The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

This was a wonderful light read--I can't think of how to say anything without giving the story away, so I won't. But this is an innovative plot with interesting social commentary and was very well written. Highly recommended.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows : An American Tragedy by Richard E. Turley, Glen M. Leonard, Ronald W. Walker

I was very impressed with how interesting this book was--I thought it might be dry but it definitely wasn't. Highly recommended.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher : Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

This was an excellent book--kind of like a Victorian murder mystery except that it was true. Great details from everyday life and a well-told story.

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan

This was great . . . in a completely disgusting sort of a way.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

People seem to either love or hate this book but I thought it was kinda middling. Someone said that Meyer writes terrible sentences but great stories and I think that's exactly right--some sentences in this book were so horrible I re-read them just to gawk.

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo

This was pretty good. And it's been a long time since I've read a book that was even just "pretty good." It may seem that I'm not reading much because I'm not blogging much, but what I'm doing is reading the first 20-50 pages of a book, deciding that it stinks, and then moving on. I think I've done that a dozen times in the last month. Where are all the good books?

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois

I read this to the boys; a good, creative story with a smidge of science in it. Recommended.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Let me preface: the last book that my husband read to the boys was actually Around the World in Eighty Days. I was so annoyed with the writing style that I left the room after the first few pages. My husband convinced me to give it another try the next night and so I did and ended up running screaming from the room with my ears bleeding.

Anyway, this book was much better. It has a lot of fun word play and therefore is better for older children.

Angel Falling Softly by Eugene Woodbury

Did nothing for me.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I read this out loud to the boys. It started out very strong and then petered out. (The boys loved it. I was sick of it by the end.)

Hershey : Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by Michael D'Antonio

eh.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

My husband read this out loud to us; it was an ideal family read-aloud. Highly recommended.

Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff

I read this out loud to the boys. I kept thinking that they would hate it because the prose was so dense and the story so complicated and subtly stated, but they loved it. I did, too. Historical fiction at its best.

Alexander the Corrector : The Tormented Genius Whose Cruden's Concordance Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay

This was mildly interesting.

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

This book made me terribly sad but I liked the ending.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George

I don't normally blog about books that I don't finish, but in this case I read over 400 pages (which, incidentally, is less than half of the book) before I threw in the towel and I want some recognition.

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

This was a pre-read for Simon and it is a wonderful, sweet (not saccharine) short novel. Great for part of a study of Buddhism.

I, Freddy (Golden Hamster Saga Series #1) by Dietlof Reiche

Derrick read this to us; it was good fluff.

The Story of Science : Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim

This was a pre-read for Simon for next year. I thought it was absolutely wonderful: a gorgeous book with incredible illustrations and the "story" of science. It did an amazing job of integrating not only science and history but also art, music, and math. This is truly a must-read for kids 10 and up and adults. The only thing that kept me from swooning was I sense an ever-so-slight anti-Christian bias (not to mention two pathetic errors related to the New Testament).

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series #4) by Rick Riordan

I read this to the boys; they loved it but I didn't think it was quite as inventive or funny as the previous books.

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

Dh read this out loud and we all enjoyed it. I'm still thinking about what it meant. . .

The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs

Mildly amusing but a little tedious. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically is much better.

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

I didn't like this at all.

The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert

Not only has Eustace Conway lived in a teepee for the past two decades, but he has made his own clothes. Out of the animals he has killed. Using deer tendons for thread. So I thought this book would be fascinating. I guess I expected details on how exactly one makes thread out of deer tendons. But there is none of that. There's . . . a lot about his bad relationship with his father. Etc. This was so boring I barely finished it.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

This was excellent fluff: the paperback, when it comes out, will be the perfect beach book. I like the way Meyer hints at LDS worldview (not doctrine!) in her books and plays with it. (I also like Uncle Jeb, who is clearly your crazy Mormon uncle who likes Bo Gritz and makes obnoxious comments in Sunday School. He even uses the boiling frog story in the book!)

My Grandfather's Son : A Memoir by Clarence Thomas

Derrick and I listened to this. Thomas always sounds like Eeyore, no matter what he is talking about. But this was a good listen, an interesting story.

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe : A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside by Katrina Firlik

A very enjoyable, quick read. I always like medical memoirs.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

My husband read this out loud to the older boys and me. I didn't love the story, but I loved stitching while listening to him read. I thought the story was lame, actually.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves : The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

I like the idea of someone who gets angry about punctuation.

Three more YA titles

I was making a list of books for a dear friend and I realized that I have forgotten to blog about a few books that I have read to the boys over the last little while; all are worth reading.



Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine




Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis



Incredible Journey by Sheila Every Burnford

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series #3) by Rick Riordan

I had to read 100 pages out loud yesterday, but we finished this just in time to attend the release party of book #4 at BookPeople today--with Rick Riordan! The kids are so excited they can't stand it. I may be a little excited, too.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

So normally, I get completely engrossed in a novel and then am disappointed in the ending. This was different: the suspense was amazing and then the climax was fascinating and incredibly thought-provoking. There is a lot to discuss with this one but I don't want to give anything away. Someone please read this and then talk to me about it . . .

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Boring. (And lots of typos.)

A Voyage Long and Strange : Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz

Horowitz's Confederates in the Attic
is one of my all-time favorite books and so I had been looking forward to this for months and it ended up being one big fat honking boring disappointment.

Peony in Love : A Novel by Lisa See

I didn't particularly like this. I did think the fact that Chinese traditions about the afterlife were treated as true was neat, but the story didn't do much for me.

The Bin Ladens : An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll

This was very interesting, but at almost 600 pages, a little bit of a slog. I appreciated that the book wasn't mostly about Osama but his siblings (who are fascinating in the way that all big-spending Saudis are) with a good bit of the history of Saudi Arabia thrown in. Recommended.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

I read this to the boys and we all loved it.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

As is typical for me, I became completely absorbed in this but then felt vaguely unsatisfied when it was done. The plot was hole-ly and I'm not always particularly quick on the uptake, but the protagonist was dumb as a post to not figure out the mystery of her birth 300 pages before she finally did.

Mormon Scientist by Henry Eyring

This was disappointing: there were a few good nuggets in here (including a taste of his disagreement with Joseph Fielding Smith over evolution) but overall it felt padded--material repeated from the preface to the intro to the first chapter, lengthy explanations of things like the plan of salvation, long references to Eyring's genealogy. But really not enough about him.

Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog : The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey

A short, lightweight, and goofy history of sentence diagramming. I wish it had been meatier, but it was mildly entertaining.

March by Geraldine Brooks

I'm still thinking about this one. I'm not sure if I find the story plausible, in the sense that I wonder if the main character really would have done what he did. And I also wonder about his consoler--whether she should have felt guilty for what she did. (I'm trying not to give too much away here . . . ) Anyway, I guess I just didn't think that the book held together.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series #1) by Rick Riordan

I read this to the boys and we all loved it. Highly recommended.

The Undercover Economist : Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Harford

I listened to this on our trip. The first part was a little dull (but would be a good primer for someone who didn't know anything about markets) but the rest was very interesting and I recommend it for anyone interested in an economic (as opposed to ideological) approach to health care, globalization, poverty, etc. Recommended.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This was so lame. So very, very lame. And poorly written.

Three Cups of Tea : One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

Mortenson, lost and weak after a failed attempt to climb K2, stumbles into a village in northern Pakistan where the girls sit outside and, without a teacher, scratch multiplication tables in the dirt with a stick. He begins a one-man effort to build girls' schools in Pakistan. He's crazy and adventurous and big-hearted and doesn't seem to mind getting shot at. This is a magnificent book--highly recommended for individuals and book groups.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Absolutely magical! The integration of art with the story is a category-killer: this isn't an illustrated story--the pictures are used cinamatographically to convey the story. And there are a few surprises beyond that. Highly recommended.

Gang Leader for a Day : A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

You never hear about gangs and drugs anymore. Did things get better or did the media get bored? I have no idea. Anyway, this book is a must-read: Venkatesh befriended a gang leader and spent years shadowing him. The extent to which the gang is run like any old business is amazing.

Where Does the Money Go? : Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis by Scott Bittle,

This is one of those books that if you think about it too much, you'd hide your money under the mattress and buy some ammo for fear of the coming crash (caused by the impossibility of the US meeting its Social Security and Medicare obligations). But because the book is so goofy and flippant in tone (and here I must admit that I bought it mostly because of the cover) that it is easy not to take it too seriously. In any case, this is fun and interesting reading.