1. Abbey: Rifkind’s Challenge
2. Abraham: A Shadow in Summer
3. Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale
4. Baker: The House of the Stag
5. Ball: Disappearing Act
6. Barnes: The Domino Men
7. Bentley: Harmony
8. Bray: The Far Sweet Thing
9. Briggs: Moon Called
10. Bryan: The Serpent and the Rose
11. Butler: Nightshade
12. Butler: Survivor
13. Cabell: Jurgen
14. Carroll: Sleeping in Flame
15. Caselberg: Wyrmhole
16. Child: Tripwire
17. Clarke: Childhood’s End
18. Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans
19. Cunningham: Shadows in the Starlight
20. D’Almeida: The Musketeer’s Apprentice
21. Delany: Neveryona
22. Dines: The Queen’s Soprano
23. Duncan: Impossible Odds
24. Durgin: Heritage (Earth: Final Conflict)
25. Eddison: The Worm Ouroboros
26. Eliot: Middlemarch
27. Elliott: Shadow Gate
28. Elliott: Traitors’ Gate
29. Engdahl: This Star Shall Abide
30. Fisher: Sorcery Rising
31. Fisher: The Rose of the World
32. Fisher: Wild Magic
33. Flewelling: The Oracle’s Queen
34. Garrett: Lord Darcy Investigates
35. Gentle: Ash
36. Gerritsen: Vanish
37. Gilman: Thunderer
38. Haden Elgin: Star-Anchored, Star-Angered
39. Harris: Dead Until Dark
40. Hill: Blade of Fire
41. Hinton: Hawkes Harbor
42. Hobb: Renegade’s Magic
43. Hoffman: A Fistful of Sky
44. Hughart: Bridge of Birds
45. Huxley: Brave New World
46. Jones: A Sword from Red Ice
47. Jones: Life
48. King: The Wild Road
49. Lake: Mainspring
50. Landon: The Hidden Worlds
51. Larke: The Last Stormlord
52. Latner: Hurricane Moon
53. Learner: Soul
54. Lindskold: Child of a Rainless Year
55. Lisle: Hawkspar
56. Ly: Roots and Wings
57. MacAvoy: A Trio for Lute (Damiano, Damiano’s Lute, Raphael)
58. Mallet: The Princes of the Golden Cage
59. Masters: The Mushroom Years
60. McDonald: The Outback Stars
61. McDonald: The Stars Down Under
62. Meluch: Wolf Star
63. Novik: Black Powder War
64. Novik: Empire of Ivory
65. Pettersson: The Scent of Shadows
66. Priest: Four and Twenty Blackbirds
67. Roberson: Deepwood
68. Roberts: Salt
69. Robson: Selling Out
70. Rosenblum: Horizons
71. Rusch: Duplicate Effort
72. Russon: Undine
73. Sagara: Cast in Courtlight
74. Scott: The Bride of Lammermoor
75. Sinisalo: Troll
76. Smith: Inda
77. Smith: King’s Shield
78. Smith: The Fox
79. Snyder: Poison Study
80. Stewart: The Crystal Cave
81. Stewart: The Hollow Hills
82. Stewart: The Last Enchantment
83. Tepper: Sideshow
84. Tepper: The Gate to Women’s Country
85. Thomson: Storyteller
86. Thurman: Moonshine
87. Thurman: Nightlife
88. Traviss: Ally
89. Traviss: Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Revelation
90. Viehl: Plague of Memory
91. Walpole: The Castle of Otranto
92. Walton: The Sword Is Forged
93. Wilkins: The Veil of Gold
94. Williams: Shadowmarch
95. Williams: Shadowplay
96. Wooding: Poison
97. Woolley: Guinevere: The Legend in Autumn
98. Zelazny: The Chronicles of Amber (Sign of the Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon, The Courts of Chaos)
99. Zettel: Kingdom of Cages

“Laurence,” Temeraire said to him, as he climbed down to join the others, “this horse I am eating looks very odd to me; it is wearing a hat.”

1. Aguirre: Grimspace
2. Allende: Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
3. Atwood: The Robber Bride
4. Avanti: GreeHee: The Journey of Five
5. B., Christine: The Afterlife of Charlotte Browning
6. Banker: Prince of Ayodhya
7. Bowling: The Tower of Shadows
8. Bradley: Thendara House
9. Bray: A Great and Terrible Beauty
10. Bray: Rebel Angels
11. Bray: The First Betrayal
12. Bruns: Through Phantom Eyes: Volume 1
13. Buckell: Crystal Rain
14. Butler: Adulthood Rites
15. Butler: Dawn
16. Butler: Fledgling
17. Butler: Imago
18. Charnas: The Bronze King
19. Cherryh: Foreigner
20. Clare: City of Bones
21. Coe, David B.: Children of Amarid
22. Cooper: The Dark Is Rising
23. Dean: The Secret Country
24. Duey: Skin Hunger
25. Duncan: Children of Chaos
26. Duncan: Lord of the Fire Lands
27. Duncan: Sky of Swords
28. Duncan: The Gilded Chain
29. Durham: Acacia
30. Erikson: Gardens of the Moon
31. Eva Ibbotson: The Star of Kazan
32. Garner: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
33. Gentle: Illario: The Lion’s Eye
34. Greenwood: The Kingless Land
35. Grimsley: Last Green Tree
36. Hoyt: Heart of Light
37. Hugo: Les Miserables
38. Karr: Wildraith’s Last Battle
39. Kenyon: Bright of the Sky
40. Kiernan: Silk
41. King: The Golden Cat
42. Klause: Blood and Chocolate
43. Kushner: The Privilege of the Sword
44. Larbalestier: Magic’s Child
45. Le Guin: The Telling
46. Martin: The Huna Warrior
47. McKinley: Chalice
48. Meluch: The Myriad
49. Mieville: Un Lun Dun
50. Miller: The Awakened Mage
51. Nagata: Memory
52. Nicholson: The Wind Singer
53. Norton: The Beast Master
54. Novik: His Majesty’s Dragon
55. Palahniuk: Fight Club
56. Palmatier: The Cracked Throne
57. Palwick: Shelter
58. Paolini: Eragon
59. Poole: Jewel and Thorn
60. Roberson: Karavans
61. Rusch: Recovery Man
62. Russell: The Sparrow
63. Rutland: When We Were Colored
64. Shinn: Mystic and Rider
65. Shinn: The Safe-Keeper’s Secret
66. Shinn: The Truth-Teller’s Tale
67. Smith, West: Murder on the Middle Fork
68. Smith: I Capture the Castle
69. Spencer: Tinker
70. Stuart Hill: The Cry of the Icemark
71. Swift: Nottingham Lace
72. Taylor: Let the Circle Be Unbroken
73. Tepper: The Family Tree
74. Thomas: Dark Matter
75. Traviss: Matriarch
76. Valente: In the Cities of Coin and Spice
77. Valente: In the Night Garden
78. Voight: On Fortune’s Wheel
79. Walton: Farthing
80. Walton: Tooth & Claw
81. Ward: Life’s Spices from Seasoned Sistahs
82. Westerfeld: Blue Noon
83. Westerfeld: Touching Darkness
84. Williams: City on Fire
85. Wodehouse: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
86. Wooding: Storm Thief
87. Zelazny: The Guns of Avalon

. . . hidden in a book.

YES — I read it.
NO — I haven’t read it.
MAYBE — I don’t remember.

First grade

1. Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss YES
2. The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss NO
3. Are You My Mother? P.D. Eastman MAYBE
4. Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss YES
5. Biscuit, Alyssa Capucilli NO

Second grade

1. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff YES
2. Green Eggs and Ham YES
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle NO
4. If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Numeroff NO
5. If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Numeroff NO

Third grade

1. Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White YES
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Judi Barrett NO
3. Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann NO
4. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka NO
5. Dogzilla, Dav Pilkey NO, but it sounds like a fun book.

Fourth grade

1. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume NO, not even one of her books, although I’ve heard great things about them.
2. Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan NO
3. Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo NO
4. Charlotte’s Web
5. Stone Fox, John Gardiner NO

Fifth grade

1. Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson NO
2. Hatchet, Gary Paulsen NO
3. Holes, Louis Sachar NO
4. The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth Speare NO
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling YES

Sixth grade

1. Hatchet
2. Bridge to Terabithia
3. Holes
4. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry NO
5. The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket NO

Seventh grade

1. The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton YES
2. Holes
3. The Giver, Lowry NO
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling MAYBE

Eighth grade

1. The Outsiders
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
3. The Giver
4. Holes
5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling NO

Ninth–12th grade

1. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee YES
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
3. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck NO
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
5. A Child Called ‘It,’ Dave Pelzer NO

Wedded to convention, unable to see their own bigotry, small.

The writer who can’t distinguish truth from a peanut-butter sandwich can never write good fiction. What he affirms we deny, throwing away his book in indignation; or if he affirms nothing, not even our oneness in sad or comic helplessness, and insists that he’s perfectly right to do so, we confute him by closing his books. (John Gardner, The Art of Fiction)

. . . the road meandered along hills lined with the soft grey-brown of winter trees stitching a white sky to the ground.

– from Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson

1. Allison, Dorothy: Cavedweller
2. Ballantyne, Tony: Recursion
3. Bishop, Toby: Airs Beneath the Moon
4. Boyle: A Friend of the Earth
5. Brennan: Doppelganger
6. Bronte: Villette
7. Brown, Simon: Empire’s Daughter
8. Cook, Dawn: The Decoy Princess
9. Crispin, A.C.: Storms of Destiny
10. Croggon: The Naming
11. Croggon: The Riddle
12. Cross, Janine: Touched by Venom
13. Delaney: Nova
14. Duchamp: Alanya to Alanya
15. Edgerton, Teresa: The Queen’s Necklace
16. Elliott: Jaran
17. Elliott: Spirit Gate
18. Griffith: Ammonite
19. Hambly, Barbara: The Silicon Mage
20. Hemingway, Amanda: The Greenstone Grail
21. Hemingway, Amanda: The Sword of Straw
22. Hobb, Robin: Forest Mage
23. Hopkinson: The New Moon’s Arms
24. Howard, Madeline: The Hidden Stars
25. Hurston: Dust Tracks on a Road
26. Kerr: Snare
27. Kinnan: The Yearling
28. Kritzer, Naomi: Freedom’s Sisters
29. Kushner, Ellen: Thomas the Rhymer
30. Le Guin: Tehanu
31. Lee & Miller: Crystal Soldier
32. Lem, Stanislaw: His Master’s Voice
33. Lynn: Dragon’s Treasure
34. Malan, Violette: The Mirror Prince
35. Martin, George R.R.: A Feast for Crows
36. McMahon: Dance of Knives
37. McMaster Bujold: Sharing Knife, Beguilement
38. Miller, Karen: Innocent Mage
39. Miller, Steve: Balance of Trade
40. Moon, Elizabeth: Against the Odds
41. Moon, Elizabeth: Change of Command
42. Moon, Elizabeth: Command Decision
43. Moon, Elizabeth: Engaging the Enemy
44. Moon, Elizabeth: Marque and Reprisal
45. Moon, Elizabeth: Trading in Danger
46. Moon: Winning Colors
47. Moriarty, Chris: Spin Control
48. Moriarty: Spin State
49. Nagata, Linda: Limit of Vision
50. Okora-Mbachu: Zahrah the Windseeker
51. Ore, Rebecca: Gaia’s Toys
52. Palwick, Susan: The Necessary Beggar
53. Park: A Princess of Roumania
54. Pratchett: A Hat Full of Sky
55. Renault: The Bull from the Sea
56. Resnick, Laura: In Legend Born
57. Robinson: Fifty Degrees Below
58. Rusch, Kristene Kathryn: Extremes
59. Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Paloma
60. Rydill, Jessica: Children of the Shaman
61. Scott, Melissa: Trouble and Her Friends
62. Shelley: Frankenstein
63. Stroud: Amulet of Samarkand
64. Swanwick, Michael: The Iron Dragon’s Daughter
65. Tepper, Sheri S.: The Companions
66. Tuttle, Lisa: The Pillow Friend
67. Vaughn: Kitty and the Midnight Hour
68. Whitfield, Kit: Benighted
69. Wilkins: Giants of the Frost
70. Wilson: Spin
71. Wynne Jones, Diana: Hexwood
72. Young, Janine Ellen: The Bridge
73. Zimmer Bradley: The Shattered Chain

There is a doom upon you, but of what sort I know not.

Completely unrelated: When my daughter was younger and I tried to share my copious experience in an effort to stop her from making the same butthead mistakes I did, she didn’t exactly cover her ears. What she did, instead, was declaim loudly, “Doomed! I’m doomed!”

“Silence, traitor! Death is your doom now.”

And this one:

“I have a doom laid on me, a doom that concerns us all, and I seek your help.”