The Renfroe Scoop: 2013 Book Reviews

Books are rated on a 1-10 scale,

with 7.5 and above being a book

that I solidly recommend.

2009 Book Reviews
2008 Book Reviews
2007 Book Reviews

2013 Totals: 54 books

Pages: 17, 177
Audiobooks: 35 hours, 32 minutes
New Favorites: Elantris, Unbroken, Cheaper by the Dozen, Farm Anatomy, Kristin Lavransdatter, The Plague and I, A Girl of the Limberlost, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, Animal-Vegetable-Miracle, Chains
Old Favorites: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Farmer Boy, The Belgariad, A Week in the Woods, Little Heathens, and of course, The Book of Mormon!
Favorite Vocab Word: hirsute {covered with hair}
Least Favorite: The Great Gatsby

54. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression (re-read for book club 2013.12.31)
By: Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Genre: nonfiction / memoir / rural America / humor
Pages: 290
Bex Rating: 9.5! (again)

I first read this book in 2008, right after we moved to Idaho. I loved it so much that it got it's own post, in addition to being reviewed in my 2008 book reviews (review # 49). My friend Tonia wanted a recommendation for book club and I knew we couldn't go wrong with Little Heathens. I loved it just as much the second time, and I am still pining for a raccoon pet of my own.

I had never seen adults cry. I didn't know they could cry. I was struck mute with a fear that grabbed me right in the guts.
In Iowa, the honor accorded a guest was gauged by the food the homemaker put on the table.
Life is like a mountain railroad with an engineer so brave
We must make this run successful from the cradle to the grave
Watch the curves, the hills, the tunnels, never falter, never fail.
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.
Heritage flowers to look for: bachelor buttons, foxglove, Canterbury bells, seven-sister roses, zinnias, blue lilies.
Advice from Millie's grandma: "Wait on yourself, your friends will like you better." And "If you're looking for a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm."
Books to look up: Booth Tarkington, Harold Bell Wright
The exhausting labors of our day, the soothing soaping with warm water, the exquisite drenching with the cold fresh water, and the donning of the clean cotton nighties at the end of the ritual bonded us so completely to one another and to mama . . .
Most of all I want [my family] to enjoy the kinship of souls that is created when everyone gathers in the kitchen to prepare a meal together. Although cooking is vastly easier today, there is still nothing like putting a good meal on the table to make people feel they have done something meaningful.
Of course I am barefooted. You can't commune with Mother Nature with shoes on your feet.
To crawl between crisp sheets, warm and fresh from the sun and the air, at the end of a bone-wearying day, is one of the true soul-restoring luxuries of life, which hardly anyone of the current generation will ever know.
Interacting so closely with the wildlife, along with the domestic farm animals. was not a trivial aspect of our young lives. I have come to believe that close relationship not only immensely enriched our growing-up experience, it made us kinder, more empathetic, more understanding human beings. In addition, it clarified and defined our responsibility to these creatures and the entire natural community.
Watch for recipes from "Milly" to make an appearance on my recipe blog soon. Apple Cream Pie? Yes please.

53. Trail Tested: a Thru-hikers Guide to Ultralight Hiking and Backpacking (2013.12.29)
By: Justin Lichter
Genre: backpacking / camping / self-help / outdoor recreation / nonfiction
Pages: 252
Bex Rating: 9

Awesome guide to ultralight backpacking. I read the entire thing from cover to cover. Even the parts that will probably never apply to me: like winter backpacking and finding outdoor gear sponsors :). I bought this for Allen for Christmas, after my friend Lindsey recommended it when we were backpacking together in September. But I read it before he did, because once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to go backpacking this summer!!! I want to hike every single weekend from April trough October. If you want a guide that will give you the best ideas on trimming your pack weight down and hiking in the most efficient way: this book is for you.

52. Barnheart: the Incurable Longing for a Farm of One's Own (2013.12.27)
By: Jenna Woginrich
Genre: memoir / agrarian / lifestyle / nonfiction
Pages: 184
Bex Rating: 8

I liked this book, but there was something missing. I've been wanting it for a while, and it was a Christmas present to me from Allen. I have one of her other books, Chick Days, and I had read a few posts from the author's blog Cold Antler Farm, in years' past, and I knew she was a gifted writer, who happens to write about things I am interested in . . .

This is her memoir about moving from Idaho to Vermont, and her desire to rent or own a small farm, even though she works a desk job. It's a story of sheep and rabbits, turkeys and chickens, people and dogs. But it felt a bit . . . preachy. And after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle . . . which also extols the virtues of living off the land and consuming wisely, this memoir fell a bit short. I didn't love reading about Woginrich's problems with her neighbors, or with her family--she comes off sounding pouty and hard-done-by. It's not really fair to compare any writer to Barbara Kingsolver . . . but the ways they each treated similar subjects were so different that I felt something lacking the entire time I read Barnheart. Still, I give it an 8 out of 10.

Favorite Excerpts:

The symptoms are mild at first. You start reading online homesteading forums and shopping at cheese-making supply sites on your lunch break. You go home after work and instead of turning on the television, you bake a pie and study chicken-coop building plans. Then somehow, somewhere along the way you realize you're happiest when you're weeding the garden or collecting eggs from the henhouse.
The gate was apparently being held together by spite and tetanus.
Adding sled dogs, chickens, gardens, bees, and rabbits to your life is about more than just rolling out of bed and shaking some food into a bowl. Your home turns into a breathing being: something that needs tending, weeding, and the occasional yeast packet.
Come March, gardeners are all pacing like caged wild dogs . . . we're scratching around in our pots of houseplants to remember the feeling of working soil . . . it's a labor so addicting, so complicated, and so dear to our hearts, we're barking for turnips by April.
Homesteading, and gardening in particular, is the best way to get rich without spending a dime . . . true wealth is not about money; it's about independence . . . Want a chance to make a million dollars? Sign up for the stock market and throw your hat in the ring. Want to taste a million bucks? Plant some snap peas. When they're ripe and covered with dew, bite into a pod and start chewing. Now that's rich.
I drove away from Nelson's farm, convinced that the world ha been folded on dotted lines for me this day. Life can surprise you with its tiny generosities, especially when you're carpooling with ruminants.
abattoir: a slaughterhouse

51. Forge (2013.12.10)
By: Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre: young adult / historical fiction / American Revolution / slavery
Pages: 295
Bex Rating: 9

This book picks up where Chains (review #48) left off, only it is told from the point of view of Curzon, a 15ish-year-old boy who was a friend to Isabel, and who she helped to escape from slavery in New York City. But now Curzon and Isabel have separated, and he joins with the American rebels who are fighting against the British. He endures the horrible conditions of Valley Forge in the winter of 1778-79, and eventually reunites with Isabel at the book's end, but they are both in bondage once more.

That Laurie Halse Anderson is one gifted writer. The cover of her book Fever 1793 has always turned me away (I do judge actual books by their covers), but I'll be giving it a try as soon as I get a copy, because whoa--she does her homework and really puts you in the place. More than that, her characters quickly become friends and you are rooting for them all the way.

I can't wait for the third (and final?) installment to be released. I am glad I started reading these books just before the third one is scheduled to be released (March 1st, 2014, as of today), because Forge came out in 2010, and three years is waaaaaaaaay too long to wait for a sequel to a truly excellent book.

50. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2013.12.01)
By: Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: memoir / food / American culture / gardening / hobby farming / agrarian / social commentary / recipes
Pages: 370
Bex Rating: 10!

I loved this book, from beginning to end. People have been telling me to read it for YEARS, and I finally picked it up.

And I savored every page.

Basically, it's Barbara Kingsolver's memoir of living for one entire year as a "locavore"--eating only locally-produced food (100 mile radius or less) with her family for a year. She lives in Kentucky . . . so, no bananas.

It's a story about understanding where food comes from, and where it doesn't come from. It's a story of REAL eating--only the freshest, more gourmet meals that Kingsolver and her family made from scratch, from what they produced themselves. It's a story about responsibility, sustainability, and capabilty, but it's not preachy and doomsdayish . . . it's positive and delightful and motivating, and so full of humanity.

I dog-eared almost every page in my need to keep track of favorite excerpts. I recommend this book to EVERYONE IN AMERICA.

In two generations, we've transformed ourselves from a rural to an urban nation. Most people of my grandparents' generation had an intuitive sense of agricultural basics, such as when various fruits and vegetables come into season, which ones keep and which ones should be preserved, when to expect the first frost, what animals and vegetables thrive in one's region and how to live on those . . . and approximately none of our children know this kind of thing anymore. This knowledge has vanished from our culture.
No cashier held a gun to our heads and made us supersize it, true enough. But humans have a built-in weakness for fats and sugar. We evolved in lean environments where it was a big plus for survival to gorge on calorie-dense foods whenever we found them. Whether or not they understand the biology, food marketers know the weakness and have exploited it without mercy. Obesity is generally viewed as a failure of personal resolve, with no acknowledgement of the genuine conspiracy in this historical scheme. People actually did sit in strategy meetings discussing ways to get all those surplus calories into people who neither needed nor wished to consume them.
Sticking it to the Man (whoever he is) may not be the most inspired principle around which to organize one's life... We hoped a year away from industrial foods would taste so good, we might actually enjoy it. The positives, rather than the negatives, ultimately nudged us to step away from the agribusiness supply line and explore the local landscap. Doing the right thing, in this case, is not about abstinence-only, throwing out bread, tightening your belt, wearing a fake leather belt, or dragging around feeling righteous and gloomy. Food is the rare moral arena in which the ethical choice is generally the one more likely to make you groan with pleasure. Why resist that?
The main barrier standing between ourselves and a local-food culture is not price, but attitude. The most difficult requirements are patience and a pinch of restraint–virtues that are hardly the property of the wealthy.
In addition to broader genetic diversity and disease resistance, heritage breeds tend to retain more of their wild ancestors' sense of foraging, predator avoidance and reproduction--traits that suit them for the pasture and barnyard rather than a crowded, windowless, metal house.
I liked seeing now how that whole process, beginning with seeds, ending with dinner, fixed me to some deeper than usual sense of hospitality. Anyone who knows the pleasure of cooking elaborately for loved ones understands this. [Amen, Barb!]
Eternal is the right frame of mind for making food for a family: cooking down the tomatoes into a red-gold oregano-scented sauce for pasta. Before that, harvesting sun-ripened fruits, pinching oregano leaves from their stems, growing these things from seed—yes. A lifetime is what I’m after. Cooking is definitely one of the things we do for fun around here. When I’m in a blue mood I head for the kitchen. I turn the pages of my favorite cookbooks, summoning the prospective joyful noise of a shared meal. I stand over a bubbling soup, close my eyes, and inhale. From the ground up, everything about nourishment steadies my soul.
For 19 years I’ve been nothing but a working mother, one of the legions who could justify a lot of packaged, precooked foods if I wanted to feed those to my family. But if I were to define my style of feeding my family, on a permanent basis, by the dictum, “Get it over with, quick,” something cherished in our family life would disappear. And I’m not just talking waistlines, though we’d miss those. I’m discussing dinnertime, the cornerstone of our family’s mental health. [yes, yes, YES!!!]
When we traded homemaking for careers, we were implicitly promised economic independence and worldly influence. But a devil of a bargain it has turned out to be in terms of daily life. We gave up the aroma of warm bread rising, the measured pace of nurturing routines, the creative task of molding our families’ tastes and zest for life; we received in exchange the minivan and the Lunchable. (Or worse, convenience-mart hot dogs and latchkey kids.) I consider it the great hoodwink of my generation.
June Cleaver has left the premises. Her income was needed to cover the mortgage and health insurance. Didn’t the workplace organizers notice? In fact that gal Friday is us, both moms and dads running on overdrive, smashing the caretaking duties into small spaces between job and carpool and bedtime. Eating preprocessed or fast food can look like salvation in the short run, until we start losing what real mealtimes give to a family: civility, economy, and health . . . Cooking is the great divide between good eating and bad. The gains are quantifiable: cooking and eating at home, even with quality ingredients, costs pennies on the dollar compared with meals prepared by a restaurant or factory.
Modern conventional farming is an efficient reduction of that process that adds back just a few crucial nutrients of the many that are removed each year when biomass is harvested. At first, it works well. Over time, it’s like trying to raise all children on bread, peanut butter, and the same bedtime story every night for ten years. (If they cry, give them more bread, more peanut butter, and the same story twice.)
So, how are the bugs holding out? Just fine. In 1948, when pesticides were first introduced, farmers used roughly 50 million pounds of them and suffered about a 7 percent loss of all their field crops. By comparison, in 2000 they used nearly a billion pounds of pesticides. Crop losses? Thirteen percent.
Biologists point out that conventional agriculture is engaged in an evolutionary arms race, and losing it. How can we salvage this conflict? Organic agriculture, which allows insect predator populations to retain a healthy presence in our fields, breaks the cycle. [from entry by husband Steven L. Hopp]
[Gardening] provides rewards far beyond the vegetable paycheck. It gets a body outside for some part of every day to work the heart, lungs, and muscles you wouldn’t believe existed, providing a healthy balance to desk jobs that might otherwise render us chair potatoes. Instead of needing to drive to the gym, we walk up the hill to do pitchfork free weights, weed-pull yoga, and Hoe Master . . . It is also noiseless in the garden: phoneless, meditative, and beautiful . . .
Many of us who aren't farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a rooster crows in the yard.
I think of my canning as fast food, paid for for in time up front.
Symptomatic of this rural-urban identity crisis is our eager embrace of a recently imposed divide: the red states and the blue states. That color map comes to us with the suggestion that both coasts are populated by educated civil libertarians, while the vast middle and south are crisscrossed with the studded tracks of ATVs leaving a trail of flying beer cans and rebel yells. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little. But I certainly sense that when urban friends ask me how I can stand living here, "so far from everything." (When I hear this question over the phone, I'm usually looking out the window at a forest, a running creek, and a vegetable garden, thinking: "Define 'everything.'")
American culture doesn't allow much room for slow reflection. I watch the working people who are supposed to be my role models getting pushed to go, go, go and take as little vacation time as possible. And then, often, vacations are full of endless activity too, so you might come back from your "break" feeling exhausted ... Whether you prefer to sit on a rock in a peaceful place, or take a wooden spoon to a simmering pot, it does the body good to quiet down and tune in. [from entry by daughter Camille Kingsolver]
Having no self-sustaining bloodlines to back up the industry is like having no gold standard to underpin paper currency. Maintaining a natural breeding poultry flock is a rebellion, at the most basic level, against the wholly artificial nature of how foods are produced.
My animals have all had a good life, with death as its natural end. It’s not without gratitude that I slaughter my animals, it is a hard thing to do. It’s taken me time to be able to eat my own lambs that I had played with. But I always think of Kahlil Gibran’s words:
"When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart:
By the same power that slays you, I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivers you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."The ve-vangelical pamphlets showing jam-packed chickens and sick downer-cows usually declare as their first principle, that all meat is factory-farmed. That is false, and an affront to those of us who work to raise animals humanely, or who support such practices with our buying power. I don’t want to cause any creatures misery, so I won’t knowingly eat anything that has stood belly deep in its own poop wishing it was dead until bam, one day it was…
But meat, poultry, and eggs from animals raised on open pasture are the traditional winter fare of my grandparents, and they serve us well here in the months when it would cost a lot of fossil fuels to keep us in tofu. Should I overlook the suffering of victims of hurricanes, famines, and wars brought on this world by profligate fuel consumption? Bananas that cost a rain forest, refrigerated-trucked soy milk, and pre-washed spinach shipped two thousand miles in plastic containers do not seem cruelty-free, in this context. A hundred different paths may lighten the world’s load of suffering. Giving up meat is one path, giving up bananas is another. The more we know about our food system, the more we are called into complex choices.
Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice.
Value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.
But most of America's excess pounds were not gained on national holidays. Good people eat. So do bad people, skinny people, fat people, tall and short ones. Heaven help us, we will never master photosynthesis. Planning complex, beautiful meals, and investing one's heart and time in their preparation is the opposite of self-indulgence. Kitchen-based family gatherings are process-oriented, cooperative, and in the best of worlds, nourishing and soulful. ... I have given and received some of life's most important hugs with oven-mitt pot holders on both hands.
Spending every waking hour on one job is drudgery, however you slice it. After an eight-hour day at my chosen profession, enough is enough. I’m ready to spend the next two or three somewhere else, preferably outdoors, moving my untethered limbs to a worldly beat. Sign me up on the list of those who won’t maximize their earnings through a life of professionally focused ninety-hour weeks. Plenty of people do, I know, either perforce or by choice—overwork actually has major cachet in a society whose holy trinity is efficiency, productivity, and material acquisition. Complaining about it is the modern equivalent of public prayer. “Work,” in this context, refers to tasks that are stressful and externally judged, which the worker heartily longs to do less of. “Not working” is widely coveted but harder to define.
Growing sunflowers and beans is like that, for some of us. Cooking is like that. So is canning tomatoes, and making mozzarella. Doing all of the above with my kids feels like family life in every happy sense. When people see the size of our garden or the stocks in our pantry and shake their heads, saying "What a lot of work," I know what they're really saying. This is the polite construction in our language for "What a dope." They can think so. But they're wrong.
To order from a seed catalog: five-color silverbeet, early comet broccoli
To Read: Zorba the Greek

49. Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (2013.11.26)
By: from The Arabian Nights, author unknown,compiled pre-Islamic Iranian folktales
Genre: classic literature / fantasy / allegory
Audio Performed by: BJ Harrison
Audiobook Length: 3 hours, 11 minutes
Bex Rating: 7.5

I was surprised at how much of the original story of Aladdin I remembered from reading The Arabian Nights in fifth or sixth grade. The story is far more gruesome and far less politically correct than Disney's animated version, or even Fairy Tale Theater's live version with James Earl Jones playing the genie. The genie in the book is actually a pretty minor character--with no personality beyond quick obedience.

I always enjoy hearing BJ Harrison, of The Classic Tales podcast, perform. His performance of this work was greater than the work itself, if you ask me. I listened to it while I painted my book nook and kids' rooms for two straight days--it's nice to have a story to listen to while painting, my LEAST favorite chore in the world.

48. Chains (2013.11.14)
By: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 316
Genre: young adult / historical fiction / Revolutionary War / slavery / New York City / National Book Award Finalist
Bex Rating: 9.5!

This is not the kind of book I normally read. Because I tend to shy away from books about heart-wrenching subjects, like the WWII Holocaust or kidnappings. Or slavery.

But I loved this book. It has its share of truly heart-wrenching moments, but I was so engrossed in the story and the research and the good writing and the AWESOME character of Isabel Finch that I made it through. Maybe I'm growing up.

Isabel and her sister Ruth, are wrongly sold when their mistress dies, though she left a will stating that they should be freed upon her death. Their new mistress, Mrs. Lockton, is cruel and calculating and selfish. The girls work night and day at the Lockton house in New York City, during the siege and capture of New York by the British in 1776. When Mrs. Lockton separates the two sisters, Isabel decides it is time to fight against tyranny in her own way.

There is a second installment called Forge. I wanted to wait and ask for it for Christmas, but after four days I ordered it for myself from half.com. Merry Early Christmas to me.

Favorite Excerpts:

"Gossip is the foul smell from the devil's backside," That's what Momma always said.
Madam . . . did not look into my eyes. Did not see the lion inside. She did not see the me of me, the Isabel.
My thoughts would not line up like good solders. They swarmed afield and fled . . .
Meloncholy held me hostage, and the bees built a hive of sadness in my soul. Dark honey filled up inside me, drowning my thoughts and making it hard to move my eyes and hands.
I lifted my face to the sky and for the first time in much too long, I prayed. I prayed as hard as I could, without words or shapes or fancy talking. I just prayed. When I was done, I felt cleaner than I had after my bath.
A body does not like being bought and sold like a basket of eggs, even if the person who cracks the shells is kind.

47. A Week in the Woods (re-read 2013.11.08)
By: Andrew Clements
Audiobook Length: 4 hours, narrated superbly by Ron Livingston
Genre: young adult / survival / coming-of-age / difficult teachers / moving / overcoming adversity
Bex Rating: 9.5

Okay, I am officially going to go on the record as saying that THIS is my favorite Andrew Clements book. Even though I love Frindle and Lunch Money and so many others--I think A Week in the Woods is his best work.

It didn't matter that I've read this book twice before--I still got sucked into the audiobook and couldn't wait for the events to unfold.

This is the story of Mark Robert Chelmsley III, an 11-year-old boy who is moved by his uber-wealthy parents against his will to a small town in New Hampshire. Though Mark resents leaving his friends and home behind, he can't help but fall in love with the beautiful surroundings of his home in the New Hampshire woods. He is bored at school, but eagerly anticipates getting home each day so he can traipse around the woods of his new home.

Meanwhile, Mr. Maxwell, the 5th grade science teacher, has made judgments about Mark: that he is a spoiled rich kid with a sense of entitlement. The entire fifth grade always attends a week-long program at a state park called "A week in the woods," and Mr. Maxwell is in charge. He has no idea how much Mark has looked forward to this trip. When the two collide during the program, they both learn how to let go of their prideful feelings and see the other for who they really are.

It's a really fun and well-written story, with some compelling adventure thrown in . . . but I think the lessons taught are what make this book so valuable. You really get a feel for how both main characters feel. It helps you to examine your own relationships with others and see how easily it is to misjudge a person. I think every kid should read this book, and the bonus is that the story will suck them right in!

46. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2013.11.02)
By: Catherynne M. Valente
Pages: 247
Genre: young adult fiction / fantasy / humor / allegory / bravery / friendship
Bex Rating: 9.5!

Delightful, from beginning to end. Though it's an age-old plot (child whisked away from our world to a magical one), it felt fresh and new and smart and meaningful. I'll be reading the next one for sure.

[September] liked anything orange: leaves; some moons; marigolds; chrysanthemums; cheese; pumpkin, both in pie and out; orange juice; marmalade. Orange is bright and demanding--you can't ignore orange things.
"He's such a lot of bother--theatrical folks are nothing but a bundle of monologues and anxiety headaches."
"Wairwolves are cultured. We have choirs and charity races and rotary clubs. It's when we're human that you must take care."
September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying.
"Before the Marquess came with her lions and her great old panther with his ivory collar, Fairyland dwelt in the eternal summer of Good Queen Mallow, the Bright and the Bold. She loved us and governed with rhyming songs and cherries for all on Sundays. When she rode out on holidays, she wore a crown of red pearls the selkies gave her, and all the pookas did dances just to make her laugh. Every table groaned with milk and wheat and sugar and hot chocolate. Every horse was fat. Every churn was full. Queen Mallow dances in circles of silver mushrooms to bring on the spring and apparently, before she became queen, ran a bath house."
September's head ducked immediately under the thick, bright, gold water. When she bobbed up, the smell of it wrapped her up like a warm scarf: the scent of fireplaces crackling and warm cinnamon and autumn leaves crunching underfoot. She smelled cider and a rainstorm coming. The gold water clung to her in streaks and clumps, and she laughed. It clung to her like butterscotch.
"War must always be done out of sight, or it shocks people and they stop immediately."
I wonder if every city in Fairyland is made of some strange thing? thought September. For some mad backer had built the town of Mercurio from loaves of thick, moist bread shingled with sugar and mortared with butter. Heavy eaves of brown crust shaded sweet little dinner-bun doors. The cobbles of the square were muffin-tops, and all the fountains gushed fresh, sweet milk. It was as though the witch who built the gingerbread house in the story had a great number of friends and had decided to start up a collective.
Her mother often liked to say she had a weakness for tings: for hot cocoa, for exciting novels, for mechanics' magazines, for her father. September felt it quite a grown-up thing to say.
As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses, is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The sped of children has no limits.
"Shoes are funny beasts. You think they're just clothes, but really, they're alive. They want things. Fancy ones with gems, want to go to balls, big boots want to go to work, slippers want to dance. or sleep. Shoes make the path you're on. Change your shoes, change the path."

47. My Father's Dragon (2013.10.17)
By: Ruth Stiles Gannett
Illustrated by: Ruth Chrisman Gannett
Pages: 77
Genre: young adult fiction / children's / fantasy / allegory / Newbery / Newbery Honor
Bex Rating: 8

This was a very quick and fun read about a boy (the narrator's father) who runs away and saves a dragon on Animal Island. He uses his wits (and the supplies he brought along in a knapsack) to outsmart all the hungry aimals who want to capture him, and who have forced the dragon into being a ferry service across the river. "One doesn't contradict a hungry tiger."

46. A Girl of the Limberlost (2013.10.13)
By: Gene Stratton-Porter
Pages: 232
Genre: modern classic literature / coming-of-age / mothers and daughters / natural world / love story / redemption and forgiveness
Bex Rating: 10!

Oh my. I loved this book so much. When I told my dad I was going to read A Girl of the Limberlost, he said, "That was my mom's favorite book when she was a girl." After I finished it, I called up my Grandma Mollie and talked with her about it. She said it was one of her mother's favorite books, too. So I'm glad it's continuing to be enjoyed and discovered generationally.

This is the story of Elnora Comstock, a bright, neglected young girl who wants to go to school more than anything. Her mother blames Elnora for the loss of her husband to the Limberlost swamp near their rustic home, and so has verbally abused Elnora all her life. But as Elnora struggles and works to go "to town" for schooling, a chain of events is set in motion that leads to the reconciliation of the mother and daughter.

It is beautifully written, interesting and fresh, and the characters are very real. I am always a little surprised by the abrupt endings of books from this time (it was written in 1909), but I loved it just the same. And it's a sweet love story, too! You can get it FOR FREE on your kindle or e-reader.

Wesley Sinton's jaws met with a click. He swallowed hard on bitter words and changed what he would have liked to say three times before it became articulate.
"I couldn't buy this much stuff for any other woman and nothing for my own," said Wesley. "It's Christmas for you too, Margaret!" He shook out fold after fold of soft gray satiny goods that would look lovely against Margaret's pink cheeks and whitening hair.
"Did anyone ever tell you how beautiful you are!" [Elnora] cried.
As the professor was lank, tow-haired, and so near-sighted that he peered at his pupils through his spectacles, no one ever had.
What you are lies with you. If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose, among the only ones who live beyond the grave in this world.
"Loving anybody don't hurt them . . . You can't hurt a child by loving it."
"A father is the very dearest person in the whole round world, except a mother, who is just as dear." The girl, starting to pay tribute to her father, saw that she must include her mother . . .
"What makes you want him?" marveled Elnora.
"God only know," said Sinton. "Billy aint so beautiful, and he aint so smart. I guess it's because he's so human. My heart goes out to him."
"She was going to whip me 'cause her cats fought, when I tied their tails together and hung them over the line to dry. How did I know her old cats would fight?"
"I thought the [Mark Twain] book would be good company, while I was gone. I haven't read it, but I do hope it's good."
"Good! It's the biggest piece of foolishness I have read in all my life. I've laughed all day, ever since I found it. I had a notion to go out and read some of it to the cows and see if they wouldn't laugh."
"If it made you laugh, it's a wise book," said Elnora.
"Wise! You can stake your life it's a wise book. It takes the smartest man there is to do this kind of fooling," and she began laughing again.
"I don't want you to think that I believe the Almighty set a cancer to burning you as a punishment for your sins. I don't! I think a lot more of the Almighty. With a whole sky-full of worlds on His hands to manage, I'm not believing that He has time to look down on ours, and pick you out of all the millions of us sinners, and set a special kind of torture to eating you. It wouldn't be a gentlemanly thing to do, and first of all, the Almighty is bound to be a gentleman.
I am sorry to hear you have been sick," said Mrs. Comstock. "But if people will live where they have such vile water as they do in Chicago, I don't see what else they are to expect."
"Oh, you should taste dandelions boiled with bacon and served with my mother's cornbread." [I am totally going to make this, people.]
"If she isn't disposed to primp at the coming of a man, heaven forbid that I should be the one to start her," thought Mrs. Comstock.
"I find much in life that is cruel, from our standpoints," said Elnora. "It takes the large wisdom of the Unfathomable, the philosophy of the Almighty, to endure some of it. But there is always right somewhere, and at last it seems to come."
"To me, it seems the only pleasure in this world worth having is the joy we derive from living for those we love, and those we can help."
"Young people," she said solemnly, "if your studying science and the elements has ever led you to feel that things just happen, kind of evolve by chance, as it were, this sight will be good for you. Maybe earth and air accumulate, but it takes the wisdom of the Almighty God to devise the wing of a moth. If there ever was a miracle, this whole process is one."
"To the extent of my brain power I realize Your presence, and all it is in me to comprehend of Your power. Help me to learn, even this late, the lessons of Your wonderful creations. Help me to unshackle and expand my soul to the fullest realization of Your wonders. Almighty God, make me bigger, make me broader!"
"Oh, all girls want to go to college," said Phillip. "It's the only proper place to learn bridge and embroidery; not to mention midnight lunches of mixed pickles and fruitcake, and all the delights of the sororities."
"I have thought for years of going to college," said Elnora, "but I never thought any of those things."
"The world is full of happy people, but no one ever hears of them. You must fight and make a scandal to get into the papers. No one knows about all the happy people. I am happy myself, and look how perfectly inconspicuous I am."
Being in a circle of friends, which to her meant her keenest rivals and harshest critics . . .

45. Farmer Boy (re-read aloud to Brigham 2013.10.05)
By: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pages: 372
Genre: classic children's literature / young adult / memoir / historical fiction / coming of age / farm life / young boys
Bex Rating: 10!

I think this is my favorite of the Little House books. But every time I read one, that one is my favorite. It was delightful to introduce my own almost-nine-year-old to Almanzo Wilder and his big appetite. I always love Farmer Boy for the descriptions of the food! Brigham begged me to read a chapter every night, and we went through the entire book in no time, because Wilder excels at description . . . and at understanding how children feel. Brigham loved the part where Almanzo's older sister patches up the paint splotch he made on the parlor wallpaper. I think Brig was more excited about winning the blue ribbon for the milk-fed pumpkin than 'Manzo was!

I actually discovered all of the Little House books in my early twenties--it's never to late to fall in love with them. They are utterly charming and the perfect read-aloud books for kids age eight and up.

All around Almanzo were cakes and pies of every kind, and he was so hungry he could have eaten them all. But he dared not touch even a crumb.
At last he and father got places at the log table in the dining room. Everyone was merry, talking and laughing, but Almanzo simply ate. He ate ham and chicken and turkey and dressing and cranberry jelly; he ate potatoes and gravy, succotash, baked beans and boiled beans and onions, and white bread and rye'n'injun bread, and sweet pickles and jam and preserves. Then he drew a long breath, and he ate pie.
When he began to eat pie, he wished he had eaten nothing else. He ate a pieces of pumpkin pie and a piece of custard pie, and he ate almost a piece of vinegar pie. He tried a piece of mince pie, but could not finish it. He just couldn't do it. There were berry pies and cream pies and vinegar pies and raisin pies, but he could not eat any more.

44. Three Against Hitler, or Before the Blood Tribunal (2013.10.04, book club)
By: Rudi Wobbe & Jerry Borrowman
Pages: 166
Genre: Nonfiction / WWII / Nazi Germany / LDS / Teens
Bex Rating: 8.5

Thought I am an avid reader of fiction, sometimes a story can only be made better if it is actually true. This is one of those. Something else I liked about it is that it's relatively short. I read it in a few hours over the course of two days, and the story did not lack anything for its brevity.

This is the true story of three LDS teenagers, Helmuth Huebner, Rudi Wobbe, and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, who dared to oppose Hitler and his Nazi regime. Led by Huebner, an extremely precocious young man, the three broke the law by listening to the BBC on a contraband radio and then secretly distributing leaflets among their home city of Hamburg.

But the three were caught, and Rudi tells in his own words the horrifying years he spent in prison and in concentration camps, for daring to oppose Hitler by distributing leaflets. It was a very interesting read, in part because of the LDS perspective. Rudi being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was definitely secondary to the story, but there were some interesting insights about what members of the Church thought about the Nazi party and Hitler's rise to power.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

Looking back, perhaps my life in Nazi Germany wasn't so ordinary, after all. But how can one know the events one sees in everyday life are wrong or unusual without gaining some outside perspective?
What upset Helmuth and me the most was the way the other members of our congregation treated Brother Worbs upon his return [from a concentration camp]. Rather than rally to his defense to comfort him, many turned a cold shoulder, refusing to even speak with him. He was ostracized because he "kicked against the pricks" by opposing the government. Many, I suspect, were afraid to be seen with him for fear the Nazis would suspect them as well.
The influence of politics on our church activity got to the point that it seemed to us many of our christian brothers and sisters considered Hitler to be "the savior of Germany." Superficial parallels were drawn between the Nazi party and the church, including its organizational structure and strong emphasis on the active participation of every member. Even the fact that the LDS church encourages genealogical research seemed to coincide with the Nazi's demand for rigorous genealogical pedigrees that proved one's Aryan ancestry.
I think [Helmuth] sensed that this was his last battle, and he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect us. In spite of my fear, I thrilled to see him in action and felt great pride that he was my friend. It seems impossible, but here was a teenager winning a debate with learned lawyers and justices. If ever a man has a finest hour, this was Helmuth's. What a great man he was. What a great friend.
Somehow [Helmuth] managed to go beyond the structured thinking and indoctrination that he'd grown up with to see the broader vision of truth that existed beyond the borders of our native country. His insight and intellect enabled him to grasp the true depth of the Nazi evil. It may be easy with the retrospect of history to see how bad the Nazis were. But to grow up in the midst of that environment, being taught every day that Germany had the best and finest government on earth and still to have the insight and courage to break free of the propaganda, took a man of high and special caliber.
With this scripture [Isaiah 55:7-9] I suddenly felt that even I, in my desperate circumstances, could reach out across the heavens and talk with God . . . as I pondered this verse over and over in my heart, I didn't feel quite so alone.
One might have supposed there would be great depression and hopelessness in this ravages little corner of the world. Instead, I found encouragement and hope, and a determination to start anew in a world of freedom.
We had to do a lot of unconventional things, but I found early in life that the Lord really does help those who try to help themselves. It's only when one is at the end of his rope that the Lord steps in to help.

43. Drama (2013.09.28)
By: Raina Telgemeier
Pages: 233
Genre: graphic novel / young adult fiction / art / coming-of-age / teenage angst
Bex Rating: 8 for artwork, 5 for plot

It was off to a great start, and the art and paneling were very well done, but it's basically the story of a girl having one hopeless crush after another, with asides for the hopeless crushes of her friends. I like my graphic novel to be a little more meaningful.

42. The Plague and I (2013.09.25)
By: Betty MacDonald
Pages: 254
Genre: memoir / satire / consumption / overcoming challenges / parenting / life's lessons
Bex Rating: 9.5!

The only reason this didn't get a "10" is because Betty MacDonald's first memoir, The Egg and I is slightly better. But I did laugh out loud the entire time I read this TRUE account of Betty's year-long convalescence in a sanitorium for victims of tuberculosis. It's out of print, and I cannot fathom why, because it is HILARIOUS. And so full of Betty's beautiful humanity. Read for yourself.

Gammy thought all of Daddy's efforts to keep us healthy were a ridiculous waste of time and no wonder, because according to Gammy childhood was a very hazardous time of life and if we children weren't bitten by rattlesnakes, eaten by wild animals, killed by robbers or struck by lightning, catarrh, consumption, and leprosy were just around the corner. Gammy said that catarrh, consumption, and leprosy were diseases very common to little children and were brought on by . . . not making your bed; quarreling; not feeding the chickens; keeping bad company; not washing your hands; cheating at croquet; being impudent and eating too many eggs.
In addition to good health, my family possessed a great capacity for happiness.We managed to be happy eating Gammy's dreadful food or Mother's delicious cooking; in spite of cold baths and health programs; with Gammy's awful forebodings of the future hanging over our heads; in private school or public; in very large or medium-sized houses; with dull bores or bright friends; with or without money; keeping warm by burning books (chiefly large thick collections of sermons, left us by some of the many defunct religious members of the family) or anthracite coal in the furnace; i love or just thrown over; in or out of employment; being good sports or cheats; fat or thin; young or old; in the city or in the country; with or without lights; with or without husbands.
. . . my tiredness became so constant that I ceased to notice it and thought I felt well and had energy when I was merely not as tired as usual.
People who are very nervous and eat so fast they rarely taste what they eat have indigestion but only big bores talk about it, so I ignored mine.
"You don't smoke do you?" she asked with disappointment. I said, "I did smoke constantly until a few days ago but the doctor said to stop so I did." I sounded like a coiled spring of willpower. Actually it hadn't been too difficult because of the coughing.
As we drove off I turned and waved and waved to [my] children. They stood on the sidewalk, squinting against the sun. young, long-legged and defenseless. I loved them so that I felt my heart draining and wondered if I was leaving a trail behind me like the shiny mark of a snail.
I'm neither Christian enough nor charitable enough to like anybody just because he is alive and breathing. I want people to interest or amuse me. I want them fascinating and amusing or so dull as to be different. I want them either intellectually stimulating or wonderfully corny; perfectly charming or hundred percent stinker. I like my chosen companions to be distinguishable from the undulating masses and I don't care how.
I told them about the man in my office [whom I had contracted TB from] and everyone was very incensed. Kimi said, "It is so hard to tell with men. They cough and spit so much."
I did notice a preponderance of throwing up at suppertime and wondered if the beautiful thoughts had anything to do with it. That evening it had been, "Little things affect little minds." "You don't say," I said angrily as a took a bite of scalloped potato and the woman in the next bed prepared to clean out her entire respiratory system.
At home, Thanksgiving had always been a delightful occasion even when we were being thankful for meatloaf shaped like a turkey. We thought about Thanksgiving, planned for Thanksgiving and talked of Thanksgiving for weeks beforehand, but the evening before the actual day was the best time of all. Then the house seethed with children and dogs, with friends and cooks, and with delightful smells of baking pies, turkey stuffing, and coffee. Every time the doorbell rang we put on another pot of coffee and washed the cups and by the time we went to bed we were so nervous and flighty that when accidentally bumped or brushed against, we buzzed and lit up like pinball machines. Thanksgiving morning usually found us all quite nasty and with too many things planned for the oven, but even the fighting was fun. Warm, family fun.
On January sixth, the charge nurse invited me to The Pines moving picture show, but she handed me the invitation so thickly encased in rules that it was like being given the present of one smelt wrapped in the Sunday New York Times.
She said, "You are on the list to go to the movie tonight. you may wear makeup if you wish, but you may not talk or laugh. You are to be ready by seven o' clock in your robe and slippers, with your pillow and night blanket. You will be called for by a male (she said male in a low throbbing voice as though it were some dangerous new sex) ambulant patient but you are not to speak or to laugh with your escort. your temperature and pulse will be taken as soon as you return to bed and if your temperature or your pulse have increased you will not be allowed to go to the next moving picture show." I thank her, promised not to speak or to pulsate and she left.
Sonja Henie: was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion (1927–1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931–1936). Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater. At the height of her acting career she was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood.
catarrh: excessive discharge or buildup of mucus in the nose or throat, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane.

41. Out of My Mind (2013.09.16, book club)
By: Sharon M. Draper
Pages: 295
Genre: young adult fiction / disabilities / school story / middle grade fiction
Bex Rating: 9

I like reading three "nines" in a row.

This is the story of Melody Brooks, who was born with cerebral palsy and synesthesia, and who hasn't ever spoken one word in eleven years. But everything changes for her when she gets a medi-talker, and finally gets to release all the words that have "piled up in huge drifts" inside her.

It was so moving. I cried quite a few times. Especially the first time she says "I love you" to her mom and dad. Everyone should read this book.

Every single day I learned new words. I sucked them in and gobbled them up like they were Mrs. V's cherry cake. And then she would stretch out the cards on the floor, position me on a big pillow so I could reach them, and I'd push the cards into sentences with my fists. It was like stringing beads of a necklace together to make something really cool.
When I sleep, I dream. And in my dreams I can do anything. I get picked first on the playground for games. I can run so fast! I take gymnastics, and I never fall off the balance beam. I know how to square-dance, and I'm good at it. I call my friends on the phone, and we talk for hours. I whisper secrets. I sing.
It sorta sucks to watch a baby do what you wish you could do.
I feel like stomping on something. Stomping and stomping and stomping. That makes me even crazier because I can't even do that. I can't even get mad like a normal kid.

40. Because of Mr. Terupt (2013.09.08)
By: Rob Buyea
Pages: 268
Genre: young adult fiction / middle-grade fiction / coming-of-age / school stories / disabilities
Bex Rating: 9

A wonderful librarian-recommended book! Which are often my favorite kinds.

This story is told from the point-of-view of six kids (three boys, three girls) in Mr. Terupt's fifth grade class. Mr. Terupt is a one-of-a-kind, enthusiastic, inspiring teacher--who really gets the 10- and 11-year-olds in his classroom, and who fosters of a love of learning and curiosity in his students. Though the six narrators are each totally different, they all learn what it means to stand up for what's right, thanks to Mr. Terupt's example.

This book is great because it made me remember what it's like to be eleven. It also does an excellent job of challenging the reader to examine how he/she treats people based on initial impressions. I loved it!

39. Kristin Lavransdatter (2013.08.25)
By: Sigrid Undsett
Pages: 1168
Genre: historical fiction / epic / classic literature / Norwegian literature / translated / Pulitzer Prize for Literature
Bex Rating: 9

Wow.

The first time I ever heard of this book was from this list of Ten Books You Should read to Your Daughter. Since I had read (and loved) seven of the ten recommendations, I concluded that I would enjoy the other three, and Kristin Lavransdatter was the most intriguing. {Sidenote: my next read from this list will be A Girl of the Limberlost, I have seen the Feature Films for Families version, but never read it, and I recently found out it was my Grandma Mollie's favorite book when she was a girl}.

If you finish any book that it over 1000 pages, I hope it's because it is a really good one. Otherwise, you just wasted a lot of time you could have been re-visiting the Calvin and Hobbes canon, which is always worthwhile. In this case, it was 1168 pages that I could not stop thinking about. I read the entire book in a week. I thought Kristin was so real and engaging and fiery and compassionate and stubborn. She became a best friend to me--the kind you love and ache for and are so angry with when you watch her do something you know she'll regret, but you stick with her anyway. The way she would stick with you.

This is the story of Kristin Lavransdatter, a Norwegian country girl growing up in 14th-century Norway. (Do you know anything about 14th-century Norway? Yeah, neither did I). We meet her as a little girl, the apple of her father, Lavrans', eye. We see her heartache as her first love dies at a young age. We wonder what will happen when she is betrothed to a good, honest, decent man--whom she finds dull. We see the warning signs when she falls for Erlend, against all her good sense and upbringing and to the dismay of her family. She becomes a wife, a mother, a landowner. Her husband loses his birthright and they must move back to her country home. The book continues right up until her old age and death.

Through it all, Kristin is fierce and strong and faces the struggles that women of every century face. She is a bit reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara (or Scarlett is reminiscent of Kristin). You root for her and ache for her, even though she makes choices you might not make. The writing is BEAUTIFUL and not unwieldy at all--the translation by Tina Nunnally is masterful.

Gradually the glow of the taper seemed to envelop her, shutting out everything else surrounding her and the candle. She felt her heart open up, brimming over with gratitude and promises and love for God and His gentle mother--she felt them so near. She had always known that they saw her, but this night she felt it so.
I see that you are smiling, Kristin. but don't you realize how badly things stand with you now? For you would rather hear about other people's frailties than about the deeds of decent people, which might serve as an example for you.
"God knows," replied Lavrans sternly, "that I judge no man to be a greater sinner than myself. But one cannot expect me to give my daughter to any man who wishes to ask for her, just because we all need God's mercy."
A good-humored tenderness coursed through her heart, over the hard little anger that lay at the bottom, like a glittering river over stones.
"I put all my faith in God's mercy. It's not for long that friends are parted. Although at times it may seem so to you now, while you are young . . . When you reach my age then you'll think that it's no time at all since you saw those of us who have departed."
When [Simon Andresson] met with adversity, it bothered him less if he could remember the good fortune and well-being of his siblings . . . He felt that the roots of his own life were intertwined with those of his brothers and sisters, somewhere deep down in the dark earth. Every blow that struck, every injury that ate away at the marrow of one of them was felt by all.

38. The Heroines (2013.08.05)
By: Eileen Favorite
Pages: 231
Genre: books about books / bildungsroman / mothers and daughters / coming-of-age / contemporary fantasy
Bex Rating: 7

This is the story of 13-year-old Penny Entwhistle, who's mother runs a bed-and-breakfast that is frequented by the heroines of famous literature. They show up to take a break during the most trying scenes of their novels. But Penny resents the attention that her mother gives to the "heroines" when she herself is in the midst of teenage angst. So she breaks her mother's one rule: don't interfere with the heroine's story.

It was funny, and I read it pretty quickly, but it kind of fell flat at the end. And it was a bit too crude.

My kinky red hair and head-to-toe freckles would have made me the child star of baloney commercials. I wasn't ugly, but I had a look people loved because it was so uniquely unthreatening; they pointed and smiled, secretly thanking their stars for their tans and shimmering straight locks.
What parent wouldn't want to see her disgruntled teenager returned to the sweet innocence of her childhood, to the days before her cynical and critical eyes turned mercilessly on the one who gave her life?

37. Siege and Storm {Book II of the Grisha Trilogy} (2013.08.03)
By: Leigh Bardugo
Pages: 432
Genre: epic fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 9

I've been waiting for the sequel to Shadow and Bone since I read it last year [2012, review #35] and it did not disappoint! I think this is the best new fantasy fiction out there since Harry Potter. It's original, the characters are believable, and the writing is fantastic. But UGH . . . now I am waiting a whole year for the third and final installment.

New characters join Alina Starkov, Mal Oretsev, and the twisted Darkling in the country of Ravka: a fantasy realm very similar to Old World Russia. I adore Prince Nikolai, otherwise known as Sturmhond, the pirate. It was an awesome summer read and I can't wait for the third book!

The Count and his wife, a plump lady with graying curls and alarmingly displayed cleavage, set a lavish table. We ate cold soup from jeweled cups shaped like pumpkins, roasted lamb slathered with currant jelly, mushrooms baked in cream, and a dish I only picked at that I later learned was brandied cuckoo. But most impressive was the centerpiece that ran the length of the table: a living miniature forest rendered in elaborate detail, complete with groves of tiny pines, a climbing trumpet vine with blossoms no bigger than a fingernail, and a little hut that hid the salt cellar.
"I don't have your gift for 'amused and aloof,'" I said, "But 'grouchy' seems to be working for me."
"Alina!" his voice was raw white wood, torn from the heart of a tree. I did not turn.

36. Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of Country Life (2013.08.01)
Written & Illustrated By: Julia Rothman
Pages: 223
Genre: sketchbook / nonfiction / information / farm life / agrarian
Bex Rating: 10!

Not only is this one of my favorite books of 2013, it's also one of my favorite GIFTS. While Allen and I were vacationing at his parents' house in Arkansas, I was lazily thumbing through magazines while my kids swam in Nana's pool (when I said "vacationing," I mean in every sense of the word). I came across a little blurb about this book in Better Homes and Gardens, and showed it to Allen's mom (Nana herself), because she has recently morphed into a chicken-lover, too. This was the picture they put in BH&G:

I told her she should get the book and frame some of the illustrations near her beautiful potting bench. She did better than that--she ordered one for herself AND one for me! And we both stayed up into the wee hours poring over each beautifully soothing illustration. {Bonus: one week after we left her house, Nana's chickens laid their first eggs!}

Julie Rothman is an award-winning illustrator who lives in Brooklyn, but her husband grew up on a farm in Iowa, and this book is an homage to her husband's parents and grandparents. Each layout contains tidbits of farm wisdom and information. I learned so many things I didn't know (from the names of the different styles of barn roofs and barbed wire, to basic crop rotations plans, to recipes for buckwheat pancakes) and I savored each drawing. It is the best sketchbook I've ever read / viewed, and will be a permanent end-table fixture in my home for years to come.

35. The Hero of Ages (2013.07.31)
By: Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 781
Genre: epic fantasy
Bex Rating: 9

What a great conclusion to this awesome trilogy! I think the first book, Mistborn, is still my favorite, but the second and third were both right up there, too. I am so impressed with Brandon Sanderson. I think I'll be checking out The Way of Kings the next time I need a good fantasy fix.

Vin and Elend are both allomancers, and are trying to follow the clues that the Lord Ruler left them to help defeat an ancient and evil force named Ruin. There's a lot of great philosophy about religion in this installment, and I thought Sanderson handled the subject masterfully. The conclusion is stunning: something I never could have predicted.

I thought this was an especially poignant paragraph:

At that moment, Elend realized something. Vin didn't need another person worshiping her. She didn't need another faithful believer . . . especially not in Elend. He didn't need to be a good member of the Church of the Survivor. He needed to be a good husband.

34. Cheaper By The Dozen (2013.07.19)
By: Frank Gilbreth, Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Pages: 180
Genre: memoir / humor and satire / big families / American 1920s
Bex Rating: 10!

I ellowelled so ell several times while I was reading this book. It was an absolute treasure. I don't think anyone could read this book and not fall in love with the Gilbreth family. And Frank Gilbreth, the father, is the star of the show. It is obvious from every hilarious story how much his children adored him, even when they didn't agree with him.

This is exactly my kind of book: hilarious anecdotes about a family with twelve children, and how they manage the chaos of such a large household. Below are some of my favorite excerpts, which are great samplings of the poignant and humorous moments throughout the book. I highly recommend it.

When Lill was eight, she submitted a bid of forty-seven cents to paint a long, high fence in the back yard. Of course it was the lowest bid, and she got the job.
"She's too young to try to paint that fence all by herself," Mother told Dad. "Don't let her do it."
"Nonsense," said Dad. "She's got to learn the value of money and to keep agreements. Let her alone."
Lill, who was saving for a pair of roller skates and wanted the money, kept insisting she could do it.
"If you start it, you'll have to finish it," Dad said.
"I'll finish it, Daddy. I know I can."
"You've got yourself a contract, then."
It took Lill ten days to finish the job, working every day after school and all day week ends. Her hands blistered, and some nights she was so tired she couldn't sleep very well either. But he made her live up to her contract.
"You've got to let her stop, " Mother kept telling him. "She'll have a breakdown or something--or else you will."
"No," said Dad. "She's learning the value of money and she's learning that when you start something it's necessary to finish it if you want to collect. She's got to finsh. It's in her contract."
"You sound like Shylock," Mother said.
But Dad stood firm.
When Lill finally complete the job, she came to Dad in tears.
"It's done," she said. "I hope your're satisfied. Now can I have my forty-seven cents?"
Dad counted out the change.
"Don't cry, honey," he said. "No matter what you think of your old Daddy, he did it for your own good. If you go look under your pillow you'll find that Daddy really loved you all the time."
The present was a pair of roller skates.
Since Dad thought eating was a form of unavoidable delay, he utilized the dinner hour as an instruction period. His primary rule was that no one could talk unless the subject was of general interest.
Dad was the one who decided what subjects were of general interest. Since he was convinced that everything he uttered was interesting, the rest of the family had trouble getting a word in edgewise.
"Honestly, we have the stupidest boy in our History class," Anne would begin.
"Is he cute ? Ernestine asked.
"Not of general interest," Dad roared.
I'm interested," Mart said.
"But I," Dad announced, "am bored stiff. Now if Anne had seen a two-headed boy in history class, that would have been of general interest."
Dad thought the best way to deal with sickness in the family was simply to ignore it. "We don't have time for such nonsense," he said. "There are too many of us. A sick person drags down the performance of the entire group. You children come from sound pioneer stock. You've been given health, and it's your job to keep it. I don't want any excuses. I want you to stay well."
Except for measles and whooping cough, we obeyed orders.
Doctors' visits were so infrequent we learned to identify them with Mother's having a baby.
Martha hadn't forgotten how we neglected her when she finally came down with the measles. She lorded it over us plenty before she finally departed.
"Aunt Anne always had apple pie for breakfast," she said, which we all knew to be perfectly true, except that sometimes it was blueberry instead of apple. "She keeps a jar of doughnuts in the pantry and she likes children to eat them." This, too, was unfortunately no more than the simple truth. "Tomorrow morning, when you are awaiting the knife, I will be thinking of you. I shall try, if I am not too full, to dedicate a doughnut to each of you."
She rubbed her stomach with a circular motion, and puffed out her cheeks horribly as if she were chewing on a whole doughnut. She opened an imaginary doughnut jar and helped herself to another, which she rammed into her mouth.
"My goodness, Aunt Anne," she said, pretending that that lady was in the room, "those doughnuts are even more delicious than usual."..."Well, why don't you have another, Martha?" ... "Thanks, Aunt Anne, I believe I will."... "Why don't you take two or three, Martha?" ... "I'm so full of apple pie I don't know whether I could eat two more, Aunt Anne. But since it makes you happy to have people eat your cooking, I will do my best."
"Hope you choke, Martha, dear," we told her.
"Do you have a million dollars, Daddy?" Bill asked.
"No," said Dad a little ruefully. "I have a million children, instead. Somewhere along the line, a man has to choose between the two."
"After all, men don't want to marry girls who wear makeup and high heels," Mother said. "That's the kind they run around with before they're married. But when it comes picking out a wife, they want someone they can respect."
"They certainly respect me," Anne moaned. "I'm the most respected girl in the whole high school. The boys respect me so much they hardly look at me. I wish they'd respect me a little less and go out with me a little more. How can you expect me to be popular?"
"Popular!" Dad roared. "Popular. That's all I hear. That's the magic word, isn't it? That's what's the matter with this generation. Nobody thinks about being smart, or clever, or sweet or even attractive. No, sir. They want to be skinny and flat-chested and popular. They'd sell their soul and body to be popular, and if you ask me a lot of them do."
"We're the only girls in the whole high school who aren't' allowed to wear silk stockings," Ernestine complained. "It just isn't fair. If we could just wear silk stockings it wouldn't be so bad about the long skirts [and] the sensible shoes.
"There was a change in Mother after Dad died. A change in looks and a change in manner. Before her marriage, all Mother's decisions had been made by her parents. After the marriage the decisions were made by Dad. It was Dad who suggested having a dozen children, and that both of them become efficiency experts. If his interests had been in basket weaving or phrenology, she would have followed him just as readily.
"While Dad lived, Mother was afraid of fast driving, of airplanes, of walking alone at night. When there was lightning, she went into a dark closet and held her ears. When things went wrong at dinner, she sometimes burst into tears and had to leave the table. She made public speeches, but she dreaded them.
"Now, suddenly, she wasn't afraid any more, because there was nothing to be afraid of. Now nothing could upset her because the thing that mattered most had been upset. None of us ever saw her weep again."
appurtanences: something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
kris: Also called: creese a Malayan and Indonesian stabbing or slashing knife with a scalloped edge
porte-cochere: 1. a covered carriage entrance leading into a courtyard. 2. a porch at the door of a building for sheltering persons entering and leaving carriages.

33. All-of-a-kind Family (2013.07.17)
By: Sydney Taylor
Pages: 189
Genre: young adult / historical fiction / New York City / sisters / families
Bex Rating: 9

I loved this book from beginning to end. It was reminiscent of the Little House on the Prairie books, but set in the big city. It also reminded me of Little Women, for a young audience. It's the story of five sisters, Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie, who live in New York City at the turn of the century. Each chapter is a little mini adventure that the girls have together, and they are all delightful.

Favorites:

She has dimples, Sarah thought. Surely a lady with dimples could never be harsh.
"Will Mama let us take the [candy] to bed, Charlotte?"
"Of course not! I'm going to hide them."
"Where?"
"Under the pillows on our bed. Nobody would ever think of looking there."
"Oh you silly!" Henny said. "You can't order your babies--you've got to take what you get."
"Well, I'm sure God will give me just what I want," replied Charlotte. "I'll just want girls so hard, He won't even be able to think about boys."

32. And Then There Were None (re-read for book club 2013.07.07)
By: Agatha Christie
Pages: 194
Genre: mystery / murder / suspense / modern classic / crime fiction
Bex Rating: 9 (for sheer entertainment)

I first read this book when I was 18 or 19 and I remember racing through the exciting plot and feeling tense with dread from the fantastic story. I chose it for book club because, in our four years of meeting monthly to discuss books, we have really only read one mystery (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie--an excellent book and probably my all-time book club favorite). It looks like the most common genre chosen for our book club is memoirs.

The best part about waiting fifteen years to re-read a mystery is that you don't remember who the killer is . . . or at least I didn't. The premise of the book is that 10 people who've never met one another are all invited to stay at "Indian Island" for a few days. When each person arrives, they find that their "host" is not there, but an eerie recording plays at dinnertime, and a voice accuses them each, in turn, of having committed murder at some time in the past. A crime for which they now must answer. As the story unfolds, the characters are murdered, one by one, like the Ten Little Indians of nursery rhyme infamy. The characters quickly conclude that the murderer must be one of the guests themselves!

I need to read more of the Queen of Crime. I listened to her first Hercule Poirot mystery, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, earlier this year (review #6) and loved it.

There was something magical about an island--the mere word suggested fantasy. You lost touch with the world--an island was a world of its own. A world, perhaps, from which you might never return.
"Oh yes. I've no doubt in my own mind that we have been invited here by a madman--probably a dangerous homicidal lunatic." [This made me laugh with delight]
If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily paneled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity--no possible sliding panels--it was flooded with electric light--everything was new and bright and shining. There was nothing hidden in this house, nothing concealed. It had no atmosphere about it. Somehow, that was the most frightening thing of all.
rubber truncheon: 1- A short stick carried by police; a billy club 2- A staff carried as a symbol of office or authority; a baton.3- A heavy club; a cudgel.
cosh: A weighted weapon similar to a blackjack.
"Swan Song": 1-A farewell or final appearance, action, or work. 2- The beautiful legendary song sung only once by a swan in its lifetime, as it is dying.
cairngorm: a smoky yellow, grey, or brown variety of quartz, used as a gemstone Also called smoky quartz

31. A Thousand Splendid Suns (2013.06.26, book club)
By: Khaled Hosseini
Pages: 372
Genre: contemporary historical fiction / Afghanistan / war / women /
Bex Rating: 8.5

Whew. This was one tough book to read. It is the story of two Afghan women who become friends despite all the horrible circumstances forced upon them--and it is set amid the backdrop of the last thirty years of Afghanistan's troubled history.

I am glad I read it, and I liked it overall, even though it is the kind of book I avoid reading . . . or at least "put off" reading . . . "I'll read that in my fifties . . . "

Mullah Faizullah admitted to Marian that, at times, he did not understand the meaning of the Koran's words. But he said he liked the chanting sounds the Arabic words made as they rolled off his tongue. he said they comforted him, eased his heart.
"They'll comfort you too, Mariam jo," he said. "You can summon them in your time of need, and they won't fail you. God's words will never betray you, my girl."
A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you.
Mariam set about cleaning the room, marveling at how energetically lazy men could be.
[Mariam] remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up tot the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below.
As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.
Rasheed snorted, and raised both eyebrows. "You don't know what a communist is? Such a simple thing. everyone knows. It's common knowledge. You don't . . . bah. I don't know why I am surprised." Then he crossed his ankles on the table and mumbled that it was someone who believed in Karl Marxist.
Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.
She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.
Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. no, it was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.

30. The Thirty-Nine Steps (2013.06.23, audiobook, The Classic Tales Podcast)
By: John Buchan
Length: 4 hours, 10 minutes
Genre: contemporary fiction / suspense / action / espionage / war / British
Bex Rating: 7

This was a difficult book to follow on audio, but I think it may have been more difficult to read. It's "James Bondish" book, but without cool cars or a debonair hero. But it was all I had to listen to on a six-hour drive!

It's a really complicated plot with intercepted codes and countries at war and elaborate disguises, but there's no device to make you care about the main character, so I just kind of slogged through.

29. Lunch Money (re-read 2013.06.23, audiobook)
By: Andrew Clements
Length: 5 hours, 3 minutes
Genre: young adult / school story / money / friends
Bex Rating: 9

I have read this book before, but was glad Truman had it loaded on my iPod when I took a drive to SLC and back with Calvin, because I love Andrew Clements and this is one of his best books.

28. The Runaway King (2013.06.216)
By: Jennifer Nielsen
Pages: 331
Genre: young adult fiction / adventure / fairy tale
Bex Rating: 7

I feel bad giving this book such a low score, because I really loved the first book in the Ascendance Trilogy: The False Prince. But this book was so ridiculous! The main character in the book wasn't Sage (or Prince Jaron) any more . . . it was Deux ex machina. Ugh. I don't know if I'll bother with the third one, which is probably due to come out in about a year.

27. The Sherlockian (2013.06.09)
By: Graham Moore
Pages: 350
Genre: contemporary adult fiction / Sherlock Holmes / mystery
Bex Rating: 8

I've been wanting to read this book since I first saw the cover because I love all things Sherlock Holmes! It was a very entertaining read, with a great new take on the genre: this book has the reader jumping back and forth from a modern "Sherlockian", Harold White, who is searching for Arthur Conan Doyle's lost diary, and Conan Doyle himself, who has decided to abandon writing Holmes stories and wants to move on to greater things . . . but somehow he finds himself tangled in his own mysterious affair with his friend and fellow author, Bram Stoker.

They were the new electric lights, which the City government was installing avenue by avanue, square by square, in place of the dirty gas lamps that had lit London's public spaces for a century . . . So long to the faint chiaroscuro of London . . . welcome to the cleansing glare of the twentieth century.
The oil and water of separate affections did not mix, but they also did not detonate. They coursed separately and equally through his bloodstream.
Harold was glad to note that even across the Atlantic, general sullenness was the basic cloth of teenage attire.
chiaroscuro: the distribution of light and shade in a picture.

Literary References [note to self: read later]:

Chandler: Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at age forty-four, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published just seven full novels during his lifetime. In the year before he died, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Hammett: Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse). In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in The New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." Time magazine included Hammett's 1929 novel Red Harvest on a list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.

27. The Great Gatsby (2013.05.28)
By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pages: 159
Genre: contemporary adult fiction / contemporary classic / New York City / the twenties /
Bex Rating: 6

Lame. And depressing. The best part about this novel is that it is super short. I read it in about an hour.

This is considered to be a classic American novel? Really? I get why John Steinbeck's novels are classics, even though I don't like any of them--it's brilliant writing, tragic plots, and stunning portrayals of American history in microcosm. This book may have some good writing in it, but I did not sympathize with any of the characters, and the plot fell flat on its face. I have no desire to see the movie version of a story that portrays infidelity and deceit as an inevitable part of marriage . . . and anyone who doesn't think so as naive and cloddish.

(I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)
As for Tom, the fact that "he had some woman in New York" was really less surprising than [that] he had been depressed by a book. Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.
There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors, and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender, but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shiny new motorcars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered.
pasquinade: A satire or lampoon, originally one displayed or delivered publicly in a public place.

26. The Night Tourist (2013.05.26)
By: Katherine Marsh
Pages: 232
Genre: contemporary young adult fiction / fantasy / life after death / New York City / love / mythology
Bex Rating: 7.5

I read this young adult book because it was set in New York City, while I was in New York City, so it was a bit surreal. Even though I liked it, I kind of wish I'd re-read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn instead.

It's the story of a boy who goes to New York City for the first time since his mom died, and he discovers the "underworld" of ghosts that haunt New York. He can see and talk to ghosts, so he spends his three nights in the underworld searching for his mom. The best part about it is that there's a lot of great NYC history and fun facts, and it's also generously seasoned with Greek mythology.

25. The Thirteenth Tale (2013.05.23)
By: Diane Setterfield
Pages: 406
Genre: contemporary fiction / Bristish / the power of fiction / mystery / suspense
Bex Rating: 8.5

I couldn't put this book down, once I was into it. It was very reminiscent of Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden (2012 reviews, #10).

It's the story of Margaret Lea, a bookish biographer, who receives a letter from the world-famous writer, Vida Winter. Miss Winter wants Margaret to write her biography: the real story--not the fabricated stories she's given to interviewers in the past. As Vida Winter's story unfolds, Margaret (and the reader) are drawn into a tangled and haunting tale that seems more like something from Grimm's Fairy Tales than real life.

People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they can continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.
I made a resolution to telephone my mother the next day, but it was a safe resolution; no one can hold you to a decision made in the middle of the night.
Miss Winter, too, had changed in recent days. But in her disease was a distillation: the more it reduced her, the more it exposed her essence . . . and the weaker she grew, the more the steel at her center was revealed.
Any governess, after the few hours I have had in this house, would have a full and clear picture of the task awaiting her, but he is a man, hence cannot see how tiresome it is to have explained at length what one has already fully understood.

24. The Well of Ascension (2013.05.03)
By: Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 781
Genre: epic fantasy
Bex Rating: 9

I love this series so much! I can't wait to read the third and final installment, but I also dread it being over. Completely original fantasy with believable characters, fantastic writing, a compelling plot, and a really great love story.

She let him hold her. At first, there was a slight stiffness to her posture. It was as if a piece of her still expected to be hurt--a primal sliver that couldn't understand it was possible to be touched out of love rather than anger.
"Vin isn't . . . like other women."
Tindwyl raised an eyebrow, her voice softening slightly. "I think that the more women you come to know, Your Majesty, the more you'll find that statement applies to all of them."
"You understand very little about women, Elend Venture--especially young women. To them, their competence has a surprisingly small amount to do with how they feel about themselves."
"Sazed, I've raised some fifteen daughters," Tindwyl said, entering the room. "No teenage girl is stable--some are just better at hiding it than others."
"He was using you," said Zane.
"Yes," Vin said, "But it doesn't matter--not the way you made it seem. Elend uses me. Kelsier used me. We use each other, for love, for support, for trust."
"Trust will kill you," he said.
"Then it is better to die."
"Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting satisfaction in life. This is not an easy time in which to live. That does not mean it has to be a difficult time to love."
Everything Sazed did, everything he thought, seemed wrong because she was gone. Lights seemed dimmer. Motivations were more difficult to reach.

23. Mistborn (2013.04.20)
By: Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 657
Genre: epic fantasy
Bex Rating: 9

Holy cow. This book blew my mind. Sanderson is doing so many new and exciting things with the fantasy genre. And it doesn't hurt that the protagonist is a girl. Can't wait to read the next one.

"Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief--what is faith--if you don't continue in it after failure?"

22. The Wizard of Oz (2013.04.10)
By: L. Frank Baum
Narrated by: BJ Harrison
Length: 4 hours, 16 minutes
Bex Rating: 8 for the book, 9.5 for the audio narration

I read The Wizard of Oz three or four times when I was between 10 and 12. I could picture the W.W. Denslow illustrations from the version I read the entire time I listened to it with my kids. Truman, my 11-year-old, loved it!

Americans are so used to the movie version of this book (which really is a timeless masterpiece, I admit) that the book is kind of a shock. Dorothy unwittingly kills the Wicked Witch of the West with a bucket of water (which she was using to clean the witch's kitchen, because she got caught and made into a slave) in the middle of the book--I think of the rest of the book as falling action, but the killing of the witch is really just one of several events that occurs before Dorothy is able to return home. It is not THE EVENT in the way it is in the movie.

I love the Queen of the field mice! And the china people! And the backstories of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. They all make a journey, too--with Scarecrow being made ruler of Oz, Tin Man becoming ruler of the Winkies, and Cowardly Lion slaying a huge spider and becoming the true King of Beasts.

Allen and I went to see Oz: The Great and Powerful a few weeks back, and I was so glad that BJ Harrison brilliantly timed his release of the audiobook (at The Classic Tales Podcast--free!) during the renewal of interest in Oz. I thought the movie did a good job of straddling the literary Oz and the movie Oz, while still adding something original to L. Frank Baum's imaginary world.

21. Enchanter's End Game, Book V of The Belgariad (re-read for the sixth time 2013.04.05)
By: David Eddings
Pages: 372
Genre: epic fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 9.5

The final book in The Belgariad ties every loose end up very neatly. Garion sneaks away with Silk and Belgarath to face Torak alone, so he can avoid the armies of the Western kingdoms needlessly killing themselves in a war. Ce'Nedra and Polgara are furious, but they meanwhile travel through the countries of the West, raising an army in behalf of King Belgarion, to use as a distraction so that Garion will reach Mallorea to face Torak.

The final battle is awesome, with Garion daring to pit himself against a God. He wins, of course, and the falling action is very sweet. Polgara finally admits that she has been in love with Durnik, the blacksmith, who dies during the final confrontation. When the gods come to claim their slain brother, Torak, they agree to restore Durnik to life, on the condition that Polgara have no more power than he has. Polgara believes this to mean that she will become mortal, but she later discovers that Durnik was made to possess the power of The Will and the Word as well. Garion and Ce'Nedra are married, and everything ends on a very satisfactory note.

But Eddings went on to write another entire five-book epic series about the same characters. The Mallorean is not quite as good as The Belgariad, but I love it all the same, and will probably re-read it some time later this year.

Like so many people, Queen Islena took such pleasure in an imagined triumph that the real thing became almost too much trouble.
"Ce'Nedra, you lied to him."
"Of course."
"But that's dreadful."
"Not nearly as dreadful as spending another day embroidering daisies on a stupid petticoat," the princess replied.

20. Castle of Wizardry Book IV of The Belgariad (re-read for the sixth time 2013.04.01)
By: David Eddings
Pages: 373
Genre: epic fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 8.5

As Garion and his company flee the crumbling tower of Cthol Mishrak, they add a slave girl named Taiba to their group--she is a Marag woman who had been enslaved all her life and so escaped the genocide of her people in Maragor. Next they journey through Algaria, a country of nomads where they reunite with Hettar and Ce'Nedra. Polgara and Belgarath rush the group onward to the island country of Riva, where they will return the Orb of Aldur to the pommel of the sword of the Rivan King. There is no Rivan King, because the Rivan household was assassinated hundreds of years ago by Nyissans. However, Garion finally learns who he really is when he stretches forth his hand to wield the sword: he is King Belgarion, the only surviving heir to the Rivan throne, and the final hope of the West against the invasion of the Angaraks Garion's journey is far from over, however. Not only does he learn that he is actually betrothed to Princess Ce'Nedra, he also discovers that it is his destiny to fight the evil God Torak, who is beginning to awaken from his tormented slumber in Mallorea.

Writing these summaries makes the books sound so . . . fantasy. And it is fantasy, no question, but I think the way Eddings captures people is as good as any writer of any genre. There are real situations of stress, humor, despair, and love, and people react in natural ways to every new development. Garion and Ce'Nedra have been feeling attracted to each other for the past two books . . . but I love it that Ce'Nedra is dismayed when she realizes that Garion is a king. She finally admits that she loves him, but she hates it that he outranks her.

"First you ought to go wash your face," Polgara told [Ce'Nedra]. "Some girls can cry without making themselves ugly, but you don't have the right coloring for it. You're an absolute fright. I advise you never to cry in public if you can help it."
Stories somehow always helped. He could lose himself in a story, and for a little while it might make things bearable.
plenipotentiary: a person, especially a diplomatic agent, invested with full power or authority to transact business on behalf of another.

19. Magician's Gambit, Book III of The Belgariad (re-read for the sixth time 2013.03.30)
By: David Eddings
Pages: 305
Genre: epic fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 8

This volume begins just as Garion and his companions escape from the clutches of the wicked Queen of Nyissa, Salmissra. Polgara teaches the scheming queen a lesson by using the Will and the Word to transform Salmissra into an immortal snake.

Now the companions take their journey through the uninhabited country of Maragor, whose people were slain hundreds of years ago by greedy Tolnedrans. They finally enjoy respite in the Vale of Aldur, the God who Belgarath and Polgara serve, and there Garion embraces his true identity as Belgarion. He finally allows Belgarath and Aunt Pol to teach him how to use his power. The company then seeks out the help of an Ulgo mystic named Relg, who has the ability to walk through stone. They need Relg to lead them through caves to the fortress Cthol Mishrak, where the evil Ctuchik hides with the Orb he stole from Zedar. Belgarath and Ctuchik duel in the concluding chapters, and the company reclaims the Orb, along with a curious child named Errand who can touch the Orb without coming to harm.

What we're doing is more important than we are, so we do what's expected of us--like it or not.

18. Queen of Sorcery, Book II of The Belgariad (re-read for the sixth time 2013.03.28)
By: David Eddings
Pages: 326
Genre: epic fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 9

The second volume of The Belgariad has Garion and his companions journeying through the countries of Arendia (where they are joined by Lelldorin, the youthful, fiery, Asturian archer, and Mandorallen, the most paramount knight in all the world), Tolnedra (where the spoiled young princess Ce'Nedra joins them against her will) and finally the swampy kingdom Nyissa. Just between Tolnedra and Nyissa, Garion finally uses the power he denied he had--the same power that his Aunt Polgara and Grandfather Belgarath possess. He longs for everything to be the way it was when he was a child in Sendaria, but he finally realizes there's no going back. He also learns that they have been pursuing Zedar, the Apostate, who stole the Orb of Aldur. The Orb is a living stone that holds infinite power and can only be touched by someone without any evil intent. Zedar plans to use it to awaken the evil God Torak.

I love how Eddings explains "sorcery" in this series. He calls it "The Will and the Word." It's a very believable, easily explainable method for describing the power that Garion comes to possess. I also love the hilarious antiquated language used by Mandorallen, and most of my favorite dialogue is spoken by him.

"As long as I know my motives are good, I'm seldom very concerned with the opinions of others. I'm glad, though, that I had the opportunity to explain this to thee. Thou art to be my companion, and it ill-behooves companions to have misapprehensions about each other."
internecine: mutually ruinous
demesne: land belonging to and adjoining a manor house; estate; a district; region.

17. Pawn of Prophecy, Book I of The Belgariad (re-read for the SIXTH time 2013.03.24)
By: David Eddings
Pages: 258
Genre: fantasy / young adult
Bex Rating: 9.5 (for sheer nostalgia)

This is the first book of five in one of my favorite fantasy series of all time (and there is a second series of five books by the same author called The Mallorean which I enjoy almost as much). I know this is my sixth time reading it, because I kept little tic marks in the back cover of the book. So I added a sixth one today :).

This is the story of Garion, a young boy raised by his Aunt Pol on a farm in Sendaria. With the exception of having lost his parents, Garion has a pretty idyllic childhood, looking forward to annual visits from an itinerant story teller named Old Wolf who seems to know his aunt. When he is about thirteen, strange rumors begin circulating and the peaceful country of Sendaria is being overrun with foreigners from the East. He is surprised when he and Aunt Pol sneak away from the farm one night with Old Wolf, accompanied by the farm blacksmith, Durnik. Soon they meet up with other travelers, a thieving acrobat named Silk and a huge, burly warrior named Barak, then finally a lean, hawk-faced man named Hettar, who can talk to horses. Garion realizes that Old Wolf, Aunt Pol, and the others are trying to find something that was stolen . . . but he doesn't know what it is. His world is rocked, however, when he realizes that his Aunt Pol is more than just the head cook at a country farm.

I don't care what other fantasy writers say, this series has it all: adventure, humor, honor, romance, great dialogue, believable character development, and a classic story of good versus evil. I read them so much when I was a teenager that I had dreams about the characters. It's pretty much my favorite kind of book. It was fun to re-read fifteen or so years since my last time.

16. The Spellman Files (2013.03.21)
By: Lisa Lutz
Pages: 358
Genre: contemporary adult fiction / mystery / humorous / oddball families
Bex Rating: 8.5

I picked up this book at the library when I read this review on the back "Like Harriet the Spy for Grown-ups." An example of good marketing.

Izzy Spellman is a 28-year-old private investigator, but her only co-workers are her mother, father, and 12-year-old sister. She wants desperately to leave the family business, but it's all she's ever done, her parents will go to extreme lengths to keep her working there, and, well, she actually likes being a P.I.

You can't help but like Izzy, even though she is a born rebel, irreverent, and an almost pathological liar. I enjoyed this book, even though it was peppered with some pretty strong language.

Excerpts:

I believe it was law school that destroyed David's sympathetic patience. By the time he was recruited by Fincher, Grayson in his second year, David had learned that not all families were like ours and that being perfect was nothing to feel guilty about.
My mother shouted out the window at me, "Just be yourself, honey." Contradictions like this made my family life so difficult.
By all the evidence presented to me, ex-boyfriend number 7 was a Boy Scout from a long line of Boy Scouts (who occasionally earned the bankruptcy badge). Having never dated a man who had the courage to order wine coolers at happy hour, I was initially intrigued by his milquetoast ways.
The lighting was dim for lunch, and with the candlelight and Meyers holding the chair for me and all, it felt oddly like a date. Except that Captain Meyers had no interest in me. Once again, oddly like a date.

Vocab:

hirsute: covered with hair [isn't this a GREAT word?]
filbert: a species of hazelnut

15. Elantris (2013.03.17)
By: Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 638
Genre: contemporary fantasy
Bex Rating: 10!

This book blew my mind. And it's incredibly refreshing to read a fantasy stand-alone novel, instead of having to wade through a trilogy or longer. That said, I can't wait to read Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, which is supposed to be even better.

It's very difficult to describe this book, but I'll try. Prince Raoden wakes up suddenly one morning to find that he's been stricken with the Shaod, a disease that leaves its victims with shriveled, blackened skin and a never-ending pain. Victims of the Shaod, who are considered to be living dead, are thrown into the ruined city of Elantris to be forgotten. Meanwhile, the fiance that Raoden never met (Princess Sarene) arrives in Arelon to find that her fiance is gone, the king claiming that he died. Sarene is soon embroiled in the politics of trying to save Arelon from invasion by the Fjordens, and Raoden struggles through the pain and horror of his disease to discover why the extraordinary, beautiful city of Elantris fell to ruin and decay in only ten years.

Reading my own description, it does not seem like a book I would be drawn to, but it was incredible. Sanderson is as fine a writer as I've ever read, and the world he describes is wholly original and engrossing. There is also a great love story in the midst of the incredible, complex world he imagines. I could not put this book down.

Favorite Excerpts:

It was beneficial to have a reputation for honesty, if only so that one could lie at crucial moments.
He smiled with the benevolently tolerant face of someone who wanted you to know he was patient with your inferiority.
At first, Raoden stayed away from the library, because it reminded him of her. Then he found himself drawn back to it--because it reminded him of her.

14. Death Comes to Pemberley (2013.03.04)
By: P.D. James
Pages: 291
Genre: mystery / British / Regency period / Austen sequel (I think this is actually a legitimate sub-genre)
Bex Rating: 7.5

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam (unfortunately, that really is his first name) Darcy have been married for six or years after their unconventional courtship in Pride and Prejudice. But their peace at Pemberly is broken when Elizabeth's willful and dramatic sister, Lydia, arrives in a frenzy, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. A search commences and Darcy finds, not Wickham, but Wickham's companion, murdered in the dark woods on the estate. An investigation is mounted and it turns out that the notorious George Wickham is the prime suspect in this affair, with Darcy and Elizabeth at the heart of it.

It was a (slightly boring) light read, and very believably done in the style of the Regency period writers. Fun for fans of Jane Austen's world.

Favorite excerpt:

They also accused her of being sardonic, and although there was uncertainty about the meaning of the word, they knew that it was not a desirable quality in a woman.

Vocab

lorgnettes: a pair of eyeglasses mounted on a handle.
rapprochement: an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations:
Boney: a disparaging nickname for Napoleon Bonaparte by the British
stertorous: characterized by stertor, or heavy snoring.
syllabubs: 1-a drink of milk or cream sweetened, flavored, and mixed with wine or cider. 2- a dessert of beaten cream that is thickened with gelatin, sweetened, and flavored with wine or liquor. 3- a glass or punch cup in which syllabub is served.
gyves: a shackle, especially for the leg; fetter.
locus standi: the right of a party to appear and be heard before a court
landaulet: an automobile having a convertible top for the back seat, with the front seat either roofed or open.

13. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (re-read, 2013.02.28)
By: Mark Twain
Audiobook Length: 8 hours
Performed by: BJ Harrison
Genre: classic American literature / adventure / Southern lit / satire / coming-of-age / young adult
Bex Rating: 9.5 (for both the story and the stellar performance of this audiobook)

I think BJ Harrison is right up there with Jim Dale for his audiobook performances. If you don't know about The Classic Tales podcast, you should click the link and check it out. FREE classic literature audiobook episodes added EVERY WEEK. I love it. I have been subscribing to this podcast for four years and I especially love all of his Sherlock Holmes recordings, Right Ho, Jeeves (you will laugh out loud the entire time), Feathertop (great Halloween short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne), and The Affair at Styles (review below).

I don't think I have ever read the unabridged Tom Sawyer, though I read the "Illustrated Classics" version dozens of times as a kid. (I am a huge fan of Illustrated Classics, by the way). So it was great to hear all of Mark Twain's wry commentary coming through the narrative. I laughed out loud at the descriptions of Tom listening to sermons at church on Sunday. It's easy to tolerate Twain's skepticism about religion (whether I should or not) because he is so good-natured and hilarious.

There's no question that Huckleberry Finn is the More Important Work in the canon of classic American literature . . . but I think Tom Sawyer has its place, too. During the first half of the book, I was annoyed at Tom for being so selfish and, well, annoying. But I came under his spell by the second half. He really is the embodiment of boyhood, selfishness and all.

12. Tepper Isn't Going Out (2013.02.26)
By: Calvin Trillin
Pages: 213
Genre: contemporary fiction / humor / New York City / social commentary
Bex Rating: 9

I know I would love this book even more if I lived in New York City and had to deal with the business of finding a parking spot . . . but it's a fun read even if you have never owned a car, let alone lived in America's largest city.

Murray Tepper likes to unwind on his way home from work by finding a "beautiful spot" to park in, paying the meter, and settling back into his car with a newspaper. His wife, daughter, and co-workers are a little worried about this "hobby," but they accept it. Every night Tepper has to wave off several angry New-Yorkers who are looking for an elusive spot to park, who resent that someone would park and then stay in his car, even if he still has "ten minutes on the meter." Soon Tepper attracts some publicity with his odd hobby, and a hilarious New York City-scale war starts raging between City Hall and the media. It's ridiculous, hilarious, and charming. Tepper unwittingly becomes a hero to thousands of New Yorkers who love him for becoming the symbol of their own struggles . . . just by sitting in his (legally) parked car.

Favorite Excerpts:

He could see a Mercury with New Jersey license plates--probably theatergoers from the suburbs who knew that these streets in the forties were legal for long-term metered parking after six. The New Jersey people would be hoping to find a spot, grab a bite in a sushi bar or a deli, and then walk to the theater. Good planners, people from New Jersey, Tepper thought, except for the plan they must have hatched at some point to move to New Jersey.
"Who said anything about writing?" Lambert said. "Writers aren't big authors. They don't do the really huge books. Oh, maybe one or two of them--Stephen King, the Harry Potter gal. These are exceptions."
With a book, he says, what counts is that it's about or by somebody famous. Apparently, an advice book by a famous person is like a cookbook by a famous person. You can always find advice, the way you can always find recipes.

Vocab:

hizzoner: A contraction of 'His Honor.' Not city-centric, but used regularly in New York City newspapers, usually to set an informal tone about a public official.
fershtunkene: [Yiddish] a poop head, or somebody who is full of crap. not meant in the literal sense, but it can be.
tsimiss: [Yiddish] something bothersome, something to be avoided; A sweet and savory stew of beef, dried fruit, and root vegetables, tsimiss is a classic of eastern European shtetl cuisine.

shtetl: a small, primarily Jewish community

11. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (book club, 2013.02.20)
By: Laura Hillebrand
Pages: 406
Genre: Nonfiction / Biography / World War II / Prisoner of War / Survival / Olympic History
Bex Rating: 9.5

This is usually the kind of book I avoid. It's hard for me to read about the atrocities that were committed during any war, but perhaps especially World War II. However, I was hooked on this book after only 30 pages. I read most of it in two great gulps, both times when I thought I was too tired to read and then ended up devouring 150 pages or more.

This is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an amazing American hero. We follow him from his rebellious childhood through his transformation into a high school track star, on to his career as an Olympian track star, and then as a bombardier for the B-24 bomber in the Pacific theater of World War II.

Zamperini survives a horrible plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, then stretches that survival to an impossible 47 days with two other men in a life raft before being captured by the Japanese. It gets worse and worse after that. He is beaten, tortured, degraded, and de-humanized in several Japanese prisons over the course of years before the war ends. After he is finally reunited with his family, he still goes through hell as he re-lives his nightmarish imprisonment. But Zamperini (who is still living at the time of this review! He is 96 years old) finds redemption and forgiveness that changes his life and heals his soul.

I loved it, from beginning to end. It is a profoundly hopeful and inspiring book, and the writing is so exciting and almost unbelievably well-researched. I recommend this book to everyone.

Excerpts:

In WWII, 35,933 AAF planes were lost in combat and accidents. The surprise of the attrition rate is that only a fraction of the ill-fated planes were lost in combat. In 1943 in the Pacific Ocean Areas theater in which Phil's crew served, for every plane lost in combat, some six planes were lost in accidents. Over time, combat took a greater toll, but combat losses never overtook noncombat losses.
The men floated in a sensory vacuum. When the weather was calm, the ocean was silent. There was nothing to touch but water, skin, hair, and canvas. Other than the charred smell of the raft, there were no odors. There was nothing to look at but sky and sea. At some point, Louie stuck his finger in his ear and felt wax there. He smelled his finger, and by virtue of being new, the scent of the wax was curiously refreshing. He developed the habit of twisting his finger in his ear and then smelling it. Phil began doing it too.
Men subjected to dehumanizing treatment experience profound wretchedness and loneliness and find that hope is almost impossible to retain. Without dignity, identity is erased. In its absence, mean are defined not by themselves, but by their captors and the circumstances in which they are forced to live.
In Japan's militaristic society, all citizens, from earliest childhood, were relentlessly indoctrinated with the lesson that to be captured in war was intolerably shameful . . . The contempt and revulsion that most Japanese felt for those who surrendered or were captured extended to Allied servicemen. This thinking created an atmosphere in which to abuse, enslave, and even murder a captive POW was considered acceptable, even desirable.
What the Zamperinis were experiencing wasn't denial, and it wasn't hope. It was belief. [Louie's family] still sensed Louie's presence, they could still feel him. Their distress came not from grief but from the certainty that Louie was out there, in trouble, and they couldn't reach him.
The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. in seeking The Bird's death to free himself, Louie had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant.
anodyne: Not likely to provoke dissent or offense; uncontentious or inoffensive, often deliberately so
Ellery Queen: is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction. The fictional Ellery Queen is a mystery writer and amateur detective who helps his father, a New York City police inspector, solve baffling murders.

10. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (re-read, 2013.02.15)
An Account Written by the hand of Mormon, taken from the plates of Nephi, translated by Joseph Smith, Junior
Pages: 531
Genre: scripture / spiritual / self-help / nonfiction / Christian
Bex Rating: 10 (but of course)

Last year was the first time I "reviewed" The Book of Mormon (review #9) on my blog, and I hope to add a little bit more of my thoughts about this book of scripture each time I finish it. This was my twentieth time reading The Book of Mormon. I learned from my mom to write the date in the margin each time I finish it again, and I can hardly believe that I have read it so many times. The pages are both familiar and new to me each time--there is a depth of meaning to discover with each reading and in every phase of life.

Two of my favorite verses in the entire Book of Mormon are in Alma chapter 7. In this chapter, Alma (the younger) goes to the land of Gideon to preach to the members of the church there. He is expecting at first that he will have to call the people to repentance, as he did in Zarahemla, but he soon realizes that the people of Gideon are humble and faithful . . . they are ready to hear and obey whatever Alma tells them.

I am grateful to those faithful people who lived over two thousand years ago, because I think this is one of the most powerful and inspiring chapters of scripture in the Book of Mormon, and contains a very unique witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have access to this message directly because of the righteousness of the people of Gideon--if they had been like the people in Zarahemla, Alma could not have given them this "meat" in place of "milk."

11 And he [Jesus Christ] shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

It is so comforting to know that the reason Christ suffered was so He could understand each individual completely. And not only does He understand how we feel when we sin, but he understands our weaknesses, our sickness, and our infirmities. "Infirmities" in this case is not a synonym of "sickness" or "weakness"--it is an understanding of our unique characteristics that are "less than perfect." I take it to mean that our Savior understands our faults and shortcomings. He really is the only One who can help us overcome these failings, because only He understands them completely.

The Book of Mormon truly is a testament of Jesus Christ and His role as a personal Savior to all the people of the world, in every age. It is a companion and a complement to The Holy Bible---both books testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the literal Savior of the world. Click here to request your free copy.

9. Speaking From Among the Bones (2013.02.12)
By: Alan Bradley
Pages: 375
Genre: mystery / British / humour / coming-of-age / chemistry
Bex Rating: 9

Oh, Flavia! How I love reading about your exploits. This is the fifth Flavia De Luce book by Alan Bradly, and it is just as good as the first! Flavia is a precocious 11-year-old who is obsessed with poisons and anything to do with chemistry. She lives in a crumbling and massive estate called Buckshaw with her father and two sisters in 1951. Her sisters, Ophelia and Daphne (Feely and Daffy), are deliciously nasty to one another, and her father is lost in a funk of sadness and British aloofness. So Flavia is pretty much left to her own devices.

In this installment, Flavia finds the body of the missing church organist when the village opens the crytp of their patron saint, Saint Tancred, on the 500th anniversary of his death. No one knows how Crispin Collicutt met his death, but Flavia is determined to find out.

The book has an astounding cliffhanger ending, and I will be purchasing the next volume before it even comes out! Thank you, Cori, for speaking my love language so well and buying this book for me on the day it was released!!!

St Tancred's went through organists like a python goes through white mice.
It was one of those silent signals that fly among sisters like semaphore messages from ship to ship, indecipherable to anyone who doesn't know the code.
It was one of those glorious days in March when the air was so fresh that you worshiped every whiff of it; that each breath of the intoxicating stuff created such new universes in your lungs and brain you were certain you were about to explode with sheer joy; one of those blustery days of scudding clouds and piddling showers and gum boots and wind-blown brollies that made you know you were truly alive.
. . . my father angered me the most when he was the most like me.
"It so happens that we were taught artificial resuscitation in Girl Guides," I said. I did not feel it necessary to add that I had been sacked from that organization for having an excess of high spirits.

Vocab:

Howard Carter: an English archaeologist and Egyptologist known for discovering the tomb of 14th-century BC pharaoh Tutankhamun.
ketones: any of a class of organic compounds containing a carbonyl group, CO, attached to two alkyl groups, as CH 3 COCH 3 or CH 3 COC 2 H 5 .
pervigilation: Careful watching.

8. Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters (2013.01.29)
By: Lesley M. M. Blume
Pages: 264
Genre: contemporary young adult fiction / New York City / world travel / music / mothers and daughters
Bex Rating: 8

Cornelia is the daughter of two world-famous piano players, and people only want to get to know her so they can meet her parents. She retreats into a world of words, using her extensive vocabulary to fend off would-be fans of her parents. When an elderly neighbor moves into the apartment next-door to hers in Greenwich Village, Cornelia finds a kindred friend . . . one who helps her learn to let people into her life.

Great writing and really fun vocabulary. Plus, New York! This is the first of many books I will be reading this year which take place in The Big Apple--I am specifically wanting to read books where New York City is a character int he story itself. Please leave recommendations below.

Favorite excerpts:

"We could play Scrabble," Cornelia suggested. It would give her secret satisfaction to trounce Lauren in the game . . .
Cornelia loved walking around her city neighborhood, Greenwich Village. Its narrow streets wound around in a wonderful maze, and worn-down cobblestones covered many of them instead of plain old asphalt. People in the Village did not live in towering skyscrapers. They lived in rows of colorful houses with pretty trees and flowers out front. Dogs of every shape and size briskly walked their owners up and down the sidewalks. Sometimes Cornelia forgot that she lived in a big city at all.
In the middle of the room stood a huge, sleek grand piano. It looked as important as a king on a chessboard.
"Being an American in England is like being a piece in a puzzle that almost fits--but not quite."
For Cornelia, the hands of every clock around the world had just stopped. Every bird in the sky froze, wings spread wide. The Hudson River and all of the tugboats in it came to a standstill.
Cornelia looked out the window of a taxi as they drove downtown. They sped past Central Park with its zoo and tall green trees and sailboat pond. Down Fifth Avenue with its famous hotels and fancy stores. Past the dirty electric shock of Times Square, past the train station, and finally into the confusing tangle of streets in Greenwich Village. Cornelia could see the Hudson River gleaming as they neared her building.

Vocabulary

nugatory: pointless, trifling
Quotidian: occurring every day
pnigeraphobia: fear of being smothered
quidnunc: one who is forever anxious to know about everything that is going on

7. Winterling (2013.01.20)
By: Sarah Prineas
Pages: 252
Genre: young adult fantasy
Bex Rating: 9

So . . . this is the third "first book" I have read that was published in 2012. The other two were The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen (2012, #34) and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (2012, #35): all three are the first books in new fantasy trilogies. Which means I am going to be WAITING impatiently for the sequels in 2013. All of them have been excellent and have occupied my thoughts for days afterward. Yesssssss. I love this kind of book, even though I hate waiting. I would recommend this book for 5th grade and up--I actually ordered it from Truman from his Scholastic book order and thought it looked intriguing.

Sarah Prineas has come up with some pretty original stuff in this book. A young girl named Fer, who has always felt she doesn't belong, rescues a strange, wild boy from a pack of wolves. She learns from her grandmother that the boy is a "puck," and that he doesn't belong to their world. When Fer's grandmother commands the puck to leave, Fer follows him back through a way into his land, and there she finally feels she belongs. But there is a terrible stain on the land--and Fer quickly realizes that she must do what she can to help the creatures who live there.

Lots of great allusions to established mythological figures: The Green Man, the Morrigan, an eternal winter, changelings etc . . . but it was all given some great new life and Fer is a very believable heroine. Loved it!

6. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (audiobook, 2013.01.19)
By: Agatha Christie
Performed by: BJ Harrison, the Classic Tales Podcast
Length: 6 hours, 52 minutes
Genre: mystery / classic contemporary fiction / British
Bex Rating: 9

I had a good two hours of quiet cleaning today while Calvin napped, and was therefore able to finish listening to this audiobook--I started it way back in November. If you want to listen to excellent audio versions of classic fiction, check out The Classic Tales podcast in iTunes. It's by far my favorite podcast, and BJ Harrison is a first-rate performer.

This is officially my second Agatha Christie novel. The first one was And Then There Were None, which I am pretty sure I read when I was 17. It's time to re-read that one, because I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Agatha Christie's recurring Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. I am pretty sure this is the first novel in which Poirot was featured, and I look forward to reading more of his cases.

To summarize: the novel is told from the point of view of a man named Hastings, who is invited to stay at Styles manor in Essex by his old friend John Cavendish. When John's step-mother is murdered by poisoning, everyone in the household falls under suspicion, and no one is above having a motive. Hastings calls upon his old friend, Hercule Poirot, to help solve the case.

5. Return to Red Castle (2013.01.19)
By: Dorothy Keddington
Pages: 234
Genre: um . . . . gentle books? (a "section" at my local library that always makes me chuckle) / romance fiction / adventure
Bex Rating: 8

This book gets an 8 because of pure nostalgia. It's been at least 15 years since I've read it, but I remember the first time I read it--we were driving home from Disneyland and I was fourteen and in eighth grade. I totally fell in love with Jesse Chisholm on that long drive, and couldn't imagine any book being more romantic and exciting.

Whaaaat? This book was published in 1981?
I couldn't tell . . .

It was fun to re-read, and not as disappointing as it was to re-read Jayhawk, by the same author, five or so years ago. I loved Jayhawk as a teenager, but it made me laugh out loud when I read it years later. My favorite book of Keddington's used to be Flower of the Winds . . . I'll have to keep my eye out for a copy I can re-read, then we'll see if I still like it better than Return to Red Castle.

It's pretty harmless romantic fiction, and the plot is actually pretty exciting. The descriptions are a bit florid and the dialogue is unrealistic, and maybe a bit ridiculous, but I still enjoyed re-reading it, and still wanted Jesse and Melissa to find each other and triumph over the obstacles (evil drug runners, rugged mountain terrain, and jealous-and-gorgeous-best-friends-of-older-brothers) that they encountered. I think it's a great "first romance novel" for your daughter to read.

4. In Praise of Chickens: A Compendium of Wisdom Fair and Fowl (2013.01.17)
By: Jane S. Smith
Pages: 164
Genre: non-fiction / natural history / husbandry / humorous / compendium
Bex Rating: 8

I said it last year in January: Even when I have a stack of delicious books waiting for me, and even though I've read at least a dozen books on the subject . . . I always choose the chicken book. I have farm on the brain, people.

Thank you, Melanie! She saw this book on my paperbackswap wishlist and got it for me. And it was a delightful read. Jane S. Smith (a Pulitzer nominee, no less), spent a year doing research for this book--compiling information about chickens and chicken-raising that's been around since the written word. It is in turns pithy, ridiculous, sage, and hilarious. I loved every page! (And the beautifully reproduced woodcuts and hand-painted illustrations were chosen well.)

Some of my favorite tidbits:

We daily behold hens, how they cherish their chickens, taking some of them under their spread wings, suffering others to run upon their backs, and taking them in again, with a voice expressing kindness and joy. When themselves are concerned, they fly from dogs and serpents; but to defend their chickens, they will venture beyond their strength and flight. ~Plutarch, On Affection for Offspring, c.70 AD
Deer horns should be burnt around their coops to keep snakes away, for the very smell of those vermin is fatal to young chickens. ~Varro, Country Matters, c.36 BCE
The man is happy who has an inborn taste for soft and quiet amusements which he may resort to at any time of day . . . The birds of a poultry-yard will afford diversions of this kind to any that will be fond enough of seeing and observing them. ~Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumer, On the Art of Hatching and Bringing up Domestic Fowl, 1749
A little plot of ground, a little poultry house, a little flock of hens, and a little love for domestic animals, make a combination which will give a poor man in a city, at trifling costs, luxuries for which his rich neighbor is glad to pay liberally. ~John Henry Robinson, Poultry Craft, 1899

3. Alchemy and Meggy Swann (2013.01.16)
By: Karen Cushman
Pages: 167
Genre: young adult historical fiction / 16th century British history / London / Elizabethan
Bex Rating: 8.5

I love the two books of Karen Cushman's that I've already read (The Midwife's Apprentice, which won the Newbery Medal, and Catherine, Called Birdy, which was awarded a Newbery Honor), so I was excited to get her latest Elizabethan novel.

Meggy was born with "crooked legs" (Cushman explains in the afterward that it was hip dysplasia) and is unloved by her mother and abandoned by her father. Her Granny loves her and raises her, but when Granny dies, Meggy is sent by her mother to live with her alchemist father in London. She is terrified of the stinking, dirty, crowded city, but must learn to make her way around if she is to survive.

I found this book to be a little heartwrenching at times, but Meggy is quite an indomitable force, and it's easy to root for her throughout. Cushman's research in all of her books is peerless--I am surprised this one didn't get a Newbery nod, too.

Favorite Excerpts:

The streets were gloomy, with tall houses looming on either side, rank with the smell of fish and the sewage in the gutter, slippery with horse droppings, clamorous with church bells and the clatter of cart wheels rumblings on cobbles. London was a gallimaufry of people and carts, horses and coaches, dogs and pigs, and such noise that made Meggy's head, accustomed to the gentle stillness of a country village, ache.
I know I did swear I needed no friends but Louise, she said to herself, but I feel like the sun is shining inside me.
"Mr. Wormwood says he will extend no more credit, for we are exceedingly in his debt. 'Pence,' quoth he, 'not promises.'"
"Take coins from yon copper pot and take them to thieving Wormwood, that penny-pinching nipcheese, and remind him there be other apothecaries in London."
"Methinks they all prefer pence to promises," Meggy said.
Morning came at last. Yesterday's rain had blown away, and the day dawned warm, lit by an autumn sun that turned the mist to gold. There was true alchemy, Meggy thought.

2. Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King: The Guardians, book 1 (2012.01.05)
By: William Joyce & Laura Geringer
Illustrated by: William Joyce
Pages: 228
Bex Rating: 8

I haven't yet seen the recently made animated movie called The Guardians, which was based on these books by William Joyce, but I love Joyce's other works (Santa Calls, George Shrinks, Dinosaur Bob) and one of my favorite Disney movies, Meet the Robinsons, was based on a children's book of his.

Katherine's Heroic Arrival

This book was fast-paced and fantastical. A quick, engaging read, and filled with Joyce's beautiful illustrations and diagrams (I scanned the above illustration: it was my favorite . . . I also loved how they were all labeled), along with his imaginative and whimsical ideas.

It's nothing but adventure, and I am excited to share this series with my kids. It's supposed to have a whopping thirteen volumes, and right now there are four. I am looking forward to reading them all.

Favorite Excerpts:

Child traps were finally invented, intended to shorten the nightly ritual. Gently but firmly, the traps would catch the children, wash them, brush their teeth, clothe them in the proper pajamas, and catapult them to their bedrooms.
The air became as quiet as midnight snow.
All this drama and anger. Well, that was what youth was like, he remembered. Calm comes with age.
"We appreciate your concern," said one lama.
"We understand your frustration," said another.
"We sympathize completely," said the next.
"We regret the situation," said the fourth.
"We must receive a sign," said another.
"We hope you understand," said the last.
"Sorry," concluded the one who had spoken first, smiling.

Vocabulary:

legerdemain: 1. sleight of hand. 2. trickery; deception. 3.any artful trick.

1. Under Wildwood (2012.01.04)
By: Colin Meloy
Illustrated [beautifully! peerlessly!] by: Carson Ellis
Pages: 559
Genre: young adult / fantasy
Bex Rating: 9

Awesome first book of the year! I have been waiting impatiently for the second installment in the Wildwood Chronicles since I read the first one in 2011 (review #37). Allen gave Under Wildwood to me as a Christmas present. I think this is the best series to happen to young adult fantasy since Harry Potter. It's most similar to The Chronicles of Narnia, but wholly original and engaging.

Prue McKeel and Curtis Mehlberg, misfits who live in Portland, Oregon, are the unlikely heroes of the series. Curtis stayed in Wildwood with the Bandit King at the end of the first book, but Prue returned to her parents in Portland with the baby brother she rescued. A kitsune, an evil shape-shifting assassin, has been sent to Portland to kill Prue before she can intrude on the affairs of Wildwood again. But Prue manages to escape and reunite with Curtis. Soon the two of them are caught up in the politics of the magical world that exists across the Willamette River.

The author and illustrator are actually husband and wife, and this is one of those books that would not be the same without the amazing illustrations of Carson Ellis. Here's one of my favorites:

I love the new characters introduced in this book as well. Curtis's two sisters, Rachel and Elsie, are sent to the Unthank Home For Wayward Children when their parents travel to Istanbul to look for Curtis. They are forced to become factory workers for Joffrey Unthank, a Titan of Industry who is obsessed with getting into the Impassable Wilderness. They soon become entangled in the affairs of Wildwood as well, and Elsie realizes that their brother may be much closer than Istanbul.

I love these books. Meloy is so gifted at metaphor and description--it reads like a classic. The books have an element of reality that so many children's fantasy books lack: a real sense of dark danger that can only be overcome by someone as untainted by the world as a child.

Favorite Excerpts:

The torrent of words and emotions that had positively poured out of Prue at the coffee shop haunted her; like an overly rich dessert you'd devour without a thought, the regret kicking in only once the last spoonful had been consumed . . .
Her accent was as thick as particularly chunky borscht.
Somewhere, on the periphery of her thinking, something swirled, batting at her consciousness like a moth at a lightbulb.
"You're in an abandoned tunnel system," said Septimus. "I think it's safe to say the world is your commode."
It felt as if she'd been slipped some powerful draft that had made her whole reasoning and perspective shift. Or, she figured, perhaps it was of her own making. Maybe this is what becoming an adult felt like.

Vocab:

scrum: a place or situation of confusion and racket; hubbub.
dashiki: a loose, often colorfully patterned, pullover garment originating in Africa and worn chiefly by men.

Pages

2013-12-31

2013 Book Reviews

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