The Door in the Wall

Written by: Marguerite de Angeli

First line: Robin drew the coverlet about his head and turned his face to the wall.

Why you should read this book: With his father off to war and his mother waiting on the Queen, Robin is supposed to begin his training to become a knight, but his parents didn't make plans for Robin to become so sick he lost the use of his legs, and for every servant left to care for him to die of the plague. Brother Luke, a monk who is aware of Robin's situation (and that his father has generously donated to the monk's church) comes to rescue him, not just from starving to death in his own bed, but from his sense that disability means he can do nothing and has nothing to look forward to. With the help of the Brothers, Robin soon learns to swim, read, whittle, and eventually, to walk with crutches, so that eventually he has the confidence and ability to outwit an invading army and save England.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a bit of a quiet book, although there is a bit of action here and there. I seem to recall my mother trying to force me to read this book 40-odd years ago and me being so bored I didn't get through the first chapter. 

Pride and Prejudice

Written by: Jane Austen 

First line: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Why you should read this book: I can't believe I've never blogged this one before; it's the literary equivalent of a warm blanket and a cup of cocoa with marshmallows for many readers, and the story of the Bennet sisters, who must marry well before their father's estate is entailed to their unctuous cousin, is one I've consumed many times. Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest sibling, has a lively mind and wit, and on first acquaintance is deeply unimpressed with the wealthy, condescending Mr. Darcy, but as the story unfolds, she realizes that there is more to Mr. Darcy than snobbery and smug disapproval. There are lies and betrayals and romance and all kinds of snide remarks and cutting observations and true danger and, as in every Jane Austen novel, everyone gets the husband she deserves. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have to actually be a reader; if you don't like reading you will find Austen's prose difficult to detangle. 

The Secret School

Written by: Avi

First line: On a cool Monday morning in early April 1925, Ida Bidson, aged fourteen, carefully guided her family's battered Model T Ford along a narrow, twisting dirt road in Elk Valley, Colorado.

Why you should read this book: Ida loves education and dreams of becoming a school teacher, but to do so she has to graduate from the tiny one-room schoolhouse, pass her exit exams, and go to high school in town. Calamity strikes when Mr. Jordan, the head of the school board, who doesn't think girls need education anyway, decides to close the school down two months early. With the democratic support of the other seven students, Ida endeavors to secretly run the school until the end of the term, playing teacher for the other kids while working to maintain her studies and follow her dream.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're one of those people who freaks out about children's stories where clever children disobey and outwit dull and stubborn adults.

The War That Saved My Life

Written by: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

First line: "Ada! Get back from that window!" Mam's voice, shouting. 

Why you should read this book: Born with a clubfoot to an abusive mother, Ada has only once in her life left her room, and was beaten for it, but she's been secretly teaching herself to walk, although it is painful and bloody. Thus, she is able to sneak out and join the other children being evacuated to the country from London at the beginning of World War II, to be cared for by a depressed woman mourning the death of her "best friend" (or, as we say today, "they were 'roommates'"). In the country, she learns a great deal about the world, and herself, and love; discovers crutches, and ponies, and the fact that she is capable of much more than her mother led her to believe; and finds possibility in life that she never could have imagined from her window at home. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's pretty sad, although the ending is hopeful. 

Uncle Tom's Children

Written by: Richard Wright

Firstline: My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small.

Why you should read this book: This collection features five short stories and one biographical essay written early in the author's career. These pieces all describe the inherent terror of the Jim Crow south and the way it victimized Black people in twentieth century America, with violence and murder featuring prominently among the arsenal of tools used by segregationists to enforce social control. These are dangerous, frightening stories about a zero-sum game that is always fixed in favor of the house, wonderfully written with deep insight and wisdom, but difficult to read in terms of the suffering of the characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There aren't really any happy endings and four of the stories have absolutely brutal endings. 

The Covenant of Water

Written by: Abraham Verghese

First line: She is twelve years old, and she will be married in the morning.

Why you should read this book: An engaging multigenerational tale of a twentieth century Indian family, plagued by a mysterious condition that is marked by an extreme aversion to water (but little fear of anything else) and frequently results in deafness, a love of heights, and premature death by drowning. Each generation finds love, even in the face of suffering and adversity, but mourns helplessly when those afflicted with the Condition are lost. As science and medicine progress, perhaps there is hope that one day they can save their loved ones from this strange and confusing affliction. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Kids die. 

The Pomegranate Gate

 Written by: Ariel Kaplan

First line: Naftaly was dreaming again, in that strange dreamlandscape where the stars whirled overhead like snow on the win and the people he met all had square-pupiled eyes.

Why you should read this book: In this powerhouse fantasy epic beginning in the Spanish Inquisition with the expulsion of the Jews, the narrative moves between that world and a parallel world populated with magical beings, a strange and even more dangerous place which both mirrors and influences the human realm. Separated from her family and the group of Jews fleeing the country, a young woman named Toba, who is both clever and clumsy stumbles through the gate into the land of the Mazik. This new place is complex, and operates by rules that Toba does not quite understand, but if she wants to survive she will have to untangle the mystery of her own past, and events that took places a thousand years before she was born. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you don't like really long books that end when things are getting really interesting because they're the first tome in an epic series, you shouldn't read really long books in epic series. 

The Happiest Ending

Written by: Yoshiko Uchida

First line: How did I ever let Mama talk me into this, I wondered.

Why you should read this book: Rinko isn't surprised when her mother directs her to help Mrs. Sugino make dinner after her Japanese tutor breaks her arm (Mama made Rinko spend the whole summer helping when Mrs. Hata lost her husband), but she is surprised to learn that Mrs. Sugino's boarder, Mr. Kinju, plans to marry Mrs. Hata's daughter, even though Teru is only nineteen and Mr. Hata is even older than Rinko's own father! As a Japanese-American girl who thinks of herself as very American, Rinko believes in marrying for love, and she just doesn't see how anyone as young and beautiful as Temu could ever love an old man she's never met like Mr. Hata. But the adults don't seem to see the problem, so it is up to Rinko to save Temu from the terrible fate of an unsuitable marriage. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You married for love and it worked out terribly.

All the Ever Afters

Written by: Danielle Teller

First line: Suppers at the royal court have become entirely too oppressive.

Why you should read this book: Similar to the revisionist works of Donna Jo Napoli, this is a more grown-up retelling of Cinderella, from the stepmother's point of view. Beginning with young Agnes being sent to the Manor as a very young girl, because her parents can no longer afford to feed her, this book casts the young protagonist as a hard-working, determined go-getter, who learns through trial and error that nobody is going to take care of her, so she needs to take care of herself. A truly excellent example of the genre, with intelligent storytelling and clever plotting, this is a gripping read, one that keeps the reader wondering what will happen next despite the story's framework depending on the fact that most readers already know a lot of it.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are too busy trying to force someone else's autistic kid to learn basic manners. 

The Best Bad Thing

Written by:  Yoshiko Uchida

First line: "Mama, do I absolutely have to go?" I asked for the third time. 

Why you should read this book: Rinko doesn't even want to visit the recently widowed Mrs. Hata and her sons, who are wild and hop on freight trains for fun, and she definitely doesn't want to spend her summer living with them and helping with their cucumber harvest, but her mother has made up her mind: this is the right thing to do for a fellow immigrant in her time of need. Nothing at the Hata house is her idea of a good time, but gradually, Rinko learns to love unusual Mrs. Hata and even her rambunctious sons and the strange old man who lives in their barn. The only problem is that one tragedy seems to follow the next (although they all seem to be related to the freight train situation) and even with Rinko's help, the Hatas are falling further and further away from prosperity. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You regularly jump off of moving vehicles and nothing bad ever happens to you.

The Thin Man

Written by: Dashiell Hammett

First line: I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me. 

Why you should read this book: This is the classic hard-boiled detective story, featuring tough and clever alcoholic (and retired detective) Nick Charles, and his clever and beautiful wife, Nora, who are just trying to have a relaxing vacation. Nick is dragged, very much against his will, into the case of a dead woman who has some connection to people Nick used to know, and to a lot of people that Nick doesn't care to know at all. Even though he swears he's retired, now he's consulting with the cops, interviewing suspects, getting shot at, and gathering evidence while avoiding sobriety at every turn. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought it was pretty unfair to the reader that the story withholds some of the evidence until after Nick solved the crime.

Moshkeleh the Thief

Written by: Sholom Aleichem

First line: Non-Jews called him Moshke.

Why you should read this book: Billed as a "lost" novel of the great Yiddish writer (more of a short story or novella in my estimation), this is a very exciting and non-traditional kind of love story that shines a light on the once-vibrant and now-extinct world of the Jewish shtetl. Moshkele is a horse thief who is held in disdain by the entire community, a community that calls on him to solve any problem that requires wit and strength, but refuses to let him marry any of their daughters; Tsireleh is the beautiful daughter of a tavern-keeper who has seen firsthand exactly what traditional marriage has done to her sisters and determines to have no part in it. When Tsireleh runs off with a goy and takes shelter in a monastery, her father engages Moshkeleh to bring her back, unaware that Moshkeleh has been in love with Tsireleh for a long time.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Your adult child has run off.

Sing Down the Moon

Written by: Scott O'Dell

First line: On the high mesas above our canyon, spring came early that year.

Why you should read this book: In the voice of Bright Morning, a young Navajo woman, this book presents a vivid picture of life in Canyon de Chelly in the 1860s, and what happened when white people began to encroach on this territory. Bright Morning has learned to be a diligent steward of sheep and hopes one day to marry the proud Tall Boy, a strong warrior who once killed a bear, but when she is kidnapped and sold into slavery, Tall Boy loses the use of one arm rescuing her. Shortly after that, Bright Morning's tribe, along with all the other indigenous people in the area, are forced on the Long Walk, a deadly forced relocation following the destruction of their homes and resources, and Bright Morning, and all those around her, must decide how much they are willing to risk to survive, and thrive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Bright Morning and Tall Boy have a happy ending, but many of the people forced onto the Long Walk did not. 

Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels Book One

Written by: Nancy Springer and Serena Blasco

First line: Enola, you'll manage well on your own, won't you?

Why you should read this book: I usually find graphic novel adaptations woefully inadequate, but as I haven't read the original book (although I did see both films on Netflix) this one seemed decent to me. Young Enola, the little sister of Mycroft and Sherlock, has no interest in being forced into a corset or the role of a lady, and when her mother disappears, she employs her considerable intellect to escape the confines of the life others have laid out for her. Donning a variety of disguises, she runs away to London and sets up shop as a specialist in missing persons cases, managing to find several missing persons while successfully evading her brothers, without making much headway in finding her mother. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I'm guessing the original novel is better. It usually is. 

Kindred

Written by: Octavia Butler 

First line: I lost my arm on my last trip home.

Why you should read this book: This is a groundbreaking novel about the perilous history of Black Americans and their relationships to the white people who enslaved them, cleverly framed as a time traveling story about a young woman named Dana who, like Billy Pilgrim before her, becomes unhinged in time. Over and over, Dana is called back from 1970's LA to the antebellum south, where she must repeatedly save the life of her distant ancestor, Rufus, a rich white man who owns slaves, including another one of her ancestors, Alice, a Black woman who is the object of Rufus's obsession. As Rufus grows up, Dana must protect him to ensure her own birth, but at the same time, she cannot protect Alice from Rufus without preventing her own conception. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Slavery is brutal.

The Care of Strangers

Written by: Ellen Michaelson

First line:  Sima pushed a large woman in a wheelchair to the A71 Nurses' Station to catch a bit of breeze.

Why you should read this book: The immigrant daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Sima works as an orderly in a public New York hospital in the 1980s, while pointedly not finishing her pre-med degree or dealing with her complex feelings about her mother, who is also her roommate. When she notices a young doctor who seems at risk of ending her own career before it even begins, Sima feels drawn to the other woman, intent on making friends and helping her succeed, despite Dr. Kahn's disinterest in her assistance. In her quest to show compassion to her patients and teach compassion to her colleagues, Sima needs to find some compassion for herself.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It can be a little sad in places. 

Jane Morris and Me: Learning to Listen

Written by: Jane Herlihy

First line: It is over. In the love of his friends -- not all, but some of his closest. 

Why you should read this book: While recovering from a horrific case of Dengue fever, the author becomes fascinated with the Victorian artist's model Jane Morris, darling of the pre-Raphaelites, and the ways that women's stories are so often dictated by men who have no inkling of their rich inner lives, and begins to write a meticulously researched diary revealing a very different Janey than the one described by the artists who painted her. From there, the project blossoms into an examination of disability and illness, sitting quietly with information and waiting for understanding, opening oneself up to the freedom and possibility of the creative life, and grappling with permanent change, among other issues. This fascinating work of creative nonfiction is both biography and autobiography, nonfiction and historical fiction, traditional and feminist, and one hundred percent art. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've happily devoted your life to the care of invalid relatives, despite being something of an invalid yourself. 

Satan in Goray

Written by: Isaac Bashevis Singer

First line: In the year 1648, the wicked Ukranian hetman, Bogdan Chmelnicki, and his followers besieged the city of Zamosc but could not take it because it was strongly fortified; the rebelling haidamak peasants moved on to spread havoc in Tomaszow, Bilgoraj, Krasnik, Turbin, Frampol--and in Goray, too, the town the lay in the midst of the hills at the end of the world.

Why you should read this book: When news comes that the messiah has arrived in the form of a man called Sabbatai Zevi, a strange religious mania overtakes the beleaguered shtetl of Goray, where Jews have long adhered to the biblical traditions of their ancestors. Turning away from their rabbi and the old ways, the people embrace mysticism and prophets and follow kabbalists who declare that the rules of decency and morality are suspended, creating a strange, lawless world in advance of the paradise to which they believe they will soon be delivered. But Zevi is no messiah, and their prophets are less holy than they had been led to believe, and the people of Goray will not be delivered to paradise.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you haven't got a decent grounding in European Jewish tradition or history, a lot of this probably won't make much sense. 

One Candle

Written by: Eve Bunting and K. Wendy Popp

First line: This Hanukkah is like every other one.

Why you should read this book: A little girl tells about her family's Hanukkah celebration, including the story of why her aunt has brought one potato that doesn't get made into latkes. The older relatives explain how, during World War II, they survived the winter at Buchenwald, pilfering a single potato, a little margarine, and a piece of string, in order to made a candle to celebrate Hanukkah. With the inclusion of the extra potato in their celebration, they can remember their family history and honor their ancestors. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're very hungry.

Wise Child

Written by: Monica Furlong

First line: Juniper was different from us.

Why you should read this book: Wise Child's mother abandoned her long ago, her father is always away at sea, and her grandmother dies when she is nine, so by the customs of her medieval Scottish village, the community gathers to determine who will care for her, and the best candidate for the job is Juniper, the unmarried woman who lives outside of town, never attends mass, is quite obviously a witch. With some apprehension, Wise Child begins a new life, learning Latin and the healing arts and cleaning up after herself and a whole host of skills she could not imagine in her old life, until she finds that she loves her new foster mother and might even want to follow in her footsteps. But there are dangers in her new life—her biological mother, who is a very different kind of witch, wants her back, and the village priest doesn't want any kind of witches alive anywhere—and Wise Child must learn to solve problems and make fast, grown-up decisions while she is still a little girl.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are one of those completely humorless Christians who believe that anyone who doesn't attend your particular church must be in league with the devil,