Here’s my December reading list:

1. Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (341 p.) YA book … Howard comes home from school one day to find a goon in his kitchen, demanding his father write 2000 words for Archer, or he’s not leaving. But, who’s Archer? 2000 words of what?

2. Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip (291 p.) A beautiful little fantasy book. You have orphans adopted by the kingdom’s library, a new, very young, queen who seems to be able to do magic, a magic student sent to study to help his uncle’s ambitions but who starts to love Nepenthe, one of the library’s orphans, and a mysterious book, written in an alphabet that looks like thorns, that seems to tell the story of the most successful conquerer the world has ever known … but what does that have to do with Nepenthe, who only wants to see how the story ends.

3. Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones (293 p.) An odd little YA book. It’s not told sequentially at all (on purpose) and is a big confusing, though ultimately that’s because the characters are confused themselves. It all centers around Hexwood Farm, where strange things seem to be happening … but they’re stranger than you think, and connected to an intergalactic dynasty. Throw in a splash of King Arthur-type heroics, all of which seem completely unnecessary except for getting out of the wood … or are they?

4. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (237 p.) One of the best inspirational writing books, this basically takes one of Lamott’s writing seminars and puts it in one volume for everyone else–what can you expect from your first drafts? What do you do when you get stuck? Light and readable and chock-full of good advice for writers.

5. String in the Harp by Nancy Bond (365 p.) I’ve loved this YA book for as long as I can remember. It tells two stories–a displaced American family trying to settle into a new, strange life in Wales after losing their mother in a tragic accident, and that of the ancient bard Taliesin. One one of his lonely walks, Peter found what appears to be Taliesin’s harp key, and from then on, it “sings” to him, telling him the story of its owner. It’s a wonderful book, and I always enjoyed reading about the family’s domestic struggles just as much as the parts about Peter figuring out what the key wants him to do. This one is an old, old friend.

6. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (177 p.) Speaking of old friends, imagine being a boy and running off to the Catskills woods to live inside a hollow tree with your specially-trained falcon named Frightful. Seems unlikely? Well, sure, but it’s also the idea behind this great back-to-nature adventure story. The author, years later, wrote a couple sequels to this, but they can’t compare to the original … which is particularly handy to read if you ever plan on trying to boil water in a leaf one day.

7. Island of the White Cow by Deborah Tall (234 p.) I’ve had this book since college and love pulling it off the shelf every few years. It’s a memoir of the author who, right after college, spends 5 years on an isolated Irish island with one of her professors. They embrace the traditional lifestyle in their house with no electricity or running water, but all the time witness the hardship and grief of the islanders, stuck with no apparent future. It’s a wonderful picture of both the islanders but also of the way we view the world.

8. Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett (498 p.) A fantasy book with a large dose of Jane Austen. There are so many features of Austen (and the Brontes) in here … the manners, the poor daughters trying to find husbands, the entailed estate … all that, but there is also something mysterious going on among those people who can do magic. I enjoyed this one, but didn’t love it. It was a good read, but it felt like something was lacking–though I can’t say exactly what. No regrets about reading it, though.

9. Matters at Mansfield by Carrie Bebris (286 p.) Speaking of Jane Austen .. imagine a series of mysteries where Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are the sleuths who solve the murders. Yes, a bit of a long-shot, especially when you pull in the characters from other Austen novels–in this case, Henry Crawford, who elopes with Darcy’s cousin, Anne de Bourgh, just as her mother is arranging a marriage for her. Um, well, I would have enjoyed it more if one of the characters hadn’t apparently died TWICE, after having created an entirely false identity for himself years before and getting amnesia … a few too many narrative stretches all at once there, for me!

10. Foundation by Mercedes Lackey (418 p.) Well, I like Mercedes Lackey, and Valdemar is an appealing place, but this book felt like it was written on auto-pilot. Mags is a little too quick at picking up the Herald-trainee lifestyle after living his entire life in a mine, and that’s just a little too unbelievable that he would be asked by some of the most powerful people in the city to help them, when he’s only been a trainee for a couple months. And then, there is a big deal made out of the bodyguards to a foreign embassy, and were they trustworthy, did they have some ulterior motive? Yet, they disappear from the story with no conclusion, and there’s an abduction of one of Mags’ friends thrown in that seems completely out of place. I know that this is meant to be the first of another trilogy, but usually the plots are more tightly constructed than this. It wasn’t awful, it just wasn’t as good as some of the others.

11. Storm Warning by Mercedes Lackey (438 p.)
12. Storm Rising by Mercedes Lackey
13. Storm Breaking by Mercedes Lackey (435 p.) One of the better Valdemar trilogies, with the effects of the millenia-ago mage storms reflecting back onto Valdemar, leaving them trying to figure out how to save the world–even if that means dealing with age-old enemies at the same time.

14. Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky (352 p.) Not technically out until next week, I got this as a review copy. It’s the first Delinsky book I’ve read, but I enjoyed it. Susan is the high-school principal in a small New England town who learns that, not only is her 17-year old daughter pregnant, so are two of her best friends–all “good” girls but making Susan’s accomplishments as principal pale beside her supposed “bad-mother” skills. In some ways this was predictable, but it was a good story–and, the best part? (And apparently the reason I got the review copy?) Susan and her three best friends run a hand-dyed wool company and yarn and knitting run through the entire book. ALL the main characters knit to ease their stress, so, what’s not to like?

15. Morning Glory Farm by Tom Dunlap. Mostly a cookbook, but also partly a paean to a way of life. This book tells the story of the family who run Morning Glory Farm on Martha’s Vineyard. Filled with gorgeous photos and some tasty-sounding recipes (I haven’t had time to test any of them yet), it captures what a family farm really should be.

16. Keeping Days by Norma Johnston (238 p.)
17. Glory in the Flower by Norma Johnston The first two “Tish Sterling” books, which are sadly out of print, these are also books that I’ve loved since I was about 13. Tish is a sensitive teenager growing up in 1900 in the Bronx. She’s got an older sister who is a beauty and being courted by their father’s best friend, a down-to-earth grandfather, a high-tempered mother who tends to speak in half-sentences, and … well, she’s got a bunch of characters making her life interesting. I love these books and dearly wish they were in print again–if only so I could get copies of books 3 and 4, too!

18. Titanic’s Last Secrets by Brad Matsen (308 p.)  A really interesting analysis of what really caused the Titanic to sink. (You know, other than the iceberg.) This tells the divers that found something new, but also the people who built the ship in the first place. Really enjoyable read.

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