Books reviewed

Adios Hemingway ~ by Leonardo Padura Fuentes, 2005, mystery, 5/10

Agape Love: A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions ~ by John Templeton, 1999, religion, 10/10

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith ~ by Barbara Brown Taylor, 2009, spiritual life, 8/10

Anansi Boys ~ by Neil Gaiman, 2005, fantasy, 8/10

And Tango Makes Three ~ by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, 2005, children's book, 8/10

Animal Farm ~ by George Orwell, 1945, fiction, 9/10

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral ~ by Kris Radish, 2006, fiction, 9/10

Beneath a Marble Sky: A Novel of the Taj Mahal ~ by John Shors, 2004, historical fiction, 8/10

The Blackwater Lightship ~ by Colm Tóibín, 1999, fiction, 8/10

Blueberry Girl ~ by Neil Gaiman, 2009, children's, 10/10

The Book of Names ~ by Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori, 2007, fiction, 8/10

The Book on the Bookshelf ~ by Henry Petroski, 1999, history, 8/10

Bridge to Terabithia ~ by Katherine Paterson, 1977, children's fiction, 9/10

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ~ by Junot Díaz, 2007, fiction, "nah"

A Canticle for Leibowitz ~ by Walter M. Miller Jr., 1959, speculative fiction, 9/10

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine ~ by Sue Monk Kidd, 1996, memoir, 9/10

Dancing at the Harvest Moon ~ by K. C. McKinnon, pseudonym for Cathie Pelletier, 1997, fiction, 7/10

Dogsong ~ by Gary Paulsen, 1985, YA fiction, 9/10

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation ~ by Lynne Truss, 2004, a humorous look at punctuation, 9/10

End of Grace ~ by K. Thomas Murphy, 2009, fiction, 8/10

The Evangelical Universalist ~ by Gregory MacDonald, 2006 and 2008, religion, "nah"

Family Matters ~ by Rohinton Mistry, 2002, fiction, 8/10

The Fiction Class ~ by Susan Breen, 2008, fiction, 9/10

The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon ~ by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, 2009, religion, 9/10

The Foreign Student ~ by Susan Choi, 1998, fiction, 8/10

Forgive Me ~ by Amanda Eyre Ward, 2007, fiction, 8/10

Garden Spells ~ by Sarah Addison Allen, 2007, magical realism, 9/10

Genesis Revisited ~ by Zecharia Sitchin, 1990, nonfiction, 9/10

The Gnostic Gospels ~ by Elaine Pagels, 1979, religion, 10/10

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2006, religion, 10/10

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2009, children's

The Heart of Christianity ~ by Marcus J. Borg, 2003, religion, 10/10

The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette ~ by Carolly Erickson, 2006, historical fiction, 8/10

The Higher Power of Lucky ~ by Susan Patron, 2007, YA fiction, 9/10

Honest to God ~ by John A. T. Robinson, 1963, religion, 10/10

If I Had Long, Long Hair ~ by Angela Elwell Hunt, 1988, children's, 10/10

Jim the Boy ~ by Tony Earley, 2000, fiction, 7/10

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously ~ by Julie Powell, 2005, memoir, "nah"

Kersplatypus ~ by Susan K. Mitchell, 2008, picture book, 9/10

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 ~ by Simon Winchester, 2003, history, 10/10

The Language of Threads ~ by Gail Tsukiyama, 1999, historical fiction, 8/10

Latitudes of Melt, by Joan Clark, 2000 in Canada, 2002 in the US, fiction, 9/10

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith ~ by Barbara Brown Taylor, 2006, memoir, 9/10

Life as We Knew It ~ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 2006, YA fiction, 9/10

Little Black Sambo ~ by Helen Bannerman, 1899, children's, 10/10

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen ~ by Susan Gregg Gilmore, 2008, fiction, 8/10

The Lorax ~ by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Suess Geisel), 1971, children's picture book, 10/10

Luncheon of the Boating Party ~ by Susan Vreeland, 2007, fiction, 2/10 for now

Mademoiselle Victorine, by Debra Finerman, 2007, historical fiction, 8/10

The Madonnas of Leningrad ~ by Debra Dean, 2006, fiction, 10/10

The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World ~ by Ken Alder, 2002, history, 8/10

The Memory Keeper's Daughter ~ by Kim Edwards, 2005, fiction, 9/10

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog ~ by Ted Kerasote, 2007, memoir, 9/10

Miss Rumphius ~ by Barbara Cooney, 1982, children's fiction, 10/10

The Mists of Avalon ~ by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1982, fantasy, 10/10

More Than You Know ~ by Beth Gutcheon, 2000, fiction, 8/10

My Heart's in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland ~ by Liz Curtis Higgs, 2007, travel, 10/10

The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity ~ by Hyam Maccoby, 1986, religion, 8/10

The Namesake ~ by Jhumpa Lahiri, 2003, fiction, 8/10

Napoleon's Pyramids ~ by William Dietrich, 2007, historical fiction, 8/10

Netherland ~ by Joseph O'Neill, 2008, fiction, 8/10

Nineteen Minutes ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2007, fiction, 9/10

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ~ by Alexander McCall Smith, 1998, fiction, 9/10

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals ~ by Michael Pollan, 2006, nonfiction, 7/10

On My Honor ~ by Marion Dane Bauer, 1986, YA fiction, 10/10

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd ~ by Jim Fergus, 1998, historical fiction, 9.5/10

Other Goose: Recycled Rhymes for Our Fragile Times ~ by Barbara Klunder, 2007, activist rhymes on the environment and culture, 8/10

The Penelopiad ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2005, fiction, 7/10

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel ~ by Michio Kaku, 2008, physics, 9/10

Place Last Seen ~ by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman, 2000, fiction, 9/10

Point Last Seen: A Woman Tracker's Story ~ by Hannah Nyala, 1997, memoir, 8/10

Property ~ by Valerie Martin, 2003, fiction, 10/10

The Pull of the Moon ~ by Elizabeth Berg, 1996, fiction, 8/10

Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Women's Work ~ by Kathleen Norris, 1998, nonfiction, 10/10

Read All About It! by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush, 2008, picture book, 7/10

Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, by Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King, religion, 2008, recommended even before reading it

Remembering the Bones ~ by Frances Itani, 2007, fiction, 9/10

The Road ~ by Cormac McCarthy, 2006, speculative fiction, 8/10

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books ~ by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, 1996, biography, 7/10

The Secret Life of Bees ~ by Sue Monk Kidd, 2002, fiction, 10/10

The Secret Scroll ~ by Ronald Cutler, 2008, fiction, "nah"

The Secrets of Judas ~ by James M. Robinson, religion, 2006, "nah"

A Separate Country ~ by Robert Hicks, 2009, historical fiction, 8/10

Serena ~ by Ron Rash, 2008, fiction, 7/10

Shadows on the Rock ~ by Willa Cather, 1931, historical fiction, 7.5/10

A Short History of Myth ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2005, religion, 9/10

The Social Construction of Reality ~ by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, 1966, sociology, 10/10

The Soul Genome ~ by Paul Von Ward, 2008, speculative science, 8/10

Speak ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson, 1999, YA fiction, 8/10

A String in the Harp ~ by Nancy Bond, 1976, YA fiction, 8/10

The Tea Rose ~ by Jennifer Donnelly, 2002, historical fiction, 8/10

The Tenth Circle ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2006, fiction, 8/10

Three Women ~ by Marge Piercy, 1999, fiction, 7/10

The Time Traveler's Wife ~ by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003, fiction, 9/10

The View from Saturday ~ by E. L. Konigsburg, 1996, YA fiction, 9/10

We Just Want to Live Here ~ by Amal Rifa'i and Odelia Ainbinder, 2003, nonfiction, 8/10

A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative ~ by Roger von Oech, 1983 (revised and updated 2008), nonfiction, 10/10

Whirligig ~ by Paul Fleischman, 1998, YA fiction, 9/10

Why Women Should Rule the World ~ by Dee Dee Myers, 2008, women's studies, 9/10

The Widow of the South ~ by Robert Hicks, 2005, historical fiction, 9/10

The Witch of Cologne ~ by Tobsha Learner, 2003, fiction, 8/10

Worlds in Collision ~ by Immanuel Velikovsky, 1950, nonfiction, 9/10

A Wrinkle in Time ~ by Madeleine L'Engle, 1962, YA speculative fiction, 10/10

Authors reviewed

Ainbinder, Odelia ~ We Just Want to Live Here, 2003, nonfiction, 8/10

Alder, Ken ~ The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World, 2002, history, 8/10

Allen, Sarah Addison ~ Garden Spells, 2007, magical realism, 9/10

Anderson, Laurie Halse ~ The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School, 2009, children's

Anderson, Laurie Halse ~ Speak, 1999, YA fiction, 8/10

Armstrong, Karen ~ The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, 2006, religion, 10/10

Armstrong, Karen ~ A Short History of Myth, 2005, religion, 9/10

Atwood, Margaret ~ The Penelopiad, 2005, fiction, 7/10

Bannerman, Helen ~ Little Black Sambo, 1899, children's, 10/10

Bauer, Marion Dane ~ On My Honor, 1986, YA fiction, 10/10

Berg, Elizabeth ~ The Pull of the Moon, 1996, fiction, 8/10

Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann ~ The Social Construction of Reality, 1966, sociology, 10/10

Bond, Nancy ~ A String in the Harp, 1976, YA fiction, 8/10

Borg, Marcus J. ~ The Heart of Christianity, 2003, religion, 10/10

Borg, Marcus J., and John Dominic Crossan ~ The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon, 2009, religion, 9/10

Bradley, Marion Zimmer ~ The Mists of Avalon, 1982, fantasy, 10/10

Breen, Susan ~ The Fiction Class, 2008, fiction, 9/10

Bush, Laura, and Jenna Bush ~ Read All About It!, 2008, picture book, 7/10

Cather, Willa ~ Shadows on the Rock, 1931, historical fiction, 7.5/10

Choi, Susan ~ The Foreign Student, 1998, fiction, 8/10

Clark, Joan ~ Latitudes of Melt, 2000 in Canada, 2002 in the US, fiction, 9/10

Cooney, Barbara ~ Miss Rumphius ~ by Barbara Cooney, 1982, children's fiction, 10/10

Crossan, John Dominic, and Marcus J. Borg ~ The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon, 2009, religion, 9/10

Cutler, Ronald ~ The Secret Scroll, 2008, fiction, "nah"

Dean, Debra ~ The Madonnas of Leningrad, 2006, fiction, 10/10

Diaz, Junot ~ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 2007, fiction, "nah"

Dietrich, William ~ Napoleon's Pyramids, 2007, historical fiction, 8/10

Donnelly, Jennifer ~ The Tea Rose, 2002, historical fiction, 8/10

Earley, Tony ~ Jim the Boy, 2000, fiction, 7/10

Edwards, Kim ~ The Memory Keeper's Daughter, 2005, fiction, 9/10

Erickson, Carolly ~ The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, 2006, historical fiction, 8/10

Fergus, Jim ~ One Thousand White Women, 1998, historical fiction, 9.5/10

Finerman, Debra ~ Mademoiselle Victorine, 2007, historical fiction, 8/10

Fleischman, Paul ~ Whirligig, 1998, YA fiction, 9/10

Freeman, Charlotte McGuinn ~ Place Last Seen 2000, fiction, 9/10

Fuentes, Leonardo Padura ~ Adios Hemingway, 2005, mystery, 5/10

Gaiman, Neil ~ Anansi Boys, 2005, fantasy, 8/10

Gaiman, Neil ~ Blueberry Girl, 2009, children's, 10/10

Geisel, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) ~ The Lorax, 1971, children's picture book, 10/10

Gilmore, Susan Gregg ~ Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, 2008, fiction, 8/10

Gregory, Jill ~ The Book of Names 2007, fiction, 8/10

Gutcheon, Beth ~ More Than You Know, 2000, fiction, 8/10

Hicks, Robert ~ A Separate Country, 2009, historical fiction, 8/10

Hicks, Robert ~ The Widow of the South, 2005, historical fiction, 9/10

Higgs, Liz Curtis ~ My Heart's in the Lowlands, 2007, travel, 10/10

Hunt, Angela Elwell ~ If I Had Long, Long Hair, 1988, children's, 10/10

Itani, Frances ~ Remembering the Bones, 2007, fiction, 9/10

Kaku, Michio ~ Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, 2008, physics, 9/10

Kerasote, Ted ~ Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, 2007, memoir, 9/10

Kidd, Sue Monk ~ The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine, 1996, memoir, 9/10

Kidd, Sue Monk ~ The Secret Life of Bees, 2002, fiction, 10/10

King, Karen L. and Elaine Pagels ~ Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, nonfiction, 2008, recommended even before reading it

Klunder, Barbara ~ Other Goose: Recycled Rhymes for Our Fragile Times, 2007, activist rhymes on the environment and culture, 8/10

Konigsburg, E. L. ~ The View from Saturday, 1996, YA fiction, 9/10

Lahiri, Jhumpa ~ The Namesake, 2003, fiction, 8/10

Learner, Tobsha ~ The Witch of Cologne, 2003, fiction, 8/10

L'Engle, Madeleine ~ A Wrinkle in Time, 1962, YA speculative fiction, 10/10

Luckmann, Thomas, and Peter L. Berger ~ The Social Construction of Reality, 1966, sociology, 10/10

Maccoby, Hyam ~ The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, 1986, religion, 8/10

MacDonald, Gregory ~ The Evangelical Universalist, 2006 and 2008, religion, "nah"

Martin, Valerie ~ Property, 2003, fiction, 10/10

McCarthy, Cormac ~ The Road, 2006, speculative fiction, 8/10

McKinnon, K. C. ~ Dancing at the Harvest Moon, 1997, fiction, 7/10

Miller, Walter M., Jr. ~ A Canticle for Leibowitz, 1959, speculative fiction, 9/10

Mistry, Rohinton ~ Family Matters, 2002, fiction, 8/10

Mitchell, Susan K. ~ Kersplatypus, 2008, picture book, 9/10

Murphy, K. Thomas ~ End of Grace, 2009, fiction, 8/10

Myers, Dee Dee ~ Why Women Should Rule the World, 2008, women's studies, 9/10

Niffenegger, Audrey ~ The Time Traveler's Wife, 2003, fiction, 9/10

Norris, Kathleen ~ Quotidian Mysteries, 1998, nonfiction, 10/10

Nyala, Hannah ~ Point Last Seen, 1997, memoir, 8/10

O'Neill, Joseph ~ Netherland, 2008, fiction, 8/10

Orwell, George ~ Animal Farm, 1945, fiction, 9/10

Pagels, Elaine ~ The Gnostic Gospels, 1979, religion, 10/10

Pagels, Elaine and Karen L. King ~ Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, religion, 2008, recommended even before reading it

Paterson, Katherine ~ Bridge to Terabithia, 1977, children's fiction, 9/10

Patron, Susan ~ The Higher Power of Lucky, 2007, YA fiction, 9/10

Paulsen, Gary ~ Dogsong, 1985, YA fiction, 9/10

Pelletier, Cathie ~ Dancing at the Harvest Moon, 1997, fiction, 7/10

Petroski, Henry ~ The Book on the Bookshelf, 1999, history, 8/10

Pfeffer, Susan Beth ~ Life as We Knew It, 2006, YA fiction, 9/10

Picoult, Jodi ~ Nineteen Minutes, 2007, fiction, 9/10

Picoult, Jodi ~ The Tenth Circle, 2006, fiction, 8/10

Piercy, Marge ~ Three Women, 1999, fiction, 7/10

Pollan, Michael ~ The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals ~ 2006, nonfiction, 7/10

Powell, Julie ~ Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, 2005, memoir, "nah"

Radish, Kris ~ Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral, 2006, fiction, 9/10

Rash, Ron ~ Serena, 2008, fiction, 7/10

Richardson, Justin ~ And Tango Makes Three, 2005, children's book, 8/10

Rifa'i, Amal ~ We Just Want to Live Here, 2003, nonfiction, 8/10

Robinson, James M. ~ The Secrets of Judas, religion, 2006, "nah"

Robinson, John A. T. ~ Honest to God, 1963, religion, 10/10

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon ~ Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books, 1996, biography, 7/10

Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) ~ The Lorax, 1971, children's picture book, 10/10

Shors, John ~ Beneath a Marble Sky, 2004, historical fiction, 8/10

Sitchin, Zecharia ~ Genesis Revisited, 1990, nonfiction, 9/10

Smith, Alexander McCall ~ The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, 1998, fiction, 9/10

Taylor, Barbara Brown ~ An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, 2009, spiritual life, 8/10

Taylor, Barbara Brown ~ Leaving Church, 2006, memoir, 9/10

Templeton, John ~ Agape Love: A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions, 1999, religion, 10/10

Tintori, Karen ~ The Book of Names 2007, fiction, 8/10

Tóibín, Colm ~ The Blackwater Lightship, 1999, fiction, 8/10

Truss, Lynne ~ Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, 2004, a humorous look at punctuation, 9/10

Tsukiyama, Gail ~ The Language of Threads, 1999, historical fiction, 8/10

Velikovsky, Immanuel ~ Worlds in Collision, 1950, nonfiction, 9/10

von Oech, Roger ~ A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, 1983 (revised and updated 2008), nonfiction, 10/10

Von Ward, Paul ~ The Soul Genome, 2008, speculative science, 8/10

Vreeland, Susan ~ Luncheon of the Boating Party, 2007, fiction, 2/10 for now

Ward, Amanda Eyre ~ Forgive Me, 2007, fiction, 8/10

Winchester, Simon ~ Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883, 2003, history, 10/10