My Best of 2011

By the Numbers:

Middle Grade Fiction: 57
YA Fiction: 45
Graphic Novels: 7
Non-Fiction:18
Adult Fiction: 30
(Number of those that were sci-fi/fantasy books: 49)

Grand Total:157

Abandoned: 9

Challenges Completed: I only did three this year: Once Upon a Time, The Great Blogger Book Swap, and the People Of Color Challenge. I hit my goal in the POC challenge, finished the Once Upon a Time, and did less than I hoped on the Great Blogger Book Swap. I'm wondering if I should just be done with challenges for a while.

And now this year's awards:

Best Adult Fiction: The Night Circus 
Best YA book: I'll Be There 
Best Middle-grade book: Okay For Now 
Best Fantasy: Daughter of Smoke and Bone 
Best Sci-Fi/Distopian: Divergent 
Best Graphic Novel: Zita the Spacegirl 
Best Non-Fiction: The Disappearing Spoon 
Best Romance: The Grand Sophy 
Best Mystery(I read more than one this year!):  The Devil Went Down to Austin 
Best Audiobook: The True Meaning of Smekday 
Best Jacket Flap: How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack


And in other categories...

Okay, okay, so the hype isn't always wrong: The Night Circus, The Help

Books I should have read AGES ago: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Cold Sassy Tree, Beowulf, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Hattie Big Sky 

Author I overdosed on this year: Rick Riordan (a grand total of 6, plus I read the Percy Jackson series aloud to A.) 

Favorite Reviews: Scones and Sensibility, Heat Wave 

The Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge book: good heavens. I shelved a lot of romance fiction, but didn't read a single one. Favorite worst title: The Oldest Living Married Virgin. 

Best *Swoon* Factor: Uncommon Criminals, Anna and the French Kiss 

Satire isn't just for English Majors: Beauty Queen 

Best Interviewee: Clare Vanderpool (whom I have seen in person now, but have yet to talk to...) 

Best book with the longest title:  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making 

Best book with the worst cover:  The Trouble With May Amelia 

Best book for those sick of vampires: Drink, Slay, Love 

Favorite reread: The Great Gatsby, On Fortune's Wheel, The Wee Free Men 

Woo-hoo, they're back!: Son of Neptune, The Demon's Surrender 

Can we have the sequel NOW?: Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Divergent, The Hidden Gallery, Liar's Moon 

They're commercial brain candy, but I liked them anyway: Heat Wave, Naked Heat, Heat Rises 

Book for in-person book group I liked best: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 

Book for on-line book group I liked best: Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer 

Books I finished but didn't feel the love for: The Cross Gardener, Same Kind of Different as Me 

Number of Shakespeare plays I read: 1 - Twelfth Night. And we saw Taming of the Shrew, and about a third of Troilous and Cressida. The latter one was rained out. 

Disappointing book by an author I respect: Pay the Piper 

Books that made me laugh the most:  Seriously... I'm Kidding, Knucklehead 

Can I move in next door?: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette 

Best quirky book: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick 

Author everyone else loves that I discovered I liked:  Mercedes Lackey (The Fairy Godmother) 

Best book from an author I previously didn't care for: Daughter of the Forest, Keeper 

First-time authors I'd love to see more from: Sarah Stevenson (The Latte Rebellion),  Erin McCahan (I Now Pronounce You Someone Else), Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich (8th Grade Superzero) 

Theme(s) that inadvertently manifested themselves: Greek gods (Son of Neptune, Gods Behaving Badly, Athena and Zeus); The South (Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Help, all the Texas mystery books, Friday Night Lights, Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Lions of Little Rock); Death/Loss (The Cross Gardner, Same Kind of Different as Me, Chime, Cures for Heartbreak, Angel in My Pocket)

What are some of your bests this past year?

December Jacket Flap-a-thon

This is just a teaser... my best of post is coming tomorrow!

Divergent (Katherine Tegen Books): "In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

A bit long, but it houses all the pertinent information in one place. It came in handy, when I wanted to figure out which faction was what. 
 

Dead End in Norvelt (Macmillian Young Readers): "Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air. Dead End in Norvelt is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Fiction title for 2011. One of Horn Book’s Best Fiction Books of 2011."

So, this is the reason I read the book: the flap copy, and though it sounded fantastic. Too bad it wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

Liar's Moon (Arthur A. Levine Books): "Prisons, poisons, and passions combine in a gorgeously written fantasy noir by the author of the Morris Award-winning A CURSE DARK AS GOLD. As a pickpocket, Digger expects to spend a night in jail every now and then. But she doesn't expect to find Lord Durrel Decath there as well--or to hear he's soon to be executed for killing his wife. Durrel once saved Digger's life, and when she goes free, she decides to use her skills as a thief, forger, and spy to investigate his case and return the favor. But each new clue only opens up more mysteries. While Durrel's marriage was one of convenience, his behavior has been more impulsive than innocent. His late wife had an illegal business on the wrong side of the civil war raging just outside the city gates. Digger keeps finding forbidden magic in places it has no reason to be. And it doesn't help that she may be falling in love with a murderer . . ."

I love that 1) it doesn't give anything away from the first book in the series, and 2) it doesn't give away much of anything this book, and yet it sounds incredibly intriguing.

Other books read this month:
Heat Rises
Guys Read: Thriller (DNF)
The City of Orphans (DNF)
The Power of One (DNF)
The Lions of Little Rock
At Home (audiobook)
Seriously... I'm Kidding
Words in the Dust
Liesl and Po
Crossing to Safety
Pie
Tuesdays at the Castle
Rebel Island

Rebel Island

by Rick Riordan
ages: adult
First sentence: "We got married in a thunderstorm."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Tres Navarre has finally married his longtime (on and off) girlfriend, Maia, and now they're off (with Tres's brother Garrett in tow) to they're belated honeymoon to Rebel Island: an old haunt of the Navarre family, and not really one that has good memories. And because Tres is who he is, and trouble seems to follow him around, they encounter a weekend like no other: a major hurricane on top of a killer on the loose.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Except, well, it does. Out of the several things I noticed while reading this, the one that stood out the most was that it really didn't need to be written. Mission Road was a good stopping point for the series, and while I guess it's nice to know that Tres and Maia got married, and are having a kid, it's not really necessary to have a whole book about that point. The other thing was you can tell that Riordan consciously pulled back on these novels; while there's still language in this book, it's not nearly as gritty as the earlier Tres Navarre books are. You can almost see him thinking, "Dang! I've got kids reading my books. What if they want to read these, too? Better not make them as foul as they used to be."

On top of that, it just didn't read as well as the earlier Tres Navarre books. It was a quick read, but unfortunately predicable (at one point, I thought, "Oh, man, I hope he doesn't make him out to be the bad guy..."), and even the little twist at the end didn't redeem it for me. It was all ho-hum, formulaic, and not particularly exciting.

It's not that it was a bad book; I just didn't feel Tres and company were up to the standard that I've come to expect.

2011 Challenge: The POC Challenge

My goal was 25, and I managed to read 29. Though I've noticed that many of these books have non-white characters but are written by white people. I think in 2012 I'm going to try to read more books by non-white authors.

Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
Forge, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Street Magic, by Tamora Pierce
The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex
King of Bollywood, by Anupama Chopra
India Calling, by Anand Giridharadas
Luv Ya Bunches, by Lauren Myracle
Violet in Bloom, by Lauren Myracle
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Sweet 15, by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria
Trash, by Andy Mulligan
The Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan
A Gift From Childhood, by Baba Wague Diakite
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
The Heart of a Samurai, by Margi Preus
8th Grade Superzero, by Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich
How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy, by Crystal Allen
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
What Momma Left Me, by Renee Watson
Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai
Year of the Horse, by Justin Allen
The Demon's Surrender, by Sarah Rees Brennan
The Eternal Smile: Three Stories, by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
Kendra, by Coe Booth
Zazoo, by Richard Mosher
Latasha and the Little Red Tornado, by Michael Scotto
The Latte Rebellion, by Sarah Jamila Stevenson
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Words in the Dust, by Trent Reedy

2011 Challenges: The Great Blogger Book Swap

At the beginning of the year, I had grand plans for this challenge. I was going to read all the books, first off. It was going to be great. As it was, I barely finished (well, mostly, anyway) my 11 just in time for the end of the year. Lesson? Don't plan big.

Corinne's list for me:On Fortune's Wheel by Cynthia Voigt
Precious Bane by Mary Webb
The Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Pastwatch or Wyrms by Orson Scott Card
Bonus: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

Of these, I liked A Tree Grows in Brooklyn best. It was a bout time I read that one. Pastwatch comes in a close second, though.

Tricia's list for me:
The Lincolns ~ Candace Fleming
Unwind ~ Neal Shusterman
Crossing to Safety ~ Wallace Stegner
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie ~ Jordan Sonnenblick
The Power of One ~ Bryce Courtenay (I didn't finish this one...)

Of these, Crossing to Safety gets my favorite vote, hands down. It's a gorgeous novel.

Tuesdays at the Castle

by Jessica Day George
ages: 9+
First sentence: "Whenever Castle Glower became bored, it would grow a new room or two."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Eleven-year-old Princess Cecilia -- Celie to her family and friends -- loves living in Castle Glower. She's made it her job to know all the nooks and crannies and shortcuts, from the long-established ones, to the ones that crop up periodically. See, Castle Glower is definitely magical, and may be alive: it has opinions about the residents there (the state of your rooms is a definite indicator of its opinion of you), and chooses the person who would be best to rule the castle. Everything is grand at Castle Glower.

That is, until the King and Queen leave to pick up their oldest son from the Wizard College, leaving Celie and her two older siblings --  heir apparent Rolf, and sister Leliah -- in the care of the castle. Unfortunately, the royals were attacked, and presumed dead. Suddenly, the council and neighboring countries are all over the Castle, supposedly "helping" Rolf take the throne. But the castle hasn't changed the rooms; perhaps their parents aren't dead after all? It's a lot to take in, and that's not even mentioning the creepy Vhervhish prince that is overstepping his boundaries. It's up to Celie -- and the castle -- to stop what may have been a tragedy from becoming a calamity.

It's a cute and clever little book; I think the premise is the strongest part of the book, though I really liked Celie as a character. Sure, the plot was a bit rushed, and I thought that maybe things wrapped up too tidily, especially since this is being hailed as a "start of a series." But then, I'm not the target audience, and I'm sure that younger readers and fantasy lovers will really enjoy this one. (I'm planning on reading it to A as soon as we get done with our current reading.)

Pie

by Sarah Weeks
ages: 9+
First sentence: "Thank you very much."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Weird. Odd. Strange. Kinda charming. But really weird.

The basic story: Alice's favorite (and only) Aunt Polly has run a famous pie shop -- well, it's not really a shop since she gives the pies away -- for a long time. She is incredibly altruistic: happy doing something she's good at, refusing to take compensation (even though she wins the coveted main pie prize, the Blueberry Award, every year) for it.

Then she suddenly dies, leaving the recipe to her cat and the cat to Alice. This starts a chain of events that includes catnapping, the entire town baking pies, Alice discovering a new friend, and a misunderstanding getting resolved.

First off: the mother? Seriously? Needs to get her head checked. She's incredibly self-absorbed, wrapped up in jealousy of her (now dead) sister. She does an about face at the end of the book, but it came out of nowhere, which made it really unbelievable. I didn't like her, though perhaps I could see where she was coming from. And the father, who kept saying "Don't sass your mother", was a bit off-kilter as well. The whole book was kind of like that anyway: it was good enough, but really, really weird. It wasn't quite a mystery, it wasn't quite a historical novel (though it's set in 1955, nothing really screamed "1955" to me; it would have been just fine if it were contemporary), it wasn't quite a coming of age novel, it wasn't quite a dealing with loss novel, it wasn't quite a foody novel (even though there's recipes). It tried to be all of them, and by doing that fell short of doing any of them well. And it just gave off a really weird vibe, which I know is vague, but that's how it felt to me.

Thankfully, it only took me an hour to read.

Thank You!

One of my favorite things about this time of years is the Book Blogger Holiday Swap. I love getting/meeting new bloggers to give to, and seeing who gets me. This year, I got a delightful surprise in that my give-ee was Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings. (*squee*!!) And he did not disappoint...

When I opened the box, there was a clever card (love it!) and four beautiful prints. I don't know what to do with them, yet, but I'm going to think of something worthwhile. They're gorgeous.

I waited to open the presents until today (yes, presents are for Christmas, not for opening when they come), and we got a double squee....

Charles de Lint, whom I've never read but have been curious about for a while. And Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. The bonus about that is that I gave away our copy of the ARC for my blogger gift. What goes around comes around? At any rate, THANK YOU!

The other swap is from my lovely on-line book group. This year I got one of the crafty people, and she made me this:

The cards say: "Q: What is black and white and red all over? A: A reading pillow!!" With bonus Mt. Shasta chocolate. I've never had a reading pillow before -- especially not one made this nice! -- and I'm not sure what all the loops and ribbons and such are for. I'm sure I'll figure it out. At any rate, it's gorgeous, and I'm sure I'll spend many enjoyable (and comfortable) hours with it.

And lastly, my daughters know me well:

It's the storytellers shirt from Threadless. My only question is can I wear it to work?

Thank you all!

From My Blog to Yours

From the New York Sun, September 21, 1897:

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!... There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished... You tear apart a baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

Merry Christmas!

Words in the Dust

by Trent Reedy
ages: 12+
First sentence: "I traced the letters in the dust with my finger, spelling out my name: Zulaikha."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I wanted this novel to be soaring. To be engrossing. To be a picture of an Afghani people that is noble and honorable and interesting.

What I got was a nice book.

There's nothing wrong with nice books; nice books get kids interested in different ways of living, enabling them to see how the other isn't always strange and unusual, but often is more familiar than we give them credit for. And I have to give Reedy kudos for bringing the story of an Afghani girl during the time right after the Taliban fell and the U.S. troops were coming in to readers outside of Afghanistan. But, there was a deeper, darker story to be told here; so much was just glossed over, and by doing that, the story suffered.

Oh, I know why: this book is geared toward middle grade readers, and the darker story would make this an adult book. And perhaps, I really didn't want the dark story: the story of pigheaded men, and wrong choices made for girls, and limitations on women in their society. But, going in, I wanted a book to honor the complexities of Islam and the Afghani culture, and felt that this book just gave me the same old white, Christian, U.S. perspective: there are good Afghanis, there are narrow-minded Afghanis, and mostly what we need to do is help the women and children get education.

Been there, done that many, many times.

This sounds like I had a much more negative reaction to the book than I did. I didn't hate it, and I do think it's a worthwhile story to be told. It just wasn't the story I was hoping for when I picked it up.

Crossing to Safety

by Wallace Stegner
ages: adult
First sentence: "Floating upward through a confusing of dreams and memory, curving like a trout through the rings of previous risings, I surface."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I spent a good portion of the novel trying to figure out how to describe it. And what I came up with was: thoughtful. It was a thoughtfully written work, one that made me thoughtful as I read it.

It's the story of two couples in the 1930s. The men -- Sid and Larry -- are both English PhDs, trying to make it in academia. Their wives -- Charity and Sally -- are instant friends when they meet. It follows their friendship and lives through ups and downs for years, up until the time of Charity's death. It's told from Larry's point of view, and while I intellectually know it's not autobiographical, I never could shake that feeling that Stegner was telling, somehow, his story. Because, as Larry points out near the end, this isn't your typical novel.

How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends? Where are the hatreds, the political ambitions, the lust for power? Where are speed, noise, ugliness, everything that makes us who we are and makes us recognize ourselves in fiction? 

They aren't here. What we get is a thoughtful book, a reflection on people -- though in the end, I was unsure if it was really about all of them, and not solely Charity's story -- on relationships, on marriage, on work (especially in academia; there was much I recognized there). It was beautifully written, mostly in flashbacks; descriptive enough that I could picture the Vermont woods even though I've never been to that part of the country, and yet not overly flowery in its language. Stegner has a poet's sensibility for choosing the right word for the right circumstance in order to get across a particular feeling. (My vocabulary expanded while reading this. Honestly.)

It's not flashy and loud, and not much happens. But it moved me to tears and to think and reflect on how I'm interacting with those around me; I saw much to much of myself in Charity, and I'm not sure that's always a good thing. As I said before: it's a thoughtful book. And I'm happy to finally have read some Stegner; he's an excellent writer.

Seriously... I'm Kidding

by Ellen DeGeneres
ages: adult(ish)
First sentence: "Dearest Reader, Hello."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

The point of this book, as Ellen so cheerfully tells us at the end, is for the reader to be happy. Well, considering that it's Ellen DeGeneres, and that the book is really just a collection of amusing, if meandering and sometimes odd, thoughts and observations, I think I can safely say that, for me, the goal has been achieved.

This book made me, for a couple hours at least, happy. Or amused, at the very least.

It read very much like Ellen's stand-up comedy: not laugh-out loud funny, but rather companionable, amusing, enough to get a smile or a even an occasional giggle. The book is really formatted as one very long dinner party conversation: there's a bit about Ellen's life and her experiences as a talk show host (she does get serious, but only briefly in small doses, and then backs off with a joke or two fairly quickly; the most serious she got was when writing about her experience as an American Idol judge), but mostly it's just observations on everything from littering to manners to yoga to gardening. There's no real coherent theme, there's no overlying lesson, there's no deep thoughts (even if there is a chapter on deep thinking).

But, for what it is -- a congenial conversation between Ellen and her "readers"/fans -- it's a fun little book. Some of the chapters are quite funny (like the "Meditiation" chapter -- about four blank pages followed by " Ahhhhh. Doesn't that feel better?"), others not so much (the one about writing Pro/Con lists kinda fell flat for me). In the end, though: it was an amusing way to spend an hour or so, and I'm not sad I picked up the book.

Which means, I guess, that Ellen did the job she set out to do.

The Lions of Little Rock

by Kristin Levine
ages: 11+
First sentence: "I talk a lot."
Release date: January 5, 2012
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

It's 1958 in Little Rock, Arkansas. History has told us that the year before that the school district in Little Rock were forced to allow 9 black students -- who came to be known as the Little Rock 9 -- into the schools. But what happened after that?

Levine tells the story of the school year the year after the Little Rock 9, a story of segregation and fighting, of learning and growth. The main character is a white girl, twelve-yaer-old Marlee Nesbitt, who is incredibly shy. Painfully shy. Never talks shy. And then she meets Liz, who is the opposite of Marlee in every way.  They form a friendship, and Liz helps Marlee come out of her shell a little bit. And then it turns out that Liz is actually black, and she's kicked out of school. There begins Marlee's quest: to keep her friend, to bring her older sister back home (she's been sent to live with their grandmother since the high schools are closed), to finally get the courage to speak out against segregation.

It's a lot to pack into a middle grade novel, but Levine's real talent is making the huge seem intimate. This book could have easily gone into either full-on-lecture or Southerners-are-stupid mode, making it trite and one-dimensional. By focusing on the relationship between Marlee and Liz, Levine has made history and race issues personal: you root for these two friends, you want them to be able to be friends. And you sympathize with nearly everyone in the book (even the negative characters have some redeeming qualities; no one is merely a stereotype). It's full of history as well; from the early days of the integration movement, to the basic atmosphere of the late fifties. One of my favorite parts was Marlee's first experience riding in a commercial airliner. It was quite priceless.

It's not a perfect book; it starts slow and took me a while to get into. But, once I did, I was richly rewarded with a complex and engaging story.

Liar's Moon

by Elizabeth C. Bunce
ages: 14+
First sentence: "I'd have gotten away if that little guard hadn't cracked me in the eye."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

When we last left our fair Digger/Celyn (if you really don't want spoilers for Starcrossed, you ought to read that one first and then come back), she had survived the winter snowed in at a remote mountain castle, and helped rescue a prince and incite a rebellion against the ever-increasing militant state of her country and town. Now she's back in Gerse, doing what she does best: thieving. She never expected to get caught, let alone thrown in jail with Lord Durrell, who's in there as the main suspect in his wife's murder. Digger gets enlisted to do the other thing she does best -- digging -- in order to prove Durrell's innocence. Along the way, she finds herself in possession of more than one secret she wishes she didn't have. Ones that people may do everything in their power to keep hidden.

Much like the first book in this series, it's easy to get lost in Digger's world. For starters, she's a fascinating, complex character, full of both flaws and virtues. She's smart, clever, and strong, as well as loyal enough to go out on a limb for her friends. It's amazing to sit back and watch her do her stuff.

In addition, this one reads like a historical fantasy mystery novel: if Durrell is innocent (and is he really?), who did kill his wife? And what about all the mysterious goings on with both Durrell's family as well as his wife's family? Not to mention the rebellion... The book has a different feel than Starcrossed -- grittier is the first word I can think of -- and yet is just as rich and engaging and thrilling (and full of swoon-worthy heroes, though I missed Prince Wierolf) as the first book. (Though you do need to read Starcrossed before you read this one. Then again, why wouldn't you?)

And then there's the twist at the end: some you saw coming, but the very end... completely out of left field in a most delicious way. I can't wait to see what Bunce does next with Digger and this world.

Audiobook: At Home

by Bill Bryson
read by the author
ages: adult
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

When Bill Bryson and his wife moved back to England, they purchased a rectory built in 1851. I'm not sure if he thought much of it when he first moved in, but after living there a while, he started thinking about how little he knew about his house, and the history that surrounded it. Thank heavens for his curiosity, because out of it was born this book:  a fascinating history of the world without leaving the home.

Initially, that sounds a bit dry as well as overly ambitious: how can one tell the history of the world through the house? The short answer: you can't. What you can tell is a general history of how homes came to be what we find them today in Great Britain and the U. S. Bryson ends up focusing on those two countries, as well as mainly on the 19th-century, giving the book a much less ambitious perspective. And because Bryson is a thorough researcher and a masterful writer, this book -- which is stuffed full of facts and people you can't hope to begin to keep straight -- is downright fascinating. From the history of how tea came to be England's national drink, to the Eiffel Tower, to indoor plumbing and the telephone, to the rise of the middle class, to sexual repression in Victorian England: this book seriously has it all.

I listened to this one on audio, which possibly wasn't the best way to interact with this book. (That, and Bill Bryson sounds nothing like I thought he would.) I kept wanting to flip back chapters, to reread earlier passages, to find earlier references to the people and circumstances that he refers back to. He does do a well enough job reminding the reader about who or what things were, but I still wanted to go back and see it for myself. That said, the information itself was fascinating. (I also wish I could have marked things, because for the life of me, I can't remember half of what I heard.)

It's fascinating not just because history is fascinating, but because Bryson makes it so. It's  his snide asides (said in a dead-pan voice, so we know that he's poking fun), and his brilliant observations, and the sheer amount of research that he did to write this book that really makes this book worth reading.

Then again, I'm not sure Bryson can write a book that isn't worth reading.

Sunday Salon: State of the TBR Pile 2

I had thought I had more left over from last month, but it turns out that there's only 2. I wonder, though, if it's too much to think that I can finish most of these before the end of the year?

Archer's Quest (for Mother-daughter book group in January)
The Snow Child (for work)
The Heroines (I got the review copy because it sounded interesting)
Tuesdays at the Castle (I will read this, I promise. Really.)
Pie (A Cybils nominated book that caught my eye)
Dragon's Castle (Saw this at Fuse #8, and it sounds good)
Crossing to Safety (Last one for the Great Blogger Book Swap.)
Child of the Prophecy (for a buddy read with Kelly)
Rebel Island (My goal is still to finish this before the end of the year.)

Liesl & Po

by Lauren Oliver
ages: 9+
First sentence: "On the third night after the day her father died, Liesl saw the ghost."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!


Liesl is all alone in the world. Her father has just died, and not only is her stepmother keeping Liesl locked in the attic, she wouldn't even let her say goodbye to her beloved father. Given this, Liesl is about to give up entirely on life, when the ghost appears in her room, drawn by the light. Po -- its neither boy nor girl, having been on the Other Side long enough to lose its identity -- and its companion, Bundle (neither dog nor cat, but both), show up to keep Liesl company.

This little visit changes Liesl's life entirely: she discovers a friend in Po, and then given courage by Po's conversations with Liesl's father, she decides to take her father's ashes back to the house where she was born to bury them. This leads to an adventure: another friend, Will; some mix-ups; and the Greatest Magic in the World.

It's a quiet, sweet little book, with just a dab of magic, about dealing with loss and finding happiness again. It's a very hopeful book; as Oliver points out in the afterword, books like these are about finding the happy ending that life often denies us. There are Messages in the book, but woven in the old-fashioned storytelling, thankfully not blatantly beating us over the head. It's a grim tale to begin with: shades of Cinderella, a gray and dark world filled with adults who actively dislike children. However, there is a happy ending: the bad guys get their comeuppance, Liesl finds a new family, and there is sunshine and gladness in the world again.

All which brings a little sigh of contentment when you finish the book.

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos
ages: 12+
First sentence: "School was finally out and I was standing on a picnic table in our backyard getting ready for a great summer vacation when my mother walked up to me and ruined it."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

From the get-go, I found this book to be weird. It's basically the story of Jack Gantos (no, I don't know how much is real and how much is fiction, but it's in the fiction section, so let's assume it's more fiction than fact) who lives in the (real) town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania and the summer (of 1962) he spent grounded. For mowing down his mother's cornfield. On his father's orders.

He's let off as often as his next-door neighbor, Miss Volker, needs his help. She's the town medical examiner and obituary writer, but severe arthritis in her hands is keeping her from doing very much, and so she gets Jack to help her out. This leads to not only some pretty long-winded, but sometimes interesting, stories about the original residents of Norvelt. Not to mention Norvelt history (was Eleanor Roosevelt really involved?). There's also a bit of a mystery thrown at us at the end: all the original residents are dropping like flies, and someone is finally asking if they really are "natural causes", and there's a band of Hell's Angels that are burning down houses in town.

As I mentioned, I just found this one weird. Sure, it was sometimes funny: some of the situations that Jack finds himself in are quite, well, surreal and odd, which made them amusing. But, for the most part, I just found myself wondering what was real and what was fiction. I wished for an author's note at the end, and was quite disappointed when Gantos chose not to include one. I never really connected with any of the character; aside from the spitfire Miss Volker, everyone else seemed to be cliches: the devoted mother, the tough father, the bully-ish best friend (who was a girl), the greedy business owner, the annoying busybody. I never cared enough about the characters to read through all the history, and found myself skipping pages.

That said, maybe I just wasn't the right audience for this one. Perhaps some 11- or 12-year-old boy would find Jack and his adventures the right mix of history and fun.

Divergent

by Veronica Roth
ages: 14+
First sentence: "There is one mirror in my house."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

In what used to be known as Chicago in this post-apocalyptic world, humanity is divided into four factions, each devoted to developing a particular virtue: Candor, the honest; Erudite, the intelligent; Amity, the peaceful; Dauntless, the brave; and Abnegation, the selfless.

Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, but doesn't quite feel she fits. She's not as selfless as her parents and brother, she's always questioning her own inner motives. She sees kids from the other factions and wonders if she wouldn't fit in better there. Then, at age 16, she is given a test and the opportunity to stay with her faction or choose another one. And she discovers that she's Divergent.

We spend most of the book wondering, along with Beatrice -- who christens herself Tris after she joins Dauntless -- what the heck Divergent is. On one level, this is annoying; but by the end, when it all makes sense and you realize that the timing was perfectly right for it, all is forgiven. It's an intense book and a violent one, as we follow Tris through her brutal training to join the Dauntless faction. As she goes through the training, Tris discovers two things: that the people in the factions -- including her birth faction -- aren't nearly as altruistic as they proposed to be. And that romance can blossom in the oddest places.

There will be inevitable comparisons to The Hunger Games (it's really a good book for those who love Hunger Games and are wondering what to read next): there's a society that's become corrupt, and a girl who doesn't fit the norm who has the potential (yes, there is a sequel, at least) to change that society for the better. Though Tris is a more active and less selfish heroine than Katsa was, which makes her more interesting in my book. It's less black-and-white, and more complex; Roth does an excellent job balancing the good and bad in every faction, providing us with not only the worst, but also both the best and the human in human beings.

It's compelling and engrossing storytelling as well, with a little bit of everything -- romance, politics, action, tension -- for everyone. An excellent start to a good new series.

Christmas Gift Tradition: American Girl Dolls

Over the years that I've participated in the Virtual Advent, I've talked about lots of things: books, the tree, music... but never toys. I'm changing that this year. 

When I was younger, my mother gave to me a couple porcelain dolls that she'd had when she was a child. I loved those dolls, played with them, and cherished them. (Granted, this is all in retrospect; maybe I didn't.) They, somehow, managed to survive me as a child, and I saved them to pass down to my daughter.

And then I had four girls.

There was no way I could pass down two dolls to four girls (well, there was only three at the time I made the initial decision), and I wanted them to have the same sort of experience with dolls that I had as a child. The Christmas M was in second grade, we were searching for gift ideas for her, and I hit upon the perfect solution: American Girl Dolls.

I feel a need to justify this a bit: they are expensive, somewhat extravagant, and definitely over-commercialized. There is a part of me that dreads getting the catalog whenever it shows up, because there's always more in there that the girls want then we can get.

But.

The dolls are well-made, the clothes are well-made, they're not Barbies (a big plus in my book!), and they are made to be played with and yet will last to be handed down. And there's enough stuff to last through birthdays and Christmas presents for a few years.

Additionally, the historical ones -- which are the ones that I require they choose from -- are fascinating in their detail (which is hopefully accurate), and they make history accessible and fun to the girls. But best of all, they come with books. Possibly not the best-written books, but ones that a second-grader can read on her own, ones that help make the doll that much more interesting.

Thankfully, M (who picked the now-retired Samantha) and C (who picked Kit), and now A (who has picked Molly) were able to find dolls that fit their personality, whose stories they were interested in, and ones they loved to pieces. M no longer plays with her doll, having put it in storage for the time when she (hopefully) has a daughter she can pass the doll and books down to.  C still keeps hers around, playing with her on occasion, but mostly keeping her because she likes to have her things around her. A is over the moon with anticipation of getting her doll this Christmas. And K has already spent hours with the catalog, looking at the dolls, trying to decide which one she will like in a couple of years.

It may be extravagant, but it's a tradition I'm glad to have started with the girls.

I'm not the only one posting today. Check out these other posts:

Kerry @ A Ten O'Clock Scholar

Martina Kunz @ Book Drunkard

Colleen @ Books in the City

Six Sentence Saturday: Unfinshed Books

Guys Read
ed. by Jon Scieszca
ages: 10+


It was a good idea to get together a bunch of talented writers and compile a collection of thriller stories. The problem was, in my humble opinion, that none of the stories (that I read; I bailed, I have to admit) were even remotely thriller-y. Perhaps if I were a 10-year-old boy, these would have some appeal. (Maybe it's just that my humor is more along the lines of a 10-year-olds, that I liked Funny Business better?) Or maybe I just don't go in for thriller stories anyway. Whatever the reason, this fell flat.

The Power of One
by Bryce Courtenay
ages: adult

This was a case of me just not being interested in the book. I tried; I got about 100 pages in, but this boy's story just wasn't to my interest. And the writing wasn't holding me. And I have a huge pile of other books to read. So, I abandoned it. Who knows, though: maybe someday I'll come back to it.


City of Orphans
by Avi
ages: 10+

Heaven knows, I enjoy an Avi book. The detail, the characterizations, the plots: all top-notch. But, this one didn't grab me. The language, while authentic, was off-putting, and the plot was just so dang slow. I gave it 75 pages, and then realized that my time is much more precious than to slog through a book I have no interest in.

Heat Rises

by Richard Castle
ages: adult
First sentence: "The thing about New York City is you never know what's behind a door."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Nikki Heat is investigating the murder of a local parish priest, found at an S&M studio (is that what they're called?). The investigation takes her in all sorts of directions, but then she's called off the investigation, on the orders of her precinct captain. It's nothing, he assures her. Which only makes her -- and her lover, companion, sometimes partner, Jameson Rook -- more suspicious. And since Nikki Heat doesn't give up, she ends up digging into things she really shouldn't have.

I'm realizing that the books really do follow not only the plots from the season (yes, this one has elements from Castle season 3 episodes), but also the mood. Which means, this book wasn't as fun as either Heat Wave or
Naked Heat. Not to say that there wasn't fun moments (like the passing Firefly reference? Cracked me up.) in the book. There were. It just wasn't as fun as the previous two. (Also: not as sexy or foul; they really pulled back on the language and the sex was entirely off-screen.) It's still good brain candy, and it was gratifying to see Nikki do so much entirely on her own. She really does rock.

Oh, and if you've seen the entire season 3, there's a nice twist on the ending in the book. Which means, of course, that there will be a fourth. And yes, I will read it. (Hopefully, considering the way season 4 is going, the next book will be more fun to read overall.)