There are lots of changes! I'm going to update the site one change at a time. Meanwhile, many of the links will go back to the old site, while those should all link to the new site through the home page link.

The biggest change: I'm no longer going to post reviews in issues. Instead, the site will work more like a lit blog, and I will post reviews as I read the books and write the reviews.

Meanwhile, I will be converting the old files to the new format, and including them on the new pages.

Another change is that I've removed the five-star rating system. Instead, I'm going to go with the same approach that Horn Book Magazine and Publisher's Weekly use. All books reviewed are recommended, with any reservations listed in the review. Books I found to be exceptional will get a starred review.

The five-star system was too detailed. I got tired of telling people that I liked a book very much--even if I gave it "only" three stars! Yes, if I review a book, I did like it, and did find it worth reading!

Welcome to Sonderbooks, a website about good books.

I'm Sondra Eklund, a voracious reader, and soon-to-be librarian. Until last summer, I worked for eight years at Sembach Library, on an American air base in Germany. While I worked there, so many fantastic new books came my way, I began writing Sonderbooks to tell my friends about them. The original e-newsletter was so much fun to write, I expanded to a website, and now I'm not only sharing books with my friends, but also am making new friends by sharing books.

Last summer, I moved back to America, now living within five minutes of two dear friends I've known since third grade! We were friends in California, but now, somehow or other, we all ended up in Virginia. It is a tremendous source of joy in my life to live near them.

Last September, I began an online program to get a Master's degree in Library and Information Sciences. I completely LOVE it!--Though that is why I went from December 2006 to June 2007 without posting any reviews.

In the quarter of Spring 2007, I took a class in Internet Information Resource Design. Inspired by that class, I'm redoing my website using Cascading Style Sheets, hoping that will make it easier to update. The idea is that I should be able to make changes to all pages simply by updating the style sheet, rather than having to individually change more than a thousand pages.

I also found a new friend here in Virginia who enjoys graphic design. She asked if I would "let" her design a new logo for me. I am completely delighted with the design she came up with!

One nice thing about book reviews is that, for the most part, they don't go out of date. Good books are still good books, even after time has passed. You'll find a wide variety of books for all ages, all books I have actually read.

Books reflect life. You'll learn a lot about me and about my thinking about life by reading my reviews. These are my opinions, but I have found a lot of wisdom out there. I feel that God has taken me through some recent rough times by bringing me exactly the books I needed.

When Winnie-the-Pooh is in a tight place, he asks Christopher Robin, "Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?" ( Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, "Pooh Goes Visiting.") I feel that God has brought exactly such help and comfort to me.

When I create a form directly on my site to subscribe, it turns out that I've been getting lots of spam. So instead, I'm now posting all my reviews on my blog as well as on this site.

If you want to subscribe to Sonderbooks, go to the blog and subscribe to the feed by clicking on any of the (rss) links on the right side or the "Feed" links at the bottom of the page.

This way, whenever I add a review, you can find out about it. Since I am no longer posting Sonderbooks as an e-zine, in "issues," I hope to post individual reviews every few days. Using the feed will mean I won't have to bother my subscribers with e-mail every time I update my site.

There are two ways you can support my website. One is to follow my links to Amazon.com. If you buy a book I recommend, I get a small percentage, and I also get a small percentage if you buy anything else after going to Amazon by way of my site.

The second way is to make a donation via the Paypal button below. Although I haven't made a profit yet, this is not a nonprofit corporation, so donations are not tax deductible. If I should some day receive donations beyond the cost of hosting the website, I would use them to purchase more books to review.

Writing Sonderbooks has become very time-consuming, so supporting the website with donations will help me rationalize that as time well-spent, and will help keep the website going.

Thank you for your support!

I hope that my reviews and these books will give you some pleasure and some food for thought.

I can be reached at: sondy@sonderbooks.com.

Please put "Sonderbooks" somewhere in the subject line.