JANUARY
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
A giant monolith develops the evolution of mankind, then disappears; only to reappear on the moon. Then an astronaut deals with a rogue computer, and then it ends with a lot of nonsense as the astronaut ceases to exist.
Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie (1959)
One of my favorites; this was one of her better suspense-filled thrillers, set in an elite girls boarding school. And it also has Hercule Poirot.
Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming (1959)
James Bond gets tasked to deal with a scheming, weird-looking businessman who is obsessed with gold.
Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man, by Donald J. Sobol (1967)
The fourth collection of Encyclopedia's cases.
Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All, by Donald J. Sobol (1968)
More adventures of Encyclopedia and Sally; as they help out Chief Brown, get pals out of scrapes aand spend the rest of the time foiling Bugs Meany and Wilfred Wiggins.
The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright (1907)
A love story in and to the southwest Missouri Ozarks.
The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne, with decorations by Ernest H. Shepard (1928)
The final collection of stories from the Hundred Acre Wood, for even Christopher Robins have to Grow Up at some point.
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, illustrations by Jules Feiffer (1961)
A quirky, zany adventure created by a super-smart guy who loved playing with words. It's a little like Alice in Wonderland, except far more clever and interesting. Started while visiting the Guenthers last summer because Leslie Knope loved this book so much, finished when we were visiting the DeSpains one day about eight months after beginning it.
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (1963)
An alternative history imagining that the Axis Powers won WWII. Cool concept, but a little dreary read.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (2000)
Reading Harry Potter for the first time as an adult, not having traveled over them time and again growing up, could have biased my judgement, but it is a nearly-inexplainable experience of frustration. On the plus side, Harry and pals are getting older. On the negative side, this book is 734 pages. Or roughly the length of the first two Hunger Games books combined. Hermione goes on a tiresome political crusade, and in general it's just rather tiresome and dreary.
FEBRUARY
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling (2003)
870 pages. This was the best of the series so far(number five of seven total). Lots of peril(with real stakes involved), and a lot of complaints about public education/philosophizing on the role on government overreach. The characters are teenagers now and have at least learned some magical spells to defend themselves; so the don't always escape by sheer luck. It's still formulaic and empty, but there was a glimmer of hope that the last couple books might be good.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling (2005)
This next-to-last book falls apart by the end, but the first half was good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (2007)
The series finally ended! It was far too long, and there were far too many dangling threads tied up far too neatly, and the epilogue was slapped together a bit, but it was all right.
MARCH
Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written By Himself, by Wendell Berry (2000)
A wonderful novel, narrated by seventy-two-year-old Jayber Crow, telling both of the events of his life and the collapse of the town he loved, where he had a place. If it wasn't a library book, fully half the print would be highlighted and marked up; such great descriptions fill the pages with the wisdom of the elderly, if one listens closely. Also, I love that subtitle.
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee (Writ. 1957, pub. 2015)
The parent of To Kill a Mockingbird, which sort of serves as a sequel, this is nowhere near as good, but has a scruffy charm of its own.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1887)
One of those creepy 19th-century Gothic novels which leave you with much to think over once finished.
Death in Kenya, by M.M. Kaye (1958)
Her sentences are amazing, though incredibly complex. The characters were so well developed that I wasn't even trying to follow the mystery (which I did solve correctly).
A Place Called Hope, by Philip Gulley (2014)
This is the beginning of a new series, after Dale Hinshaw finally succeeds in firing Sam Gardner. So Sam and Barbara move to Hope, Indiana, in the south-central part of the state. It can get a little tedious, as Sam's cynicism hasn't improved any by ten more years spent in Harmony, but maybe the series gets better as time goes on.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley (2015)
The seventh novel in the Flavia De Luce series, this time she gets sent across the Atlantc to a boarding school in Toronto. By far the best of the series.
APRIL
Tell Me a Riddle, by Tillie Olsen (1961)
This short-story collection begins with "I Stand Here Ironing," a mother's lament and recollection of how she raised her oldest daughter, and then continues with a story dealing with an alcoholic sailor and the only friends he has in the world; a little girl dealing with the taboo of fraternizing with black people in the 1950's, and ends with a story about a bitter elderly Russian-immigrant couple as the wife dies slowly from cancer. She can pack a lot of emotion and heartache into her stories.
The Memory of Old Jack, by Wendell Berry (1974)
Chronologically, this novel takes place over about three days. But because most of it is the memories of a 92-year-old man with dementia, it covers pretty much his entire life in a series of snapshots. To structure it that way was very interesting, though it took some time to get used to.
So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger (2008)
His second novel is almost more strange than his first (and Peace Like a River was plenty weird, plotwise). In this novel, a failing writer takes a cross-country trip from southern Minnesota with an ex-outlaw to southern California so that the friend can apologize for leaving his wife twenty years earlier. There's also a fairly important section on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City. Also, our narrator gets kidnapped at one point.
MAY
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, by Marguerite Henry (1996)
Easily one of her less-than-stellar efforts; but at the same time, how many people are still working at 94 years old? A young girl named Molly raises her mule foal in central Tennessee, enduring the snide comments of her neighbor.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008)
The first of a trilogy set in a dystopian future North America, which centers its annual celebration of itself with a fight-to-the-death gladiatorial contest among 24 teenagers. Very gruesome and not written very well, though the tension makes it a page-turner.
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (2009)
The plodding sequel.
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (2010)
This is by far the best of the series.
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley (1917)
An extremely practical spinster buys a traveling bookstore so her famous author brother will quit gadding about and take care of the farm. Hilarity ensues.
The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers (1916)
Part love story, part mystery, this highly entertaining tale is set in London in the opening days of World War I.
The Puppeteer's Apprentice, by D. Anne Love (2003)
This is similar in tone to The Christmas Doll, though set in medieval times. It was a great spur-of-the-moment find from the Gardner's warehouse sale in January.
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (1908)
A very talkative redheaded girl with a grand imagination turns the little town of Avonlea upside down with the antics and scrapes she gets into in 1890's Prince Edward Island.
JUNE
Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (1909)
Anne is teaching at the Avonlea school now, while Marilla grouchily adopts distant cousins to raise. Anne meets her favorite author, gets several couples wedded together and generally improves the look of the town through a new young-people's society., among other things.
Old Yeller, by Frank Gipson (1956)
Widely considered one of the saddest endings in history, this is just a run-of-the-mill boy-on-the-frontier tales. It is very sad, yes, but not as much as people say.
State of Fear, by Michael Crichton (2004)
This seemed more like a bunch of short stories, which would have been great by themselves, patched together in scrapbook fashion to make a novel. The plot follows a gigantic lawsuit-in-progress about global warming, developing into an action/adventure/spy novel. It was pretty good, despite being rather hard to follow due to frequent time-jumping in scenes and a large cast.
Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery (1915)
In this book, Anne goes to Redmond College, and eventually gets engaged to Gilbert. The lack-of-pacing is extremely evident, thus explaining why I have that trouble as well in my stories. However, there are still lots of great descriptions and good dialogue, which is to be expected in an L.M. Montgomery book.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry (1993)
In this forerunner of the modern YA-dystopian craze, a boy named Jonas becomes the bearer of the remnants of the world's memories in a society which has outlawed emotions in favor of a homogenous existence.
The Four Million, by O. Henry (1904)
One of his short story collections, containing both "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Green Door," among other great tales.
Happy To Be Here, by Garrison Keillor (1982)
A collection of short stories. Among others, it features: A con man exploiting rich donors to run a Center for the Arts inside a strip mall; explaining the typical American Tuesday; several about baseball; the founding of a radio station inside a restaurant in the 1920s, and parodies of pulp-magazine sci-fi and adventure comic books.
Lake Woebegon Days, by Garrison Keillor (1985)
A very meticulously-drawn portrait of the small town of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota. It's interesting in spots, but overall the effect is extremely tiresome. Keillor is very smart, and he writes well, but there's this undercurrent of resentment and anger that is hard to say anyone "enjoyed" it.
AUGUST
Anne of Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery (1936)
Anne teaches school in a town full of unfriendly-at-first people, and makes friends of the landladies (a pair of widowed elderly sisters), their overly-sensitive housekeeper Rebecca Dew, and the little neighbor girl next door. There are far too many love-letters to and from Gilbert to be interesting. Also, Maud's messy life was getting particularly bad by the time she penned this one.
Anne's House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery (1917)
One of my three favorite Montgomery novels; Anne and Gilbert are just married, and everything is an adventure. Plus they have wonderful neighbors in Captain Jim, Miss Cornelia and Leslie Moore. Together, anything seems possible, including miracles.
Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1939)
This was her last book, detailing the adventures of the young Blythes after they left the Four Harbors House of Dreams to move into Ingleside in Glen St. Mary. It's pretty boring.
Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery (1919)
Another of my three favorites, the Blythe kids and their neighbors the Merediths get into all kinds of scrapes, just like Anne used to when she was their age.
Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1921)
The Great War has arrived, yes, even to sleepy little communities like Glen St. Mary. And there are losses of many kinds.
SEPTEMBER
Sadly, none, due to a massive amount of homework and school stress. This probably explains why this semester has been particularly awful.
OCTOBER
Monday Night Jihad, by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn (2007)
This is a Christian thriller/football novel. It fails at all four of those categories.
NOVEMBER
Long-Arm Quarterback, by Matt Christopher (1999)
This was one of the handful of Matt Christophers that made a big impression on me in some way, and this was definitely one of the better-written stories he did. In a miniscule Texas town called Cowpen, they're trying to start up a six-man football team again.
Spike It!, by Matt Christopher (1998)
This was one of the most memorable Matt Christopher books that I had ever read, so I managed to track it down on Amazon and reread it. I'm still not sure what to think of it, but I didn't know what to make of it when I was six, either. The sport is volleyball, which is cool, and the main conflict is that Jamie's dad remarried without telling her, so she's trying to get used to the idea of having a stepsister around.
Woof, by Spencer Quinn (2015)
This middle-grade mystery was narrated by a dog. To be exact, a Louisiana rescue mutt named Bowser who now belongs to an eleven-year-old girl. It was fine, and the dogness was handled well, but it wasn't a masterpiece. Though the author is apparently a famous modern mystery author, and this was his first try at writing a children's book. I'll definitely need to look into one of his others.
DECEMBER
The Golden Road, by L.M. Montgomery (1913)
The last of my favorite three Montgomery novels; this was written in two weeks, if I remember right. It's just a chronicle of the meandering things that happen to a group of friends in early teenagerdom, written down by one of them about forty years later.
Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mew'd, by Alan Bradley (2016)
The quote is from Hamlet, and the titular car in question is an extremely rare male tortoiseshell. While not quite as good as the last, this eighth Flavia De Luce novel is still well worth reading. I thought this one would lend itself well to being a film.
Dog On It, by Spencer Quinn (2009)
Mix Wishbone with Hank the Cowdog, and make him the sidekick of a semi-successful private investigator with a Phil Coulson-like affinity for nostalgia, and you have Chet the dog and Bernie his owner. Also, Chet is the narrator. They work somewhere in Arizona, and while it's not the greatest mystery ever written, it's certainly worth reading.
Thereby Hangs a Tail, by Spencer Quinn (2010)
Chet and Bernie are back, and this time they're trying to protect a dog-show superstar. This case involves multiple people being murdered, and stoned hippies. The mystery is better in this one, largely because of Chet's unreliability.
The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner (2010)
The middle book of the Maze Runner trilogy is just as fantastic as the first one was. (Thanks again for talking me into finally reading it, Ashland!) There was a year-long gap between reading the first and this one, though, as I couldn't find it until now. (Thanks Okmulgee Library!) Now free from the Maze, Thomas, Teresa and the rest are trying to survive a two-week journey through the desert which used to be northern Mexico in Phase Two of the trials to cure the Flare virus. .
The Death Cure, by James Dashner (2011)
Okay, a whole YA series being wonderful was too much to hope for. The wheels fall off here, as most of the book is just trying to survive zombie hordes. It does end on a hopeful note, so that's something praiseworthy.
Micro, by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston (2011)
Crichton died of a heart attack in 2008, so his publishers selected a nonfiction author named Richard Preston to come in and finish this novel. That didn't go so well, but there are definitely good moments throughout the book. The plot concerns seven graduate students running for their lives while half an inch tall in the Hawaiian rainforest. Also - there are killer robots on the loose.
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