Best books of 2011

The Great or Very good:

1. A Monster Calls
2. Ender’s Game
3. Ship Breaker
4. Chime
5. Between Shades of Gray

A Monster Calls was a moving book that was more affecting than anything else I read this year. The tale of a boy struggling to deal with the impending death of his mother by calling on a fantastical monster to save her was on the top of my list.  Ender’s Game was as good as its been billed and I was glad to finally get to it.  There were so many issues raised like the best scifi always does: can our future be predetermined? at what point is it unethical to follow orders? are child soldiers better because they are easier to control and manipulate? and on and on.  Hopefully, they get the movie right.  Ship Breaker was a great dystopian novel to read at a time when I’ve been tiring of the genre.  It showed me that as long as the focus stays on character and not just plot, even an overused genre can breathe new life.  Chime mixed witches, dystopias, a Victorian/Steampunk setting with remarkable language to create a fully realized world that felt unlike any other world I read about last year.  Finally, Between Shades of Gray illuminated WWII era Lithuania when I thought I knew all I needed or wanted to know about the War and Eastern Europe.  I was wrong.  The incredible and disturbing heartbreak of WW2 certainly was felt in Lithuania as well and I’m glad that I am more aware of it now.

The Good:

1. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour
2. Zombies Vs. Unicorns
3. The Help
4. Future of Us
5. Jasper Jones
6. Ranger’s Apprentice: Kings of Clonmel
7. They Called themselves the KKK
8. Habibi

All these books were enjoyable though I doubt I’ll remember much about them in the future.  Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour was a fun YA road trip novel with some interesting format choices that livened things up a lot (lots of lists, playlists, and maps).  Zombies vs Unicorns was a fun anthology where different YA authors sided with one type of creature by writing a story featuring the creature.  As with any multi author anthology, the results were mixed.  I’d generally side with the zombie stories but there were a few good unicorn tales as well.  The standouts from both sides were, “Bouganvilla” by Carrie Ryan, “The Care and Feeding of Your Killer Baby Unicorn” by Diana Peterfreund, “Princess Prettypants” by Meg Cabot, “The Children of the Revolution” by Maureen Johnson, and “Inoculata” by Scott Westerfeld.  Some of the tales are pretty disturbing, but you can always skip those.  Enjoyed The Help, but much has been said about it, I don’t have much to add.  It was interesting to see my daughter’s reaction to it since her knowledge of the Civil Rights era and segregation in general is developing.  I suspect the book will be fairly important to her long term, which is probably a good thing.  The Future of Us and Jasper Jones were good YA books, but both had some fundamentally unbelievable things going on in them from a character point of view (not the scifi aspects) that lessened their impact.  The graphic novel, Habibi, was years in the making and it looks it.  It tells the story of a young girl forced into slavery in the Middle East somewhere (when and where is hard to discern).  A young boy comes under her care and they escape into the desert and live in an abandoned ship for years.  Eventually they are separated and continue on their separate paths until they reconnect later in life after years of misery.  The artwork is astounding and I would expect nothing less from Craig Thompson.  Unfortunately, the story was a bit long for me and there were some problems with stereotypes concerning some of the Arab characters.  When I heard years ago that Thompson was working on a story set in the Middle East, I knew it was always going to be a tricky path for a Westerner and a graphic novelist / cartoonist to tread.  By and large, it is an interesting tale, told beautifully.  It’s worth looking at just for the artwork.

The Average:

1. Dance With Dragons
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone
3. Berlin Boxing Club
4. Revolver
5. ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun
6. Call of the Wild
7. Blink & Caution
8. Dark tower 7
9. What Ever Happened to Goodbye
10. Ranger’s Apprentice: Halt’s Peril
11. Dead End in Norvelt
12. Beastly

I had high hopes for A Dance with Dragons, but was somewhat disappointed with the slow pace and how little the characters actually advanced.  I think (and hope) that the last two books have been a pivot point for Martin and he will have a clear path forward now to advance his narrative and push us towards the ultimate endgame.  The first three books were SOOO good, it’s hard to see him struggling with these past two.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone started out great.  I was worried that it was a story about angels, but the author took the time to ground the book in character early on.  Karou is an art student in Prague with typical teen problems, save for the demons who raised her.  As we learn more and more about this other world she interacts with, the books gets further and further away from the interesting person Karou starts out as.  By the time we reached the cliffhanger ending signalling another book (or more), I didn’t care much about what was left of Karou and the war with the angels she is about to fight.  The ESPN book was interesting, but not as good as the author’s SNL book from a few years back.  I suspect the world of sports is too sprawling to contain in a narrative made up of interviews.  ESPN sounds like a crazy and interesting place, though problematic for women, particularly in the early years.  I reread Call of the Wild with my son and found it interesting, though probably because of it’s cultural impact rather than the storytelling.  I guess I just don’t care for stories with animal POVs.  Knowing some of London’s background definitely adds to the reading though.  It was fascinating to see what ideas he was trying to write into his story.  I finally finished the Dark Tower series, and while the ending was ambiguous and frustrating, I can see King’s rationale for ending it as he did.  Ultimately, he was telling the archetypal hero and quest tale, and that never ends.  I found it more interesting than satisfying, and I guess that’s worth something.  Most of the YA books in this group were ok, but didn’t really affect me or change me in any way.  That’s ok too.

The Bad

1. Stolen
2. The International Baccalaureate & the School Library

Stolen was a disturbing tale about an abduction of a teenage girl and her falling in love with her captor.  Was it Stockholm syndrome or true love?  Too creepy to think about frankly and I kind of hated every minute of reading it.  The other was a nonfiction book about IB programs and libraries. Had some good lists of books, but it was basic academic nonfiction – repetitive and boring.

My goals for this year are to finish some of the books I’ve started over the past couple years (Cicero, Numerati, Trust Agents, Visit from the Goon Squad and some others).  I’d also like to read some more of the classics the kids are starting to read for school as well as some history, especially Doris Kearns Goodwin’s A Team of Rivals (movie out in December).  Of course, I need to keep up with the YA books too.  We’ll see how I do.   This wasn’t the best year for books for me, but A Monster Calls was extremely good.  I would recommend it anyone looking for a powerful story and who doesn’t mind a sad book.  If you’re on Good Reads, feel free to connect.

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