The next question you ask is... "Why?" My answer is... Um... er... why... not?

A
Abouzeid, Chris

• Anatopsis

• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
• The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
• Life, the universe, and everything
• The long dark tea-time of the soul
• The restaurant at the end of the universe
• The salmon of doubt : hitchhiking the galaxy one last time--one must love a man who writes an essay about the complete awesomeness of the Beatles. Sad to think that The Salmon of Doubt might have become a new Dirk Gently novel, because, as I mentioned, I'm quite fond of those.
• So long, and thanks for all the fish

• Watership Down

• Cam Jansen and the mystery of the Babe Ruth baseball --so I VAGULY think this was the Cam Jansen book I read in fourth grade because it sounds more familiar than any of the others. But I'm not sure. In fact I'm pretty sure I've actually read MORE than one Cam Jansen book, but I can't remember any OTHER titles either.
• Jeffrey's ghost and the fifth-grade dragon-- I read this while visiting my grandparents (and Disney World for the first time) in Florida when I turned 8. Some things stick with you that way.

• Meet Samantha, an American girl
• Samantha learns a lesson : a school story

• Dangerous games
• Night fall

• A kind of thief
• The trial of Anna Cotman --this book is WAY more suspenseful and freaky than it looks upon first picking it up. Be warned. In a good way.

• Eight cousins
• Little women -- you have NO IDEA how much I hate Amy March, especially after she burnt Jo's book. She was such a BRAT! Which I have always taken as a sign that this must indeed be a very good book, if I can believe in the characters so much that I can hate them.

• The beggar queen
• The black cauldron
• The book of three
• The castle of Llyr
• The El Dorado adventure
• The Gawgon and The Boy
• Gypsy Rizka
• The high king
• The Illyrian adventure-- So, I developed a huge, burning, passionate crush on a relatively minor character in this book. Actually he turned out to be a fairly major character, or at least plot point, but at any rate the point is he wasn't a very BIG character and yet for some reason I ended up madly in love with him by the end. It was a bit embarrassing, really. But I have to give this book props if for that reason alone. I mean it's not every day a book makes you fall in love with a minor character.
• The Kestrel
• The rope trick
• Taran Wanderer
• Westmark
• The Xanadu adventure

• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to a Nation: Book One, the Pox Party.

• Searching for Shona

• One way to ansonia

• I know why the caged bird sings. --okay, this was under Fiction, but I was always led to believe that this was a memoir. With that in mind, I found this book rather hard to grasp. How can ALL THAT have SERIOUSLY HAPPENED to ONE PERSON all before she's, what, 18? Dang.

• Go ask Alice

• A spell for Chameleon-- you would think I would enjoy these books, but I found this first in the series only mildly amusing. I've been told that the books get better later on, but I can't find book two, and then OTHER people told me that later books were really just more of the same, so I gave up. At least until I can find nothing else to read, which is not likely seeing as I'm reading reviews and such nowadays and my To Be Read list never seems to end.

• Sounder-- actually, I'm not sure if I read this, or I just heard my mom read it to my brother. Either or.

• Mr. Popper's penguins

• Emma
• Mansfield Park-- the only of her books I really didn't like so much. I don't know why.
• Northanger Abbey
• Persuasion
• Pride and prejudice--I got a somewhat additionally amusing annotated edition of this for my birthday. Amusing in that many of the annotations felt compelled to point out any time something was a joke.
• Sandition-- technically, this is by Jane and "Another Lady," considering Jane only wrote something like the first 11 chapters before she died. Some other cool person finished it. You have to wonder how Jane was ACTUALLY planning the story to turn out, and how close they got.
• Sense and sensibility-- this is Angie's and my Book. We always said we were just like the Dashwood sisters, she being Elinor and I being Marianne. Curiously, we grew up and now I am more like Elinor and she more like Marianne. But I guess that sort of happened in the book, too.

• Blue heron
• Bright shadow
• Captain Grey
• Crispin : the cross of lead
• The End of the beginning: being the adventures of a small snail (and an even smaller ant)-- this is a cute book. Read it sometime. It takes, like, a half-hour. Maybe fifteen minutes.
• Nothing but the truth : a documentary novel
• Midnight magic
• Punch with Judy
• Romeo and Juliet together (and alive!) at last
• S.O.R. losers
• Something upstairs : a tale of ghosts
• The true confessions of Charlotte Doyle --Now THIS is just one of the GREATEST BOOKS EVER. I think it's part of the reason one of my ambitions in life is to be a 19th century sailor. Which you really have to wonder about, considering the book hardly makes it look PRETTY....
• What do fish have to do with anything?: and other stories
• Who was that masked man, anyway?
• Windcatcher

• Macaroni boy

• The Devil's storybook
• The eyes of the Amaryllis
• Kneeknock Rise
• The search for delicious
• Tuck everlasting

• The Anybodies-- Technically this book proclaims to be written by someone called "N.E. Bode" (hah hah it's a pun), but Julianna Baggott is what you get if you look it up in the catalog, so that's what you get here, too.

• Chasing Vermeer-- I bought this book for my mother because it SOOOO reminded me of her. First of all, it's a mystery; second of all, it's about art. I didn't even know that Vermeer was in fact one of her favorite artists ever until I gave it to her. It's quite a cool mystery, makes you want to try to solve it as you go....
• The Wright 3 -- come to think of it, my mom would probably be into this one, too. Blue Balliett and my mom should get together sometime.

• Angela and Diabola
• The Indian in the cupboard
• One more river

• Abarat-- Oh. My. Lord. This was positively the most FRUSTRATING book EVER. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good book. That was why it was so bad when it JUST ENDED. THE END. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. TO BE CONTINUED. Not a SMIDGE of wrapping up! And there was NO HINT OF FUTURE PUBLICATION DATE OF THE NEXT BOOK! It's pretty bad when one of my middle schoolers saw a sign I had made about proper book handling that showed a guy kicking a book (that's what NOT to do, by the way), and he said, "That's what I wanted to do to this book I read that WOULDN'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!" and I just looked at him and said, "It wouldn't happen to have been Abarat, would it?" and he said "YES! How'd you know?" Of course. Several years later, the second book finally came out. I got about halfway through before I decided that, after all that, I didn't actually care anymore.

• Jane and the unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor,
• Jane and the man of the cloth,
• Jane and the wandering eye,
• Jane and the genius of the place,
• Jane and the prisoner of wool house --I was reading this on the very same dates of the year that this took place! AND, Jane had a cold and I had a cold!
• Jane and his lordship's legacy
• Jane and the ghosts of Netley

• Big trouble
• Peter & the Starcatchers-- technically there's a co-author on this one, but I forget who it was. And don't feel like looking it up.
• Tricky Business --I watched the movie Muppets from Space while reading this book, and came to the conclusion that Dave Barry was also watching Muppets from Space while WRITING this book. First, there's two smartalec dirty old men in it who I couldn't help picturing as Waldorf and Statler even BEFORE I turned on the movie; Second, I don't know, is it coincidence that the DRUMMER of the ship band is the one who not only can't get enough of but has an inexplicable way with "WOMAN!"? Thirdly, if that's not enough, there is at one point the completely random exclamation of the word "BUMPKIS!" Coincidence? I think not.

• Hope was here
• Rules of the road-- So, the main character in this book works for a shoe store where the salespeople work very carefully to find the Perfect Shoe for Every Customer. I was very impressed by this concept, because I hate shoes and can never find ones that fit me comfortably. I so want to go to this shoe store.

• Maria Looney and the cosmic circus

• Out of this furnace : a novel of immigrant labor in America -- I read this book for a class I took on the cultural history of Pittsburgh. I don't remember which book this was though. I just remember the title. But the CLASS, now, THAT was something to remember. You HAVE to remember a class that takes you on field trips to a different unique and interesting restaurant every day...

• Forbidden city

• The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

• The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs

• I was a teenage fairy
• Weetzie bat

• Tangerine-- this book is freaky. In a good way.

• Are you there God? : It's me, Margaret,
• Blubber, --I didn't like this book. I got too mad at the characters.
• Double Fudge,
• Forever, --okay, so this book is always on the Banned Books List so free-speech-loving librarians are always insisting we read it, but it SUCKS. It totally is only still in print because a bunch of pre-teens keep getting it so they can giggle over the gratuitous graphic sex scenes together! And librarians insist on giving it more publicity by putting it on the Banned Books list! Look, just because a book was banned, doesn't mean it has vital worth that the Man is trying to keep from us! It could just be a crummy book that happens to have gratuitous graphic teen sex in it!
• Fudge-a-mania,
• Freckle juice,
• Otherwise known as Sheila the Great, --Sheila rocks.
• Starring Sally J. Freedman as herself,
• Superfudge,
• Tales of a fourth grade nothing, --So do Peter and Fudge. Especially in this one. Especially the whole turtle scene.
• Tiger Eyes-- I read this book for a YA lit class once, and because I prefer Judy Blume's children's (ie funny) books to her YA, I had my doubts, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this book, even if it WAS a teen problem novel.

• The children of Green Knowe

• Shift

• The mists of Avalon --my impressions of the Arthur legends and everyone involved are forever colored by their portrayal in this book. But I think I like Gerald Morris's takes on the legends best, anyway.

• All together now
• Home before dark

• Caddie Woodlawn --my take on Caddie Woodlawn was thus: like Laura Ingalls, but COOLER.

• Jane Eyre-- so I tried to read this book in high school and couldn't get beyond like the second page. Then I picked it up again a couple years ago. WHOA. How had I not been able to get into that? I don't know what was wrong with me in high school....

• Wuthering Heights

• Midnight hour encores
• The moves make the man

• Is anybody there?
• Karen Kepplewhite is the world's best kisser
• Nasty stinky sneakers,
• Our sixth-grade sugar babies

• Smack-- another dang, depressing teen problem novel I had to read for a YA lit class; BUT I will always remember this book because until I'd read it I was completely unaware of the housing practice of squatting. I felt like I learned something new and vaguely important. Though hopefully that is information I will never have to use.

• A little princess --it struck me as interesting that this is like the opposite of The Secret Garden. In the latter, the rich girl starts out a brat, loses everything, and becomes unbratty. In this book, the rich girl starts out sweet and loving, loses everything, THEN becomes a brat, and eventually learns to balance out. Interesting, no?
• The secret garden --I LOVE this book. It's friggin' DEEP. EVERYONE THE MAIN CHARACTER KNOWS DIES IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. Yes, I know I hate depressing books, but something about EVERYONE dying in the FIRST CHAPTER is just MORBID and that makes it good, not depressing. Besides, the whole POINT of the book is about rebirth, new life, et cetera, et cetera. Definitely not depressing. I can read this book over and over and over, and I do.

• Parable of the Sower

• The enormous egg

• The not-just-anybody family,
• The pinballs,
• The SOS File
• The summer of the swans

• Molly Moon's incredible book of hypnotism -- well, this was a fairly amusing read, but my main comment is this. Early on, the main character is browsing in a library whose books are organized in ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY SUBJECT. WHY on EARTH would anyone organize a library in alphabetical order by SUBJECT? How is anybody honestly supposed to know where anything really is? (NOTE: several years later, it appears there is a trend in libraries to actually START organizing collections by subject. One of my bosses thinks this is a great idea. I still think it's stupid).

• The Princess Diaries

• The stories Julian tells,
• More stories Julian tells

• The Pack

• Alice's adventures in Wonderland
• Through the looking glass

• My father the nutcase

• Behind the attic wall, -- this book is SO DELIGHTFULLY EERIE. You need to read it. It seriously, literally, haunts you.
• Lucie Babbidge's house,
• M. E. and Morton

• The Chocolate touch

• Utterly me, Clarice Bean

• Al Capone does my shirts --this book is cool for so many reasons. First of all, it takes place on Alcatraz, which is just crazy interesting historical. Second, the plot revolves around the relationship of the main character with his sister, who is autistic. Her portrayal is so wonderful, because she's not just some Type Autistic Person, but she actually has her own personality and her own relationship (as it is) with her family, although she is obviously highly autistic. She's fully-developed. And her family really loves her, and the author really loves her. You can tell.

• Beezus and Ramona,
• Dear Mr. Henshaw,
• Ellen Tebbits,
• Emily's runaway imagination,
• Henry and Ribsy
• Henry and the clubhouse
• Henry and the paper route
• Henry Huggins,
• The mouse and the motorcycle,
• Muggie Maggie
• Ralph S. Mouse,
• Ramona the brave,
• Ramona forever,
• Ramona Quimby, age 8,
• Ramona and her father,
• Ramona the pest,
• Ramona and her mother,
• Ramona's world,
• Ribsy,
• Runaway Ralph
• Socks

• Where the lilies bloom

• Frindle, -- this book especially. It always seems to come up when people start talking about made-up words. Which is something that comes up in conversation more often than you'd think.
• The Landry News,
• The report card,
• The school story

• The remembering box

• My brother Sam is dead-- I did a book report on this book in 4th grade. If I recall, I wasn't THAT impressed with it. First of all, there's the title. What the heck? I had a line in my book report that said something like, "I think this book should really be called 'My brother Sam isn't dead until the next to the last chapter'." I mean SERIOUSLY. What a dumb title. And actually, today, that's all I really remember about the book.
• Who is Carrie? --So I got this book out of the library once and got right up into the climax when suddenly the story started to repeat itself. Then I figured out that there was a huge publishing error. Instead of the rest of the book, the middle part of the book was stuck in there all over again. I showed this to the librarian. I assume they got a new copy. I never did find out the end, though.

• Felicia the critic
• Genie with the light blue hair

• Crazy lady! --so the title of this book is completely misleading. Well, not completely. It's that exclamation point: doesn't it imply: "this is a funny and/or exciting book"? "You're going to have a lot of fun with this crazy lady!"? And the cover's all colorful too. But no, it's a serious and slightly depressing story. What a let down. Really, you could at least tell us that ahead of time.

• Both sides of time,
• The Cheerleader
• The face on the milk carton, --this is such a CLASSIC, classic cheesy teen suspense novel. Everyone needs to read it at one point in their lives. Besides, it really is an incredibly interesting premise. I think abould it practically every time I see a "HAve You Seen Me?" ad.
• The Fire, --this, The Fog, and The Snow make up a sublimely eerie psychological thriller trilogy. Quite good, if I recall.
• Flight #116 is down,
• the Fog,
• Prisoner of time,
• the Snow,
• Whatever happened to Janie?

• The Boggart,
• The Dark is Rising,
• Greenwitch,
• The grey king,
• King of shadows
• Over sea, under stone,
• Silver on the tree,
• Victory

• The Bumblebee flies anyway
• The Chocolate War
• Eight plus one: stories

• How to train your dragon / by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III ; translated from the Old Norse

• Jimmy Coates, assassin?

• Absolutely normal chaos,
• Bloomability
• Granny Torrelli makes soup,
• Love that dog
• Walk two moons

• The great train robbery,
• Jurassic Park : a novel,
• Timeline, --I read this one much later in history, since it came out later. I think it's probably my favorite though. My mom and I are always impressed by the amount of research Crichton must have had to do for his books. And for this one, he had to thoroghly research quantum physics AND medieval history. I mean, MAN.

• Bucking the Sarge, --definitely laugh-out-loud material, though there's serious stuff involved too. The get-rich-quick plots of the main character's best friend are just not to be missed.
• Bud, not Buddy, --funny, THIS one won the medal, but I like the other two more! Isn't that the way? Not that there's anything wrong with this one, I just liked the others better.
• Elijah Of Buxton
• The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963 --seriously, just read the first paragraph, the first sentence even of this book. It totally transports you. It's one of those beginnings where you just KNOW this is going to be a good book...!

• The ballad of Lucy Whipple
• Catherine, called Birdy -- everyone who has never read this book had better go out and read it RIGHT NOW, so there.
• Matilda Bone
• The midwife's apprentice -- another example of the Medal winner not being nearly as cool as the others. Still not that there's anything WRONG with it....
• Rodzina
• The loud silence of Francine Green --I found this sort of interesting to read after the others, because even though it's still historical fiction, it's modern enough that the dialogue is modern too, and I don't know why that struck me so much.

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created 2006, updated 2007, by Amy, who thinks you need to know this.