Books 2012
It's the annual book post, which I've been doing now for seven years! I decided to divvy up the list by month so that I could get some sense of when I'm reading and when I'm not. Not surprisingly, most of the reading happens during vacation. I was, however, surprised that some school months still saw several books, while August was nearly nothing!
January
1. Kitty and the Silver Bullet - Carrie Vaughn
I <3 Kitty the werewolf!
2. Rot and Ruin - Jonathan Maberry
Trading cards of zombie hunters? Hmm.. interesting facet of post-zombie-apocalypse society!
3. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Vaughn
4. Rampant - Diana Peterfreund
Killer, man-eating unicorns! How absurdly wonderful!
February
5. Sand Daughter - Sarah Bryant
Historical fiction found dirt cheap. Meh.
6. Devil's Kiss - Sarwat Chadda
7. Dark Goddess - Chadda
8. Fire - Kristin Cashore
March
9. Graceling - Cashore
Graceling was written first, and Fire is called a "companion novel" to it,
rather than a sequel. I'm kind of glad that I read them in the order that I
did, because then they're in order, temporally.
10. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
I'm always late following the crowd. Devoured in one evening.
11. Catching Fire - Collins
Devoured the very next morning.
12. Mockingjay - Collins
I can't help but think of the lines in TS Elliot's "The Hollow Men" - "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." The end of what was a phenomenal series was just too rushed and I didn't like it.
April
13. Dust and Decay - Maberry
May
14. The Snow Queen's Shadow - Jim Hines
Hee - this was in my basket at Penguicon when Jim Hines walked by, and he was kind
enough to sign it for me right there.
June
15. The Devil's Arithmetic - Jane Yolen
16. Kitty Raises Hell - Vaughn
17. Unnatural Issue - Lackey
I do so like the reinterpretations of fairy tales...
July
18. The Sleeping Beauty - Lackey
Hooray for 500 Kingdoms and clever people foiling "The Tradition"!
19. Kitty's House of Horrors - Vaughn
20. Kitty Goes to War - Vaughn
21. Kitty's Big Trouble - Vaughn
22. Kitty's Greatest Hits - Vaughn
I want more Kitty!
23. Ascendant - Peterfreund
More killer unicorns!
24. Blackout - Mira Grant
August
25. Steel - Vaughn
And now for something completely non-werewolf from Carrie Vaughn - time traveling fencer! I think I'll stick to Kitty, although I DID like her Hugo-nominated short story, Amaryllis.
September
26. The Eleventh Plague - Jeff Hirsch
October
27. The Maze Runner - James Dashner
November
28 The Giver - Lois Lowry
This may be considered one of the granddaddies of the young adult distopia fiction that I so enjoy, but I did NOT enjoy it at all.
29. Fangs of K'aath - Paul Kidd
This was just plain fun - anthropomorphic animal adventures!
30. The Death and Life of the Great American School System - Diane Ravitch
Ravitch was a huge supporter of No Child Left Behind and other school reform movements (charters, standardized testing, etc). She did a complete 180 when she took a hard look at both the data from the original "success stories" and at what was actually happening in schools.
December
31. Fangs of K'aath II - Guardians of Light - Kidd
32. Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar - edited by Lackey
I feel the urge to have a Valdemar binge coming on after reading this and finding my SIX Valdemar CD's hiding in the glovebox!
33. Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Vicki Myron
34. The Mount - Carol Emschwiller
This was just plain weird. Aliens take over Earth and enslave humans to be used as mounts. They ride on the humans' shoulders, and in general, it pretty much was a direct swap of humans with horses.
January
1. Kitty and the Silver Bullet - Carrie Vaughn
I <3 Kitty the werewolf!
2. Rot and Ruin - Jonathan Maberry
Trading cards of zombie hunters? Hmm.. interesting facet of post-zombie-apocalypse society!
3. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Vaughn
4. Rampant - Diana Peterfreund
Killer, man-eating unicorns! How absurdly wonderful!
February
5. Sand Daughter - Sarah Bryant
Historical fiction found dirt cheap. Meh.
6. Devil's Kiss - Sarwat Chadda
7. Dark Goddess - Chadda
8. Fire - Kristin Cashore
March
9. Graceling - Cashore
Graceling was written first, and Fire is called a "companion novel" to it,
rather than a sequel. I'm kind of glad that I read them in the order that I
did, because then they're in order, temporally.
10. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
I'm always late following the crowd. Devoured in one evening.
11. Catching Fire - Collins
Devoured the very next morning.
12. Mockingjay - Collins
I can't help but think of the lines in TS Elliot's "The Hollow Men" - "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." The end of what was a phenomenal series was just too rushed and I didn't like it.
April
13. Dust and Decay - Maberry
May
14. The Snow Queen's Shadow - Jim Hines
Hee - this was in my basket at Penguicon when Jim Hines walked by, and he was kind
enough to sign it for me right there.
June
15. The Devil's Arithmetic - Jane Yolen
16. Kitty Raises Hell - Vaughn
17. Unnatural Issue - Lackey
I do so like the reinterpretations of fairy tales...
July
18. The Sleeping Beauty - Lackey
Hooray for 500 Kingdoms and clever people foiling "The Tradition"!
19. Kitty's House of Horrors - Vaughn
20. Kitty Goes to War - Vaughn
21. Kitty's Big Trouble - Vaughn
22. Kitty's Greatest Hits - Vaughn
I want more Kitty!
23. Ascendant - Peterfreund
More killer unicorns!
24. Blackout - Mira Grant
August
25. Steel - Vaughn
And now for something completely non-werewolf from Carrie Vaughn - time traveling fencer! I think I'll stick to Kitty, although I DID like her Hugo-nominated short story, Amaryllis.
September
26. The Eleventh Plague - Jeff Hirsch
October
27. The Maze Runner - James Dashner
November
28 The Giver - Lois Lowry
This may be considered one of the granddaddies of the young adult distopia fiction that I so enjoy, but I did NOT enjoy it at all.
29. Fangs of K'aath - Paul Kidd
This was just plain fun - anthropomorphic animal adventures!
30. The Death and Life of the Great American School System - Diane Ravitch
Ravitch was a huge supporter of No Child Left Behind and other school reform movements (charters, standardized testing, etc). She did a complete 180 when she took a hard look at both the data from the original "success stories" and at what was actually happening in schools.
December
31. Fangs of K'aath II - Guardians of Light - Kidd
32. Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar - edited by Lackey
I feel the urge to have a Valdemar binge coming on after reading this and finding my SIX Valdemar CD's hiding in the glovebox!
33. Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Vicki Myron
34. The Mount - Carol Emschwiller
This was just plain weird. Aliens take over Earth and enslave humans to be used as mounts. They ride on the humans' shoulders, and in general, it pretty much was a direct swap of humans with horses.