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!

War Through the Generations Reading Challenge

Anna and Serena are hosting a series of very interesting challenges directed at reading books about wars and their impact. The first is a World War II challenge. Participants are asked to commit to reading at least 5 books by the end of 2009. I've always been interested in reading books about World War II and the Holocaust, so I'm hard pressed to resist signing up for this challenge. Given my track record with challenges and the fact that I've already gone overboard joining them, I'll be shooting for the minimum 5 books.

Here's a tentative list...

I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Resistance by Agnes Humbert
Guernica by Dave Boling
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I'm quite excited about this challenge, but, I should mention, even if you're not the challenge joining sort or have already overburdened yourself with challenges for this new year, you should still check out their great WWII Reading List which is a pretty great resource if you happen to be interested in reading some great books from this important time period. Being a total list hound, this may be what drew me in the first place....

The 2009 Pub Challenge

This is the 2009 continuation of the one challenge I successfully completed last year, so I'll be trying to go two for two. The challenge is simply to read 9 books published for the first time in 2009, 5 of which must be fiction, none of which may be YA.

My choices will most likely be taken from this list...

1. The Glister by John Burnside
2. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
3. Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton
4. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips
5. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
6. First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite

The 2009 ARC Reading Challenge

Teddy has brought back the ARC reading challenge which I joined (and failed at!) last year. This year it's an all year event that requires us to list all the ARCs, which are defined as "anything sent from a publisher or author with the expectation that we will review them," in our possession and should we have over 12, we should read and review 12 within the year to meet the requirements of the challenge.

Suffice it to say that I have well over 12, so I will be reading 12 (hopefully *more*!). Here comes the really unpleasant part - the listing of the "ARCs" in my possession.

1. In the Country of Brooklyn by Peter Golenbock
2. The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan Review
3. Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico
4. Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg
5. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
6. The White Mary by Kira Salak
7. Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
8. Apples and Oranges by Marie Brenner
9. The Queen of Sleepy Eye by Patti Hill Review
10. The Glimmer Palace by Beatrice Colin
11. Resistance by Agnes Humbert
12. Guernica by Dave Boling
13. Stalin's Children by Owen Matthews
14. Heavier Than Air by Nona Caspers
15. The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein
16. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister Review
17. The Glister by John Burnside Review
18. The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson
19. The Fireman's Wife by Jack Riggs Review
20. Joker One by Donovan Campbell
21. American Rust by Philipp Meyer
22. The Weight of a Mustard Seed by Wendell Steavenson
23. Something Like Beautiful by Asha Bandele
24. The Lost City of Z by David Grann
25. The Belivers by Zoe Heller
26. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
27. Canvey Island by James Runcie Review
28. Outcasts United by Warren St. John
29. When Skateboards Will Be Free by Said Sayrafiezadeh
30. Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth
31. Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
32. Baby Jesus Pawn Shop by Lucia Orth
33. Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redmption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton Review
34. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See Review
35. Don't Call Me a Crook by Bob Moore Review
36. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
37. The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi
38. First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Browne-Waite Review
39. Stone's Fall by Iain Pears
40. The Blue Notebook by James Levine
41. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
42. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
43. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips Review
44. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
45. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
46. The Texicans by Nina Vida Review
47. The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha
48. The Rapture by Liz Jensen
49. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
50. The Invention of Everything Else by Smantha Hunt
51. Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
52. Family Sentence by Jeanine Cornillot
53. Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown
54. The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper
55. The Information Officer by Mark Mills
56. The Geography of Love by Glenda Burgess

Books Read in 2009

New Year, New List!

January
1. The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan (331)
*2. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (240)
3. I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson (216)

February
4. Canvey Island by James Runcie (300)
*5. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (320)

March
6. The Queen of Sleepy Eye by Patti Hill (388)
7. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (203)
8. The Glister by John Burnside (228)

April
9. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (145)
*10. Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo (291)
11. The China Garden by Liz Berry (284)

May
12. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (309)
13. A Step From Heaven by An Na (156)
*14. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (287)

June
*15. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (374)
16. Lake News by Barbara Delinsky (380)

July
17. In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike (491)
18. Don't Call Me a Crook! by Bob Moore (255)

August
19. Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm (184)
20. The Texicans by Nina Vida (296)
*21. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (272)

September
22. First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite (306)
23. Stardust by Neil Gaiman (248)

October
*24. Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going (183)
25. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (470)
26. The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty (291)
27. Freewill by Chris Lynch (148)
28. The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty (344)

November

29. The Fireman's Wife by Jack Riggs (300)
30. Wild Roses by Deb Caletti (296)
31. Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown (258)
32. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (287)

December

33. In the Country of Brooklyn by Peter Golenbock (663)
34. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (96)
35. Downsiders by Neal Shusterman (244)