55. Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
Sucked my heart out with amazing writing style & imagery, I had to make sure she'd written more so I could chill on rationing pages to make it last... but is difficult to recommend generally.... I think it would be particularly enjoyed by people who are really into urban spaces on a philosophical level if they can manage not to be offended a shared dream STD. you've been warned....
56. Nathaniel Fludd Beastologist: Book One- Flight of the Phoenix by R.L. LaFevers
Cute little fantasy orphan coming-of-age novel for the elementary set particularly for fans of James & the Giant Peach, but less demanding than Dahl generally is. I'd be interested to see how this series develops.
57. Your Pinkie is More Powerful Than Your Thumb :And 333 Other Surprising Facts That Will Make You Wealthier, Healthier and Smarter Than Everyone Else by Mark DiVincenzo
Delightful collection of recent science trivia.
58. Library Wars 1: Love & War by Kiiro Yumi
General concept: the government has taken up heavy censorship that can only be stopped by an active military force within the library system, excellent. On the other hand this is definitely shojo, in content & labeled as such. There is an awful lot of the main character bemoaning a mystery crush and a teacher who seems harsh. I might read the next volume...
59. Black Bird 6 by Kanoko Sakurakoji
The romance between a special human girl & the leader of a demon clan continues. Jealousy is a major theme in this volume, again handled on a very shojo level.
60. Black Bird 7 by Kanoko Sakurakoji
61. Mouse Guard, Winter 1152 by David Peterson
A great little graphic novel, perfect for Redwall fans.
62. Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
A great graphic novel. I think this was a cataloged as juvenile, but it isn't too light for adult reading. This would be good for fans of the Princess Bride, and for fans of the Fables series though much lighter in tone. Also this is a graphic novel that is weights in as a 472 page hardcover so there is none of that volume-over-before-it's-gained-momentum issue that less lengthy comics are prone to. It did take me well into the first chapter to be sold on this and then I was hooked. Very much looking forward to the next installment.
63. Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
This book broke my heart. High-functioning, preteen boy in the Autism spectrum, getting through the days... read it.
64.Ship Breaker by Paulo Bacigalupi
Action adventure, good as an audiobook. Lowly peasant saves snotty princess who gets less snotty, in a future where all the resources we have are the trash we dropped at the bottom of the oceans when we didn't need it. An interesting vision of where our global choices will put individuals in years to come, lots of great hard-boiled characters.
65. Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
Audiobooked. I picked this up because it was recommended to me by someone very dear. I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise as the form is a little bit "Chick-Lit," but sometimes that can be exactly the right thing. These are not extraordinary lives, but they are women with tough stuff in their souls, and that reminds me of the tough stuff in my soul & of she who recommended it. That is what makes this worth reading. Might be good for fans of Alice Hoffman, lighter magical element, less dire generally.
66. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Austen fans rejoice! Now with Magic! The temptation to go out and buy this for my seven favorite Austen fans after the first ten pages was high. (Saved only by being so ill I could barely convince myself to stand up...)
67. Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano
I'm a sucker for dystopian futures. Humanity thought it could wipe out all diseases associated with old age & did but in the next generation all the girls die at twenty, all the boys at twenty-five. Social order rewrite. Polygamous social politics... Would recommend to fans of Matched by Ally Condie.
68. Ooku: The Inner Chambers, vol. 5. by Fumi Yoshinaga
The alter-history of Japan continues...
69. BoneShaker by Kate Milford
A great juv. novel set in 1914 Mid-West. Tomboy girl. Machinery, automatons. Sketchy traveling sales folk. Magic. It was wonderful!
70. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Fans of Alice in Wonderland take note! This is one of the best fairy tales I've read in an awfully long time. I think it would be great for a child but it also has metaphor and life lessons that will appeal to adults of the right persuasion. I rationed myself on this book to make it last as long as it could.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
June readings
50. How to Kill a Rock Star by Tiffanie DeBartolo (Another great modern love story by DeBartolo, God-Shaped Hole...Dream for An Insomniac... these are not romance novels in a genre sense, these are romantic in a gut-wrenching, gambling with your soul sense. It feels way more accurate to me.)
51. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories by Aimee Bender (Bender blows my mind. These stories are nothing like real life, they are so far beyond reality, past reality, twists of reality. Amazing, bend your mind, stretch it.)
52. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical & Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Some great quotables in this, not all agreeable but much to provoke thought & some laughter.)
53. Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make And How to Avoid Them by Clinton Kelly (Not high literature by any means, but a bit funny if you're in the mood for the very lightest of reading with a sprinkle of snark.)
54. Death: a User's Guide by Tom Hickman ( A fun survey of death culture in many nations and throughout history. The writing was humorous without being discourteous to any particular view. It was a book that didn't care how long I took a break from it, worked on it off and on without any loss of enjoyment or educational value.)
51. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories by Aimee Bender (Bender blows my mind. These stories are nothing like real life, they are so far beyond reality, past reality, twists of reality. Amazing, bend your mind, stretch it.)
52. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical & Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Some great quotables in this, not all agreeable but much to provoke thought & some laughter.)
53. Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make And How to Avoid Them by Clinton Kelly (Not high literature by any means, but a bit funny if you're in the mood for the very lightest of reading with a sprinkle of snark.)
54. Death: a User's Guide by Tom Hickman ( A fun survey of death culture in many nations and throughout history. The writing was humorous without being discourteous to any particular view. It was a book that didn't care how long I took a break from it, worked on it off and on without any loss of enjoyment or educational value.)
Thursday, July 7, 2011
May Readings
46. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (re)
47. Love Comes First: Poems by Erica Jong
48. A Rare and Curious Gift by Pauline Holstock (This was another case of maybe I should have just let it go half way through. In trying to take pictures of a whole Renaissance art community attention got spread so thin I started merging similar old-guy painter characters. On the other hand she was pretty amazing at showing how very, very differently an action can be interpreted depending on which character is viewing it, the extreme tint our own point of view puts on the story we believe we're living in. This could be described as a tragic clash of points of view. I wish she'd just stuck to the names of the artists she was basing it on, or at least put the historical note at the beginning...I spent way too much time trying to figure out if she was referring to who I thought she was. She was.)
49. The Girl Who Played with Fire (re)
April readings
43. The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner (Quite good. Historical fiction lovers take note. A nice "bad guy" side of the story; I bet you'll feel for her by the end.)
44. Best New Poets 2008: 50 Poems From Emerging Writers. edited by Mark Strand. (Came up in a search for Mark Strand, just enough good one to make me wade through the dross.)
45. Green by Jay Lake (About half way through this I felt like the author got more interested in world-culture building than in his characters. By half way I wanted to know exactly how big an emotional time bomb, & how deadly a ninja, the main character would turn out to be. Maybe he felt a sudden need to really sell it as sci-fi fantasy rather than a novel set in an alternate history of the world... really enjoyed the first half, might have let it go if I'd had a long-awaited hold in.)
44. Best New Poets 2008: 50 Poems From Emerging Writers. edited by Mark Strand. (Came up in a search for Mark Strand, just enough good one to make me wade through the dross.)
45. Green by Jay Lake (About half way through this I felt like the author got more interested in world-culture building than in his characters. By half way I wanted to know exactly how big an emotional time bomb, & how deadly a ninja, the main character would turn out to be. Maybe he felt a sudden need to really sell it as sci-fi fantasy rather than a novel set in an alternate history of the world... really enjoyed the first half, might have let it go if I'd had a long-awaited hold in.)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
March Reading (so late, I know)
23. A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
24. Emma, Vol. 8 (These have sort of lost momentum for me. I had to get Volume 6 through ILL, and the waiting sort of got me out of the story. Also at this point the author is following Emma's supporting characters, and I just don't care about them nearly as much, but I like a certain amount of comic book reading in my life, so...)
25. Emma, Vol. 9
26. Fried Butter: A Food Memoir by Abe Opincar (There is a sensuality to the style of writers who relate strongly to food that I really get into, this was a great example of that. See also Reckless Appetites: a Culinary Romance by Jacqueline Deval & Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber.)
27. So, Now You Know... : A Compendium of Completely Useless Information by Harry Bright & Harlan Briscoe (Exactly what it sounds like, a nice, humorous, light read.)
28. Paris in Mind, edited by Jennifer Lee (Been reading this off & on for over a year. Reading about Paris is good for a particular kind of melancholy, but causes another when overdosed.)
29. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (Another wonderful collaboration between this two favorite YA authors. Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist also not to be missed, but avoid the film at all costs. *shudder*)
30. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia &Margaret Stohl (Did this as an audiobook. Having a the guy's point of view in a romance with a paranormal was interesting. I'm pretty much burned out on the YA paranormal romances, probably wouldn't have finished this if it hadn't been an audiobook.)
31. This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (I've been working on this off and on for a couple months. Great cure for a crisis of faith cause by bureaucracy.)
32. Other People's Rejection Letters, edited by Bill Shapiro (At first I was amused by this book, but by the end it just was horribly depressing.)
33. Fables 14: Witches (I almost didn't get this. The previous volume relied varily on a character I hate, and was just plain tedious, but Fable seems to be back on track and it's nice to seem some of the characters who have been at war for so long finally com into some small happinesses. I am however still considering this series on probation.)
34. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (Interesting merge of vampire mythos & the Twelve Dancing Princes, with a strong dose of Transylvanian historical novel, good cure for the common YA paranormal romance.)
35. Love is a Four-Legged Word by Kandy Shepard (Not proud of this. This novel took -10 off my street cred as a reader, but if you want to read something that takes no effort whatsoever...)
36. And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman (I love this lady, this is a personal journal with illustrations with meditations on the historical figures in early U.S. history & whatever else crosses her mind.)
37. We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures by Phillippe Delerm (A pleasant collection of musing a small, nice daily things.)
38. Our Paris; Sketches from Memory by Edmund White & Hubert Sorin (This is like hanging out with your gay best friend bragging about his wonderful life in Paris, don't be jealous, be happy for him. Sweet for his delight in their daily life & a guilty pleasure of being the one dished-to in gossip rather than the one dished-on. For a more literary-minded version of Edmund White's Paris check out The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris.
39. Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block (I boycotted this for a while because it is sad to see an author I admire as much as I do Francesca Lia Block give in to the YA paranormal romance genre, not once, but twice. This does however bring interesting material to the table, female werewolf protagonist, also racial prejudices, and small-town small-mindedness. While this is by no means Block's best work, or even in her top five, if you aren't familiar with her you won't miss the difference.)
40. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (This was fun & mischievous read. YA. Kind of made me want to go pull large-scale overly-intellectual pranks.)
41. Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, edited by Robert Swartwood (I love this. I wanted to hand it to everyone! It's so wonderfully compact and so interesting and satisfy, I only with their were more books like this. See also the Six Word Memoir books. Excellent!)
42. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Audiobooked. This got be through a lot of commuting. And I can think of teens I would recommend it to. Intriguing world theory, a country that used to have extremely advanced technology gave it up by royal decree, and now lives in a Georgian high-court world of politics & protocal, the ever hanging threat & mystery of a massive inescapable prison that's physical location is a mystery. The characters didn't hold me through the book and I knew it was going to be a cliff-hanger ending long before it arrived which made the end seem needlessly drawn out... but might give the sequel a shot, we'll see...)
24. Emma, Vol. 8 (These have sort of lost momentum for me. I had to get Volume 6 through ILL, and the waiting sort of got me out of the story. Also at this point the author is following Emma's supporting characters, and I just don't care about them nearly as much, but I like a certain amount of comic book reading in my life, so...)
25. Emma, Vol. 9
26. Fried Butter: A Food Memoir by Abe Opincar (There is a sensuality to the style of writers who relate strongly to food that I really get into, this was a great example of that. See also Reckless Appetites: a Culinary Romance by Jacqueline Deval & Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber.)
27. So, Now You Know... : A Compendium of Completely Useless Information by Harry Bright & Harlan Briscoe (Exactly what it sounds like, a nice, humorous, light read.)
28. Paris in Mind, edited by Jennifer Lee (Been reading this off & on for over a year. Reading about Paris is good for a particular kind of melancholy, but causes another when overdosed.)
29. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (Another wonderful collaboration between this two favorite YA authors. Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist also not to be missed, but avoid the film at all costs. *shudder*)
30. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia &Margaret Stohl (Did this as an audiobook. Having a the guy's point of view in a romance with a paranormal was interesting. I'm pretty much burned out on the YA paranormal romances, probably wouldn't have finished this if it hadn't been an audiobook.)
31. This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (I've been working on this off and on for a couple months. Great cure for a crisis of faith cause by bureaucracy.)
32. Other People's Rejection Letters, edited by Bill Shapiro (At first I was amused by this book, but by the end it just was horribly depressing.)
33. Fables 14: Witches (I almost didn't get this. The previous volume relied varily on a character I hate, and was just plain tedious, but Fable seems to be back on track and it's nice to seem some of the characters who have been at war for so long finally com into some small happinesses. I am however still considering this series on probation.)
34. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (Interesting merge of vampire mythos & the Twelve Dancing Princes, with a strong dose of Transylvanian historical novel, good cure for the common YA paranormal romance.)
35. Love is a Four-Legged Word by Kandy Shepard (Not proud of this. This novel took -10 off my street cred as a reader, but if you want to read something that takes no effort whatsoever...)
36. And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman (I love this lady, this is a personal journal with illustrations with meditations on the historical figures in early U.S. history & whatever else crosses her mind.)
37. We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures by Phillippe Delerm (A pleasant collection of musing a small, nice daily things.)
38. Our Paris; Sketches from Memory by Edmund White & Hubert Sorin (This is like hanging out with your gay best friend bragging about his wonderful life in Paris, don't be jealous, be happy for him. Sweet for his delight in their daily life & a guilty pleasure of being the one dished-to in gossip rather than the one dished-on. For a more literary-minded version of Edmund White's Paris check out The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris.
39. Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block (I boycotted this for a while because it is sad to see an author I admire as much as I do Francesca Lia Block give in to the YA paranormal romance genre, not once, but twice. This does however bring interesting material to the table, female werewolf protagonist, also racial prejudices, and small-town small-mindedness. While this is by no means Block's best work, or even in her top five, if you aren't familiar with her you won't miss the difference.)
40. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (This was fun & mischievous read. YA. Kind of made me want to go pull large-scale overly-intellectual pranks.)
41. Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, edited by Robert Swartwood (I love this. I wanted to hand it to everyone! It's so wonderfully compact and so interesting and satisfy, I only with their were more books like this. See also the Six Word Memoir books. Excellent!)
42. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Audiobooked. This got be through a lot of commuting. And I can think of teens I would recommend it to. Intriguing world theory, a country that used to have extremely advanced technology gave it up by royal decree, and now lives in a Georgian high-court world of politics & protocal, the ever hanging threat & mystery of a massive inescapable prison that's physical location is a mystery. The characters didn't hold me through the book and I knew it was going to be a cliff-hanger ending long before it arrived which made the end seem needlessly drawn out... but might give the sequel a shot, we'll see...)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
February Readings
11. Emma. Vol 6. (Kudos to ILL for getting this for me.)
12. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (Audiobooked. Not sure if I would have read this but it was a good listen. I liked the shifting point of view between the adult granddaughter & the elderly sisters, one of who has been in a mental institute for 60 years, the other with dementia. I like how she used the later two characters to explore internal coping mechanisms. And I liked the adult grand daughter, maybe not liked exactly, but she made a lot of sense to me, her choices & shifting point of view.)
13. 77 Love Sonnets by Garrison Keillor (This is not mushy love poetry, it isn't even all poetry about romantic love, but it is poetry about loving life & living loves, if that makes any sense. I can't think of anyone I wouldn't hand this to if they were at all open to poetry.)
14. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (Another entry to the YA-supernatural-doomed-love genre. the twist is that it fallen angels rather than vampires & the heroine has a a more developed sense of self-preservation than Bella. not bad. only recommending to people who haven't seen past the Twilight glitter entirely yet.)
15. Lover's Dictionary: a novel by David Levithan (Genius Levithan strikes again. Nobody else I'm aware of is writing such good prose about what love is, the frothy as well as the gritty. And I'm a sucker for fiction with footnotes or in a encyclopedic format so this is doubly good.)
16. Emma Vol. 7 by Karu Mori
17. They Call Me Naughty Lola:Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. edited by David Rose (I didn't like this quite as much as the sequel, Sexually, I'm More of a Switzerland, but I might just have not been so in the mood for it. It didn't seem so sad before.)
18. It all changed in an instant: more Six Word Memoirs by authors Famous & Obscure, edited by Smith Magazine (I love this series!)
19. The Strange Affair of the Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Steampuck mystery, it this becomes a series I'd check out the next one. The premise was odd, but it is steampunk is it pretty much has to be. Burton & Swinburne were hilarious once they got together, I'd have enjoyed it more if that had happened sooner.)
20. The Book of Eleven: An Itemized Collection of Brain Lint by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (She's had me hooked since Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life. This wasn't as good as that, but I laughed some.)
21. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Really, really good! Punk smart Brooklynite falls into revolutionary Paris, really great soundtrack if you recognize the songs they mention.)
22. How Did You Get This Number: essays by Sloane Crosley (Not exactly humor, but not not funny, odd, but good odd. I will read anything she puts her name to, I like the way she thinks.)
12. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (Audiobooked. Not sure if I would have read this but it was a good listen. I liked the shifting point of view between the adult granddaughter & the elderly sisters, one of who has been in a mental institute for 60 years, the other with dementia. I like how she used the later two characters to explore internal coping mechanisms. And I liked the adult grand daughter, maybe not liked exactly, but she made a lot of sense to me, her choices & shifting point of view.)
13. 77 Love Sonnets by Garrison Keillor (This is not mushy love poetry, it isn't even all poetry about romantic love, but it is poetry about loving life & living loves, if that makes any sense. I can't think of anyone I wouldn't hand this to if they were at all open to poetry.)
14. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (Another entry to the YA-supernatural-doomed-love genre. the twist is that it fallen angels rather than vampires & the heroine has a a more developed sense of self-preservation than Bella. not bad. only recommending to people who haven't seen past the Twilight glitter entirely yet.)
15. Lover's Dictionary: a novel by David Levithan (Genius Levithan strikes again. Nobody else I'm aware of is writing such good prose about what love is, the frothy as well as the gritty. And I'm a sucker for fiction with footnotes or in a encyclopedic format so this is doubly good.)
16. Emma Vol. 7 by Karu Mori
17. They Call Me Naughty Lola:Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. edited by David Rose (I didn't like this quite as much as the sequel, Sexually, I'm More of a Switzerland, but I might just have not been so in the mood for it. It didn't seem so sad before.)
18. It all changed in an instant: more Six Word Memoirs by authors Famous & Obscure, edited by Smith Magazine (I love this series!)
19. The Strange Affair of the Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Steampuck mystery, it this becomes a series I'd check out the next one. The premise was odd, but it is steampunk is it pretty much has to be. Burton & Swinburne were hilarious once they got together, I'd have enjoyed it more if that had happened sooner.)
20. The Book of Eleven: An Itemized Collection of Brain Lint by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (She's had me hooked since Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life. This wasn't as good as that, but I laughed some.)
21. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Really, really good! Punk smart Brooklynite falls into revolutionary Paris, really great soundtrack if you recognize the songs they mention.)
22. How Did You Get This Number: essays by Sloane Crosley (Not exactly humor, but not not funny, odd, but good odd. I will read anything she puts her name to, I like the way she thinks.)
January Readings
1. Sexually, I'm More of a Switzerland: More Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. Edited by David Rose. (Hilarious & sweet. Perfect for when you might feel like the oddest crayon in the box. Will put a hold on the first one. Thanks to J. for handing it to me.)
2. House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block (My favorite rockstar author takes a crack at kids books... It's okay, but it's no Dangerous Angels.)
3. All Things Alice by Linda Sunshine (Cute little book of Lewis Carroll quotes with masses of vintage illustrations.)
4. Almost French by Sarah Turnbull (Memoir. It was interesting to see Paris from the point of view of an outsider trying to make a life there & that kept me in it even though I was not enthralled by her writing style.)
5. Dandelion Fire: Book 2 of the 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson (I really enjoyed 100 Cupboards but in its trilogy I found myself just barely keeping track of the multiple characters roaming separately and by the end I just didn't care anymore. Have not put the third on hold.)
6. Matched by Alley Condie (Very cool. Utopia/dystopia/futuristic. What is you lived in a society that found your perfect mate for you? What if it was wrong? Fans of Hunger Games, Brave New World, 1984... anyway, it's great fun. Question authority, read poetry.)
7. Walks with Men: fiction by Anne Beattie
8. The Frozen Thames by Helem Humphreys (A collection of short stories that take place on or around the Thames at various times when it was frozen. Interesting meditation on cold, ice, celebration, life in London over a long period of time in snapshots of lives.)
9. Baby, Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing. Edited by Michelle Tea. (My favorite was "Homo Marriage Redux" by Zoe Whittal. Some fun stuff, some sad stuff, some strange stuff, that's how anthologies go.)
10. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (I got through this because I liked the main character, but I'm a little critical of bringing this many kind of magical people into a reality (werewolves, necromancers, witches & more) theres a certain point where it just feels like someone pulled out a myth dictionary and started opening it at random & tossing out types. I think there were also parts that were supposed to be funny (idea propagated by Sherman Alexie quote on cover) that just weren't my kind of funny.... Not hating, but it wasn't quite for me.)
2. House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block (My favorite rockstar author takes a crack at kids books... It's okay, but it's no Dangerous Angels.)
3. All Things Alice by Linda Sunshine (Cute little book of Lewis Carroll quotes with masses of vintage illustrations.)
4. Almost French by Sarah Turnbull (Memoir. It was interesting to see Paris from the point of view of an outsider trying to make a life there & that kept me in it even though I was not enthralled by her writing style.)
5. Dandelion Fire: Book 2 of the 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson (I really enjoyed 100 Cupboards but in its trilogy I found myself just barely keeping track of the multiple characters roaming separately and by the end I just didn't care anymore. Have not put the third on hold.)
6. Matched by Alley Condie (Very cool. Utopia/dystopia/futuristic. What is you lived in a society that found your perfect mate for you? What if it was wrong? Fans of Hunger Games, Brave New World, 1984... anyway, it's great fun. Question authority, read poetry.)
7. Walks with Men: fiction by Anne Beattie
8. The Frozen Thames by Helem Humphreys (A collection of short stories that take place on or around the Thames at various times when it was frozen. Interesting meditation on cold, ice, celebration, life in London over a long period of time in snapshots of lives.)
9. Baby, Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing. Edited by Michelle Tea. (My favorite was "Homo Marriage Redux" by Zoe Whittal. Some fun stuff, some sad stuff, some strange stuff, that's how anthologies go.)
10. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (I got through this because I liked the main character, but I'm a little critical of bringing this many kind of magical people into a reality (werewolves, necromancers, witches & more) theres a certain point where it just feels like someone pulled out a myth dictionary and started opening it at random & tossing out types. I think there were also parts that were supposed to be funny (idea propagated by Sherman Alexie quote on cover) that just weren't my kind of funny.... Not hating, but it wasn't quite for me.)
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