Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Favorite books this year (so far)

I’m terrible with summaries, so click through for synopses done by better people than I.

Young Adult
Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson. Beautiful, elegant speculative fiction, with a bit of mystery thrown in for good measure. You can read a detailed review on my blog here.
Chime by Frannie Billingsley. An original fairy-tale with a gothic flair. bonus factors: slow burning romance, a dark family secret, and fairy-folk. For fans of Victoria Holt, Jane Eyre, and swooning.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. There’s a character who spends the entire book with a tray stuck through her head. What else do you need to know? For fans of crazysauce.
The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston. Woolston’s first novel, a Morris award winner, is tender, funny, and insightful. suitable for fans of John Green’s absorbing and deeply intelligent novels. I’ll be writing a more in-depth exploration of this title soon, but for now be content to know that I highly recommend it.

Middle Grade
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier. I wrote a little bit about this book and its author (and kittens) here, and even after this blurb I will have more to say about the book soon.
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. I just finished this Newbery award winning book and it was a very satisfying, wholesome book, the literary version of a meat and potatoes meal. I grew up in the Midwest and have family in Kansas, so the setting was very familiar and comforting to me, and I greatly enjoyed the story within a story technique employed by Vanderpool.

Nonfiction
Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley. I like learning about larger periods of history through the narrow focus of a person’s life. This biography clearly outlined the marriage of Franklin and Eleanor and the unique nature of their partnership with honesty that never veered into sensationalism.

Adult Fiction
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook. Oh, my; I read this after entering a steampunk phase inspired by Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan. It’s super steampunk goodness and I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I think it would make a good readalike for fans of Game of Thrones.

What are your favorite titles so far this year?

2 comments:

  1. My favorite title is “We, The Drowned” (My thoughts:http://manoflabook.com/wp/?p=1353) by Carsten Jensen is a spell­bind­ing, award win­ning (Danske Banks Lit­ter­atur­pris) fic­tional book which spans 100 years in the lives of the inhab­i­tants of the small Dan­ish coastal town Marstal. Jensen's debut novel is already hailed as an instant clas­sic and right­fully so.

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  2. My favorite title is "My Heritage, My Destiny." Website: baibakreger.com. A young girl and her family struggle to get out of Latvia during WWII and live as refugees in war torn Germany. Not knowing when or if there will be a bit of food or where the next bomb will fall, tests their endurance.

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