Joie de vivre

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. 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:

Fiction: 65
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.]
( And the award goes to: )

61. Archie and Amelie: love and madness in the gilded age, Donna M. Lucey
    Much as I like biographies of people I know, even better do I like biographies of people who were well known in their own day but are mostly unknown to us now. So. This was about two very famous society figures and their rather odd and tumultuous marriage. It was sad, but surprisingly beautiful, and painted an interesting portrait of the 'gilded age.'

2. Messenger, Lois Lowry
    I think Lowry is one of the few very good young adult writers today. Her books unsettle me, but I like them a great deal.

3. Enchantment: the life of Audrey Hepburn, Donald Spoto
    A nice portrait of the great actress and well worth reading if you lack knowledge of her life and works. But I wouldn't call it a great book -- sometime struck me as being rather serial-biography-ish about it, as if Spoto writes biographies merely to write biographies, and not out of any special admiration for the biographee. (which might not be a word, but it should be.)

4. The Not So Big House,  Sarah Susanka
    I have no desire to build my own home, mostly because I could never force myself to make all my own decisions on the floor plan, but I do like looking at architectural books and magazines. And I like space-saving ideas. And duel-duty items. Things that serve more than one purpose are my friends.

5. Patrick: son of Ireland, Steven Lawhead
    One day I was sitting at my desk at work and a little voice whispered in my ear go re-read Patrick: son of Ireland. And so I did. Lawhead is a masterful, masterful author.

6. Flatland, Edwin A. Abbott
    A patrick___recommendation. Hilarious and surprisingly captivating, and oddly a bit reminiscent of Gulliver's Travels in a way I really can't explain, as they are very dissimilar.

7. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
   Another patrick___recommendation. I love Asimov but had never gotten into the Robot novels. This was a good collection, although surprisingly...nostalgic?

8. The Word's Gotten Out, Willard Espy
     Reviews about the book sound interesting, but it was really just not worth the bother. Well, except for that one story about the soldiers and Lord Glasgow and the 75 lbs of explosives and the tree stump that shattered every pane of glass. o_O

9. Noise, Bart Kosko
    Way over my head scientifically, and I admit to skimming parts, but on the whole very interesting indeed. And I learned why Gaussian blur is so named and how to tell if I'm in the Matrix or if my brain has been replaced with a computer chip.

And now, the yearly total IS: 111 books read. Not only is a nice symmetrical number, but it's also better than last year's meager 88. Still nothing like the Years Before A Real Job when 170+ was the average, but, meh. I have a life now, I suppose. 

Also, 7 of that 111 were Pratchett books. 

Some Awards, with no particular rhyme or reason:

Best book about food: Well now, that's actually a tie between Heat (in which a writer becomes an apprentice in a high-tension resturant kitchen, and Much Swearing ensues; however, it's a great true look at what the restaurant business is all about and now I'd rather just eat the food than make it, thank you) and Julie and Julia (in which Julie cooks her way through Julia Child in one year.)

Best series: Lawhead's Song of Albion, no question. 

Best book read while sitting in an airport: The Tipping Point. 

Most boring book that sounded like it had a good premise: How to Lie With Maps.

Best book I didn't think I'd enjoy: Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was really, really awesome. 

Best fiction book I didn't think I'd enjoy: The Age of Innocence.

Best modern fiction book: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

And finally...Worst Book EVAH: Interview with the Vampire. Sorry, guys, I just thought it was really, really boring.