I read a lot in the last four months of the year - including some really good YA fiction. Here's the list...
September - 7
- Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book - Lynda Barry
- The Bartender's Tale - Ivan Doig
- The Dog Stars - Peter Heller
- Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan
- The Gallery of Regrettable Food - James Lileks
- My First Kafka: Runaways, Rodents, and Giant Bugs - Matthue Roth
- Carnivores - Aaron Reynolds
- Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick
- Amphigorey Also - Edward Gorey
- Chiggers - Hope Larson
- More Than This - Patrick Ness
- Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants - The Oatmeal
- Everything, Vol. 1: Collected and Uncollected Comics from Around 1978-1982 - Lynda Barry
- Poopy Claws - Gene Ambaum
- Amelia Cole and the Unknown World - Adam P. Knave
- Everything I Need To Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book - Diane E. Muldrow
- Lost and Found: Three by Shaun Tan - Shaun Tan
- Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks - Ken Jennings
- Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas - Jim Ottaviani
- Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod - Brian Kesinger
- Vader's Little Princess - Jeffrey Brown
- Far Far Away - Tom McNeal
- Should You Be Laughing at This? - Hugleikur Dagsson
- Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy - Nathan Hale
- Boxers - Gene Luen Yang
- Saints - Gene Luen Yang
- The Ghost Prison - Joseph Delaney
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan
- It's a Book - Lane Smith
- Farm Anatomy: Curious Parts and Pieces of Country Life - Julia Rothman
- Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
- Grumpy Cat: a Grumpy Book - Grumpy Cat
- Little Fish: A Memoir from a Different Kind of Year - Ramsey Beyer
- Two Boys Kissing - David Levithan
- Concrete Island - J.G. Ballard
- Frankenstein - Rick Walton
- Letting it Go - Miriam Katin
- The Encyclopedia of Early Earth - Isabel Greenberg
- Bad Houses - Sara Ryan
- Mr. Wuffles - David Weisner
- Momentum - Saci Lloyd
- A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
- The Runaway Windmill - John R. Erickson
16 Graphic Novels/Comics
4 Fiction
4 Non-Fiction
10 YA Fiction
1 J Fiction
8 Picture Books
Looks like I went crazy in October and November! I must have been in need of some humor, as I see several of the books I read during this time period were humor. No wonder, with the state of the world what it is!
My favorites of the year are definitely in this batch. If I had to choose one book of the year to recommend to people, it would be The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Very few books that I've read have had such an impact on my attitude about anything. I think the only other book, which I read MANY years ago was Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander (yes, that's his real name). Pollan's description of four very different meals, and they way in which their respective bits ended up on the plate is very interesting and eye-opening. You'll never look at things the same when walking through the grocery store after reading this book! Read it, then find your nearest sources of TRULY grass-fed, naturally raised meat and support them.
The YA fiction in this round was very strong. Each year our library system holds a Mock Printz book discussion event - trying to agree on the best YA book based on literary merit. The event is always fun, and after we pick our "winner" we wait to see if we were even close to what the award committee picks (it's all done very secretly). We have a strong group this year, including these two:
Just read them!
I'm getting a little tired of talking about books, but wanted to finish this wrap-up of my year. Next year I'll do a monthly summary, so I don't have to cram it all into a couple of days.
Happy Reading in 2014!
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