Our Book Recommendations for your Tween-age Girl

tween (twn)  n. : A child between middle childhood and adolesence, usually between 8 and 12 years old.  [Blend of teen and between.]

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Are you ready for your tween-age daughter to start hovering in the YA section, reading books about lusty vampires, bloodthirsty werewolves, and gossipy girls? 

I'm not. And neither, apparently is my sister.  She called me the other day -- not quite ready to send her daughter into the increasingly dark world of YA lit -- she wanted some book suggestions that were both interesting and appropriate for a ten-year-old girl.  Many thanks to my fellow RFS reviewers, as well as author Tristi Pinkston, and Melissa McCurdy of Gerbera Daisy Diaries for helping compile this list.  You are angels! 

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GREAT TWEEN READS FOR YOUR DAUGHTER
(Your son might like a few of these as well.  Please comment to let us know which ones we've missed)


Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Allegra Biscotti Collection - Olivia Bennett
Alvor – Laura Bingham
Anne of Green Gables Series – L.M. Montgomery
Aquamarine - Alice Hoffman (RFS Review)
Because of Winn Dixie - Kate DiCamillo
The Betsy Tacy Series (the more recent ones) - Maud Hart Lovelace
The BFG - Roald Dahl
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
Caddie Woodlawn - Carol Ryrie Brink
The Cay - Theodore Taylor
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
The Chasing Vermeer Series - Blue Balliett
The City of Ember Series - Jeanne DuPrau
Dragon Slippers Series - Jessica Day George
Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate – Jennifer Holm
Fablehaven Series – Brandon Mull (RFS Review)
The Family Under the Bridge - Natalie Savage Carlson (RFS Review)
Far World : Water Keep – J. Scott Savage
The Forgotten Warrior – Kathi Oram Peterson
Frindle - Andrew Clements (RFS Review)
A Girl of the Limberlost - Gene Stratton Porter
The Girl Who Could Fly - Victoria Forrester (RFS Review)
The Giver - Lois Lowry (RFS Review)
Green Angel - Alice Hoffman
Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins (RFS Review)
Hatchet - Gary Paulsen
Heidi - Johanna Sypri
The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley
House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer (RFS Review)
James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
Kandide and the Secret of the Mists - Diana Zimmerman
The Little House Series - Laura Ingalls Wilder (RFS Review)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Love, Ruby Lavendar - Deborah Wiiles
Make Me a Home - Tamra Norton
Make Me a Memory – Tamra Norton
Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli
Charlie Bone Series - Jenny Nimmo
Misty of Chincoteague Series - Margauerite Henry
Mockingbird - Kathryn Erskine (RFS Review)
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism - Georgia Byng
Moon Over Manifest - Claire Vanderpool (RFS Guest Review)
The Mother Daughter Book Club Series - Heather Vogel Frederick
My Body Fell Off! - BJ Rowley
Nancy Drew Series - Carolyn Keene
Number the Stars – Lois Lowry
An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
One Crazy Summer - Rita Williams Garcia
The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog – John R. Erickson
Our Only May Amelia - Jennifer L. Holm
Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series - Rick Riordan (RFS Review)
Princess Academy - Shannon Hale (RFS Review)
Savvy – Ingrid Law (RFS Review)
The School Story - Andrew Clements
The Schwa was Here - Neil Shusterman (RFS Review)
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Series of Unfortunate Events (all of them) - Lemony Snickett
Serpent Tide - KL Fogg
The Sign of the Beaver - Elizabeth George Speare
A Single Shard - Linda Sue Park (RFS Review)
Spindle’s End - Robin McKinley
Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli (RFS Review)
Sting - BJ Rowley
Stone Fox - John Reynolds Gardiner
The Stone Traveler - Kathi Oram Peterson
Surviving the Applewhites - Stephanie S. Tolan
The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo (RFS Review)
Tennyson – Lesley M. M. Blume (RFS Review)
The Tripods Trilogy - Christopher John
Turtle in Paradise - Jennifer Holm
Warriors Series - Erin Hunter
The Wednesday Wars - Gary Schmidt
The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin (RFS Review)
When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
Wild Girls - Pat Murphy
Wings of Light - Laura Bingham
Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare
Wizard’s Hall - Jane Yolen (RFS Review)
A Wrinkle in Time Series – Madeline L’Engle

BOOKS THAT HAVE A MORE ROMANTIC THEME
(but are still appropriate)

Beauty - Robin McKinley
Calico Captive - Elizabeth George Speare
Countess Below Stairs - Eva Ibbotson (RFS Review)
Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen (RFS Review)
The Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter (RFS Review)
The Goose Girl Series - Shannon Hale
Once Upon a Time Series - Cameron Dokey (RFS Review)
Princess of Glass - Jessica Day George
Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George
Song of the Lioness Series - Tamora Peirce
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George
The Swan Maiden - Heather Tomlinson (RFS Review)
Uglies Series - Scott Westerfeld (RFS Review)
Wildwood Dancing - Juliet Marillier

And some of our favorite tween-ish authors
(feel free to help us add to this list)

Ally Carter
Brandon Mull
Bruce Coville
Eva Ibbotson
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Gail Carson Levine
Janette Rallinson
Jennifer Holm
L.M. Montgomery
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Louisa May Alcott
Madeline L’Engle
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Pam Munoz Ryan
Rick Riordan
Roald Dahl
Shannon Hale
Tamora Pierce

And if that isn't enough, here are
EVEN MORE CHILDREN'S & YOUNG ADULT BOOK SUGGESTIONS

Favorite Reads of 2010

Can you believe 2010 is over?! 

I can't wrap my mind around tomorrow being 2011. 

It's just nuts. 

In case you missed any of the over 200 reviews we've posted this year,

here are some of our favorites reads of 2010 

(listed alphabetically by genre w/ title, author,
and the reviewers initials)

Adult Fiction

A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore (D)
The Alleluia Files (Archangel series, #3) - Sharon Shinn  (M)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (M)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson  (H)

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larrson (H)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (M/KC)

The Help - Kathryn Stockett (M/KC)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford (M)

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino (D)

Jovah's Angel (Archangel series, #2) - Sharon Shinn (M) 

 The Moonflower Vine - Jetta Carleton (H)

Pattern Recognition - William Gibson (D)

The Persian Pickle Club - Sandra Dallas (KC)

The Reapers are the Angels - Alden Bell (D/M)

Room - Emma Donoghue (H/M)

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Emmuska Orczy (E)

Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane (H)

Adult Non-Fiction

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer (M)

Eat My Globe: One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything - Simon Majumdar (M)

The Five Love Languages of Children - Gary Chapman, Ph.D & Ross Campbell, M.D. (KC)

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell (KC)

Perfect One-Dish Dinners - Pam Anderson (M)

When Kids Can't Read : What Teachers Can Do - Kylene Beers (KC)

Tween & Young Adult

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Olympians #4) - Rick Riordan (KC)
 Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (G.G. #2) - Ally Carter (M)

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters - Gail Giles (KC)

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (G.G. #3) - Ally Carter (M)

Extra-Ordinary Princess - Carolyn Q. Ebbitt (M)

Fire (Graceling #2) - Kristin Cashore (KC/KR)

Graceling - Kristin Cashore (KR)

Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins (H)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (#6) - J.K. Rowling (M)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (#7) - J.K. Rowling (M)

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (G.G. #1) - Ally Carter (M)

The Last Olympian (Olympians #5) - Rick Riordan (KC/M)

The Lightning Thief (Olympians #1) - Rick Riordan (KC/M)
Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) - Suzanne Collins (H/KC/KR/M)

Princess Academy - Shannon Hale (KC)

The Reluctant Heiress - Eva Ibbotson (M)Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli (H)

The Sea of Monsters (Olympians #2) - Rick Riordan (KC/M)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley (H)

The Titan's Curse (Olympians #3) - Rick Riordan (KC/M)
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know - Sonya Sones (KC)

Young Children

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Judi Barrett

Kitten's First Full Moon - Kevin Henkes

Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Relatives Came - Cynthia Rylant

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon - Patty Lovell

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*Just in case you were thinking.  Wow, this would have been better with cover images...you're right.  It would have.  And it did have a ton.  But then it went all wonky and wouldn't format right and I had to take them all out.  Sorry.  I'm not that great with computers.

The Reapers are the Angels - Alden Bell

Summary: For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks. (Summary from book cover - Image from macmillan.com - Books given free to review)

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Pay attention, because we have a little surprise for you!

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Mindy's Review: I am stunned (nearly) speechless by every aspect of this book--the writing, the characters, the plot, every shred of everything. Good thing I can still type, eh?

Dramatic and gritty with a unique, inescapable voice, The Reapers are the Angels is a brilliant story, enhanced by characters that burrow into your skull, and woven together with splinters of bone and rivers of blood. Bell’s exquisite prose runs in striking contrast to vivid images of death and decay. His idiosyncratic grasp of the English language allows him to use the words ain’t and palaver in the same sentence without damaging the authenticity of his characters. Haunted by a past she cannot change and hunted by both the living and the living dead, Temple is a force of nature--fury and endless wonder, death and life personified--in her search for redemption in a horrifying world.

This morning I finished reading, closed the book, let out a big sigh of relief/contentment/sadness and, from the length of my exhalation, realized I must have been holding my breath for half the book. In the past two years or so, I’ve reviewed over 145 books for this blog and I have never read a book like this one. It is gorgeous. It is disgusting. It is just so good. I’m fairly certain it has ruined me for many books to come.

Her Rating: 5 Stars. For the sensitive reader: If you cringe at images of roiling maggots, mangled viscera, or fecal ooze, you probably shouldn’t read this book. Seriously, don’t even think about it. Back away slowly and go pick up something by L.M. Montgomery. Now. This book contains a few brief sexual encounters, occasional swearing, and an incredible amount of gore. It’s possible I’m still in shock and minimizing the extent of the carnage. Don’t you dare say I didn’t warn you.

Sum it up: If you are looking for a book to suck you in, mind, body, and soul, chew you up, and spit you back out again, run to the store and get this book*.

*But please, for the love of Alden Bell, read the above “My Rating” section before you do.

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Daniel's Review: As a reader, I mentally file my favorite works of fiction into two broad categories. Great Literature requires careful attention but can subtly remold your head and heart, changing you forever. Light reading, however, may spark your imagination and tantalize your palate, but seldom fires your soul. Unfortunately, books involving zombies always seem to fall into the latter category.

Not any longer.

One page into The Reapers Are the Angels, it was clear that this was a book that belongs on a shelf with Hawthorne, Dostoevsky, and Calvino. Beautiful images, carefully-crafted phrases, perfectly-balanced nuances--clearly, the work of a skilled writer. By the end of the first chapter, I was seeing through the protagonist’s eyes and tasting the flavor of her thoughts as she regretfully smashed in a zombie’s head with a rock.

Before long, the zombies showed up in force, and I was lost in Bell’s grand and awful vision of a world in ruins. Never has a post-apocalyptic wasteland been so lovingly and dreadfully spread out. But the true action of this book doesn’t come from the countless hordes of entrail-chewing revenants. Rather, it was the living who horrified, disturbed, and even inspired me.

Like the best zombie stories (to which it seems somehow wrong to compare this book), the undead here serve to highlight the depravity and soul-deadness of their as-yet-undecayed prey. Unlike its gore-soaked literary forebears, however, The Reapers Are the Angels lives up to the promise of its title and shows how beauty and redemption come, not in the absence of horror and evil, nor even by overcoming or conquering them, but somehow through them and in harmony with them. A paradox, perhaps, but it’s such complexities and their transcendence that sets great books apart from pulp page-turners.

His Rating: 5 stars. Not for the faint of heart on account of horrific images, which are only partially due to the zombies.

Sum it up: A moving meditation on life and death, beauty and horror, and the meaning of them all (with more zombies than you can shake a shotgun at).

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Are you as excited about this book as we are? If so, you'll be delighted to know that TOMORROW we'll be posting a GIVEAWAY with THREE chances to win
your own autographed copy!

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184 Books YOU Love

If RFS-ers were in charge of picking the literature that survived a global catastrophe, these are the books our society would be rebuilt on...

16 Readers picked :

Bible/Scriptures - various

6 Readers picked:

The Hunger Games (and here) - Suzanne Collins

(One of the) Harry Potter books (also here, here, here and here) - J.K. Rowling

(One of the) Lord of the Rings Books - J.R.R. Tolkien

4 Readers picked:

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

3 Readers picked:

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Pride and Prejudice (we've only reviewed the Zombie one) - Jane Austen

The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale

The Help (and here) - Kathryn Stockett

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

2 Readers Picked:

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Jane Austen books

Jodi Picoult books (like here, here and here)

Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Book Thief (and here) - Markus Zusak

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

The Giver - Lois Lowry

The Sneetches - Dr. Suess

The Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

1 Reader picked:

1-2-3 Magic - Thomas W. Phelan

A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle

A Trip to the Beach - Melinda Blanchard

Amarcord: Marcella Remembers - Marcella Hazan

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

Brian Keene books

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Darkness - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Big Girl - Danielle Steel

Billie Standish was Here - Nancy Crocker

Bitter is the New Black (or here) - Jen Lancaster

Bitter Sweets - Roopa Farooki

Caddie Woodlawn - Carol Ryrie Brink

Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Watterson

Calvin's Institutes (in one volume) - John Calvin

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

Caught - Harlan Coben

Chelsea Handler books

Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

Children's Writers and Illustrators Market - Alice Pope

Chocolate Beach - Julie Carobini

Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

Desiring God - John Piper

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! - Mo Willems

Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

Elegance of a Hedgehog (or here) - Muriel Barbery

Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

Fablehaven : Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary - Brandon Mull

Fablehaven : Keys to the Demon Prison - Brandon Mull

Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor

Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger

Freckles - Gene Stratton Porter

Future Grace - John Piper

Georgette Heyer books

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett

Grimm's Fairy Tales - Brothers Grimm

Hand Tool Essentials - Popular Woodworking Editors

Hotel on Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford

House Rules - Jodi Picoult

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly - Connie May Fowler

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Seuss

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb

Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke

Innocent - Scott Turow

Jeffery Deaver books

Jelly Roll : Poems - Allen Ginsberg

Juliet - Anne Fortier

Junie B. Jones (series) - Barbara Park

Last Night in Twisted River - John Irving

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Lightning - Dean Koontz

Little Bee - Chris Cleave

Love, Lucy - Lucille Ball

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Michael Connelly books

Miracle in the Andes - Nando Parrado & Vince Rause

Moloka'i - Alan Brennert

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder

Mudbound - Hilary Jordan

The Dream Encyclopedia - James R. Lewis

My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Nicholas Sparks books (like here, here, and here)

No, David! - David Shannon

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

One Fish, Two Fish - Dr. Seuss

Patricia Cornwell books

Pearl of China - Anchee Min

Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

Polgar's chess puzzles - Lazlo Polgar

Pomegranate Soup - Marsha Mehran

Raven Stole the Moon - Garth Stein

Robert Ludlum books

Rosie Dunne - Cecilia Ahern

Secret Keeper - Mitali Perkins

Secrets of Eden - Chris Bohjalian

Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Serendipity - Stephen Cosgrove

Shanna - Kathleen Woodiwiss

Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Sloppy Firsts - Megan McCafferty

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You - Peter Cameron

Sookie Stackhouse series - Charlaine Harris

Stardust - Neil Gaiman

Survive! - Les Stroud

Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon

Tennyson - Lesley M.M. Blume

The 1850 manners book

The Baseball Box Prophesy - Bruce Newbold

The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery

The Boy Detective Fails - Joe Meno

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

The Collector - John Fowles

The Complete Lewis Carol

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

The Darkest Kiss - Gena Showalter

The Darkest Night - Gena Showalter

The Energy Bus - Jon Gordon

The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson

The Girls - Lori Lansens

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (and here and here) - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

The Host (and here) - Stephenie Meyer

The House of Night series - P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman

The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken - Laura Schenone

Archaeology of the Mary Rose (Volume 4) - Julie Gardiner

The Night Trilogy - Elie Wiesel

The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

The Piano Man's Daughter - Timoth Findley

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

The Reluctant Heiress - Eva Ibbotson

The Sandman (Series) - Neil Gaiman

The SAS Survival Handbook - John Wiseman

The School of Essential Ingredients - Erica Bauermeister

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

The Stand - Stephen King

The Summerhouse - Jude Devereaux

The Tales of O. Henry - Nextext

The Tummy Mummy - Michelle Madrid-Branch

The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

The Weight of Silence - Heather Gudenkauf

The Work and the Glory - Gerald N. Lund

The Yada Yada Prayer Group - Neta Jackson

The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks

These is my Words - Nancy Turner

Timothy Findley books

Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

Under The Dome - Stephen King

Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead

Van Gogh's Bad Cafe : A Love Story - Frederic Tuten

Wednesday is Spaghetti Day - Maryann Cocca-Leffler

West with the Night - Beryl Markham

Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah

Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Zoya - Danielle Steel

What do you think? Is there hope for future generations?

Under the Jaguar Sun - Italo Calvino

Summary: Taste, hearing, and smell dominate the lives of the characters in these witty, fantastical stories. In “Under the Jaguar Sun” a couple tours Mexico to discover a startling combination of sublime and erotic love in the cuisine of fire-hot chiles and exotic spices. In “A King Listens” the enthroned tyrant is prisoner not only of his power but also of his ear, as echoes in his huge palace carry contradictory messages of deliverance, love, and betrayal. In “The Name, the Nose” a man of the world consults a fashionable Parisian parfumerie in search of a scent worn by a mysterious masked lady, while in London a drugged rock musician is lured into the crazed pursuit of a female whose odor has inflamed him. (Summary from book - Image from amazon.com)

My Review: These three stories are part of a series of five, each centered on a different sense, that was left unfinished by the author’s death. Before reading them, I hadn’t realized what a loss two unwritten stories could be. Each of the three existing stories, though very different in tone and style, is a small, multifaceted masterpiece.

One of the startling aspects of these stories for me is the effect they have in the hours, days, and weeks after I’ve read them. The first story—in addition to making me crave spicy foods—has forced me to re-evaluate the way I handle myself in my close relationships. Who would have thought that cannibalism could be inspiring as well as entertaining?

The second story is a sort of existential nightmare, a shifting minefield of meaning and identity. If modern philosophy—from Hegel’s dialectic to Foucault’s critique of power relationships—were a tragic love story, this would be it. Or perhaps it’s the story of an ego divorced from its id. Either way, you don’t need to know, or care, about philosophy or psychoanalysis to get caught in this story’s mad web of words.

For me, the third story was the weakest, but that might be because I have a nonfunctional sense of smell, so it’s hard for me to relate to characters who live through their noses. Like the sense that it centers on, this story seemed a bit muddled, lacking the crispness of the other stories. But perhaps that was the point. Regardless, Calvino’s off days would be another writer’s strokes of genius, so perhaps I’m just jealous.

Star Rating: 5 stars. Contains mature themes maturely handled.

Sum it up: Three of the most entrancing short stories I’ve read; whoever let Calvino die before he finished the other two should be shot.

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino, trans. William Weaver

Summary: In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo--Tartar emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts the emperor with tales of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. Soon it becomes clear that each of these fantastic places is really the same place. (Summary from book; image from www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com)

My Review: There are some books that are hard to review because they are hideous literary messes, and one doesn't know where to begin panning them. There are others books that are hard to review because they push one's buttons, making a fair appraisal of them difficult. And there are some books that are hard to review because they are too carefully constructed, too subtly and delicately worded, too grand in insight and application, for one possibly to do them justice.

Italo Calvino's masterful Invisible Cities is one of the last sort of books. I could discuss the intricate, dream-like structure of the short episodes and reveries that build the book like the bricks of one of its cities; the jewel-like clarity and poetry of the language; and above all the way the author, like a skillful magician, peels back the veils of our prosaic reality to reveal something far more beautiful, dangerous, and alive--I can tell you about these things, but I'd rather shut up and let the book speak for itself.

My Rating: 5 stars. It's a mercy this book was originally in Italian, lest it be dragged through the muck of every English Literature course and ruined for everyone.

Sum it up: Poignant yet playful, and ripe with insight. Short enough to read in a night--but do yourself the favor of reading it slowly!

Daniel's Favorite Books List

Selections from Daniel's favorite books list

Fiction
Foucault's Pendulum, Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut
The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Delta of Venus - Anais Nin
The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac - Jhonen Vasquez
Demian - Hermann Hesse
The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany
Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin
The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft
Memories of My Melancholy Whores - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Nonfiction
Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegaard
Collected Works of C. G. Jung
Three Books of Occult Philosophy - Henry Cornelius Agrippa
Publication Manual of the APA, 4th ed.
Sefer Yetzirah - trans. Aryeh Kaplan
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter
Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die - Michael Largo
The Golden Bough - James Frazer

Poetry
Faust - Goethe
Les Fleurs du Mal - Baudelaire
The Wasteland, Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot
Sonnets to Orpheus - Rainer Maria Rilke
A Season in Hell - Rimbaud
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Lord Byron

Everything Else
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietszche
Metamorphoses - Ovid
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
The Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce
The Essential Rumi - trans. Coleman Barks
I Ching - trans. John Blofeld
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake

Our Best Reads of 2009

This year, at Reading for Sanity, we have read and reviewed over 250 books!
Here we have compiled a post featuring our 20 favorites. It was a difficult task to narrow it down, but you won't go wrong picking up these reads in the coming year.

Adult Fiction



The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

You know this one has to be good,
it was chosen by three of us:
Mindy, Kari and Heather







The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

"This book will be a classic,"
according to Kim






The Help - Kathryn Stockett

Mindy claims
"You'll love this book."
Heather wholeheartedly agrees





Rainwater - Sandra Brown

Picked by Kim
You could win a copy of this book.
Hurry it's the last day to enter this drawing!





Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Heather calls this one
"A timeless classic"





Ahab's Wife - Sena Jeter Naslund

Picked by Emily
"Thought provoking and delicious writing"




Still Alice - Lisa Genova

"An unforgettable tale"
declares Heather





The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

Kim calls this
"An enthralling novel"





The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

Heather found this to be
"A magical mystery"






Wicked - Gregory Maguire

Kim found this one to be
"A much darker, much more sensual, much more "grown up" take on the classic story."



Adult Non-fiction


Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Emily declares this one to be
"Amazing"




The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

Emily thought this one was
"Interesting"





The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Becker

Mindy said this one
"should be at the top of your books I MUST read list"




Into the Mind of Babes - Lisa Guernsey

Emily says,
"I think of something from this book at least once a week, it has influenced how I spend my time every day"



Bitter is the New Black - Jen Lancaster

This is Kari's pick.
"Insanely witty, brutally honest, a bit crass, but overall entertaining read."




Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Mindy calls this book
"Some tasty food for thought."



Young Adult Fiction


The Host - Stephanie Meyer

Emily found this book to be
"A fun read"





Graceling - Kristin Cashore

Kari says this novel is
"Adventure mixed with a woman's lib touch"





The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Kari picked this one.
Mindy and Heather also enjoyed reading it in 2008.





Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

The sequel to The Hunger Games
Both Mindy and Kari have this book among their favorite 2009 reads.



What was the best book you read in 2009? Certainly there are one or two that you're dying to tell everyone about. Let us know here. We'd hate to miss out on a great read.

HAPPY 2010!