A Few of My Favorite Things

Every year, I watch as one magazine or newspaper after another picks the "Best Books of..."  And, I always disagree with their choices.  Some are too boring.  I've never heard of some of the titles.  My patrons would never read some of those books.  Where are the books that were just loved for one reason or another? 

Back in July, I posted a list of my favorite books read in 2010.  Four of those books made this final list of my favorite books published or read in 2010.  They have nothing to do with anyone else's lists, just the books I loved this year.   Even though they're my favorite books, the list might give you a few last minute Christmas ideas.  And, since I'm on vacation beginning tomorrow, for the next ten days I'll be reprinting my reviews of these books, with updates as to their status.  (But, don't worry.  I'll still be reading and answering comments.) I may drop a new review in now and then, if I have time to read and post.

My list is topped by Beth Hoffman's Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.   It's hard to believe the book came out in 2010, since I read it in August, 2009 for a Library Journal review.   But, this wonderful story of CeeCee, the young girl with a troubled past, who was taken into the hearts of a wonderful group of women in Savannah, came out in 2010.  It made the New York Times Bestseller List, and it's now out in paperback.  So, if you haven't read it yet, or know someone who loves books set in the South, you might want to pick this one up.

Robin Brande has only written two YA novels, but I loved both of them.  And, I could identify with Fat Cat.  When I reviewed this story of a girl who suffered in school, many of my readers wrote in to tell of their fears in school.  Cat was a science whiz who changed her lifestyle for a project, and to show up the boy who was her best friend until she heard him call her fat.  It's a book that spoke to my heart.

Do you know Barbara O'Neal's books?  O'Neal used to write as Barbara Samuel, and her books under either name are wonderful women's novels.  I hesitated to put her book, The Secret of Everything, on this list, because she has a new book coming out December 21, How to Bake a Perfect Life.  What if I like it even more than The Secret of Everything?  I guess it doesn't really matter.  In The Secret of Everything, a tour guide who had a tragic accident, ends up in a New Mexico town where she finds the secrets of her childhood.

God Never Blinks by Regina Brett makes this list for so many reasons.  This was a book that hit home after Jim died.  It's written by a newspaper columnist who offer 50 lessons for life's little detours.  The book has lessons for life, no matter where you are.  I used memorial money to buy copies of it for all of our libraries, buying it in memory of Jim, because I thought it was so important.  My mother gave a copy to the hospital library.  It's a book for crisis, grief, changes in life, or, as the author says, "life's little detours."

Deborah Coonts' Wanna Get Lucky? makes the list as my favorite debut crime novel of the year.  Suspense, humor, and a little romance.  Perfect.  Lucky O'Toole, the troubleshooter at a Las Vegas casino, has her hands full handling the body that fell from her casino's helicopter, her boss, her unusual mother, and her boyfriend, Teddie.  All in a day's work.  And, if I get lucky, Deborah Coonts will be able to fit a visit to Authors @ The Teague in her February calendar.

My favorite book in an on-going mystery series is Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny, who somehow manages to get better with every book.  Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is on leave in Quebec City in a story that describes that winter setting beautifully.  While he agrees to look into a death, he also investigates the secret of Champlain's missing body and ponders a recent tragic mistake.  Penny manages to juggle three storylines in her latest masterpiece. 

My favorite finale to a series was Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay.  It's the last of the Hunger Games books, and the rebellion against the Capitol has finally happened, with a reluctant Katniss as the symbol of rebellion.  There's no short summary that can do adequate justice to this strong series.  But, it was a series that attracted readers of every age and both sexes.  I turned my copy over to my nephews, seventeen and twenty-five, after I finished it. 

My discovery of the year was Lisa Genova.  When I received her novel, Left Neglected, to read for Library Journal, I also went back to read her book, Still Alice.  One book has to deal with a disorder called Left Neglect.  The other tells the story of a Harvard professor who discovers she has early-onset Alzheimer's.  Genova, with a PhD in neuroscience, uses her scientific background to take readers into the minds and hearts of women suffering from disorders.  These two stories were beautiful, as women triumphed even in tragedy.

                                                     

And, my final favorite of the year was a picture book, one that is not available as an e-book, which gives you a hint.  It's a book that, unfortunately, might represent the past in a few years.  I hope not.  I shared this book with co-workers, family, and loaned it to my sister to take to her workplace.  It's funny, while also being a little scary.  It's Lane Smith's It's a Book. 

I've read 175 books so far this year, but these are my top ten.  Not necessarily ones that top the "Best of" lists, but my favorite books of 2010.   I'm looking forward to 2011, and more book treasures.

                                                                                                                            

Book Club Suggestions

Everyone here knows how much I love to talk about books.  I had a great time yesterday when I had the opportunity to talk to a book club of faculty and staff at a graduate school.  This is a well-traveled group, who likes "good stories that allow you to learn something about a specific culture."  I even had the chance to see their book choices for the last five years.  They asked me to discuss titles for next year for them, recent and forthcoming titles.  I want to thank Talia Sherer at Macmillan, Bobby Brinson at HarperCollins, and Dominique Jenkins at Penguin for suggesting recent and forthcoming books.  And, all of these reps included titles not published by their companies in their suggestions. 

So, here are my suggested titles, keeping this group's interests in mind.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Darrow – Drawn from Darrow’s upbringing, the story of Rachel, daughter of an African American father & a Danish mother, who survives a family tragedy, but has to learn to navigate the complexities of racism.

How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway – The story of a Japanese war bride, her American daughter, and their challenging relationship.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – Nine people waiting for visas for travel to India are trapped in a passport office in the U.S. when an earthquake hits. As they await rescue, each group member tells a story about their lives.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova – A compelling novel of a celebrated Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and struggles to tell her own story.

Saying CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman – Set in the Deep South during the ‘60s as the racial tensions are unfolding, the story of a young girl with a tragic past, taken to Savannah to start a life surrounded by strong women.

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay – A ballerina’s decision to auction her jewelry leads to a mystery that interweaves past and present, Moscow under  Stalin, and contemporary New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world, and the transformative power of art.

The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim – In early twentieth century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, is sent to serve as a companion to the princess, only to see the monarchy crumble after the king’s assassination.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok – Emigrating with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly Chang begins a secret double life as an exceptional schoolgirl during the day, and sweatshop worker at night.

Pearl of China by Anchee Min – In a small Chinese town in the last days of the nineteenth century, young Willow and young Pearl S. Buck, the headstrong daughter of zealous Christian missionaries, bump heads and embark on a friendship that will sustain them through one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez – Four slave women, their masters’ mistresses, meet when the masters vacation at the same summer resort in Ohio, where they see free slaves for the first time, and hear rumors of abolition. In their final summer in Ohio, they all have a decision to make. Will they run?

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson – A set-in-his-ways retired British officer tentatively courts a charming widow of Pakistani descent, leading to tension between the generations and cultures.

Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji – Set in Tehran in 1973, two boys while way their summer hours on the roof, during a summer when the city is explosive. One night, one look from Pasha turns their world upside down, and the fallout changes everyone’s lives.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjani Soli – An American combat photographer during the Vietnam War captures the wrenching chaos of battle, and finds herself torn between the love of two men, one an American war correspondent, and the other his Vietnamese underling.

Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu – Injured by a gas explosion that renders him incapable of speaking Chinese, a Shanghai businessman struggles to communicate using faltering English learned during childhood, and finds his marriage strained.

Forthcoming Books

January

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna – A determined young surgeon of Freetown, Sierra Leone, forges a relationship with a dying patient who’s seen it all. What better setting than a hospital to capture the tragedy of a country rent by civil war?

Little Princes by Conor Grennan – The nonfiction account of Grennan’s volunteer work at a children’s orphanage in Nepal where children had been rescued from a child trafficker, and his attempt to find missing children and their parents.

A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez – The bestselling author of Kabul Beauty School turns to fiction to tell the story of a group of women who come together in a Kabul coffee shop run by an American.

February

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen – A bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany, this debut was voted the best Danish novel of the last 25 years. The bold seafaring epic spans 100 years in the lives of the men and women from a small town on an island off the Danish coast, starting with the war between Germany and Denmark in 1848, and continuing through World War II.

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas – A historical novel set in 1877 in an Ottoman outpost recently overrun by the tsar’s troops. A girl who stows away with her father, who sells carpets, enters the rich, overflowing world of the imperial capital, observing a grand empire heading toward its end.

The Storyteller of Marrakesh by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya – Each year, the storyteller, Hassan, gathers listeners to the city square to share their recollections of a young foreign couple who disappeared years earlier. Are they trying to discover the truth, or weave a myth about a crime?

March

The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb – A young woman travels to Vietnam trying to find out anything about her father’s disappearance there years ago, in a novel that takes a journey into the past for answers, giving us a fictional account of real political upheaval.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda – In a remote Indian village, a woman gives birth to a baby girl, but in a culture that favors sons, she must give her daughter away to save her life, a decision that will haunt her forever. In America, a doctor adopts a little girl from a Mumbai orphanage. The story interweaves the stories of the two mothers, and the child that binds their destinies.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Nonfiction. As the Taliban took over Kabul, and women could no longer work or attend school, the economy shuddered to a halt. To support her family, Kamila Sidiqi began making clothes at home – and soon built up a business that now sustains 100 neighborhood women.

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht – In the war-shattered Balkans, a young doctor searches for her grandfather, who abandoned the entire family at a field hospital.    

And, one for arm-chair travelling – Book Lust to Go by Nancy Pearl – Recommended reading for more than 120 destinations around the world, fiction and nonfiction.

Now, if you read my blog regularly, you also know I seldom read literary fiction.  Since they have read a few mysteries, I added a short list of mysteries I had read.  (And, I told them this is my preferred reading.)

Worldwide Mysteries

Australia – Blood Moon by Garry Disher – The police department in Waterloo, on the Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, have to deal with Schoolies Week, when students who finished their twelfth year exams party in the coastal communities, along with cases of a missing woman, and a beaten chaplain. Disher has won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Australian Crime Novel.

Brazil – Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage – Introducing Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters in the Brazilian Federal Police, in a novel involving landowners and the landless, the state police, the media, street kids, the Catholic Church, and “Brazilian justice.” In other words, a complex, violent novel of Brazilian life. 

Canada – Still Life by Louise Penny – The award-winning traditional mystery that introduced Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Súreté du Quebec, and the charming town of Three Pines, a town that harbors secrets.

England – Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet – The award-winning traditional mystery, featuring Det. Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just, and his assistant Sergeant Fear, is set in an isolated manor, in a snowstorm, with a murder.

South Africa – Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie – After ten years, a private investigator returns home to Johannesburg, South Africa, finding a dangerous city, “the crime capital of the world,” where carjackings are common, and it’s only safe to live behind barriers.

United States – The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson – The first mystery by the award-winning author who excels in character development, beginning with Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyoming. This case involves the murders of young men who received suspended sentences for raping a Cheyenne girl with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Definitely my favorite work day for December!