Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Igor

(It's a little late for Halloween, but I found this story jotted in a notebook and thought I'd share it.  If nothing else, it's sure to remind me to do my anti-scoliosis physical therapy.)


His back hurt.  That was one of the constants in his life.  Sometimes it burned or spasmed or shrieked up his neck or down his leg, and usually it ached—as his spine crushed the muscles inside the curves and stretched those outside and pushed his ribs around. He did not know what it was like to be without pain; he had been born twisted.

His mother had been horrified, when he’d emerged, his ear nearly touching his shoulder.  Some of his earliest memories were of horrified faces quickly withdrawn, of repulsed voices asking what was the matter with him.  Nobody ever smiled.

In those days, his parents still had hope that he would grow out of it, and subjected him to many agonizing traction treatments.  But when it became clear the mutation of his spine had damaged his brain, his parents topped bothering.  What was the use?  He would never be able to even speak clearly; grunts and gesticulations were all he could manage.  He was doomed to be the village idiot, no better than an animal.  And everyone knew that animals didn’t have proper emotions or feel pain the way people do.

He knew he was inferior.  For years, he thought “ugly” as much his name as “Igor,” and responded accordingly.  He could not jump or dance like the others; his every attempt at lightness ended in broad clumsiness.

Yet nature had another trick to play on him.  Had he been straight, he would have been a world champion; twisted, he was merely prodigiously strong.  He could lift carts and sheep and fallen trees, and in this way, he earned a slight living—enough that he neither froze nor starved.

In this way, also, he made his tormentors afraid of him.

His heart hurt.  That was another of the constants in his life.  His heart hurt, and he hated everyone.

Then the stranger came.  He was tall and straight, with an aristocratic profile and sleek black hair graying about the temples.  He arrived in an elegant black carriage with an unfamiliar coat of arms painted on the side.

Immediately, Igor jumped forward to hold the horses, hoping for a tip.  The horses did not balk from him as long as they remained under the stranger’s hand.  But the moment the stranger jumped down, the horses kicked and blew, wild to kick him.  Igor hung on grimly, grunting with effort.

The stranger observed this with dark eyes, then laid one hand on the nearest horse’s neck.  Both animals calmed immediately.

“You are strong,” the stranger said, looking Igor up and down.  His voice was cool, neither praising nor condemning, and Igor basked in it.

“I have business to attend do,” the stranger went on.  “Watch my horses while I am gone.”

Igor nodded enthusiastically, even as the stranger strode off.  He remained there nearly three hours, guarding the horses, not moving to the left or to the right.

The stranger returned and saw this.  Without a word of thanks, he mounted his carriage, and tossed Igor a silver coin for his service.

A silver coin was more money than Igor had had in his life.  He stared at it in awe, then clutched it to his chest possessively.

The stranger came visiting often after that, and each time, Igor leapt forward to hold his horses.  When other entrepreneurial souls tried to take his place, he beat them back mercilessly, and the stranger did not rebuke him.

With his increasing wealth, Igor purchased a brush and bucket so he could care for the horses in the stranger’s absence.  He gloried in his newfound position.  But the more proud he became of his duties, the more hostile and suspicious the other villagers became.  Young women had been sickening; some had died.  And always, it was worse after the stranger visited. 

It became so bad that the next time the stranger visited, the villagers met him in a mob, bearing foul-smelling herbs, wild roses, and crucifixes carved from mountain ash.  They surrounded the carriage, and Igor saw they meant to hurt him.  He roared and lunged at them, swinging a stick and breaking bones until they scattered.

On his carriage, the stranger watched coolly, not interfering. “I’m told your name is Igor,” he said, when the last villager had fled.

Igor signed that this was correct.  He knew the stranger’s name, too—Count Dinu. 

“We are alike, Igor,” the Count mused.  “At once monster and human.  Come work for me.  Do all I say, and you shall have food, live in a castle, and have as much money as your shriveled heart desires.”  And he smiled at him.

Igor would have licked burning coals for the Count.  He prostrated himself and swore in gobbled grunts to be his.

Two decades passed.  The Count did not treat Igor well, but he kept his word.  Igor brought him supplies and showed him where beautiful young women lived.  He was despised by all he met, and he despised them in turn.  None could match the Count.

But Igor made a mistake.  The girl he found, a succulent sixteen, was courted by three men, two foreign, each brave and upright.  They waited until noon and then stormed the castle while Igor was away.  In Igor’s absence, they stabbed the Count through the heart, sawed off his head, and stuffed his mouth with foul herbs.

Igor came upon them as they left, congratulating one another and embracing the girl.  Wild, hot agony scorched him and searing cold flooded his brain.  He tore all four of them apart and howled and fell to his knees and beat his chest, but it was too late.  His master was dead, and he could not bring him back.

For a year and a day, he remained in that castle, feral and agonized.  And then he set out into the world, to find a new master.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Setting

I ran a setting workshop.  Here are my notes, based of experience and research.


Setting Workshop
Setting impacts every scene of every book.  It can be used to enhance writing or to detract from it.  Below is a brief set of notes describing the three primary elements of writing setting: 1) Relevance: When should you describe setting?  2) Revealing Setting: Through what method should you convey setting?  3) Descriptive Properties: What should be in setting description?

RELEVANCE: Descriptions should bring immediacy to the world, not stall you out.  Use them for multiple purposes. (“Skid Row,” from Little Shop of Horrors establishes setting, conflict, characters, theme, etc.)

Why does the character care? 
•     Does it affect him/her?  Does it inform perception, identity, or physicality?
•     Does the character affect the setting?

Why should we care? 
•     Is that prop important?  What message/feeling are you trying to get across?  What do we need to understand this scene?
•     Does the setting help the reader better understand the characters’ motivations and backgrounds?
•     Does it help the reader better connect to the story?
•     How does the setting prime reader assumptions?
•     Is it interesting?

How does it add to the world building? 
•     Is it consistent?  (Fact checking!)
•     (Setting can be physical, social, emotional, etc.)

Why is it important to the plot?
•     Does it make sense that your characters are there?
•     Is there symbolic or thematic importance?
•     Does it help move the plot forward?
•     Does it add to or subtract from conflict?


REVEALING SETTING: Setting can be revealed through motion, character perception, or exposition.  Setting can be revealed gradually or all at once.  Generally but not universally, setting is revealed either wide shot to close up or abstract to concrete.  More setting description will slow the book’s pace, so how quickly or slowly do you want to dive into the story?  ( For example: fast action sequences generally have less setting description; slow, tense build-ups generally have more.)

Motion
•     Use action to build setting instead of just description
•     Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”:
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.”

Character Perception
•     Level of experience: Would he know what type of desk the wood was?  Is he in the right state of mind to notice?  How would different characters perceive the same setting?
•     Mood (is the ruin enchanting because they’re in love or creepy because they’re scared?)  (Reader perception and reaction doesn’t have to be the same as character perception – narrative distance.  Does the character think it’s romantic while the reader actually knows it’s dangerous/creepy?)
•     Even a 3rd person narrator has a character and personality and should be consistent.  How do you move the camera?


DESCRIPTIVE PROPERTIES: Regardless of the method used to describe the setting in any particular scene, here are some helpful elements to keep in mind.

Details: What defines the room?  What’s the first thing you see?  What’s unusual about it?  I don’t need to know that the kitchen has a sink.  But if it doesn’t have a sink—that’s weird. 
•     The more precise the detail, the more interesting (my dog is lying against me vs. my dog is curled up against my thigh).
•     Describing in terms of something else—leaves are tresses now.  Don't need to spell it out.
•     Sensory detail: Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, temperature, kinesthetic, pain, balance, vibration, direction
•     Locale, time of year, time of day (check accurate sun/moon positions!), elapsed time, weather, climate, geography
•     Effects of time’s passage (What was the Shire like when the Hobbits finally returned?  The movie left out the Scouring of the Shire.  Why did Tolkien think it was so important?)
•     Lack of detail: when is it more tactful not to describe.  What should we not describe?  (Sometimes, a brief, dry, clinical description can be more impactful than a page of gruesome prose.  Understatement of that type often feels more real, especially in contrast.)

Background:
•     Consistency (internally, with world, with character perception, etc.)
•     Do your research: know much more than you put down
•     If it’s boring, cut it
•     Are you excited about your setting?  Do you, the writer, want to spend time there? Does it frighten you, intrigue you?  Or do you not really care?

https://www.novel-writing-help.com/story-setting.html
https://www.nownovel.com/blog/talking-setting-place/
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/settings.shtml


TL;DR: Should you include setting description?  How should you reveal it?  What should you include or not include?


Friday, July 20, 2018

Telling the Reader that Your Character is Epic

Recently, I read a novel about a woman who suddenly became queen after growing up in near-isolation, and her struggles to keep her throne and her life.  Most of the book was from her point of view, but maybe two-thirds of the way through, we switched to a pair of minor character’s POV for a page-long exchange that went about like this:

Character 1: Our queen’s pretty epic, isn’t she?
Character 2: She sure is!
Character 1: It’s wonderful how she’s going to save us all.
Character 2: It sure is!  Gosh, I’m glad she’s epic!

This didn’t ruin the book for me (the queen’s convenient new superpowers saving everything at the end did that), but it did make me start thinking—What’s the best way to make your character epic?  Because although this clunky attempt failed utterly, I have seen it done well and in multiple different ways, including:

Inconvenient acknowledgement of epicness
Villain acknowledgement: In the second book of Lois McMaster Bujold’s marvelous Vorkosigan series, The Vor Game, an antagonist recognizes Miles from the previous book.  He acknowledges Miles’s ability to talk his way out of any situation . . . and so orders his men to cut out Miles’s tongue if Miles says anything. 

Ally acknowledgement: Similarly, Miles gets into various scraps because people recognize his ability to get them out . . . and assume he’s coming to help him when he’s really trying to just pass innocuously through.  But once they beg him for help, he feels he’s obliged to do so . . .

In both situations, Miles looks epic . . . but naturally and thrillingly so.


Awkward and/or painful acknowledgement of epicness
I’m thinking here especially of a book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.  The reader is used to seeing Harry Dresden scrape through encounters with beings far more powerful than he.  Since the books are entirely from his first-person POV, we see his fear and effort and luck.  It seems natural.  Then, at one or two points, a couple of his allies tell him how scary he is because he’s so powerful and always seems to win . . .

(Something similar happens to the titular Alex Verus in Benedict Jacka’s books, when a character points out to Verus that people who go up against him almost always end up dead.)

So we get great characterization and plot advancement while being told that Harry and Alex are epic.  And again, it feels natural.  It makes us more sympathetic to the protagonist—not less (and definitely not disgusted, as I felt about the queen after the ham-fisted attempt at epicness described above).


Untrue acknowledgement of epicness
My favorite example of this is actually from a film—Galaxy Quest.  In it, Alan Rickman’s character has a fanboy who tells him over and over how epic he is, until he just has to live up to that epicness.  (Come to think of it, this happens to some extent to all our main characters in that film.)  It’s inconvenient, embarrassing, and ridiculous—and pretty darn epic.


Overall

I don’t think it’s essential to tell the audience flat out that your character is epic, but I do believe that it can be done effectively and pleasingly while preserving good writing, advancing the story, and thrilling the reader.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Carmen Sandiego: Essential Characteristic


 


 Ah, Carmen Sandiego.  Sometimes her hair is auburn, sometimes black.  Sometimes her hatband and scarf are gold, sometimes her hatband and shirt are black.  Her hat is different shapes and sizes, her coat different lengths and styles, her shoes can be red pumps, black pumps, or black boots.  She usually has bright red lipstick and black gloves, but not always . . . and yet she is always recognizably the same character.

The first Doctor Who I ever saw was the second half of the Eight Doctor Movie.  Years later, I recognized the Doctor from a Reader’s Digest list of best sci-fi films . . . except it was the Fourth Doctor.  How in the world did I recognize them as the same person?  Recognize a picture of a guy in a magazine from a different guy in a film I watched years previously?

Rose City Comic Con, 2016.  Black hat
band and collar, auburn hair, black pants,
boots.
Denver Comic Con, 2018.
Gold hat band and scarf, black skirt
and pumps, black hair.  Same lipstick, same
hat with a different band, similar gloves.
(Also: This photo explains so much
about how Carmen gets around in
time and space  . . .)
I’m not a huge cosplayer, but I do like to dress up for Comic Con.  In 2016, I dressed as Carmen Sandiego.  Then this year, my planned costume (the titular character from Alice: Madness Returns) fell through, so I decided to redo Carmen.  Redo . . . but not repeat.

The interesting thing is that I was equally recognized as Carmen in both outfits.  I had dozens of people call after me and quite a few ask for my photo.

The question is: why would this be the case?  Just because different people were familiar with different versions?  I think it's more than that.

(Tip: It’s important to be aware not just of your character’s canon lore, but also the fanon surrounding it.  While I was at it, I memorized some of Carmen’s lines from the various games.  When people called after me, I responded, “Good detecting, detective!” or “You’ll never catch me, gumshoe!” etc.  It was fun, and people seemed to love it.)
In fanon, Carmen has a thing with Where's Waldo.  So I found a few . . . When taking
this photo, quite a few passersby also snapped shots. 
(
This is also a demonstration of why you should learn to pose better—
which I did in in most photos but clearly not here!  I'm not posed,
and so I look much less like her than I do otherwise.  Fascinating, no?
But see below.)

 What I learned from this experience is that it’s the essentials of the character that matter.  Carmen likes to tilt her hat in photos—


I only met one other Carmen this year, although my friend said she saw three.
She wears a brimmed red hat and a red trench coat.  That’s literally all you need.  The red lipstick, dyed hair, gloves, color choice, shoe style—all inessential ingredients.

But how you put them together can make the difference between an okay costume and a good costume.  Ask yourself: would Carmen wear this?  She wears and oversized trench coat, so should I?  Well, what would Carmen do?  She is a very stylish lady.  Do you look stylish in that trench coat?  Are you standing stylishly?  Walking with confidence and good posture?

(Tip: if you want people to take pictures of you at Comic Con, look approachable.  I have a bit of RBF, but as long as I kept a slight smile on my face, people stopped me, sang at me, called out to me . . . and generally smiled back.)

This is where we come down to characters.  If you took away the trappings of yours, the nonessentials . . . would you be able to recognize your character?  Can you tell which character is speaking without a dialogue tag?  (J.K. Rowling is the master of unique-sounding characters.  That something I need to work on.)  If I had my eyes closed in a room full of Marvel movie characters whose voices went through distorters, I could tell you which one was Deadpool’s by the way he talked.  Maybe also Iron Man’s.  In the first movie, I could tell you Thor—but he’s now altered beyond recognition.  I couldn’t tell you who the vast majority of others were.  And that’s not even getting to the side characters and the TV shows.

This isn’t an answer, just something to muse on.

What’s essential to a character?  What’s unique?  What can you take away but still have the same person?

And why did one person mistake me for Agent Carter?  The hat?  I think it was the hat.

(In 2016, I went with an Agent Carter, and she got called Carmen more than Carter. . . .)



Saturday, June 2, 2018

Concatenation


I played World of Warcraft, off and on, for about a year back around 2006.  I quit because it was expensive, addictive, and not even fun.  Around 2008 or 2009, I became interested in watching machinima—videos made using games, especially but not exclusively World of Warcraft.  I watched a lot of Oxhorn.  I still follow Cranius, who makes videos with Legs.

Probably the most impressive machinima I saw turned out not to be a machinima at all, but rendered animation.  You can watch it here:
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.


The song is jpop singer Namie Amuro’s “Hide and Seek.”  I have a friend, whom I’ll call Ruby, who is a huge Namie Amuro fan, but I was just uninterested. My elder sister is a huge fan of the Japanese rock group L’arc en Ciel, which I never liked and probably biased me against Namie Amuro. 

Then I saw this video again and again, and the song really grew on me.  I wanted to hear more by the artist, but the few clips I looked up sounded nothing like “Hide and Seek,” and the story might have ended there, except that I became roommates with Ruby.  We lived together almost three years, and in that time, I watching all of Namie Amuro’s music videos and concert DVDs and acquired about eight of her albums and was generally converted into a fan.

Although most of her music still sounds nothing like “Hide and Seek.”  In fact, I get the impression (from her concert DVDs) that she doesn’t even like the song.  Oh, well.

So what was the point of all this?

Namie Amuro recently turned 40 and, after a 25-year music career, decided to retire.  I guess dancing energetically for three hours straight in high heels while singing flawlessly is pretty tough on a body, and one might want to do something different.

Anyway, I received an email from Ruby that had been sent at about 2am saying that Namie Amuro’s ~Finally~ concert was sold out in Japan, but that there were plenty of tickets left in Taipei, Taiwan, in about a month, and would I like to go?

Which is how and why I was in Taiwan for a week.

And it was amazing.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Pushing Past Personal Limits

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post called Writing Advice, in which I listed the (few) things I believe are necessary for writing well.  I still stand by that post, although I think I’d like to add one item to it:

Writers, get more exercise.

If you’re anything like me, you have a tendency to sit for ages in front of the computer or with a notebook, which is great if you want to look like Jabba the Hutt but not so great if you want actual blood flow to your brain.  So you just sit there, getting stupider, when twenty minutes of exercise would cut right through your writer’s block and overall make you a happier, healthier person.

You’ll also learn a lot about writing action sequences and their after effects.  Have you ever worked out until you wanted to puke and faint?

I did, last week, because I did a high-intensity Zumba . . . my first really serious exercise in seven months.  15 minutes in, I honesty wanted to puke and faint.  I had to put my head between my knees for 30 seconds.  Then I kept going, and the endorphins kicked in.  After 45 minutes of Zumba, I felt like I could dance forever—and love it.

(Boy, was I sore the next day.)

And that’s something a lot of writers don’t bother with: action sequences leave you sore and aching (and often bruised and cut and broken and headachy and weak), and this effects not just what you can do physically, but what you can do mentally.  That hour of Zumba pretty much knocked out my brain for the rest of the day.  But after a week of getting lots of exercise, when I went back . . . I didn’t feel like puking or fainting.  I just felt fantastic.  And it totally worked out my soreness from the strength-training yoga two days earlier.

So exercise not only improves your brain and body, it also teaches you what certain types of exertion feel like.

But that’s not what I sat down to write about—it’s just what reminded me of it.

In my life, two instances stick out to me where I (out of character) exerted myself far beyond what I might have believed possible.  These aren’t necessarily the most exertion I’ve ever gotten—just the ones that I’m amazed at myself about.  Because I didn’t have to do them, and (beforehand), I couldn’t imagine wanting to try.

The first happened when I was maybe eleven years old.  I was a competitive swimmer.  One Saturday, during our dry land training, one of our coaches decided to run a contest: whoever could do the wall sit, with good form, for the longest would get a free PowerAde.

After 15 minutes, she begged us to stop, and promised that the six or seven of us left—er—sitting would all get a PowerAde.

I literally couldn’t walk after that. 

I have never, before or since, done the wall sit for more than a minute.  I’ve never enjoyed the wall sit.  But I did it.  And I got a PowerAde.

Yay?

The thing is, in the end, it wasn’t about the PowerAde.  It wasn’t even about my fellow competitors.  I just kept going because I was keeping going.  I think I would have been there for twice as long, if she hadn’t stopped us.  What madness is this?

The other time was last July 4th.  I’d been doing Zumba for a couple of months by then, and I was friends with the woman who owned the dance studio.  She asked us to Zumba for the Fourth of July parade through town: 3.5 miles at noon in 95° weather.

I hate heat.  I’m not huge on physical exertion.  I wasn’t in that great of shape.

Our instructors dropped out halfway through.

I danced the whole way.  I was the only one who danced the whole way, and one of only two dancing at the end (my sister danced most of the way, but came over faint near the beginning and had to stop).  I danced through the puke stage, through the elation stage.  I danced through the fatigue stage and through the collapse stage.  I danced until my body’s air conditioning kicked in and I had chills running down my limbs.  I danced beyond all sense, beyond all endurance, and I smiled the whole time.

Why?  Madness?  Masochism?  No: because the people at the end of the parade deserved to see dancing as much as the people at the beginning.

How strange and uncharacteristic those two events—that wall sit and parade Zumba—were for me.  I never would have believed them of myself, but they’re true.  And now I know a little more about myself, and about what will drive me to push myself beyond endurance.


What would push your protagonist to that level?

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Story Hook

Went to a writing workshop yesterday, which included a section on hooks. As an exercise, we were told to write a hook, "enough that a reader could get at least a sense of what kind of story it is. A romance? An epic fantasy? A horror story? A story about your cat? An epic horror story about your cat?"
So naturally, I wrote this. And when he asked for volunteers to read aloud, I couldn't resist  . . .

The eyes watched me.
The rest of the cat stalked down in the valley, disemboweling cattle and tormenting sheep, but the rest of the cat didn't matter. It wasn't dangerous. Only the eyes could hurt me now, because the eyes were the windows to the soul, and I was already dead.

I wrote another prompt too, for the fun of it, for a short humorous story I've been meaning for years to write -- "Financial Wizard."  It's about time to do that.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Bribing Cops


 



Three books I love.  One satirical literary fantasy, one Gothic romance horror, one epic high fantasy.  What do they have in common, aside from being amazing?  They’ve all been translated from another language—in these cases, German, French, and Russian.  And I’m currently rereading The Count of Monte Cristo, which is what prompted this post.

About two years ago, I went on a modern books-in-translation binge, especially Russian books.  Since 2016, I’ve read at least twelve books in Russian translation (the best of which is definitely the aforementioned Chronicles of Siala, beginning with Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov, translated by Andrew Bromfield).

One of the most fascinating things about this is one starts to see trends.  Most of the books I’ve read are either British or American (with the occasional Australian/Canadian/Irish/ etc. author thrown in).  Every nationality and culture has its own unique flavor, but all of these, ultimately, came out of the British empire, and so aren’t that different.  I’ve had a little more diversity through editing—I’ve edited for quite a few native Chinese speakers, whether they now live in China, Singapore, the U.S. or elsewhere—but my only real encounter with Russian culture was the semester of Russian I took my first year of college.  (And Russian Sherlock Holmes, of course).  Then I later had more exposure through a friend of mine who is a professional chess player and teacher (and with whom I wrote Game of Kings.)  But learning about a culture in class or hearing funny chess stories is much different than engaging with literature.

Here’s an example:
In every Russian book I read, police officers and guards could be bribed.  Almost all of them, almost always.  Didn’t matter if the books were high fantasy, sci-fi, or low fantasy, you could bribe law enforcement.  In none of these books was this made a big deal of; it was simply a fact of life.

Compare this to British/American stories.  When you find any bribable cop, he’s the exception, and scandalous.

That’s one of the fascinating things, to me, about reading books from less familiar cultures, especially in translation.  Not only will a good translator give you a taste of the language, the writer will give you a taste of something foreign—not through explaining it to you as in a class, but through trends of basic assumptions.

(Well, that and the fact that you have a higher probability of finding higher quality books in translation, since otherwise no one would have bothered to translate them.)


And through those basic assumptions, you begin to see your own assumptions—which may be more or less interesting.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Diana Wynne Jones

Written 2014.

I first had the pleasure of reading one of Diana Wynne Jones’s books when I was twelve years old.  I got it from a bookstore, and it wasn’t the book I intended to buy.  I don’t remember which book I wanted, only that it wasn’t on the bookshelf, and so I regretfully settled for The Homeward Bounders.

I was writing a book of my own at the time, one which involved the protagonist going from world to world for unspecified reasons.  As soon as I read The Homeward Bounders, I knew that here was exactly the book I wanted to write, but simply wasn’t good enough to manage.

Years passed.  One by one, I began to acquire Diana Wynne Jones’s books.  The library had a dozen, but a dozen wasn’t enough.  Besides, what if one was checked out?  What if the library wasn’t open?  What if I wanted to read one, but had no way to get to the library?  I had to own them.

Now it’s 2014.  I never stopped writing (what writer can?), and I never stopped adoring Diana Wynne Jones’s books.  When I, as I invariably do, run out of things to read, I slope over to my bookshelf and glumly look at my collection.  Should I read that?  I’ve read it a dozen times; surely any book pales after that many reads.  (Hers only get better.  How could I have missed so much on my first read?  Or my fifth?)  I pick out one of hers.  I have read her books aloud to my sisters and roommate, and sometimes failed to read them aloud because I was laughing so hard.  I’m never disappointed.

I’m not embarrassed to read what some would call children’s books.  Or if I ever am embarrassed, I remember that I shouldn’t let that stop me.  I learned that from Fire and Hemlock.  I’ve learned so many things from her books over the years.  I’ve learned about people and about writing, about magic and about possibilities, about humor.

This competition says I’m supposed to write about how I’m Diana Wynne Jones’s greatest fan—but, frankly, there’s nothing great or special about my being a fan of hers.  Of course she’s my favorite author.  Of course I read her books again and again.  Of course I admire her work.  But that is not greatness in me; it is greatness in her.


But for myself, I can say this: in all I write, there will always be a little of her, a faint echo of all that I have learned and laughed and enjoyed from her books.  And I suppose that’s greatness of a sort.

Friday, March 23, 2018

How (Not) to Write a Series

So, I’m going to be talking a bit about things that ruin (or at least bring down) book series . . . when I loved the first book.  These aren’t absolute rules; but I do think they’re things to consider when writing.  Thinking about them has certainly prevented me from doing some things I really dislike in other authors.  All of the examples I use below are from real books by good writers.

So, without further ado:


1)      Changing protagonists between books.  I’ve read a couple of trilogies in which each book in the trilogy is written from a different character’s point of view.  In each case, the trilogy gets further and further from the original protagonist, so that that character is barely a footnote in book 3.  Why do I hate this?  Because I get very attached to my protagonists.  I want to read more about them, not about some character I barely know or have never met.

Doing this right: in his Bartimaeus trilogy, Jonathan Stroud adds a protagonist (who does sometimes hold the narrative) for books 2 and 3.  But he doesn’t get rid of his other protagonists.
In the Animorphs series, K.A. Applegate rotates the narrative between six protagonists.


2)      Excessive time lapses between books.  In effect, having excessive gaps between books can be the same thing.  If it’s been 10 years since we last saw our protagonist, who was then about 18, then the protagonist and surrounding characters are, in essence, different characters.  I don’t want to know what happens to the hero in 10 years—I want to know what happens next.

Doing this right: the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher sometimes has a jump between books, but he doesn’t do it in a way that I feel I’ve missed anything.  He fills the reader in.  Basically, the jumps between books are of all the unimportant filler bits—just like the jumps inside books.


3)      Nothing ever changes.  This is in some ways the opposite problem to #2.  Instead of too much changing, nothing ever changes.  Maybe things will sometimes look like they’re going to change, but it’s one step forward, one step back.  Soap operas do this a lot, and I find it very frustrating.  I want things to progress at a reasonable rate!  Otherwise, what’s even the point of having more than one book?

Doing this right: in the Nero Wolfe series, no one ever ages and neither of our protagonists gets married or moves away; they stay the same.  But the story isn’t about them: it’s about the mystery.  And the mystery is different in each book.  Personally, I wish Sherlock Holmes had been written like this . . . indeed, most of the TV show adaptations use this method.


4)      Changing genres between books.  There is a series of books I absolutely love.  They’re action-packed space opera . . . except that book 9 is instead a romance.  Not even a very well-written romance.  This isn’t an insult to romance novels, but if I want to read a romance series, I’ll read a romance series.  You promised me awesome space action, darn it, so what’s this nonsense?

Doing this right: in the Alien franchise, Alien is a horror survival film but Aliens is more of a military sci-fi thriller, Alien 3 is tonally fatalistic, Prometheus is more of a philosophical, exploratory film with horror elements, and Alien: Covenant is a combination.  Every film in the franchise feels like a different genre . . . yet somehow (with the exception of Alien: Resurrection, which felt to me like bad fanfiction), they work together.


5)      Not staying true to your premise: internal consistency.  This is related to #4, but is more internal to books.  It deals with proper and consistent characterization within your world and with consistent world-building.  This one seems to come out particularly in relation to sex.  Many authors, regardless of their settings and characters, write their characters with their, the author’s, sexual mores . . . when it makes zero sense.  If your hero is a very proper, religious, Victorian gentleman faithfully devoted to his fiancĂ©e, he should not out of the blue meet a rather rough woman and immediately decide to have sex with her.  Similarly, if your character is in a celibate profession in a world that Takes That Seriously, he should not just decide to get married because you, the author, want some romance.  Write a different character, if that’s what you want.

Doing this right: Harry Potter is a good example.  Rowling expands the universe with each book and lets the protagonists develop naturally.


6)      Not staying true to your characters: I’ve also seen this take the form of either creating caricatures of/writing fanfiction* about your own characters.  I read the sequel to one book, and found all the characters had turned into bizarre, exaggerated versions of themselves.  Then there’s a rather famous book that develops an awesome and intense villain.  Then in book 2, this villain is suddenly the hero with a backstory that’s basically a watered-down version of the hero’s story in book 1.  It’s an absolute waste.  Based on the way it’s written, my theory is that the author fell in love with his/her own character and so decided to retroactively make him “awesome.”  What this actually does is make him weak and pathetic.  This doesn’t mean your characters can’t learn and grow—they should.  But it should be natural growth.
*I love fanfiction, but there’s a time and a place for it.  And it’s for your fans, not you.  You shouldn’t be writing it about your own book.

Doing this right: It’s hard for a character to undergo a major shift while staying the same person, but it can be done.  The trick is to push the character past the breaking point so that a major transition between books/movies makes sense.  Darth Vader managed this between III and IV.  I’m having a hard time thinking of a book example, but I’d love to read one if anyone has a suggestion.


7)      Letting your protagonist get boring: It’s hard to know what to do with a really long series.  Some authors solve this by never letting their characters age—something that works well for detective stories.  But many series want their protagonists to continue to age, and that’s fine.  Just don’t let them get boring!  I don’t mean that your character can’t meet a romantic interest and get married and have kids.  But if your hero has previously been zipping around the galaxy performing heists, then don’t make him stay at home dealing with bureaucratic issues while waiting for the birth of his children.  Give him a spouse who will help him be more exciting, not drag him down.

Doing this right: the Star Wars Expanded Universe (or Legends).  These novels vary in quality, but Timothy Zahn starts us off very strong, and I’d also like to put in a good work for Matthew Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. I haven’t read all the post-VI EU books, but the ones I’ve read keep all our heroes in character and interesting/awesome while letting them marry and have children and progress with their lives.


8)      Undoing the ending.  This usually comes about when the original material wasn't written to have a sequel but was then so successful that the maker decided to add a sequel . . . and so retroactively reset the universe (this fits into #2).  Either that, or the sequel is written years later and the writer tries to be realistic by being pessimistic.  So: you know that romance you were rooting for that finally came to pass?  Yeah, it went down the chute after the last installment and you'll never see that person again.  Or that happy ending?  Nah, they died off screen/ between books.  How about everything we've been working for for the entire series?  Disappeared when you weren't watching.  I hate this.  I will sometimes refuse to watch or read a sequel if it does this.  If I care at all about the characters, this will absolutely ruin the entire series for me.

Doing this right: I'm not sure I can think of any example, because the story needs to move forward, not back.  I have seen fanfiction that fixes problems with the source material by creating sequels (like, why did Loki have such a stupid plan in the Avengers?  Well, because he was building towards something else/ his motivation wasn't what people assumed.  I've seen multiple fan sequels that do this very well indeed).  This is, in fact one area in which fanfiction excels: recognizing and fixing problems.


TL;DR: Stay true to the premise and characters you’ve set up in book one, and progress that story at a moderate rate without undoing your ending or progress.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Based on a Real Person

In my career as an editor, I came to realize that the “these characters are based on no living people, living or dead” found in the beginning of only some books is, in many cases, nonsense. 

Of course, no writer writes in a void.  We all pick up ideas from our surroundings: from the people with whom we interact, the places we go, the jobs we work, and the books we read.  Where the wonderful diversity in writing comes from is in how we process these factors.  Take three professional gardeners, male, 30 years old, residents of Butte, Montana, married with two children and have them all read The Lord of the Rings and then write an original short story . . . and you will get three very different stories with perhaps a few connecting elements.

I am the middle of three sisters, separated from the eldest by 1.5 years and the youngest by 2.5 years.  We grew up in the same household, read many of the same books, and wrote.  We have approximately equal levels of intelligence and native writing talent, although I have done by far the most to develop that talent by writing most prolifically.  All of us write fantasy sometimes, but that fantasy is vastly different—not only in basic subject, but in the language we use, the descriptions, the settings, the characters, and so on.

But that’s not where I was going with this.  Where I was going was the phenomenon of basing characters off real people.  Since we don’t live in a void, everyone must necessarily take real life elements and recombine them; but some writers explicitly base characters on real people and some writers do not.

A writing friend of mine and I had a long discussion about this several years ago.  She is the sort of writer who loves basing characters on real people—indeed, does so almost exclusively.  There is practically no character in any of her books not based on a real person.  But contrast, nearly none of my characters are based on real people.  I find that trying to base a character on a real person (and I’ve tried this; some people are just so interesting they need to be written about—or I need some catharsis after dealing with them) makes it impossible for me to write them.  I get stuck in a box, unable to move creatively in directions untrue to the original person but not knowing the original person deeply enough to be interesting.


What sort of writer are you, if you do write—and if not, which do you think you would be?  And why?

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Ten Years of Books

"Read more than you write" is one of the primary tenants of good writing.  Well, here we are.  For the past 10 years, I've kept a list of every book I've finished.  Perhaps I missed a book or two; and there is one book that I left off the list entirely, because I didn't want to honor it even that far.  Many books, I reread more than once -- and some, I read nearly every year.  Beginning in 2010, I marked the books I'd never before read with an asterisks.  The greatest compliment I can give a book is to reread it, so if you want recommendations, look to the unstarred books of recent years.

Here, then, is my list:

2007
Stardust – Neil Gaiman
The Book of Mordred – Vivian Vande Velde
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Witch Dreams – Vivian Vande Velde
Songmaster – Orson Scott Card
Red Planet – Robert A. Heinlein
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
Liriel – Garth Nix
The Enormous Crocodile – Roald Dahl
Interstellar Pig – William Sleator
The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett
Abhorsen – Garth Nix
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
Labyrinth – A.C.H Smith
The Fall – Garth Nix
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
Grave Peril – Jim Butcher
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
Death Masks – Jim Butcher
The Ragwitch – Garth Nix+
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart
Blood Rites – Jim Butcher
Deadbeat – Jim Butcher
Proven Guilty – Jim Butcher
The Dark Side of the Sun – Terry Pratchett
Daughter of the Forest – Juliet Marillier
Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
Furies of Calderon – Jim Butcher
Urban Shaman – C.E. Murphy
Banshee Cries – C.E. Murphy
Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Louis Sachar
Mister Monday – Garth Nix
Wayside School is Falling Down – Louis Sachar
The Merchant of Death – D. J. MacHale
Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger – Louis Sachar
Aunt Maria – Diana Wynne Jones
The Lost City of Faar – D. J. MacHale
The Never War – D. J. MacHale
Grim Tuesday – Garth Nix
A Sudden Wild Magic – Diana Wynne Jones
The Last Juror – John Grisham (read by Terrence Mann)
Ring for Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
White Night – Jim Butcher
No One Noticed the Cat – Anne McCaffrey
Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Wednesday – Garth Nix
The Lives of Christopher Chant – Diana Wynne Jones
The Warrior Heir – Cinda Williams Chima
Sir Thursday – Garth Nix
Lady Friday – Garth Nix
Reality Bug – D. J. MacHale
Merlin Part 1: The Old Magic – James Mallory
The Pinhoe Egg – Diana Wynne Jones
MirrorMask – Neil Gaiman
The Hollow Hills – Mary Stewart
Academ’s Fury – Jim Butcher
Black Water – D. J. MacHale
The Rivers of Zadaa – D. J. MacHale
The Quillan Games – D. J. MacHale
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
Conrad’s Fate – Diana Wynne Jones
Merlin Part 2: The King’s Wizard – James Mallory
The Last Enchantment – Mary Stewart
Dave Barry Does Japan – Dave Barry
Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
Cart and Cwidder – Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Ammet – Diana Wynne Jones
The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
Lost Boys – Orson Scott Card
Merlin Part 3: The End of Magic – James Mallory
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
Magic Street – Orson Scott Card
The Moorchild – Eloise McGraw
The Spellcoats – Diana Wynne Jones
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Lewis Stevenson
The Crown of Dalemark – Diana Wynne Jones
The Hero and the Crown – Robin McKinley
Dragon’s Milk – Susan Fletcher
Stardust – Neil Gaiman
The Pilgrims of Rayne – D.J. MacHale
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – Roald Dahl
Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
Dealing With Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
Searching For Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
The Thief Lord – Cornelia Funke
Intimations of Mortality – Susan M. Garrett
Grave Peril – Jim Butcher
Treason – Orson Scott Card
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
The Color of Magic – Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic – Terry Pratchett
Death Masks – Jim Butcher
Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones
Year of the Griffin – Diana Wynne Jones
Equal Rites – Terry Pratchett
Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy
How To Be A Vampire – R. L. Stine
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett
The Devil You Know – Mike Carey
Blood Rites – Jim Butcher
Dead Beat – Jim Butcher
Proven Guilty – Jim Butcher
The Skiver’s Guide – Diana Wynne Jones
Wuthering Heights – Emily BrontĂ«
The Ogre Downstairs – Diana Wynne Jones
You Don’t Have to be Evil to work Here, but It Helps – Tom Holt
Sourcery – Terry Pratchett
Hexwood – Diana Wynne Jones
Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett
Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Lewis Stevenson
Feet of Clay – Terry Pratchett
The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett
Nothing But Clear Skies – Tom Holt
The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones
The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett
Across the Wall: A Tale of Abhorsen and Other Stories – Garth Nix
The Magicians of Caprona – Diana Wynne Jones
Thud! – Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett
Night Watch – Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett
Conrad’s Fate – Diana Wynne Jones
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Jingo – Terry Pratchett
Ill Wind – Rachel Caine
Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots – Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories – Susanna Clarke
The Akhenaten Adventure – P.B. Kerr

2008
Dogsbody – Diana Wynne Jones
The Field Guide – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
All Hallows’ Eve – Vivian Vande Velde
The Princess Bride – William Goldman
The Night the Heads Came – William Sleator
The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis
The Seeing Stone – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Lucinda’s Secret – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
the Ironwood Tree – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
The Silent Gondoliers – William Goldman
Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Out of the Silent Planet – C.S. Lewis
The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien
Goblin Quest – Jim C. Hines
Interworld – Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
The Wrath of Mulgarath – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien
M Is For Magic – Neil Gaiman
Lud-in-the-Mist – Hope Mirrlees
Nightmare Academy – Dean Lorey
Marathon Man – William Goldman
Corbenic – Catherine Fisher
Witch Week – Diana Wynne Jones
Mixed Magics – Diana Wynne Jones
The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones
Great-Grandpa’s in the Litter Box – Dan Greenburg
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
White Night – Jim Butcher
Darkhenge – Catherine Fisher
The Nixie’s Song – Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories – Diana Wynne Jones
The Homeward Bounders – Diana Wynne Jones
Pyramids – Terry Pratchett
Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy
The Invasion – K.A. Applegate
Mister Monday – Garth Nix
Grim Tuesday – Garth Nix
One Beastly Beast (Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales) – Garth Nix
Drowned Wednesday – Garth Nix
Sir Thursday – Garth Nix
Lady Friday – Garth Nix
The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold – Terry Brooks
The Little Vampire – Angela Somer-Bodenburg
Truckers – Terry Pratchett
The Black Unicorn – Terry Brooks
Sorcerer’s Academy – (edited by) Denise Little
Seeing Redd – Frank Beddor
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland – Diana Wynne Jones
The Night Tourist – Katherine Marsh
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Dragon Sleeping – Craig Shaw Gardner
Od Magic – Patricia A. McKillip
Dragon Waking – Craig Shaw Gardner
Dogsbody – Diana Wynne Jones
Small Favor – Jim Butcher
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Dragon Burning – Craig Shaw Gardner
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness – Andrew Peterson
The Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart
Tamsin – Peter S. Beagle
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Interworld – Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
The Wednesday Wars – Gary D. Schmidt
The Truth – Terry Pratchett
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian – C.S. Lewis
A Malady of Magicks – Craig Shaw Gardner
Eric – Terry Pratchett
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair – C.S. Lewis
A Multitude of Monsters – Craig Shaw Gardner
The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
Acorna: the Unicorn Girl – Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
The Horse and His Boy – C.S. Lewis
A Night in the Netherhells – Craig Shaw Gardner
The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
The Last Battle – C.S. Lewis
A Difficulty with Dwarves – Craig Shaw Gardner
Something From the Nightside – Simon R. Green
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding – edited by P.N. Elrod
Nightingale’s Lament – Simon R. Green
Hex in the City – Simon R. Green
Paths Not Taken – Simon R. Green
Blue Moon Rising – Simon R. Green
The Green and the Gray – Timothy Zahn
The Hologram’s Handbook – Robert Picardo
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Superior Saturday – Garth Nix
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (read aloud to Sarah)
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones
Only You Can Save Mankind – Terry Pratchett
 Johnny and the Dead – Terry Pratchett
 The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories – Susanna Clarke
Castle in the Air – Diana Wynne Jones
Her Majesty’s Wizard – Christopher Stasheff
Stardust – Neil Gaiman
Another Fine Myth – Robert Asprin
Homebody – Orson Scott Card
Myth Conceptions – Robert Asprin
Myth Directions – Robert Asprin
Myth-Ion Improbable – Robert Asprin
The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest – Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Blood and Honor – Simon R. Green
Hit or Myth – Robert Asprin
Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones
Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
Deathstalker – Simon R. Green
The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Sarah)
The Farthest Away Mountain – Lynne Reid Banks
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Bruce Coville
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
Myth-Ing Persons – Robert Asprin
The Man with the Golden Torc – Simon R. Green
Keeper of the King – Nigel Bennett and P.N. Elrod
Half Magic – Edward Eager
Monstrous Regiment – Terry Pratchett
The Boxes – William Sleator
Over to You – Roald Dahl
The Rebel Witch – Jack Lovejoy
Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett
Vampires – edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg
The Dragon Quintet – edited by Marvin Kaye
Aunt Maria – Diana Wynne Jones
The Fairy Rebel – Lynne Reid Banks
House of Dark Shadows – Robert Liparulo
The Wizard Lord – Lawrence Watt-Evans
Misspelled – edited by Julie E. Czerneda
The Other Sinbad – Craig Shaw Gardner
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents – Terry Pratchett
A Bad Day for Ali Baba – Craig Shaw Gardner
Invasive Procedures – Orson Scott Card
Down Among the Dead Men – Simon R. Green
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire – Derek Landy
Hexwood –Diana Wynne Jones
Sculduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy
The Ragwitch – Garth Nix
Small Favor – Jim Butcher
Lud-in-the-Mist – Hope Mirrlees
Watcher in the Woods – Robert Liparulo
Goblins in the Castle – Bruce Coville
The Magic Thief – Sarah Prineas
The Mediation of Christ – Thomas F. Torrance
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
Tunnels – Roderick Gordan & Brian Williams
Roverandom – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shadow of Malabron – Thomas Wharton
The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling
Barnaby Grimes: Curse of the Night Wolf – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Fain the Sorcerer – Steve Aylett
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Barnaby Grimes: Return of the Emerald Skull – Paul Steward & Chris Riddell
Soul Music – Terry Pratchett
Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
Aliens Ate My Homework – Bruce Coville

2009
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
The Golem’s Eye – Jonathan Stroud
The Twits – Roald Dahl
Ptolemy’s Gate – Jonathan Stroud
Jennifer Murdley’s Toad – Bruce Coville
The World’s Worst Fairy Godmother – Bruce Coville
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
The Better Mousetrap – Tom Holt
Beyond the Deepwoods – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
The Thief of Always – Clive Barker
Stormchaser – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook – Henry Beard & Christopher Cerf
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle – Catherine Webb
Buried Fire – Jonathan Stroud
Midnight over Sanctaphrax – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
The Leap – Jonathan Stroud
The Last Siege – Jonathan Stroud
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Shadow of the Galilean – Gerd Theissen 
The Last of the Sky Pirates – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
The Lurkers – Charles Butler
Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror – Chris Priestley
Barking – Tom Holt
Seeing Redd – Frank Beddor
Heroes of the Valley – Jonathan Stroud
The Book of Three – Lloyd Alexander
Endymion Spring – Matthew Skelton
The Problem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
Woodenface – Gus Grenfell
The Black Cauldron – Lloyd Alexander
The Castle of Llyr – Lloyd Alexander
Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones – Derek Landy
The Princess and the Goblin – George MacDonald
The Princess and Curdie – George MacDonald
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan Garner
The Diamond of Drury Lane – Julia Golding
Cat Among the Pigeons – Julia Golding
North Child – Edith Pattou
The Fantastical Adventures of the Invisible Boy – Lloyd Alexander
Fain the Sorcerer – Steve Aylett
Blood and Honor – Simon R. Green
Abarat – Clive Barker
Vox – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Ringmaster – Julia Golding
Greywalker – Kat Richardson
The Ship Between Worlds – Julia Golding
The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Children of HĂºrin – J.R.R. Tolkien
Wildwood Dancing – Juliet Marillier
Shade’s Children – Garth Nix
Death in Yellowstone – Lee H. Whittlesey
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House – Kate Summerscale
Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant – Diana Wynne Jones
Buried Fire – Jonathan Stroud
Small Favor – Jim Butcher
Turn Coat – Jim Butcher
Test – William Sleator
The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich – Fritz Leiber
The Somnambulist – Jonathan Barnes
Cart and Cwidder – Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Ammet – Diana Wynne Jones
A Book Dragon – Donn Kushner
The Little Lame Prince – Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
The Secret Country – Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land – Pamela Dean
The Whim of the Dragon – Pamela Dean
Idlewild – Nick Sagan
Sleeper Code – Tom Sniegoski
Sleeper Agenda – Tom Sniegoski
The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud
Corbenic – Catherine Fisher
The Stepsister Scheme – Jim C. Hines
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles – Julie Edwards
A Curse Dark as Gold – Elizabeth C. Bunce
The Dubious Hills – Pamela Dean
Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
A Malady of Magicks – Craig Shaw Gardner
The Golem’s Eye – Jonathan Stroud
Warlock at the Wheel and Other Stories – Diana Wynne Jones
The Spellcoats – Diana Wynne Jones
Ender in Exile – Orson Scott Card
The Crown of Dalemark – Diana Wynne Jones
Parasite Pig – William Sleator
Ptolemy’s Gate – Jonathan Stroud
A Multitude of Monsters – Craig Shaw Gardner
Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett
Backup – Jim Butcher
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
Grave Peril – Jim Butcher
Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot – Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
The Skiver’s Guide – Diana Wynne Jones
Death of a Travelling Man – M.C. Beaton
Death of an Outsider – M.C. Beaton
Death of a Perfect Wife – M.C. Beaton
Death of a Snob – M.C. Beaton
The Visitor – K.A. Applegate
Death of a Charming Man – M.C. Beaton
Death of a Nag – M.C. Beaton
The Encounter – K.A. Applegate
The Message – K.A. Applegate
The Predator – K.A. Applegate
The Capture – K.A. Applegate
The Stranger – K.A. Applegate
Wild Robert – Diana Wynne Jones
Horns and Wrinkles – Joseph Helgerson
Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Unexpected Magic – Diana Wynne Jones
Thud! – Terry Pratchett
A Tale of Time City – Diana Wynne Jones
Larklight – Philip Reeve
The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett
Superior Saturday – Garth Nix
A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett
Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett
The Leap – Jonathan Stroud
Wilkin’s Tooth – Diana Wynne Jones
Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett
Tales from the Brothers Grim and the Sisters Weird – Vivian Vande Velde
Witch’s Wishes – Vivian Vande Velde
The Magic Finger – Roald Dahl
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
The Magic Thief – Sarah Prineas
Three Good Deeds – Vivian Vande Velde
Stopping for a Spell – Diana Wynne Jones
The Changeling War – Peter Garrison
Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett
Tigerheart – Peter David
How to Ditch Your Fairy – Justine Larbalestier
Sorcerer’s Gun – Peter Garrison
Ghosts Who Went to School – Judith Spearing
Time Cat – Lloyd Alexander
The Magic Dead – Peter Garrison
Power of Three – Diana Wynne Jones
The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Puss in Boots – Diana Wynne Jones
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy
Conrad’s Fate – Diana Wynne Jones
Fire and Hemlock – Diana Wynne Jones
Yes, Dear – Diana Wynne Jones
The Magic Thief: Lost – Sarah Prineas
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
H.I.V.E. – Mark Walden
Tom’s Midnight Garden – Philippa Pearce
The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl (read by Roald Dahl)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente
The Manual of Detection: A Novel – Jedediah Berry (read by Pete Larkin)
Changeover – Diana Wynne Jones
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare – G.K. Chesterton
Discordia: the Eleventh Dimension – Dena K. Salmon (read by Nick Podehl)
Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary – Pamela Dean
Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy
Playing with Fire – Derek Landy
The Truth – Terry Pratchett
Odd and the Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman
Small gods – Terry Pratchett
Wild Robert – Diana Wynne Jones
The Seventh Tide – Joan Lennon
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle – Catherine Webb
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy – Jeanne Birdsall
Unseen Academicals – Terry Pratchett
May Contain Traces of Magic – Tom Holt
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie (read by Jim Dale)
The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett
In Your Dreams – Tom Holt
The Secret Country – Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land – Pamela Dean
The Whim of the Dragon – Pamela Dean
ArchEnemy – Frank Beddor

2010
Tigerheart – Peter David
Heroes of the Valley – Jonathan Stroud
Horns and Wrinkles – Joseph Helgerson
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones
*Instead of Three Wishes – Megan Whelan Turner
Year of the Griffin – Diana Wynne Jones
The Pinhoe Egg – Diana Wynne Jones
Dead Beat – Jim Butcher
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
Proven Guilty – Jim Butcher
*Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
Superior Saturday – Garth Nix
*Letters From Father Christmas – J.R.R. Tolkien
Across the Wall – Garth Nix
A Bad Spell in Yurt – C. Dale Brittain
*A Short History of Fantasy – Farah Mendlesohn & Edward James
Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
A Bad Beginning – Lemony Snicket
*The Hotel Under the Sand – Kage Baker
The Lives of Christopher Chant – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Thirteen Clocks – James Thurber
Turn Coat – Jim Butcher
*Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
*The Anvil of the World – Kage Baker
*The Accidental Sorcerer – K.E. Mills
The Witches – Roald Dahl
Jingo – Terry Pratchett
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Boy – Roald Dahl
*The Children of Green Knowe – L.M Boston, read by Simon Vance
*The Worst Witch – Jill Murphy
*The Gremlins – Roald Dahl
*The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington – Jennet Conant, read by Simon Prebble
*Surprised by Joy – C.S. Lewis, read by Geoffrey Howard
*Carmen – Prosper MĂ©rimĂ©e
*The Light Princess – George MacDonald
My Teacher is an Alien – Bruce Coville
*The Pilgrim’s Regress – C.S. Lewis, read by Robert Whitfield
The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
*Lord Sunday – Garth Nix
*The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis, read by Robert Whitfield
*The Abolition of Man – C.S. Lewis, read by Robert Whitfield
The Faceless Ones – Derek Landy
The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien
Witch Week – Diana Wynne Jones
The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud, read by Simon Jones
*Whose Body? – Dorothy L. Sayers, read by Nadia May
The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett
*The Four Loves – C.S. Lewis
*Clouds of Witness – Dorothy L. Sayers
*The Lost City of Z – David Grann
*Unnatural Death – Dorothy L.Sayers
*The Dragon Book – ed. Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint – C. Dale Brittain
*Crows and Cards – Joseph Helgerson
*The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club – Dorothy L. Sayers
*Ingledove – Marly Youmans
*The Wonderful O – James Thurber
All Things Bright and Beautiful – James Herriot
*The Documents in the Case – Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace
Mage Quest – C. Dale Brittain
*Strong Poison – Dorothy L. Sayers
Playing With Fire – Derek Landy
Something from the Nightside – Simon R. Green
*Dark Days – Derek Landy
The Other Sinbad – Craig Shaw Gardner
Faust Eric – Terry Pratchett
*Fairest – Gail Carson Levine, read by Sarah Naughton
*The Fairy’s Mistake – Gail Carson Levine
*The Princess Test – Gail Carson Levine
All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot
*Fly By Night – Frances Hardinge
*The Black Book of Secrets – F. E. Higgins
*Mortal Engines – Philip Reeve
*Barnaby Grimes: Phantom of Blood Alley – Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
*Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense – N.T. Wright, read by Simon Prebble
*The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine – Colin E. Gunton
Mister Monday – Garth Nix
Odd and the Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman
Quidditch Through the Ages – J.K. Rowling
Night Watch – Terry Pratchett
Minnow on the Say – Phillipa Pearce
*I Am Not a Serial Killer – Dan Wells
Maskerade – Terry Pratchett
Dogsbody – Diana Wynne Jones
Johnny and the Bomb – Terry Pratchett
*The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden – Catherynne M. Valente
The Witch and the Cathedral – C. Dale Brittain
Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
*A College of Magics – Caroline Stevermer
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
Maskarade – Terry Pratchett
*Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos – R.L. Lafevers
*Treasure Box – Orson Scott Card
*Magic Below Stairs – Caroline Stevermer
Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett
The Last Siege – Jonathan Stroud
The Secret Country – Pamela Dean (read aloud to Elizabeth)
The Hidden Land – Pamela Dean (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy (read aloud to Sarah)
*The Once and Future King – T.H. White
The Whim of the Dragon – Pamela Dean (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Changes – Jim Butcher
*Gifts – Ursula Le Guin
*The Book of Merlyn – T. H. White
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J. K. Rowling
*The Fall – Garth Nix
The Magic Thief: Lost – Sarah Prineas
*Castle – Garth Nix
*Aenir – Garth Nix
*Above the Veil – Garth Nix
*Into Battle – Garth Nix
*The Violet Keystone – Garth Nix
Which Witch – Eva Ibbotson
*The Secret of Platform 13 – Eva Ibbotson
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling
*From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg
*The Great Ghost Escape – Eva Ibbotson
*The Ghost Rescue – Eva Ibbotson
The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones, read by Jenny Sterlin
*Thief of Midnight – Catherine Butzen
*The Challenge of Jesus – N.T. Wright, read by Simon Vance
*The Sherlock Holmes Theatre – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
*The Wizard of London – Mercedes Lackey
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
*Doctor Dolittle: A Treasury – Hugh Lofting
Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
M is for Magic – Neil Gaiman
Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling
Interworld – Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
Treason – Orson Scott Card
The Homeward Bounders – Diana Wynne Jones
Mortal Coil – Derek Landy
Lord Sunday – Garth Nix
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams
Castle in the Air – Diana Wynne Jones
The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett
*Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
*Unseen Academicals – Terry Pratchett
*Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
*Verdigris Deep – Frances Hardinge
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
Danny Champion of the World – Roald Dahl
*The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud
Lirael – Garth Nix
I Am Not a Serial Killer – Dan Wells
*Mr. Monster – Dan Wells
Abhorsen – Garth Nix
*Gullstruck Island – Frances Hardinge
Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror – Chris Priestley
*The Ghastlycrumb Tinies – Edward Gorey
North Child – Edith Pattou
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clark, read by Simon Prebble
*I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett
*Tales of Terror from the Black Ship – Chris Priestley
*Spellbinder – Helen Stringer, read by Helen Stringer
Conrad’s Fate – Diana Wynne Jones
*Philosophical Fragments – Johannes Climacus/ S. Kierkegaard
*The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Winnie-the-Pooh¬ – A. A. Milne
The House at Pooh Corner – A. A. Milne
The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud
*Found – Sarah Prineas
*The Worst Witch Saves the Day – Jill Murphy
*Wizard at Work – Vivian Vande Velde
*Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris – R. L. LaFevers
*The Werewolf’s Guide to Life – Ritch Duncan and Bob Powers

2011
Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones
The Hotel Under the Sand – Kage Baker
*The Rumplestiltskin Problem – Vivian Vande Velde
*Flight of the Phoenix – R.L. LaFevers
*The Basilisk’s Lair – R.L. LaFevers
*The Wyvern’s Treasure – R.L. LaFevers
The Ellimist – K.A. Applegate
Which Witch – Eva Ibbotson
Hexwood – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Glass Demon – Helen Grant
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
*Mr Rosenblum’s List – Natasha Solomons
*The Warrior’s Apprentice – Lois McMaster Bujold
*The Vor Game – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Borders of Infinity – Lois McMaster Bujold
Companions of the Night – Vivian Vande Velde
*Spindle’s End – Robin McKinley
*Brothers in Arms – Lois McMaster Bujold
The Four Loves – C.S. Lewis
*Belin’s Hill – Catherine Fisher
*At the House of the Magician – Mary Hooper
Labyrinth – A.C.H. Smith
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories – James Finn Garner
I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett
*The Thornthwaite Inheritance – Gareth P. Jones
*Cetaganda – Lois McMaster Bujold
Vertigris Deep – Frances Hardinge
*Mont Cant Gold – Paul R. Fisher
*Mirror Dance – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold
Changes – Jim Butcher
*Barrayar – Lois McMaster Bujold
Pentecost Alley – Anne Perry, read by David McCallum
The Warrior’s Apprentice – Lois McMaster Bujold, (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Cart and Cwidder – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Servants – M.M. Smith
Blood Rites – Jim Butcher
*Komarr – Lois McMaster Bujold
*A Civil Campaign – Lois McMaster Bujold
*The Last Tsar: the Life and Death of Nicholas II – Edvard Radzinsky, read by David McCallum
*The Bone Collector – Jeffery Deaver, read by David McCallum
The Lord God Made Them All – James Herriot
Tertiary Phase – Doublas Adams, read by Simon Jones
*Memoirs from the House of the Dead – F.M. Dostoevsky
*Diplomatic Immunity – Lois McMaster Bujold
The Manual of Detection – Jedediah Berry, read by Pete Larkin
*The Changeover – Margaret Mahy
*Ghost of a Chance – Rhiannon Lassiter
Ptolemy’s Gate – Jonathan Stroud
Mixed Magics – Diana Wynne Jones
Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones
*Cryoburn – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Side Jobs – Jim Butcher
A Sudden Wild Magic – Diana Wynne Jones
Puss in Boots – Diana Wynne Jones, read by Sarah
The Ogre Downstairs – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Vampire Affair – David McDaniel
*User Unfriendly – Vivian Vande Velde
Curses, Inc. – Vivian Vande Velde
*The Sharing Knife: Beguilement – Lois McMater Bujold
*Shards of Honor – Lois McMaster Bujold
*The Lost Gate – Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Janice Card
*Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
Fly by Night – Frances Hardinge
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones, (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
*Dearly Devoted Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
*Dexter in the Dark – Jeff Lindsay
*Dexter by Design – Jeff Lindsay
*Dexter is Delicious – Jeff Lindsay
Year of the Griffin – Diana Wynne Jones
*Falling Free – Lois McMaster Bujold
*The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories – P.G. Wodehouse
*Unforgettable – Eric James Stone
*Quick Service – P.G. Wodehouse
*The Innocence of Father Brown – G.K. Chesterton
*The Wisdom of Father Brown – G.K. Chesterton
*The Eight Doctors – Terrence Dicks
*The Bodysnatchers – Mark Morris
*War of the Daleks – John Peel
*The Thousand Coffins Affair – Michael Avallone
*The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Mr. Monster – Dan Wells
*I Don’t Want to Kill You – Dan Wells
*The Doomsday Affair – Harry Whittington
*The Seven Towers – Patricia C. Wrede
Blue Moon Rising – Simon R. Green
*The Android’s Dream – John Scalzi
*Jack the Giant Killer – Charles de Lint
*Agent to the Stars – John Scalzi
*Among Others – Jo Walton
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
*Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
*Banquets of the Black Widowers – Isaac Asimov
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson, read by David Warner
*Ghost Brigades – John Scalzi
Warlock at the Wheel and Other Stories – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
*Chalice – Robin McKinley
*Tales of the Black Widowers – Isaac Asimov
*Alchemy – Margaret Mahy
*Time for the Stars – Robert Heinlein
*The Witchcraft of Salem Village – Shirley Jackson
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne Valente
*The Blue Sword – Robin McKinley
*Beauty – Robin McKinley
*The Last Colony – John Scalzi
*The Incarnation of the Word of Christ – St. Athanasius
*The Magic Wings – Diane Wolkstein
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
The Dubious Hills – Pamela Dean
*Welcome to the Jungle – Jim Butcher
*Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss
*Ghost Story – Jim Butcher
*Firebird Anthology
*Spiderman: the Darkest Hours – Jim Butcher
*Old Friend of the Family – Fred Saberhagen
Homeward Bounders – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Being Dead – Vivian Vande Velde
*Nevermore – Keith R.A. DeCandido
*The Stone Fey – Robin McKinley
*Confessions of a Tax Collector – Richard Yancey
*Dragon Slippers – Jessica Day George
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland – Diana Wynne Jones
Heir Apparent – Vivian Vande Velde
Backup – Jim Butcher
*The Illyrian Adventure – Lloyd Alexander
The Vor Game – Lois McMaster Bujold
Borders of Infinity – Lois McMaster Bujold
*All Things Wise and Wonderful – James Herriot
*Fuzzy Nation – John Scalzi
Nightfall and Other Stories – Isaac Asimov
*Hana Kimi (1) – Hisaya Nakajo
*Angelmass – Timothy Zahn
*The Door in the Hedge – Robin McKinley
*Book of a Thousand Days – Shannon Hale
*A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L'Engle
*A Wind in the Door – Madeleine L'Engle
*Manta's Gift – Timothy Zahn
*A Well-Timed Enchantment –Vivian Vande Velde
*Green Rider – Kristen Britain
Never Trust a Dead Man – Vivian Vande Velde
The Alien – K.A. Applegate
The 13 Clocks – James Thurber
*Aesop's Fables – Aesop
Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder
White Night – Jim Butcher
Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
*Earwig and the Witch – Diana Wynne Jones
*Frogspell – C.J. Busby
Searching for Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
Calling on Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
Talking to Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
*God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament – Richard Bauckham
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
*Works of Love – Søren Kierkegaard.
*World War Z – Max Brooks
*The Ogre of Oglefort – Eva Ibbotson
*The Iron King – Julie Kagawa
Witch Dreams – Vivian Vande Velde
Dark Days – Derek Landy
Mortal Coil – Derek Landy
*Death Bringer – Derek Landy
*Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
*Persuasion – Jane Austen
Death Masks – Jim Butcher
Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett
*A Night of Blacker Darkness – Dan Wells
Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 – War Department, Washington D.C.
*The Ghost of Shadow Vale – Jonathan Stroud
*Snuff – Terry Pratchett
*Throne of Jade – Naomi Novik
Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett
*His Majesty's Dragon – Naomi Novik
Agent to the Stars – John Scalzi
Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Black Powder War – Naomi Novik

2012
Wilkin’s Tooth – Diana Wynne Jones
Ghost Story – Jim Butcher
*Empire of Ivory – Naomi Novik
*Victory of Eagles – Naomi Novik
Cetaganda – Lois McMaster Bujold
Komarr – Lois McMaster Bujold
Cryoburn – Lois McMaster Bujold
*The Death of Yorik Mortwell – Stephen Messer
Feet of Clay – Terry Pratchett
*Working Stiff – Rachel Caine
*Resonance – Chris Dolley
*Theology and the Problem of Evil – Kenneth Surin
Power of Three – Diana Wynne Jones
*Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: the Social and Literary Context – David Instone-Brewer
Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold
*You Buy Bones – Marcia Wilson
*First Flight – Robin McKinley
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Fire and Hemlock – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
A Night of Blacker Darkness – Dan Wells (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
*Plot it Yourself – Rex Stout
The Android’s Dream – John Scalzi (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Partials – Dan Wells
*A Confusion of Princes – Garth Nix
The Sign of the Four – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Blood and Honour – Simon Green
Brothers-in-Arms – Lois McMaster Bujold
Wild Robert – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (audio book)
Winnie-the-Pooh – A.A. Milne
Complete Guide to Guys – Dave Barry
The Secret Country – Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land – Pamela Dean
The Whim of the Dragon – Pamela Dean
Cauldron Spell – C.J. Busby
Verdigris Deep – Frances Hardinge
*Cursor’s Fury – Jim Butcher
I Don’t Want to Kill You – Dan Wells
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Thief of Midnight – Catherine Butzen
*Etiquette (17th Edition) – Emily Post
*The Hollow City – Dan Wells
*Sunshine – Robin McKinley
*Captain’s Fury – Jim Butcher
Chalice – Robin McKinley
*Dragonhaven – Robin McKinley
Beauty – Robin McKinley
The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones
*A Face Like Glass – Frances Hardinge
*Blue Diablo – Ann Aguire
*Flora Segunda – Ysabeau S. Wilce
*White Cat – Holly Black
*The Demon’s Lexicon – Sarah Rees Brennan
*Red Glove – Holly Black
*Black Heart – Holly Black
*The Demon’s Covenant – Sarah Rees Brennan
*The Demon’s Surrender – Sarah Rees Brennan
*Deerskin – Robin McKinley
*The Changeling Prince – Vivian Vande Velde
The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Mission Veritas – John Murphy (read aloud to Elizabeth
Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
Earwig and the Witch – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Poison Study – Maria V. Snyder
*Cold Days – Jim Butcher
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth – Chris Priestley
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (read aloud to Elizabeth)

2013
*The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There – Catherynne M. Valente
*Unspoken – Sarah Rees Brennan
*Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in Your Child – Dr. Ken Gibson with Kim Hanson and Tanya Mitchell
*View From the Imperium – Jody Lynne Nye
*Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh – Robert C. O’Brien
Death Masks – Jim Butcher
Sunshine – Robin McKinley
*Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Little One-Inch and Other Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories – Tuttle
*Intermix Nation – M.P. Attardo
Partials – Dan Wells
*Fragments – Dan Wells
*Dragon and Thief – Timothy Zahn
*Dragon and Soldier – Timothy Zahn
*An Unexpected Apprentice – Jody Lynne Nye
*A Forthcoming Wizard – Jody Lynne Nye
A Bad Spell in Yurt – C. Dale Brittain
The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Wizard – C. Dale Brittain
*Wishbringer – Craig Shaw Gardiner
*The Black Dudley Murder – Margery Allingham
*Fairy Godmothers, Inc. – Jenniffer Wardell
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
The Time of the Ghost – Diana Wynne Jones
*Mystery Mile – Margery Allingham
*The Dark Lake – Anthea Carson
*Call Me Jane – Anthea Carson
Wizard at Work – Vivian Vande Velde (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Deadly Pink – Vivian Vande Velde
The Silver Chair – C.S. Lewis
*Thin Ice – Anthea Carson
*Police at the Funeral – Margery Allingham
*Stolen – Vivian Vande Velde
*Death of a Ghost – Margery Allingham
*A Hidden Magic – Vivian Vande Velde
*Descendants of Darkness – Yami no Matsuei
*The Code Book – Simon Singh
*The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Buried Fire – Jonathan Stroud (read aloud to Elizabeth)
The Haunting – Shirley Jackson
The Demon’s Lexicon – Sarah Rees Brennan
*Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Grace Lin
Dragon of the Lost Sea – Laurence Yep
Cold Days – Jim Butcher
*The Magical Adventures of Prunella Bogthistle – Deva Fagan
*Jinx – Sage Blackwood
*The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*The Land of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*Ozma of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*The Icarus Hunt – Timothy Zahn
*Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz – L. Frank Baum
*Night Train to Rigel – Timothy Zahn
*The Third Lynx – Timothy Zahn
*The Road to Oz – L. Frank Baum
The Hollow City – Dan Wells (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Turn Coat – Jim Butcher
*The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
*The Emerald City of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*The Patchwork Girl of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*Child of Fire – Harry Connolly
*Trading in Danger – Elizabeth Moon
Puss in Boots – Diana Wynne Jones
*Odd Girl Out – Timothy Zahn
*Shadows – Robin McKinley
*The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
*The Screaming Staircase – Jonathan Stroud
Snuff – Terry Pratchett
The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud
*Airs above the Ground – Mary Stewart
The Screaming Staircase – Jonathan Stroud (read aloud to Elizabeth)
Spindle’s End – Robin McKinley
The Genesis of Jazrael – Jeannie Ingraham
*The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings – Kevin Crossley-Holland
Angelmass – Timothy Zahn
Frogspell – C.J. Busby
Cauldron Spells – C.J. Busby
The Changeling Prince – Vivian Vande Velde
The Conjurer Princess – Vivian Vande Velde
*The Domino Pattern – Timothy Zahn
*Frogged – Vivian Vande Velde
*Ghost of a Hanged Man – Vivian Vande Velde
*Tuesdays at the Castle – Jessica Day George

2014
*Wednesdays in the Tower – Jessica Day George
The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
Jinx – Sage Blackwood
*Jinx’s Magic – Sage Blackwood
Spider-Man: the Darkest Hours – Jim Butcher
*Hyperbole and a Half – Allie Brosh
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
*The Scarecrow of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*Between Silk and Cyanide: a Codemaker’s War 1941-1945 – Leo Marks
The Wonderful O – James Thurber
*Double Cross: the True Story of the D-Day Spies – Ben Macintyre
Now You See It . . . – Vivian Vande Velde
Dragon Sleeping – Craig Shaw Gardner
Dragon Waking – Craig Shaw Gardner
Dragon Burning – Craig Shaw Gardener
*Influence: the New Psychology of Modern Persuasion – Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.
The Changling War – Peter Garrison
The Sorcerer’s Gun – Peter Garrison
The Magic Dead – Peter Garrison
The Warrior’s Apprentice – Lois McMaster Bujold
The Vor Game – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Last Stand of Dead Men – Derek Landy
*The End of the World – Derek Landy
The Kingdom of the Wicked – Derek Landy
*Ruins – Dan Wells
Death Bringer – Derek Landy
*Dark Whispers – Chris Blaine
*Judgment at Proteus – Timothy Zahn
The Worst Witch – Jill Murphy
*Redshirts – John Scalzi
*Cuckoo Song – Frances Hardinge
*Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett
*I Heard That Song Before – Mary Higgins Clark
*Stillwatch – Mary Higgins Clark
*I’ll Walk Alone – Mary Higgins Clark
*Heir to the Empire – Timothy Zahn
*Skin Game – Jim Butcher
*The Islands of Chaldea – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Luck of Relian Kru – Paula Volsky
*All Around the Town – Mary Higgins Clark
*Heart’s Blood – Juliet Marillier
*Portal to E’ewere – Irma Walker
*Slaves of the Volcano God – Craig Shaw Gardner
*Bride of the Slime Monster – Craig Shaw Gardner
*Dark Force Rising – Timothy Zahn
*The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
*The Curse of the Witch-Queen – Paula Volsky
*The Last Command – Timothy Zahn
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
I Am Not a Serial Killer – Dan Wells (read aloud to Elizabeth)
*Next of Kin – Dan Wells
*Israel Rank: the Autobiography of a Criminal – Roy Horniman
*By These Ten Bones – Clare B. Dunkle
The Magicians of Caprona – Diana Wynne Jones
The Pinhoe Egg – Diana Wynne Jones
The Ghost of Shadow Vale – Jonathan Stroud
Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary – Pamela Dean
*The Dying of the Light – Derek Landy
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
*The Whispering Skull – Jonathan Stroud
Cloaked in Red – Vivian Vande Velde
The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
*The Maleficent Seven – Derek Landy
*Bunnincula – Deborah and James Howe
Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Amityville Horror – Jay Anson
*Clariel – Garth Nix
Sabriel – Garth Nix
*Howliday Inn – James Howe
Lyrael – Garth Nix
Abhorsen – Garth Nix
The Creature in the Case – Garth Nix
*The Celery Stalks at Midnight – James Howe
*Nighty-Nightmare – James Howe
The Icarus Hunt – Timothy Zahn
*Return to Howliday Inn – James Howe
Skin Game – Jim Butcher
Hexwood – Diana Wynne Jones
Skulduggery Pleasant – Derek Landy
The Ragwitch – Garth Nix
Conrad’s Fate – Diana Wynne Jones
Side Jobs – Jim Butcher
The Demon’s Covenant – Sarah Rees Brennan
The Demon’s Surrender – Sarah Rees Brennan
*Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allen Crow – James Howe
Shadows – Robin McKinley
Blue Moon Rising – Simon R. Green
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
*Emma – Jane Austen
The Spellcoats – Diana Wynne Jones
The Crown of Dalemark – Diana Wynne Jones
*How to Train Your Dragon – Cressida Cowell (read by David Tennant)
*Killing Floor – Lee Child
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
*The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two – Catherynne M. Valente
2015
*Mars Evacuees – Sophia McDougal
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
*How to Be A Pirate – Cressida Cowell (read aloud by David Tennant)
Earwig and the Witch – Diana Wynne Jones (read aloud to Sarah)
Next of Kin – Dan Wells
Mr. Monster – Dan Wells
I Don’t Want to Kill You – Dan Wells
*Anno Dracula – Kim Newman
*How to Speak Dragonese – Cressida Cowell (read aloud by David Tennant)
*Icespell – C.J. Busby
Dragon of the Lost Sea – Laurence Yep
*How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse – Cressida Cowell (read aloud by David Tennant)
Dragon Steel – Laurence Yep
*A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons – Cressida Cowell (read aloud by David Tennant)
*Dreamer’s Pool – Juliet Marillier
*How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale – Cressida Cowell (read aloud by David Tennant)
*Moonraker – Ian Fleming (read aloud by Simon Vance)
*Ten Little Indians – Agatha Christie (read aloud by Norman Barrs)
*The Perilous Gard – Elizabeth Marie Pope
Dracula – Bram Stoker (read aloud by Audible cast)
Dragon Cauldron – Laurence Yep
*Rebecca – Daphne duMaurier
Dragon War – Laurence Yep
*The Lost Princess of Oz – L. Frank Baum
*How to Ride a Dragon’s Storm – Cressida Cowell (read by David Tennant)
Fain the Sorcerer – Steve Aylett
*Swordspell – C.J. Busby
*Sapphire and Steel – Peter J. Hammond
*The Red House Mystery – A.A. Milne
*Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) – Jerome K. Jerome
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson (read by David Warner)
*How to Break a Dragon’s Heart – Cressida Cowell (read by David Tennant)
*The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie (read by unknown)
*The Vampire Tapestry – Suzy McKee Charnas
*Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice (read by Simon Vance)
The Manual of Detection – Jedidiah Berry
*The Sherwood Ring – Elizabeth Marie Pope
*Ivanhoe (abridged) – Sir Walter Scott (read by David Warner)
Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
*Mary Poppins Comes Back – P.L. Travers
*Mary Poppins Opens the Door – P.L. Travers
*The Crime Studio – Steve Aylett
*The Ruby Tear – Suzy McKee Charnas
Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
*Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
*The Vampire Lestat – Anne Rice (read by Simon Vance)
*The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work – Suzette Haden Elgin
My Friend the Vampire – Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
How to be a Vampire – R. L. Stein
The Vampire Moves in – Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
*The Bronze King – Suzy McKee Charnas
The Vampire Takes a Trip – Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
*The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense – Suzette Haden Elgin
*The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus – L. Frank Baum
*The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux
*The Silver Glove – Suzy McKee Charnas
*Japanese Fairy Tales – Yei Theodora Ozaki
The Innocence of Father Brown – G.K. Chesterton
*The Golden Thread – Suzy McKee Charnas
*The God Collector – Catherine Butzen
*The Little Vampire in Danger – Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
The Little Vampire in Love – Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
*Dave Barry’s Homes and Other Black Holes – Dave Barry
*Not in the Flesh – Ruth Rendell (ready by Simon Vance)
Dave Barry Does Japan – Dave Barry
A College of Magics – Caroline Stevermer
Magic Below Stairs – Caroline Stevermer
*The Perfume of the Lady in Black – Gaston Leroux
*More on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense – Suzette Haden Elgin
Emma – Jane Austen
Aunt Maria – Diana Wynne Jones
*Beast Charming – Jenniffer Wardell
*The Phantom Clue – Gaston Leroux
Fairy Godmothers, Inc. – Jenniffer Wardell
Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones
The Secret Country – Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land – Pamela Dean
The Whim of the Dragon – Pamela Dean
Spider-Man: the Darkest Hours – Jim Butcher
A Sudden, Wild Magic – Diana Wynne Jones
The Rebel Witch – Jack Lovejoy
The Book of Mordred – Vivian Vande Velde
*Darkwater – Catherine Fisher
*The Silver Crown – Robert C. O’Brien
Dealing With Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede
Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Louis Sachar
The Ghost Wore Gray – Bruce Coville
*To Hold the Bridge – Garth Nix
*The Devil’s Only Friend – Dan Wells
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
*Book of Enchantments – Patricia C. Wrede
The Ghost of Shadow Vale – Jonathan Stroud
A Confusion of Princes – Garth Nix
*Nine Goblins – T. Kingfisher
*The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett
*A Well-Timed Enchantment – Vivian Vande Velde
Wizard at Work – Vivian Vande Velde
*Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Chalice – Robin McKinley
*Deep Amber – C.J. Busby
Heroes of the Valley – Jonathan Stroud
*The Ghost in the Third Row – Bruce Coville
*Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John le CarrĂ©
*Murder One: a writer’s guide to homicide – Mauro V. Crovasce & Joseph R. Paglino
The Whispering Skull – Jonathan Stroud
The Screaming Staircase – Jonathan Stroud
The Golem’s Eye – Jonathan Stroud
*Perverting the Course of Justice – Inspector Gadget
*The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John le CarrĂ©
Ptolemy’s Gate – Jonathan Stroud
East – Edith Pattou
*Midnight Magic – Avi
*The Shepherd’s Crown – Terry Pratchett
*Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-in-Training – Tom Jokinen
*Does This Mean You’ll See Me Naked? – Robert D. Webster
Dead Beat – Jim Butcher
Ghost Story – Jim Butcher
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
*The Hollow Boy – Jonathan Stroud
The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
*The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
*Just the Facts, Ma’am: a writer’s guide to investigators and investigation techniques – Greg Fallis
Cold Days – Jim Butcher
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
Down Among the Dead Men – Simon R. Green
Mister Monday – Garth Nix
Grim Tuesday – Garth Nix
Drowned Wednesday – Garth Nix
Sir Thursday – Garth Nix
Lady Friday – Garth Nix
Superior Saturday – Garth Nix
Lord Sunday – Garth Nix
*Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith
*Hawk and Fisher – Simon R. Green
*Winner Take All – Simon R. Green
*The God Killer – Simon R. Green
The Icarus Hunt – Timothy Zahn
*Conquerors’ Pride – Timothy Zahn
Heir Apparent – Vivian Vande Velde
*Dragon Amber – C.J. Busby
Dragon’s Bait – Vivian Vande Velde
The Shining – Stephen King
Angelmass – Timothy Zahn
*The Dark Crusader – Alistair MacLean
*What Makes Love Last?: How to build trust and avoid betrayal – John Gottman and Nan Silver
A Night of Blacker Darkness – Dan Wells
*A Pear-Shaped Funeral – Dan Wells
*The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi
Blood Rites – Jim Butcher
Dark Lord of Derkholm – Diana Wynne Jones
Year of the Griffin – Diana Wynne Jones
*The Golden Rendezvous – Alistair MacLean
Clariel – Garth Nix
Buried Fire – Jonathan Stroud
*South by Java Head – Alistair MacLean
The God Collector – Catherine Butzen
*Night Without End – Alistair MacLean
*Deadman Switch – Timothy Zahn
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy – C.S. Lewis
*Santorini – Alistair MacLean
Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
2016
*The Spirit Lens – Carol Berg
*Ice Station Zebra – Alistair MacLean
*The Soul Mirror – Carol Berg
*Raising Demons – Shirley Jackson
*Newt’s Emerald – Garth Nix
*The Daemon Prism – Carol Berg
*The Satan Bug – Alistair MacLean
Manta’s Gift – Timothy Zahn
*If Death Ever Slept – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
*Bear Island – Alistair MacLean
*Breakheart Pass – Alistair MacLean
*Fer-De-Lance – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
*Plot it Yourself – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
*Homocide Trinity – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
*The Way to Dusty Death – Alistair MacLean
*Before Midnight – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
Roverandom – J.R.R. Tolkien
*A Family Affair – Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)
*Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
*The League of Frightened Men – Rex Stout
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
*The Rubber Band – Rex Stout
*Puppet on a Chain – Alistair MacLean
*Caravan to Vaccares – Alistair MacLean
*The Guns of Navarone – Alistair MacLean
The Hollow Boy – Jonathan Stroud
*When Eight Bells Toll – Alistair MacLean
*The Golden Gate – Alistair MacLean
*Outbound Flight – Timothy Zahn
The Rising Force – Dave Wolverton
*Scoundrels – Timothy Zahn
The Satan Bug – Alistair MacLean
*Fear Is the Key – Alistair MacLean
The Field Guide – Holly Black (read by Mark Hamill)
*Night Watch – Sergei Lukyanenko (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*The Forgotten Room – Lincoln Child
*Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho
*Fated – Benedict Jacka
*Shadow Prowler – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*Shadow Chaser – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*Shadow Blizzard – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*Cursed – Benedict Jacka
*Twilight Forever Rising – Lena Meydan (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*The Scar – Sergey and Marina Dyachenko (translated by Elinor Huntington)
*The Third Gate – Lincoln Child
*Taken – Benedict Jacka
*The Genome: A Novel – Sergei Lukyanenko (translated by Liv Bliss)
*Chosen – Benedict Jacka
The Dark Crusader – Alistair MacLean
*Hidden – Benedict Jacka
*Veiled – Benedict Jacka
*Burned – Benedict Jacka
*Clean – Alex Hughes
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson (read by David Warner)
*River of Death – Alistair MacLean
*Survivor’s Quest – Timothy Zahn
*The Sea of Trolls – Nancy Farmer
*Cat Stories – James Herriot
All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot
*Labyrinth of Evil – James Luceno
*Ghost King – David Gemmell
*Enchanted, Inc. – Shanna Swendson
*Once Upon Stilettos – Shanna Swendson
*Damsel Under Stress – Shanna Swendson
*Don’t Hex with Texas – Shanna Swendson
*Much Ado About Magic – Shanna Swendson
*The Secret Ways – Alistair MacLean
*Favorite Norse Myths – Mary Pope Osborne
*Odin’s Family: Myths of the Vikings – Neil Philip
Bear Island – Alistair MacLean
Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones
Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
*Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Norse – Leonard Everett Fisher
The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
All Things Bright and Beautiful – James Herriot
The Devil’s Only Friend – Dan Wells
The End of the World – Derek Landy
The Golden Rendezvous – Alistair MacLean
*Over Your Dead Body – Dan Wells
*Bluescreen – Dan Wells
Odd and the Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman
*Norse Gods and Heroes – Morgan J. Roberts
*Ghoul Goblin – Jim Butcher
*Cloak – Timothy Zahn
*The Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski
*Sword of Destiny – Andrzej Sapkowski
*Blood of Elves – Andrzej Sapkowski
*Survival of the Prettiest – Nancy Etcoff
*Labyrinth of Reflections – Sergei Lukyanenko
*Demon Road – Derek Landy
*Revenge of the Sith – Matthew Stover and George Lucas
*The Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
*Queen Amidala – Jude Watson
*Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor – Matthew Stover
*Lady Susan – Jane Austen
*The Creeping Shadow – Jonathan Stroud
*The King’s Speech – Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
*Goldenhand – Garth Nix
*Thor’s Wedding Day – Bruce Coville
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (read by Elizabeth Klett)
*The Land of the Silver Apples – Nancy Farmer
*The Vampyre; A Tale – John William Polidori
*Murder and Mayhem – Randall Garrett
*Too Many Magicians – Randall Garrett
*Books of Adam: the Blunder Years – Adam Ellis
*Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories – John Taylor (read by Benedict Cumberbatch)
*Death in a White Tie – Ngaio Marsh (read by Benedict Cumberbatch)
*Embers – Laura Bickle
*Final Curtain – Ngaio Marsh (read by Wanda McCaddon)
*Doctor Strange: The Oath – Brian K. Vaughan
*The Golden One – Deborah Chester
*Extreme Makeover – Dan Wells
*Crystal Bones – C. Aubrey Hall
*The Crimson Claw – Deborah Chester
*A Wreath for Rivera – Ngaio Marsh (read by Wanda McCaddon)
2017
*The Rise of Darth Vader – James Luceno
*Pawn’s Gambit and Other Strategems – Timothy Zahn
*Artists in Crime – Ngaio Marsh (read Benedict Cumberbatch)
*Scales of Justice – Ngaio Marsh (read by Benedict Cumberbatch)
Shadow Prowler – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
*The Crystal Eye – Deborah Chester
*Court of Fives – Kate Elliott
*Shades of Milk and Honey – Mary Robinette Kowal
*The Midnight Queen – Sylvia Izzo Hunter
*Darth Plagueis – James Luceno
*The Girl with Ghost Eyes – M. H. Boroson
Pyramids – Terry Pratchett
Thief of Midnight – Catherine Butzen
*Fell the Angels – Catherine Butzen
*Between Two Thorns – Emma Newman
*Any Other Name – Emma Newman
*All Is Fair – Emma Newman
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work – Susette Haden Elgin
*The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
*Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King – William Joyce & Laura Geringer
*The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway –  Lise Lunge-Larsen
*Ash & Bramble – Sarah Prineas
*The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch – Joseph Delaney
*Curse of the Bane – Joseph Delaney
*The Warded Man – Peter V. Brett
*Night of the Soul Stealer – Joseph Delaney
*Attack of the Fiend – Joseph Delaney
*Ghost Prison – Joseph Delaney
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
Night Train to Rigel – Timothy Zahn
The Third Lynx – Timothy Zahn
Odd Girl Out – Timothy Zahn
The Domino Pattern – Timothy Zahn
Judgment at Proteus – Timothy Zahn
*The Tin Woodman of Oz – L. Frank Baum
Fated – Benedict Jacka
Cursed – Benedict Jacka
Taken – Benedict Jacka
Chosen – Benedict Jacka
Hidden – Benedict Jacka
Veiled – Benedict Jacka
Burned – Benedict Jacka
*Bound – Benedict Jacka
*Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded – Sage Blackwood
*Pawn – Timothy Zahn
*The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
Stolen – Vivian Vande Velde
Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird – Vivian Vande Velde
*Warhorse – Timothy Zahn
*Thrawn – Timothy Zahn
*Nothing Left to Lose – Dan Wells
Over Your Dead Body – Dan Wells
Shadow Chaser – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
Shadow Blizzard – Alexey Pehov (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
Curses, Inc. – Vivian Vande Velde
The Islands of Chaldea – Diana Wynne Jones
*Chasers of the Wind – Alexey Pehov
The Green and the Gray – Timothy Zahn
*The Diviners – Libba Bray
House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
Puppet on a Chain – Alastair MacLean
*Hand It to Bandit – Sandy Bacon Harding
Caps for Sale – Esphyr Slobodkina
Eric – Terry Pratchett
*The Face in the Frost – John Bellairs
The House with a Clock in Its Walls – John Bellairs
*The Figure in the Shadows – John Bellairs
When Eight Bells Toll – Alastair MacLean
*Madness – Marya Hornbacher
*The Center Cannot Hold – Elyn R. Saks
Blood and Honor – Simon R. Green
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
*Blind Descent – James M. Tabor
Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
*The Deep Zone – James M. Tabor
Deadman Switch – Timothy Zahn
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Creeping Shadow – Jonathan Stroud
*The Empty Grave – Jonathan Stroud
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
*Hell House – Richard Matheson
Dracula – Bram Stoker
*The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear – Walter Moers (trans. John Brownjohn)
*The City of Dreaming Books – Walter Moers (trans. John Brownjohn)
*The Lair of the White Worm – Bram Stoker
*Forever on the Mountain – James M. Tabor
Sunshine – Robin McKinley
*Rumo – Walter Moers (trans. John Brownjohn)
Shadows – Robin McKinley
*Partisans – Alastair MacLean
Scoundrels – Timothy Zahn
*The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books – Walter Moers (trans. John Brownjohn)
*The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden
Night Without End – Alastair MacLean
*Crispin: Cross of Lead – Avi 
*The Peculiar – Stefan Bachmann
Emma – Jane Austen
Ice Station Zebra – Alastair MacLean
*The Little White Bird – J.M. Barrie
Cetaganda – Lois McMaster Bujold
*Murder Most Unladylike – Robin Stevens
*The Whatnot – Stefan Bachman
*The Doubtful Guest – Edward Gorey
*Resurrection – Derek Landy
*13 Days of Midnight – Leo Hunt