Hitty:Her First Hundred Years

This book was written in 1929 and won the Newberry Medal in 1930. The book is told in first person by Hitty herself, who is writing her memoirs. Hitty is a wooden doll made the in the early 1800s. Her adventures are fascinating and she had many different owners and saw many different places in her first one hundred years. A fascinating book for doll lovers and history lovers too.

Kinship

When I first started this book, I thought maybe I wouldn't keep reading it. I stuck with it and am glad I did. 15 year old Pert lives in a trailer park with her mother and older brother. Her father left years ago but she always hopes he will return. He does return and Pert's life is turned upside down. An interesting book about family relationships and what family really means.

Jack on Tracks

This was a fun book about Jack during his fifth grade year. He's very much a typical boy. Funny book. It's funny how some of the things that he thinks is perfectly normal that you know is wrong a mile away. There are 3 more sequels and a prequel in this series that I plan to read.

The O'Reilly Factor

I used to listen to Bill O'Reilly's radio show all the time and occasionally his TV show. I don't always agree with him but I find him interesting. This book is his view on just about every aspect of American life. I find some of the stuff he says as pompous or like the way he does some things as the "perfect" way. But he always talks a lot on what he has done wrong. I find it interesting to read others views, even if I don't agree with them. I know a lot of people can't stand him but I find him interesting.

The Court of the Stone Children

I picked up this book since a lot of it takes place in a museum, my course of study and where I worked before I had children. I found it interesting that the main character wanted to work in museums when she grew up. The book has a supernatural element to it, which was the main part of the story. It's a queer little book, for some I can't place my finger on, but I liked it.

The Silver Nutmeg

This book was a very quick read. I didn't realize it was a sequel to the book Beyond the Paw Paw Trees. It is fine to read as a stand alone book, though. A cute children's story but it doesn't entice me enough to go read the other book.

Friends Like These

A chick lit book about 7 friends a few years after college when they reunite for an engagement party. The book takes place in England. I felt like I needed a British-English dictionary for many phrases and cultural references. Still, an entertaining book. I don't read many books of this type but it was a refreshing change of pace for me.

The Little White Horse

I orginally got this book a few years ago after I read that it is one of J.K. Rowling's favorite books. At first, I really didn't think much of the story but then I grew to love it. After a while, I really wanted to know what happened next and had to keep reading. The ending was predictable, though, once I figured out what was going to happen. Very good book.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

I've had this book for about 10 years. I actually met Mr. Loewen when I was an intern at the Smithsonian (he was doing his research there), and he gave a talk to the interns there. Very nice man. I think I bought his book at the gift shop after the talk.

Lowen analyzes 10 high school American history textbooks to see what they do and don't tell us, what they got wrong and what they got right. His argument, basically, is that the textbooks promote hero worship in American history and what we did in our past was never wrong.

The book was interesting but I did find some parts tedious. I was a history major in college, but I did not know everything he wrote about. He also wrote about why he thinks many Americans are not interested in history.

I have another book he wrote, Lies Across America, which is about what historic sites have gotten wrong.

The Little White Horse

I got this book because I read that it was one of J.K. Rowlings favorite books. At first it started out slow, but then I really got into it and it was a delightful story. I couldn't wait to see what happened next. A little predictable in the end but aren't most children's stories? A few things bugged me about it but overall a very good book.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

A fanciful story about 3 children and a professor traveling to a fantasy land to meet the title character of the book. Eh, ok. Not much to say about it. It was ok but not a favorite.

Children of Apollo

This book is an alternative history of the Apollo space program. It builds on the theory, what if Apollo didn't stop at Apollo 17 and continued on until Apollo 23. It is mainly the story of a female astronaut and her eventual flight to the moon on the last Apollo mission. Overall the book was ok, but it didn't really impress me too much. I think a lot of it had to do with the spelling and grammar errors. I usually don't notice these too much in books but they were everywhere in this book.