I think it’s the lack of sleep due to teething that makes me feel like I’m writing with my fist using a fat, dull pencil on scratchy paper, rather than a good fountain pen… I hope that this conveys some of the charm of this book anyway.
Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce We first meet our main character as she is running for her life. She’s wounded, and her partner in crime was left behind. She has the letters they were being paid to steal, in a language she can identify but not read. Soon she has found a new place as a lady’s maid for Lady Merista Nemair, a young noblewoman about to have her coming-of-age ceremony in a remote mountain estate. Even here, though, she is not safe. An old friend of Merista’s father appears and, knowing Celyn’s past, blackmails her in digging up dark secrets about the Nemair. Of course there are plenty, secrets that would have sweet Merista burned before the Inquisition and her parents up for treason. Celyn/Digger’s previous life has taught her strict rules about not getting involved, but the more she learns, the more deeply complicated things get and the more tightly she’s tangled up in things. This is a fast-moving story, mostly tightly contained in a snow-bound fortress. The ability to do magic is central to the story – Celyn can see magical ability but doesn’t have any of her own, and those who use it are all followers of the outlawed god Sar (six deities from a former pantheon of seven having been recently outlawed, leaving only Celys, the mother goddess.) But, because Celyn can’t use it herself and those who do hide it carefully, we learn only small things before the end, such as that wearing silver suppresses magic. This book has a lot going for it – winning characters, solid writing, detailed setting, and a tightly wound and carefully constructed plot. It looked to me like sequel possible, not promised, so I’ll hope.
Crab Cab by Yukiko Kido This is part of the Flip-a-Word series. Each book focuses on about three “sound families”, or words that use similar sounds. In this book, it was groups of short rhyming words, ending with “ot” and “ab”. Each section begins with a few words, one to a page – “hot”, “snot”, “pot”, “tot”. The pages are die-cut to make it more obvious that most of the word stays the same from page to page, and Kido makes us of die cuts in the illustrations, too, for a bit of extra fun. Then the words are combined to make silly, mostly two-word phrases – “snot pot” and “crab cab”. The illustrations are bright, rounded shapes that look digitally done. Easy words for new readers, no tricky plot, still fun. 
The Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman Just in case there is a knitter reading my blog who hasn’t heard of Elizabeth Zimmerman… well, this seems pretty darn unlikely. But just in case. Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books take homey, personality-filled writing applied to quite revolutionary ideas about making knitting just challenging enough but as easy as possible. Of course you can design your own sweater. Of course you’ll enjoy making a shawl, and you’ll naturally come up with some embellishments to make it pretty along the way… that kind of thing. The Knitter’s Almanac features her thoughts and activities for each month of the year, with a selection of projects. Each is talked through in detail in the main body of the chapter, and followed with “pithy” short directions at the end of the chapter. There are some famous patterns in this book, including the Pi shawl and February’s baby sweater. I read the new commemorative edition, which features a lovely introduction by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and an adult-sized version of the famous baby sweater, February Lady. Never mind that at my current rate of knitting it would take me twelve years rather than twelve months to get through all the projects here – this is a book that every self-respecting knitter should own. 
More Not-So-Big Solutions for Your Home by Sarah Susanka My love and I have been fans of Susanka ever since her first book, The Not-So-Big House. This was a library present from him. The original book was all about designing new houses to be beautiful and cozy by putting money into details rather than size. Subsequent books have looked at remodeling and various other aspects short of designing a new house from scratch. I must admit that even working with an architect at all seems out of reach right now, but I still found this collection of articles from Fine Homebuilding magazine inspiring. The articles are split up by topic – things like kitchens, curb appeal, or trying to make a McMansion feel not-so-big. She talks about things like designing a welcoming entry way or a breakfast nook that is just right to be used. She is not vague, either – she gives specific dimensions along the lines of “This will feel too narrow to be comfortable, this will be too far away to be useful, and this range is just right.” She talks about which ways of making a space work better for you will help in resale (most, if well thought out) and which might not (usually homeowners being so desperate to have something close to better that they don’t consider best.) Even if I can’t hire her, I still came away with plenty of small ideas to improve our own space now and I enjoy making mental lists of the most important projects to tackle if we ever can afford remodeling. And I love that there are people thinking so hard about making everyday life simply beautiful. 
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor For some reason, it’s hard to find non-whites and worlds modeled on places other than Europe in fantasy. And while I love medieval settings probably a lot more than the next person, diversity is the spice of literature. This is the first fantasy (and maybe book) that I’ve read set in Nigeria. Sunny is a teen who fits in even less than the usual. She’s albino with Nigerian features, born in Nigeria, grew up in America until 9, but has lived in Nigeria since then. Just as the story begins, she sees a vision in a candle flame of the world ending. Soon afterwards, she learns that she is a Leopard, a person with magical abilities. She meets three other kids her own age who are already training to use their Leopard abilities. Unlike them, her parents don’t have juju and so couldn’t recognize and tell Sunny about her own. Even before she starts attending twice-weekly magic class on top of regular school, she’s having to be more careful. Someone called Black Hat has been kidnapping and ritually murdering children. Now she learns that Black Hat is not just a mentally ill Lamb or non-magical person, but a rogue Leopard bent on the bringing on the end of the world. Naturally, Sunny and her three classmates are formed into an Oha coven, a balanced team whom the Leopard elders will send out against Black Hat. I loved that Sunny frequently gets into trouble for asking her teachers and elders why on earth they are sending kids out against Black Hat when the seasoned magicians have failed to stop him. There is even mention, darkly, that theirs is not the first Oha coven to have been sent, and that the elders do not necessarily expect them to come back. It’s fairly common for lots of youth and teen fantasy reviews and especially cover blurbs to mention Harry Potter these days, but this really does have a lot of elements in common, from the discovery of magical ability and being the kid expected to defeat the bad guy to secret Leopard schools, towns and money. Fortunately for my tender parent sensibilities, the murdered children stayed far enough in the background for me to enjoy the story. I found the African magic or juju, with its knives and powders and some innate abilities, very interesting. The only flaw I found – was this in the storytelling, or was it meant to be this way – was that it felt like the kids were thrown into the final conflict before they had any chance of having learned enough juju to succeed. Still, I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely recommend it to those looking for an exciting teen fantasy.
Mistress of the Storm by M.L. Welsh This is a beautiful, classic-style fantasy about an unhappy child who doesn’t fit in and ends up finding her place in the world. Verity Gallant lives with her parents and younger sister Poppy in the tiny coastal town of Wellow. At home, Verity’s mother much prefers the smaller, prettier Poppy, while at school, Verity’s size and brains make her even more of an outcast. Her only friend is an old lady, Alice, whom Verity visits often as a friend of the family, and she also find refuge at the library. But things are about to change. A mysterious stranger appears in the library and gives Verity a strange book and a small wooden ball. He tells her that the Storm is coming. Soon both friends and enemies are telling her that the Storm is coming. What this means she has no idea, but of course, her life changes forever, in ways both good and bad. Verity must learn enough about herself and about the undiscussed secrets of her family to figure out what kind of trouble is brewing and how to stop it. The book is filled with character whose names, like those in Dickens and Harry Potter, tell you their nature, including Verity herself, but also Henry Twogood and Villainous Usage. The book had a nice balance of clueless and helpful adults. It includes the intruiging idea of Original Stories, stories made up and then read aloud in magical places so that they happen in real life over and over again. I wasn’t quite happy with some parts of the final confrontation, but overall, this is a book that I probably would have read over and over again had it existed when I was child. Give it to the bookish and lonely middle graders in your life.
Hounded by Kevin Hearne Here was a book with a promising, even drool-worthy premise: Atticus O’Sullivan, formerly known as Siodhachan O’Suilebhain, is a 21-century-old druid, though he looks and carefully acts 21 years. He’s currently hiding out in Tempe, Arizona, the owner of a small New Age store. Atticus is cool with the local supernatural population – his werewolf and vampire attorneys, even the local coven of witches, for whose leader he’s pulled a major favor. He’s got a close relationship with his Irish wolfhound. Oberon, and shapeshifts to go hunting with him in the nature preserves from time to time. But his simple life is about to get more complicated: the Morrigan (who’s been keeping him alive all these years) comes to his store to tell him that Aenghus Og, the supremely selfish Celtic god of love, has finally tracked him down. Aenghus Og wants both blood from Atticus, and the ancient sword Fragarach. The goddess of the hunt, Flidais, turns up in his kitchen that evening to pass on the same warning. Things heat up from there, in more ways than one. The magic (since I always seem to describe a book’s magic system) is pretty cool – Atticus mainly uses his knotwork tattoos to draw power from the earth, plus he stores some extra powers in an iron charm necklace. Though we spend some time getting to know Atticus, this is essentially a plot-driven book, with lots of action keeping it moving at a good clip. 
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld Australian YA author Westerfeld of Uglies fame takes a turn toward a steampunk alternate history with this first in a trilogy. The year is 1914. Prince Alek, son of the Archduke Ferdinand, is woken in the middle of the night by his tutor, who takes him for what he thinks is a midnight training ride in one of the two-legged walkers that Austria-Hungary is becoming famous for. Except that it turns out not to be training. His parents have just been assasinated, his people have turned against him, and Alek must run for his life. Meanwhile, Deryn Sharp is posing as a boy so that she can join the British Air Service, where genetically engineered ecosystems of animals create large dirigible-like ships that float through the air. Unlike Jacky Faber, Deryn finds the constant jockeying for position among the midshipmen wearing, but she is already experienced in the air, brilliant and courageous. She ends up serving on the Leviathan, a very large airship that is carrying Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow and some precious cargo on an urgent diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Empire. The world is on the brink of war between the Darwinists and the Clankers – can two young people from opposite sides prevent it? The action is non-stop, the characters a delight, and the technology intriguing. We have it in teen, but so far I haven’t seen anything in to make it inappropriate for middle graders, while it’s deep enough to work for adults as well. I’ve already devoured the first two books and am now waiting for book three to come out in September.
At Home by Bill Bryson Bill Bryson is known for rambling but fascinating non-fiction books, spanning a subjects from travel to astronomy. In this book, he set out to explore a topic closer at hand – his own house, and the history of its rooms. Not just the history of his particular house, though that’s covered, too, but a history of the evolution of the hall from basically the whole building to a minor passageway and the introduction of the dining room. I’d been putting off reading Bill Bryson, though I’d heard good reviews from multiple friends. This was fascinating. People, landscapes and ideas weave in and out of the book, as well as the development of ideas like privacy, comfort, and the beauty of nature. Who knew that centuries of the English language went by before the word “comfort” as regards to physical comfort even came up? We also learn about an ancient Mesopotamian (I think) city which, truly amazingly, featured no streets, but only houses built layers deep on top of each other. Neat, I say, and while I’m not rushing out to read everything Bryson has written this very second, I’ll definitely keep him in mind for the future, both for myself and for people looking for a good book. Especially a good book for listening to on a car trip kind of thing, because this seems like the kind of listening that could interest nearly everyone.
How to Knit a Love Song by Rachael HerrickThis is a classical romance – meaning focus on the couple and the progress of their romance more than any other aspect of the plot. It features Plot Variation B, where the couple starts out hating each other as people, fighting a strong physical attraction. Abby, our heroine, is a young knitting designer of some renown. She was the protégé of Eliza C, an older knitting star, whose initials and advice quoted at the beginning of each chapter make it clear to those familiar with the knitting world that she is modeled on the incomparable Elizabeth Zimmerman, or EZ, all of whose works are still popular and in print decades after they were first published. Eliza has recently passed away, however, leaving to Abby the small cottage on her ranch, and to her nephew Cade, the current occupant, the house and surrounding land. Cade is furious at having the property split up, after his years of work making the ranch profitable. He’s especially furious because the cottage is uninhabitable, in poor repair and stuffed full of boxes, so that Abby has to stay in the house with him. Abby is fleeing a scary, stalking ex and is determined to make a fresh start here, no matter how unfriendly Cade is. There was just slightly too much description of the hotness of Abby’s figure from Cade’s point of view for my taste, but this was still satisfying overall on both the romance and the fiber-love aspects.
alibrarymama 