All posts in: best reads

11 Dec 2014

Best Adult Fiction Reads of 2014

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

I like to consider myself a reader with broad tastes, but when it comes to choosing my Very Favorites there are a few types of books that always bubble to the top. I like big, fat family dramas. I like stories that follow children or teen characters on into their adulthood. I like stories where young people meet each other in isolated settings, forge quick and complicated social bonds, and then grow up together. I like stories that narrow in on the lives of women younger than 40. The Interestings does all this… AND it’s a summer camp story. Swoon.

But at the end of the day, this is a Big Fat Family Drama – so big and fat and dense that it took me a few check outs to actually read the thing. And it wasn’t a particularly easy task! Jules’s story wasn’t

The Interestings is certainly a Big Fat Book rife with family drama – so big and fat and dense on the page that it took me a few check outs to get around to reading it. And it wasn’t a particularly quick read, either; I didn’t fall into the story as much as slide. I ingratiated myself into the pack of characters Wolitzer introduces, all young men and women who met at an artsy summer camp as children. I didn’t find many of the characters charming or charismatic or anything like friends I would choose for myself, but Wolitzer writes their lives in such a way that I was very… ah… interested in where they would end up. Beyond the pleasure of exploring their idiosyncratic relationships, The Interestings also provides an exploration of what it means to be an artist. I found the whole book quite thought-provoking and engaging, and will likely re-read it someday.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Speaking of dense, gigantic books, here is a book so large that I did not even try to bring it onto public transportation! After the Game of Thrones binge that was 2013, I decided to lay off Westeros a bit this year, maybe branch out, try another brand of epic fantasy for a minute. Recommendations led me to Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle, which I nobly added to my Summer Reading List and read for pretty much the entire month of August. Because I couldn’t take it on the train without fear of breaking my wrists or perhaps accidentally dropping it onto someone’s head. This is a much different kind of story than Game of Thrones – smaller, more magical, and tightly focused on our fairly standard hero, Kvothe – an orphan who works his way off the streets and into a college for skilled magicians. Luckily, I found Kvothe an endearing, sympathetic guy to hang out with for half a bazillion pages, and Rothfuss’s world-building superb. (Did I just describe world-building? At all? Oh, Fantasy-hating Jessica, what has happened to you?)

Last Light by M. Pierce

So, a few months ago, I was kinda reading swamped. I can’t remember the particulars, but it’s book review season so I’m guessing I just had way too many books to read and not enough time within which to read them. Then my copy of Last Light (my October book) showed up in my mailbox. And it was shiny, with a nice soft cover, and then… well… you can see where this is going. This is the second book in at trilogy, and I read Night Owl way-back last year. I probably didn’t mention it here because it’s decidedly NOT a children’s book. In fact, it’s a bit of a dirty book. But I had to give a shout out Last Light this year because A) it seduced me into blowing off all sorts of good intentions B) when was the last time you read a bitofadirtybook and instead of skimming through the plot to get to the good stuff, you find yourself skimming the good stuff so you can get back to the plot? C) when was the last time you read a sequel that exceeded your expectations? So there you have it. Adults, if you like a good contemporary romance but you also like capable writing, surprising characters, and maybe even a little metafictive narrative playfulness, then this is the series for you! Last installment will be released in March!

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Yesterday, while reading this lengthy article about the real-life inspiration behind Nabokov’s Lolita, I thought a bit about Humbert Humbert and his enduring grip on generations of readers. I read Lolita after college – I picked it up because I’d heard it was a classic but was also somewhat salacious. Also, my younger sister had a copy, and I saw it laying about the house from time to time. It was a ubiquitous kind of book, with characters that have stayed with me – especially Humbert Humbert. What a character. And then I thought about The People in the Trees, because I’m not sure there are many other characters in literature that can come closer to a Humbert Humbert than Yanagihara’s Norton Perina. Perina begins as a medical student who tagging along with an anthropologist on a trip to a remote island in Micronesia. His encounters with the natives lead his career back and back again to the island of Ivu’ivu, where some inhabitants may have found the secret to eternal life. Perina is self-obsessed. He’s callous. He’s a little power-hungry. He’s a doctor, devoted to science. He’s a benefactor to the islanders that he studies.

And boy, he’s slimy. Dripping in it. Yanagihara crafts a fascinating story – which, like Lolita, is based in reality – about the gray areas of science and ethics in the mid-twentieth century, and sticks a weird, complex, shifty man right smack in the middle. Not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure, but this book was riveting and horrifying and not one I will soon forget.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

It wouldn’t be an end of the year list without a Rainbow Rowell title, eh? I debated about including this one. Like Attachments, this is another romance for adults, but this time its a romance about married people. Georgie is a hardworking TV writer. Her husband stays home with their two daughters and runs the household. They suffer under the pressures of modern coupledom (and just regular coupledom). Georgie finds a phone that lets her talk to her husband when they were first dating, which leads her to relive a lot of their early relationship.

This didn’t blow the rest of Rowell’s oeuvre out of the water or anything. I appreciated reading a romance starring married folks – Rowell is quite skilled at finding new angles from which to look at familiar stories – but nothing really stuck out at me as super-exemplary, especially looking back months later.

And then I remembered the ending, so I had to be the 900th person to recommend this book. The ending. Oh. Objectively, it’s probably not that good of an ending. I have no idea. All I know is that Rowell has yet again grabbed bits of my psyche and whipping them into story form. The ending made me realize that I’d just read a book about every biggest relationship problem that I’ve ever had, and that this ending – Georgie’s ending – was always what I’ve deeply dreamed of, in every relationship I’ve ever been in.

How do you do it, Rainbow? How, how, how?

Up next… Real-life books for grown-ups!

best reads

10 Dec 2014

Best Middle Grade Reads of 2014

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

So, it took me about seven years to finally read this book. I had an advanced copy way back in January of 2012, apparently. I tried to read it that summer… and the summer after that. I even took that galley with me to Italy……. where I did not read it. And then when it came time to pack up and head home, I purposely abandoned it at our Airbnb to make room in our suitcase.

Over the years, I’ve had a taste of pretty much everything literary that Jack Gantos has to offer. Some Joey Pigza, some Jack Henry. I read half of the Love Curse of the Rumbaughs and Hole in My Life more than once. Dead End in Norvelt had all of the fearlessness and oddball humor that I’ve come to expect from Gantos, but then there was just this heavy layer of chaaaaarm that just did me in. Jack’s voice was earnest, a titch whiny, prone to emotional outbursts, and completely endearing – pitch perfect middle grade, really. This is a historical comedy that reminded me of Gary D. Schmidt… but to be honest, I find Schmidt-like fiction to be a bit… ah… cloying. The kind of books that adults think kids should like. But Gantos paints Norvelt with an edgy weirdness and populates the town with bizarre side characters – choices that definitely cut the sweetness.

So, I’m sorry that it’s taking me so long to recommend this to y’all – as if you need me to recommend a Newbery Award winner – but here I am, recommending it, at the tail end of 2014.

Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill

So my mother accidentally reads books about mountain climbers and sometimes, I accidentally read a lot of books about Ivory Billed Woodpeckers. And now, I am starting to think I also accidentally read books about Arctic adventures, either fictional or not. Off the top of my head, I’ve recently read The Impossible Rescue, The White Darkness, Where’d You Go Bernadette, The Magicians, No Summit Out of Sight. That’s a lot of ice.

What I am trying to say is, I’ve read a lot of books that talk *about* Mr. Shackleton. I knew that he made some trips down into Antarctica, that he was a pioneer in Dangerous Cold Weather Exploration before the days of Gore-tex and emergency helicopter flights and other modern amenities that, oh, keep humans alive in extreme weather situations. But in Shackleton’s Journey, William Grill shows you exactly (e.x.a.c.t.l.y.) what they did have, in glorious, gorgeous colored pencil drawings. Grill chronicles Shackleton’s journey from beginning to end, illustrating every supply, every useful, adventurous man who boarded Shackleton’s ship – even the sled doggies. I could talk children’s-lit nerdy at you about trim sizes and visual vs textual information and blah-blah-blah, but I will wrap this up by saying this is a gorgeous piece of book that tells a fascinating, true story in a respectful, hopeful way.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Here’s something sad: part of my introduction to fantasy fiction is an introduction to how dude-centric fantasy fiction can be. Is it that hard to imagine a power structure that isn’t ridiculously patriarchal? Must every fantasy author borrow only the most misogynist bits of history when building their own medieval fantasy world? Tamora Pierce’s Alanna is proof positive that you can – and should! – break some gender norms in fantasy fiction. While dressing as a dude in order to attend knight training, Alanna becomes every bit the medieval fantasy hero that you’d expect. You also get the idea that Alanna would kick just as much ass if she were dressed as a lady – she’s just enduring the extra work of concealing her sex because the world she lives in is tragically backwards. None of these dudes are even any GOOD at fighting. Eye roll. Alanna, I dug you pretty hard this year.

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Now, I am certainly not as widely read as I’d like to be, but here are some sweeping, unsubstantiated generalizations about middle grade fiction: according to the Powers that Write/Edit/Publish/Promote kid’s books, there is always room for another

fictional Southern small town populated with quirky locals
kid who runs a wannabe detective agencies
dead mother

Seriously. I invented a lot of imaginative games and entrepreneurial schemes as a child, but detective was never one of them, nor did I encounter any kid detectives in my day to day child-life. Not so much in middle grade fiction-land. Kid detective agencies are just not-so clever ways to tell a decent children’s mystery. Every kid is a detective, every town is friendly and goofy, every mother is dead. Poor moms.

But. But. If the book is Three Times Lucky? And the kid detective is Mo LeBeau?

Then I will gladly ignore every other QuirkySouthernDeadMom book out there. Mo LeBeau has a detective agency, but she would really do anything for a buck. She’s in it for the money, not the intrigue. Tupelo Landing is home to a large number of helpful, accommodating adults with mile-wide personalities, but those adults also face some very modern, un-romantic adult problems in their lives. They have secrets – some a little sinister. And yes, there is YetAnotherDeadMom, but I’ll just leave that one for when you pick up this gem. It might melt your heart, just a l’il bit.

Up next… Fiction books written for adult people to read.

best reads

09 Dec 2014

Best Reads of 2014

Hello!

It’s time to talk about my favorite reads of the year!

I have been at this particular game for a significant period of time. Perhaps too long? Maybe someday I will be so busy that I can’t be bothered to write a zillion posts about books in December. In fact, I have been veryveryvery busy. Busy enough that I really should not be undertaking any additional undertakings.

And yet.

Old habits die hard.

As usual, this is definitely not a Best of 2014 list. These lists include books published this year, next year – any year; they are assembled from the particular crop of books I’ve read in 2014. More accurately, they are assembled from the particular crop of books that I’ve only read for the first time – and only during my arbitrarily decided upon Fiscal Reading Year. FRY14 ran from late December to mid-November this time around. I’ve also chosen to remove some books from consideration this year for some non-blog related reasons. The authenticity of this particular Best Of list is even more in question than usual. But don’t worry – there are nearly 150 remaining books to choose from this year. There’s plenty of good stuff left! Also, I’ve planned a couple of Fun! New! Surprising! Lists! Am I the only one entertained by all of this? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But this is my blargh – I do what I want.

Speaking of doing what I want, a reminder that everything I write here on this blargh is my own brain matter, my personal opinions, nothing at all that represents the opinions of my employers or anyone else with whom I do business. I relinquish all associations that may give you the impression that I am of any authority. These books are all about my enjoyment, my gut feelings, The Person I Am while Reading The Books That I Happened to Want to Read this year.

From now until Christmastime, here is what is in store for you!

~
Tuesday, December 9th – Best Middle Grade Reads

Thursday, December 11th – Best Adult Fiction Reads

Thursday, December 11th – Best Adult Nonfiction Reads

Friday, December 12th – Best Young Adult Fiction Reads

Saturday, December 13th through Saturday, December 24th – Top 10 Best Reads!

10. This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki

9. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Be happy! Be excited! Be prepared to forgive me if I get so backed up writing these blog posts that I finish next December 24th and turn my blog into a perpetual, yearlong “What Books Were Good Last Year” blog. Oh wait, that’s exactly what my blog is. Maybe I should just write nothing but End of the Year Book Blog posts, for the rest of time – a never ending cycle. I kind of like that idea, actually. Hmmm… Either way, time to get a-postin’. See you tomorrow!