There was a strange day a few weeks ago, when I woke up in the morning and had the strangest thought:

“Gee… I don’t have to read any nonfiction books today!”

Almost three months of wild and crazy nonfiction reading, we whittled an extremely large amount of books – too many of which were just REALLY AMAZING – into a very short short list. This was especially challenging because we were reading everything beyond picturebooks – books for third-graders, books for twelfth graders, and everything in between. At times, it felt like we were comparing apples and oranges. Or Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.

Some of these were my all-time favorites of 2012, and I was just delighted when the rest of my committee agreed. Here are the stellar books we decided on – you can read full blurbs on the Cybils page. Now it’s up to the second round committee to pick a winner – I do not envy this task, but am excited for February 14th to see which book will be the big winner!

I did enjoy my inaugural Cybils experience… but I will also enjoy reading whatever the heck I want for awhile.

Bomb: The Race to Build – an Steal – the world’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (review here)

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (review here)

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loves Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson (review here)

Moonbird: A Year on the Wing with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose (review here)