eleneariel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eleneariel) wrote2009-01-01 09:41 pm
eleneariel) wrote2009-01-01 09:41 pm
Entry tags:
December Booklist + Year-End Recap and Awards
December booklist
1. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
After seeing the movie of the first book near the end of November, I decided to read the series beginning to end for a second time. The beginning (and middle, I suppose) of this one is somewhat hard to read emotionally, and I do have worries about how this one will make it as a movie version, but the ending ... ah. :)
2. Goldfinger, Ian Fleming
Here's the obligatory comments: I <3 Bond, chauvinist though he is. And I'm growing more and more fond of Fleming's spare prose.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ransomedsea , consider yourself with a recommendation (only read Casino Royale, not this one.) Also, Fleming writes about food often and lovingly; methinks he was an epicurian at heart.
3. The Upstairs Room, Johanna Reiss
ransomedsea recommended this, and it's been added to my list of favorite WWII children's books, along with the likes of Diary of Anne Frank and I Have Lived a Thousand Years.
4. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
Honestly, there WERE points where I really just wanted to slap a certain person. But I do rather enjoy the sparring between Edward and Jacob - it's a nice taste of the hilarity that comes in the fourth book. Well, I thought it was hilarity, anyway.
5. Rose Daughter, Robin McKinley
It's been six months, more or less, since I spent a foggy summer morning on a park bench, enthralled by McKinley's earlier retelling of Beauty and the Beast - I was almost scared to read this one, in case it would prove less magical. But it didn't let me down.
6. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
I think I liked it better a second time, even thought it might forever make me rethink of the idea of giving birth. o_O Also, can I just say that Jacob is HILARIOUS. His chapter titles are the best. And Seth, oh my gosh, Seth is a gem. Almost Alice-worthy in his awesomeness.
7. Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling
An evening's light reading, but nothing special.
8. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler
Absolutely, positively stupid. You expect me to believe that an Austen nut, magically transported back to her favorite time period, doesn't realize that she might have to do without modern conveniences like makeup and daily showers? Shocking. Vapid is also a term that comes to mind.
9. Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
Hey, this wasn't a bad piece of urban fantasy! It wasn't anything amazing, but it's fairly decent for YA lit. And it's about time somebody wrote about the faery realm in the way it should be - dark, dangerous, and quite possibly ugly. (In that respect, at least, it brought to mind Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, although the later completely outdid the former in literary genius by about 1000%.)
10. A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
I was reading The Child that Books Built (see below), and when it mentioned A Little Princess in passing I was suddenly struck by an urgent desire to read it again. It's sappy and sentimental, but I do love it for it's quaintness - and for the idea that the little, hungry, dirty servant girl may actually be a princess in disguise (or at least the heiress to a diamond mine), and that one can keep one's dignity and kindness even when all physical possessions are stripped away. And that imagination can help soften a world of pain. So call me a sentimental fool; I like Sara Crewe.
11. Hollywood Irish, Aine O'Connor, ed.
Interviews with a host of Irish actors - I got this for the interview with Pierce Brosnan, but the others proved equally interesting.
12. The Child That Books Built, Francis Spufford
Usually I love books about books, but this one - erm. Not so much. There was just something off about it - too much random philosophising and too little about what he actually read and enjoyed as a child. It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I just didn't care much for it.
I didn't read a Connie Willis this month, but I would like to announce that I have discovered why I like her so much, why even her lesser works interest me: she likes to play with language, tweak it, test it to its limit. And she never fails to do that masterfully, even in her least noteable books.
Nonfiction: 115
Rereads: 22
Foodie books: 8
Young Adult: 17
Juvanile: 12
Total books read in 2008: 180
[it's amazing to see the flip-flop in NF/FIC stats. It wasn't that many years ago that my dad was bribing me to get me to try to read at least one non-fiction book for every three novels.]
Awards:
Book I Read The Most Times: Twilight, at three. Casino Royale, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn all come in second, with two reads each.
Best classic-I-should-have-read-
Most Thought-Provoking Young Adult Novel: Uglies, Scott Westerfield (gotta love dystopian novels)
Best Non-Fiction: This is hard, but probably a tie between Charlie Wilson's War (George Crile) and Secret Soldiers (Philip Gerard). Both were amazingly told true stories dealing with the hidden side of well-known events, and both were surprisingly readable.
Best Reimagining of a Legend/Fairy Tale: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova. Way to breathe new life - harhar - into Dracula! Runner up: Beauty, Robin McKinley
The Book is Better Than the Movie Award goes to Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. They took a very intriquing true story and made it a humdrum so-so movie.
Epic that Completely Captured my Attention: The Pillars of Earth, Ken Follett. I totally didn't expect this book. It's so huge and looks so dense, and I expected to really have to force myself to make it all the way through. Instead it captured me, heart and soul.
Worst Book That Everybody Raved About: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen. Seriously. Pretentious, much?
Best Atmosphere in a Novel: The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
Best Travel Guide: Final Destinations: a travel guide for remarkable cemetaries
Best Memoir: A tie between Home by Julie Andrews, and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
Book Most Likely To Provoke Controversy When Read In a Public Space: Killing Monsters, by Gerard Jones, which argues that children need fantasy and pretend violence (in play, movies, books, comics, and video games).
Best Audio Book/Most Orginal Children's Book: The Wall and the Wing, Laura Ruby. Absolutely delightful.
Best Book I Read Because I Saw A Random Woman in the Airport Reading it And Starting Talking To Her About it and Discovered That She Was a Homeschooling Mother and Liked All The Same Books That I Do: Mysteries of the Middle-Ages, Thomas Cahill.
Most Surprising Book to Come Out of the Seventies: Time and Again, by Jack Finney. I was surprised. Clearly.
Best Book I Would Never Have Read If Jordan Hadn't Told Me To: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie. Runner up, the entire D.Gray-Man series, of course.
1. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
After seeing the movie of the first book near the end of November, I decided to read the series beginning to end for a second time. The beginning (and middle, I suppose) of this one is somewhat hard to read emotionally, and I do have worries about how this one will make it as a movie version, but the ending ... ah. :)
2. Goldfinger, Ian Fleming
Here's the obligatory comments: I <3 Bond, chauvinist though he is. And I'm growing more and more fond of Fleming's spare prose.
ransomedsea , consider yourself with a recommendation (only read Casino Royale, not this one.) Also, Fleming writes about food often and lovingly; methinks he was an epicurian at heart. 3. The Upstairs Room, Johanna Reiss
ransomedsea recommended this, and it's been added to my list of favorite WWII children's books, along with the likes of Diary of Anne Frank and I Have Lived a Thousand Years. 4. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
Honestly, there WERE points where I really just wanted to slap a certain person. But I do rather enjoy the sparring between Edward and Jacob - it's a nice taste of the hilarity that comes in the fourth book. Well, I thought it was hilarity, anyway.
5. Rose Daughter, Robin McKinley
It's been six months, more or less, since I spent a foggy summer morning on a park bench, enthralled by McKinley's earlier retelling of Beauty and the Beast - I was almost scared to read this one, in case it would prove less magical. But it didn't let me down.
6. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
I think I liked it better a second time, even thought it might forever make me rethink of the idea of giving birth. o_O Also, can I just say that Jacob is HILARIOUS. His chapter titles are the best. And Seth, oh my gosh, Seth is a gem. Almost Alice-worthy in his awesomeness.
7. Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling
An evening's light reading, but nothing special.
8. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler
Absolutely, positively stupid. You expect me to believe that an Austen nut, magically transported back to her favorite time period, doesn't realize that she might have to do without modern conveniences like makeup and daily showers? Shocking. Vapid is also a term that comes to mind.
9. Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
Hey, this wasn't a bad piece of urban fantasy! It wasn't anything amazing, but it's fairly decent for YA lit. And it's about time somebody wrote about the faery realm in the way it should be - dark, dangerous, and quite possibly ugly. (In that respect, at least, it brought to mind Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, although the later completely outdid the former in literary genius by about 1000%.)
10. A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
I was reading The Child that Books Built (see below), and when it mentioned A Little Princess in passing I was suddenly struck by an urgent desire to read it again. It's sappy and sentimental, but I do love it for it's quaintness - and for the idea that the little, hungry, dirty servant girl may actually be a princess in disguise (or at least the heiress to a diamond mine), and that one can keep one's dignity and kindness even when all physical possessions are stripped away. And that imagination can help soften a world of pain. So call me a sentimental fool; I like Sara Crewe.
11. Hollywood Irish, Aine O'Connor, ed.
Interviews with a host of Irish actors - I got this for the interview with Pierce Brosnan, but the others proved equally interesting.
12. The Child That Books Built, Francis Spufford
Usually I love books about books, but this one - erm. Not so much. There was just something off about it - too much random philosophising and too little about what he actually read and enjoyed as a child. It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I just didn't care much for it.
I didn't read a Connie Willis this month, but I would like to announce that I have discovered why I like her so much, why even her lesser works interest me: she likes to play with language, tweak it, test it to its limit. And she never fails to do that masterfully, even in her least noteable books.
And the numbers for 2009:
Nonfiction: 115
Rereads: 22
Foodie books: 8
Young Adult: 17
Juvanile: 12
Total books read in 2008: 180
[it's amazing to see the flip-flop in NF/FIC stats. It wasn't that many years ago that my dad was bribing me to get me to try to read at least one non-fiction book for every three novels.]
Awards:
Book I Read The Most Times: Twilight, at three. Casino Royale, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn all come in second, with two reads each.
Best classic-I-should-have-read-
Most Thought-Provoking Young Adult Novel: Uglies, Scott Westerfield (gotta love dystopian novels)
Best Non-Fiction: This is hard, but probably a tie between Charlie Wilson's War (George Crile) and Secret Soldiers (Philip Gerard). Both were amazingly told true stories dealing with the hidden side of well-known events, and both were surprisingly readable.
Best Reimagining of a Legend/Fairy Tale: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova. Way to breathe new life - harhar - into Dracula! Runner up: Beauty, Robin McKinley
The Book is Better Than the Movie Award goes to Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. They took a very intriquing true story and made it a humdrum so-so movie.
Epic that Completely Captured my Attention: The Pillars of Earth, Ken Follett. I totally didn't expect this book. It's so huge and looks so dense, and I expected to really have to force myself to make it all the way through. Instead it captured me, heart and soul.
Worst Book That Everybody Raved About: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen. Seriously. Pretentious, much?
Best Atmosphere in a Novel: The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
Best Travel Guide: Final Destinations: a travel guide for remarkable cemetaries
Best Memoir: A tie between Home by Julie Andrews, and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
Book Most Likely To Provoke Controversy When Read In a Public Space: Killing Monsters, by Gerard Jones, which argues that children need fantasy and pretend violence (in play, movies, books, comics, and video games).
Best Audio Book/Most Orginal Children's Book: The Wall and the Wing, Laura Ruby. Absolutely delightful.
Best Book I Read Because I Saw A Random Woman in the Airport Reading it And Starting Talking To Her About it and Discovered That She Was a Homeschooling Mother and Liked All The Same Books That I Do: Mysteries of the Middle-Ages, Thomas Cahill.
Most Surprising Book to Come Out of the Seventies: Time and Again, by Jack Finney. I was surprised. Clearly.
Best Book I Would Never Have Read If Jordan Hadn't Told Me To: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie. Runner up, the entire D.Gray-Man series, of course.