This had a bit of a slow start, but once I got into the story, I really enjoyed it. And the ending was totally unexpected; I can‘t wait for the sequel to come out!

This is another book that just seemed to leap from the shelf into my hands one morning. It‘s a quick read, well told by an author who had more going on in her life than she expected to, but never wallows in self-pity. It‘s also inspirational without being heavy-handed or ridden with guilt trips.

Interesting , informative, well researched, and occasionally quite grumpy. Overall, I liked it, but it wasn‘t always enough to keep me awake on a hot day in traffic.

I had high hopes for this book, and I wasn‘t disappointed. It‘s about The Darkside of fairytales, and how a happy ending may not be what you‘re looking for. The central character was both confusing and confused, and I was cheering for her the entire time.

I read this one as part of my library summer reading challenge, and I‘m glad I did, but it is a strange little book. A colonization ship crash lands on a planet they weren‘t aiming for, and their society immediately begins to break down due to mysterious circumstances. Interesting, but a trifle dated.

Yet another terrific installation in this series. The intrigue deepens, Ursula‘s relationship with her husband gets more complicated, and now she and her companions are being chased through France. Good stuff.

Hooray! A resolution to the story! This was fun and so well done, and I love being able to actually see the characters, but I would love more of the story. This is such a terrific world.

This was really fun, a look into the very serious world of genealogy, and a more lighthearted exploration into how and why and where people get interested in their family stories.

Intriguing concept, very evocative writing, and some fascinating characters, but I still didn‘t love this. The background politics are so complicated and not explained enough, and it‘s clear that they‘re going to be very important in the next book. Don‘t know if I‘ll go on with this series or not.

Finally, a trilogy where all three books live up to their potential! I really wasn‘t sure where this one was going to go, and continued to be unsure even as I was reading, but this was an exciting and satisfying way to wrap up the series. Not too happy, not too sad, and the author says at the end that she‘s going to write more about Renthia, so we have something to look forward to.

I‘m really enjoying rereading this series in preparation for the new one. Loads of fun and intrigue in and around the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and a forbidden romance to boot. On to the next one!

This is a biography written for children, but it still gave me some wonderful insight into the life of my favorite writer. I especially appreciated the viewpoint of the authors, her granddaughters.

Need a nice, quick murder mystery with good historical details, a bit of blood, and really pretty dresses? This fit the bill for me quite nicely, and I look forward to finding other books by this author. A nice ending that wasn‘t too tidy, either. Very satisfying.

This was so good, nearly as good as the first one. And somewhat of a relief to find that this wasn‘t a trilogy. The plot gets more complicated and there are more characters and more politics thrown into the mix, but the central characters are still just as fascinating and compelling as they were in the first book. Highly recommend.

This was an enthusiastic recommendation from a good friend, and she was right; I loved it. This would make a terrific miniseries. It‘s a standalone, which is a refreshing change, and a very different look at what magic might look like in our own world. Compelling and lovely and disturbing all at the same time.

This was OK, but I feel like I‘ve read so many other books just like it. It‘s also extremely violent, which I understand is necessary for the story, but somehow it didn‘t sit well with me this time. I don‘t know if I‘ll bother with the sequel or not, although I did like the characters.

This is a very long, thoroughly researched book, and you‘d probably have to be very, very interested in the Royal Family to enjoy it. Fortunately, I am, and found this both an honest and sympathetic portrait of the prince. I‘m not sure I‘d like him in person, but it does help to understand him a bit better.

I love listening to non-fiction in the car, and this was a great one for my daily commute. Interesting and sensational, sympathetic and informational, and really well researched. The author happens to be a good narrator, too, which isn‘t always the case.

This was so good. Big, epic story, with flawed characters who are both human and lovable. Exciting and well-paced, too. Can‘t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

I didn‘t mean to read this book. It just sort of leapt into my hands while I was moving some nonfiction around at work. And I‘m so glad it found me! This is a lovely read about food, friends, family, and coming back from the edge of despair and substance abuse. Plus, it has some terrific-looking recipes.

This is the second one, and the series is still good. Not a cozy, not too gory, and not too technical of a police procedural. The detective is likable and human, and I‘m looking forward to seeing what happens in her life next.

I wasn‘t sure that I was going to like this, but I did. The main character is unpleasant, vain, and dangerously ambitious, but also compelling. I may even read the next one, just find out what happens to her.

I‘m struggling with this one. I‘m nearly halfway through, so I‘ll probably finish it, but I‘m having difficulty liking the main character. She‘s selfish and kind of unpleasant, and although she‘s perfectly well aware of this, she continues to make choices that will hurt the people who care about her. And it‘s the first in a series.

Who doesn‘t love Sue Perkins? Reading this, it‘s so easy to hear her voice in your head, and she‘s just as hilarious as she is on radio or television. There are really moving parts, too, and I nearly cried when she talks about her beagle. This is very funny and sweet, and I wish she‘d write more.

Three cheers for friends who go to conferences and lend you some of their goodies when they get back! This isn‘t out until July, but I got an advance look at it, and it‘s wonderful. Not a sequel to Uprooted, but similar, and beautifully written. There are multiple viewpoint characters, which was confusing at first, but you quickly get used to it.

More adventures in the smog and filth of London for Jem and Will, and more dead bodies. While the atmosphere of the book makes me desperately yearn for fresh air and sunshine, the characters are fascinating, and the mysteries satisfying. Looking forward to more in the series.

This is a weird book. A city full of people who don‘t know how to show emotion on their faces, and one little girl can‘t control what she shows on hers. Throw in an immortal leader, and wines and cheeses with magical powers and you have something I‘ve never read before. I really liked this one.

Warning: do not read this in cold weather, or when you are feeling chilly. It takes place during an ice storm in a secluded Château in Switzerland, and you will freeze your butt off just reading about it. It‘s excellent, though, and I‘m looking forward to the next one.

Good plot, intriguing mystery, interesting characters, and some of the best atmospheric writing I‘ve ever come across. Can‘t wait to get my hands on the second one.

LOVED this. A fascinating man with a fascinating career, and experiences like no one has ever had before or will again. Well written, exciting, and detailed, without being dull. Highly recommended.

There are lots of stories like this one out there right now, but this has some really interesting new twists. It‘s clearly the first in a series, which means there‘s no resolutions to be had at the end, but it does make me want to read the next one very much.

Oh, Stephen. I love your work so much, but this book was such a letdown. Yes, there were the usual amusing stories about all the fabulous people he knows in show business, but he also spent far too long focusing on his cocaine addiction, but never explaining what was that led him to stop. He can do much better, and he has.

Short stories about horrible things happening to young women, and/or young women doing horrible things to other people out of revenge. Nope.

Librarians! Dragons! Gangsters! Dire Wolves! As usual, Irene and Kai are in way over their heads, and this time it‘s political. Which, since dragons are involved, is even worse than usual. These continue to be exciting and fun, and I hope they keep going that way.

Liked the first one in the series, like the second one. I hope he writes more, because Ravi‘s life is getting more interesting and more complicated (and more violent). The poor man sees the Hindu gods on a regular basis, and now it turns out he‘s not the only one…

Sigh. I thought I had actually reached a moment where I could request something from my to-read pile. And then I did, and two books came back into the library that I just had to read, and then one of our patrons recommended something very highly, and then two more things came in on hold for me…

A new Tamora Pierce? O Frabjous Day! For those of you already familiar with her work, this is the beginning of Numair‘s origin story, and if you‘re not, this is the story of a young student named Arram Draper who is just starting out in the magical academy. Can‘t wait for the next one.

I wasn‘t sure what to expect with this one, but I did like it. The main character, like me, is a librarian, and I found her attitude towards her job extremely frustrating to begin with. I wound up liking her more and more, however, and this turned out to be a nice, cozy read.

Oh, I just love this entire series. They‘re so weird and fantastic, and so easy to gobble down. Do read the earlier books in the series 1st, otherwise this one will make no sense at all.

Jane Yolen is awesome. Fantastical stories about Merlin and Wendy and Dorothy and Alice and... Beautiful and weird and absolutely terrific.

I loved the first one for its unique setting and social structure. This sequel delves even more deeply into that environment and the characters, and it‘s even more exciting. Absolutely can‘t wait for the third one!

I can‘t remember why I requested this one through interlibrary loan, but I‘m certainly glad I did. My knowledge of Soviet history comes mostly from what I absorbed as a child during the Cold War, so it‘s interesting to see it through the lens of someone whose family was part of the story. And also, it‘s told through the lens of food, which is the best part of all.

I thought this was going to be a trilogy, so it was something of a relief to find out it‘s just a duology . And a good one too, I think I liked this second book even better than the first. Lots of action, and a satisfying, although not tidy, ending.

This is an odd book. The writing is lovely, the characters are very human, and the story did not go where I expected it to. I liked it, and I liked the characters more as I got to know them.

I love Agatha Christie, and I‘m very fond of Les Klinger‘s anthologies, so I wasn‘t surprised that this was very, very good. Detective stories by women I‘ve never heard of, who were confident in their abilities and the abilities of their sleuths. Loads of fun.

Finally! After my third try, I finally kept this book long enough to finish it. We live about an hour from Biltmore, and have visited many times, so I found the additional information about the management of the estate and the family fascinating.

I wanted to, I really did. I had high hopes that this would be just like one of Judith Jones‘s beautiful works on cooking for one person, but it was not to be. Sadly, this is a boring, boring book.

As usual, beautiful writing and slightly unsettling stories that made me think. Beagle isn‘t for everyone, but his writing is so lyrical and his stories so strange that he‘s worth the effort.

This isn‘t my first time with this book, since Bryson is one of my favorite authors, but it does make for such excellent reading as I drive back-and-forth to work. He finds the most interesting information about the most mundane details of our lives, and writes about it so beautifully.

What a great selection from my SantaThing Santa! Can‘t wait to get into these.