2010’s Completed Reading Lists – The North Wind and the Sea

2011 Books Read

Paris, My Sweet – Amy Thomas
The Midwife’s Apprentice – Karen Cushman
Pretties – Scott Westerfeld
Black Powder War – Naomi Novik
Memory & Dream – Charles de Lint
Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer
The Book Lover’s Cookbook – Shaunda Kennedy Wenger and Janet Kay Jensen
The Two Princesses of Bamarre – Gail Carson Levine
I, Coriander – Sally Gardner
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant – ed. Jenni Ferrari-Adler
The Princetta – Anne-Laure Bondoux
Tender at the Bone – Ruth Reichl
The Seven Towers – Patricia C. Wrede
A Dark Horn Blowing – Dahlov Ipcar
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones
The Light of Day – Graham Swift
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer – Adapted by Seymour Chwast
The Matters at Mansfield – Carrie Bebris
Jane and the Damned – Janet Mullany
Fables 14: Witches – Bill Willingham, et al
The Gates – John Connolly
Fables 13: The Great Fables Crossover – Bill Willingham, et al.
Fables 12: The Dark Ages – Bill Willingham et al
The Somnambulist – Jonathan Barnes
From Dead to Worse – Charlaine Harris
The Ruby in the Smoke – Philip Pullman
The Privilege of the Sword – Ellen Kushner
In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite – Melissa Clark
Serenity – The Shepherd’s Tale – Zack Whedon
These Old Shades – Georgette Heyer
Percival’s Angel – Anne Eliot Crompton
Me and My Sewing Machine – Kate Haxell
The Cold Minds – Kristin Landon
The Hidden Worlds – Kristin Landon
Queen of the Darkness – Anne Bishop
The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
Household Gods – Judtth Tarr and Harry Turtledove
Heir to the Shadows – Anne Bishop
Daughter of the Blood – Anne Bishop
More Letters from Pemberley – Jane Dawkins
Letters from Pemberley – Jane Dawkins
A String in the Harp – Nancy Bond
Melting Stones – Tamora Pierce
All Together Dead – Charlaine Harris
A Dyer’s Garden – Rita Buchanan
Wizards – edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
The Sleeping Beauty – Mercedes Lackey
Wolf Queen – Tanith Lee
Soulless – Gail Carriger
Swordspoint – Ellen Kushner
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Elvenborn – Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Elf Magic – ed. Martin Greenberg
Now Eat This! Diet – Rocco Dispirito
Moonlight & Vines – Charles de Lint
Orphans of Chaos – John C. Wright
The Third Magic – Molly Cochran
Carrots ‘n’ Cupcakes – Tina Haupert
Firebird – Mercedes Lackey
Tempest Rising – Nicole Peeler
Witch Week – Diana Wynne Jones
The Magicians of Caprona – Diana Wynne Jones
The Bell at Sealey Head – Patricia A. McKillip
Fables Vol. 11: War and Pieces – Bill Willingham, et al.
Soul Hunt – Margaret Ronald
The Tourmaline – Paul Park
The Talisman Ring – Georgette Heyer
The House at Riverton – Kate Morton
Wolf Star – Tanith Lee
Elantris – Brandon Sanderson
The Silver Chair – C.S. Lewis
The Eyes of the Overworld – Jack Vance
The Shadow Queen – Anne Bishop
Throne of Jade – Naomi Novik
Fables Vol. 10 – The Good Prince – Mike Willingham et al.
The Mammoth Book of Merlin – ed. Mike Ashley
The Enchanted April – Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Shadow of the Sun – A. S. Byatt
The Grand Tour – Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field – Melissa Nathan
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue – John McWhorter
Toast – Nigel Slater
Street Magic – Caitlin Kittredge

2011 Books Not Read

This year wasn’t too bad for books I started but wasn’t able to finish – just two:

1. Colours in the Steel- K.J. Parker
I was five chapters into this book when I gave it up. There was nothing inherently bad about it, I just couldn’t get myself interested.
The premise is interesting enough – a city where justice is dispensed by the sword, so all the lawyers are fencers. There are a number of parallel story lines going on, and that might be the problem. I just wasn’t grabbed by any of the characters, and just couldn’t bring myself to keep going.

2. The Named – Marianne Curley
I’m not really sure what made me dislike this book so instantly. Could be getting thrown into the action with too little prep (a very fine line). Could be the teenager as ancient hero. Could be the teenager as ancient hero getting his former best friend’s kid sister as an apprentice and having to check her out in history class because he hadn’t paid attention to her in so long he forgot what she looked like. I made it three chapters in and called it a day.

2011 Completed Reading Challenges

2011 TBR Lite Reading Challenge 1/1/11 – 12/31/11 – finished 10/16/11

The Light of Day – Graham Swift -finished 10/16/11
The Hidden Worlds – Kristin Landon – finished 8/15/11
Wizards – edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois – finished 6/28/11
Moonlight & Vines – Charles de Lint – finished 4/26/11
The Shadow of the Sun – A. S. Byatt – finished 1/29/11
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue – John McWhorter – finished 1/15/11

RIP VI Reading Challenge – 9/1/11 – 10/31/11 – finished 10/23/11

Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 10/23/11
Jane and the Damned – Janet Mulllany – finished 9/28/11
The Gates – John Connolly – finished 9/23/11
The Somnambulist – Jonathan Barnes – finished 9/20/11
From Dead to Worse – Charlaine Harris – finished 9/13/11
The Ruby in the Smoke – Philip Pullman – finished 9/8/11

Once Upon a Time V Reading Challenge 2011

Once Upon a Time V 3/21/11 – 6/20/11- finished 5/27

Swordspoint – Ellen Kushner – finished 5/27/11
Elf Magic – ed. Martin Greenberg – finished 5/5/11
Moonlight & Vines – Charles de Lint – finished 4/26/11
Orphans of Chaos – John C. Wright – finished 4/24/11
The Third Magic – Molly Cochran – finished 4/22/11
Firebird – Mercedes Lackey – finished 4/17/11
Tempest Rising – Nicole Peeler – finished 4/14/11
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume II – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 4/10/11
The Bell at Sealey Head – Patricia A. McKillip – finished 4/3/11
Soul Hunt – Margaret Ronald – finished 4/1/11
The Tourmaline – Paul Park – finished 3/31/11

Foodie’s Reading Challenge 1/1/11 – 12/31/11 – finished 11/29/11

The Book Lover’s Cookbook – Shaunda Kennedy Wenger and Janet Kay Jensen – finished 11/29/11
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant – edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler – finished 11/22/11
Tender at the Bone – Ruth Reichl – finished 11/11/11
In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite – Melissa Clark – finished 9/5/11
Toast – Nigel Slater – finished 1/9/11

2011 YA Reading Challenge 1/1/11 – 12/31/11 – finished 11/26/11

The Two Princesses of Bamarre – Gail Carson Levine – finished 11/26/11
I, Coriander – Sallly Gardner – finished 11/24/11
The Princetta – Anne-Laure Bondoux – finished 11/18/11
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 10/23/11
The Ruby in the Smoke – Philip Pullman – finished 9/8/11
Percival’s Angel – Anne Eliot Crompton – finished 8/24/11
The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner – finished 8/5/11
A String in the Harp – Nancy Bond – finished 7/19/11
Melting Stones – Tamora Pierce – finished 7/12/11
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins – finished 5/20/11
Wolf Star – Tanith Lee – finished 3/11/11
The Grand Tour – Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer – finished 1/22/11

2010 Books Read

Naked Heat – Richard Castle
Through a Brazen Mirror – Delia Sherman
The Stone Carvers – Jane Urquhart
Havoc in its Third Year – Ronan Bennett
The Lost Gardens – Anthony Eglin
Perchance to Dream – ed. Denise Little
Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway – Mike Carey
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
These Three Remain – Pamela Aidan
An Assembly Such as This – Pamela Aidan
Which Witch? – Eva Ibbotson
The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton
Sun in Glory – ed. Mercedes Lackey
The Book of Air and Shadows – Michael Gruber
Pegasus – Robin McKinley
Runaways: Pride and Joy – Brian Vaughn
The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson
The Secret History of Moscow – Ekaterina Sedia
Girl Genius, Vol. 1. – Phil and Kaja Foglio
Fledgling – Octavia Butler
Tithe – Holly Black
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
The Cygnet and the Firebird – Patricia A. McKillip
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Enchanted, Inc. – Shanna Swendson
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – Seth Grahame-Smith
Women of War – ed. Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter
Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
What We Eat When We Eat Alone – Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin
Mollie Peer – Van Reid
Solstice Wood – Patricia A. McKillip
Kristin Lavransdattar: Volume 1 The Bridal Wreath – Sigrid Undset
The Singing – Alison Croggon
Definitely Dead – Charlaine Harris
The Harp of the Grey Rose – Charles de Lint
Astro City: Life in the Big City – Kurt Busiek
The Welsh Girl – Peter Ho Davies
Astonishing X-Men Volume 1: Gifted – Joss Whedon
The Bediun’s Gazelle – Frances Temple
His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
Old Friends and New Fancies – Sybil G. Brinton
Twilight of Avalon – Anna Elliott
The Fire Rose – Mercedes Lackey
A Bone to Pick – Charlaine Harris
The Wandering Unicorn – Manuel Mujica Lainez
Fables 9: Sons of Empire Bill Willingham, et al
A Treasury of Royal Scandals – Michael Farquhar
Songs from the Drowned Lands – Eileen Kernaghan
The Reluctant Heiress – Eva Ibbotson
War for the Oaks – Emma Bull
The Dying Earth – Jack Vance
Graceling – Kristin Cashore
The Farseekers – Isobelle Carmody
A Princess of Roumania – Paul Park
The Changeling Sea – Patricia A. McKillip
Enna Burning – Shannon Hale
Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
Wild Hunt – Margaret Ronald
Real Murders – Charlaine Harris
The Druid Magic Handbook – John Michael Greer
Merlin’s Harp – Anne Eliot Crompton
Castle in the Air – Diana Wynne Jones
The Convenient Marriage – Georgette Heyer
The Snow Queen – Mercedes Lackey
Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair – Laurie Perry
How to Be Good – Nick Hornby
Fables 8: Wolves – Bill Willingham, et al
Blood Bank – Tanya Huff
Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold
The Ivory and the Horn – Charles de Lint
Matchless – Gregory Maguire
The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Practical Demonkeeping – Christopher Moore
The Hunter’s Moon – O. R. Melling
Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits – Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson
The Decameron – Giovanni Boccaccio
The Knitter’s Book of Wool – Clara Parkes

Books Not Read 2010

I’m very much a completest, so it was extremely unusual that this year, I had not one, not two, but three books I started, but was unable to finish. Without further ado:

1. Keeping it Real – Justina Robson

I picked out this book after seeing it at Barnes and Noble. It takes place after some sort of dimensional explosion that’s opened up a rift between our world, and several others, including worlds peopled by elves and various other monsters. I made it about four chapters in. It fell into the “I could write better than this when I was 12” category of books I’m unable to complete. Eragon was another of these books. That book at least had the excuse of being written by a twelve-year-old.

2. The Mulberry Empire – Philip Hensher

I picked this book for the Booker Challenge. It’s set against Britain’s rather disastrous foray into Afghanistan during their colonial period. I was rather looking forward to reading it. I figured it would be some interesting perspective on a country I’m not that familiar with.

The first thing I didn’t like was the set up of a story of a girl back in England who falls in love with the geographer for this first trip to Afghanistan while he’s in England before the trip. Surely only angst and pining would follow. But, the POV was flipping through enough people I figured I could put up with that.

What stopped me reading was the chapter that set up the story’s villain, a man in the British Army who murders his way to AWOL-ness and wends his way up to Afghanistan. The man was truly repulsive. I don’t mind a good, evil villain now and then, but I draw the line at unrepentant pedophiles. The book went back where it came from the next day.

3. The Mirror Prince – Violette Malan

In this book, a prince of the fae has a lost a war, and has been exiled to the Shadowlands (aka our world), where his memory has been wiped, and only three fae guardians ward him until his exile is over.

Issue #1: prince with no memory = convenient exposition dump. I hate exposition dumps that convenient. Issue #2: the fae all have long Native American style names (i.e. Rides with the Dawn), and with the cast of thousands that was being introduced, it was getting really hard to keep track. I gave up four chapters in.

2010 Completed Reading Challenges

Really Old Classics Challenge 11/1/2009 – 2/28/2010 – Finished 2/3/10

The Decameron – Giovanni Boccaccio – finished 1/4/10
Extra Credit: The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – finished 2/3/10

2010 YA Reading Challenge – 1/1/10 – 12/31/10 – finished 11/8/10

Which Witch? – Eva Ibbotson – finished 11/8/10
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman – finished 9/10/10
The Singing – Alison Croggon – finished 8/8/10
The Reluctant Heiress – Eva Ibbotson – finished 6/2/10
Uglies – Scott Westerfeld – finished 8/28/10
Graceling – Kristin Cashore – finished 5/19/10
The Farseekers – Isobelle Carmody – finished 5/12/10
Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits – Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson – finished 1/10/2010
The Hunter’s Moon – O. R. Melling – finished 1/12/2010
The Beduins’ Gazelle – Frances Temple – finished 7/19/10
Castle in the Air – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 3/23/10
Enna Burning – Shannon Hale – finished 4/22/2010

RIP V Reading Challenge 9/1/10 – 10/31/10 – Finished 10/12/10

The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson – finished 10/12/10
The Secret History of Moscow – Ekaterina Sedia – finished 10/7/10
Fledgling – Octavia Butler – finished 10/3/10
Tithe – Holly Black – finished 9/27/10
Storm Front – Jim Butcher – finished 9/21/10
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman – finished 9/10/10
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – Seth Grahame-Smith – finished 9/6/10

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010 1/1/10-12/31/2010 – finished 8/27/10

The Reluctant Heiress – Eva Ibbotson – finished 6/2/10
Kristin Lavransdattar: The Bridal Wreath – Sigrid Undset – finished 8/16/10
The Convenient Marriage – Georgette Heyer – finished 3/19/10
Twilight of Avalon – Anna Elliott – finished 7/11/10
The Beduin’s Gazelle – Frances Temple – finished 7/19/10
Mollie Peer – Van Reid – finished 8/27/10
Carter Beats the Devil – David Alan Gold – finished 2/20/10

The 2010 Complete Booker Challenge 1/1/2010 – 12/31/2010 – finished 12/21/10

Havoc, in Its Third Year – Ronan Bennett – finished 12/12/10
Black Swan Green – David Mitchell – finished 4/17/10
The Stone Carvers – Jane Urquhart – finished 12/21/2010
How to Be Good – Nick Hornby – finished 3/6/10
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon – finished 11/24/10
The Welsh Girl – Peter Ho Davies – finished 7/27/10

Graphic Novels Reading Challenge 2010 1/1/2010 – 12/31/2010 – finished 11/26/10

Girl Genius, Vol 1. – Phil and Kaja Foglio – finished 10/7/10
Astro City: Life in the Big City – Kurt Busiek- finished 7/28/10
Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1: Gifted – Joss Whedon – finished 7/27/10
Runaways: Pride and Joy – Brian K. Vaughn – finished 10/13/10
Fables 8: Wolves – Bill Willingham, et al – finished 3/6/10
Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway – Mike Carey – finished 11/26/10

Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge IV 3/21/10-6/20/10 – finished 6/8/10

Songs from the Drowned Lands – Eileen Kernaghan – finished 6/8/10
War for the Oaks – Emma Bull – finished 5/29/10
Graceling – Kristin Cashore – finished 5/19/10
A Princess of Roumania – Paul Park – finished 5/7/10
The Changeling Sea – Patricia A. McKillip – finished 4/26/10
Enna Burning – Shannon Hale – finished 4/22/10
Wild Hunt – Margaret Ronald – finished 4/7/10
Merlin’s Harp – Anne Eliot Crompton – finished 3/27/10
Castle in the Air – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 3/23/10

2010 TBR Lite Challenge 1/1/10 – 12/31/10 -finished 12/6/10

The Lost Gardens – Anthony Eglin – finished 12/6/10
Perchance to Dream – ed. Denise Little – finished 11/30/10
The Dying Earth – Jack Vance – finished 5/22/10
Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold – finished 2/20/10
The Welsh Girl – Peter Ho Davies – finished 7/27/10
Practical Demonkeeping – Christopher Moore – finished 1/18/10