On Reading, Nooks, Book Reviews, and 2011 Part III

Continuing my short series on reading in 2011: The "Good" Reviews

Best Series: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I know, I know—so predicable. I’m not saying these are the best books I read all year, but they are great YA books. Definitely a bit gory (I don’t recommend them to my seventh graders) but gripping and engrossing. I consumed these books when I read them (I need to read them again, at a slower pace, before the movie comes out), and felt empty and bereft when I was done. The Hunger Games also provides that deliciously edgy dystopian view of the future. Call me a pessimist, but I just love a good dystopian.

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Okay, obviously I have a big appetite for fantasy and sci-fi, based on these reviews. I’m not ashamed to admit it—I can’t get enough of the stuff. I like all genres of books, and I like to pretend I don’t have a favorite…but I do. It’s sci-fi/fantasy (I know, I know—lumping them into one genre is something no true Sci-Fi or Fantasy fan would do, but I have the same regard for them). The Name of the Wind was recommended to me by my friend Jamie via a comment on my blog post about Literary Pet Peeves. Her literary pet peeve was weird names in fantasy novels, and she mentioned the main character’s name in Name of the Wind as an example (Kvothe pronounced “Quothe”)—but said she made allowances for it because the novel was so good.

I purchased the book, but didn’t read it for several months after purchase. When I couldn’t find anything that looked enticing on the library website, I opened up Name of the Wind and couldn’t put it down for three days. It’s another “Boy discovers magical powers and goes to a wizarding school to become a wizard” plot…but it’s so much more. It’s not a children’s book, like Harry Potter, it’s in a completely different world and basically completely different circumstances. Of course there’s an evil antagonist, and of course the protagonist must overcome heartache and hardship to defeat him, but that’s where the similarities stop. (I also read the 2^nd book, and it is less enthralling than the 1^st, but the series as a whole possesses a lot of potential) I’ve enjoyed it far more than Martin’s series, and I do recommend Rothfuss’s wholeheartedly.

Best Romance: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew was recommended by my friend who’s a librarian in the Baltimore County Public Library (and who has to read many books as a part of her job). Usually, I don’t like romance novels because they’re sappy and sentimental and wishy-washy, and yes, I don’t really like reading about romantic relationships when I haven’t any romantic relationship of my own to fall back on. However, every once in a while, a book happens along that is a romance, but it’s well-disguised with another story—and doesn’t leave the reader (namely, myself) feeling sorry for myself.

Major Pettigrew is about a sixty-something English widower who falls in love with the Pakistani widow who runs the convenience store in his village (in contemporary times). He is of the stiff-upper-lip stock of English gentlemen who still believe in good manners and good tea; she is an independent woman who is struggling to know her place in her own culture as a childless-widow. I actually did not know the book would be a romance till they fell in love—that sounds funny, but the book has another plot that covers up the romance subplot effectively. It’s a sweet story of falling in love, of standing up for what one believes in, and of overcoming cultural barriers. Read it with a cup of fine tea.

Runner-Up: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows

Another romance veiled in within a good story. One of my coworkers loaned it to me, and I read it during our staff retreat. I didn’t see this romance coming, either. Partly because I imagined the man in the romance to be an old man, and the woman to be young—apparently they were the appropriate ages. However, The Guernsey Literary focuses on the isle of Guernsey during the German occupation in WWII. It’s in an epistolary style—which I ordinarily do not prefer (although of course, I’m a huge fan of the epistles of the New Testament…) However, it’s done smoothly. The author did an excellent job of capturing the voice of the various letter writers, and that is why it worked so well. I was caught off guard by the romance (and to be honest, found it probably the most unnecessary part of the novel)—however, it doesn’t ruin it, and I really, really liked the book.

Best Non-Fiction: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction [lowers head in shame]. I just love stories, and have always been enticed and fascinated by fiction that I let most of non-fiction go to the wayside. However, I usually enjoy the non-fiction books I read, giving lie to the idea that non-fiction is somehow boring and not as exciting as fiction. But, truth is stranger than fiction, and I often forget that.

The Glass Castle illustrates the above maxim. What a strange (and engrossing) story it is. The main character is the daughter of two highly eccentric (and criminal) parents who drag their children all over the country. The story tells the tale of her family and her parents’ antics, from childhood to escape in adulthood. It’s fascinatingly absurd—my friend Alicia loaned it to me just before our trip to Italy, and I had a hard time putting it down to go see the sites of Rome. Okay, who am I kidding? It was always in my bag—but you know what I mean.

Runners-Up: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen D. Levitt

I do love books about interesting phenomena or strange illnesses or curious happenings. Stuff is about people who hoard—it’s fascinating and disgusting. Freakonomics explores the correlations between seemingly unrelated events—like Roe vs. Wade and a decline in crime rates in the United States.

Best Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My friend Beth brought this book with her when she came to visit Dakar in May. At first, I was skeptical and too-cool-to-read-this-popular book. Yes, I’m one of those people who resist reading popular books, watching popular movies, or listening to popular music simply because it’s popular. Being a snob, I was sure that The Help couldn’t be as good as everyone was saying. Also, I don’t really like southern fiction. I really didn’t want to read The Help. However, it was summer, it was a book, and Beth said it was good. I trust Beth, so I decided to try it.

I’m glad I did. Despite all the hype, it’s an excellent book. I plan to reread it (I just watched the movie, which in turn made me want to reread the book—the sign of a well-adapted movie is if it encourages you to re-read the book). If you don’t know, The Help is the story of a young white woman in Jackson, Mississippi who convinces several black maids to tell their true stories of working in white households. It’s the kind of novel that opens your eyes, makes you think, encourages you to face the truth, offers you redemption, uplifts you, and encourages you—all at once. I was challenged to consider my own perceptions of race, challenged to consider this presentation of life in 1960s, challenged to think about how to be a part of healing the wounds created by racism and prejudice for centuries upon centuries by my ancestors. I often struggle with books about racism because they make me feel guilty for being white, even though I hope I’m not racist, nor am I the one who committed those atrocities. The Help offered a fair perspective on racism in the 60s—reading it, I was appropriately challenged, but also not manipulated into hating myself and my whiteness simply because I was white and not a minority.

The story is well told and the characters well realized. I read a review that compared it with To Kill a Mockingbird—I’m not sure if I’m ready to put it on that pedestal, but I think it is certainly a book that belongs on the same shelf as TKM.

I think I said this in a previous blog post, but I hope you read it in spite of the hoopla surrounding it.

Oh, and since I can’t wait till 2013 for my 2012 book review—if you’re a P.G. Wodehouse, Jasper Fforde or Oscar Wilde fan, check out To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis for a time travel romp through Victorian times, to say nothing of cats, boats, country houses, and dogs.

What books do you recommend for 2012? What do you hope to read? What did you read last year (or ever) that changed you, moved you, challenged you—or simply made you laugh? Throughout this post, I've mentioned the friends who have recommended the books that I've loved--because I think it's really important to recommend books to one another, to talk about what we've read, and to keep the book love flowing. I'm so glad those friends mentioned or loaned those books. Maybe I would have stumbled upon them eventually, but perhaps not.

I have this funny fear of recommending books to my friends and students--in part because I don't want them to dislike me because they didn't like the book I recommended--that's how devoted I am to my reading. Not liking a book that I recommended is not liking a part of me. Yes, of course I need to see a counselor about that, but that's beside the point. I'm giving them a part of myself when I endorse a book, and it matters that they don't like it. On the flip side, I feel terrible when I don't like a book someone recommended. Books are my friends, and I always want my friends to get along with one another. This is my "shout out" of thanks to Beth, Alicia, Tanner, Will, Donna, Mom, Dad, Deb, Jamie, the Sittes, all the middle school girls who loved Twilight enough to make me decide to read it, and the good customers at Amazon who care enough to write reviews about the books I'm interested in reading...Maybe you didn't realize it--but thanks for your suggestions, recommendations, conversations, cryptic commentary (obviously that refers to Will and Tanner), and book loans that made me read the plethora of books I read this year.

This is just to say: do recommend books--to me, you your friends, to your children, your students, your pastor, your husband, your coworkers. It's okay if they don't like it--but maybe, maybe they do like it, and they discover a whole new world in the process. I often find kindred spirits through books--because if I know that so-and-so loved the same book I loved, well, then, he or she can't be so bad, can she? (I was raised on Anne of Green Gables, so of course I think this way).

This concludes my exhaustive (or exhausting) review of books read in 2011. May it inspire you to discover new books, new friends and new worlds.

Happy Reading! (And Happy New Year!)