Would you believe I totally blew off the Leafy Awards last year? This time honored tradition! This thoughtful analysis (ha!)! I know, I have shame over the whole thing, but I just didn't get around to it and didn't get around to it until all the sudden it felt too late, like it would be forced, and there's nothing I hate more than sounding forced.
Happily, it's not a problem this year. Reading everybody else's end of year "best" lists inspired me to great heights, so I've returned from delinquent bloggerdom with the "feature" I like best. There are no fancy pictures, no orchestras, no speeches (unless you count my own), and really no sense, rhyme, or reason. Nonetheless, I bring you the cream of this year's very small crop (let's not talk about that) of reading!
The "If I Believed in Guilty Pleasure Reads, This Would Be One" award:
Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik - Because, you know, it's possible to notice every cheesy flaw a book has and love it anyway.
The "If every non-fiction book was this good, I'd probably read more non-fiction" award:
No Biking In the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene - Because I can count on one hand how many non-fiction books I read this year, and on two fingers the ones that I actually enjoyed. This one I enjoyed more than most of the fiction, it's full of laughs and profundity, too!
The Random.org Best Selection Award
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale - Because sometimes you join Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, but are too lazy to even collect a pool of possible contenders for reading on that day. Then, maybe you wake up on the appointed day frantic with your lack of a plan and flee to Random.org to pick something from the, oh, thousand books you have available/listed in your LibraryThing library. And of all the books it could possibly pick (hello, War and Peace is in there somewhere...yikes!), it produces the perfect page-turning excellent middle grade/YA choice your bookshelf has to offer. Random.org, Leafing Through Life salutes you, and you too, Shannon Hale!
The Kissy, Smoochy Award for the Best Love Scene (Seriously, Megan? Love scenes? I thought you hated those!):
The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman (And you gave the award to a book about, like, a middle-aged historical midwife? Surely, you've come unhinged at last!) - But seriously, I'm not into physical love scenes. They're hard to pull off in a way that is convincing and meaningful (not to mention not cheesy), but I was struck by the one in this book, so much so that I almost wrote about it in my reviews, then chickened out. So, here's to Patricia Harman who made me loved love scenes, if only for a moment.
The Oops Award for the Best Book I Read by Mistake:
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck - ...who is not Robert Newton Peck of A Day No Pigs Would Die fame, but can write a really great book despite that unexpected fact.
The "I Tried the Blog Tour, and I Won" for Unexpected Excellence:
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan - Okay, so I'm not really into the whole book blog tour thing, though I should be. I need a little more structure in my blogging. I accepted this one for review, received it, and started reading it, all the time very worried that I would not like it, a fear the first few chapters did nothing to cure. Much to my shock, Glass Boys became the year's surprise hit and very likely my favorite read of the year. Here's to taking chances once in a while!
The "Where Have You Been All My Life? Oh, on my shelf? All this time?" award for Authorial Awesomeness:
Broken Harbor by Tana French - I loved this book, and I'm told it's not even as good as her other books that have been sitting unloved on my bookshelf for, you know, ever.
And, of course, this year's Dystopian Delight/Amazing Apocalypse (and there always is one, even if I forget to mention it):
White Horse by Alex Adams - A dark story, a fast pace, a Stephen King-esque flavor, and a fierce (formerly ordinary) heroine. Yes, please. And don't forget there are two more books to come, and the world didn't end this December, so there's a chance I could still get to enjoy them!
The Review Made Me Love You Award (Who said second thoughts were always bad?):
We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen - It was okay when I read it. When I started digging into the review, all the things I had only noticed in passing suddenly became that much more profound.
The Self Award for...Myself:
"An award for me?? Oh, you shouldn't have! But, what is it?"
It's the "You Stood The Stand" award!
That's right, Megan, you win the award! Sure, it may have taken you all summer to slurp up those 1100+ pages, but you did it, braving every sniffle and cough that made you think the killer flu had really come and finishing that book you'd meant to finish since high school. Hurrah!
And that's another year of Leafy Awards in the bag, with only a little more talking to myself than is socially acceptable. Hope last year was a great year in reading for you, and that this year is even better!
Showing posts with label Leafy Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leafy Awards. Show all posts
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sunday, January 30, 2011
The 2010 Leafy Awards!
I have bad news for you, people. In their 4th year now, the annual Leafy Awards, resident bull crap awards at Leafing Through Life, are getting a little high and mighty, a little full of themselves even. They suppose that after four years of existence, they can just show up fashionably late, or whenever the heck they feel like. They told me they were thinking of just waiting until February to show their pampered little faces. Fear not, however, I am yanking them down from off of their high horse and forcing them to present themselves now, a mere almost-month after the new year came to pass.
If you haven't been through this with me in one of these past years, you should know that the Leafy Awards, of course, are my way of recapping my reading year in extraordinarily good (and occasionally bad) books. All those many years ago when I started this tradition, I was dead tired of ye olde "Top 10" list and mostly unable to pick just 10, so I cooked up a slew of bogus categories to spotlight any book I very well wanted to. And so it has continued to this very day, with new and different bogus categories to go with all those old and samey categories that have appeared before. No charts, no graphs, no stats, just pure unadulterated texty rambly tangential goodness!
Without further ado or explanation...I present to you the cream of my very small crop....the 2010 Leafy Awards!
The "Can You Believe I Read This (AGAIN)?" Award goes to....
Hamlet by William Shakespeare! (Turns out I forgot to lock the door when when I shut it on Shakespeare after the last page of my AP English exam in high school. Sneakybastard bard snuck back in....and I liked it!)
The Book I Got SO Into I Almost Believed Its Events Were Actually Happening award goes to...
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (How many times can you say that you looked up from a book and were actually disoriented because oh actually you aren't, you know, living through the apocalypse after all? You're just reading a book and making a true statement of that quote in your blog header.)
The Content to Crying in 25 Pages or Less award:
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (20 pages it took this book to have me in tears. That has to be a record or something, right?)
The Total Tears award for most pages spent crying (and liking it) goes to...
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell (All without a single cheap emotional ploy! Brava! And I just loved this book. Loved it. < /gushing >)
Winner of the cheesy "I Laughed, I Cried, I Loved it Award!"):
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (Because, I did, you know, laugh and cry and love it. And a book has to be pretty darn good for me to consider the use of this cheesy sentence. Plus, this book made my dad cry. When does that even happen?)
The thoroughly uncontested Cruelest Cliffhanger award belongs to...
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Resulting in a panicked last minute scramble to add the other two books in the Chaos Walking series to my Christmas list. Fear not, I was not too late, and they were under my Christmas tree! I must know if anything good ever happens to these poor kids...)
The Unforgotten Award:
Complications by Atul Gawande (for being that book from the very beginning of the year that you would totally forget if you hadn't loved it enough to carry that warm fuzzy feeling of book love with you all through the year. Also takes the cake in the Important but Enjoyable Book of the Year category)
The Glorious Bookish Nostalgia Award is a tie between...
Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein (for reminding me of my love for the horror/thriller/mystery reading that defined my high school reading self. Despite how much I really did enjoy this book, it is also the unfortunate winner of the Blogger Fatigue award for wearing out its welcome in the book blogosphere within a month of its re-release.)
and
Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman (for reminding me of my inner middle school reader who loved reading those creepy Fear Street stories by R.L. Stine deep into the night while skulking in the doorless entry to my room reading by the hall light because I was supposed to have been sleeping. The sound of the door at the bottom of the stairs always gave me enough time to sneak back to bed without being caught. Ahh, the good days.)
Winner of The Book Evangelist's Book of the Year award is...
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers by Thomas Mullen (Have I recommended this book to you yet? If not, maybe you should check and see if you have a pulse? I pushed this book in my review, in person both far and wide to my family and people I met at BEA, and then I pulled it out again to foist it upon people during BBAW. Despite my best efforts, though, it still takes this year's top honors in the Criminally Underappreciated category.)
Honorable Mentions because I can't think of appropriately quirky categories:
Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman (The I Secretly Love Books About Prison Award? Um, no. Book That Made Me Love Prisoners award? Ugh, definitely no, but it, uh, did. Honorable mention. Yeah.)
The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian (Best Elderly Narrator award? Ehhhh. Best Book About a Historical Event That Giant Swathes of People Still Aren't Talking About award? Snappy, really rolls of the tongue. Best Book about Genoci...ah hell, Honorable mention!)
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (Because Book I Didn't Realize Was Brilliant Until I Reviewed It 2 Months After the Fact seems like the worst of backhanded compliments - Honorable mention!)
If you haven't been through this with me in one of these past years, you should know that the Leafy Awards, of course, are my way of recapping my reading year in extraordinarily good (and occasionally bad) books. All those many years ago when I started this tradition, I was dead tired of ye olde "Top 10" list and mostly unable to pick just 10, so I cooked up a slew of bogus categories to spotlight any book I very well wanted to. And so it has continued to this very day, with new and different bogus categories to go with all those old and samey categories that have appeared before. No charts, no graphs, no stats, just pure unadulterated texty rambly tangential goodness!
Without further ado or explanation...I present to you the cream of my very small crop....the 2010 Leafy Awards!
The "Can You Believe I Read This (AGAIN)?" Award goes to....
Hamlet by William Shakespeare! (Turns out I forgot to lock the door when when I shut it on Shakespeare after the last page of my AP English exam in high school. Sneaky
The Book I Got SO Into I Almost Believed Its Events Were Actually Happening award goes to...
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (How many times can you say that you looked up from a book and were actually disoriented because oh actually you aren't, you know, living through the apocalypse after all? You're just reading a book and making a true statement of that quote in your blog header.)
The Content to Crying in 25 Pages or Less award:
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (20 pages it took this book to have me in tears. That has to be a record or something, right?)
The Total Tears award for most pages spent crying (and liking it) goes to...
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell (All without a single cheap emotional ploy! Brava! And I just loved this book. Loved it. < /gushing >)
Winner of the cheesy "I Laughed, I Cried, I Loved it Award!"):
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (Because, I did, you know, laugh and cry and love it. And a book has to be pretty darn good for me to consider the use of this cheesy sentence. Plus, this book made my dad cry. When does that even happen?)
The thoroughly uncontested Cruelest Cliffhanger award belongs to...
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Resulting in a panicked last minute scramble to add the other two books in the Chaos Walking series to my Christmas list. Fear not, I was not too late, and they were under my Christmas tree! I must know if anything good ever happens to these poor kids...)
The Unforgotten Award:
Complications by Atul Gawande (for being that book from the very beginning of the year that you would totally forget if you hadn't loved it enough to carry that warm fuzzy feeling of book love with you all through the year. Also takes the cake in the Important but Enjoyable Book of the Year category)
The Glorious Bookish Nostalgia Award is a tie between...
Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein (for reminding me of my love for the horror/thriller/mystery reading that defined my high school reading self. Despite how much I really did enjoy this book, it is also the unfortunate winner of the Blogger Fatigue award for wearing out its welcome in the book blogosphere within a month of its re-release.)
and
Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman (for reminding me of my inner middle school reader who loved reading those creepy Fear Street stories by R.L. Stine deep into the night while skulking in the doorless entry to my room reading by the hall light because I was supposed to have been sleeping. The sound of the door at the bottom of the stairs always gave me enough time to sneak back to bed without being caught. Ahh, the good days.)
Winner of The Book Evangelist's Book of the Year award is...
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers by Thomas Mullen (Have I recommended this book to you yet? If not, maybe you should check and see if you have a pulse? I pushed this book in my review, in person both far and wide to my family and people I met at BEA, and then I pulled it out again to foist it upon people during BBAW. Despite my best efforts, though, it still takes this year's top honors in the Criminally Underappreciated category.)
Honorable Mentions because I can't think of appropriately quirky categories:
Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman (The I Secretly Love Books About Prison Award? Um, no. Book That Made Me Love Prisoners award? Ugh, definitely no, but it, uh, did. Honorable mention. Yeah.)
The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian (Best Elderly Narrator award? Ehhhh. Best Book About a Historical Event That Giant Swathes of People Still Aren't Talking About award? Snappy, really rolls of the tongue. Best Book about Genoci...ah hell, Honorable mention!)
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (Because Book I Didn't Realize Was Brilliant Until I Reviewed It 2 Months After the Fact seems like the worst of backhanded compliments - Honorable mention!)
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The 2009 Leafy Awards!
That's right everyone, it's that time again. For the third time (wow, I've really been at this for three years? You'd think I'd be better at it), it's time for the Leafy Awards celebrating the best (and worst) of the few books I've read this year! As usual, the categories are almost totally bogus because I'm incapable of just writing a straight up top 10 list, and what's the fun in that anyway, right? Now, brought to you from the back of my health insurance policy envelope where I've written them down illegibly (drum roll please!) - the 3rd Annual Leafy Awards!
First, in the category of Most Delicious:
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (Seriously, I could eat this book. Also voted "Most likely to captivate me so much that I read most of it in an uncomfortable wooden kitchen chair instead of putting it down long enough to move to the couch" and "Most Sensual in an Unnaughty Way")
Next up The Best and Only Non-Fiction to Win a Leafy This Year:
Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton (also voted "Most Likely to Make Me Feel Like a Scumbag for Not Forgiving Minor Transgressions of Loved Ones." She mistakenly helped put him in prison for raping her, he forgave her, and now they're friends! What a story!)
Best Debut Novel:
The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (also voted "Characters I'd Most Like to Meet" and "Most Likely to Make a Shameless Evangelist out of Me." If you haven't spotted me somewhere on the internet raving at length about this book, you must not get out too much. Or else I must not.)
Tear Jerker of the Year:
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (I sobbed. On more than one occasion. Also voted "Most Likely to make me scratch my head in confusion over why it took me this long to pick up a Sarah Dessen book," I mean, it's not like everybody isn't talking about her!)
Best Book Nobody's Heard of by a Popular Author
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (Sure, he might have brought you classics like A Town Like Alice and On the Beach but you should really be reading this one.)
Best Book I Loved Before Even Coming Close to Finishing It
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going (Also voted "Most Likely to Make me Gush Shamelessly in the Highest Amount of Blog Posts before Actually Reviewing It")
The RARE and COVETED Book I'm Starting to Think I Should Really Re-read Even Though I Don't Re-Read Books Award goes to...
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (It's literary! It's fantasy! It's intelligent and HEARTFELT and CHARACTER DRIVEN and SETTING DRIVEN and AWESOME! Ahem. Yeah, will somebody just go get me another copy so I can get even more out of it?)
The Dagger Award for Cutting Me Deepest battles a few strong contenders. Emerging victorious is...
The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty (Hurts so good.)
Most Laugh Out Loud Funny:
The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty (The Moriartys have it! Okay, so the book is totally unbelievable - who cares? It's hilarious!)
Most Likely to Cause Deep Depression and Make you Like It
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Seriously, though. How many times did I have to stop and take a breather because McCarthy was twisting his bitterbittersweet postapocalyptic knife in my heart so hard? Ow. This one hurts so good, too.)
Oh, wait, here's one last award. Who's it for? Why, it's for me!
It's the Biggest Accomplishment award, awarded to yours truly for finally finishing the epic tome that is In the Country of Brooklyn by Peter Golenbock after more than a year of non-continuous reading.
And finally...
The Hall of Shame featuring the books I can't believe I bothered finishing.
The Glister by John Burnside (What the heck was this book even about?)
Freewill by Chris Lynch (What the heck was this book even about??)
Canvey Island by James Runcie (Also, unfortunately, getting the nod for "Most Promising Beginning" which made the disappointment that much sharper.)
There you have it! Another year over. Congratulations to the winners and here's to another year of great reading!
First, in the category of Most Delicious:
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (Seriously, I could eat this book. Also voted "Most likely to captivate me so much that I read most of it in an uncomfortable wooden kitchen chair instead of putting it down long enough to move to the couch" and "Most Sensual in an Unnaughty Way")
Next up The Best and Only Non-Fiction to Win a Leafy This Year:
Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton (also voted "Most Likely to Make Me Feel Like a Scumbag for Not Forgiving Minor Transgressions of Loved Ones." She mistakenly helped put him in prison for raping her, he forgave her, and now they're friends! What a story!)
Best Debut Novel:
The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (also voted "Characters I'd Most Like to Meet" and "Most Likely to Make a Shameless Evangelist out of Me." If you haven't spotted me somewhere on the internet raving at length about this book, you must not get out too much. Or else I must not.)
Tear Jerker of the Year:
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (I sobbed. On more than one occasion. Also voted "Most Likely to make me scratch my head in confusion over why it took me this long to pick up a Sarah Dessen book," I mean, it's not like everybody isn't talking about her!)
Best Book Nobody's Heard of by a Popular Author
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (Sure, he might have brought you classics like A Town Like Alice and On the Beach but you should really be reading this one.)
Best Book I Loved Before Even Coming Close to Finishing It
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going (Also voted "Most Likely to Make me Gush Shamelessly in the Highest Amount of Blog Posts before Actually Reviewing It")
The RARE and COVETED Book I'm Starting to Think I Should Really Re-read Even Though I Don't Re-Read Books Award goes to...
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (It's literary! It's fantasy! It's intelligent and HEARTFELT and CHARACTER DRIVEN and SETTING DRIVEN and AWESOME! Ahem. Yeah, will somebody just go get me another copy so I can get even more out of it?)
The Dagger Award for Cutting Me Deepest battles a few strong contenders. Emerging victorious is...
The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty (Hurts so good.)
Most Laugh Out Loud Funny:
The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty (The Moriartys have it! Okay, so the book is totally unbelievable - who cares? It's hilarious!)
Most Likely to Cause Deep Depression and Make you Like It
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Seriously, though. How many times did I have to stop and take a breather because McCarthy was twisting his bitterbittersweet postapocalyptic knife in my heart so hard? Ow. This one hurts so good, too.)
Oh, wait, here's one last award. Who's it for? Why, it's for me!
It's the Biggest Accomplishment award, awarded to yours truly for finally finishing the epic tome that is In the Country of Brooklyn by Peter Golenbock after more than a year of non-continuous reading.
And finally...
The Hall of Shame featuring the books I can't believe I bothered finishing.
The Glister by John Burnside (What the heck was this book even about?)
Freewill by Chris Lynch (What the heck was this book even about??)
Canvey Island by James Runcie (Also, unfortunately, getting the nod for "Most Promising Beginning" which made the disappointment that much sharper.)
There you have it! Another year over. Congratulations to the winners and here's to another year of great reading!
Monday, January 5, 2009
The 2008 Leafy Awards
Come one, come all to the second annual Leafy Awards wherein I make up some bogus categories and bizarre commentary in order to honor every book I found worthy (or unworthy as the case may be) this past year and be entertaining all at once. Now if I weren't the laziest blogger on the Earth (Hello, I'm Megan, and I'm the Laziest Blogger on the Whole EARTH!), I would make a cute little graphic with, you know, a leaf or something on it, to commemorate this tradition and make this post more visually appealing. Instead, I'll consider my great feat in doing this simply being able to spell the word "commemorate" (or did the spell checker do it? You'll never know, will you?). Without further ado, here are the honors. Of the severely feeble 42 books I managed to read this year (hey you, quit pointing and laughing), these are the ones that most grabbed my attention both good and bad.
Surprise Hits
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff (Why, this is a novel in verse. As an admitted loather of all things poetry related, I shouldn't have liked this at all, and yet, it was the first book of the year that I really really liked. And if I'd reprised the category of "Best Tearjerker" this year, it would have won in that category, too.)
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs (Because it's so depressing that no one could very well like it, and yet, it was really good.)
Best Memoir
Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir (Why are you even waiting for my justification? You should be out reading this!)
Best Laugh out Loud Funny Travel Memoirs
The Cactus Eaters by Dan White (What this guy did is just insane...and hilarious!)
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion (A part of me wishes it had been me touring the U.S. in a sweet converted bus, but since I couldn't, this was definitely the next best thing.)
Best Historical Fiction
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (also voted "Most Likely To Make Me Miss Historic Election Coverage" because I couldn't put it down on election night)
Best Pageturner
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (I heart angsty vampire love stories...mmkay? There it is. My secret shame out on the table for all to see. Also voted "Most Likely to Make Me Forget To Christmas Shop/Pay My Bills/Feed the Dog/Get Out of Bed")
Best YA Fiction
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (What a realistic narrator! What a spot on depiction of high school life!)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (What incredible atmosphere! What brilliant plotting! Also voted "Best Book to Distract Me from Being Dreadfully Ill during my much anticipated Long Weekend Off From Work")
Most Unique
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale (It's like a book written by my 9 year old cousin except without being terrible and featuring lots of fart jokes. Oh and he's not British. Really, maybe you should just click on the link and read the review because I'm not quite getting the commentary right here...)
Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer (It's a novel about a musical based on the characters of a novel buying a flat in New York City in a musical in real life...and it's not half so confusing as this sentence! As a matter of fact, it's quite awesome.)
Best Women's Fiction
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton (Because it's a heartwarming sort of story without being too...fluffy. Also voted "Book the Most Women In My Family Read this Year as a direct result of my shameless evangelizing")
Best Re-Read
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Because I've tried to like Dickens, but don't. And yet, I like this book. Enough to read it twice.)
The Christmas Heartwrencher
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (This is a new category born of my unintentional tendency to read a really emotionally grueling yet incredibly awesome book on or very near Christmas Day. Last year it was After You'd Gone. This year, this. Also born of the fact that I find it impossible to categorize but loved it irrationally.)
The Best Story Ever Told Really Poorly
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin (Greg Mortensen seems like about the most awesome guy going with all the very incredible things he is doing with education in Pakistan, and his story is powerful and captivating. However, this book took me nearly an eon to read and was rather...how you say...clunky.)
Most Depressing
(It should be noted that I like depressing books. An unhealthy percentage of the books I read tend toward the depressing. This Leafy is awarded for merciless, unrelenting depression taking place through 90% of the book in question. It should also be noted that both of these books were actually really good.)
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (This book just smacks you in the face again and again with the unbearable cruelty of the Holocaust, but then in the other 10 percent of the book here's this Nazi Party member using his evil for good, so to speak, to save more people than any other one person saved during the Holocaust.)
A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs (You may have noticed this listed under "Surprise hits," too. So depressing it's good.)
Book That Probably Got My Blog the Most Hits
Black Wave by Jean and John Silverwood (Hey, I didn't even really like it, but I guess maybe I owe it a debt of gratitude or some sort of recognition or something. Or whatever.)
The Mehs (AKA Books Everybody Else Loved that I just felt...meh AKA books that put me in the book blogger leper colony)
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan (Great writing, but, uh...not really a mystery. Ooops. My bad.)
Aberrations by Penelope Przekop
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
There it is, everybody! Another year of reading in the books (hah! I didn't even mean to say that!). Onward, to another year of great reading!
Surprise Hits
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff (Why, this is a novel in verse. As an admitted loather of all things poetry related, I shouldn't have liked this at all, and yet, it was the first book of the year that I really really liked. And if I'd reprised the category of "Best Tearjerker" this year, it would have won in that category, too.)
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs (Because it's so depressing that no one could very well like it, and yet, it was really good.)
Best Memoir
Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir (Why are you even waiting for my justification? You should be out reading this!)
Best Laugh out Loud Funny Travel Memoirs
The Cactus Eaters by Dan White (What this guy did is just insane...and hilarious!)
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion (A part of me wishes it had been me touring the U.S. in a sweet converted bus, but since I couldn't, this was definitely the next best thing.)
Best Historical Fiction
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (also voted "Most Likely To Make Me Miss Historic Election Coverage" because I couldn't put it down on election night)
Best Pageturner
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (I heart angsty vampire love stories...mmkay? There it is. My secret shame out on the table for all to see. Also voted "Most Likely to Make Me Forget To Christmas Shop/Pay My Bills/Feed the Dog/Get Out of Bed")
Best YA Fiction
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (What a realistic narrator! What a spot on depiction of high school life!)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (What incredible atmosphere! What brilliant plotting! Also voted "Best Book to Distract Me from Being Dreadfully Ill during my much anticipated Long Weekend Off From Work")
Most Unique
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale (It's like a book written by my 9 year old cousin except without being terrible and featuring lots of fart jokes. Oh and he's not British. Really, maybe you should just click on the link and read the review because I'm not quite getting the commentary right here...)
Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer (It's a novel about a musical based on the characters of a novel buying a flat in New York City in a musical in real life...and it's not half so confusing as this sentence! As a matter of fact, it's quite awesome.)
Best Women's Fiction
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton (Because it's a heartwarming sort of story without being too...fluffy. Also voted "Book the Most Women In My Family Read this Year as a direct result of my shameless evangelizing")
Best Re-Read
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Because I've tried to like Dickens, but don't. And yet, I like this book. Enough to read it twice.)
The Christmas Heartwrencher
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (This is a new category born of my unintentional tendency to read a really emotionally grueling yet incredibly awesome book on or very near Christmas Day. Last year it was After You'd Gone. This year, this. Also born of the fact that I find it impossible to categorize but loved it irrationally.)
The Best Story Ever Told Really Poorly
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin (Greg Mortensen seems like about the most awesome guy going with all the very incredible things he is doing with education in Pakistan, and his story is powerful and captivating. However, this book took me nearly an eon to read and was rather...how you say...clunky.)
Most Depressing
(It should be noted that I like depressing books. An unhealthy percentage of the books I read tend toward the depressing. This Leafy is awarded for merciless, unrelenting depression taking place through 90% of the book in question. It should also be noted that both of these books were actually really good.)
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (This book just smacks you in the face again and again with the unbearable cruelty of the Holocaust, but then in the other 10 percent of the book here's this Nazi Party member using his evil for good, so to speak, to save more people than any other one person saved during the Holocaust.)
A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs (You may have noticed this listed under "Surprise hits," too. So depressing it's good.)
Book That Probably Got My Blog the Most Hits
Black Wave by Jean and John Silverwood (Hey, I didn't even really like it, but I guess maybe I owe it a debt of gratitude or some sort of recognition or something. Or whatever.)
The Mehs (AKA Books Everybody Else Loved that I just felt...meh AKA books that put me in the book blogger leper colony)
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan (Great writing, but, uh...not really a mystery. Ooops. My bad.)
Aberrations by Penelope Przekop
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
There it is, everybody! Another year of reading in the books (hah! I didn't even mean to say that!). Onward, to another year of great reading!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Best of 2007
Wow, I read a lot of really great books this year, but I've already beat the "best of" list thing to death, so I've decided to go the awards route. What better way to honor more good reads without having to make any more decisions than absolutely necessary?
And now, without further ado, I present to you in no particular order and with no set categories 2007's Leafy Awards!
(For the record, my name on LibraryThing is yourotherleft since the permalinks to my reviews seem to be rejecting me for some reason.)
The Good...
Best Fiction That I Read at the Beginning of the Year that Has Stuck With Me
Black & White by Dani Shapiro
Best General Non-Fiction
There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene (for so skillfully combining a heartwarming story with a well-researched expose of big African problems)
Best Memoir
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett (for honoring a real friendship with all its highs and lows honestly)
Best Historical Fiction
Small Island by Andrea Levy (for capturing four voices distinctly and bringing each of their experiences to life)
Best Young Adult
Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger (for capturing the "I'm a normal guy" narrator)
Best Historical Fiction written for Young Adults
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (for creating a brilliant narrator and successfully keeping the narrative in character and in the time period)
Best Re-Read
The Reluctant God by Pamela F. Service (Because if you're a big history nerd like me, you'd sure like the events of this book to be possible...as long as nobody got hurt...too badly)
Most Powerful Descriptions
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (Because I could taste the strawberries, feel the snow in the air, sense the start of the rainstorm. Wow.)
Best Pageturners
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz (Dear old Dean makes a recovery from his overuse of the wildly awkward metaphor!)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (well, obviously)
Shout Down the Moon by Lisa Turner (a new author for me, I devoured this book)
Best Tearjerkers (and this is quite an honor considering how few books actually make me shed tears)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Come on, I've "known" these characters for seven books...who can help but cry at some of the stuff in here?)
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell (For achieving that same aim in six fewer books)
Best Love Story in a book not categorized as "romance" in your local book store
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers (also taking the more obscure categories of "Best Use of Art" and "Engaging Use of a Biblical Passage")
Surprise Hits
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty (for being a book that I didn't like when I read it, but found that I couldn't stop thinking about)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Cbosky (because it's written in letters, and I usually hate that, but I loved this!)
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot (because it takes an extra-special touch to help me forget I'm reading chick lit and actually enjoy it)
Most Likely to Help Me Start Liking Short Stories
The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day (And they are interconnected, which I like...a lot)
Best Use of Animals
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (This could also fall under "best stunningly realistic account of living in a nursing home by a nursing home resident")
Best Depiction of People of Irish or Scottish Descent living in Canada
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod (So different yet so much the same in their new land)
Away by Jane Urquhart (Both these books were beautifully written...this one gets some awesome points for its nifty mystical qualities and for *gasp* actually managing to include a little humor to lighten the mood of the typically depressing Irish immigrant story)
And the Not So Good...
Most Depressing
The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens (Wherein the writing was good, but I had to put it down every page or so because it seemed like absolutely nothing good ever happened to the poor narrator...unfortunately, may also take "Most Realistic Depiction of the Irish Immigrant Experience")
Biggest Disappointment
When Madeleine Was Young by Jane Hamilton (So, I felt like a victim of false advertising. Maybe I would have liked it had it been about what it was supposed to be about or described on the cover as what it actually was.)
The Notable DNFs (did not finish)
The Alienist by Caleb Carr (I just kept waiting to get excited about what was happening...and waiting, and waiting, and waiting)
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali (I just kept waiting for it to start seeming like maybe it had a plot of some sort...before it did, the nastiest description of something unpleasant won this a place in the DNF pile)
Well, that's all for this year. Hope you had a great year of reading, too! Here's to many more!
And now, without further ado, I present to you in no particular order and with no set categories 2007's Leafy Awards!
(For the record, my name on LibraryThing is yourotherleft since the permalinks to my reviews seem to be rejecting me for some reason.)
The Good...
Best Fiction That I Read at the Beginning of the Year that Has Stuck With Me
Black & White by Dani Shapiro
Best General Non-Fiction
There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene (for so skillfully combining a heartwarming story with a well-researched expose of big African problems)
Best Memoir
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett (for honoring a real friendship with all its highs and lows honestly)
Best Historical Fiction
Small Island by Andrea Levy (for capturing four voices distinctly and bringing each of their experiences to life)
Best Young Adult
Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger (for capturing the "I'm a normal guy" narrator)
Best Historical Fiction written for Young Adults
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (for creating a brilliant narrator and successfully keeping the narrative in character and in the time period)
Best Re-Read
The Reluctant God by Pamela F. Service (Because if you're a big history nerd like me, you'd sure like the events of this book to be possible...as long as nobody got hurt...too badly)
Most Powerful Descriptions
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (Because I could taste the strawberries, feel the snow in the air, sense the start of the rainstorm. Wow.)
Best Pageturners
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz (Dear old Dean makes a recovery from his overuse of the wildly awkward metaphor!)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (well, obviously)
Shout Down the Moon by Lisa Turner (a new author for me, I devoured this book)
Best Tearjerkers (and this is quite an honor considering how few books actually make me shed tears)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Come on, I've "known" these characters for seven books...who can help but cry at some of the stuff in here?)
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell (For achieving that same aim in six fewer books)
Best Love Story in a book not categorized as "romance" in your local book store
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers (also taking the more obscure categories of "Best Use of Art" and "Engaging Use of a Biblical Passage")
Surprise Hits
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty (for being a book that I didn't like when I read it, but found that I couldn't stop thinking about)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Cbosky (because it's written in letters, and I usually hate that, but I loved this!)
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot (because it takes an extra-special touch to help me forget I'm reading chick lit and actually enjoy it)
Most Likely to Help Me Start Liking Short Stories
The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day (And they are interconnected, which I like...a lot)
Best Use of Animals
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (This could also fall under "best stunningly realistic account of living in a nursing home by a nursing home resident")
Best Depiction of People of Irish or Scottish Descent living in Canada
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod (So different yet so much the same in their new land)
Away by Jane Urquhart (Both these books were beautifully written...this one gets some awesome points for its nifty mystical qualities and for *gasp* actually managing to include a little humor to lighten the mood of the typically depressing Irish immigrant story)
And the Not So Good...
Most Depressing
The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens (Wherein the writing was good, but I had to put it down every page or so because it seemed like absolutely nothing good ever happened to the poor narrator...unfortunately, may also take "Most Realistic Depiction of the Irish Immigrant Experience")
Biggest Disappointment
When Madeleine Was Young by Jane Hamilton (So, I felt like a victim of false advertising. Maybe I would have liked it had it been about what it was supposed to be about or described on the cover as what it actually was.)
The Notable DNFs (did not finish)
The Alienist by Caleb Carr (I just kept waiting to get excited about what was happening...and waiting, and waiting, and waiting)
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali (I just kept waiting for it to start seeming like maybe it had a plot of some sort...before it did, the nastiest description of something unpleasant won this a place in the DNF pile)
Well, that's all for this year. Hope you had a great year of reading, too! Here's to many more!
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