By Laurell K. Hamilton
Read: March 2010
Rating: Engrossing
First, let me just say that that cover is a total plot-tease. It shows a woman’s belly, with a nice little round to it, and her hand just so… The series is about a woman trying to get pregnant. You are plot-teasing me, you stupid cover art! Bonus, nothing [...]

By Kristin Cashore
Read: Feb/Mar 2010
Rating: Worthy
Graceling was a gift, from someone who swore it was excellent. It should be, it has the endorsement of Tamora Pierce. It is a good book, with a good world, and enough momentum to keep one reading. I won’t say I adored it, but it was very enjoyable.
In the world [...]

By Johanna Lindsey
Read: Feb 2010
Rating: Convoluted
There’s a LOT of fun to poke at this thing. Before I have fun, let me say that it wasn’t awful. It wasn’t really good, either.
BOOK-IN-A-MINUTE, Git-style
(Yes, that means spoiler)
Roseleen: I am a history professor with a penchant for old weapons. Look at this fabulous old sword my brother [...]

Once upon a time, I discovered a wonderful, wonderful book. Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted is immerses you in Ella’s world, giving you a best friend as well as an adventure.
Then Hollywood got their hands on it. And THEY RAPED IT.
Below is an off-the-cuff rant I wrote in 2004, before the movie was even released. [...]

By Barbara G. Walker
Not Read: Feb 2010
Rating: *zones out*
I’m trying to be good, really I am. But 50 pages out of 170 isn’t such a bad run…
The book is awkward and boring and it reads like what it is–a work of fiction by a feminist scholar that has been described (by The Northwest Gay and [...]

By Judith E French
Read: February 2010
Rating: A bit muddled
I bought this book because, well, it’s called The Barbarian and it has a laughably swoony cover. I mean, c’mon, what’s more classically romance novel than a dude’s face all up close and personal while he gaze intensely at you, all the while holding his very phallic [...]

By Joanne Harris
Read: December 2009
Rating: Delicious
I saw the movie ages ago, but I don’t remember it very well. A good deal of the book felt familiar, which means the movie did bear some similarity to it. Not that anyone would really care when they could gaze on a GORGEOUS Johnny Depp.
The book is lovely. Intriguing, [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: ~2002, November 2009
Rating: Gripping
Hoo-! I was up MUCH later than intended last night, polishing off the last of book 6, which I read right on the heels of #5. Good reading, there. When I say gripping, I mean it. The last third especially…
The Skull of the World follows Isabeau’s ultimate quest in [...]

By Johanna Lindsey
Read: October/November 2009
Rating: Fun!
Do not be fooled by that innocuous cover in the Amazon preview. DO NOT, I SAY. That is a redesign, to appeal to modern readers. Why? Because this would never pass muster today:

I’m not sure it passed muster then, either. My edition is more orangey, but you get the point. [...]

By Helen Fielding
Read: October 2009, repeatedly since ~2002
Rating: v.v.v.v.g.
Bridget Jones is a classic of our time. She can’t be anything but. Plenty of people have gone on and on about how this book changed womens’ literature to chick lit (for better or worse). When I first read it, I was sixteen and trapped on a [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: Sept-Oct 2009
Rating: Nostalgic
Number four, in what was meant to be a trilogy. I had always liked this one because it stars one of my favorite characters: Finn.
Fionnghal was born a princess, heir to the MacRurach clan, but was kidnapped by Maya’s regime to use as a tool. The MacRurachs have the gift [...]

aka The Julie/Julia Project
aka 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
aka My Year of Cooking Dangerously
aka a movie with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams
By Julie Powell
Read: August 2009
Rating: Nifty
Yeah, this is one of those books that is suddenly on everyone’s mind–or just was, anyway. The movie version came out earlier this month, and I [...]

By Allan Appel
Read: August 2009
Rating: Disappointing
The back copy for The Hebrew Tutor paints a picture that is enticing:
Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two [Norman and Bayla] forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies of the road, Bayla [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: July 2009
Rating: Comfortable
So, Lachlan and Iseult have won their throne! But now the land is covered in Bright Soldiers and the coasts are being raided by Fairgean. Maya the Ensorcellor is at large, and her followers are planning an insurrection. The Righ goes to war.
There’s isn’t really a single arch holding this [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: Way Back When, July 2009
Rating: Bonny
Book Two in the Witches of Eileannan is a big ‘un. It covers TWO mega-battles/wars, and a giantass cast of characters. I love it.
And plenty of men in kilts. Not much fetishizing of the kilts, but plenty of kilts. And women kilting their skirts up because skirts [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: Early 2000s?, June 2009
Rating: Love
I owe one of my good friends a debt of thanks for turning me onto these. At the time it was just the first two on the shelf and we all thought it would be a trilogy. Imagine our delight when it turned into SIX books!
Eileannan is a [...]

By Elizabeth Lowell
Read: June 2009
Rating: Cool?
Yeah, so, I’ve talked about how dangerous library book sales are, right? Right. I found me some romances. Proper swooning cover romances. I mean, check this inner cover out. Pink satin sheets, hair spread wantonly across pillows, limbs tangled and toes curling.

Oh yeah, and he’s got a mullet.
You might [...]

By Diane Johnson
Read: November 2008
Rating: Mmph.
Right, so. I saw the movie ages back and don’t remember much about it except that I liked it more than my mother did, and she thought it was very disappointing.
The book is… strange. I wish we’d read it in one of my writing classes because it pulls all kinds [...]

by Robert C. O’Brien
Read: Middle school?, July 2008
Rating: J’adore
If you have never read about Mrs. Frisby, you are missing are a wonderful, crucial piece of childhood. I was given the movie, The Secret of NIMH (also reviewed below, when I was really, really young. Both my parents enjoyed watching it with me, and it was [...]

By Naomi Novik
Read: July 2008
Rating: Intense
I got an email alert announcing the release of this book, and was able to attend Naomi Novik’s very first book signing EVARR. She was excited, we were excited, and the space at the Greenwich Village B&N was standing room only. How cool was that?!
She read an as-yet-unpublished short story [...]

by Melody Thomas
Guest Review by Sreya
Read Shen’s review here.
For the time being (the duration of this review) I’ll be taking over for Shen — no rotten tomatoes, please! — and I’ll be reviewing a novel that she lent me. She reviewed it herself, so I guess this is simultaneous.
Shen and I both love to [...]

By Arthur Golden
Read: high school, January 2008
Rating: Lovely
A lot has been said about MoaG, so I’m not going to give it a huge, thorough review. What I am going to say is that it is wonderful.
The settings are thorough. The culture feels alive and natural. You sympathize with the characters and want so much for [...]

Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) hosts Banned Books Week, to bring attention to censorship and some of the amazing books that are often its victim.
We know I like lists by now, right? I like lists. Below is a list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-2000.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s [...]

In 2003 the BBC took a survey of “the nation’s best-loved novel”, and wound up with a list of beloved books.  Lets take a look-see…
BBC Big Read 1-200
1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (Choked and died 100 pgs in)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Lovely)
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (On my list, [...]

By Karen Hawkins
Read: April 2007
Rating: Fun
Mmkay, I am a sucker for men in kilts. So much so that I’m adding a new category to the Fun Shtuff. Why? Cuz men in kilts are Hawtt. Ahem.
I grabbed this and ran–I just had a good feeling about it. And I was so right. Though there was [...]

I wasn’t going to bother with this list after I saw it, since I haven’t even heard of a large portion of them. So I’m just going to link to a copy of the full list and post the ones I HAVE reada which will be a much shorter list.
The list comes from the book [...]

A survey of British librarians has turned up this list. I’m not doing so well, really. But I’ll go through the list and point out what I have read, what I already have waiting on my shelf to be read, and what I really wasn’t ever planning on trying to read. From http://wordwing.com/content/view/55/88/The Top [...]