Search Results for: Sara Zarr

Books Read in 2009

January:

Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins. Semicolon review here.
I Choose To Be Happy: A School Shooting Survivor’s Triumph Over Tragedy by Missy Jenkins with WIlliam Croyle.
Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. Semicolon review of The Indispensable Man.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale. Semicolon review here.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.2008 National Book Award FInalist. Cybils Young Adult Fiction FInalist. Semicolon review here.
A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth Bunce. Cybils Fantasy and Science FIction Finalist. Recommended by Miss Erin. Semicolon review here.
The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson. Cybils Fantasy and Science FIction Finalist. Semicolon review here.
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. Another Cybils finalist,
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Semicolon review here.
Prodigals and Those Who Love Them by Ruth Bell Graham.
Home by Marilynne Robinson.
Heaven: Your Real Home by Joni Eareckson Tada. January selection for Semicolon Book Club.
Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher. Semicolon review here.
Wake by Lisa McMann.
Schuyler’s Monster by Robert Rummel-Hudson. Semicolon review here.
Paper Towns by John Green.
The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper.
Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum. Memoir of a difficult experience in counseling and mentoring a troubled teen. Semicolon review here
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. Semicolon review here.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson.
Holes by Louis Sachar.

February:

The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins.
In the Shadow of the Alamo by Sherry Garland.
Search for the Shadowman by Joan Lowery Nixon.
Moonshiner’s Gold by John R. Erickson.
Buffalo Moon by G. Clifton Wisler.
More information here.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
After the Fire by Robin Gaby Fisher. Recommended by Melissa at 5 Minutes for Books.
The Resistance by Gemma Malley. Semicolon review of The Declaration.
The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante. Semicolon review here.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Semicolon review here.
The Deadliest Monster by Jeff Baldwin.
The Love Letters by Madeleine L’Engle. Semicolon review here.
Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman. Fictional treatment of Henry II and his tempestuous reign.
Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer.

March:

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. Recommended by Megan at Leafing Through Life.
The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson. Recommended by She Is Too Fond of Books.
Change of Heart by Jodi Piccoult. Recommended at the 3Rs.
The Amazing Potato by Milton Meltzer.
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I

The Compound –Bodeen. Recommended by Jen Robinson.
Star of Kazan—Ibbotson Recommended by Jen Robinson.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. Recommended by Melanie at Deliciously Clean Reads.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Recommended at The Book Lady’s Blog.
Saving Juliet–Susan Selfors. Recommended by Melissa at Estella’s Revenge.

John Adams by David McCullough. The March Semicolon Book Club selection.
Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda. Recommended by Krin at Enough to Read.
Life As We Knew It–Pfeiffer Recommended by SassyMonkey.
Doomsday Book—Willis Recommended by Lazy Cow.
Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear.
Birds of a Feather by Jaqueline Winspear.
Pardonable Lies by Jaqueline WInspear.
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt.
Careless in Red by Elizabeth George.
In the Woods by Tana French. Recommended by Kelly at BigAlittlea. Also recommended at Whimpulsive.
So Brave, So Young and So Handsome by Leif Enger.

April:

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Semicolon review here.
Eat Drink and Be from Mississippi by Nancy Kincaid.
Tender Grace by Jackina Stark. Semicolon review here.
Passage by Connie WIllis.
The Rule of Claw by John Brindley.
Winnie’s War by Jenny Moss.
I Remember the Alamo by D. Ann Love.
Just One Wish by Janette Rallison.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Çhernow.

May:

Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock.
The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem (with Lynn Vincent).
The Trap by Joan Lowery Nixon.
Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Semicolon review of this YA novel set in Chile and in the U.S. among Chilean refugees, here.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey.
Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Semicolon review here plus a short list of favorite novelized fairy tales.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Tuck by Stephen Lawhead.
Ancient Highway by Bret Lott.
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips. Semicolon review here.
Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song by Steve Turner.

June:

The Chosen by Chaim Potok.
The Promise by Chaim Potok.
Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli. Semicolon review here.
Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez. Semicolon review here.
The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac. Semicolon review here.
Family Reminders by Julie Danneberg. Semicolon review here.
Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem. Semicolon review here.
Things Change by Patrick Jones. Semicolon review here.
The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill. Semicolon review here.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation:
Volume 1: The Pox Party
Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
by M.T. Anderson. Semicolon review here.
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. Semicolon review here.
Singin’ Texas by Edward Abernethy Francis.
Abide With Me: The World of VIctorian Hymns by Ian C. Bradley.
Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin. Semicolon review here.
Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean.
101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan.

July:

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. Semicolon review here.
An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken. Semicolon review here.
Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter.
A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor. Semicolon review here.
The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz.
Adrift by Allan Baillie.
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams.
Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity by Lauren Winner.
Your Jesus Is Too Safe by Jared Wilson.
When the War Was Over by Elizabeth Becker.
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him.
Hitchhiking Vietnam by Karin Muller.

August:

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Semicolon review here.
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. Semicolon review here.
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Semicolon review here.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Semicolon review here.
Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward.
Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry. Semicolon review here.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine. Semicolon review here.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
Little Face by Sophie Hannah.
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.
Buffalo Moon by G. Clifton Wisler.
Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman.
The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler.
Wild Things by Clay Carmichael.

September:

The Associate by John Grisham.
Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road) by Kate Klise. Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Semicolon review here.
The Roar by Emma Clayton. Semicolon review here.
Cold Springs by Rick Riordan.
The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Semicolon review here.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker. Semicolon review here.
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor. Semicolon review here.
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George.
Daisy Chain by Mary DeMuth.
The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams. Semicolon Texas Tuesday review here.
The Texan Scouts by Joseph Altsheler.
A Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner. Semicolon discussion here.
I reviewed these and a couple of others here for Texas Tuesday:
Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman.
Spirit of Iron by Janice Shefelman.
The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler.

October:

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell.
Gateway by Frederick Pohl.
A Thread of Grace by Mary Dorie Russell.
The Texan Scouts by Joseph Altsheler. Semicolon review here.
Unsigned Hype by Booker T. Mattison. Semicolon review here.
Luke and the Van Zandt County War by Judith MacBain Alter. Semicolon review here.
West Oversea by Lars Walker.
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg. Semicolon review here.
Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal. Semicolon review here.
Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin. Semicolon review here.
The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. Semicolon review here.
The Beef Princess of Practical County by Michelle Houts. Semicolon review here.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Semicolon review here.
Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder. Semicolon review here.
Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta. Semicolon review here.
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane. Semicolon review here.
Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne. Semicolon review here.
Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino.
Sahwira: An African Friendship by Carolyn Marsden.
Carolina Harmony by Marilyn Taylor McDowell.
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle. Semicolon review here.
My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald. Semicolon review here.
The Kind of Friends We Used To Be by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Semicolon review here.
All the Broken Pieces by An E. Burg. Semicolon review here.
The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.
Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson.
The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman. Semicolon review here.
The Problem With the Puddles by Kate Feiffer. Semicolon review here.
Dessert First by Hallie Durand. Semicolon review here.
Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur. Betsy-Bee and I discuss Love, Aubrey.
Anna’s World by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin. Semicolon review here.
Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan. Semicolon review here.
Callie’s Rules by Naomi Zucker. Semicolon review here.
Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti.
Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells. Semicolon review here.

November:

After by Amy Efaw. Semicolon review here.
Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Semicolon review here.
Make Way for Sam Houston by Jean Fritz. Semicolon review here.
The Last Invisible Boy by Evan Kuhlman. Semicolon review here.
Gone From These Woods by Donna Bailey Seagraves. Semicolon review here.
Extra Credit by Andrew Clements. Clements’ latest school story is about a tomboyish girl who becomes pen pals with an Afghan boy and his sister.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. Semicolon review here.
Standing for Socks by Elissa Brent Weissman.
Angel Cake by Cathy Cassidy.
Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez. Semicolon review here.
A Recipe 4 Robbery by Marybeth Kelsey. Semicolon review here.
Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers Are on a Roll by Mary Amato.
Lucky Breaks by Susan Patron.
Scat by Carl Hiaassen.
The Beast of Backslope by Tracy Barrett.
Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes.
Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown. Semicolon review here.
Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko. Semicolon review here.
Rescuing Seneca Crane by Susan Runholt. Semicolon review here.
Dani Noir by Nova Ben Suma. Semicolon review here.
Born to Fly by Michael Ferrari. Semicolon review here.
Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum. Semicolon review here.
William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Semicolon review here.
Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams. Semicolon review here.

December:

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter.
Don’t Judge a Girl By Her Cover by Ally Carter.
The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank. Semicolon review here.
If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney. Semicolon review here.
Ice Shock (The Joshua Files) by M.G. Harris.
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.
After the Moment by Garrett Freyman-Weyr. Semicolon review here.
Living on Impulse by Cara Haycak. Semicolon review here.
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low. Semicolon review here.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Semicolon review here.
Dear Pen Pal by Heather Vogel Frederick.
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. by Kate Messner.
Positively by Courtney Sheinmel.
Dragon Wishes by Stacey Nyikos.
Paris Pan Takes the Dare by Cynthea Liu.
The Year of the Bomb by Ronald Kidd.
The Sisters Eight: Annie’s Adventures by Lauren Baratz-Logstead.
Brushing Mom’s Hair by Andrea Cheng.
Road to Tater Hill by Edith Hemingway. Semicolon review here.
When the Whistle Blows by Fran Cannon Slayton.
Walking Backward by Catherine Austen.

This entry was posted on 12/28/2009, in . 1 Comment

Saturday Review of Books: March 21, 2009

Mar20

“‘The art of reading is to skip judiciously.”
~Alexander Hamilton

Welcome to this week’s Saturday Review of Books.

Here’s how it usually works. Find a review on your blog posted sometime this week of a book you’re reading or a book you’ve read. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Now post a link here to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

1. Carrie K. (In the Woods)
2. Carrie, RtK (A Patriot\’s History of the United States)
3. Carrie, RtK (Is Christianity Good for the World?)
4. 5M4B (The Returning)
5. Book Psmith (I Am the Messenger)
6. 5M4B (Alfred and Emily)
7. 5M4B (According to Their Deeds)
8. 5M4B (5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter)
9. Book Psmith (The Mysterious Affair at Styles)
10. 5M4B (The Hunger Games)
11. Anne (Christianity and Liberalism)
12. Margot (Home Another Way)
13. Biblauragraphy (Wake and Fade)
14. Maw Books (Longhorns and Outlaws)
15. Maw Books (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw)
16. Maw Books (Something, Maybe)
17. Maw Books (The 13th Reality, The Hunt for Dark Infinity)
18. Bonnie (To Kill a Mockingbird)
19. Carol (All But My Life)
20. pussreboots (Purplicious)
21. pussreboots (How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?)
22. pussreboots (Duck on a Bike)
23. pussreboots (Keeping Hannah Waiting)
24. pussreboots (Survivor)
25. Fate (Need)
26. gautami tripathy (When We Meet Again)
27. gautami tripathy (The Murder Stone)
28. gautami tripathy (Dream Country)
29. gautami tripathy (Love With a Stranger)
30. Lazygal (The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had)
31. Lazygal (Twenty Boy Summer)
32. Lazygal (Deep in the Heart of High School)
33. Lazygal (Punkzilla)
34. Lazygal (The Bellini Madonna)
35. Lazygal (Love or Something Like It)
36. Lazygal (The Girls)
37. Lazygal (A Different Life)
38. Lazygal (A Taste for Red)
39. FleurFisher (The London Scene)
40. FleurFisher (Lady Into Fox)
41. caite(Cutting for Stone)
42. SuziQoregon (Little Bee)
43. Farm Lane Books (A Month in the Country)
44. Farm Lane Books (Foundation)
45. Farrm Lane Books (The Seance)
46. Farm Lane Books (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)
47. Nymeth (Little Brother by Cory Doctorow)
48. Nymeth (Sweethearts by Sara Zarr)
49. Nymeth (Tom\’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce)
50. Nymeth (The Grey King by Susan Cooper)		 51. Hope (Gilead)
52. Lynne (THE SECOND OPINION)
53. Lynne (WHILE MY SISTER SLEEPS)
54. Lynne (AS SURE AS THE DAWN)
55. Lynne (SEINLANGUAGE)
56. Belinda (A Good Man is Hard to Find)
57. Mo (Surrendering to Yourself)
58. Sebastian (The Bronze Christ)
59. Heather T (Lawn Boy)
60. Mental multivitamin (On the nightstand)
61. Mental multivitamin (St. Patrick)
62. Mental multivitamin (Poetry)
63. LuAnn (The Great Eight)
64. Inquirer (The School of Essential Ingredients)
65. Mindy Withrow (Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life)
66. Sherrie(Airborn)
67. Joy (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet)
68. Books and Other Thoughts (Knucklehead)
69. Books and Other Thoughts (Zorgamazoo)
70. Books and Other Thoughts (Yokaiden, Vol. 1)
71. Word Lily (American Rust)
72. Word Lily (A Quiet Flame)
73. Books and Other Thoughts (Bone Crossed)
74. Books and Other Thoughts (Miki Falls: Spring)
75. Books and Other Thoughts (Visions in Death)
76. Books and Other Thoughts (The Big Joke Game)
77. Bookeywookey (Japan Through the Looking Glass)
78. Bookeywookey (Anansi Boys)
79. Bookeywookey (The Talented Mr. Ripley)
80. The Book Lady\’s Blog (Her Last Death)
81. The Book Lady\’s Blog (Captain Freedom & Giveaway)
82. The Book Lady\’s Blog (Safer)
83. Just One More Book! Children\’s Book Podcast (Michael Rosen\’s Sad Book)
84. Presenting Lenore (The Elite and In too Deep)
85. Just One More Book! Children\’s Book Podcast (The Lime Green Secret)
86. Presenting Lenore (If I Stay)
87. Presenting Lenore (First Daughter)
88. CoversGirl (Lord John and the Hand of Devils)
89. Benjie (The Associate)
90. Framed (Animal Dreams)
91. Framed (Summer of My German Soldier)
92. melydia (The City of Falling Angels)
93. S. Krishna (Pictures at an Exhibition)
94. S. Krishna (Land of Marvels)
95. S. Krishna (It Will Come To Me)
96. S. Krishna (Looking for Class)
97. S. Krishna (The Reader)
98. S. Krishna (Disquiet)
99. Amy@The Sleepy Reader(Daemon
100. Amy@The Sleepy Reader(Wake)		 101. Amy@The Sleepy Reader(Inkheart)
102. Eyes Like Stars (Becky)
103. Chosen ONe (Becky)
104. My summer on earth (Becky)
105. Michal (Becky)
106. How I Live Now (Becky)
107. The Man in the High Castle (Becky)
108. Graceling (Becky)
109. Trucktown Series (Ladybug)
110. No Kisses Please (Becky)
111. Scaredy Squirrel at Night (Becky)
112. Chicken Soup (Becky)
113. Girl Detective (Home)
114. Girl Detective (A Mercy)
115. Melissa Wiley (Rules by Cynthia Lord)
116. At Home With Books (The Only True Genius in the Family)
117. At Home With Books (Galway Bay)
118. At Home With Books (The Rose of Sebastopol)
119. Hermie\’s Mom (The Eyre Affair)
120. Book Chatter (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw)
121. Jen Robinson (The Pigman)
122. Robin of My Two Blessings (Sag Harbor)
123. Robin of My Two Blessings (Fireproof)
124. Robin of My Two Blessings (Hadassah)
125. She is Too Fond of Books (Things I Want My Daughters to Know)
126. Homespun Light (Mrs. McGinty\’s Dead)
127. Homespun Light (Withering Heights)
128. Serena (Galway Bay & Giveaway)
129. Serena (Plum Spooky & Giveaway)
130. Diary of an Eccentric
131. Memory (The Good Thief)
132. Memory (The Murder on the Links)
133. Memory (The Gargoyle)
134. 3M (The Willoughbys)
135. 3M (Dear Mr. Henshaw)
136. 3M (A Single Shard)
137. 3M (Kira-Kira)
138. Kaila (The Mummy or Ramses the Damned)
139. krin (The Gift of Stones)
140. Kathryn (New Deal or Raw Deal?)
141. Teddy (Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly)
142. Kristi – books and needlepoint (Scream)
143. Kristi – books and needlepoint(Katt\’s in the Cradle)
144. Kristi -Books and Needlepoint ( Diamonds in the Shadow)
145. Kristi – books and needlepoint(Marked by Passion)
146. Mixed Media (Song of Saigon)
147. Colleen (The Hummingbird\’s Daughter)
148. Lazygal (North of Beautiful)

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Books Read in January, 2009

Jan31

Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins. I had been saving the ARC I received of Secret Keeper for a treat and because I thought that a review closer to the time of publication would be more helpful to readers. In December I succumbed, and read it. (I’m counting it for January because I reviewed it in January, and it was published in January.) Such a powerful story! I so wanted everything to turn out just like the fairy tales, and yet I felt as I read that it couldn’t have beenwritten it any other way. It’s a story that bridges cultures and creates understanding and makes even WASPs like me feel a twinge of identification with the characters and their very human situations.

I Choose To Be Happy: A School Shooting Survivor’s Triumph Over Tragedy by Missy Jenkins with WIlliam Croyle. I received an ARC of this autobiography/memoir of a survivor of the 1997 Paducah, KY school shootings. It was readable, but not classic literature. There’s lots of psycho-babble, a deep and believable faith, and some good ideas on forgiveness.

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. The first president, and the first biography in my American Presidents Project. Next up is David McCullough’s John Adams. Semicolon review of The Indispensable Man.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale. Semicolon review here.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. What fun! 2008 National Book Award FInalist. Cybils Young Adult Fiction FInalist. Frankie Landau-Banks is an intriguing and complicated character, and I enjoyed getting to know her. Semicolon review here.

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth Bunce. Rumplestiltskin for grown-ups. Pagan witchiness and magical realism. Cybils Fantasy and Science FIction Finalist. Recommended by Miss Erin. Semicolon review here.

The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson. Odd alternative history/science fiction/ghost story/espionage novel. Yeah, all that plus politics, seances, terrorism and murder, with a bit of schoolgirl romance. Cybils Fantasy and Science FIction Finalist. Semicolon review here.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. Another Cybils finalist, Brown Bear Daughter and I both thought it was just so-so. Not bad, but a little obsessive in its treatment of childhood friends who experience a traumatic event and then can’t forget one another or move on to other relationships. But the two, a teenage boy and a girl, insist that they are not in love with each other.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Wow! Fascinating, thrilling, and thought-provoking YA dystopian fiction. Semicolon review here.

Prodigals and Those Who Love Them by Ruth Bell Graham. Rather than a book by Mrs. Graham about prodigals, this is a compilation of poems, devotional thoughts, Biblical passages, stories, etc. about prodigals and those who love them. I sort of skimmed through and prayed for my own prodigal.

Home by Marilynne Robinson. Reading this sort-of-sequel to Gilead made me want to go back and re-read that book.

Heaven: Your Real Home by Joni Eareckson Tada. January selection for Semicolon Book Club.

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher. Good historical fiction set in the Great Depression, with some language and disturbing elements. For older teens and adults. Semicolon review here.

Wake by Lisa McMann. Seventeen year old Janie gets sucked into other people’s dreams. I didn’t like it as much as Jen did.

Schuyler’s Monster by Robert Rummel-Hudson. Semicolon review here.

Paper Towns by John Green. Not my favorite of the three books I’ve read by Mr. Green. I’d suggest An Abundance of Katherines if you want to check out this writer. All three books (Looking for Alaska, Abundance, and this one) are funny, but only in Abundance did I find that I really liked the characters and believed in them.

The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper. Fluff, teen romance with touches of Shakespeare.

Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum. Memoir of a difficult experience in counseling and mentoring a troubled teen. Semicolon review here

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. Mystery set in Saudi Arabia with Muslim detectives, a man and a woman, and lots of religious and sexual tension. Not explicit, but definitely culturally enlightening. Semicolon review here.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson. Fascinating stuff. I just finished this one, and the review will be forthcoming.

Holes by Louis Sachar. I just finished this 1999 Newbery Award winner last night. Quirky, weird, and fun are the best adjectives I can think of to describe it. However, be warned that there is some rather nasty violence for such an imaginative and seemingly fantastical story.

Twenty-one books read in January.

Favorite young adult books of the month: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or The Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins.

Favorite adult fiction book: Home by Marilynne Robinson.

Favorite nonfiction: Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum.

Emerging theme for the month: Prodigals, finding lost people, and what to do with them once they’re found. Can anyone really turn another person’s life and path back to God? What can be done to help someone who’s lost other than pray?

It was good month for reading.

Book Lists 2019

Dec20

In years past, I’ve had a linky at my Saturday Review of Books for end of the year and beginning of the year book lists. I love book lists, and I especially love it when people start posting about their favorite books of the year or the books they intend to read next year or any other yearly list that summarizes and informs us about your reading life in 2019.

So, this year there’s no linky, but I do plan to add a link in this post to all the lists I find , and I do want to see your list. So leave me a comment, and I’ll link to your book list for 2019. Book lists are just the best.

Russell Moore’s Favorite Books of 2019. I love Mr. Moore and his thoughts on his favorite books of the year are especially great. I haven’t actually read any of the books he suggests, but I’m going to add at least a couple of them to my TBR list: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson and Biloxi by Mary Miller. The Common Rule by Justin Earley also sounds good.

Jared Wilson: My Top Ten Books of 2019. Jared’s #10 and #1 both sound interesting:  Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill with Dan Piepenbring and  On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith.

Real Simple: The Best Books of 2019. Lots of good books with a few sentences about each one. I found several that sounded interesting.

The Literary Edit: 13 Captivating Classics to Add to Your Reading Pile.

BBC: 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. The BBC is starting out on a one-yearproject to explore the 100 most influential English language novels written over the past 300 years. I love lists like this one, not necessarily the best or the most read, but the rather the novels that influenced the world and made Western civilization, especially the English-speaking portion of it, what it is today.

Anxious Bench, Our Favorite Books of the Past Year.

Book Chase’s Ten Favorite Nonfiction Titles of 2019. Sam Sattler recommends several that look good, but the one that caught my interest was Furious Hours by Casey Cep, about Harper Lee and a bizarre true crime story that she was following and hoping to write about. It might be kind of depressing, but I think I’ll check it out.

Deb at Readerbuzz is trying something new with Mood-Boosting Books. It sounds like a great idea, but none of the books she has listed appeals to me. If I want to mood boost, I read Wodehouse. Any other suggestions? What books would you consider “mood-boosting”?

The Book Muse: Best Books of 2019.

Kaitlyn Bouchillon: My 10 Favorite Books of 2019. Kaitlyn’s selections all look good, but one that caught my eye was a fiction book called Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes because it’s partly about a rock collection. I have one of those myself in my front yard. Rocks for remembrance.

Jason Kanz: Top 10 Books–2019. Jason is a neuropsychologist and a Christian, so his list is a bit different from my normal fare. But intriguing.

Modern Mrs. Darcy: My favorite books of 2019. I love Modern Mrs. Darcy and her podcast, What Should I Read Next? And her favorites list for 2019 includes one of my past favorites: Kindred by Octavia Butler. It also has several that I would like to check out in 2020. Altogether, a very good list.

Linda Stoll: My Favorite Books in 2019. Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack by Alia Joy sounds as if it would be worth a look. As several others on this list.

JonesSchooling: The Best 12 Books I Read in 2019. Lisa says it has been a fantastic reading year for her.

https://mbird.com/2019/12/mockingbirds-favorite-books-2010-2019/ Mockingbird’s Favorite Books: 2010-2019. This list is the favorites of the decade, (which, by the way, can start and end in any year you choose. A decade is ten years. THE decade is the ten years a person is talking about.)

Ashes Books and Bobs: Favorite Books of 2019.

Blue Willow Bookshop: The Best Books of 2019. I see from this list that Ruta Sepetys has a new book out: The Fountains of Silence, set in post-World War II Spain. It sounds wonderful.

Kevin DeYoung: Top 10 Books of 2019. These are all books published in 2019 that Mr. DeYoung found to be “a strong combination of thoughtful, useful, interesting, helpful, insightful, and challenging.”

Trevin Wax: My 10 Favorite Reads of 2019. The first book on this list, Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft, is a thought by thought commentary on Pascal’s Pensees, and it’s a book I thought through a few years ago. Highly recommended.

Laurie’s Lit Picks: Best of 2019. I already have The Feather Thief and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett on my radar. Maybe a few more from this list will rise to the top, too.

Glynn Young at Faith, Family, Friends has Best Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas. Glynn likes to exert no pressure by “not recommending” his favorites for the year, but I’m still going to look at some of his non-recommendations, especially A Debt of Death by Jonathan Dunsky, Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G.K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte, and Adjustments by Will Willingham. Glynn also “not recommends” Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson. That one keeps coming up. It’s as if I ought to read it next.

Jesus Creed Books of the Year 2019 (Scot McKnight).

Robin at A Fondness for Reading is Looking Back at 2019.

Puss Reboots has several favorites lists: Favorite Mysteries of 2019. Favorite Diverse Reads of 2019. Favorite Canadian books of 2019. Favorite book releases of 2019. Blogger Sarah Sammis’s review of Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts really caught my interest.

John Wilson: A Year of Reading 2019 (at First Things). From this list, I definitely want to read Andrew Klavan’s Another Kingdom. And I thought I had already seen and noted the book about Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries and their martyrdom in Ecuador, God in the Rainforest by Kathryn T. Long. Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War by Matthew Avery also looks good.

Lisa notes has several books I want to read in her post, Top Books I Recommend of 2019, including What Is a Girl Worth by Rachel Denhollander, The Nickel Boys by Colin Whitehead, The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.

Barbara at Stray Thoughts: Books read in 2019. Top Ten books read in 2019.

The Silver of His Fining: Top Reads in 2019. These favorites mostly sound like easy gentle reads to be interspersed among the books for this year. Sometimes I need a book to just be good without being too challenging.

I’m still working on my favorites of 2019 list, but this will keep you busy until I get there. If you have a “best books of” or “favorites of” list at your blog, please leave a link in the comments. Or just share some of your 2019 favorite reads in the comments.

Cybils Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Yet To Be Nominated

Oct6

Here’s a list of some middle grade speculative fiction books of 2018 that have yet to be nominated for a Cybils Award. Anyone can nominate, and it’s a simple process. If you’ve read any of the following and want to nominate your favorite or if you’ve read books from this year in other categories, go ye forth to the Cybils website and nominate. Nominations close after October 15th.

The Rose Legacy by Jessica Day George. The orphaned Anthea Thornley is sent north to her uncle’s farm where she meets horses, a breed of animal she has been taught were dangerous and are now extinct. But Anthea has much to learn about her own family history and the history of her country and about horses. NOMINATED.

The Griffin’s Feather by Cornelia Funke. Sequel to Dragon Rider.

A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem: A Dastardly Plot by Christopher Healy. The first book in a new alternate history adventure by the author of The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. NOMINATED

The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd. “When the Problim children’s ramshackle bungalow in the Swampy Woods goes kaboom, the seven siblings—each born on a different day of the week—have to move into their grandpa’s bizarre old mansion in Lost Cove.” NOMINATED

The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast by Samantha Clark. “A boy washes up on a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited beach. Who is he? How did he get there? The boy can’t remember.” NOMINATED

Outlaws of Time: The Last of the Lost Boys by N.D. Wilson. This third book in the series introduces Sam Miracle’s son and heir. NOMINATED

The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings by Sarah Prineas.“The powerful Lost Books at the palace library are infecting the rest with an evil magic, and two unlikely friends must figure out who, or what, is controlling the books and their power. If they can’t, the entire kingdom could be at risk.” NOMINATED

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book VI: the Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood. The final book in the Ashton Place series?

Voyage of the Dogs by Greg van Eekhout. Dogs in space—called Barkonauts? NOMINATED

The Phantom Tower by Keir Graff. “Twin brothers discover their new home is also a portal–for an hour a day–to a parallel dimension.”

The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr. A dragon freed from a teapot meets a very special friend. NOMINATED

Pages and Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James.

Spindrift and the Orchid by Emma Trevayne.

The Road to Ever After by Moira Young. In this Christmas tale, orphan Davy Davidson meets the eccentric Miss Flint, and as they travel together, Miss Flint begins to age backwards.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin. “An anarchic, outlandish, and deeply political saga of warring elf and goblin kingdoms.” Long-Listed for the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. NOMINATED

A Fever, a Flight, and a Fight for the World: The Rwendigo Tales Book Four by Jennifer Myhre. May be young adult. Set in East Africa. NOMINATED in YA.

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudy Trueit. From National Geographic, kids train to become the next generation of scientists to explore the galaxy.

Bravelands #3: Blood and Bone by Erin Hunter.

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris. NOMINATED

2018 Cybils Nominations Categories:
Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books
Elementary/Middle-Grade Nonfiction
Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction
Fiction Picture Books/Board Books
Graphic Novels
Junior/Senior High Nonfiction
Middle-Grade Fiction
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction
Young Adult Speculative Fiction

Saturday Review of Books: June 29, 2013

Jun28

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.” ~Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (The Unwritten .Vol. 7: The Wound)
2. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (By the Shores of Silver Lake)
3. Lars Walker (The Melting CLocks)
4. Tanya (Walking Home)
5. Gallimaufry (Narnia books)
6. jenclair (The Silent Wife)
7. Katherine (Forever Amber)
8. Barbara H. (The Duet)
9. Karyn (Because of the Cats)
10. Loren Eaton (Under the Pyramids)
11. Lazygal (Death is Just a Dream)
12. Lazygal (Death Message)
13. Lazygal (Lazybones)
14. Lazygal (Broken Skin)
15. Lazygal (Lifeless)
16. Lazygal (Flesh House)
17. Lazygal (Buried)
18. Lazygal (Blind Eye)
19. Seth@Collateral Bloggage (Earth Afire)
20. the Ink Slinger (Old Man’s War)
21. Joseph R. @ Zombie Parents Guide (Sir Thomas More by Wm. Shakespeare)		 22. Beth@Weavings (Oliver Twist)
23. Hope (The Last Trail by Zane Grey)
24. Janet (Abide with Me)
25. Annie Kate (Pinterest Power)
26. Thoughts of Joy (The Husband’s Secret)
27. Thoughts of Joy (Revolver)
28. Thoughts of Joy (Leaving Everything Most Loved)
29. Thoughts of Joy (Siege)
30. Lucybird’s Book Blog (A Beautiful Truth)
31. Lucybird’s Book Blog (Bing- Paint Day)
32. Becky (The Christian Atheist)
33. Becky (Awesome Bible Verses Every Kid Should Know)
34. Becky (done)
35. Becky (A Blunt Instrument)
36. Becky (They Found Him Dead)
37. Becky (The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail)
38. Becky (The Language Inside)
39. Becky (Odessa Again)
40. Becky (Jungle Book)
41. jama (First Peas to the Table)
42. Brenda (East by Edith Pattou)		 43. Colleen @Books in the City (City of Hope)
44. Colleen @Books in the City (Commencement)
45. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Lock, Stock and Over a Barrel))
46. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Shadow in Serenity)
47. Beckie @ ByTheBook (The Air We Breathe)
48. Rhapsody in Books (The Lucy Variations)
49. Jess (Disaster Status)
50. Lydia (Barefoot Summer)
51. dawn (No Fond Return of Love)
52. dawn (How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare)
53. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Ellis Island)
54. Guiltless Reading (The Ghosts of Nagasaki)
55. Guiltless Reading (It’s Nothing Personal)
56. Guiltless Reading (Fear in the Sunlight)
57. Guiltless Reading (A Work in Progress )
58. Guiltless Reading (The Bell Jar)
59. Guiltless Reading (Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953)
60. Guiltless Reading (Zaremba, or Love and the Rule of Law)
61. Guiltless Reading (The Chatswood Spooks)
62. Guiltless Reading (Captain Disaster)

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

12 World War I Novels and Nonfiction Books I’d Like to Read in 2012

Jan5

War Through the Generations is focusing on World War I this year. Here a few of the books I’d like to read for that project.

Children’s and YA Fiction:
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. “Joey, the farm horse, is sold to the army and sent to the Western front.” I’d like to read the book, then see the movie.
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. “Private Thomas Peaceful lied about his age and left his family behind to fight in the First World War. While standing watch over a battlefield, Thomas spends the night reflecting on his life, aware that the war has changed him forever.”
Without Warning: Ellen’s Story, 1914-1918 by Dennis Hamley. “Ellen Wilkins becomes a nurse to follow her brother to war.”
A Time of Angels by Karen Hesse. “In 1918 Boston, Hannah Gold must face her own wartime suffering as the influenza epidemic sweeps through her family and town.”
Eyes Like Willy’s by Juanita Havill. “A French brother and sister, Guy and Sarah Masson, and their Austrian friend Willy are separated by the war.”
The Shell House by Linda Newbery. “Greg explores a ruined English mansion, and meets Faith, a serious young woman who gives him a tour of the grounds. She also tells him about the past inhabitants, whose son disappeared after he returned home from fighting in World War I.”

Adult Fiction:
Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. Reviewed at A Work in Progress. “The trenches of the Western Front are the setting for this story of the extraordinary devotion that develops between silent, morose John Hillard, full of war’s futility, and his as yet unscathed trench mate, David Barton.”
How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston. Reviewed by Dani at A Work in Progress. “When war breaks out in 1914, both Jerry and Alec sign up – yet for quite different reasons. On the fields of Flanders they find themselves standing together, but once again divided: as officer and enlisted man.”
To The Last Man by Jeff Shaara. “Spring 1916: the horror of a stalemate on Europe’s western front. France and Great Britain are on one side of the barbed wire, a fierce German army is on the other. Shaara opens the window onto the otherworldly tableau of trench warfare as seen through the eyes of a typical British soldier who experiences the bizarre and the horrible–a “Tommy” whose innocent youth is cast into the hell of a terrifying war.”
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. “In summer 1964, a distinguished-looking gentleman in his seventies dismounts on principle from a streetcar that was to carry him from Rome to a distant village, instead accompanying on foot a boy denied a fare. As they walk, he tells the boy the story of his life.”

Nonfiction:
Blood and Iron: Letters from the Western Front by Hugo Montagu Butterworth. “Butterworth was a dedicated and much-loved schoolmaster and a gifted cricketer, who served with distinction as an officer in the Rifle Brigade from the spring of 1915. His letters give us a telling insight into the thoughts and reactions of a highly educated, sensitive and perceptive individual confronted by the horrors of modern warfare.”
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War by Robert Massie.

Books Read in 2008

10 Lucky Things That Have Happened to Me Since I Nearly Got Hit by Lightning by Mary Hershey.

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith.

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson. Semicolon review here.

Abbeville by Jack Fuller. Semicolon review here.

Abigail Iris: The One and Only by Lisa Glatt and Suzanne Greenberg. Semicolon review here.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Fantastically disturbing (in a good way) YA fiction. Read it if you like to think about the implications of technology and futuristic scenarios. Semicolon review here.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

Alice’s Birthday Pig by Tim Kennemore. Semicolon review here.

Alicia Afterimage by Lulu Delacre.

Alvin Ho by Lenore Look. Semicolon review here.

America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It by Mark Steyn.

The American Patriot’s Almanac by WIlliam Bennett and John Cribb.

Angel by Cliff McNish.

AngelMonster by Veronica Bennett. Recommended at Becky’s Book Reviews.

Anna Smudge: Professional Shrink by MAC.

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb.

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey. Semicolon thoughts on establishing democracy here.

Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by P.G. Wodehouse. This one cheered me up during the Hurricane Blues.

Best old Movies For Families—Burr Recommended by Mental Multivitamin.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

The Big Splash by Jack Ferraiolo.

Billy by William Paul McKay and Ken Abraham.

Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin.

Blue Like Friday by Siobhan Parkinson. Semicolon review here.

The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad. Semicolon review here. Recommended at Bookfest.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.

Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

Breathing Soccer by Debbie Spring.

Bringing the Boy Home by N.A. Nelson. Semicolon review here.

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos. Recommended by Carrie at Mommy Brain and by Literary Feline.

Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.

The Buddha’s Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden.

Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney.

By A Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman. Not bad, but I’ve already forgotten the details.

The Calder Game by Blue Balliet.

Carlos Is Gonna Get It by Kevin Emerson. Semicolon review here.

The Case Against Adolescence by Robert Epstein. Quite thought-provoking. Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O.

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets by Nancy Springer.

Chancey of the Maury River by Gigi Amateau.

Chasing Normal by Lisa Papademetriou. Semicolon review here.

Children of Jihad by Jared Cohen.

The Christie Caper by Carolyn G. Hart.

Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty.

The Secrets of the Cirque Medrano by Elaine Scott.

A Clearing in the Wild by Jane Kirkpatrick Recommended by Sarah at Reading the Past.

Clementine’s Letter by Sara Pennypacker

The Crazy School by Cornelia Read.

The Curse of Addy McMahon by Katie Davis.

Dark North by Gillian Bradshaw.

The Declaration by Gemma Malley. Semicolon review here. Great dystopian fiction with a Little Orphan Annie sort of atmosphere.

The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding. Semicolon review here.

Diamond Willow by Helen Frost.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Brown Bear Daughter and I read this book out loud together to get a head start on her literature class for next year.

Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee.

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris.

Don’t Talk To Me About the War by David A. Adler.

Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix. YA problem fiction about a girl with a secret. It reminded me of this book, but I liked A Door Near Here better.

A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer.

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Recommended by Elliot at Claw of the Conciliator

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman.

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney.

Fatality by Caroline B. Cooney. Rose has a four year old secret recorded in her diary that could tear her family apart. When the police try to take the diary, Rose knows that she must not only destroy it, but also remain silent about its contents for the rest of her life, no matter what the cost. Like The Face on the Milk Carton series, this stand alone thriller is about family secrets, crime, and the way both can fester and infect an entire community.

First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins.

First Light by Rebecca Stead. I thought this fantasy/science fiction/Arctic adventure was odd, to say the least. Absorbing, but strange.

The Floating Circus by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

For All Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Forever Rose by Hilary McKay. Semicolon review here.

Fouling Out by Gregory Walters. Semicolon review here.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Semicolon review here.

From Alice to Zen and Everyone in Between by Elizabeth Atkinson. Semicolon review here.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forrester.

The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney.

The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman. Semicolon review here.

Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Institution by Alex Beam.

Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor.

Grow by Juanita Havill.

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. I didn’t review this one, but it was just as good as Jayber Crow, if not better.

Here, There Be Dragons by James Owen. Semicolon review here.

Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America’s Ideals by Michael J. Gerson. Good ideas. A little dated, and I hate to say it, but I felt like a cynic in comparison to this White House speechwriter. If you want to know what “compassionate conservatism” is really about from one its proponents, read this book.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. (re-read)

Hit the Road by Caroline B. Cooney.

Home by Witold Rybczinski. Recommended by Carol at Magistramater.

The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach. Semicolon review here.

How Right You Are Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Semicolon review here.

How To Read Slowly by James Sire.

The Innocent Man by John Grisham. The sad, but true, story of a man with problems who was wrongfully convicted of murder. Grisham was trying to convince me that the death penalty is wrong, but he only convinced me that Oklahoma has some major judicial and law enforcement issues.

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst.

Ironman by Chris Crutcher.

The Island of Mad Scientists by Howard Whitehouse. Semicolon review here.

Itch by Michele Kwasney.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. Semicolon review here.

Jeremy Cabbage and the Living Museum of Human Oddballs and Quadruped Delightsby David Elliott.

Jessie’s Mountain by Kerry Madden. Semicolon review here.

Jimmy’s Stars by Mary Ann Rodman. Semicolon review here.

Julia GIllian and the Art of Knowing by Allison McGhee. Semicolon review here.

The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeeley. Semicolon review here.

Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean. Recommended at Chasing Ray.

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park.

The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower by Lisa Graff. Semicolon review here.

Lizard Love by Wendy Townsend

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. Semicolon review here.

Longhorns and Outlaws by Linda Aksomitis.

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.

Looking for Alaska by John Green. This book, too, has been reviewed and discussed by everyone and his dog. It left me feeling ambivalent.

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton. Semicolon review here.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach.

Meeting Miss 405 by Lois Peterson.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. I didn’t get around to reviewing this book although I did enjoy it. Never fear. It’s been reviewed by everyone else before I even got to it:
3M’s review.
Bonnie’s review.
Deb D.’s review.
Jane’s review at Much Ado About Books.

Messenger by Lois Lowry.

The Missing: Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Semicolon review here.

Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson.

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Semicolon review here.

Moxy Maxwell Does NOT Love Writing Thank-You Notes by Peggy GIfford. Semicolon review here.

My Dad’s a Birdman by David Almond.

My Enemy’s Cradle by Sara Young. Semicolon review here.

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath. Semicolon review here.

My So-Called Family by Courtney Schienmel.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Stewart.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.

Niner by Theresa Martin Golding. I think I picked this one up at the library because the main character, a girl, had nine fingers, one thumb missing, and one of my urchins was born with twelve toes. There’s a connection there somehow. It’s sort of sad YA fiction, where mom’s a runaway, dad’s wonderful and nurturing, the girl’s adopted, and the kids get into trouble while keeping secrets from the adults in their lives.

No Cream Puffs by Karen Day.

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Old School by Tobias Wolff.

The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty.

Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall.

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkele.

Piper Reed: The Great Gypsy by Kimberley Willis Holt.

The Postcard by Tony Abbott. Noir for kids with a Florida setting.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis. (family read aloud)

The Private Patient by P.D. James.

Prisoner of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

The Queen’s Man: A Medieval Mystery by Sharon Kay Penman. Semicolon review here. I had to go back to the middle ages, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard I, and Prince John, to get some relief from all the modern violence and angst. Still violent, but very little angst, and the violence was logical violence, if you know what I mean, not irrational.

Radiant Girl by Andrea White.

Random Harvest by James Hilton. Good story. Semicolon review here.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings by Stella Tillyard.

Sarah Simpson’s Rules for Living by Rebecca Rupp.

Savvy by Ingrid Law.

Scarlett by Stephen Lawhead. I want to write about this sequel to Lawhead’s Hood, which I never got around to reviewing either. Maybe I’ll write about both books soon. Suffice it to say for now that if you’re interested in medieval historical fiction or in the Robin Hood legend, Lawhead’s take on the story is well worth reading. There’s supposed to be a third book in the King Raven series, to be released in January, 2009.

The Secret of the Rose by Sarah L. Thomson.

The Search for the Red Dragon by James O. Owen. I didn’t manage to review this sequel to Here, There Be Dragons (Semicolon review here), and I liked it very much. Enough that I’ll be looking for the next book in the series, The Indigo King, which is supposed to be published soon.

Secret Believers by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen.

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury. A road trip turns into a mystery turns into a coming of age story about two buddies who choose different roads to adulthood.

Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell.

Sisters of the Sword by Maya Snow.

Six Innings by James Preller.

Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi. Semicolon review here.

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers. Semicolon thoughts on Americans in war here.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Another YA vampire romance. Disturbingly violent.

The Tallest Tree by Sandra Belton. Semicolon review here.

Tamar by Mal Peet.

Tennyson by Lesley M.M. Blume. Semicolon review here.

Thank You Lucky Stars by Beverley Donofrio.

them by Joyce Carol Oates. Semicolon review here.

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Semicolon review here.

The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills. A divorce book. I got mad at the parents, felt sorry for Amanda, and wanted the author to tell her characters, especially the dad, to grow up and take responsibility.

The Trouble with Rules by Leslie Bulion.

The Truth About Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Recommended by Whimsy Books.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Semicolon review here. Brown Bear Daughter read this one, too, and liked it so much that she went looking at the library for more books by Shusterman.

Up and Down the Scratchy Mountain by Laurel Snyder.

Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Semicolon review here. Recommended at The Reading Zone.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell.

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning by Danette Haworth

The Voice on the Radio by Caroline B. Cooney.

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor.

Walking From East to West by Ravi Zacharias.

The Walls of Cartagena by Julia Durango.

Wanted! by Caroline B. Cooney.

War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.

A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements. Semicolon review (sort of) here.

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George. I read this one while on vacation, and it was fascinating. If you don’t want to read about the grit and violence and degradation of the city streets, be warned and don’t read it. But it is a compelling picture of how children slip through the social services net and become criminals.

Whatever Happened to Janie? by Caroline B. Cooney.

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman.

What Janie Found by Caroline B. Cooney.

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. Semicolon review here.

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and The Women Who Fought Back by Stephen Singular. Semicolon review here.

Where the Steps Were by Andrea Cheng.

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss. Semicolon review here.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. Semicolon review here.

Window Boy by Andrea White.

Winter Haven by Athol Dickson.

Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom. Semicolon review here.

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan.

The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin. Semicolon review here.

You Know Where To Find Me by Rachel Cohn. Semicolon review here.

The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail by Michael P. Spradlin. Semicolon review here.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman.

TOTAL: 202

Saturday Review of Books: December 6, 2008

Dec6

“Tough choices face the biblioholic at every step of the way–like choosing between reading and eating, between buying new clothes and buying books, between a reasonable lifestyle and one of penurious but masochistic happiness lived out in the wallow of excess.”
~Tom Raabe

Welcome to this week’s Saturday Review of Books.
chrisreading
Here’s how it works. Find a review on your blog posted sometime this week of a book you’re reading or a book you’ve read. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Now post a link here to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

1. Carrie, RtK (Christmas with Anne)
2. Bookie Woogie (Wave)
3. Carrie RtK (Leepike Ridge)
4. Carrie, RtK (Radical Womanhood)
5. 5M4B (Flirting with Forty)
6. 5M4B (The Ice Diaries)
7. 5M4B (Give a Goat)
8. 5M4B (Christmas books for kids -giveaway)
9. pussreboots (Once and Future Celt)
10. pussreboots (Welcome to the Monkey House)
11. pussreboots (Gateway)
12. Laura (Emily Post)
13. Carrie K. (5-star books for Christmas)
14. Hope (Hard Times by Dickens)
15. Bonnie (Plato\’s Republic)
16. Bonnie (Kristin Lavransdatter, Pt. 2)
17. Fate (Capote in Kansas)
18. Beth F (Inkspell)
19. Beth F (Dead to the Worldl)
20. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Peace Like a River by Leif Enger)
21. Just One More Book! Children\’s Book Podcast (Doggie in the Window)
22. Moomin Light (Spindle\’s End)
23. SmallWorld (The Raucous Royals)
24. SmallWorld (The House at Riverton)
25. Teresa (Home)
26. Literarily (Flirting with Forty)
27. Literarily (Going Down South)
28. Shonda (Slay It with Flowers)
29. LuAnn(A Christmas Carol)
30. Lazygal (Waiting for Normal)
31. LuAnn(My Little Girl)
32. Kylee (The Safety of Secrets)
33. MFS (Revolutionary Road)
34. MFS (Annie Leibovitz at Work)
35. Presenting Lenore (Aurelia)
36. Presenting Lenore (The Green Beauty Guide)
37. Presenting Lenore (Persistence of Memory)
38. Presenting Lenore (The Red Necklace)
39. BermudaOnion (Flirting With Forty)		 40. BermudaOnion (The Magician\’s Book)
41. melydia (On Beauty)
42. melydia (Brush Up Your Mythology!)
43. Laura (Little Britches / The Place to Be)
44. Sarah M., LH (Memoirs of a Geisha)
45. Farm Lane Books (White Tiger)
46. Farm Lane Books (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
47. Joy (Weedflower)
48. Captive Thoughts (Hannah Coulter)
49. Captive Thoughts (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress)
50. Amy(The Reluctant Journey of David Connors)
51. Amy(The Magician\’s Book)
52. 3M (Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love)
53. 3M (Book of Murder)
54. Lynne (Dashing Through the Snow)
55. Lynne (The Wednesday Letters)
56. Lisa( Ender in Exile)
57. Lynne (An Irish Christmas)
58. Lynne (All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann\’s Dressing Room)
59. Lynne (An Irish Country Christmas)
60. Carol (Reading Around the World)
61. Elizabeth (Perfect on Paper)
62. Word Lily (A New Song)
63. Word Lily (The Miracle Girls)
64. SuziQoregon (The Idiot Girls\’ Action-Adventure Club)
65. SuziQoregon (The Unwalled City)
66. gautami tripathy (any Given Doomsday)
67. Book Lover Lisa (My Little Girl)
68. Book Lover Lisa (Flirting with Forty)
69. At Home With Books (Queen of Oblivion)
70. At Home With Books (A Christmas Carol)
71. At Home With Books (Dark Pursuit)
72. At Home With Books (Flirting With Forty)
73. Girl Detective (My Name is Will)
74. Girl Detective (Daredevil: Cruel and Unusual)
75. Girl Detective (Fables v. 11: War and Pieces)
76. Book Chatter (Forever Lily)
77. Noel (The Raucous Royals)
78. Jennifer (Learning to Bow)		 79. Jennifer (He\’s Just Not that Into You)
80. Jennifer (Second Glance)
81. Jennifer (Holidays on Ice)
82. Noel (Masterpiece)
83. Sally (Thor and The Big Storm)
84. Mytwoblessings (Left to Die)
85. Semicolon (Case of the Bizarre Bouquets)
86. Becky (The Conqueror)
87. Becky (The Raucous Royals)
88. Becky (One Perfect Day)
89. Becky (The Stowaway)
90. Becky (House of Dark Shadows)
91. Becky (Undone)
92. Becky (Word of Promise Next Generation)
93. Becky (Weeping Under This Same Moon)
94. Page Turner (Hannah Coulter)
95. Ms. Bookish (The Book of Lies)
96. Ms. Bookish (Not In The Flesh)
97. Mytwoblessings (Dark Pursuit)
98. Kathryn (Ironies of Faith)
99. Bookish Ruth (Blood Island)
100. Booklorn (The Keepsake)
101. Carey @ The Tome Traveller\’s Weblog (The Lump of Coal)
102. Carey @ The Tome Traveller\’s Weblog (The Alchemy of Loss)
103. Carey @ The Tome Traveller\’s Weblog (Flirting With Forty)
104. The Thinking Mother (Clueless in Tokyo)
105. Benjie (The Paper Bag Christmas)
106. Marg (Garden Spells)
107. Shelly (Alicia Afterimage)
108. Queen Shenaynay (Seeking The Face of God)
109. John Nutford (The Master and Margarita)
110. Rebecca @ The Book Lady\’s Blog (The Time Traveler\’s Wife)
111. a lovely shore breeze (Low Man)
112. Serena (Safelight)
113. StaciJo (Chains)
114. bookscoops (Bee Me)
115. Violet (The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks)
116. Diary of an Eccentric (Owen Fiddler)

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Children’s Fiction of 2008: Series and Sequels Succeed in Succession

Nov10

This year’s list of nominees for the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Award is packed with sequels and books that form part of a series. A few I’ve already read and reviewed: The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin, Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes by Peggy Gifford, First Daughter: White Rules by Mitali Perkins, The Calder Game by Blue Balliett, and Clementine’s Letter by Sara Pennypacker.

Two books, each one supposed to be the last in a quite satisfying and beloved series, I just finished reading: Jessie’s Mountain by Kerry Madden and Forever Rose by Hilary McKay. Both books fulfilled the promise of earlier volumes in the series and delivered a gratifying ending to the story while still leaving me wanting just a little more.

Jessie’s Mountain features Livy Two, the fourth of ten children in the poverty-stricken Weems family, making a serious error in judgement and paying the consequences. The first two books in this Smoky Mountain series, Gentle’s Holler and Louisiana’s Song, each starred one of Livy’s sisters, but Livy Two was the narrator. In this third book, Livy Two comes into her own, takes center stage, and gets into a lot of trouble. In my review of Gentle’s Holler and Louisiana’s Song, I said, “Each child does have his/her own personality. The family isn’t perfect, but they are a big, loving family. The difficulties of raising such a family in poverty with a devoted, but financially irresponsible, father and a worried and always pregnant mother are not minimized.” That’s what I like about these books, and especially this last one. Life in a big family is messy. Sometimes people don’t get along, don’t speak to each other, keep secrets they shouldn’t keep, annoy one another. Each family member has his faults, sometimes major faults. Our family is like that, and the Weems family is, too. And yet, there’s a happy ending, not one that assures me that every one of the Weems kids is going to be fat, rich, and happy forever, but a reassuring conclusion nevertheless. If you read all three books, you sort of fall in love with the Weems family, and it’s good to see them in the end settled in, working hard, and pulling together.

And then there are the Cassons in Hilary McKay’s series of books of whom I wrote: “I feel a bit responsible after three books to see that they all come out all right.” I read and reviewed the first three books in the Casson family series last July, and then I picked up the fourth book, Caddy Ever After, and reviewed it. The setting for the latest in theCasson family series, Forever Rose, is completely different from that of Ms. Madden’s Smoky Mountain family series, a village in the north of England as opposed to Maggie Valley, North Carolina. But the families and the plots of the two novels share some similarities. Rose in this final installment does something unwise and dangerous (don’t want to spoil either story) similar to what Livy Two does in Jessie’s Mountain. However, Rose’s mistake somehow leads to resolution and reconciliation. Go figure. Maybe the difference is that the Casson family is so dysfunctional that it functions in a crazy, backwards way. And there’s always lots of love to go around. The Cassons also survive and thrive in the end despite a book full of chapter titles such as “The Trouble with Molly” and “Anything for a Bit of Peace” and the climactic “Oh Bloody Bloody Hell!”

In addition to those series sequels, there are some others on the Cybils list that I’m looking forward to reading:
The Island of Mad Scientists by Howard Whitehouse. See Melissa’s Book Nut review.
Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich.
Just Grace Walks the Dog by Charise Mericle Harper.
Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing BY Allison McGhee
The Diamond of Drury Lane: A Cat Royal Adventure by Julia Golding.
Daisy Dawson is on Her Way by Steve Voake.
The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer.
Brand New School, Brave New Ruby by Derrick Barnes.
Andrea Carter and the San Francisco Smugglers by Susan Marlow.
10 Lucky Things That Have Happened to Me Since I Nearly Got Hit by Lightning by Mary Hershey.
Step Fourth Mallory! by Laurie Friedman.
Thirteen by Lauren Myracle
Piper Reed: The Great Gypsy by Kimberly Willis Holt.
Zibby Payne and the Red Carpet Revolt by Allison Bell.
Aloha Crossing by Pamela Bauer Mueller.
Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School by Ruth Barshaw.
These are the sequels for which I haven’t read the first book(s) in the series. The ones I have already been introduced to are:

My New Best Friend by Julie Bowe. Sequel to last year’s My Last Best Friend.
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall. Sequel to The Penderwicks.
And last but certainly not least: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Stewart, sequel to last year’s The Mysterious Benedict Society.

My only problem with all these sequels and series, especially the ones I’ve already grown to love and enjoy, is that it’s hard to evaluate them objectively and alone, each volume on its own merits. I find myself thinking that of course everybody, including me, is going to love The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. I haven’t even read it, but it’s already imbued with my warm appreciation for the first book in the series.

Of course, if it’s a dud, it’ll be that much more of a disappointment. So I guess the expectations and pre-judgments can work both ways.

Cybils Middle Grade Fiction nominees: 129
Nominees that are part of a series: 26 by my count.

That’s 19%. Publishers must like sequels and series. I guess it gives the book a head-start in the marketing department. Did I miss any?