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!

Tops of 2008: Weekly Geeks 19 and 20

I missed the Weekly Geeks last week, but seeing as its so very closely intertwined with this week's "assignment" I figured it couldn't hurt to just lump them together. Last week, Dewey asked the Weekly Geeks to come up with lists of our favorite books published in 2008. Here's my list (and yes, it is in a particular order) with links to my reviews.

1. Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir
2. Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer
3. The Cactus Eaters by Dan White
4. Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion
5. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

So, that's mine. How about yours? That's right, Weekly Geeks #20 encourages us to encourage our readers, even those who aren't Weekly Geeks (oh, the horror!) to make their own lists of their favorite books from among those published this year. Should you do so, you'll make the ultimate goal, a list of the book blogosphere's top books of 2008 an even better representation of our collective opinions. So, please, make a list of your own and post it on your blog. When you do, leave the URL on the Mr. Linky for Week 19 and let your book bloggerly voice be heard, not to mention, be entered in another one of those spiffy Hachette box of books giveaways that Dewey always seems to have going on. Of course, you can (and probably should!) visit the post for all the finer details. Oh, and if you happened to actually hear about this for the first time here (what, you live in a cave? Cool!) and choose to make a list, please do let Dewey know that I sent you so I'll get more book blogging street cred another entry in the spiffy giveaway.