I think if Susan Cooper (I love her _Seaward_, by the way – has *ANYONE* else read that? I feel sometimes I am the only one!) was not mentioned, it has to be because so many of us can’t imagine she hasn’t yet been written up here! She’s wonderful! Perhaps since the movie has come out a new generation will discover her ‘Dark is Rising’ series. I can still remember the first time I curled up with it, in the eighth grade, in an early-dark afternoon in the Pacific Northwest…

I have to shout to the world how in love I am with Geraldine McCaughrean’s _The White Darkness_.. I just finished it and thank goodness she’s written another 130+ books for those of us fallen under her spell. Perhaps this has been mentioned already – I’ve been working too many hours to have kept up lately with the booklist-
but the writing in this book has given me renewed interest to look at modern-day bookshelves again (usually I spend my time re-reading books I know are worth my time, since I’ve been so disappointed in the last decade or so with newer reads by newer authors trying to impress the ipod generation).

It’s not just Obama that’s bringing us all hope, in other words.. I’m pleased to say it still exists in the new generations who BUY these books and are sophisticated audiences for our courageous writers..

I have just finished Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey. I Loved it!!!! It is a VERY different version of Cinderella. And its part of the Once upon a Time series. I think that book will be ingrained in my memory for ever.

I just read “Assassin’s Apprentice” by Robin Hobb. It was spectacularily good!

If I got the recommendation from someone upthread, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Yes. I recommend Eva Ibbotson.

Have any of you heard about, or read, A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson?

Why would you commute to Ann Arbor from Kalamazoo? Why not just work at Western Michigan University?

Have you read Emma Bull’s Territory? It’s also excellent.

This is a great resource for our Mother/Daughter Book Club since we are constantly looking for books that appeal to a wide variety of readers that feature strong female characters. Thank you!

I am new to this page and love it, and I feel compelled to contribute. So here’s my list. It’s probably at least a little repetitive, but it’s my list and I feel bad leaving things out. For brevity’s sake this will be mostly authors, because otherwise I will never finish.

Charles de Lint. He’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Urban fantasy, utterly believable characters, and seamless integration of folklore.

Diana Wynne Jones in general, and “Deep Secret” in particular, because it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

Tamora Pierce in general and the “Trickster” books in particular. Her writing just keeps getting better and more complex. I love it.

Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising” sequence, which I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned here, and that surprises me.

Sherwood Smith, who is hugely under appreciated. “Crown Duel”. She’s also published a large number of books in the last three years that I only found this summer because they were NOT well-advertised, and they, particularly the “Inda” books, are quite good and very entertaining.

Emma Bull. “War for the Oaks” is amazing. Go find it.

Lloyd Alexander, of course. I keep going back to the Prydain chronicles year after year. There’s just so much truth in there, on top of the wonderful stories.

Carol Kendall’s ” The Gammage Cup”. It’s not particularly well known but it gets reprinted periodically because it won a newberry honor almost 50 years ago. I love this one, and I’ve wondered many times if Rowling doesn’t also, because of a certain word I’ve seen in only two places (and now you’re all going to go find it. hah.)

Hope Mirrlees’ novel “Lud-in-the-Mist”. This was published in 1926, and it’s not very widely known, but somebody else out there knows it’s good because I started seeing it on shelves recently (I read my dad’s copy from a mid-70’s reprint). It’s possibly the most singular book I have ever read, and it’s a great deal of fun.

Suzette Haden Elgin- The Ozark Fantasy series (”Twelve Fair Kingdoms” is the first and best). The author is a linguist, and the system of magic has it’s roots in forms of grammar. They’re distinctly odd, but I love them.

Pollyanna reminds me of something I haven’t read in a long time, but really loved. “Caddie Woodlawn”, by Carol Ryrie Brink. It’s historical semi-fiction about a big family in Minnesota just before the civil war, and I loved it.

Also, I am absurdly fond of the short story collections “Firebird” and “Firebirds Rising.” Everything in them is really amazing writing. And they’re also good for finding new authors. Speaking of which . . .

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is the only author who still has the power to keep me up until two in the morning on a school night. Even when I’m rereading.(If it’s say, a Robin McKinley novel, I can usually talk myself into saving some of it for later and getting sleep now, but somehow that doesn’t work with Hoffman). She’s good.

Sylvia Louise Engdahl had the power to keep me up until two in the morning when I was in the fifth grade. “Enchantress From the Stars” and “The Far Side of Evil” are my favorites. I think it was the second one that made me forget about the whole bedtime concept, but that was largely because it was, you know, second. I should read these again.

Gail Carson Levine. Specifically “Ella Enchanted,” but she’s good in general.

Bruce Coville. Very funny sci-fi and fantasy. Probably the most kid-oriented on this list, and that’s saying something, but good anyway.

Also Roald Dahl. Specifically “The BFG”

LOTR.

Harry Potter (not that they’re any better than any of the above, but it was nice to be able to talk about books with OTHER PEOPLE MY AGE for once).

And of course, the one and only Robin McKinley. I love everything she’s published (I can say this now because I finally went back to Deerskin this summer — I was 13 when I first tried it and emphatically TOO YOUNG), and I reread them constantly.

This is what happens when I write lists of books. They get very long very quickly. And I probably still forgot something. But that’s enough for now.