
Dark Descent | Marlene Perez | Orbit
The Bargain: A Novel (Plain City Peace) | Stephanie Reed | Kregel
Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding: An Antique Print Mystery | Lea Wait | Perseverance Press
Adult Non-Fiction
The Disrespectful Interviewer: Thirteen Interviews with Authors (e-book) | Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Handling the Truth | Beth Kephart | Gotham
Preaching and Ethnic Diversity (Title to Come) | Lisa Washington Lamb
Making Our Way Through The Traffic: A Christian Response to Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking | Glenn Miles | Regnum
Blindsided: A Game Plan for Grief | Mark Scott | Clements
And Greg Hatcher added, "Probably not your thing, but I wrote a hell-for-leather adventure story starring the Black Bat for one of Airship27's 'New Pulp' anthologies."
Congratulations, one and all. Proud to be in your company, because a book is no easy thing to create. As John Butman notes in "Should You Write a Book?" (published in the Harvard Business Review and well worth a read), "There are many valuable roles a book, and only a book, can play in taking an idea public and gaining respiration for it — that is, making it come to life and breathe on its own."