Books Read in 2013

71 books read this year, including kids' books I read to-- or listened to with-- The Son, book club books, and graphic novels.

Juvenile Fiction

A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

Roman Mysteries: Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence

Roman Mysteries: The Secrets of Vesuvius by Caroline Lawrence

Roman Mysteries: The Pirates of Pompeii by Caroline Lawrence

Roman Mysteries: Assassins of Rome by Caroline Lawrence

Alanna by Tamora Pierce

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Roman Mysteries: The Dolphins of Laurentum by Caroline Lawrence

Roman Mysteries: The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina by Caroline Lawrence

The Serpent’s Shadow by Rick Riordan

Roman Mysteries: Enemies of Jupiter by Caroline Lawrence

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood

Pharaoh's Daughter by Julius Lester

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

The Time Garden by Edward Eager

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart

The Roman Mysteries: The Gladiators from Capua by Caroline Lawrence

Young Adult

Voices by Ursula K. LeGuin

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Coen and David Levithan

The Safe-Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

Reached by Ally Condie

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Steverner

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarity

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier

Adult Fiction

The Help by Kathryn Sockett

Second Glances by Jodi Picoult

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Ilium by Dan Simmons

Timbuktu by Paul Auster

Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold

Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill

The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atikinson

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Love Songs From a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Non-Fiction

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Unearthing Atlantis by Charles Pellegrino

Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

At Home: a Brief History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Setting Limits with your Strong-Willed Child by Robert J. Mackenzie

Graphic Novels

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

Blankets by Craig Thompson

Sin City, Vol. I: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller

The Good Neighbors: Kin by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

The Good Neighbors: Kith by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick

The Vicar Woman by Emma Rendel

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell

Hits and misses by category:

Juvenile: 

Hit: This is the toughest category to pick just one favorite, since I read so much outstanding children's fiction this year, including the Roman Mysteries series, the Kane Chronicles trilogy, the second book of the WondLa trilogy, the New Olympians series, and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. But if you held a gun to my head and forced me to pick just one "best" book, it would have to be The Golden Compass, a truly remarkable book that deserves to be considered a modern classic of children's literature.

Miss: I already blogged about my disappointment with Alanna, so I'm going with The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods. The worldbuilding was cool, but you're never given a reason to care about the protagonist beyond the fact that he's the protagonist and you're supposed to care about him. There was no plot, no story goal-- just this whiney little shit stumbling from one disaster to the next. And there was not one but TWO unrelated grotesquely obese female villains, which rubbed me the wrong way, AND one scene had perhaps the most offensive extended metaphor for menstruation (and female maturation in general) that I've ever heard. I was literally yelling at the CD player: "My GOD! Ten-year-old boys are going to read this stuff, you know!"

 Young Adult:

Hit: Sorcery and Cecelia. I didn't care for the sequel, but this first book was just an utter delight. Honorable mention to Voices, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Fangirl.

Miss: Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, and Emerald Green. I have no idea why I read the whole trilogy. It was really dumb, and the protagonist got on my tits in a major way.

Adult:

Hit: The Rook. It's like The Bourne Identity meets Men in Black, with a little James Bond and Hitchhiker's Guide thrown in for extra flavor. Oh, and a female protagonist. So, so good. Honorable mentions: Ilium, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Miss: Timbuktu. Pretentious twaddle.

Non-Fiction:

Hit: At Home. Brilliant.

Miss: I feel bad choosing The Last Lecture, so I'll just say I certainly didn't think it was bad or anything, but nor did I find it as full of wisdom as everyone else seems to.

Graphic Novel:

Hit: Gunnerkrigg Court. I wasn't sure whether to include this on my list at all, since I'm reading it online, but I think of it as a graphic novel and not "just" a comic. The art is gorgeous, the worldbuilding is full of Lost-worthy mysteries, and the story is complex and constantly evolving as the characters age and mature. Bonus points for many strong female characters who are all strong in different ways. More bonus points for fearlessly melding Science Fiction and Fantasy elements. Super-duper bonus points for creating a SF/Fantasy series about teenagers in an English boarding school that is in no way reminiscent of Harry Potter. It's right below Sandman as my favorite comic of all time, and that's pretty much the highest praise I can give it.

Miss: Sin City. I knew it was dark, but I didn't know it was THAT dark. It was just bleak and hopeless and crazy-mega-violent, and I felt like I needed some kind of ritual cleansing when I was done with it. It's not a bad graphic novel, but it still counts as a miss for me.

That's the year in review! Any questions, counter-arguments, "me too!"'s?

The 2013 Shelf-Sitter Challenge Wraps Up

Regular readers (hi, Sharon!) will recall that the Shelf-Sitter Challenge originated because I had twenty-five books on my shelves that I had never read. My goal was to read them all-- or, at the very least, read enough to reject them. Since my usual yearly reading goal is 40 books, I figured I had plenty of wiggle room to get the shelf-sitters out of the way. If I wanted to read anything off-challenge, I had to take it out of the library-- no buying more books (except book club books) until I'd read all the ones I already owned.

So, how'd it go?

The bad news: despite reading 70(!) books this year (I'll post the full list tomorrow), I did not complete the challenge and still have seven books unread on my shelves that were there on January 1st.

I also must shamefacedly confess that I had a little book-buying slip a few months back. I took some books to the used bookstore, and like an idiot went looking in Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I was like, "Well, the only things I'd consider buying are the Samaria novels I don't already own, and they never have any Sharon Shinn..." and lo and behold, there were the three books I was missing, for $3 apiece. I had a moment of weakness.

The good news: I read/rejected 17.5 of the challenge books (I'm halfway through book 18, which is Cryptonomicon, a mammoth tome by genius/sadist Neal Stephenson), some of which had been making me feel like a slacker for years. I finished eight of the books (and will finish Cryptonomicon-- it is awesome), and chose not to finish nine of them.

I also learned two valuable reading lessons this year:

1) I slog through way too many books that are a waste of my time.
If a book isn't completely terribly written and/or personally offensive to me, I feel weirdly obligated to keep reading it. Ditto reading later books of a trilogy or series even if I've lost interest in it. This challenge has made me much more discerning; if I'm not invested after reading 20% of the book, I can put it aside and move on to the next thing. There are too many amazing books out there to spend my time on stories I feel meh about.

2) I buy a lot of books that I should be taking out of the library.
I was a hugely insatiable reader as a kid, but for some reason my parents never brought me to the library. My father had this whole "books don't count as buying you something" philosophy-- he would take me to a bookstore and let me pick out literally as much as I wanted. As a result, I developed an acquisitive attitude toward books, which is odd since in every other area I am pretty non-materialistic and don't get attached to things, or care much about the quantity or quality of the stuff I do have. But it can be physically painful to keep the books to a reasonable number (where reasonable = <1,000). I've already gotten in the habit of taking The Son's books out of the library, but this year I took a LOT of books out for myself that I would have bought if I hadn't imposed the buying limit on myself. I've discovered that there are only a few instances in which I truly want to own the book: 1) the book is a reference book that I believe I'll use for many years; 2) the book is by one of the 4-5 authors whose work I "collect"; or, 3) the book is part of a trilogy or series I am actively engaged in and already own all the previous books of.

Where do I go from here?

I've decided to keep myself to no more than ten shelf-sitters. Including the challenge books I didn't read, the illicitly-purchased Shinn books, and the books I got for Christmas, I currently have 15 shelf-sitters, which means I need to read at least 5 of these books before I can buy myself anything else (no more browsing in the used book store!). But with my embarrassingly late-in-life library revelation, it could be quite a while before I feel the need to buy a book!

85%

Finally.

Consistency

The good news is that I survived the week o' term papers for all my tutoring students, and I am totally on top of Christmas-- like, presents wrapped, cookies baked and delivered, packages mailed. The bad news is that I haven't been writing. December is always a tough month with lots of other demands on my time. I'm making "finishing the goddamn draft already" my JanNoWriMo goal; for now, I've signed up for a "December Consistency Challenge" at the JanNo site. The idea is to set a goal you know you can reach no matter what else is going on, and then write that amount every single day no matter what else is going on. I did 250, which is enough to keep the story percolating until I have more time to focus on it.

Sidetracked

I got sucked into QueryShark last night, and wound up getting sidetracked into working on my query pitch all. day. Not the most productive use of my time perhaps, but I thought I should strike while the nitpicky iron was hot. This shit is hard, yo.

Act III is Launched

Despite all the distraction in my life right now, over the course of three days I managed to complete the dialogue for the first scene in Act III. It's the last big conflict between Willa and Akenam, and I'm happy with it. Now I've backed up and am writing the long description/exposition opening to the scene.    I have a not-terrible version from the first draft, but it's still taking me a long time to edit it. It's a jump in a time, and to a new location, and I feel like I need to get it just right so the reader comes along with me.

Bah

This week has been a bust. The Husband's been having health troubles again and wound up in the hospital today. Tomorrow my day is jam-packed with everything I've had to put off all week in order to deal with the more immediate problem. It may Monday before I get the chance to work on TOB again.

Dammit.