Goldenmoonrose's Best Books of 2012
"This is a story about the color blue…How do you know, when you think blue--when you say blue--that you are talking about the same blue as anyone else? …Blue is beauty, not truth…Blue is glory and power, a wave, a particle, a vibration, a resonance, a spirit, a passion, a memory, a vanity, a metaphor, a dream. Blue is a simile. Blue, she is like a woman."
1. Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
Moore has long been one of my favorite authors, with his brilliant, bizarre tales that somehow manage to hit the very essence of what makes us human. He is America's Douglas Adams of the fantasy genre. Lamb: The Gospel According to Christ's Childhood Pal and Fool are two of my favorite books of all time. So, imagine my delight when I heard of his latest project concerning the impressionists. OK, maybe not as great as a Moore treatment of Shakespeare, but, oh, so damn close.
Imagine, further, my crap-my-pants delight to learn that it wasn't just "about the impressionists", but a hilarious, poignant, fascinating, clever historical fairy tale wherein the color blue is anthropomorphized into the muse and sits as a tour guide for all of art history, and, furthermore, comments (hilariously and brilliantly) on the very nature of art itself.
My copy of the book was FULL of post-its notes.
Christopher Moore's comedic and imaginative genius. Plus the Impressionists. Plus color symbolism. Even better, anthropomorphized color symbolism! META anthropomorphized color symbolism!! Seriously, I almost died of literary ecstasy.
I loved every single page.
"My death. And yes, it does bring me comfort--but not as much as you'd think. Like just knowing a story has a happy ending alone doesn't make it a good story." (After Many Years, 249)
2. Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki!
The premise: There is a machine that will tell you how you will die.
That's it.
The rest is an anthology of stories concerning that premise. The greatest, most brilliant anthology of stories on a theme you've ever consumed.
Again, FULL of post-its.
Every possible way that you could approach this--from self-fulfilling profecy, to great tragedy, to great redemption, from nightmarish distopia, to idyllic paradise, from a commentary on how one lives and how one dies, to Frankenstein's monster--is covered in stunning brilliance in these stories.
Of course, being the lit nerd that I am, I had to love the Greekness of it all. That old Delphic Oracle. That old dramatic irony, all at play in the real world, with real people. Commenting on all that makes us mortal.
And, furthermore, that wonderful, glorious, candy that is meta done well. Done in the best way. Turning human life itself in a short story, into literature, into knowing the end of the story. Does it ruin the story? Does it change the reading? Does it change the readers? Does it change the characters?
Oh, brilliance.
"Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?"
3. A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
Everyone keeps looking for the elusive Harry Potter for Grown-Ups. Besides the fact that Harry Potter is for Grown-Ups, how come no one told me that it was already written, that it was Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series!? Yes, it's Tolkien meets The Godfather, but it's more than great fantasy epic with intriguing politics. This is a huge Dickensian soap opera (meant in the best way possible), that happens to be set in a fantasy-type world. It's the characters. Can't stop reading about this huge cast of characters, consisting of those you love, and those you love to hate, and their insanely complicated storylines. Oh, it's exactly what the fantasy genre should be.
"So long as this country is cursed with slavery, so too will it be cursed with vampires."
4. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahme-Smith
Grahme-Smith always comes up with these ha-ha gotcha clever mash ups.
Oh, funny, Jane Austen with zombies. Lincoln with vampires.
But, see, the thing is, I love them, sure, yeah, on that level, but, always, there's a deeper level.
And it's always two-fold.
There's the symbolic level. Here, that racism in America, in our history, is like a vampire that sucked out the very soul of the people that tried to form a better world.
But, along with that brilliant point, made in clever, hilarious, and entertaining comic book action-hero prose, is the meta commentary on the history genre/field (both historical fiction and historical biographies), in commenting on our American desire to turn historical figures into demagogues, into supernatural non-humans. In dissecting Lincoln by turning him into a comic book hero, Grahme-Smith has given us back the awe and wonder at the brilliant man that he was, a human being that did the impossible in fighting against the greatest, real evil of all: prejudice, slavery and persecution.
"At first I was scared to be alone. No routines. No rules. Just me. But I think… I think I was always in the jungle. Before. It was always there. I think I had to come out here to find the answer…I love myself. They make it so hard for us to love ourselves."
5. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
In both this book and Going Bovine (about a dying boy's hilarious and Dante-esque epic journey into a modern American version of Norse mythology), Bray has established herself as one of the greatest writers for young adults. She's sort of the Christopher Moore for teenagers, having a perfect sense of the poignant absurd.
Beauty Queens is about a plane of teenage beauty contestants that crash on a deserted island. Sort of Miss America meets Lost and Lord of the Flies. Kind of a cool premise. But what makes the novel utterly shine, and even transcend its audience, is how Bray at once shies away from absolutely nothing, wrings everything possible from the premise, and also writes one of the greatest, most refreshing, and true feminist novels of all time. It challenges not just how society and the media define young women, but how they define themselves. There are no clichés, no easy definitions, here. A must read for everyone.
"Our greatest goodness and our worst impulses come out of this missionary zeal, contributing to our overbearing (yet not entirely unwarranted) sense of our country as an inherently helpful force in the world."
"House are amazingly complex repositories. What I found, to my great surprise, is that whatever happens in the world--whatever is discovered or created or bitterly fought over--eventually ends up, in one way or another, in your house… Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up."
6. Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell and At Home by Bill Bryson
Sarah Vowell is my favorite historical writer. She writes as if she actually interviewed the people, actually went and witnessed it all. She writes of them with full criticism, but, also, with a deep love for them as human beings, understanding and never condoning their actions. She, in her history of Hawaii, perfectly captures the duality of America, of our best side and our worst side, our desire to help others and live by our ideals of freedom and equality, and also our utter self-centered and pretentious xenophobia.
Bryson is a very close second, as he lovingly and fascinatingly chronicles the minutiae that makes up human life, and how that always reveals the magnitude of humanity's history and presence on this earth. His history of domestic life, of all the little things we never think about, reveals the entire history of human life across the globe. Brilliant and fascintating.
"It's a fine poem but a deceitful one: We do indeed remember Shakespeare's powerful rhyme, but what do we remember about the person is commemorates? Nothing… (Witness also that when we talk about literature, we do so in the present tense. When we speak of the dead, we are not so kind.)"
"We all fall on the spectrum of behavior somewhere."
7. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
(Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin)
The Fault in Our Stars was the first book of Green's I read. And what a book. A plot that seems clichéd (death, dying, cancer, teenagers, love, reclusive authors), is absolutely transcendent. Hilarious, powerful, and utterly thought-provoking, The Fault in Our Stars is incredibly addictive, deeply refreshing, supremely clever, profoundly deep, delving into the very nature of love, life, death, fate, and art (that is, books) itself. The book is pure poetry, layers of meta diatribes on life and death and art and meaning, with no easy answers or easy abandonment of answers. This is a book for people who think and feel; their age is beside the point. Amazing, brilliant novel that I read in one day and thought about forever. Also, my copy is completely and totally dog-earred to shit. I wanted to eat bits of it.
Mockingbird doesn't just magnificently portray the voice of a child with special needs, but it uses that very voice to describe the most horrific of human experiences: the tragic loss of a loved one, and therefore, with truth and utter beauty, illustrates how disabled all humans are in the face of such horror. Amazing young adult novel that transcends its audience.
Anything But Typical also portrays the voice of a spectrum child, but keeps the focus tightly on the the issues of adolescence, and that teenage desire of acceptance and love. The voice is powerful, wrenching, and ultimately triumphant. Empathetic and resonant.
8. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People (Fictional Character Sketches by various authors)
It's hard to determine which is more fascinating and enjoyable: the beautiful, elusive, enigmatic paintings of the long-forgotten, or the charming, dramatic, humorous, romantic, imaginary, and possible improbable literary sketches they inspired. Both are little snapshots, little slices of human life of long ago, but ever human. Wish this book were about 100 times longer.
"When the Dream ended in a nightmare, the material world lost its credibility and, for a moment in passing time, myth became reality. The Titanic's mystique is therefore a poetic realm, in which her maiden voyage expresses the blind justice of Greek Tragedy and the allegorical warning of the medieval morality play."
9. The Titanic: End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade
I read a Titanic book every year. There are only a few, though, that are truly great. This one, which focuses on the investigations after the sinking, is that. This is the "land's" perspective of the ship and her tragic destiny. Here is the society, culture, philosophy, and people that bore the great ship and her disaster, and mourned her. The ship's greatest hero, the man that lead the investigations, William Alden Smith, not only brought everything we know about the disaster to light, but also created the greatest lasting monument to the horrible tragedy: regulation of the sea and forcing corporations to take responsibility for the lives of the society in which they rule. Brilliant, affecting, fascinating and refreshing book on the disaster that still fascinates us.
"He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe. Which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one. The Creator had a lot of remarkably good ideas when he put the world together, but making it understandable hadn't been one of them."
10. The Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman and Mort by Terry Pratchett
I'm pretty sure that Gaiman has ruined me for all graphic novels.
The story is deeply engaging, but transcends being "just" an exciting, brilliant, and imaginative story due to Gaiman's trademark brilliant storytelling style and his ability to flawlessly and enchantingly weave mythology and fairy tale into creating his own brilliant story. He is a master storyteller, the likes of Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville, authors who also could blur the worlds of dream, reality, and literature. This volume of Sandman made me realize what everyone is raving over.
Always wonderful to read a brilliant book from one of your favorite authors. Mort, the story of Death's apprentice, from Pratchett is just that, just what I always want when I grab a Pratchett. The premise is clever, obviously, but, as always, it's Pratchett's masterful use of the English language and play with the fantasy genre. A comedic story of ridiculous proportions with charming characters, but that seems to run head long, incidentally, into a bit of truth.
Current Music:
The Best of 2012
What Do You Hate by Henry Jackman (from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
The Rampant Hunter by Henry Jackman (from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
Don't You Give Up on Me by Milo Greene
Silent Way by Milo Greene
1957 by Milo Greene