40-50. End of Year Quick Summary Part 1

40. Wickham's Diary by Amanda Grange
This is a prequel to Pride and Prejudice told from Wickham's viewpoint. It's interesting to see how someone can become the bad guy. I think Amanda Grange is one of the better authors in Pride and Prejudice fan fiction universe. I liked this one.

41. The Salamander Spell by E.D. Baker
I love all of her books and this was just as good as the others. It is a prequel to her Frog Princess series. It explores Grizelda's life before she was turned into a witch by the family curse. I would highly recommend it for a fun fairy tale/fantasy story.

42. Shredderman 3: Meet the Gecko by Wendelin Van Draanen
Wendelin Van Draaned is another author that I would recommend anything she writes. Shredderman strikes me as her "boy" series and is aimed at a younger audience (2nd-4th grade) than her Sammy Keyes series. They're still good mysteries though and I really enjoyed this one where Shredderman meets his movie star idol and is able to help him solve a mystery on set.

43. Shredderman 2: Attack of the Tagger by Wendelin Van Draanen
I read this series in reverse order. It was silly but it really didn't matter. This one is great also. Shredderman tries to solve the mystery of who is vandalizing his school and local playgrounds. It is a good look at the issue of tagging. I liked it.

44. Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
I love these books. This is the first book in the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mysteries series. They're fun and true to the original characters. And they are good mysteries. I also like that they entertwine other characters from the original Austen books, for instance, Caroline Bingley in this one. This is the fourth time I've read this one. I still like it.

45. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
This is a great book that deals with environmentalism in Florida. It's very well written and interesting. The movie is pretty good but the book is better. Mary picked it for her bedtime story and we all enjoyed reading it together.

46. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance by Marthe Jocelyn
This is a book I picked up randomly because of its great title and cover. It is just as good as its cover. It is a really cute story, told in journal format, of a young girl who leaves home for the first time to go with her sister to a frontier town and teach school. It explores the issues of women's suffrage in the early 1900's. It's funny and clever and a really quick read. I loved it.

47. The Trolls by Polly Horvath
My girls picked this book to read for our mother-daughter book club. We had previously read the book in the library's club. It is a cute book about some kids who have their aunt come and babysit them while their parents go on a trip. This is the first time they've met the aunt and she begins to tell them stories about when their father was a boy. The stories range from being really funny to being really scary. It is a good book to talk about how our actions affect other people in our family, whether we realize it or not. It is a good, fun discussion book.

48. Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
This is a hilarious book by a really good author (he wrote Hatchet). Kate chose this as a bedtime story because she'd read it at school and thought the other kids would like listening to it. She was right. We laughed a lot while reading it. It's the story of a boy nicknamed Mudshark who can solve any puzzle but comes up against his match when erasers start disappearing out of every class in his school. He also meets a parrot who is just as good at solving puzzles and becomes his arch rival. It is super funny and very short. It's well worth the time and works really good as a read-aloud.

49. Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee
This book is hilarious too. It's about a boy named Bobby who's father is an ex-pro football player. Since Bobby is small and scrawny, he feels like he's nothing like his father and a complete disappointment. It takes all his courage to confront his father about their differences. It is a really cute book. This is an author I found out about by going to the library's teen book fest. They were right: she's a great author.



50. Dragon Princess by E.D. Baker
This is the 6th book in the Frog Princess story. This book is the story of Millie, the daughter of Eadric and Emma (the original frog princess). She has a small problem. Whenever she gets upset, she spontaneously turns into a dragon and her grandparents hate dragons. She decides to run away and go to see a mysterious witch who is supposed to know how to help her. It's a fun adventure/fantasy story. I love this author.

38. Murder in Grub Street by Bruce Alexander

This is the second of the Sir John Fielding Mysteries. These are amazing historical mysteries. This one begins with a mass murder of a family and the workers of a bookseller in 16th century England. It was a close call for the main character because he was supposed to apprentice with this particular bookseller and was set to move in when everyone in the house was killed the night before. He was considerably shaken and motivated to help Sir Fielding find the killer. It was a fun mystery and I really love all the historical tidbits. And even though it was a murder mystery, it wasn't gory. I like that. I would highly recommend this book and this series.

34. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I have to be honest that I didn't think I would like this book. I thought it would be really thick like Sherlock Holmes (which I really like but think are long). I was wrong. Agatha Christie has a very sparse way of writing that is very refreshing. The mystery is awesome, but I did have to write down all the characters so I could remember them. There are a lot of them. But the book is great. I guess there is a reason why Agatha Christie is one of the great mystery writers of all time. I really look forward to reading my next Agatha Christie mystery.

24. Blind Justice: A Sir John Fielding Mystery by Bruce Alexander

I picked up this book because it is the book for my book club this month, as recommended by Darlene. She's a mystery buff and this is a favorite series of hers, so I was pretty confident that it would be good. I wasn't disappointed. This mystery series is loosely based on the real historical figure, Sir John Fielding, who started what became the London police force. (I was more familiar with his brother Henry Fielding who wrote Tom Jones.) It is set in late 1700s London. The series is told through the eyes of a 12 year old boy, who Sir Fielding rescues from the streets, and who serves him as a helper in his investigaions because Sir Fielding is blind. It is just the kind of mystery I like, interesting but not graphic. A reviewer on the internet complained that it was not gritty enough, but that's exactly what I like about it. Why does everything have to be gritty nowadays? I like reading the mystery without having the lingering "gritty" images. Blind Justice is the first of the series and explores the apparent suicide of Lord Goodhope. I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction or mysteries. I definitely am going to read the next and am just waiting for it to come in at the library.

10. Who Stole The Wizard of Oz? by Avi

Avi is a great author with incredible versatility. Everything I've read of his is very good. This book is no exception. It is a really fun mystery that also explores the true value of books. I really enjoyed the little puzzle that the main characters have to figure out to solve the mystery. Lastly, the characters are fun and likable. I found it just a fun, short book to read that helped me remember what I really like about children's literature, and especially children's mysteries.

19. The Mislaid Magician, or, Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

The rest of the title reads: being the private correspondence between two prominent families regarding a scandal touching the highest levels of government and the security of the realm. This title cracks me up as does the book. This is the third book in this series and I really have loved them all. They were just fun to read and had great mysteries at their heart but the characters were the most fun of all. I really like the main characters and that is why I really loved all of the books. They will definitely be on my list of books to read again.

61. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

This is a great mystery about a hard-core newspaperman stuck on the art beat. When an art dealer is found murdered, the beat gets a little more exciting. With the help of a newspaper reading siamese cat, he is able to figure out what is going on in the art world. This is the kind of mystery I like. It is not graphic in any way, but it is well written and hard to figure out. And the cat in this book is very intriguing. I'm not really even a cat person, but this cat makes you think it might be fun to have one. This book is the first in a series of about 20-25, each one featuring the same reporter, Jim Quilleran, and the cat, Ko-Ko. I think they are all great.

52. Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen by Wendelin Van Draanen

I love this series. This one centers on the issues of honesty in relationships, gambling and animal cruelty. It was a really fun read. This time around, Sammy tries to figure out what is happening to the cats in her neighborhood. She and a friend find several dead ones in various dumpsters while looking for a lady's missing cat. Then, when her own cat goes missing, she goes full speed ahead in investigating where the cats are going. She also must deal with her visiting mother who has a surprise confession, a rematch with her archrival Heather, and her improving friendship with her archrival's older brother. These books are funny, yet they really make you think about the different issues that Sammy is trying to deal with. I would highly recommend any of them. I have loved them all. And I love the lady who reads them on the CDs. She does a wonderful job.

50. The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

This is the third book in the Amelia Peabody Mystery series. This time Amelia and Emerson bring their son Ramses to excavate in Egypt. Of course, they find themselves involved in a few mysterious deaths that Amelia thinks are related to the illicit antiquities trade. They try to figure out who is bothering them and stealing antiquities around them. It is pretty interesting, but their son Ramses kind of got on my nerves. He had this annoying lisp that was hard to read. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much but it did. But the story was still interesting, the mystery had some good twists and there were lots of funny interchanges between Emerson and Peabody. It wasn't as good as the first two but was OK.

49.The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters

Amelia Peabody returns in this mystery to help solve a mystery in the Egyptian desert. A famous archaeologist dies on the brink of discovering a new tomb and his death is purported by the local media to be the result of the pharaoh's curse. Amelia and her husband return to Egypt to investigate the death as a favor to an old aquaintance. I liked this book. I have to say that the relationship between Amelia and her husband Emerson makes me laugh. The mystery is pretty good but the characters are what carry the story. I probably ruin the mystery part for myself because I can't help reading the end right after reading the beginnning, so I'm not sure that the ending is ever a real surprise, but even so, the twists and turns are always a surprise. I think they are fun, entertaining books, with a lot of humor, a fun mystery, and a little archaeology. I'd recommend it.

44. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

This book is the first in the Amelia Peabody Mysteries series. I loved it. It was recommended to me by my friend Darlene who is an avid mystery buff. She told me about the series a long time ago and I just now finally got around to figuring out which was the first book ( I like to read series books in order) and getting it from my library. It is exactly the kind of mystery I like: not gory or graphic but suspenseful. This series takes place in the late 1800s in Egypt. Amelia, a spunky English spinster who has inherited a great deal of money, decides to take a tour of the old, old world, Egypt and its pyramids. She is well versed in Egyptology and wants to have some fun. She starts out by rescuing a penniless English girl and gains herself a loyal companion in the bargain. It is really fun. It reminds me of Agatha Christie but in Egypt.

39. Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Sammy Keyes Mysteries are awesome. This is about the 7th or 8th one in the series. Sammy Keyes is a junior high school girl who seems to find trouble wherever she goes. She also secretly lives with her grandma in a elderly high rise home. She sneaks in and out via the fire escape because her mom left her 2 years earlier to pursue an acting career. In this mystery, she tries to figure out what art is while she also tries to find out who attempted to steal some paintings from a local gallery. I won't give anything away but I really liked what Sammy had to say about the art world. It was very interesting and a great mystery.