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trinityofoneOf the 286 books I read in 2008, these are the 35 that struck the strongest chords with me (at least as of mid-afternoon on December 31st). Click on the images to read the reviews. Whenever possible, I chose the cover that belonged to the actual edition I read.
TOP FIVE FICTION
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
TOP FIVE FANTASY
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
TOP FIVE SCI-FI
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
TOP FIVE GRAPHIC NOVELS
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
TOP FIVE YOUNG ADULT
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
TOP FIVE NONFICTION
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
FIVE WORST BOOKS
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
So...what should I read in 2009? Rec me, Amadeus!
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
So...what should I read in 2009? Rec me, Amadeus!
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 10:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 10:55 pm (UTC)I can't believe you haven't read Transmetropolitan or World War Z! I think you would love them both.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 11:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 11:22 pm (UTC)Also, I've been reading a lot of political/pundit stuff lately, and I feel that I should rec Anderson Cooper's Dispatches From the Edge, if you haven't read it before.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 11:51 pm (UTC)...which is to say that I was deeply underwhelmed by The Rotters' Club.
I also find it really interesting to look back at my reviews of my "picks of the year", because it's often not apparent from the review that, actually, this *was* a standout read - I'll write a more critical review because I had higher expectations or whatever, you know?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 11:54 pm (UTC)also; YAY NEIL GAIMAN.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:09 am (UTC)Ooh, recs. How is it that whenever someone actually asks, my mind goes blank? Oh yeah, because it's the law of the universe. Um, you said you were looking into Stephen Fry, so I totally rec everything by him (except possibly 'The Ode Less Travelled', because it's less a book and more an instruction manual on how to have some fun writing poetry). I am presuming you've read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, but you might not've read Last Chance To See also by Douglas Adams, in which case omg DO, it is possibly my favourite book ever if I had to pick.
I am currently in a sciencey mood so I shall rec you the book I'm currently reading, A Guinea Pig's History Of Biology by Jim Endersby, which has suddenly and delightfully decided to grace me with scientist!slash and is generally better than the occasional disagreement with the author's decisions re: the arrangement of his subject matter makes me think it is. Also, Richard Dawkins on biology is pretty awesome. Richard Feynman on physics is way more awesome, though, and he was also seriously fucking funny. And played the bongos a lot more.
Octavia E Butler is good for socially concious feminist sci-fi. I have a few frustrations with her but I get the feeling those slight niggles would be less bothersome to you. You might've read Alan Cumming's book, Tommy's Tale, but if not then I think you'd like it. I thought it was awesome, and not just by 'books written by celebrities' standards. I think you've read Susanna Clarke's oeuvre already... hmm... Jamie O'Neill's book At Swim Two Boys is brilliant, beautiful, painful, totally worth reading, but might need you to be in the mood for really rolling around in the beauty of the language. And oh yeah, if you want gay Victorian crime-fighting by a snarktastic sort-of-antihero, you will love Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels that start with The Vesuvius Club. He's awesome.
*breathe* There. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:10 am (UTC)You know, I have never really gotten what the big deal with Anderson Cooper is. Perhaps I should read his book and attempt to find out!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:13 am (UTC)it's often not apparent from the review that, actually, this *was* a standout read
I found that, too—that looking back, different things had stuck with me, or seemed more or less important now than they did at the time. If I were to do this list again in a year—or even in a month—it would probably look quite different.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:31 am (UTC)Let's see. I've already read Fry's Making History, which was great, but I thought I might try Paperweight, which we were talking about the other day. And I've read all of Adams long since (including Last Chance to See, which is indeed fantastic), except The Salmon of Doubt, which I bought when it first came out but couldn't bring myself to open. *wibbles*
A Guinea Pig's History of Biology looks great (scientist!slash! whee!). *wishlists it* I've never read any Dawkins because he has always seemed like such an asshole to me, but I LOVE Feynman. He is totally my dead physicist boyfriend. (Now I just need a live physicist boyfriend. Preferably in real life. *g*)
I feel like I owe you some recs of your own now. Hmm...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:36 am (UTC)I love Naked Pictures of Famous People (even though I always want to call it Famous Pictures of Naked People). I'll be interested in what you think, because people tend to be wildly divided about it, even among Jon Stewart fans.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:38 am (UTC)Most of my flist seems to love it, so I have good expectations.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 12:39 am (UTC)(Dude, it's totally all about the Keith/Rachel. If I allowed myself to go there. Which I don't.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 01:11 am (UTC)Dawkins kind of is an ass, really, but he does the love of his subject and really communicating why it's so fucking amazing thing really well. And he's a lot less aggravating when he's talking about science and not his views on society or the existence of god. I think 'Unweaving the Rainbow' might be the place to start if you want to give that a go. And oh Feynman. I love him so much. :D Everyone needs him as their dead physicist boyfriend! (And I'm totally with you on getting a live one, too, heh.)
I like Kindred best of Octavia Butler's stuff I've read so far, but I started with Parable of the Sower and that is pretty good. It also has a sequel which I have not read, but am assured it's also good. With the Jamie O'Neill, it often helps to read it out loud to yourself. :) I think it's totally worth it but it can definitely be frustrating having something take that long! And yay for the Vesuvius Club climbing the ranks, it's one of the most fun books I've read in ages. :)
And hee, aww, you don't need to worry about owing recs - you've already written a bazillion reviews this year! (I should try to write more on the stuff I'm reading, but have failed spectacularly; I bow down to yours in shame, heh.) Anything you do think of though will be happily jumped on, I love finding new stuff to read. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 01:23 am (UTC)(I'm kind of all about the Jon/Stephen, myself, but I think that's because they so clearly encourage it on their shows.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 01:27 am (UTC)Anything Discworld. You really need to read some of the later non-guards/witches/wizards books, since they can be read separately - The Truth, Going Postal + Making Money, Monstrous Regiment.
Crecy - Warren Ellis.
The cats of Seroster - Robert Westall (YA medieval siege)
Tale of Time City - Dianne Wynne Jones
Sun Horse, Moon Horse, Sword at Sunset and Mark of the Horse Lord - Rosemary Sutcliff
Angels and Visitations - Neil Gaiman
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Stormwatch and Authority - Warren Ellis (only the Warren Ellis. Not the Mark Millar.)
non fiction :
Agent Zigzag - Ben Macintyre
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 01:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 02:31 am (UTC)And for Christmas my fiance got Jim Butcher's other series, The Codex Alera. I read them all in about a week. I can't decide if they're spectacular or just addicting, but in any case I recommend them.
If you haven't read the comic book "Maus", I recommend it. Same with Persepolis. (Although that's a great movie, too. I rec'd it on my movie blog (http://movierecs-alloccasions.blogspot.com).) You might also check out an oldie, but goodie, "ElfQuest."
Sorry if you've read some of these. It's hard to remember what all you've talked about.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 04:13 am (UTC)I just finished Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace and now I have to go check out everything else he's done. This one was non-fiction essays, about everything from the Adult Movie News Awards to the moral implications of lobster eating, with a trip through language usage wars, SO. Crazy/Awesome.
I also loved The English Patient by ... somebody. I have not actually seen the movie yet, but I have to because I could hear Willem Defoe reading Caravaggio's lines and it was awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 06:14 am (UTC)Except these days I'm just as tempted to rec Thread of Grace, a historical novel she did set in Italy during WWII. It's wonderful, and I don't usually like WWII books. I find them too depressing, and I think a lot of them feel the same. But I really loved this one.
Also, anything you haven't read by Neil Gaiman is a good choice. If you haven't read Diane Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard series, or at least the first few, you totally should. And if you liked those, you should check out an old fantasy series she did, starting with The Door into Fire. It's out of print and hard to find, but I adore them. She also wrote two amazing Star Trek novels, if you're into that: Spock's World, and The Wounded Sky.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 06:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 06:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 09:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 10:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 10:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-03 10:54 pm (UTC)I think it's less an issue of my not liking manga—it's more that I can never FIND manga. I don't have the money to buy it new, my library stocks very little of it, and even less pops up on BookMooch. So I never get to try anything, or I get the first volume of something but then can't find any more... It sucks.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-04 04:01 am (UTC)Graceling (http://www.amazon.com/Graceling-Kristin-Cashore/dp/015206396X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231041415&sr=1-1), one of the best YA books I've ever read, with great romance and great fantasy and a truly disturbing villain.
Dragon Bones (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_1_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dragon+bones+patricia+briggs&x=0&y=0&sprefix=dragon+bones+), which is the first of a duology but is brilliant all on its own, and has some of the best characters I've seen in forever.
And Tinker (http://www.amazon.com/Tinker-Elfhome-Book-Wen-Spencer/dp/0743498712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231040970&sr=1-1), which is on my top-ten booklist, because it has *everything.* Magic, science, math, girl-geniuses, politics, culture, *multiple* alternate dimensions, romance, and most importantly, characters that make mistakes and then pull themselves up by their bootstraps and *fix things.*
Anyway. I don't know if any of these are your cup of tea, but these, along with War for the Oaks (http://www.amazon.com/War-Oaks-Novel-Emma-Bull/dp/0765300346/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231041664&sr=8-1), are the books that I find myself returning to again and again, which is the best recommendation I can make.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-07 12:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-10 09:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-10 09:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-10 09:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-16 10:56 pm (UTC)so you should read: The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy
i'll come up with more later