Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

I really enjoyed this.

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Charming and clever.

A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

I read this out loud to the boys and really, really liked it. Highly recommended.

You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz

I read this to the boys; interesting and funny.

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

Hilarious. (A little vulgar.)

Triple Town

This is what I have been doing on my Kindle instead of reading lately. Pathetic, I know.

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Decent. I am unreasonably excited about the next one.

The Wright Brothers by Quentin Reynolds

I read this to the boys. The writing style is wooden and dated, but the story is great.

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

meh.

To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

I really enjoyed this.

Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

I don't think I've ever been as shocked, infuriated, and distressed by any other book.

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

This was absolutely superb--if you need a mystery, this is the one. It was even much better than _In the Bleak Midwinter_.

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Very, very good. Highly recommended.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

I adored this book . . . except for one sentence. That sentence was completely wrong, wrong, wrong.

(But I don't want to spoil it for you.)

All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming

I really wanted to like this because I liked In the Bleak Midwinter so much, but it just fell apart at the end.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

I read this to the boys. It is now one of my all-time favorite read-alouds. Highly recommended and a good companion to the study of the World War I era.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

A truly wonderful novel.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

Hooboy. I don't even know where to begin. Perhaps it will suffice if I just say that if two mothers read this book and began to discuss it, I don't think they'd ever stop talking. Highly recommended, especially for bookgroups.

Elizabeth Street Laurie Fabiano

OK, so this isn't the best literature ever, but the story (true!) is amazing and it is about my people (=Italian immigrants), so I loved it.

Science Fair Season by Judy Dutton

Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch . . . and What It Takes to Win This was such a fun book! I wish I had read it out loud to the kids (although note that I would have had to do some minor editing for f-bombs and one [non-graphic] scene of sexual abuse) because it was this tremendously interesting combination of science and real-life stories of kids from a variety of backgrounds.

The publisher provided me with a digital review copy of this book.