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Let's compare; my 2017 books

It’s a fantastic feeling to look at my books from the past year and find so many great titles. I hope your year in reading was just as exciting. I read a good mix of books from my TBR piles and plan to sign up for Roofbeam Readers’ TBR Challenge this year to keep me on track. I also added in stacks of new books about diverse characters, which made me fall in love with some new authors like Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas.

Longest book: Eragon-I’m glad I finally read this fantasy tale
Favorite Detective-Cormoran Strike (Robert Galbraith)

Top Twelve

1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (real train, great writing)
2. The Mothers by Brit Bennett (Nadia and Luke, love story but more)
3. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (brilliant story of police violence + more, very well written)
4. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (dystopian look at our world if Pence takes over)
5. A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman (sweet story of Ove learning about life)
6. American War by Omar El Akkad (dystopian look at future American w/out oil)
7. Our souls at night by Kent Haruf (sweet tale of neighbors making a connection)
8. To the bright edge of the world by Eowyn Ivey (amazing writing, journal-style about Alaskan exploration, LOVED her 1st book The Snow Child)
9. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (amazing, 300 years of life in Ghana and descendents)
10. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (The Count is imprisoned in beautiful hotel and finds a way to continue living a great life)
11. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (novel in verse, aftermath of Will’s brother’s death, strong voice)
12. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (1937 New York City, great cast of characters)

Top Elementary Fiction:

1. Shooting Kabul by N.H Senzai (escape from Afghanistan, life in America)
2. Some kind of courage by Dan Gemeinhart (great character western)
3. The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill (well-told fantasy)
4. Save me a seat by Sarah Weeks/Gita Varadarajan (diverse friends have all the fun, after the drama)
5. Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes (9/11; well done)
6. The girl who drank from the moon by Kelly Barnhill (well-told fantasy)
7. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (dragon quest)
8. Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes (excellent voice, plantation aftermath)
9. Pax by Sara Pennypacker (pet fox struggles in the wild while boy tries to get back to fox)
10. A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L’Engle (wild, intergalactic ride, introduced it to 5 unsuspecting 6th graders)

Enjoy! What stories made an impression on you in 2017?

3 Great Stories

I ended 2017 with three good library books and oddly enough I didn’t receive any books for Christmas. Probably good because my own piles are still sky high. Before I share my 2017 stats I thought I’d share these three.

1. The Tie that binds by Kent Haruf (1984): I read this because I loved Haruf’s Our Souls at night which pushed me to the library to find his first story of Holt, Colorado. Described as a Greek Tragedy, this story gives us Edith Goodnough, a woman who struggles to make something of her life within the confines of the hand she’s been dealt. Her mother dies young and Edith is left to care for her younger brother, Lyman and her abusive father. The intricate tale of love and loss will make you question how far responsibility carries anyone.

2. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (2011): I picked this one up after reading A Gentleman in Moscow and found this one as clever. Katey Kontent, a 25 year-old New Yorker with her roommate Evelyn meet Tinker Gray, a wealthy and handsome banker in a Village jazz club. The three of them set off on adventures, big and small, with both Evelyn and Kate hoping for their own moments with Tinker. Evelyn and Tinker eventually pair up but it’s not in any way how they expected. Filled with twists and turns and memorable characters like Anne Grandyn, this first novel by Towles is just as intriguing as A Gentleman in Moscow.

The Dry by Jane Harper (2016): Set in Australia this murder mystery has its own twists and turns in a short amount of time. Aaron Falk returns to his small hometown after his childhood friend Luke and his family are murdered. Aaron agrees to stay for a week to help the new sheriff as they both have questions about what exactly happened. While digging up clues they find simmering hatred and other secrets harbored by the small town residents. As they dig for clues Luke hopes to solve another mystery involving the drowning of his childhood friend Ellie of which he was the prime suspect. For a mystery with a LOT going on this one handled it all with interesting style. I’m looking forward to the next Aaron Falk tale.

29 days of book love…

I stopped. Why bother, I thought, when no one is listening? It’s frustrating I admit it but do I want to admit defeat? No.

After that struggle I reassessed; I’m not really writing for anyone else. It’s important for just me. Do I want people to read? Absolutely. Do I want people to comment? Absolutely. Yes, please. Say something, tell me what you think. I love discourse and dialogue.

But even if I’m just talking to myself it’s okay.

So I cam back to book love. Barbara Kingsolver. Anyone else love her?
I’ve read almost all of her books.

Here are my favorites in reading order:

1. The Bean Trees (1988): Goodreads wasn’t around but I read this one first and fell in love with the way it was written and the characters. I kept reading the series as I found them.

2. Prodigal Summer (2000): An amazing character driven tale that takes place in Appalachia. I loved Lusa because she was struggling with her place in the world. I could relate.

3. The Poisonwood Bible (1998): Wow. Ten years after The Bean Trees and this is a big leap up. A totally different kind of story. Quite good and I made it through all 546 pages.

4. Animal Vegetable Miracle (2007): She said everything I wanted to hear about food. Changed the way I thought about meat. My son was so happy. Local, healthy food and funny stories along the way.

5. The Lacuna (2009): Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Harrison Shepherd jaunt through Mexico and the U.S. during the 1930s. Beautiful and 508 pages.

6. Flight Behavior (2012): Goodreads says it like this “Contemporary American fiction at its finest…” I agree. This story blends interesting characters with an environmental message that made it easily my favorite of all her books.

Thank you Barbara for writing. I love your work.

Meeting Maggie.

I drove 1 1/2 hours last night because Maggie Stiefvater, author of Scorpio Races, Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Boys series, would be speaking at Prairie Lights bookstore. I am a huge fan (already pre-ordered the next in the Raven series) and I thought it would be worth the drive even though I couldn’t get anyone to go with me. What a shame as they missed a very good show.

She was far more entertaining than I’ve ever seen an author be in a funny, grease monkey kind of way. I did not take notes but just enjoyed listening to her variety of stories that she transforms into mini-skits. This is what I remember:

1. She is fascinated with folklore and likes wolves over werewolves.
2. I think she wears black tank tops and black Doc Martens a lot.
3. She is rail thin but mighty.
4. She advised against the age old writer’s wisdom of “write what you know” and was eloquent in her idea that you can research and write way beyond what exists around you.
5. She’s learned to write anywhere now as she travels so much (even on airplanes).
6. She claims not to be a good writer so much as a good thief; stealing bits or parts from life.
7. Her purpose in writing Shiver was to make people cry, to write something that would be poignant like The Time-Traveler’s Wife.
8. She read Watership Down as a young person and then rewrote it with dogs instead of rabbits.
9. I shook hands with her and we had to shake twice, according to her, it needs to be done in equal amounts.
10. She lived for a short time in Hartley, IA but does not have good memories of the experience.

As people got their books and posters signed by her she chatted easily with each person. There were people there that had written her letters and received responses, tweeted, emailed, tumbler’ed her and all received responses. One young man had a brand new Raven Boys tattoo to share with her. The love was big and real all around. She asked many what books they were reading that were great and when it was my turn we chatted about folklore and what a great avenue this was to look at wolves over werewolves and so she didn’t ask me but if she had I would have told her to read Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch as it is filled with struggling, badly-behaving characters that are still somehow likable, something I think she would appreciate.

It goes so quickly those brief moments of greeting someone that you admire that I wanted to say “Can we meet at the pub for a Guinness after all these other people leave?”

My cache of signed goods:

{Posters Maggie created herself for fans}

If you haven’t read her yet you should…

Ingrid Law's in town!

Ingrid Law with Peaceful Reader

Not only is she in town talking about Savvy and Scumble but I was lucky enough to have dinner with her and not only was I lucky enough to have dinner with her…I sat right next to her! She is a lovely human being with funny and insightful stories. I loved that she is an introvert yet she easily shared stories with us about writing, her life, what it was like to transition from quiet homebody to famous author!

She reads. She is a single mother with a daughter that is about to graduate from high school. She wrote Savvy in the evenings while she worked in a government office. Her father is a vegan. She lives in Lafayette, Colorado. She wrote Savvy in about 4 1/2 months, which is amazing! She wrote a first book that is now sitting in a drawer somewhere but that inspired her publisher to ask for something else because they liked her writing.

So many wonderful facts that you pick up over interesting dinner conversation. Oh, and she likes cupcakes!

Room by Emma Donoghue

I know many readers and bloggers have read this one already but I just have to reiterate what an awesome read this one was! What a fresh and youthful voice Donoghue creates for Jack. I love the relationship between the mother and son; that even in this horrific situation she has created this room of love and security. Stolen at 17 by “Old Nick” she has been kept in a restructured and reinforced garden shed at the mercy of his 9:00 visits. Jack is born from this awful relationship and she nurtures him, teaching him only about what exists in their small world. They do have a television to watch but Jack thinks everything on it is pretend; nothing real beyond their walls except the nighttime visits of Old Nick.

The book opens as Jack is turning 5 and his curiosity grows as his “Ma” begins to unveal more than just the existence of their room. She shares with him bits and pieces of her life before “Room” became her world. As Jack struggles with this new information and they plot a course to escape both Ma and Jack struggle with what lays before them. Jack wishes to go back in time to just those few days before he turned 5 when his world was simple and his mother can’t bear living in their prison for another moment. It is heart-breaking as the two of them struggle over what is real and what is not and Jack cannot understand why his mother can’t just be happy in room with him as she has been for the last five years.

Janssen’s review of Room inspired me to keep it high on my radar even though it took me 2 years to actually check it out from the library. Such is my crazy busy life but I’m happy to have read it and will continue to recommend it to friends and family. If you haven’t already read this one, give it a try. Jack will inspire you. Donoghue has several other novels and want to read down her list. I would love to know if others were as striking as this one was? Any suggestions?

Top Ten Tuesday; Authors I've discovered

2012 New discoveries for me:

(links take you to my review)

A.S. King

Loved Ask the Passengers.

Colleen Clayton

Ditto for What Happens Next?

Kelly Barnhill

Iron-Hearted Violet-excellent.

Lauren Oliver

Liesl and Po!

Patrick Carman

(Groovy Girl and I are reading The Dark Hills Divide together and love it)

Anabel Pitcher

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece-timely realistic fiction

Love Maia

True urban tale DJ Rising

Katherine Schlick Noe

Native American reservation fiction in Something to Hold

Louise Erdrich

(knew of her; just had not read any of her books,

loved The Birchbark House series and am now

reading The Round House)

Thank you to all these wonderful authors for brightening my year!

This meme is featured over at The Broke and the Bookish and one day

I will have my post ready so I’m not the thirteen thousand participant!

4 New Books to LOVE!

At the beginning of September I challenged myself to read through my big and beautiful, ever-growing pile of ARC’s from Little, Brown and Company. I aimed for ten and finished seven. Here I bring you the top 4 realistic fiction titles to look for.

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King: This was my absolute favorite story. I’m now a huge fan of A.S. King and her coming-of-age, coming-to-grips tale of Astrid Jones. She’s unusual and knows it yet longs for the shelter of a loving family and honest friends. She struggles with her own identity, familial disfunction, her sexuality, and what it means to be a good and true friend. This story is a marvel and Astrid is a character that I think about often. Buy this for your library or a teenager in need. Booklist Online has a very creative interview with A.S. King – read it, it will make you laugh. (ARC provided by Little, Brown, and Company, release date October, 2012)

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher; The Matthews family is broken in every way. Jaime, the youngest, narrates the story of this family’s critical loss. Rose, Jaime’s sister and twin to Jasmine, dies from a terrorist bomb in a local park. Jaime’s mother, trying to heal herself, attends a local grief group, meets someone else and leaves the family. In order to douse the overwhelming pain Jaime’s father drinks. Eventually Jaime, his sister, Jas, and father move to the country to get out of London and away from the Muslim’s. Jaime’s father blames all Muslim’s for the death of his daughter and he emotionally abandons his two living children while grieving for Rose. This book brings out the blanket racism that clouds good judgement as Jaime, in his little country school, befriends a local Muslim girl. This book by debut author Annabel Pitcher is beautifully written with rare wit about a topic that will have people talking. (ARC provided by LBC, August, 2012)

DJ Rising by Love Maia; Music is Marley’s world. With a scholarship to attend a prestigious school and a job busing tables at a hip restaurant he has his hands full just trying to make it on his own. In the midst of his own teenage life he juggles caring for his drug-addicted mother who never recovered from the death of her husband, Marley’s music-loving dad. Marley has two dreams: one is to DJ at a fancy club and the second is that the beautiful Lea Hall will talk to him. When his mother tries to recover, and the DJ world starts to suck Marley in, will he be able to accomplish any of his real goals as he learns to figure out what is most important? This book is well worth reading as you want Marley to triumph over the life he’s been handed and Maia’s lyrical writing make it a quick read. Soundtrack to come according to her website. (ARC provided by LBC, Feb., 2012)

The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney; At first glance this could appear to be a fluff YA chick read but there is much deeper stuff below the surface. Budget cuts leave Julius P. Heil High without a football coach or a team causing several affluent families to take their young players to private schools. With so many young men gone the girls start looking at the second and third tier of eligible guys. The theatre geeks, the band boys, and the stoner dudes suddenly all have a place at the table. Through this new adventure Kelly begins to see her old band-friend, Hunter, in a new light; he could be truly crush-worthy if the plastic girls (the “Spandexers”) can keep their hands off him. I enjoyed this story as it explores high school stereotypes and told through Kelly’s and Hunter’s alternating chapters. Hunter is a boy I would have loved and you will cheer for him as he finds his true voice. Flynn Meaney is also the author of Bloodthirsty. (ARC provided by LBC, August, 2012)

These four easily captured my attention. I have several others still to review including an elementary fiction title and four picture books and I am happy to share these exciting titles. The common denominator is identity which is something teens struggle with whether gay, straight, male, female, rich, or poor and these titles raise awareness for this angst.

Thank you Zoe!! You make my day with your monthly emails.

Top Ten Series I haven't finished but should…

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Most of these are unfinished due to the time crunch that is my lovely life.

1. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I’ve read the first three and want to finish.

2. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I read the first two and moved on.

3. Rick Riordan writes faster than I can read. I have the last book of Percy Jackson and the two more Kane Chronicles and I haven’t even started on his other series…

4. Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst. I’ve read these first 4 and have two more to go.

5. Anna Godberson’s second series, Bright Young Things. (not as riveting as The Luxe)

6. Lois Lowry’s The Giver series. Keep meaning to get this done and now the last one is coming out.

7. The Daughters series by Joanna Philben. I’ve read one and want to read the next two.

8. Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. I loved the first one. Promise to finish series before movie arrives in theatres!

9. Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue. I’ve read the first two-loved them.

10. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I want to read the second one, Lola and the boy next door, before the last one is out.

When I first started writing I thought I was keeping up but my list easily kept growing! Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke and Bookish for reminding me of all I need to read this Fall. I’ve already clicked around to many other TTT and I have a new list started, Series I need to read!

Top Ten Tuesday; Top Ten Bookish people I'd like to meet

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish this top ten list are the authors I would love to meet for dinner, coffee or maybe even a glass of wine. I’d be so nervous to meet them I’d have to have a list of top ten questions to use for talking points!

1. Barbara Kingsolver; I would ask about what inspired The Bean Trees and we could talk a long time about sustainable living.

2. J.K. Rowling; I would nudge her to talk about magic and her wonderful HP characters. I might ask her even about her new adult book.

3. Anne Lamott; I could listen to her stories for hours-she can make me laugh about parenting like no other! And then when we are all done laughing we could talk about our faith as well.

4. Judy Blume; Just to give her a hug and tell her thank you for all those stories that helped me go from elementary to middle and beyond. Thank you.

5. Louisa May Alcott; I would love to take a walk in the garden with her, just to listen to her tell stories about her sisters.

6. Henry David Thoreau; Same here, a walk would suffice and I’m sure he could give me advice on the simple life and civil disobedience.

7. George Washington Carver; I think of all his accomplishments but would love to just talk about gardening with him.

8. Kate DiCamillo; I’ve loved everyone of her stories and have a huge crush on her writing style. The Tale of Desperaux and Winn-Dixie are two books I could read every year.

9. Mildred D. Taylor; Roll of Thunder, Hear my cry is one of my favorite novels and I would love to have the opportunity to sit and share a meal with Ms. Taylor to talk about Cassie and her family.

10. Alice Hoffman; Alice Hoffman’s writing style fascinates me and I don’t think I could keep up but I would love to hear her speak.

Honorable mentions go to Dr. Seuss and President Barack Obama! I’ve heard the president speak but would love to have a one-on-one conversation about some important issues over a cold White House brew. Michelle could come also. What bookish person would you love to eat or chat with??