Reading List 2009 - 2010

• Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig - Based on a true story of the author's family, this tale of the Danish effort during WW2 is amazing. A must read.
• Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs - Love these stories of the shape shifter Mercy Thompson. Another wild tale of the fae in the Tri-Cities area.
• Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines - Gladinating! This tale of a girl who has lost 7 fathers to gladiator fights caught me by surprise for an entertaining match!
• Longitude by Dava Sobel - Fascinating story of the men who struggled to claim the prize for finding out how to calculate longitude. Someday I will go see the Harrison's!
  
• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - Excellent! Dragon's are the 'air force' of the early 1800's as England and Napoleon growl at each other across the channel. Enter Captain Laurence and a hatching dragon egg. Temeraire choses Laurence and they learn the importance of their new life.
• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England by Brock Clarke - This guy thinks too much and I was tired of his inner ramblings. Put it down after 117 pages.
• The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey - Quick read of how possibly Shahrazad used the 1,001 stories to save her life and the life of her husband. I enjoyed it.
• The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig - I want to write like Ivan does! Another superlative tale of life in 1900 era rural Montana that revolves around the one room schoolhouse. A must read.
• Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch by Charles Leerhsen. Harness horses were king at the turn of the century and Dan Patch was an amazing pacer. His story is woven into the history of the time, his owners, the drivers and others touched by him. Some writing flaws, but a good spin.
• Made in America by Bill Bryson - quite the read on words in America with a lot of history to boot! Quite the slog, but enjoyed the early years of the country bits and learned a few things. Did you know that bicycles were at one point called Boneshakers? I liked that book though there were no bicycles in it!
• Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards - A woman fosters an abused horse and finds in Lay Me Down's gentleness there are things she needs to learn about herself. Very nice.
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - I finished off this marvelous trio and was sad to see the charactors go! Mr. Larsson died just after delivering these and there are no more. I enjoyed these immensely!
• The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - more twists than the 33 inverted loops I did at Magic Mountain one day. Fabulous!
• The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez - A hairdresser lands in Kabul amongst all the agencies tryng to help the people there. She is immediately welcomed and comes to open and run the beauty school to help the Afghan women. At times funny, and others sad, this true story is a page turner. I loved it.
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. A tale of personal worth and choices by a young Pakastani financial genius torn between home and family, America and a lost love. He tells his listener his story over a dinner with a stranger. My son is serving in Afghanistan and recommended this.
• The Places in Between by Rory Stewart - Rory backpacked through Afghanistan in 2002. An interesting view of the country and people, though Rory admits he was not feeling well during the trip. I was ambivilent about it.
• Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Honest Abe had a secret diary that chronicles the great fight of his life, the war against vampires. When you think that plantation owners may have been vampires, buying their next blood feast at the slave sales, you can see why Abe was so focused on freeing the slaves. A nice historical/speculative fiction read.
• Boneshaker by Cherie Preist. Loved this steampunk Seattle story. The 'Boneshaker' goes awry and digs under gold rush era Seattle releasing 'the blight' creating zombies, so they wall it off. Zeke's father created the boneshaker and he wants to find out what really happened and goes under the wall. Mom, of course, suits up and follows him in. Great story, marvelous characters.
• Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. The next story of Mercy Thompson as she's up to her neck in vampires. Reading candy!
• Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead. Great next tale in his King Raven series. I'm enjoying these immensely!
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - another of his stories of what influences decisions. I used to work on ground proximity warning systems when I was an electronic assembler, so I really got into "Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes" chapter. They should have listened.
• The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. Enjoyed this little trip around the world in search of happiness. A fun little book.
• Stones for Schools by Greg Mortenson - what a wonderful book, and a great story. I'd love everyone to read this about his continuing quest to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The afterword was written just last October, so very relevant and current.
• The Dragon's Trail: The Biography of Raphael's Masterpiece by Joanna Pitman - A biography of a painting! I was fascinated by it from the hand of its master to its current residency at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Compelling!
• A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher - Sprague Staff Book Club pick for March - some very beautiful language in here, She wrote this from snippets of a diary from her family's journey to Oregon on the Oregon Trail. Did not care for the 'forbidden love' bits, but overall, a good tale.
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson - Loved this tale of the future, can a person be saved by just a butterfly? One of the best scifi I've read in awhile
• Little Girls in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan - fascinating look at what the training does to the best gymnasts in the world - and how the price for many has been too high. I truly hope that things have changed in those sports.
• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - a well crafted tale, but I didn't care for it.
• Flirt - by Laurell K. Hamilton - Another librarian sent this over so I could read how she came up with the idea for this story and I read it all. Though it should have come with a warning! This is not an appropriate book for the Sprague library!
• Gwenhywfar by Mercedes Lackey - Mercedes found a Welsh traid that suggested there were perhaps 3 Gwenhywfars married to King Arthur and she writes about the third one, the warrior Gwen.
• The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman - Sprague Staff Book Club February read - I was expecting more of a story, but still the pieces were an interesting perspective of the Warsaw Zoo during WWII.
• Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett - another great Pratchett read - Tiffany Aching inadvertantly dances with the Wintersmith and he is smitten by her. He makes every snowflake her portrait, even the icebergs at sea. The only question is, will summer come again?
• Hood by Stephen Lawhead - superlative retelling of the Robin Hood legend - he does for Robin Hood what Jack Whyte did for King Arthur. He used history and went into ancient sources to weave a truer legend that has its foot firmly in fantasy and yet totally believeable. I loved this and will be reading more of the series!
• The Purple Emperor by Herbie Brennan - very nice sequel to Faerie Wars - can't wait to read Ruler of the Realm! But, yes I can wait. I have another to read first!
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - very intriguing set of information! I enjoyed this.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson - Sprague Book Club for January - Wow, what a novel! Thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the complex script, almost read it straight through. Well worth a read.
• Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice - took me awhile to get into this. It was after they arrived in Nazareth that I thought the story really started to grow
• Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd - wonderful tale of a runaway who dons her 'Solace' wig and tries to get home to Ireland
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher - what a hoot! Had to try and stop from laughing from time to time since my hubby was sleeping:)
• Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund - fabulous telling of the life of Marie Antoinette garnered from her letters to and from her mother - enjoyed it immensely
• War Horse by Michael Morpurgo - from a picture he puts together how WWI may have looked like to a horse - I thought it was nicely done
• Venice Against the Sea by John Keahey - a great account of the city of Venice bringing history alive in today
• The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - a lovely set of stories centered on the real life Sarajevo Haggadah that could explain some of the wear and tear on the book through the centuries. Loved this!
• Wednesday Sisters - by Meg Clayton - Sprague Book Club December read - Had some good parts, but the ending was rough and the years zipped by too fast
• Fire by Kristin Cashore - supposedly a prequel to Graceling, rainbow monsters and a horse named Small. A wonderful fantasy love story.
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith - Sprague Book Club November read - what a hoot! Loved this version, done so well tongue in cheek - at least if you have cheeks, which I'm not sure Zombies have.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - a book to read slowly and chew over it. I loved how he kept the 'voice' of the book throughout - amazing.
• Fablehaven by Brandon Mull - great book, loved the concept of fantasy preserves
• Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult - Sprague Book Club October read - interesting to learn about brittle bone disease, but the story felt flat and like a formula book.
• One Tough Mother by Gert Boyle with Kerry Tymchuk - what a hoot! Worth reading for the 'tough mother' ads alone!
• The Strictest School in the World by Howard Whitehouse - A rubber boy and a girl who wants to build airplanes, and how she is rescued by the boy, an eccentric aunt and an Indian (like the country!) butler.
• The Coyote Road edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling - found three new authors in here I need to read more of!
• Firebirds Rising edited by Sharyn November - some great stories in here
• Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen - a Rawandan girl survives the massacres and is fostered into a German family. Based on her survival during the ordeal with wonderful vignettes of how she and her foster family come together
• The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - a very dark book, but some great pieces in there
• Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher - wasn't real keen on this one, though the insights into a teen's thoughts are priceless.
• Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan - this was a great page turner with great characters
• Moon Called by Patricia Briggs - I liked this tale of the shape shifter and her friends the werewolves, nicely done.
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore - Great Tale! Gracelings have gifts and Katsa has the gift of killing. Her journey with Po is transforming to both and well told.
• Travels in Greater Yellowstone by Jack Turner - lovely essays on his impressions
• Lost in My Own Backyard by Tim Cahill - I am off to Yellowstone this summer so I've picked up some books to learn about it!