Flash Book Review: Crosstalk by Connie Willis

As always, Connie Willis is delightful.

Flash Book Review: Fishbowl by Bradley Somer

Very sweet book. Would recommend.

I am morbid and scare small children

Actual title: Let's talk about book recommendations and reviews

I can't believe it's 2018. But I say that every year.

Last night, I attended a talk at the local library, "Books you missed in 2017." The library manager did a great job of finding books that I had missed - I'd read only one of the 60+ books on his list, and had just one more on my "to be read" shelf. My list of books to read has expanded by at least 20 entries courtesy of his suggestions.

That said, most of the authors on his list are white. At the end of his talk, I challenged him for the 2018 list - make sure 10% of the authors are non-white. Someone questioned me on that, because "the color of the author's skin doesn't make a book good, and I want to read good books!" 

I would like to argue that there are plenty of good books being published by non-white authors, and they are sadly absent from the librarian's list. Yes, I think everyone in the room was white. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't have diversity in our reading habits. I will admit that I don't look at the author's picture on the jacket before choosing a book, but I will read nearly everything, particularly books involving things I know nothing about. Therefore, I want to read books from people with different perspectives and experiences, which means reading authors who don't look like me or my relatives. 

Tangent: I'll admit that I wasn't willing to start asking about books by non-CIS authors; let's take one small step at a time! Our little suburb's culture is more conservative than I'd like. For example, my local yarn store owner refuses to put up one of Ysolda's rainbow sheep window clings, not because she doesn't welcome everyone, but because she fears losing business if she advertises that she welcomes everyone. Which is why my comment to the librarian is truly a challenge, rather than a critique.

Several people also in attendance were supportive of my challenge, and mentioned attempting to read authors from many different countries (as suggested here). There are many ways to expand one's reading horizons, and I encourage everyone to do so. BookRiot has some great suggestions. (I have the same problem as Danika Ellis.)

That said, someone asked for recommendations, and apparently I failed miserably. She was unwilling to consider reading books that involve death. At all. I wasn't suggesting the literary equivalent of murder-of-the-week TV shows, where two-dimensional characters fall only to give the protagonists something to solve, but books where the deaths are touching and meaningful. I tend to think that if an author can make me care enough about a figment of their imagination that I cry, the book is worth reading. And therefore nearly everything that I recommend includes a death of some sort. (Or is supernatural steampunk, the suggestion of which prompted a shudder.) Hence the title of this post. I don't mean to be morbid, but many good books touch on mortality, and that is reflected in the books I recommend. Death is a part of life, and we've all lost someone we love. When I say that a book radiates love, I think it's worth reading, even if it involves death.

I am sad because she kept saying of the books she would recommend that I wouldn't read them. Yes, of course I'd be interested in the memoirs of a man who left a Hasidic sect. My life is nothing like his was; call me nosy or an armchair anthropologist, but I'd like to learn more about his experiences. 

Anyway, this is what I read last year. I read plenty of books by white people, but lots of other skin tones were represented.  Stay tuned for recommendations. And hopefully more posts. I should recommend books after I read them, rather than only once a year.

Books Read in 2017

001. The Secret of Crickley Hall, James Herbert

002. Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness, Harriet A. Washington

003. The Regional Office is Under Attack! Manuel Gonzales

004. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah

005. After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, Evie Wyld

006. History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund

007. Everything You Want Me to Be, Mindy Mejia

008. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith

009. Mr. Splitfoot, Samantha Hunt

010. Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin

011. Difficult Women, Roxane Gay

012. Foreign Soil and Other Stories, Maxine Beneba Clarke

013. Burning Bright, Nick Petrie

014. Leopard at the Door, Jennifer McVeigh

015. Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang

016. Little Deaths, Emma Flint

017. All the Missing Girls, Megan Miranda

018. The Old Man, Thomas Perry

019. A Certain Age, Beatriz Williams

020. Lab Girl, Hope Jahren

021. The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

022. The Charm Bracelet, Viola Shipman

023. Autumn, Ali Smith

024. The Dry, Jane Harper

025. The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill

026. Universal Harvester, John Darnielle

027. Lucky Boy, Shanthi Sekaran

028. Her Every Fear, Peter Swanson

029. The Sleepwalker, Chris Bohjalian

030. Underground Airlines, Ben H. Winters

031. All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai

032. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

033. The Girl Before, JP Delaney

034. All Grown Up, Jami Attenberg

035. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, Lindsey Lee Johnson

036. Two Days Gone, Randall Silvis

037. The Evening Road, Laird Hunt

038. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders

039. Old Man's War, John Scalzi

040. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd

041. What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah

042. We Were the Lucky Ones, Georgia Hunter

043. A Doubter's Almanac, Ethan Canin

044. Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood

045. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

046. The Ruins, Scott Smith

047. Marlena, Julie Buntin

048. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, Michael Finkel

049. Ladivine, Marie NDiaye

050. The Last One, Alexandra Oliva

051. The Enchanted, Rene Denfield

052. The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown, Catherine Burns, ed.

053. Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars, Nathalia Holt

054. No One Is Coming to Save Us, Stephanie Powell Watts

055. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder

056. Underground Fugue, Margaret Singer

057. The Book of Joan, Lidia Yuknavitch

058. The Second Mrs. Hockaday, Susan Rivers

059. The Roanoke Girls, Amy Engel

060. The Stars Are Fire, Anita Shreve

061. The Elephant's Journey, José Saramago

062. Why We Came to the City, Kristopher Jansma

063. Large Animals, Jess Arndt

064. The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch

065. The Girl With All the Gifts, M.R. Carey

066. Gilded Cage, Vic James

067. No One Can Pronounce My Name, Rakesh Satyal

068. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

069. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

070. A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

071. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, Samantha Irby

072. Chemistry, Weike Wang

073. Final Girls, Mira Grant

074. The Nix, Nathan Hill

075. Salt Houses, Hala Alyan

076. Saints for All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan

077. Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, Anne Elizabeth Moore

078. Radiance, Catherynne M. Valente

079. The Stargazer's Sister, Carrie Brown

080. Golden Hill, Francis Spufford

081. What We Lose, Zinzi Clemmons

082. Final Girls, Riley Sager

083. The Owl Service, Alan Garner

084. Outline, Rachel Cusk

085. The Answers, Catherine Lacey

086. The Pier Falls and Other Stories, Mark Haddon

087. How to Behave in a Crowd, Camille Bordas

088. All Is Not Forgotten, Wendy Walker

089. The City of Mirrors, Justin Cronin

090. The Sherlockian, Graham Moore

091. Me Before You, Jojo Moyes

092. Sourdough, Robin Sloan

093. Mars Crossing, Geoffrey A. Landis

094. Courage Is Contagious: And Other Reasons to Be Grateful for Michelle Obama, Nick Haramis, ed.

095. True Believer: Stalin's Last American Spy, Kati Marton

096. Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America, Liz Carlisle

097. River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey

098. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

099. The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore

100. The Tea Planter's Wife, Dinah Jefferies

101. Artemis, Andy Weir

102. Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, Juli Berwald

103. The Power, Naomi Alderman

104. Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Kim Todd

Blueberry pie, by request

This has been a busy week. Amy Stewart at the Hudson Library on Monday, John Scalzi at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Library on Tuesday, and George Saunders at the Akron Library on Thursday. Highly recommend all three. 

As Scalzi is known for enjoying pie, I baked one for him. (Made two for us, as my husband is known for devouring these pies.)

Recipe was requested on Twitter, and as the recipes are ancient, it's time to digitize!

Blueberry Sour Cream Pie

Yummy Yummy Pie Crust (from Julie’s friend Brenda)

Mix together:
4 c flour
1 T sugar
2 t salt
1 3/4 c Crisco

Mix together:
1 egg
1/2 c water
1 T vinegar

Add egg mixture to flour mixture; chill for 15 minutes, then roll out dough.

Blueberry sour cream pie (from my MIL)

Filling:
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
2 1⁄2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (if using frozen, thaw and drain well)

Topping:
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1⁄2 tablespoons cold butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Put washed and dried blueberries in pie crust.

Mix sugar and flour together, and beat in sour cream, egg, vanilla, and salt.

Pour batter over blueberries and bake for 30 minutes. (I set the timer for 25 minutes and make the topping during the last 5 minutes of the first bake.)

Mix the flour, sugar, and butter for the topping until crumbly.

After 30 minutes, remove pie from the oven and sprinkle on the topping. Bake for 10-15 minutes more.

Remove from oven, cool, and chill.

I still don't know where time goes

But it's 2017, somehow. And thanks to the flu, it took me 11 days to finish a book. So here's the 2016 archive of books read:

Books Read in 2016

001. Drinking in America: Our Secret History, Susan Cheever

002. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty

003. Manners & Mutiny, Gail Carriger

004. Prudence, Gail Carriger

005. The Diviners, Libba Bray

006. The King of Mulberry Street, Donna Jo Napoli

007. Lair of Dreams, Libba Bray

008. A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding, Jackie Copleton

009. Show Me a Hero: A Tale of Murder, Suicide, Race, and Redemption, Lisa Belkin

010. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

011. Room, Emma Donoghue

012. Dear Committee Members, Julie Schumacher

013. Lamb, Bonnie Nadzam

014. The Clasp, Sloane Crosley

015. The Vegetarian, Han Kang

016. Was, Geoff Ryman

017. Attachments, Rainbow Rowell

018. The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson

019. Lucky Us, Amy Bloom

020. First, Do No Harm, Lisa Belkin

021. God is an Astronaut, Alyson Foster

022. The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

023. Try Not to Breathe, Holly Seddon

024. Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs, Carrol L. Henderson

025. The Price of Salt, or Carol, Patricia Highsmith

026. The Chaos of Stars, Kiersten White

027. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

028. A Fierce and Subtle Poison, Samantha Mabry

029. When We Collided, Emery Lord

030. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews

031. Kissing Ted Callahan (and other guys), Amy Spalding

032. The Haters, Jesse Andrews

033. The New Guy (and.other senior year distractions), Amy Spalding

034. The Immortals, Jordanna Max Brodsky

035. Love Me Back, Merritt Tierce

036. Witch Song, Amber Argyle

037. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett

038. The Wrath & the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh

039. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, Reif Larsen

040. I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her, Joanna Connors

041. Amish Vampires in Space, Kerry Nietz.

042. Don't Get Caught, Kurt Dinan

043. The Anteater of Death, Betty Webb

044. The Untold, Courtney Collins

045. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante

046. I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, Rick Bragg

047. Good Dog: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Loyalty, David DiBenedetto, ed.

048. The Star-touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi

049. Zooburbia: Meditations on the Wild Animals Among Us, Tai Moses

050. Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life: Neil Gaiman, Jodi Picoult, Brad Meltzer, and an All-star Roster on the Caped Crusaders that Changed Their Lives, Liesa Mignogna, ed.

051: Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, Emily Nagoski, Ph.D

052: Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes

053. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson

054. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Chris Cleave

055. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante

056. Lily and the Octopus, Steven Rowley

057. The Girls, Emma Cline

058. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley

059. The Portable Veblen, Elizabeth McKenzie

060. The Rose & the Dagger, Renee Ahdieh

061. Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire

062. The Children's Home, Charles Lambert

063. Sex Object, Jessica Valenti

064. The Pond, Claire-Louise Bennett

065. American Girls, Alison Umminger

066. A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman

067. When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters, Giles Milton

068. Britt-Marie Was Here, Fredrik Backman

069. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, Jon Krakauer

070. Hurt People, Cote Smith

071. And I Darken, Kiersten White

072. The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman

073. Under the Harrow, Flynn Berry

074. Girl in a Band, Kim Gordon

075. The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown

076. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson

077. The Art of Asking, Amanda Palmer

078. Dear American Airlines, Jonathan Miles

079. A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Janna Levin

080. Dark Matter, Blake Crouch

081. Mount Pleasant, Patrice Nganang

082. Still Star-Crossed, Melinda Taub

083. A World Without You, Beth Revis

084. Cinder, Marissa Meyer

085. The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, Deborah Blum

086. A Burglar's Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh

087. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson

088. The Hopefuls, Jennifer Close

089. A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson

090. The Jazz Palace, Mary Morris

091. An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar, Alan Rabinowitz

092. Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple

093. The Beast That Shouted Love At the Heart of the World, Harlan Ellison

094. Only Ever Yours, Louise O'Neill

095. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Fredrik Backman

096. Modern Lovers, Emma Straub

097. The Girls in the Garden, Lisa Jewell

098. The Mother, Yvette Edwards

099. Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins

100. The Masked City, Genevieve Cogman

101. Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

102. Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple

103. The Association of Small Bombs, Karan Mahajan

104. The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena

105. You'll Grow Out of It, Jessi Klein

106. This One Is Mine, Maria Semple

107. The Mothers, Brit Bennett

108. The City Baker's Guide to Country Living, Louise Miller

109. The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial, Maggie Nelson

110. The Trespasser, Tana French

111. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

112. American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, Jeffrey Toobin

113. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Joanna Cannon

114. The Red Car, Marcy Dermansky

115. The Man Who Stalked Einstein: How Nazi Scientist Philipp Lenard Changed the Course of History, Bruce J. Hillman, Birgit Ertl-Wagner, and Bernd C. Wagner

116. Sing For Your Life: A Story of Race, Music, and Family, Daniel Bergner

117. All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld

118. Imagine Me Gone, Adam Haslett

119. The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Clearly I read more than I knit - I only knit about 10 miles. We'll see what 2017 brings!

Socking it to Cory Booker

Went to see Senator Cory Booker last night at CCPL. He is wonderful! And not just because he held my socks. 

Which he did. I know that he's still minor according to the Yarn Harlot's rules, but he is going to be president one day (and not just of the NJ Star Trek Association), and this country will be better for it. 

Apparently I was the first knitter to make such a strange request of him. I told him that there are more of us out there, so I'd like to challenge everyone in cities along the route of his book tour to ask him to hold YOUR socks! You know you want to! 

Another year, gone

Absolutely no idea where 2015 went. I read more than I knit, whatever that means. Probably that I spent too much time sick and fatigued. I knit 52 hats, though, and have found heads for most of them. Need to send off a few to a friend who auctions off handknits to raise money for charity, but will probably keep a few around for friends. I met my variegated yarn goal, and the mileage goal of one mile a month, but not much more. The UFO bins stayed mostly untouched, sadly. 

That said, I am off to a good start with organizing the stash. Lots of pictures taken, and much of my collection is ready to be uploaded to Rav. I've destashed a bit, because I have SO many bins of yarn it's ridiculous. My 2016 knitting goals mostly aim towards reducing my collection of yarn.

Current goals:

• List as much stash as possible on Rav, including stuff for sale/trade.
• Empty the back bedroom closet so I can store yarn there, as that will make the office and craft room more usable.
• Empty some of the WIP bins, either by finishing or frogging.
• Knit current club projects as they arrive rather than letting them languish for years.
• Knit the bins!
• Concentrate on using more yarn than I acquire over the course of the year. I knit 16.5 lbs in 2015; will attempt to track yarn usage by weight and see if I can decrease or at least net zero.
• As festivals are my weakness, I need to limit my festival attendance and keep to a strict budget. 

Knit the bins plan involves seven bins and a cone:

• One bin for yarn with designated patterns.
• Two bins for Oooh, Shiny projects. one for sock and lace weight, the other for heavier yarns.
• Variegated bin: Knit 12 skeins (or more) of variegated yarn - After documenting my stash, I think I should probably aim for 24 skeins. I have a LOT of gorgeous handpainted yarn. 
• Sweater bin: Mostly I need to stick to one sweater at a time - no simultaneous sweaters! 
• UFOs bin: Again, need to attack some of the old WIPs. Finish or frog, whichever seems appropriate.
• Handspun bin: I need to spin some of my fiber! Will make a bin to spin, but handspun yarn may be used at any point. It's almost an Oooh, Shiny bin, but I'm not attempting to empty the handspun bin by the end of the year.
• Undyed cone: I have a 3lb cone of undyed sock yarn, purchased to use in two-color designs where I have a tough time figuring out color combinations. This yarn will count towards stash used weights, but if I manage to deplete it, I can replace it without guilt (and without it counting towards stash acquisition), as using it means that I have also used up other yarns that might otherwise be lingering in deep stash. 

Anyway, almost finished with the first book of 2016, so here's last year's list:

Books Read in 2015

001. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

002. How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran

003. When Books Went To War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II, Molly Guptill Manning

004. Little Failure, Gary Shteyngart

005. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondo

006. Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness: One-Minute Tips for Decluttering and Refreshing Your Home and Your Life, Donna Smallin

007. Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories, Randy Bachman

008. The First Bad Man, Miranda July

009. The Dream of Water, Kyoko Mori

010. The Book of Strange New Things, Michel Faber

010. The Girls, Lori Lansens

011. Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing by Your Favorite Authors, Julia Scott, ed.

012. What I Did While You Were Breeding: A Memoir, Kristin Newman

013. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

014. The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Jill Lepore

015. In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje

016. Cherry, Mary Karr

017. Enslaved By Ducks: How one man went from head of the household to bottom of the pecking order, Bob Tarte

018. Dragons at Crumbling Castle, Terry Pratchett

019. Kitty Cornered: How Frannie and Five Other Incorrigible Cats Seized Control of Our House and Made It Their Home, Bob Tarte

020. Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life As a Ramone, Marky Ramone with Rich Herschlag

021. Thumbsucker, Walter Kirn

022. Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson

023. The Girls of Mischief Bay, Susan Mallery

024. The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson

025. The Clockwork Dagger, Beth Cato

026. Life Itself, Roger Ebert

027. Holy Cow, David Duchovny

028. Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson

029. Robogenesis, Daniel H. Wilson

030. Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries, Peter Sims

031. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Mary Roach

032: Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend, and Superstition, Peter Tate

033. Delicious!, Ruth Reichl

034. Afterworlds, Scott Westerfeld

035. Mr. Mac and Me, Esther Freud

036. The Farm, Tom Rob Smith

037. The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times, Jennifer Worth

038. A Letter to My Cat: Notes to Our Best Friends, Lisa Erspamer, creator

039. Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, Ann Hood, ed.

040. Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy, Melissa Milgrom

041. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett

042. Think Like a Cat: How to Raise a Well-Adjusted Cat - Not a Sour Puss, Pam Johnson-Bennett

043. Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy

044. The Public Library, Robert Dawson

045. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson

046. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, Ann Patchett

047. The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson

048. The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries: The Most Complete Collection of Impossible Crime Stories Ever Assembled, ed.

049. Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine: 1880-1930, John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson

050. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers, Nick Offerman

051. My Kind of Place: Travel Stories From a Woman Who's Been Everywhere, Susan Orlean

052. Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds, Jim Sterba

053. The String Diaries, Stephen Lloyd Jones

054. Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

055. Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin

056. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World, Mark Miodownik

057. Hall of Small Mammals: Stories, Thomas Pierce

058. Where's My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived, Daniel H. Wilson

059. The Mad Scientist Hall of Fame: Muwahahahaha!, Daniel H. Wilson and Anna C. Long

060. The Gates, John Connolly

061. The Great Auk, Errol Fuller

062. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

063. The Natural History of Unicorns, Chris Lavers

064. Dodo: A Brief History, Errol Fuller

065. The Collector of Lost Things, Jeremy Page

066. The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, Charles de Lint

067. Amped, Daniel H. Wilson

068. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, Mildred Armstrong Kalish

069. Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, Kate DiCamillo

070. The Seven Good Years: A Memoir, Etgar Keret

071. Egg & Spoon, Gregory Maguire

072. Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History, Bill Laws

073. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything, Col. Chris Hadfield

074. Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

075. Every Day, David Levithan

076. My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick

077. Destroy All Cars, Blake Nelson

078. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride

079. Between a Heart and a Rock Place, Pat Benatar with Patsi Bale Cox

080. The Boy Most Likely To, Huntley Fitzpatrick

081. Let's Get Lost, Adi Alsaid

082. Never Always Sometimes, Adi Alsaid

083. First Day On Earth, Cecil Castellucci

084. Skellig, David Almond

085. The Heartbreakers, Ali Novak

086. Not After Everything, Michelle Levy

087. Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons, George Pendle

088. You're Never Weird On the Internet (almost), Felicia Day

089. A History of Glitter and Blood, Hannah Moskowitz

090. How To Be Both, Ali Smith

091. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed

092. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

093. Mycroft Holmes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

094. The Secret Chord, Geraldine Brooks

095. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, Elvis Costello

096. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn

097. Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce

098. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes with Joe Layden

099. The Scavengers, Michael Perry

100. The Winter People, Jennifer McMahon

101. The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje

102. Visiting Tom: A Man, a Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace, Michael Perry

103. The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Authors Famous and Obscure, Larry Smith, ed.

104. Spoiled Brats, Simon Rich

105. So Anyway, John Cleese

106. Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology, Cory O'Brien

107. The Jesus Cow, Michael Perry

108. George Washington is Cash Money: A No-Bullshit Guide to the United Myths of America, Cory O'Brien

109. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, stories selected by April Genevieve Tucholke

110. Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, Blair Tindall