Book #11 of 2017: The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (Riddle-Master #1) Like the best of fantasy, The Riddle-Master of Hed reads like a beautiful dream. And the reluctant warrior at its center, fated to be a powerful figure of prophecy despite all his wishes for a quiet life back home, makes for …
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Book #1 of 2017: Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #4) Like Harry Potter, this series gets darker and more mature as the books progress. Even though the protagonist in this case is still a thirteen-year-old boy, he’s grown up a lot just by going through the events of these novels. Author …
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Book #123 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #3) Another fun entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series, again harnessing his love of creative magical systems into something more whimsical than his typical fantasy novels for older readers. In this third book in the series, the politics get murkier and …
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Book #116 of 2016: The Giver by Lois Lowry (The Giver #1) I remember really liking The Giver when I was growing up, but I was still a teenager at the oldest the last time I read it, so I only really had fuzzy memories of its specifics. Of course, it more than lived up …
Book #113 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #2) Another fun YA novel from Brandon Sanderson, who blends his usual high fantasy style with something closer to Harry Potter and then adds a snarky narrator offering meta-commentary on the nature of stories throughout. Book 2 in this series fleshes out …
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Book #95 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #1) Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series starts out with a bang, combining one of his trademark creative magic systems with a narrator as snarky as Peter David’s Sir Apropos of Nothing in this fun novel for junior readers. We only get the first …
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Book #68 of 2016: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (Time Quintet) This is a book I’ve always felt weird for not liking more, since so many people seem to love it. But I do believe in second chances, so I read it again today for the first time in probably 20 years… and …
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Book #44 of 2016: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke This is at least the third time that I’ve read this book, but the last time was more than five years ago (which is why I wanted to do another reread before I watched the recent BBC miniseries adaptation). It remains an astonishing …
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Book #9 of 2016: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Shannara #2) I originally read the first dozen or so Shannara books back in middle and high school, before finally getting tired of the series. I don’t remember any of them particularly well, but I did have this vague memory that Elfstones (the second …
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Book #33 of 2011: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine I reread this childhood favorite for the first time in years, and was amazed at how good it still was. Its protagonist is clever and headstrong, its villains are fun to despise, and its love story is understated and touching. The main character even has a …
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