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Feb 7 2011

Gallager Girls (Books 1-3), by Ally Carter

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I charged through Ally Carter's YA caper novel Heist Society like a rhinoceros on a mission, so I was hoping her Gallagher Girls series would prove equally absorbing. Unfortunately, I'd Tell You ...

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Oct 24 2011

The Game of Triumphs, by Laura Powell

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15-year-old Cat Harper, the orphaned protagonist of Laura Powell's debut novel The Game of Triumphs, is not your typical wide-eyed fantasy heroine. After witnessing a murder, streetwise, pragmati...

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Mar 21 2007

The Game, by Diana Wynne Jones

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There’s nobody quite like English fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones. Her novels feature bizarre subject matter, but she writes with such relaxed assurance that her worlds instantly feel familiar...

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Mar 21 2012

The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges

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It always feels weird to complain about a story having too much plot, but sometimes I can't help it: Robin Bridges's novel The Gathering Storm—the first book in a projected trilogy—races along at a breakneck pace, but it would have been improved by more world-building and less straight-up storytelling.

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Jun 12 2008

Genius Squad, by Catherine Jinks

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I really enjoyed Catherine Jinks’s novel Evil Genius, but its little-kid-friendly cover art and gimmicky opening failed to prepare me for the story that followed—it was tough to recover from the shock of finding such hardcore creepiness in a book with a cover that looked like a Saturday morning cartoon..

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Dec 28 2010

Gimme a Call, by Sarah Mlynowski

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I've been following Sarah Mlynowski's career ever since the publication of her first novel: 2001's Milkrun, one of the first offerings from Red Dress Ink, the now-defunct Harlequin...

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Aug 4 2008

Girls Like Us, by Sheila Weller

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Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation is an unusual but highly satisfying end-of-summer read. The book is an ambitious attempt at a...

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Sep 4 2006

Girls Most Likely, by Sheila Williams

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I confess—I didn’t think that I’d like Sheila Williams’s novel Girls Most Likely, being both turned off by the cover art and actively repelled by the purple prose on the back cover, which made the story sound like something by Danielle Steel. Happily, Girls Most Likely turned out to be far superior to its packaging...

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Jan 6 2010

The Glass Room, by Simon Mawer

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It is easy to see why Simon Mawer's The Glass Room was shortlisted for 2009's Man Booker Prize: the book is gorgeously written, historically significant, and 99% of it is a total downer. Mawer's ...

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Apr 24 2008

Go Green: How To Build An Earth-Friendly Community, by Nancy H. Taylor

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Nancy H. Taylor’s Go Green: How To Build an Earth-Friendly Community offers a concise, well-organized guide to a more sustainable lifestyle. Taylor examines everything from green building to loca...

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Dec 21 2010

Goats: Showcase Showdown, by Jonathan Rosenberg

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According to the Infinite Monkey Theorem, an immortal monkey hitting a keyboard at random for an infinite amount of time will eventually replicate the complete works of Shakespeare...

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Mar 24 2009

Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, by Carolyn Turgeon

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Carolyn Turgeon’s Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, is an elegantly melancholy retelling of the classic fairytale. The novel focuses on Lil, a desperately unhappy old woman with a secret: sh...

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Oct 15 2008

The Great Outdoor Fight, by Chris Onstad

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A word of warning before we begin, dear readers: the packaging of Chris Onstad’s Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight is deceptively adorable. This book might look like it belongs on the set of...

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Apr 28 2005

Greensleeves, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

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My copy of Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Greensleeves is battered, ugly, and graced by a gigantic stamp on the dust jacket reading "THIS IS NO LONGER THE PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY"...

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May 13 2007

Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins

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Gregor and the Code of Claw, the final installment in Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles, is the most unsatisfying book I have read this year. It’s not a bad book—Collins’s characters...

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Apr 11 2006

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins

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Pretty much the only things that went through my head while reading Suzanne Collins’s novel Gregor the Overlander were My God, this book is awesome! and There’s a sequel, right?. It’s been a long...

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Jan 11 2007

Greywalker, by Kat Richardson

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Kat Richardson’s debut novel Greywalker is a rare beast: a female-oriented fantasy/horror story without a single kinky sex scene. There’s a minor romantic subplot (and the heroine encounters a few alternate romantic possibilities), but Richardson seems much more interested in her cloudy Seattle setting, her levelheaded P.I. heroine, and her tense, action-packed plot...

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