BOOK QUOTE: 

"Stars steam away as a pale sun rises, hot coal dropped in a watery sky. Light seeps across the forest as the reedy shrieks of wood fowl echo in the trees. The path from our village to the King’s Highway is no road at all. To the east, that faint track leads up through the forest until it reaches, finally, the open country and paths that lead to other places. Hob is taking us beyond the bounds of the known world.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK

I've read ...

1. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
2. Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
3. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
5. Where's Spot? by Eric Hill
6. Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day
7. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
8. Curious George by Margret Rey
9. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
10. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
11. The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
12. Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
13. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (I didn't actually read this until after I saw the movie.)
14. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
15. Corduroy by Don Freeman
16. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
17. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
18. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (my mom always cried when she read this to us. Now as an adult, I cry, too.)
19. The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen
20. The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
21. The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
22. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams ("Once You Are Real, You Cannot Become Unreal Again.")
23. Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
24. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
25. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
26. Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman (My husband's favorite book from childhood. Aww.)
27. Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
28. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
29. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
30. Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard
31. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
32. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by aura Joffe Numeroff
33. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
34. Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
35. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
36. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
37. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
38. Black Beauty by Anne Sewell
39. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (a disappointment)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum
41. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
42. The Secret Garden by F. Hodgson Burnett
43. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (read in my grandma's basement)
44. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
45. The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White (AND the rest of the book)
46. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
47. Stuart Little by E.B. White
48. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
49. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
50. The Hundred and One Dalmations (read this as an adult when I was recovering from surgery)
51. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
52. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
53. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
54. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
55. Superfudge by Judy Blume
56. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks
57. The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
58. The Giver by Lois Lowry
59. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J.K. Rowling
60. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
61. Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French (didn't impress me)
62. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
63. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
64. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
65. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (also kind of a let-down)
66. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (um, children's book?)
68. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
69. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (twice!)
70. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
71. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
72. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
73. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
74. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
75. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
76. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
77. The Cay by Theodor Tayor
78. Sounder by William H. Armstrong
79. Julie of the Wolves by J. Craighead George
80. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
81. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
82. Hatchet by Gary Paulson
83. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
84. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
85. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (not as good as John Marsden's other books)
86. Holes by Louis Sachar
87. The Messenger by Markus Zusak
88. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
89. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
90. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
91. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Books I Own But Haven't Read

1. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
2. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
3. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
4. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
5. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
6. Heidi's Wandering and Learning Years by Johanna Spyri
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (that I haven't read this yet is a stain upon my good name)
8. Watership Down by Richard Adams

I'm gonna buy a copy of this book when I have kids so I can read him or her all of them and s/he can be smug from a young age about how well-read s/he is. ;)

Author Reading this weekend at Orca Books in Olympia -- 7 pm, Saturday July 12!

Come and join us!

Here are the event details >> 

"Stars steam away as a pale sun rises, hot coal dropped in a watery sky. Light seeps across the forest as the reedy shrieks of wood fowl echo in the trees. The path from our village to the King’s Highway is a crooked line of mud rutted with cart tracks, a rough trough where the dirty snow is stabbed through by the hooves of feral sheep. To the east, that faint track leads up through the forest until it reaches, finally, the open country."

-- from the novel Sinful Folk 

        sinfulfolk.com

(PHOTO: Matt Haugh, 2014)

Live anywhere near Spokane, Washington?

Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane will be hosting an author event for author Ned Hayes's new historical novel, Sinful Folk. A reading, Q&A and book signing will begin @ 7:00 p.m. 

More details here: http://www.auntiesbooks.com/event/readingqasigning-ned-hayes

7 pm -- March 20 -- Author Reading, Signing and Q&A -- Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane

Also check out the Northwest Writer's Guild Panel discussion the previous night (3/19) with local Pacific Northwest authors. 

Come one, come all !