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Sammy Keyes And The Curse Of Moustache Mary

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Sammy meets an odd old lady while delivering flowers to a funeral. Ends up finding a hidden stash of gold coins! The hiding place of which I actually figured out beforehand. Yay me! Good story!

Read:

2/2016

Sammy Keyes And The Hollywood Mummy

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Sammy and Marissa take the bus to Hollywood to confront Sammy's mom, er, "Aunt Dominique". Someone who looks just like Sammy's mother is murdered, and Sammy saves the day by discovering just who done it.

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2/2016

Sammy Keyes And The Hotel Thief

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Good story with a little mystery. Sammy lives with her grandma in a seniors only building.

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1/2016

Sammy Keyes And The Runaway Elf

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Sammy is tasked with finding a stolen dog, or risk being revealed to be living at her grandmother's apartment by a mean old lady. Also, an old woman dies. Good story, a bit weepy in parts.

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2/2016

Sammy Keyes And The Sisters Of Mercy

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Another great mystery solved by Sammy, and lessons learned. I kinda suspicioned "who-done-it", which is very unusual for me, but it was still fun. On to the next one!

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2/2016

Sammy Keyes And The Skeleton Man

Van Draanen, Wendelin
Sammy and her friends have a run-in on Halloween with a man in a skeleton costume at the mysterious Bush House. Pretty good story!

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1/2016

Swear To Howdy

Van Draanen, Wendelin
The shocking revelation in the last third of the book totally blew me away! The two boys are just having fun, when this awful thing happens. I was really enjoying myself with the boy's shenanigans when the story real serious. A very good book.

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12/2007

The Running Dream

Van Draanen, Wendelin
High school runner Jessica loses part of her leg in a bus accident. Good read, although running makes my joints hurt.

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3/2012

The Flying Girl

Van Dyne, pseud., Edith
L. Frank Baum wrote this under a pseudonym. Nice adventure of a girl who flies an aircraft in he very early days of flight. I read the Project Gutenberg e-book edition.

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8/2022

Overthrowing Heaven

Van Name, Mark L.
Jon to goes the planet Heaven to visit a theme park and capture the evil nano manipulating genius who is experimenting on children. Another woman bites the dust, and we learn some interesting stuff about Lobo, the most sarcastic spacecraft in the universe.`

Quote:

"I believe there are washing machines that are more adept with women than you," Lobo said... (pg. 253)

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1/2010

Slanted Jack

Van Name, Mark L.
Jon Moore provides security for Jack and a boy from the planet Pinkelponker. A proscribed planet that Jon also hails from, secretly.

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12/2009

Slan

van Vogt, A. E.
Classic science fiction from the 1940s. Not a "Weapon Shops Of Isher", but not bad.

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10/2016

Hillbilly Elegy

Vance, J. D.
Author relates his life from poor hillbilly to Yale lawyer. Pretty good.

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9/2019

Wild Thyme, Green Magic

Vance, Jack
Twelve stories by the author, with a couple of bios by his wife, Norma, and some editorial commentary. My favorite story was Coup De Grâce.

Words I Had To Look Up:

punctilio (pg. 226) -- A fine point of etiquette.

Read:

10/2009

Magic can be murder

Vande Velde, Vivian
The jacket quote says "A funny and charming story". It is a good story, but it is neither funny nor charming. Goofy romance at end. The last line implies a future book that might BE funny and charming.

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10/2009

Now you see it...

Vande Velde, Vivian
Wendy finds magical glasses that allow her to see all sorts of strange things. A pretty excellent story, moves right along. Poignant subplot of grandmother who has Altzheimers. One weep.

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3/2006

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2/2013

The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

Vande Velde, Vivian
Six versions of the Rumpelstiltskin story. My favorite was Straw Into Gold. I teared up a few times.

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4/2013

Moon Over Manifest

Vanderpool, Clare
During the Great Depression twelve-year-old Abilene is sent to live in her vagabond father's hometown of Manifest where over the course of the summer she uncovers the events of years ago that changed so many lives.

I got near the end and thought, this is moving but I haven't weeped once. Then, the next chapter. Bawling so I could hardly read! I see why this is the Newbery medal book for this year.

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4/2011

Red Lightning

Varley, John
Book two of the series, Manny's son goes to Earth his family to rescue Grandma Betty from the r avenges of an ginormous (and mysterious) tsunami. Also, Mars is invaded, and Jubal disappears for a while.

Words I Had To Look Up:

Winchester .30-06 (thirty-ought-six) rifle (pg. 85) -- Wikipedia says it is thirty-aught-six, and I agree!

Read:

9/2010

Red Thunder

Varley, John
A group of high school kids and an ex-astronaut drunk build a spaceship to beat the Chinese to Mars, and possibly rescue an American ship in trouble.
How come there are twelve password astericks on page 184, but only eleven letters in the password on page 185? Eh?

Words I Had To Look Up:

hubris (pg. 188) -- Overbearing pride or presumption
the Coast Guard freak (pg. 299) -- I STILL think "freq." is a better abbreviation.

Read:

9/2010
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Adams] [Adams - Albert] [Alcott - Anderson] [Anderson - Arngrim] [Arnow - Auxier] [Aveyard - Baen Publishing Enterprises] [Baen Publishing Enterprises - Barker] [Barnard - Barnard] [Barnard - Barr] [Barr - Bauer] [Baum - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beattie] [Beattie, editor - Birdsall] [Birney - Block] [Block - Block] [Bloor - Bosch] [Bosch - Brashares] [Breathed - Brucker] [Bruère - Bujold] [Bujold - Bujold] [Bujold - Cain] [Cain - Card] [Card - Carlson editor] [Carr - Chambers] [Chambers - Choldenko] [Choldenko - Clarke] [Clarke - Cody] [Cody - Colfer] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corbett] [Corcoran - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crichton] [Crichton - Curry] [Curry - Cussler] [Cussler - Davis] [Davis - Dilloway] [Dilloway - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Dowd] [Dowell - Duble] [Duncan - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferber] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Foster - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Franklin] [Frazier - Gailey] [Gaiman - Gash] [Gash - Gleason] [Gleason - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grimes] [Grimes - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haig - Hall] [Hall - Hammett] [Hannah - Hautman] [Hautman - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Henry] [Henry - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hillerman] [Hilton - Hochschild] [Hoeg - Horowitz] [Horton - Hyland] [Hyman - Jemisin] [Jemisin - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kelly] [Kelly - King] [King - Kline] [Klise - Kowal] [Kowal - Lahiri] [Lamott - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lederer] [Lee - Leonard] [Leonard - Lewis] [Lewis - Little] [Little - Lowry] [Lowry - Lutz] [Lynch - Magary] [Magary - Marcinko] [Marcinko - Marusek] [Masiel - McBain] [McBain - McCaughrean] [McCormack - McDevitt] [McDevitt - Meluch] [Meluch - Modesitt Jr.] [Modesitt, Jr. - Moon] [Moon - Mosley] [Mosley - Nance] [Napoli - Nimmo] [Niven - Nourse] [Novik - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Rourke] [Oates - Palmer] [Palmer - Pargin] [Pargin - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patterson] [Patterson - Peacock] [Pears - Perkins] [Perry - Piper] [Platt - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Quinn] [Quinn - Reeve] [Reeve - Ringo] [Ringo - Robinson] [Robinson - Rothfuss] [Rowling - Russell] [Russo - Sampson] [Sampson - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Scott] [Scott - Sedgwick] [See - Shetterly] [Shields - Skloot] [Sleator - Snelling] [Snicket - Springer] [Standiford - Steinhauer] [Stephens - Strahan] [Strahan - Stross] [Stross - Tapply] [Tapply - Thorp] [Thurber - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Varley] [Varley - Watkins] [Watson - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Whelan] [White - Willis] [Winchester - Wolff] [Wollheim - Zahn] [Zahn - Zusak] 

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