IWSG Day, Olympics, Ulysses, and the Newbery Medal

elcome to Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

This month's question is: Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn't around anymore? Anyone you miss?

The awesome co-hosts for the February 2 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox, and Lee Lowery!

I'm lucky in that I haven't lost any of my direct supporters. But my grandmother's marriage was part of the inspiration for the love story of Rosa and Baha in Out of the Water, and she passed away a few years ago. Their names are directly taken from my grandparents' names, and I had to give them alternate names when sharing the novel with my mother.


This year marks two centenaries: of Ulysses and of the Newbery Medal.

A new recording of Ulysses is in the works. It would be such a different experience to hear it rather than read it!

I blogged about reading Ulysses a while ago:

" It took me a year - I read a chapter each Sunday (or so). After each chapter, I read the corresponding chapter in Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study. Is it really possible to read Ulysses without any help at all? I haven't tried Finnegan's Wake yet... A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is still my favourite of his writing."

A long time ago I also blogged about knitting during the Olympics. Now we have Tom Daley, who knits during the Olympics. I can't wait to try one of his patterns!

I may try Olympics knitting again this year, as I've got an easy pattern for a Gryffindor scarf that I've just started on!

Abebooks has a list of all 100 Newbery Medal winners. They all look so interesting! Some of them I know of, but haven't read yet. I can't believe I've only read 16 of them!

These are the ones I've read -- and reread! (I've read other books by Lloyd Alexander and Jean Craighead George, but not the winners):

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, 2009
The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg, 1997
The Giver by Lois Lowry, 1994
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, 1990
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, 1984
Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt, 1983
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, 1981
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, 1978
The Grey King by Susan Cooper, 1976
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien, 1972
Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars, 1971
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, 1968
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, 1963
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, 1959
The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth, 1931
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, 1923

I also feel like I've read The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli, 1950, but it must have been a long long time ago. I wish I'd kept book lists as a kid! I'll have to reread it to make sure.

Which of the winners have you read?