The 10 Best Adult Authors I Discovered in 2017

This past year, 2017, was the first year since I started blogging that I relaxed my reading schedule a little bit to scale back the number of new kids' books I was reading and to make room for more adult books. I expected to read just a handful, so I'm really surprised that the final total was nearly 70! Of those books, titles by the following new-to-me authors proved to be my favorites. (I will be linking up this post for today's Top Ten Tuesday topic, Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2017.)

James Herriot

I read and re-read The Christmas Day Kitten as a kid, so I did know a little bit about James Herriot prior to this year, but it wasn't until I read All Creatures Great and Small that I realized how funny he is, and that his anecdotes about his life as a young veterinarian are more than a series of dead dog stories.

Shirley Jackson

I read "The Lottery" when I was in high school and have always associated Jackson with creepy short stories and nothing else. This past year, though, I read her parenting memoirs and discovered her deadpan, self-deprecating sense of humor. I wish she lived next door to me so we could be mom friends.

Louise Penny

I have seen Penny's books in bookstores and libraries and on Goodreads but didn't realize she wrote mysteries until I happened to see some reviews of her newest book on some blogs and social media pages that I frequent. Once I knew she was a mystery writer, I had to give her a try, and it turns out that her books are deeply descriptive and beautifully written in addition to having compelling plots and characters.

Julie Mulhern

I kept seeing posts about this author's Country Club Mystery series in the Save Our Cozies Facebook group. At first I was worried the books would not be as well-put-together as the covers, which I love, but I took a chance and was not disappointed. The books look good and are well-written too! I also love that they are set in the '70s and reference a lot of pop culture from the time period.

Charlaine Harris

I didn't know that Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse series that inspired True Blood)  had written any non-supernatural mysteries until I kept seeing Candace Cameron Bure's Instagram posts about the Aurora Teagarden mystery movies. Once I realized these films were based on a series of reality-based mysteries I was hooked. The titles in this series are a little uneven in terms of quality, but my love for Roe as a character keeps me reading even the less-good books.

Karen MacInerney

Karen MacInerney is another author whose books I kept seeing mentioned in cozy mystery groups, but her books weren't available in my local libraries, and they're published by an imprint of Amazon, so I worried that maybe they just weren't that good. In the end, though, I borrowed her first Dewberry Farm mystery through inter-library loan, and it wound up being a great, well-plotted murder mystery.

Ann Kidd Taylor

I took a chance on Ann Kidd Taylor's first novel, Shark Club, because it sounded like a different kind of story for me - not quite a mystery, not quite a romance, but a more mainstream novel with hints of both of those genres, along with an interesting look at marine biology. Its family connections and believable friendship between the protagonist and her ex-boyfriend's little girl really hit a sweet spot for me, and I'm hoping to read more from this author in the future.

Mary Higgins Clark

I'm not sure how I made it to age 35 without reading anything at all by Mary Higgins Clark, but I finally got around to it this Fall and read her first book, Where Are the Children? This was a little bit more of a thriller than the other mysteries I've been reading but it was one of only a few adult books that I gave a five-star rating this year.

Julie Hyzy

I spent the year collecting Hyzy's White House Chef mysteries at used book sales. Each book is centered on the unlikely crime-solving adventures of  the White House's chief chef, whose boyfriend is in the secret service. I don't have all the books yet, but I really love the author's writing style and all the references to places I have been in DC.

Paige Shelton

The first time I heard them, I loved the titles for this author's Dangerous Type mysteries (To Helvetica and Back, Bookman Dead Style, and Comic Sans Murder.) I was a little skeptical of how well-written they would be, since some of these niche-centered cozy mysteries tend to be tedious, but I was pleasantly surprised by the appealing characters and not-too-easy-to-solve mysteries. I haven't tried her other series (yet), but this one is a keeper.

The RAHM Report for 1/1/18

After adding in all the new books my kids got for Christmas that I have read with them this week, the final count of books I read in 2017 is 824. Here are the books I read during these last two weeks of the year.

Finished Reading

• Waylon! Even More Awesome by Sara Pennypacker
  I liked this about as well as the first Waylon book, but I was puzzled as to why the dog described as ugly in the text looks so generically cute in the illustrations. I enjoyed the cameo appearances by Clementine, even though they were not all necessary to the plot.  
• Far Out the Long Canal by Meindert DeJong
  This was lovely. I posted my review on Thursday.
• Absolutely Alfie and the Furry, Purry Secret by Sally Warner
• Absolutely Alfie and the First Week Friends by Sally Warner
  These two books are well-written, just like the Ellray Jakes series, but I did not care for the artwork. I'm also kind of sick of the "kid wants pet, parent says no, kid secretly houses pet" storyline even if the story surrounding it was written in an engaging way.
• Catwings by Ursula K. LeGuin
  I zipped through this one pretty quickly and have decided to put it on my read-aloud list for the girls this winter. The language is lovely and will be a pleasure to read aloud.
• The Greatest Gift by Kallie George
  This second book of the Heartwood Hotel series is every bit as sweet and gentle as the first. I especially love the way the hotel handles hibernation. I'm reminded a lot of Rabbit Hill when I read these books, except that there are no humans in George's books. 

• Winter Stroll by Elin Hilderbrand
• Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand
  This series is not even that good, but I can't seem to quit the Quinn family. The second book (Stroll) was a lot better than the third (Storms), but both had a lot of melodrama in them, and both have some inaccuracies about Catholicism that irritated me. There is a fourth book, but I'm not sure yet whether I will jump right into it. I reviewed Winter Stroll on Goodreads.
• Killer Jam by Karen MacInerney
  It took me forever to actually find a copy of this book, and I was worried it wouldn't be worth the wait, but it really was! Great characters, interesting setting, complex mystery. I'll be reading the rest of the Dewberry Farm series for sure.
• Three Bedrooms, One Corpse by Charlaine Harris
  I am not crazy about Roe's new love interest in this book (I was all about the crime writer, Robin Crusoe), but the mystery was decent. I look forward to the next one, about the old house Roe is interested in buying.
• A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
  I feel like this series really hit its stride in this fourth book, set away from Three Pines, but involving certain favorite residents. This was my last 2017 read and I went out on a high note.

Currently Reading 

• The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
  My book club is discussing this in mid-January, but my copy is due at the library at the end of this week, so I'm going to have to finish it. I have only read the Introduction, and I already want to highlight every other line!
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
  I decided spur-of-the-moment to start reading this for #TheDarkisReading on Twitter. I'm a bit behind where the group is right now, but will catch up by Wednesday when they reconvene.  

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

December Link-Up: Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge (Winter Stories)

I reviewed 3 books for the challenge this month:

• Prairie School by Lois Lenski (1951)
• The Tough Winter by Robert Lawson (1954)
• Far Out the Long Canal by Meindert DeJong (1964)

Which winter stories did you read this month? Share in comments!

The Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge is happening again in 2018 with some changes (no more monthly themes!) Learn more here!

Book Review: Far Out the Long Canal by Meindert DeJong (1964)

There hasn't been ice on the canal in four years. For nine-year-old Moonta, who was sick that last icy winter, it has been four long years of waiting to learn to skate. When the canal finally freezes over, Moonta is eager to make up for lost time. As he tries to catch up to his classmates, however, Moonta's desire to become a great skater overnight begins to cloud his judgment and he finds himself in a number of difficult and increasingly dangerous situations.

This book is both an engaging portrayal of the culture of a specific place and a universal tale about patience, humility, and persistence. Moonta's predicament of not learning to skate with his peers immediately establishes him as a sympathetic character, and the understanding that the ice may be short-lived, or might not come again in the near future, gives the events of the story a strong sense of urgency. The weather, too, is described so well that the reader truly understands how cold it is on the canal, and how the ice feels beneath Moonta's skates and the little red chair he uses to help him balance.

Though the story is told from Moonta's perspective, there are a lot of wonderful supporting characters whose own flaws and personalities also come across very strongly. Particularly appealing are Moonta's headmaster who is stern in school but childlike on skates, Moonta's mother and father, the champion skaters of his village, Moonta's grandfather, who has been waiting these past four years for what is likely to be his last skating adventure, and Aunt Cora, who never learned to skate at all.  The way these characters react to the arrival of ice on the canal after such a long time contribute to the reader's understanding of how joyous an occasion this is for this community. Because the adult characters also love to skate (or regret not learning how), it is also easier to forgive them when they are hard on Moonta, because the reader can see that, deep down, they truly do understand his desire to get four years of skating into just a day or two.

Far Out the Long Canal is a great winter read. I enjoyed it even more than DeJong's The Wheel on the School and found it just as quick and cozy a read as A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum, which is similar in content, but different enough that reading both books does not feel tedious. Suggest this book to readers - especially boys - who like non-fantasy adventure stories and winter sports.

Fumbling Through Fantasy: The Tough Winter by Robert Lawson (1954)

In this sequel to Rabbit Hill, gloomy rabbit Uncle Analdas and all the other animals on the Hill are dreading a tough winter. The Folks have gone to the Bluegrass country to weather the colder months, and they have left a Caretaker and his mean dog to look after their property. The Caretaker doesn't put out any garbage worth eating, and once the snow begins to fall, food becomes more and more scarce. When some of the animals are forced to leave the Hill in search of food, Uncle Analdas decides he's had enough, and he sets out to find the Folks and bring them home again.

Though its text and illustrations are quite good, The Tough Winter is just not as distinctive as Rabbit Hill. In Rabbit Hill, details were revealed in such a way that the reader had a clear motivation to keep reading: to find out what sort of people the Folks would turn out to be. Because the characters were uncertain about the Folks, the ending, in which their kindness toward animals was revealed, was an emotional moment and a satisfying one. By contrast, The Tough Winter lacks an overarching conflict to carry the story. Yes, the animals are faced with surviving a difficult winter, but the reader doesn't really doubt that they will survive it. The animals miss the Folks, but there is also no question that they will eventually return. There is a bit of tension surrounding the question of whether Porkey the groundhog will see his shadow, but even this loses its gravity because the reader knows groundhogs don't actually predict the weather. This lack of suspense undoubtedly appeals to a certain type of child reader (I was such a reader as a kid), but it was frustrating for me as an adult.

It also bothers me to be asked to believe that the Folks, who take such good care of the animals the rest of the year, would be so lackadaisical about who looks after their home and property during their winter vacation. In some ways, it felt like their behavior in this book negated the message of Rabbit Hill. Surely such a generous animal-loving family would be at least mildly concerned about what happens to their animal neighbors during bad weather.

Overall, The Tough Winter is definitely well-written and it was fun to revisit these characters and their different quirks. While Rabbit Hill is clearly the superior book, this is still worth reading, especially for kids who love animal stories and enjoy reading seasonal tales during the holidays.

My Most Anticipated 2018 Books

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is the books bloggers are looking forward to reading in the new year. Here are the titles to be released in 2018 that I am eagerly anticipating!

• The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis (1/30/18)
  Curtis is an author whose books I will always read. There are a couple I haven't gotten to yet, but every one I have read has been a well-written story with a balance of humor and heartache. I'm so glad he has something new coming out! I have an ARC from Edelweiss, so I'll be reading and reviewing this one soon. 
• Hooper by Geoff Herbach (2/20/18)
  Geoff Herbach is one of my favorite YA writers of all time, and I will pretty much read anything he writes. Like Stupid Fast and its sequels, this is a sports story, which I love, as well as a story about family problems. I have a digital ARC of this as well, and plan to read it ASAP. 
• Sunny by Jason Reynolds (4/10/18)
  Ghost and Patina were both so well-written that I'm dying to read book three of the series. Jason Reynolds has such a great ear for character voices, and I can't want to get to know Sunny.
• One Beautiful Dream: The Rollicking Tale of Family Chaos, Personal Passions, and Saying Yes to Them Both by Jennifer Fulwiler (5/1/18)
  I loved Jennifer Fulwiler's first book, Something Other than God, which is about her conversion from atheism to Catholicism. I've been hoping she'd write another book, and this one, about her family life with six kids, sounds like it will be a great read! 

• The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall (5/15/18)
  This book was on my list last year because it was rumored that the book would be out in 2017. This time, though, there is a title and pub date, so I think it's safe to assume it's really coming out this coming year! Though the latter books of this series have been hit or miss for me, I am still excited to finally see how the books end. I'm a little disappointed that Lydia is the protagonist of this book, but that's not enough to keep me from reading. 
• Front Desk by Kelly Yang (5/29/18)
  I am including this book on my list mostly because I love the brightly colored cover, and because I have an ARC from Edelweiss. I am also a sucker for a story set in a hotel, and this book sounds like a cross between Depend on Katie John by Mary Calhoun and At Your Service by Jen Malone, both of which I loved.
• Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay (9/4/18)
  This is the ninth book in my favorite cozy mystery series: the Library Lover's mysteries. It sounds like the plot of this one is directly related to Lindsey's role as a librarian, so it should be a good read.  
• The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser (9/25/18)
  The first book about the Vanderbeekers was a refreshing contemporary story with an old-fashioned sensibility. I'm excited to go another adventure (or two!) with these characters.
• Successful Summer Reading Programs for All Ages: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Me! (4/1/18)
  Last, but not least, my second book will be out this spring! It's a little bit bittersweet because this is probably my last professional activity as a librarian for the foreseeable future, but I will also be glad to finally see it in print. 

What are you looking forward to reading in 2018?

The RAHK Report for 12/22/17

Family Read-Alouds

After finishing A Bear Called Paddington, we haven't picked up another chapter book yet. Instead, we've been reading Christmas books. This week, it was The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden (which only Miss Muffet really listened to, as it took us several days to get through and Bo Peep doesn't have patience for that just yet) and The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot. The Herriot book was also pretty long for a two-year-old, but Bo Peep likes animals so she mostly paid attention. An animal dies in the story, which I thought might bother Miss Muffet, but instead, she simply asked if the cat in the final illustration of the book was alive or dead. The way her mind works never ceases to amaze me. We also read Christmas by Barbara Cooney to help Miss Muffet understand the origins of various Christmas customs.

Little Miss Muffet (4 years)

 

On her own, Miss Muffet has been reading more Oliver and Amanda Pig books: Oliver and Amanda's Christmas, Amanda Pig On Her Own, and Oliver and Amanda and the Big Snow. She's also read a bunch of other easy readers, including Aunt Eater's Mystery Christmas and Bony-Legs.

With me, this week she has read The Twenty Four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle, which appealed to her mainly because the family in the story is waiting for the birth of a new sibling, and Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which she loved because it's by Russell and Lillian Hoban . We also re-read a favorite we discovered last year, Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray and Barry Root. It was every bit as good as I remembered, and Miss Muffet seemed to like it even more this year.

Little Bo Peep (2 years, 2 months)

We borrowed a big stack of picture books from the library last weekend, but so far Little Bo Peep only has eyes for The Giant Jumperee. She likes to make believe about giants as it is, and this book just ramped up her interest. We have read it at least ten times already and we still have the book for two more weeks.

She also continues to be drawn to singable Christmas picture books. The Friendly Beasts by Tomie dePaola is on loan from the library, and I also brought out our copy of The Huron Carol illustrated by Ian Wallace. I didn't know either of these carols too well, but have now learned them practically by heart. When we run out of anything else to sing, we just open Take Joy! by Tasha Tudor and sing the carols in there.

Little Jumping Joan (2 months)

Jumping Joan is a frequent passive observer during lunch-time read-alouds and Christmas sing-alongs, but I also like to carve out a little reading time just for her as well. A couple nights ago, I read her Moonlight by Helen V. Griffith and Laura Dronzek and If All the Seas Were One Sea by Janina Domanska while she had some tummy time on the floor. Not long afterward, she rolled over for the first time! I figure I'd better read to her as much as possible now while she's still a captive audience. A few months from now, she'll be just as busy as her older sister!