2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Nonfiction for Adults

Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs 0

This one is one of the hardest categories to rank my favorites in. They are all so different! So, once again, I’m going to go with just my gut feelings about each book listed here. They are all wonderful books, for different reasons. In the end, I decided to divide them into Biography, and Everything Else.

Here are my favorite adult nonfiction books that I read in 2011:
Biography:
1. Traveling with Pomegranates, by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
2. Little Princes, by Conor Grennan
3. Radioactive, by Lauren Redniss
4. Sex, Mom, and God, by Frank Schaeffer
5. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
6. Heaven Is For Real, by Todd Burpo

Other Nonfiction:
1. Faith and Will, by Julia Cameron
2. The Gifts of Imperfection, by Brene Brown
3. Naked Spirituality, by Brian McLaren
4. Love Wins, by Rob Bell
5. Mathematics 1001, by Dr. Richard Elwes

I have the reviews for most of these books written, just not posted yet. That will happen all in good time!

Meanwhile, Happy Reading!

2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Children’s Nonfiction

Children's Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs 0

With Children’s Nonfiction books I read in 2011, I had a clear favorite. It’s not one I’ve heard about on book blogs, but when I did hear about it, I immediately ordered a copy and completely loved it. The book is You Can Count on Monsters, which, like my Prime Factorization Sweater, does great stuff visualizing the prime factorization of numbers up to 100. I confess I also like it because it’s somewhat similar to a book I was writing at the time called Colors and Codes that shows how to use Math to make cyphers using colors and patterns. I’ve since finished the book, but am holding onto it while I figure out how to present it to agents or editors. But I was completely delighted that someone had done such a great job presenting a somewhat similar concept. (Not to mention that I find these concepts endlessly fascinating.)

I grant you, I am a math nut, so I don’t necessarily expect to find this book on the top of too many other children’s book lists. But I sure loved it!

Here are my favorite Children’s Nonfiction books read in 2011:

1. You Can Count on Monsters, by Richard Evan Schwartz
2. Me. . . Jane, by Patrick McDonnell
3. Queen of the Falls, by Chris VanAllsburg
4. Drawing from Memory, by Allen Say
5. Amelia Lost, by Candace Fleming
6. All the Way to America, by Dan Yaccarino
7. Sugar Changed the World, by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Happy Reading!

2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Children’s Fiction

Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

Most years, I have a clear favorite category (YA Fantasy), but not this year! This year I had books I totally loved in all the categories, and I’m so thankful I have a precedent of making categories so I don’t have to rank them against each other.

In Children’s Fiction, I didn’t have such a hard time with the ranking, at least the top of the list. Although I adored Okay For Now, and it’s my pick for the Newbery Medal, my definite most-loved and most-enjoyed Children’s book this year was Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George. What can I say? It completely won my heart.

I have to add that Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run had to be included, because it helped convince me NOT to go to the 150th Anniversary and Reenactment of the First Battle of Bull Run, for which I had tickets, on a day when the weather was over 100 degrees and I’d had a headache for three weeks. Since I had a stroke the very next day, I’m absolutely convinced that was a fabulous (possibly life-saving!) decision. Besides, it’s a really fun book!

So here are my favorite Children’s Fiction books that I read in 2011:
1. Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George
2. Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt
3. The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
4. Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis
5. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
6. Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run, by Michael Hemphill and Sam Riddleburger
7. Clementine and the Family Meeting, by Sara Pennypacker

Here are the other lists I’ve posted so far:
Fiction for Grownups
Teen Fiction
Last Year’s Standouts

2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Fiction for Teens

Stand-outs, Teen Fiction Review 0

Young Adult Fiction tends to be my favorite category, particularly the Fantasy books. This year was no different, except that there were some outstanding fantasy books I loved in both the Adult and Children’s categories. I’m glad I’ve set a precedent of separating the categories so I don’t have to rank them against each other! It’s hard enough ranking these. The top three Fantasy novels were books I thoroughly loved. In the end, The Scorpio Races won out for my favorite because it channeled so much little-girl Black Stallion nostalgia. An awesome book!

The most bizarre, most distinctive, most, well sonder, was definitely The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy, and its translation, Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge. But where to rank it? I’m tempted to put it in a category of its own, which it will actually get when I start blogging about reading the German translation (which I intend to do after I get all the Standouts posted, honest).

As with Adult Fiction, I split the books into two categories: Fantasy and Everything Else. Now, a few of these walk close to the line of fantasy, so I went with gutlevel thinking to decide which book goes where.

I really cut down the list of books I wanted to include. Please remember that books I gave a starred review to are books I think are excellent! And ranking my favorites was difficult, and might change on a different day. Remember that this is extremely subjective, and just a measure of how much I personally enjoyed them. All of these are outstanding, memorable, excellent books:

Fantasy for Teens:
1. The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor
3. Chime, by Franny Billingsley
4. Red Glove, by Holly Black
5. The Trouble With Kings, by Sherwood Smith
6. The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud
7. The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy

Other Teen Fiction:

1. Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly
2. Shipbreaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi
3. Page by Paige, by Laura Lee Gulledge
4. Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray
5. Lost and Found, by Shaun Tan

I promise I will get the remaining reviews posted as soon as I possibly can!

Happy Reading!

2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Fiction for Adults

Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

It takes awhile to post a new page of Sonderbooks Standouts, so I’ve decided to blog about one category at a time. I will post the pages and reviews as soon as possible, but for now I can post the lists.

I’m starting with Fiction for Adults, simply because that was my shortest list. I also have more of the books already reviewed and/or posted.

The decisions in ranking were still difficult, though. Two books I read seemed resoundingly, lastingly good, and it’s hard to rank them. The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, is written in lyrical prose and immediately pulls you in. It’s an epic that you can compare to Tolkien with a straight face. However, when I read the sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, although it is still incredibly well-written, I did get annoyed that the story just stopped at a random place and definitely isn’t finished. I also suffered some excessive eye-rolling at the interlude involving the character learning about sex from a woman of faery whose beauty drives ordinary men mad. Though I have to admit, even that part was written expertly and compellingly.

However, another series I read completely captivated me. Even though I would probably give Patrick Rothfuss the prize for outstanding work of fantasy literature (assuming that when he finishes up, he keeps up the quality), with Sonderbooks Standouts, I’m rating how much I enjoyed reading them. So I have to give my first place honor to Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier. Like so many of my favorites, it was a fairy tale retelling, and was so incredibly well done, weaving in Irish History and seeming totally realistic.

I always like to separate Fantasy (my favorites) from the other books I read. So here are two lists of 2011 Sonderbooks Standouts in Fiction for Grown-Ups:

Fantasy:
1. Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier
2. The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
3. Son of the Shadows, by Juliet Marillier
4. The Snow Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
5. Child of the Prophecy, by Juliet Marillier
6. The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

Other Fiction:
1. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
2. Minding Frankie, by Maeve Binchy
3. The Pericles Commission, by Gary Corby
4. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley
5. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, by Alexander McCall Smith

Books Read in 2011

Stand-outs 0

Tonight I finished making my lists from which I’ll choose the 2011 Sonderbooks Standouts. Not counting picture books, I read 132 books in 2011. Also not counting books during the year that I read but decided not to review. I’ve got 35 picture books on my list (only my favorite picture books read), so that will also be a challenge to narrow down.

I really do enjoy looking over a year of great reading. I hope to post the Standouts tomorrow.

Coming Soon: Sonderbooks Standouts 2011

Stand-outs 0

Happy New Year!

What I like to do, ever since New Year’s Day 2001, is use New Year’s Day to post my list of Sonderbooks Stand-outs, my favorite books I read in the previous year.

I always do wait until the year is OVER to decide which books were my favorites, because, the truth is, I always hope to get a lot more books read than I actually do finish.

The list will not be Newbery or Caldecott or Printz predictions. I think I’ll make another post about those in a couple weeks. These are just the books that I, personally, most enjoyed reading this year. They were not all published in 2011, but my rule is that I had to read them in 2011.

Oh, and today the Cybils announce their short lists. These are great reading, but I’m not even going to peek until I’ve chosen my Sonderbooks Stand-outs, because I don’t want to be influenced.

This year, there’s a catch: I’m way behind. I’m way behind on writing reviews, and I’m way behind on posting reviews.

Now, I have a very good excuse. I had a stroke at the end of July, and wasn’t recovering as quickly as I’d hoped. In fact, as of October, I was feeling worse instead of better. But when I went to the ER about it, they told me I hadn’t had another stroke and just sent me home, so I decided to try to ignore it.

However, a few days before Christmas, I saw the neurologist. He was not impressed with my tales of slight dizziness, which I had to admit was nothing at all as bad as when I actually had the stroke. But then he did a neurological exam and found that my eyes aren’t tracking together if I look up and to the right. He said I probably had another stroke, a mini-stroke this time.

So, it seemed perhaps I shouldn’t ignore my symptoms after all. On Tuesday, I noticed at work that now I was seeing double when I looked up and to the left as well. The neurologists’ office said I should go to the ER for that, though they did a CT scan that didn’t show any problems. I had an MRI & MRA done on Thursday and now need to wait for an appointment to go over the results. And on top of everything else, I’m still feeling a persistent low-grade dizziness and am extra tired. And this all happened right in the middle of trying to get Christmas gifts and cards sent.

What it all boils down to is I haven’t been posting much. I’m reading as much as ever — lying around a lot, so of course! But getting the reviews written and posted is harder. I’ve missed a lot of work, and when I do work, I tend to be too tired to do much at home. So I’m getting more and more behind.

I’m afraid that by the time I post the 2011 Sonderbooks Stand-outs, no one will care any longer. But I’m going to do it anyway! (After all, the fun of having your own website is doing it for your own enjoyment.) Here is my plan:

1. I will make my list. I’ll post it, with links to the reviews that are already up.
2. I’ll post the already-written reviews of stand-outs, probably one category at a time.
3. All the while, writing reviews of the books I haven’t reviewed yet.
4. I’ll post the rest of the reviews as I write them.

Some day, maybe I’ll catch up! I’m probably going to be forced to stop reviewing every book I read, but for now I’m going to at least review the 2011 Stand-outs.

I’ll get back to you soon!

Review of Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Daughter of the Forest

by Juliet Marillier

Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy
TOR Fantasy, New York, 2000 554 pages.
Starred Review

A huge thank-you to my sister Marcy, who gave me this book. I began reading it on the first leg of my trip to ALA Annual Conference 2011, read the first two chapters, and actually somehow left it behind between flights. So as soon as I got home, I ordered a replacement. Now I’ve read the second book as a library copy, but I’ve decided to order both the second and third books to have for my own. I am absolutely sure I will want to reread them again some day.

Daughter of the Forest is incredibly well-written. This is one of those books I love, a fairy tale retelling, but it’s done with a tremendous amount of loving detail, creating an intricate tapestry of a book. The story is told in old Ireland, in the time of the Druids, with Christianity just beginning to come. Sorcha and her six brothers are the children of Lord Colum, the powerful chieftain of Sevenwaters. Sorcha runs a little wild, the youngest of so many brothers. She has a bond with her brother Finbar, so they can speak without words.

Then her father and brothers capture and torture a Briton. Finbar, who is different, not so warlike, takes a bold step to help the Briton escape. The Briton is sheltered in the friar’s house. Can Sorcha, learning skills as a healer, help him survive? Will he be even willing to survive?

But her time helping the Briton is interrupted when her father comes home — with a new wife. This wife has a strange power over him. Sorcha and her brothers are uneasy.

And then the fairy tale I recognize begins. The evil stepmother turns all the brothers into swans. The only way Sorcha can restore them is to knit them all shirts out of nettles. But she must not utter even one sound until the work is done.

I never thought about it before, but there is definitely a novel in that tale! Juliet Marillier brings it to us with rich detail. There are some horrible moments, but you will be completely captivated by Sorcha’s tale. She goes from Ireland to Britain. The Fair Folk get involved. And the romantic hero is one of the most wonderful men I have ever encountered in fiction. He’s so loving, so careful to protect Sorcha.

Here’s a taste of Juliet Marillier’s rich prose, in the first chapter, when Finbar has declared he will not join his father’s military campaigns:

“Why do I remember this so well? Perhaps his displeasure with what we were becoming made Father take the choice he did, and so bring about a series of events more terrible than any of us could have imagined. Certainly, he used our well-being as one of his excuses for bringing her to Sevenwaters. That there was no logic in this was beside the point — he must have known in his heart that Finbar and I were made of strong stuff, already shaped in mind and spirit, if not quite grown, and that expecting us to bend to another will was like trying to alter the course of the tide, or to stop the forest from growing. But he was influenced by forces he was unable to understand. My mother would have recognized them. I often wondered, later, how much she knew of our future. The Sight does not always show what a person wants to see, but maybe she had an idea as she bade her children farewell, what a strange and crooked path their feet would follow.”

A truly magnificent tale.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/daughter_of_the_forest.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book given to me by my sister Marcy.

Review of Star Crossed, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Star Crossed

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), 2010. 359 pages.
Starred Review
2010 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 Teen Fantasy Fiction

I so enjoyed Elizabeth Bunce’s first book, A Curse Dark as Gold, when my library didn’t order a copy of Star Crossed as soon as it came out (They do have several copies now.), I ordered myself a copy. I was glad I did, because I’m sure I will read it again, especially since it turns out to be the first book of a series.

The fantasy world of Star Crossed is complicated and complex, but Elizabeth Bunce doesn’t lose the reader or blast us with a data dump. She feeds the information to us gradually and skilfully, stringing us along, making us want to know more. By the time the book is done, you look back at an intricate web of history, magic, relationships, betrayals and loyalties, just wanting to find out what happens next.

The book begins with Digger, a skilled thief, escaping from a heist that has gone bad, trying to escape the Greenmen. Her partner, the man she loves, was captured. Now she needs to get out of the city.

While she’s walking by the river, trying to figure out how to get on a boat and leave the city, she gets a lift with a group of young noblemen and women on a pleasure boat. She pretends to be a lady herself, Celyn Contrare, fleeing from the convent school of the Daughters of Celys.

They take pity on her and get her out of the city. She becomes Merista’s lady’s maid and they go to Meri’s family’s castle to get ready for her kernja-velde. Digger does not have magic herself, but she does have the unusual ability to sense magic, and magic is strong on Meri.

Many guests come to the family’s castle, ending up getting snowed in for the winter. One of them recognizes Digger for the thief she is. He won’t turn her in — as long as she does some stealing for him. Digger gets more and more fond of Meri and her family, but is trapped into spying on them. Can she keep them from getting in trouble? What are they plotting? She finds out more and more secrets that she does not want to reveal.

The intrigue in this book has many layers. There was a historic battle years ago where one side was defeated because of a traitor. There is a missing prince who is out of favor with those in power. There are the Greenmen, vigilant in looking for the forbidden use of magic. There are some surprises in Digger’s background. She gets drawn further and further into the plots until it all erupts into a dramatic, exciting, and satisfying showdown. I found myself immediately rereading the last several chapters, simply to enjoy them again and make sure I saw all the threads weaving beautifully into place.

The best part of the book may have been on the last page: “Digger will return in Liar’s Moon.” I hope I don’t have to wait long!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/starcrossed.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I ordered from Amazon.com.

Review of The Dreamer, by Pam Munoz Ryan

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Dreamer

by Pam Munoz Ryan

drawings by Peter Sis

Scholastic Press, New York, 2010. 372 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #5 Children’s Fiction
2011 Pura Belpre Author Award
2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Honor Book

I loved this book. I had hoped it would be a Newbery Honor Book, but can’t really complain because of the other awards it won. One thing I like about the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award is that they select based on the entire book, words and illustrations together and give the award to both the author and the illustrator, if both contributed to the complete book. In this book, the drawings work beautifully with the text to present a wonderfully poetical story.

This book is a novelization of the childhood of Pablo Neruda, who ended up being a great poet. Pablo Neruda was not his birth name, and we start out the book with a boy named Neftali, whose father thinks he daydreams far too much.

“On a continent of many songs, in a country shaped like the arm of a tall guitarrista, the rain drummed down on the town of Temuco.

“Neftali Reyes sat in his bed, propped up by pillows, and stared at the schoolwork in front of him. His teacher called it simple addition, but it was never simple for him. How he wished the numbers would disappear! He squeezed his eyes closed and then opened them.

“The twos and threes lifted from the page and waved for the others to join them. The fives and sevens sprang upward, and finally, after much prodding, the fours, ones, and sixes came along. But the nines and zeros would not budge, so the others left them. They held hands in a long procession of tiny figures, flew across the room, and escaped through the window crack. Neftali closed the book and smiled.

“He certainly could not be expected to finish his homework with only the lazy zeros and nines lolling on the page.”

Neftali is weak and shy. He stutters. His father is demanding and believes its shameful to spend your time daydreaming or writing.

The style of this book suits the subject. The language is poetical, and inserts some lines from actual poems by Pablo Neruda (with several complete poems at the back). When telling about his daydreams, the text may take on a shape or there may be an imaginative drawing from Peter Sis.

There is a plot, as Neftali learns to be the poet he was born to be, despite his father. But I think daydreamers will most enjoy the languid beauty of this book. It gives a leisurely and lovely look at the imaginative life of a child who notices things. Like me, readers will certainly want to read more of Pablo Neruda’s poetry.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/dreamer.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.