Booking Through Thursday

Today's Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?

There are a million! Off the top of my head, here are a few favorites:

Harry Potter bu JK Rowling (from England)

Feeling Sorry for Celia: A Novel by Jaclyn Moriarty (from Australia-- I love all of her books)

The Garlic Ballads: A Novel by Mo Yan (from China-- Mo Yan is one of my favorite authors)

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (from Japan-- I like her other books, too)

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene (from France)

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The Year in Review

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to finish the book I'm currently reading (The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy) by midnight (but, well, you never know) so
here are this year's stats, and looking at last year's resolutions and how I did:

Last year's resolutions?
1. Blog at least 5 books a week for a total of 260, or to keep up with my reading habits. FAIL! I blogged 221
2. Read at least 20 nonfiction books. CHECK! I read 32
3. Read at least 50 books from the scary list. (See, this might be a little hard to pull off. We'll see.) FAIL! I read 16
4. Set a silly reading challenge every month. Started to do this, then FAIL!
5. Never have more than 5 pleasure reading materials checked out from the library at a time. I was pretty good at this until I checked out a bunch for the 48 reading challenge and went crazy again. FAIL!
6. Finish reading the rest of Silvey's top 100. FAIL!

Ah well. Here are this year's goals:

1. Blog at least 5 books a week for 260 total, or to keep up with reading habits, whichever is less.
2. Read at least 20 nonfiction books
3. Read at least 50 books from this year's scary list.
4. Never have more than 5 pleasure reading materials checked out from the library at a time.
5. Finish read the rest of Silvey's top 100. (This is only 26 books, 7 of which are picture books. I can do this! Listening totally counts.)
6. Never be more than a year behind on reviewing. I will catch up with 2006 books by the end of January

Anyway, this year's stats...

I read a whopping 251 books (up from last year's 219)

June was the busiest month for me, reading 49 thanks to 2 different read-a-thons and no school. School killed November and December, which were my slowest months with 7 each. (Ok, November was more NaNo than school.)

74 were children's books (based on where my library puts things), down from last year's 82
140 were YA, WAY UP from last year's 80
36 were adult, down from last year's 57
32 nonfiction, about the same as last year's 33
10 were under 100 pages (usually they don't "count" if they're under 100 unless I decide otherwise based on my gut feeling. Or if I'm spending a lot of time with it, such as reviewing or a Cybils book)
17 were graphic novels, down from last year's 32
6 were re-reads, about the same as last year's 8

All in all, a good year in books. Here are some of my favorites:

Favorite new-to-me authors:

Elizabeth Scott
Lenore Look
Meg Cabot

Favorite guilty pleasure series:

The Specialists Shannon Greenland
Twilight Stephenie Meyer

Favorite Fairy Tales with new Twists:

Sunlight and Shadow Cameron Dokey
Fables Vol. 10: The Good PrinceBill Willingham
The Storyteller's Daughter Cameron Dokey
The Night Dance Suzanne Weyn
The Swan Maiden Heather Tomlinson
Book of a Thousand Days Shannon Hale

Favorite Nonfiction

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed Michael Meyer
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food Jennifer 8. Lee
Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud Shuyun Sun
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood Ibtisam Barakat
Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man Oliver August

Favorite Children's Books

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes Peggy Gifford

Favorite YA Books

Paper Towns John Green
Ten Cents a Dance Christine Fletcher
Audrey, Wait! Robin Benway
Girl Overboard Justina Chen Headley
Good Enough Paula Yoo
She's So Money Cherry Cheva
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
Freak Show James St. James
Before I Die Jenny Downham
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale Holly Black
Kimmie66 Aaron Alexovitch

Favorite Adult Books

Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
The Bastard of Istanbul Elif Shafak

Favorite Authors that aren't new to me, but reinforced why I love them

Jaclyn Moriarty
Narinder Dhami

AND! MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2008!

The Storyteller's Daughter Cameron Dokey
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed Michael Meyer
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food Jennifer 8. Lee
Ten Cents a Dance Christine Fletcher
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
Airhead Meg Cabot
Spell Book Of Listen Taylor Jaclyn Moriarty

Best Of!

This is more of a housekeeping post.

First off, somehow I totally left A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage off of my tops favs for 2006 list. I've gone back and added it in.

Anyway, so, the following favorites of last year have already been talked about by me (link goes to review):

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
Lamb: The Gospel According the Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa
Casson Family books by Hilary McKay
Fables series by Bill Willingham
Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Gruene
Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

In Children's (excluding the ones mentioned above):

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Lady Grace Mysteries by Grace Cavendish
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster
Regarding the Sink: Where, Oh Where, Did the Waters Go? by Kate Klise
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan

In YA (excluding the ones mentioned above):

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (along with Second Helpings and Charmed Thirds)
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
King Dork by Frank Portman
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Which means I have 8 to review. Stay tuned!

Best of 2006

Well, here are the tallies and the results of last year! Please not that my "Best of 2006" is of books I read last year, not just books that came out last year.

In 2006, I read 221 books (this only counts books that were at least 100 pages unless it was just shy of 100, but was thick content).

84 were Juvenile, 87 were Young Adult, 50 were Adult.
I owned 19.
17 were banned.
17 were nonfiction.
61 were required reading for work. 44 were also read for work, but I didn't have to read them.
6 were books I was rereading.
12 were off of Anita Silvey's list of 100 best children's books. 3 were classics.

Books that I wanted to shout off rooftops about when done reading (aka, my top picks for 2006):

Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky
As Simple as Snow by Gregory Galloway
Kiki Strike Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime by Jasper Fforde
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christoper Moore
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Honorable mentions: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, Cracking India: A Novel by Bapsi Sidhwa, Casson Family Books by Hilary McKay(Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After), Fables by Bill Willingham (Book 1 is Legends in Exile) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Gruene, Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present by Peter Hessler, Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen, Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore

Best Children's Books:

Obviously, Kiki Strike and the Casson Family as they made best overall.

Top Picks:
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Lady Grace Mysteries Grace Cavendish (actually Patricia Finney, Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler)
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Chasing Vermeer / The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet

Honorable Mentions: Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Regarding the Sink: Where, Oh Where, Did Waters Go? by Kate Klise, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan , The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Best YA: Obviously, Boy Meets Boy, American Born Chinese, Kipling's Choice, Gingerbread, As Simple as Snow, Book Thief

Other Picks:
Sloppy Firsts: A Novel by Megan McCafferty (and sequels)
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
King Dork by Frank Portman
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

Favorite Discoveries:
David Levithan
Shannon Hale
Christopher Moore

Already it's January 5th, and I haven't blogged about 5 books yet this week. Does the review I have in draft count? No? Ah well, I guess I'll aim for 10 next week. We'll see if that actually happens, but I do need to talk about those books I put on my best list that I haven't talked about yet!

magnifique

Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky is worth every once of hype it got earlier this summer when it came out. For those that missed it, this is a translation of the recently discovered manuscript by Nemirovsky. A French Jew, She wrote it in the summer of 1942 and was working on it when she was deported by the occupying Nazi forces. She died shortly thereafter. It was supposed to be a 5-novel Suite and she only finished the first two-- Storm in June and Dolce before she was taken. This edition carries both novels as well as her journal entries for the summer (detailing her plans for the unwritten volumes as well as changes she wanted to make to the previous two, as they are still just drafts.) It also carries her correspondance of the time period (as she tried to get funds after her publisher was barred from paying her royalties because she was Jewish) and that of her husband and various people after she was taken as they were trying to get word on her condition.

But turning to the novels themselves... Storm in June covers the flight from Paris as the Nazi forces approach. Large columns of refugees of different social standings tell their entertwined stories as they travel south. Nemirovsky's cast of characters is huge and their stories are all the same, yet all different as the real lives of Parisian refugees were. Their terror and panic as they travel the countryside is palpable. She follows in Dolce focusing on a French village we met in Storm in June as they deal with the occupation. Some village members oppose the German forces, and some support them. I was amazed at how humanely she treats those who cooperate. Their reasons for doing so are multi-fold and deep and well thought out with no hint of rationalization.

Althought the storeis are entertwined, she avoids the obvious ways she could have intermeshed these lives further, which makes her work all the more wonderful. She paints the citizens of her adopted country (she emigrated to France from Ukraine) and its landscapes and daily life with close attention to detail and a beauty and lushness of language. These drafts of novels are more polished than several books I have read lately.

One can only hope that the success of this book will lead to more translations of her earlier work, as this is an author that deserves more recognition in the English world.

Rainy Hazy Days are made for reading. Not blogging.

Gah. So far behind. Short and Sweet it is folks! Starting with the books I read back in MAY and haven't talked about yet! (Also, I am still reading up a storm. Seriously. I have 65 books checked out right now. Not to mention the ones waiting on my bookshelf!)

A Dirty Job Christopher Moore

Oh my. This has to be the funniest thing I've read since Moore's Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. One day, during a tragic loss, Charlie (the ultimate beta-male) discovers he's Death. Or, one of many little deaths that run around and collect souls when people pass. His toddler daughter can kill with a single word and can't keep a house pet alive until two hell hounds arrive to stay. And there are demons in the sewers trying to take over the world. HYSTERICALLY!!! Because really, there's nothing more funny than a 2 year old screaming "Kitty!" at people and watching them keel over. (Seriously, I loved this book so much that I moved it to the top of this post so it wouldn't get lost in the shuffle)

Caddy Ever After Hilary McKay

This is the latest (and maybe last?!) book in the Casson Series (others were Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, and Permanent Rose). The narrative of this one is a bit different as different sections are told by the four Casson family, instead of focusing on just one child. But the magic and love continue. And my own personal heartbreak, because Caddy discovers that love at first sight exsists. And it is NOT darling Michael. (Horror! I know!) Absolutely lovely and perfect.

Tales of the City and More Tales of the City by Armistad Maupin (well, I read the first in May, the second in June)

This are actually both rereads for me. I read the first three books in this series in high school and loved, loved, loved them. But I never read the next three. I checked them all out from the library and decided to start by rereading the early ones because high school was a long time ago.

These are the stories of an unlikely band of people thrown together by all living at the magical apartment building, 28 Barbury Lane in San Fransisco, plus the other people sucked into their lives. Originally serialized in a newspaper, the chapters are only a few pages long, making for nice reading. They're light, they're breezy, the characters and the trouble they find themselves in are CRAZY. (In that delightful way)

I will say though, these books don't hold the impact they once did for me. I'm told by people who were there that they do paint an extremely accurate portrait of San Fransisco in the 70s. And they are still funny and light and I will be reading the next four!

And now we're totally into the June books!

The Booktalker's Bible: How to Talk About the Books You Love to Any Audience Chapple Langemack

Ok, so this will only appeal to you if you ever have to do Book Talking (where you go and do a little spiel on a book so people will want to read it.) BUT! If you have to do booktalking, this book is GREAT and has lots of examples (seriously, my "to read" list grew a ton while reading this.) I highly recommend for teacher and librarian types.

Refugee Boy Benjamin Zephaniah

Alem is half Ethiopian, half Eritrean. No matter where he is, he's the enemy. His dad takes him on a vacation to England and then leaves in the middle of the night, with a note saying that he must seek asylum. Alem is left adrift in a cold, foreign land and has to navigate the insane system of asylum seeking and immigration. Tragic, well written and a damning (and true) portrait of British immigration.

Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years Sue Townsend

So, JoJo has left Adrian and gone back to Nigeria. Their son is living with Pauline. Pandora has been swept into Parliament with the New Labor landslide. And Adrain has a cooking show for offal (main market: stoned university drop-outs). HILARIOUS.

Ok, that's enough for one day. More to come! I'm still behind.

I do just want to mention that I'm currently finishing up Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky and it is absolutly wonderful and my new favorite book. The hype doesn't even do it justice.

Catching Up-- Fairy Tales

Well... I've been reading a whole heck of a lot and work's been pretty busy lately. So, here's to trying to catch up a bit!!!! I still haven't blogged everything I read in May, let alone so far in June! Plus, I have pages and pages of banned books to tell you about (unfortuneately...)

Anyway... here we go!

The Goose Girl Shannon Hale

You remember how much I loved and adored Princess Academy? This is just as good, if not better. Written for a slightly older audience than Academy, Goose Girl retells the not-as-well-known Grimm fairy tale. Princess Ani of Kildenree is being married off to a far-off prince as part of a diplomatic deal between the two countries. One her way, her handmaid and a faction of her escort overthrow her, instating the handmaid as the princess and forcing Ani to run for her life in the woods. Eventually, she reaches the new kingdom, but is forced into hiding. She must disguise her distinctive blond hair in a country of brunettes and change her name to Isi. She gets a job tending the king's geese as she tries and finds a way to regain her rightful position.

At the same time, she see's the injustice in this new land. She passes herself off as one of the people from the forest, but sees how the forest people are never accepted by the city people and not allowed to become full citizens. Of course, her traitorous guards know she's around and are looking for her...

In the end, in addition to an excellent fairy tale, there are also deep lessons about belonging, justice, inner strength, friendship, and discovering who you are.

More than this though, Hale's prose and her sense of place and location make this book a sheer delight and quickly making her one of my favorite authors.

Enna Burning Shannon Hale

This is a companion book to Goose Girl and is an originial tale, not a retelling. In this book, Ani's friend Enna takes the lead war as Bayern is faced with an invading army. Ani's gift of wind-speak is grown out of control to the point where it overwhelms her. Enna has learned the secret of fire-speak and uses her gift in battle but must live with the consequences of burning people alive. Her gift is also raging out of control with the war far from over, she, and Bayern need help.

This is a powerful followup to Goose Girl and perhaps my favorite of Hale's three works so far. I highly recommend.

Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile Bill Willingham

Ooooo.... a graphic novel series has finally sucked me in, big time. Here is an underground community of Fable-characters who are exiled in modern day New York. Back when it was still New Amsterdam, they fled after their various kingdoms and worlds were taken over by the unknown Adversary. Fabletown is led by Mayor King Cole, but everyone knows that Deputy Mayor Snow White is the real power behind the throne, with sheriff Bigby (Big Bad Wolf) keeping order. In this first book, which is the first 5 comic books bound into one collection,Snow's sister, Rose Red is missing, possibly murdered... fun stuff!

Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm

Rose is paying off her community service debt up at The Farm, where Fabletowns non-human residents live. When Rose gets there, she finds herself embroiled in a communist plot to take over the farm and eventually return to the homelands. With Goldilocks as the communist revolutionary, followed in Orwellian fashion by the three little pigs, there is a battle on...

Fables Vol. 3: Storybook Love

This is great, because we have some stand-alone stories in addition to adding on to the story arc of the previous two books. There's a Civil War Era tale of Jack's, plus the history of how the Liliputians escaped and the origins of their current coming-of-age ritual of trying to steal a piece of magic barley-corn. There is also a non-story arc story in the modern fabletown community where a journalist is onto the Fables... but misreads the evidence. After confronting Bigby with the news that he knows they're all vampires, they come up with a plot involving Sleeping Beauty's special talents...

In the title story, things get down to business as we discover whose side Bluebeard is really on, as well as the return of previous villians. Bigby and Snow are targeted and forced into hiding and the end reveals a big secret that has you *dying* for the next installment!

Fables Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers

This starts with Boy Blue's retelling of the last battle of the Homelands, descibing the battle, and the survivor's guilt faced by those on the last ship that made it to the New York.

This also sets up the main story of the return on Red Riding Hood, who wasn't on the last ship. But is she who she says she is? There's been goblin sightings and even worse, the portal has been reopened and the Advesary's forces have found them. Fabletown is once again battling for their very exsistance, but this time in the heart of fundy New York.

Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons

The early tales in this volume see Bigby's war stories and Cinderella's true nature.

In the main story, we follow a year in the life of Fabletown. Charming wins the election and there's a new adminstration. Beauty and the Beast have a hard time learning the ropes and Charming sees that not all promises can be kept. Snow gives birth relocates to the farm with Rose. Bigby dissappears and the North Wind shows up to give some pointers to his grandchildren. This volume doesn't see the amount of action as the previous ones, but it packs a true emotional punch. Very well done and probably my favorite.

Fables Vol. 6: Homelands

We start with a one-off on where Jack went to, which introduces his own new spin-off series.

In the mean time, we see Fabletown, where Blue has run off with Pinnochio and gone back to the homelands, ready to face down the advesary, whom we finally see and discover. We are also told that so far only the European worlds were taken, but the adversary is expanding, and the Asian and African worlds are set to fall as well...

Which has me really really excited for...Fables: Vol. 7 Arabian Nights (and Days) which comes out a week from today. I can't decide whether to buy it or not, because I've read all the others in the library, but they haven't even ordered it yet, so who knows when we're getting it?!

The Sisters Grimm : The Problem Child Michael Buckley

In this third installment, there is a Jabberwocky lose in Ferryport. We also have the return of a long lost relative and Granny Grimm's reluctance to take on a case, which has Sabrina and Daphne worried. There is an election for Ferryport mayor and we meet the Little Mermaid, the Blue Fairy and Baba Yaga. Puck is gravely injured and it looks like the only way to save him and deal with the Jaberwocky is the vorpal blade... which was destroyed. Sabrina also learns how addictive magic can be and the high price one pays for using it. Very good! I can't wait for the next one!