Booknotes

This page is a work-in-progress. I’m compiling links to seven years’ worth of book notes from my archives. Clicking on a title will take you to my post about the book. Sometimes a single post will contain commentary on several books, so you may have to scroll down a bit. These aren’t formal critical reviews; some are recommendations or essays; other posts are my informal musings on the books I’m reading as I’m reading them—a reader’s journal of sorts. Thanks for visiting!

Alan Bennett: The Uncommon Reader. Also here.

A.S. Byatt: The Children’s Book. Also here.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games.

Emma Donoghue: Room.

Sid Fleischman: By the Great Horn Spoon.

Elizabeth Goudge: The Scent of Water.
Elizabeth Goudge: Linnets and Valerians.

Helene Hanff: 84, Charing Cross Road.
Helene Hanff: Letter from New York.

Carol Kendall: The Firelings.
Carol Kendall: The Gammage Cup.

Maud Hart Lovelace: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Maud Hart Lovelace: Heaven to Betsy
Maud Hart Lovelace: Emily of Deep Valley.

Patricia McKillip: The Riddle-Master of Hed.

L.M. Montgomery: Jane of Lantern Hill.
L.M. Montgomery: The Blue Castle.

Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom.

Linda Sue Park: A Long Walk to Water.

Mitali Perkins: Bamboo People.

Noel Perrin: A Child’s Delight.

Elizabeth Marie Pope: The Sherwood Ring.

Muriel Spark: Memento Mori.

Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time.

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More notes and recommendations. What follows is a topic-sorted list I began compiling a few years ago and then tucked away and neglected. I found it in my archives when I went to create a page for the Booknotes list above. Obviously, I was working with a different format at the time. Figured it couldn’t hurt to tack it here at the bottom of the new list. Sooner or later I’ll combine them into a consistent format. Probably later.

Middle-Grade Novels

• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.
• The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope.
• Damosel by Stephanie Spinner.
• Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde.
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
• Rules by Cynthia Lord.
• The Firelings by Carol Kendall.