Saturday book club post.

"The Underneath" by Kathi Appelt is one of the most intense books for young readers I've ever read. It'll rip your heart out and stomp on it.

"Diary of a Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie - I have to second the person who put this on ther list. It's on a lot of teen reading lists so it's not that unknown, but might slip under an adult's radar.

Janet Kagan didn't write enough but what she did write...they're awesome. I can't choose between Mirabile and Hellspark.

"Moonheart" and "Jack of Kinrowan" are my faves by Charles de Lint.

Oh yes! The People stories! They're collected in "Ingathering" by Zenna Henderson.

Carol O'Connell's "The Judas Child" is out of print but due to be back in print sometime this year. It's a mystery and is told via several POVs. The ending. Just OMG the ending.

"Shardik" by Richard Adams is about religion, society, and the power of belief. And "The Plague Dogs". No bunnies here, just Snitter the most adorable terrier to have ever escaped from an animal testing lab.

Eric Flint, Dave Freer, & Mercedes Lackey, Heirs of Alexander
Thomas Harlan, Oath of Empire
Harry Turtledove, Hitler's War and Between the Rivers

Those are the four books and series I could think of off-hand. BTW, the latest in the Heirs of Alexander series, Much Fall of Blood is available as an eARC at Baen Books.

The Merchant of Marvels and the Peddler of Dreams by Frederic Clement
Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

Thanks. :-) The first one and Robin McKinley's Beauty are my two favorite books ever.

A series I didn't know about until a couple years ago - but that I pimp every chance I get - is StarDoc by S.L. Viehl (aka Paperback Writer). The first one was written ten years ago and the tenth (the final one) is releasing this summer. She's also known as Lynn Viehl and writes the Darkyn series - which is another series I love to pimp.

Other books to pimp:
Embers - Laura Bickle
Mind Games - Carolyn Crane
The Simon Canderous series - Anton Strout. (Like your Daye series and Butcher's Dresden Files)
The Rogue Agent series - KE Mills

I'm going to third (or fourth, or whatever)

Janet Kagan's Mirabile (sci fi short stories woven into one larger book)

but my favorite, top of my head, out of print book is:

Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt (YA, mystery, but since his dog, Sinbad, seems to know more than a dog should it has a thread of fantasy in it.)

*looks up* daHAHM that's a lot of books.

Here's what been lighting up my life, thank you LA Times Festival of books:

Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read in a Parenting Magazine edited by Dani Klein Modisett
- A collection of essays on becoming a parent that are short, hit the mark every time, provide invaluable POV and can be read within five minutes - yes, this is important if you're in this specific statistical grouping.
Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebeccca Solnit
- Walking. Nothing but. As a cultural statement, a personal discipline, a political expression...name it. Best of all, while you read the book once through? You can read it again through the footnotes that are nothing but quotations on walking by everybody, across the ages. Every page. So incredibly unique.
What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality by Daniel A. Helminiak
- Small, pithy and fast reading. I keep this with my copy of the American Constitution (why yes, yes I do know what's in the constitution, here - want to see?). What does it actually say? Not much, to be blunt...and here's the evidence. Go forth and chop the legs out from under some people, here's the axe.
Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East - Pico Iyer
- One of my most favorite people in the whole wide world is Pico Iyer. You want to see the world through the eyes of a cultural neighborhood contained in a single body, read his books. This is the first one of his I read - Indian by ethnicity, raised in Santa Barbara, educated at Oxford, lives in Japan with his Japanese wife, writes voluminously on middle east life...and having met him, the adoration continues. Most favored author, by far.

Buy a cookbook if the local Rotary, Church Group or other fund-raiser has one. Particularly if you're traveling. This has been a fantastic way to get a look at the communities hosting you - and makes the best souvenir ever. Really really.

You hit a couple of mine on your list. I'll add:

• The Color of Distance, Amy Thomson (if you read only one on my list, READ THIS ONE).
• The Summoner, Gail Z Martin (I'd list the rest of this series, but if it's going to grab you, you'll read the rest anyway :)
• The Deed of Paksennarion, Elizabeth Moon
• And All Between, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (which has the odd distinction of being #2 in a series, which is an okay series, and I will happily say it is even better read standalone and books 1 and 3 skipped)

I'll stop at 4. I'm failing to draw to mind a fifth (unless I put in Hellspark or Emergence, which you already covered, and both of which trump the last one on my list if I were considering adding them).

Okay, I mentioned Jane Lindskold's Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls.

Steven Brust's Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill, which is a lesser-known book by a well known author.

Brian Daley's Adventures of Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh: Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds, Jinx on a Terran Inheritance, and Fall of the White Ship Avatar.

The Silver John stories by Manly Wade Wellman.

I keep coming back here as I need to read new things. :)

But one of my absolute favorites growing up that is still wonderful:

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy. I heart it til my heart breaks. :)

The TrickstersKushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.