Great Stuff I Read This Year

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens I am a lifelong Dickens fan, and yet I'd never read this book until this year. I've read most of his stuff, but not quite all of it - perhaps the fact that he has sadly ceased writing (jeez!) means that I carefully budget his gigantic body of work. No one ever tried to make me read it in school, so that isn't the explanation either. Whatever - I've never read this one before, so let me be, like, the last person of the past 150 years to say: "Holy crap, is this ever a good book." Sure, it has Dickens' trademark paragon women and overstretched coincidences - the thing is, if you love Dickens, you love his flaws too. And, good God, is there a lot to love in Dickens.




A Death in Belmont - Sebastian Junger The author of The Perfect Storm wrote this exquisite, utterly creepy book about his family's close experience with Albert DeSalvo, the man who was eventually convicted as the Boston Strangler. In fact, a Strangler-like murder was committed in Junger's neighborhood the same day DeSalvo worked as a laborer at the Junger house - this book is about that, and a lot more. Missed chances, ruined lives, painful deaths, unanswered questions - this book haunted me for days.




Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem A man afflicted with Tourette's tries to solve the murder of the only man who ever gave a damn about him - a small-time Brooklyn gangster. Funny and sad at the same time, and so well-written it will tempt you to pack up your notebook for good. Oh, and it gave me an almost-unbearable urge to yell "EATMEBAILEY!" in boring board meetings. I heard a rumour that they might make a movie, with Edward Norton starring. I really hope it's true, 'cos that would be incredibly perfect.




Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Okay, all you SF fans can laugh now, but I only discovered Card about three weeks ago. (Ha ha, okay?) A young boy is recruited for his genius at war games to fight off an alien invasion. I had a few issues with this one - namely, the preternatural, creepily-smart kids, and the baffled ending - but there are sequels, so I'm counting on Card to make everything right later on. Dang, he's a really good writer, too. It's hard to put this one down, even when it's occasionally annoying you, and it's so thoroughly imagined that you can't even find any hackneyed, boneheaded SF cliches to laugh at. I'm definitely going to read a lot more of this author.

I read a lot of romance I loved this year, too, but maybe I'll put that in another post. I read a lot outside the genre. Yesterday I went to the AAR boards for the first time in months, only to find everyone bitching about the sad state of romance, or whatever. You gotta read outside the genre, no matter what you read - it's the only way. The only other option is burnout.

On a side note, I am totally bummed that Bookseller Chick's store is closing. I hope she gets another bookselling job - I love that blog!