Three Men In A Boat:  To Say Nothing Of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome

The adventures of three men, and a fox terrier, making preparations for and on a boating trip up the Thames, enlivened with suitable anecdotes.  Extremely funny.

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The Beats go on the road to stop Cthulhu in this Lovecraft/Kerouac mashup.


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Written over 30 years ago in 1982, in The Presidents and Prime Ministers: Washington and Ottawa Face to Face, the Myth of Bilateral Bliss 1867-1982, Canadian journalist Lawrence Martin ably traces the history of the relationships between the Prime Ministers of Canada and the Presidents of the United States over the 115 year period from the founding ( Read more... )

Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott

I read this first when it first came out -- I think my grandmother got me a copy -- and it still holds up.

That's both the tale itself, retold, of a boy who sets out to find his father, not knowing that it's the Sun, and the stylized and colorful artwork.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

A work of marvels and wonders.  Two magicians set (another) challenge at each other, that their students are to strive to outdo each other.  The venue of this is the title circus, done up in black and white and open only at night.

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The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

This is a beautiful book -- not too treacherous.  It opens with Jenny and her brother Tom returning home through a forest.  Except that as he plays his flute, the forest comes to swallow him up.  He screams for her to flee.

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Disclaimer:  I have some chubby red-heads at home, and I want to bring Tris home to play.  This is not an unbiased review.

Tris is stronger than she thinks she is, but can she bring her mental and magical energy into focus in time to save the day?

Tris has nightmares from events in the previous books in the series.   She loves her three friends ( Read more... )

Eccentric Circles by Rebecaa Lickiss

Piper's beloved great-grandmother has died, and she is attending the internment.  An aunt pushes her to be the first to put the dirt in the grave, which, she finds, means that she inherits the house.  When she comes down for breakfast the next day, she finds an elf sitting at the table.

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I struggled to come up with a more descriptive summary than "Space Opera."


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The Zero Stone by Andre Norton

Talk about opening in medias res.  Jern appears fleeing for his life from the killers of his mentor -- a cult called the Green Robes, which usually avoided off-worlders, this time selected "randomly" for human sacrifice two of them, a gemologist and his apprentice Jern.

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