Reading List 2012 - 2013

• Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - what a tale of poverty growing up in Ireland and how they still managed to laugh and be a family when nothing helped. Told with wry humor and a sense that everything really does come out all right in the end.
• Dracula by Bram Stoker - This was amazing! I've heard of Dracula for forever, but had never read it, so a reading group I joined picked it and it was so good! I even won a contest for making Eggplant Impletata from the book!
• The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister - Nice, enjoyed her first better, and this one sent me for a loop there for awhile, but all comes out right in the end and made me happy.
• Tam Lin by Pamela Dean - I love my fantasy, but this was 400 pages of a college diary. Only about 30 pages were remotely interesting. Too bad, the Childe ballad this was taken from was beautiful.
• VIII by H.M. Castor - Fabulous tale of King Henry the VIII! First person POV that is exceptional! A look into his private thoughts and demons throughout his life. Really excellent, just breezed through it!
• Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure by Matthew Algeo - What a fun little book! After leaving the White House, Harry and Bess putter along for awhile and then he gets a speaking engagement in Philadelphia. Harry is a car nut and he and Bess take off on a road trip! Just a fun little book, lots of historical goodies as well!
• Uglies by Scott Westerfield - had nothing else to read one day when Mrs. H was gone so picked this up and liked it in spite of myself. In a place where you come of age to get 'pretty', some decide that ugly (normal to us) is better and live an alternative life off the wild. It was all right and well written.
• Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - wow, was this a ride! Biopunk extreme! Felt at times like I was slogging through the humidity of a south pacific generipper paradise. Hold on to your hats, this is not for the faint of heart!
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer - Cinder is 36% cyborg and has the metal foot to prove it. A mechanic that has dreams of her own life, she finds the prince and herself. Very nicely done.
• Safekeeping by Karen Hesse - wonderful. A girl comes home to an unraveled america and decides to head north to canada where things are a bit more settled. She picks up a friend and a dog, and together they make a life in an abandoned home. More a diary in Hesse's style, Hesse walked the route herself and the book is illustrated with her photos. Quite lovely with a good ending of finding themselves.
• Legend of the Book Keeper by Daniel Blackaby - Mrs. H picked this up from a book convention. It was all right. A boy and girl get caught up in a book that takes them to Atlantis.
• Sapphique by Catherine Fisher - made me so glad I read Incareron! Finn and Claudia deal with the 'real' world while Attia and Keiro try to leave Incarceron since it seems Finn has abandoned them both. What a great ending!
• Sabriel by Garth Nix - oh my!!! Wonderful tale of young Sabriel who becomes the next Abhorsen in her line - those that keep some from death, and to make sure the dead stay dead. Must read the next!!
• My Name is Not Easy by Debby Edwardson - Luke and others are sent off to boarding school in mid Alaska. A good telling of what life would be like since the author used her husband's stories to write this.
• Changling by Philippa Gregory - A young monk is taken from the monastery to find out about the soul of Europe in the 15th century. His first task is to check out a convent on the Lord's lands and finds that the Lord's daughter was forced by her brother to take vows and is now being accused of being a witch at the convent. There will be others as the girl and her friend get free and join the monk and his companions down the road.
• The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb - started off wonderful! The Fetch is sent to dying souls to let them know they have a choice. If they choose to move on, they guide them down the hall to the river and they go on to heaven. Loved the play of their death so they understood it, the feasting hall, the pictures down the hall of their life and the prisoner. Then it went into a historical fiction of Rasputin who the Fetch is using his body and has totally messed up 'purgatory' until he can make it right.
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Was not expecting this! The tale of Victor and his creation was so far off from what I thought it was about. Glad I finally read it!
• Dodger by Terry Pratchett - Charlie Dickens works in London and comes across a young man by the name of Dodger. Cute maybes on how he might have put some stories together.
• My Book of Life by Angel - Martine Leavitt - a young girl is told to leave the house by her father and ends up working the streets for a man named Call. He drugs her, threatens her brother, anything to keep her 'working' for him. A tale that came from 49 murdered prostitutes in Vancouver, B.C. Haunting in a soul searing way. The prose poetry was amazing.
• The Curiosities by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff - a collection of short stories from their merryfates website. Liked some, didn't care for others, but it was worth the read.
• Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orleans - A look at the life of the dog and the people involved with him and his progeny. The subtitle, The Life The Legend describes it very well. I was more of a Lassie fan, but the story of Rin saved from a bombed out shelter in France was touching and highlighted the bond between Rin and Lee Duncan his trainer.
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - one of my all time favorites and so delighted to read this charming tale again since the movie comes out in a month or so!
• Medicine Road by Charles de Lint - I love a good fantasy though I'm beginning to think he has a love affair with the American Southwest - those long cold nights in Canada must get to him!
• Gifted Hands by Ben Carson, M.D. with Cecil Murphy - Cec gave this to me at the Oregon Christian Writers Conference in August and I enjoyed it as well as learning a lot about what surgeons have to all think about. A humble man who has a gift and used it wisely.
• Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister - When Kate gets the all clear from her battle with cancer, her friends decide she should go rafting down the Colorado. So she challenges them to do something they may not want to as well. I must admit that something about Ava's story made me cry. Another good setting of wonderful vignettes about people. I really enjoy Erica's writing!
• The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck - Charlotte owns a wedding dress shop and inadvertantly buys an old chest with a vintage wedding dress inside. She has a gift of finding the perfect dress for a bride, but why did this dress show up, and who will be its bride?
• A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi - Nice story of finding her love in Venice and how they got together and got married.
• The Road to Santiago by Kathryn Harrison - I keep hearing about the Compostela de Santiago, so I read this book! It was all right, but now I need some facts!
• Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson - When Michael and Roselle go to work on the 78th floor of World Trade Tower One, they have no idea of what September 11th will bring. But teamwork and faith prevail and they both made it out to tell their story.
• Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors - A tapestried telling of the building of the Taj Mahal and the emperor's family. Very nice historical fiction.
• God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet - She goes to work at America's last almshouse for two months and stays for over 20 years! I really enjoyed this book on her research on the medicine of Hildegard of Bingen, and the wonderful anecdotes of some of her patients there.
• Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - part of her Graceling series - took me awhile to sort out everyone and I had to go back and read the synopsis of the other two books, but as I got deeper, I did enjoy how this princess turned queen used her brains and self to turn her kingdom around.
• Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert - Wow! Not for for the pure in heart Little House on the Prairie lover! Melissa lived life large and without boundaries, an interesting look at a very public figure and how she handled her fame and the questions that came with being adopted.
• Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James - not an approved Sprague book! It was interesting to find out that it was originally a fan fiction from the Twilight series and starred Edward and Bella! Oh my!
• The Pomegranite and the Rose by Winifred Roll - nicely told and interesting tale of Katharine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry the VIIIth! She died with her head on, but heartbroken. An interesting look at the politics and time of change.
• The Great Himalayan Passage by Michel Peissel - Interesting non-fiction of a man who piloted hovercraft up rivers in the Himalayas - to see if it could be done, and perhaps be a way to travel and communicate better in that region.
• The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx - This certainly deserved the awards it has taken in. Loved the story and the characters, as well as a real glimpse into Newfoundland. I felt as if I could go there, and be part of this rich heritage in some way, a piece of flotsam from another country that drifted in to a home port.
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - Another school read from our shelves, Tessa is pulled into a world where people make automatons and use them for evil purposes. She is befriended by the Shadowhunters, otherwise known as the Nephilim of biblical fame.
• Mink River by Brian Doyle - Took me awhile to get into this, but once I began to feel the cadence, the rain, the river, the crow, the lives that give this work a pulse, I truly enjoyed it. Well done!
• The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister - What a delight filled book! Just the kind of mouth watering taste of good writing with a great story I wanted to savor! A cooking class not only explores food preparation, but the lives of the participants blending in their choices with a stir of a spoon. Absolutely a must read.