Topping Off the Bookshelf
Well, months later, I'm finally able to write up my "books read" for the year.... I don't know why I didn't keep up with regular, monthly postings - I suppose that's another topic for resolutions :-)
Without further ado - the books I read in 2007:
HIGH SCHOOL BITES, by Liza Conrad. More background reading for a potential new project. This book was published by New America Library under their JAM imprint, which I was asked to consider writing for about three years ago. At the time, I said that I had no story ideas for that age group - ah, how things change.... I enjoyed this quick read; the narrator had some good lines, and there were real conflicts in her life. Alas, I found the ending a bit fast - and I hated, hated, hated that the prologue told me exactly where the plot was going. (Really, what purpose was there for that prologue? It was almost as if the editor was afraid that readers would be too afraid, so she wanted to say - "don't worry, this is where our narrator ends up." ::shrug::)
VAMPIRE HIGH, by Douglas Rees. Background reading for a potential new project - the target audience of this book was younger than any of my target audiences. I liked the narrator's rebellious streak, but I wanted a little more to chew on. (I suspect that my criticism stems directly from my being an old fart.)
SOMETHING ROTTEN, by Jasper Fforde. This fourth Tuesday Next book was full of madcap humor - some of which worked for me, and some of which fell flat. I like Fforde's books best when they're deep in the Literary World, with characters living out their backstage lives in silly, brilliant ways. Alas, a lot of this book takes place in Fforde's alternative 1988, and there is a croquet match that reads a little too much like a Quidditch match for my taste. Still, I laughed out loud at some of the Hamlet scenes.
DOCTORED EVIDENCE, by Donna Leon. Another Guido Brunetti mystery - this one felt much more "Venetian" than the others that I read, in that the crime was a relatively small one, with a cast of suspects all of whom came from the same gossiping, inward-looking neighborhood. I love the matter-of-fact way that Leon addresses her characters' shortcomings. The writing in these books feels like it's in translation - something European seeps into the very phrasing of the sentences.
MANHUNTING, by Jennifer Crusie. Surprisingly, given my current genre of writing, this was my first Crusie book. It was fun and fluffy - nothing to change a woman's world view, but nothing to complain about, either.
STRAY, by Rachel Vincent. I met Rachel at RWA this year; we have the same editor. I bought her book, not completely expecting to like it (it's received mixed reviews and, despite its werecat main character, I feared that it would be too traditional a romance for my taste.) I totally loved this book. I stayed up till 3:30 a.m. to finish reading this book. I was totally engrossed in the literal depiction of "alpha males", and I thought that various cat behaviors were drawn extremely well. (I have a few quibbles with the main character, who is a bit too stupidly rebellious for my taste, but then I remember that she's young and desperate for freedom - a lot of people thought that Rani Trader did stupid things, too...)
HIGH TIDE IN TUCSON, by Barbara Kingsolver. Another volume that lingered on the to-be-read shelf for far too long; I am not typically a fan of essays. I loved the short pieces in this book - as much as one can love the writings of a bitterly angry, disappointed woman who still believes that there is hope in her country and her fellow countrymen. The essays were written in the mid '90s, and I was saddened to realize how much they still applied today - even moreso, in many cases. It was a little eerie to read about the First Gulf War, and about global warming and other "current" crises through a lens of 10 to 15 years.
WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, by Elizabeth George. I used to be a rabid Elizabeth George fan, but her last couple of mysteries felt long to me, poorly edited, with little backbone. I had set her aside for a while, and only recently returned to her when I was looking for a comfort read. Due to my lag in reading, I already knew the penultimate climactic event of this novel (a main character is shot), and I thought that my enjoyment of the book would be significantly impaired. (I am a very plot-bound reader.) Instead, I found a depth of character, made deeper by the tragedy *I* knew would happen. This mystery is long, but I truly enjoyed it, emerging from the read with the feeling that I'd been allowed to visit with old literary friends.
BALL FOUR, by Jim Bouton. I had seen a total of two baseball games when I met my now-husband, who quickly indoctrinated me into the Church of the Boston Red Sox. Reading BALL FOUR (which I kept wanting to call "PLAY BALL" for some reason!) I realized just how much I have internalized about the game. While Bouton is writing about a single season of play in 1969, his book is actually a snapshot of a specific time in American society, where race and gender politics were undergoing tremendous change. While I don't think a total non-sports-fan would enjoy the book, anyone with a basic understanding of baseball would learn a lot about the US of A, as it stood almost 40 years ago - including some insights on how much things have - and have not - changed.
IN THE BEGINNING, by Alister McGrath. A non-fiction book about the creation of the King James version of the Bible. The first half of the book was devoted to political and religious intrigue in Europe, leading up to King James's reign; I found the history lesson utterly fascinating. McGrath makes the creation of the King James Bible seem virtually inevitable, even as he points out how the book was already out-dated (linguistically) when it came to be translated. McGrath effectively uses specific examples of familiar texts to prove many of his points about different translations - again, I realized that the most successful social histories can be written about seemingly insignificant topics.
EXTRAS, by Scott Westerfeld. The fourth book in the UGLIES "trilogy" - I was impressed by this new view into Westerfeld's future world. Again, his story telling was compelling, and I readily turned each page. The plot itself didn't stick in my mind as clearly as the earlier ones, but I loved the extrapolation of fame and ratings and privacy and the value that we place on living our lives.
BLACK POWDER WAR, by Naomi Novik. I had put off reading the Temeraire series - it has been widely admired by almost the entire SF/fantasy community, and I was prepared to be bitterly disappointment (a disappointment compounded by the fact that I have never been able to muster a love/appreciation for the Patrick O'Brian novels.) I loved HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON. I loved Temeraire's voice, and I loved the slightly stilted language used by Laurence. I loved the true affection between the main characters, and the notions of honor that control so many of their actions. (I, personally, would have preferred stronger plots in each of the books, and I could have done without most of the battle scenes, but I consider both of those criticisms to reflect largely on my own lack of historical knowledge of the Napoleonic wars.) THRONE OF JADE, by Naomi Novik.
HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON, by Naomi Novik.
WEETZIE BAT by Francesca Lia Block. I first heard about the Weetzie Bat books years ago, at World Fantasy, when I moderated a panel about YA fiction. I didn't get around to reading one until this year. I was intrigued by the tone and method of storytelling (very matter-of-fact fables, set forth in straight-forward, "factual" narration.) Ultimately, the style didn't work for me, but I understand how some people - especially people more po-mo than I - would gobble up the series.
THIS IS NOT CHICK-LIT, edited by Elizabeth Merrick. The vituperative exchanges between editors on these not-actually-companion volumes of short stories initially caught my interest. Ultimately, I found myself frustrated. Yeah, a lot of the stories in Merrick's anthology aren't chick-lit. They aren't mystery, or romance, or SF, or fantasy, or Westerns or a lot of other genres. I thought it was inappropriate and mean to call chick-lit on the carpet (just because chick-lit sells better than literary fiction?) Baratz-Logsted's collection had a couple of great stories in it (I really liked Caren Lissner's "The Database") and some that were fluff. Both anthologies had stories that I couldn't/wouldn't finish. Ultimately, I think that both editors were grand-standing, but I found myself in much greater sympathy with Baratz-Logsted, and I very much liked the olive branch that she extended, by asking her authors to point out literary books that they enjoyed.
THIS IS CHICK-LIT, edited by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.
IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE, by Norman E. Cantor. This non-fiction book explains the economic and social impact of the Black Plague on Europe - it was informative, and it raised many issues I hadn't thought about before (including the fact/speculation that the medieval diet was heavily meat driven - at least for the upper classes - and that a lot of what we cite as plague might have been anthrax.) Ultimately, I found the writing to be a little dry and repetitious, but I learned a lot.
TITHE, by Holly Black. I liked this story - its worldbuilding and its characters. I especially liked the very last scene, which pulled together the characters in a way that was just *right*. I feel a little fuddy-duddy, though - I felt that some of the language and situations were strong for a YA audience - not that they don't know the language and not that they don't do the things, but just that I don't know that a school library should be promoting it. (An adult library - absolutely....) I'm still working out my position on how much sex, violence, language, etc. belongs in YA - this volume challenged a lot of my beliefs and assumptions.
KITTY GOES TO WASHINGTON, by Carrie Vaughn. I don't usually start series in the middle, but I had bought this one without knowing it wasn't the first. My husband, who used to work in the radio business, enjoyed this novel; I didn't have that background, but I found the "here's how were-wolfing works in the real world" take to be interesting. More and more, I'm intrigued by the "scientific" explanations created by authors for horror creatures.
THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, by Sherman Alexie. I picked up this book as an Advance Readers Copy at BEA, and I loved, loved, loved it. There were two separate times where I found myself choking up at the story told by this confused 14-year-old Indian boy, and there were many times when I literally laughed out loud. The book comes out in September. Read it.
SO YESTERDAY, by Scott Westerfeld. A fun, quick snapshot of cool hunters and the challenges that face them in modern Manhattan. While I question the freedom of the 17-year-old hero, and his ability to roam the city to do the things he does, I was sucked into every other aspect of this book.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, by J.K. Rowling (I fall into the camp of reader-writers who admire Rowling tremendously. I think that she kept her series fresh, that she demonstrated a lot of creativity and humor in her writing, and that she wrote a looooong tale that kept me wrapped up till the end. I was consistently surprised, in my re-reading, about how much I'd forgotten from earlier first reads. One quibble: This last volume is so much darker than the others that I question its ability to satisfy the child-readers of the first book.)
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, by J.K. Rowling HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, by J.K. Rowling HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, by J.K. Rowling HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, by J.K. Rowling HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, by J.K. Rowling (Re-reading to prepare for the seventh - I am *astonished* by how much of the plot of this one I'd forgotten!)
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, by J.K. Rowling. (Re-reading to prepare for the seventh - I had forgotten just how long it took for Harry to get to Hogwarts!). MOTHERS AND OTHER MONSTERS, by Maureen McHugh. The last of my 2006 BEA books, this one was short stories. I'm not a short story reader by nature, and this book didn't change my inclinations... I loved the individual phrasing of sentences, but I prefer more plot (and plot resolution in my writing). CARPE DEMON, by Julie Kenner. Mom-lit fluff, which perfectly matched my reading-craving. I loved the main character's shrugging attitude about the magical insanity in her life, even if I'd worked out the plot twists before the character did. These books have much more overt magic in them than mine do - an interesting thing to note, given their huge success! THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY, by Donna Leon. Another Brunetti mystery, set in Venice. I loved, loved, loved the characters and the evocation of a different, Italian way of life. The mystery didn't grab me, but I'm not convinced that it was supposed to. TRUJILLO, by Lucius Shepard. Yet another 2006 BEA book, I was enchanted by the narration in the first half of this slim novel - it read precisely like a 21st century Hemingway. The blatant sexuality and sexual violence in the second half of the book ooked me (although it was supposed to, I believe...) TULIPOMANIA, by Mike Dash. One of the first mini-non-fiction books (books on narrow topics) that I ever bought; this one had been sitting on the to-be-read pile forever, which was a horrific oversight on my part. I loved what I learned from this book - I now actually understand futures markets and how they work. Dash does a great job of introducing factual information in a logical, connected fashion. THE FLOATING ISLAND, by Elizabeth Haydon. A fun adventure-fantasy-YA book that I snagged at 2006 BEA because Elizabeth and I have the same agent.
TENDER AT THE BONE, by Ruth Reichl. The first volume of memoirs by food writer and editor Reichl. I loved the stories that she told, and the way that food evoked images and family and history. I'll read more volumes (time permitting! :-) ) READING LIKE A WRITER, by Francine Prose. This book would make a useful text for a writing course. In some chapters, she quotes too extensively from other works (rather like leaving too much fruit and not enough cake in a fruitcake...), but many of her ideas were good ones, especially for new writers. IN HER SHOES, by Jennifer Weiner. I was intrigued by this essential chicklit book, especially by the chapters that were narrated by non-chick characters. Weiner frequently graduates from "chicklit" to "women's lit" in reviewers' minds, and I think it's because she dares to address women who make bad choices and live with them. PEEPS, by Scott Westerfeld. I loved, loved, loved the set up for this book (especially the background creation story for his vampires) and the voice of the main character. I was somewhat less enamored of the overall plot, including the Big Dark Reveal toward the end, but I'll read anything that Westerfeld writes, with pleasure. SPOOK, by Mary Roach. This nonfiction book on the afterlife is an attempt to determine whether there are any scientific ways to prove life after death. I really liked Roach's STIFF (about how dead bodies are used in science, etc.) SPOOK was a bit too glib, and the topic proved a bit too easy to poke fingers at. I enjoyed the bits of discussion, though, about how to harness scientific method to measure the supernatural. THE TURNING, by Jennifer Armintrout. I don't read a lot of vampire fiction - in fact, aside from the first Sookie book, and SUNSHINE, and a couple of early Anne Rice's, I don't think I've read any of the endless contemporary vampire novels. This one was a gift, and I enjoyed it - I liked watching the first-person narrator grasp her change. The whole violent sex/blood thing, though, is purely a turnoff to me; I have trouble understanding the underlying attraction that brings so many readers into this sub-genre. SOMETHING WICKED, by Evelyn Waugh. This Silhouette Bombshell was also a gift; it's the only one that I've read in the late, lamented line. The plot involves twins, and I found it difficult to keep straight which was which - but that was my own fault, not the author's. (I do a lot of my reading late at night or on the Metro and I would forget the name of the good twin, juxtaposing it with the name of the bad one. BAREFOOT PRINCESS, by Christina Dodd. I got this book as a giveaway at RWA last year. I read very little romance, and this one felt like "classic" romance - it was pretty clear to me from page one who was going to play which roles throughout. This book didn't rock my world, but I certainly kept turning the pages, even though I've become rather impatient with a lot of what I read.
MAGIC OR MADNESS, by Justine Larbalestier MAGIC LESSONS, by Justine Larbalestier MAGIC'S CHILD, by Justine Larbalestier. I read the MAGIC trilogy, in part, in response to the Scott Westerfeld UGLIES trilogy. (Scott and Justine are married, and they've both seen their work *explode* on the YA scene in the past few years.) I loved the otherworldliness-in-our-worldness of these books - the notion that there is magic just outside our reach. I also loved the very, very hard choices that Larbalestier gave her characters; we fantasy authors talk all the time about wanting to create a *cost* for magic, and Larbalestier does that with a vengeance. At one point toward the middle of the series, I thought that these books were going to go down a somewhat-familiar Phillip Pullman path; I was glad to see my expectations dashed. (Not that there's anything wrong with Pullman, just that these books should break new ground.) There was one plot inconsistency at the very end that bugged me, otherwise, I was quite, quite impressed.
THE WOMAN AT THE WASHINGTON ZOO, by Marjorie Williams. Williams was a Washington Post and Vanity Fair columnist who died last year. At the time of her death, she was lionized for the power of her writing, which I did not remember ever having read. Mark gave me this collection of her essays for Valentines Day, and the gift turned out to be prescient. The collection was edited by Williams' husband, and it turns out to be a complicated Valentine, from him to her memory, from her to her adopted city of Washington, from her to her family... Some of these essays were beautiful little gems, and some were intricate castles. Well worth reading, especially for anyone interested in Washington and politics (usually, that doesn't include me.) HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS, by James A Owens (our own </a></b></a></a></b></a></a></b></a></a></b></a>![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
coppervale). I dreaded writing about this book on this blog. As I started reading it, it was pleasant enough, but there wasn't anything flashy about it, and bits of it seemed rather derivative. I enjoyed the main characters, though, and so I stuck with it - and I am *thrilled* that I did. There's a twist at the end that makes the entire book more than worthwhile - I didn't see it coming (and neither did my college roommate :-) ). Also, it's the first time in ages that I've read an illustrated book, and I loved the picture-examination I got to do at the top of each chapter! RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, by Augusten Burroughs. This book sickened me. With the exception of a couple of place-descriptions early on, I found nothing amusing about it - all of the back-cover flap about how Burroughs is one of the ten funniest people in America was a sick, sick lie, in my book. After reading the Vanity Fair article about Burroughs and some other web-based disputations, I think it likely that most of this book is fabricated, or at least extremely exaggerated, but I find it truly disturbing that someone would *think* of most of these things happening to a child. I didn't see the movie - I bought the book to read before seeing it - and now, I'm not looking forward to doing so. GIRL'S NIGHT IN, edited by Lauren Henderson, Chris Manby, and Sarah Mlynowski. Chicklit short stories - I'm *still* not a short story person, and I likely never will be. There were a couple of amusing stories, but nothing of any great lasting import for my poor little author's brain to dwell on. DEATH AND JUDGMENT, by Donna Leon. Claudia Bishop (a mystery writer) recommended this book to me. I'd never heard of Leon before, but after I bought the book, I saw about a dozen people reading it on trains, planes (and, likely, automobiles.) I loved the main character (a Venetian policeman) - his stolid goodness in the face of much corruption, his utter resignation to the way things are and the way things should be. I will read more of these novels.
SPECIALS, by Scott Westerfeld. I resisted reading the Westerfeld trilogy, because it's been so hyped on Boing Boing and elsewhere. I didn't think that it could possibly be as good as all the cool kids said it was. And you know what? I was totally, completely wrong. I LOVED this trilogy, with the passion that I loved books when I was a kid. It reminded me of the John Christopher Tripod books and - in a rougher way - of Madeleine L'Engle's Meg Murray books. It captures the angst of being fifteen/sixteen, and the weight of having a mission. It asks overwhelmingly pertinent questions about who we are, as children, friends, citizens, people. PRETTIES, by Scott Westerfeld. UGLIES, by Scott Westerfeld. DOPPELGANGER, by Marie Brennan. I'd been planning on reading this for a while - Marie and I frequent some of the same newsgroups some of the time. While I started reading this novel is a hyper-critical mood (the opening sentence describes weather, and that is one of my personal pet peeve annoyances), I rapidly got sucked into the story. The levels of magic and the carefully constructed social hierarchies illustrate that Marie is an anthropologist by training. Even in this day and age, when I have so little time for reading, I intend to search out the sequel. THE TALISMAN BAG, by Karen Wester Newton. No. You haven't heard of Karen. I read this book to blurb it for first-time author Karen Wester Newton, who happens to be in my once-and-possibly-future writing group. Karen has landed an agent and is shopping around this well-drawn quick-read of a fantasy novel, which walks the fine line of YA and adult fiction, with romance, magic, religion, and more than a bit of fun. THE PRINCESS DIARIES, by Meg Cabot. Picked up for the same study. I loved this book. I'd heard so much about it, avoided seeing the Disney flick, thought that it was over-hyped, etc. But I loved the character, loved her sense of humor, identified with the eye-rolling exasperation of adolescence, winced at the mistakes that I'd know enough not to make... I actually laughed out loud a couple of times, which does not happen often with me. DARK HORSE, by Tami Hoag. MATES, DATES, AND INFLATABLE BRAS, by Cathy Hopkins. A British YA novel, picked up as a study for a possible YA I'm thinking of writing. I've been intrigued, reading contemporary British YA and British chick-lit, to find a *ton* of colloquialisms that I don't know. Most are decipherable from the text, but these genres really get at the vernacular in a way that C.S. Lewis doesn't.
All in all, 59 books, making an interesting year (especially a year when I was busy with so much day-job work that my reading often suffered.)
A lot of YA, reflecting actual and potential book-writing projects. A fair foray into my to-be-read shelf, which is still overwhelmed (and overwhelming), but not by as much as at the beginning of the year. I like the idea that I started this year of placing tags on the books by quarter, so that I know how long they've been sitting around. I think I'll continue that into the new year.
Mindy, dusting off hands
Without further ado - the books I read in 2007:
coppervale). I dreaded writing about this book on this blog. As I started reading it, it was pleasant enough, but there wasn't anything flashy about it, and bits of it seemed rather derivative. I enjoyed the main characters, though, and so I stuck with it - and I am *thrilled* that I did. There's a twist at the end that makes the entire book more than worthwhile - I didn't see it coming (and neither did my college roommate :-) ). Also, it's the first time in ages that I've read an illustrated book, and I loved the picture-examination I got to do at the top of each chapter!All in all, 59 books, making an interesting year (especially a year when I was busy with so much day-job work that my reading often suffered.)
A lot of YA, reflecting actual and potential book-writing projects. A fair foray into my to-be-read shelf, which is still overwhelmed (and overwhelming), but not by as much as at the beginning of the year. I like the idea that I started this year of placing tags on the books by quarter, so that I know how long they've been sitting around. I think I'll continue that into the new year.
Mindy, dusting off hands
And now for the nit pick: You've got SO YESTERDAY, by Scott Westerfeld listed twice. Just something I noticed. :-)
Happy (New Year) reading!!
Wonder if I can reconstruct what I read this year? Probably, but I suspect I'll postpone doing so until I really need to procrastinate on a deadline... LOL!
That prologue problem sounds like the first episodes of some anime series. In those instances, I missed the first episode which would have spoiled most of the twists!
I read Ironside (a sequel to Tithe) without first reading Tithe, and it still rocked.
In The Beginning and In The Wake of the Plague look intriguing. Onto the 'to read' list!