2012 Readings
And it's not the end of the year yet but I've exceeded my reading goal and I am super way proud of myself.
53. The Emperor's Edge, Lindsay Buroker. Okay, so the main character is Amaranthe. As ridiculous as the name is, the woman is freaking awesome and smart and takes care of her own problems, thank you very much. And she assembles this crack(pot) team and whips them into shape and supervises the heck out of them until they are each singing her tune before they know it. And I look forward to continuing the series, but I am firm in my belief that she deserves better than some surly dude named Sicarius.
52. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow. I don't really get Doctorow. His stuff always feels kind of.... off and just fails to click for me. But this was available on Daily Lit, which everyone should look up because it's an awesome way to inject some reading into your day!
51. The Serpent's Shadow, Rick Riordan. The concluding adventures of Carter and Sadie.
50. The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan. Further adventures of Carter and Sadie.
49. Free Will, Sam Harris. I don't know why I read this. I didn't bring anything away from it at all.
48. The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta. Kind of slice-of-life, I guess? Kinda not exactly what I was hoping. Didn't suck. But wasn't satisfying.
47. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson. Similar to Erik Larson or that book further down The Killer of Little Shepherds, although less true crime than that. I do like reading books about smart people figuring shit out.
46. Kraken, China Mieville. Guys, China Mieville rocks my brain. I love it. I was totally not sold on this book for quite a while. And then suddenly there was a BAM moment and I was all "Bwuuuuh?!" and then started grinning because it was unexpected and rocking and yeah. And there were a couple more moments like that and everything onward was amazing and yeah. Fuck yeah.
45. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell. I wanted to read it before watching the movie, and I liked it so much, now I don't want to watch the movie for fear it will mess things up. But Bae Doo Na! Ugh, I like her so muuuuuuuch.
44. The Enchanted Castle, E. Nesbit. Adventuresome kids! Practical and inventive! And adventuresome and mostly fearless, but fully capable of keeping their shit together when they do get scared!
43. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns), Mindy Kaling. Mindy Kaling, I straight up adore you.
42. The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan. I like Carter. He's a clever kid with his head on straight. I am not so sure about Sadie, but I hold out hope. Also, Bast is quite the kickass lady and it is a shame she is a sidekick in the story--she needs a story to be heroine in all her own.
41. Stockings and Cellulite, Debbie Viggiano. Oh god, terrible. Just awful.
40. The Killer of Little Shepherds: a true crime story and the birth of forensic science, Douglas Starr. I generally don't like true crime stories. But true crime stories with history and science! Those might be okay.
39. Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson. Kinda similar to World War Z, but more along the lines of what I'd expected and secretly wished WWZ could have been.
38. The Years of Salt and Rice, Kim Stanley Robinson. This was not the book I expected it to be. What it was, though, was epic.
37. Into the Darkness, Barbara Michaels.
36. Walker in the Shadows, Barbara Michaels. Haaaaaa, Barbara Michaels. Hers was among the first "grown up" "romances" I read when I was younger. These two, for whatever reason, remain my favorites.
35. Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed. Now these were some magnetic characters. I may not have particularly liked each of them, but I thoroughly appreciated how cleanly and clearly they were drawn out for me in their words and actions. Well-crafted story, too, plotted and paced out nicely, with enough attention to background events to keep things rolling along in aspects other than just the overarching plot. Really nicely done.
34. Fed, Mira Grant. A little alternate ending to Feed, which I am totally counting because it was just as traumatic an ending as the first one and I deserve it.
33. Spirit Thief, Rachel Aaron. Over a hundred pages in and this book was boring me to tears. There isn't nearly enough work done to explain the various characters or their motivations, not even any hints laid. I was left guessing even on the most basic things--like a barebones idea of personalities! I was intrigued enough by the magic of this setting, but it was barely enough to keep me plowing through. The last scenes helped it scrape through without sinking lower in my sights, and actually got me curious enough to consider seeking out the sequel. But remains to be seen if I can bring myself to actively do so.
32. Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore. BITTERBLUE IS MY FAVORITE. She's so much more normal than the other ladies below, and her childhood was so fucked up, and she's trying so hard to cope with that, while also trying to reason through all the problems she's encountering, and trying to grow up really fast to be a good leader for her people, and trying to be emotionally strong and wise to also help her people and she's just fantastic. Also, Giddon is a lot more grown up than when we last saw him and what a solid guy he is. Yeah, I totally ship them.
31. Fire, Kristin Cashore. FIRE. Just as kickass as Katsa, and with Katniss theirs is going to be the badassiest fucking club in town. Recognize.
30. Graceling, Kristin Cashore. KATSA. Almost as kickass as Katniss. They should form a club. Also, I want a Po of my very own.
29. Thief's Covenant, Ari Marmell. Liked it well enough to go ahead and get the sequel, which I then ruined by skipping through, only to squeal in delight, which was soon enough followed by a squeal of horror and now I think I'll never actually read it and my impression of this first book is forever tainted with that.
28. On Beauty, Zadie Smith. Oh Zadie Smith. No words suffice.
27. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch. A hundred times better than The Way of the Shadow.
26. The Way of the Shadow, Brent Weeks. A review said something like "If you find this halfway decent, give The Lies of Locke Lamora a try. It's a hundred times better." They were right.
25. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey. A quiet and peaceful, introspective little thing.
24. Peaceweaver, Rebecca Barnhouse. Pretty fun! Spunky, resourceful main character, interesting assembly of supporting characters. The ending, regrettably, felt incredibly rushed and slapdash and kind of left a bad impression. But overall, hugely enjoyable.
23. The Killing Moon, N. K. Jemisin. This was not an enveloping read. I really kind of struggled with it. I really liked the main characters, except that I felt like they somehow hit a wall about halfway through the story and didn't really progress beyond that point.
22. Between the Lines, Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer. Meh. And it just went on and on and on and good grief, teenagers.
21. The Native Star, M.K. Hobson. Surprisingly good, considering it was something of a very random purchase!
20. Blameless, Gail Carriger. The series continues. It's on the verge of growing tiresome, but I feel like I need to see it through.
19. The Lost City of Z, David Grann. FASCINATING. Makes me want to go adventuring. And yet, not. Perhaps just armchair adventuring will suffice. Because, plants that make your fingernails melt off if you brush against them, maggots infesting joints and also brain-eating parasites. (Damn, nature, you scary.)
18. Blackout, Mira Grant. Apparently there is another book following this one in the series? I think I am bowing out. The storyline I was most invested in resolved itself pretty satisfactorily, and that's good enough for me.
17. Forever, Now, series, by harriet_vane Darling, darling kidfic.
16. Deadline, Mira Grant. This was rough. Not like, bad-rough, but emotionally rough. It deals with loss a lot, in its way. But there was hope, and I powered through and then OMGWHATYAYWHATOMG.
15. Changeless, Gail Carriger. This one left an iffy-bad taste in my mouth. Like, I'm just not sure these were the characters I thought they were and maybe I shouldn't like them much after all?
The thing about Crusie, though, is that a lot of her stories, good enough that they are, kind of blur and swirl together and get all faded into one another in my head. Except for Agnes and the Hitman. That one stands alone.
14. Charlie All Night, Jennifer Crusie.
13. What the Lady Wants, Jennifer Crusie.
12. Strange Bedpersons, Jennifer Crusie.
11. Getting Rid of Bradley, Jennifer Crusie.
^^^^ And then I bought a Jennifer Crusie bundle on B&N and it was totally worth the $10.
10. Bossypants, Tina Fey. Tina Fey is an astute, sharp, funny lady.
09. A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter. Anybody else read this way back in the way back days? And then grow up with only the vaguest glimmering impressions of it and longing to remember what it was to reread it? Yeah, IT'S THIS ONE. And it's even better at 31 than it was at 13.
08. Devil in the White City, Erik Larson. Larson weaves a damn good telling. Will be seeking out others of his.
07. Clementine, Cherie Priest. Disappointing! I went straight into it form Boneshaker because I wanted to know more about those characters I got so attached to, and except for one man (one dashing man!) NONE OF THEM EVEN SHOWED UP.
06. Boneshaker, Cherie Priest. Adventuresome and touching and fun and I love alllll the characters and want to know more about them NOW.
05. Feed, Mira Grant. So good! The truth is out there and all! And zombies and fighting and corrupt Bible-thumping politicians! Woohoo! AND THEN SO DEPRESSING OH MY GOD. I am never reading another book ever. They just break your heart.
04. The Stepsister Scheme, Jim C. Hines. Almost fun, but too clumsy and ham-fisted. And... kinda skeevy? I have no solid details to point at to support that, I just couldn't shake the feeling.
03. Un Lun Dun, China Mieville. Yeah, this was pretty super great. You guys, it's like a literary version of Spirited Away. How up my alley is THAT? A lot, that's how much.
02. Soulless, Gail Carriger. Nothing strenuous in this one, absolutely no heavy lifting.
01. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis. This was not Connie Willis at her strongest. It was a decent enough read, but afterwards I felt like I needed to cleanse my palate with Bellflower.
Favorites roundup:
Un Lun Dun
The Feed series
Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue (Secret: Bitterblue is the besssssssst.)
Kraken
Aaaaand possibly The Emperor's Edge, although I'm reserving judgment until I see how more of the series progresses.
Up for next year: more non-fiction! Or at the very least, smarter fiction!
53. The Emperor's Edge, Lindsay Buroker. Okay, so the main character is Amaranthe. As ridiculous as the name is, the woman is freaking awesome and smart and takes care of her own problems, thank you very much. And she assembles this crack(pot) team and whips them into shape and supervises the heck out of them until they are each singing her tune before they know it. And I look forward to continuing the series, but I am firm in my belief that she deserves better than some surly dude named Sicarius.
52. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow. I don't really get Doctorow. His stuff always feels kind of.... off and just fails to click for me. But this was available on Daily Lit, which everyone should look up because it's an awesome way to inject some reading into your day!
51. The Serpent's Shadow, Rick Riordan. The concluding adventures of Carter and Sadie.
50. The Throne of Fire, Rick Riordan. Further adventures of Carter and Sadie.
49. Free Will, Sam Harris. I don't know why I read this. I didn't bring anything away from it at all.
48. The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta. Kind of slice-of-life, I guess? Kinda not exactly what I was hoping. Didn't suck. But wasn't satisfying.
47. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson. Similar to Erik Larson or that book further down The Killer of Little Shepherds, although less true crime than that. I do like reading books about smart people figuring shit out.
46. Kraken, China Mieville. Guys, China Mieville rocks my brain. I love it. I was totally not sold on this book for quite a while. And then suddenly there was a BAM moment and I was all "Bwuuuuh?!" and then started grinning because it was unexpected and rocking and yeah. And there were a couple more moments like that and everything onward was amazing and yeah. Fuck yeah.
45. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell. I wanted to read it before watching the movie, and I liked it so much, now I don't want to watch the movie for fear it will mess things up. But Bae Doo Na! Ugh, I like her so muuuuuuuch.
44. The Enchanted Castle, E. Nesbit. Adventuresome kids! Practical and inventive! And adventuresome and mostly fearless, but fully capable of keeping their shit together when they do get scared!
43. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns), Mindy Kaling. Mindy Kaling, I straight up adore you.
42. The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan. I like Carter. He's a clever kid with his head on straight. I am not so sure about Sadie, but I hold out hope. Also, Bast is quite the kickass lady and it is a shame she is a sidekick in the story--she needs a story to be heroine in all her own.
41. Stockings and Cellulite, Debbie Viggiano. Oh god, terrible. Just awful.
40. The Killer of Little Shepherds: a true crime story and the birth of forensic science, Douglas Starr. I generally don't like true crime stories. But true crime stories with history and science! Those might be okay.
39. Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson. Kinda similar to World War Z, but more along the lines of what I'd expected and secretly wished WWZ could have been.
38. The Years of Salt and Rice, Kim Stanley Robinson. This was not the book I expected it to be. What it was, though, was epic.
37. Into the Darkness, Barbara Michaels.
36. Walker in the Shadows, Barbara Michaels. Haaaaaa, Barbara Michaels. Hers was among the first "grown up" "romances" I read when I was younger. These two, for whatever reason, remain my favorites.
35. Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed. Now these were some magnetic characters. I may not have particularly liked each of them, but I thoroughly appreciated how cleanly and clearly they were drawn out for me in their words and actions. Well-crafted story, too, plotted and paced out nicely, with enough attention to background events to keep things rolling along in aspects other than just the overarching plot. Really nicely done.
34. Fed, Mira Grant. A little alternate ending to Feed, which I am totally counting because it was just as traumatic an ending as the first one and I deserve it.
33. Spirit Thief, Rachel Aaron. Over a hundred pages in and this book was boring me to tears. There isn't nearly enough work done to explain the various characters or their motivations, not even any hints laid. I was left guessing even on the most basic things--like a barebones idea of personalities! I was intrigued enough by the magic of this setting, but it was barely enough to keep me plowing through. The last scenes helped it scrape through without sinking lower in my sights, and actually got me curious enough to consider seeking out the sequel. But remains to be seen if I can bring myself to actively do so.
32. Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore. BITTERBLUE IS MY FAVORITE. She's so much more normal than the other ladies below, and her childhood was so fucked up, and she's trying so hard to cope with that, while also trying to reason through all the problems she's encountering, and trying to grow up really fast to be a good leader for her people, and trying to be emotionally strong and wise to also help her people and she's just fantastic. Also, Giddon is a lot more grown up than when we last saw him and what a solid guy he is. Yeah, I totally ship them.
31. Fire, Kristin Cashore. FIRE. Just as kickass as Katsa, and with Katniss theirs is going to be the badassiest fucking club in town. Recognize.
30. Graceling, Kristin Cashore. KATSA. Almost as kickass as Katniss. They should form a club. Also, I want a Po of my very own.
29. Thief's Covenant, Ari Marmell. Liked it well enough to go ahead and get the sequel, which I then ruined by skipping through, only to squeal in delight, which was soon enough followed by a squeal of horror and now I think I'll never actually read it and my impression of this first book is forever tainted with that.
28. On Beauty, Zadie Smith. Oh Zadie Smith. No words suffice.
27. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch. A hundred times better than The Way of the Shadow.
26. The Way of the Shadow, Brent Weeks. A review said something like "If you find this halfway decent, give The Lies of Locke Lamora a try. It's a hundred times better." They were right.
25. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey. A quiet and peaceful, introspective little thing.
24. Peaceweaver, Rebecca Barnhouse. Pretty fun! Spunky, resourceful main character, interesting assembly of supporting characters. The ending, regrettably, felt incredibly rushed and slapdash and kind of left a bad impression. But overall, hugely enjoyable.
23. The Killing Moon, N. K. Jemisin. This was not an enveloping read. I really kind of struggled with it. I really liked the main characters, except that I felt like they somehow hit a wall about halfway through the story and didn't really progress beyond that point.
22. Between the Lines, Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer. Meh. And it just went on and on and on and good grief, teenagers.
21. The Native Star, M.K. Hobson. Surprisingly good, considering it was something of a very random purchase!
20. Blameless, Gail Carriger. The series continues. It's on the verge of growing tiresome, but I feel like I need to see it through.
19. The Lost City of Z, David Grann. FASCINATING. Makes me want to go adventuring. And yet, not. Perhaps just armchair adventuring will suffice. Because, plants that make your fingernails melt off if you brush against them, maggots infesting joints and also brain-eating parasites. (Damn, nature, you scary.)
18. Blackout, Mira Grant. Apparently there is another book following this one in the series? I think I am bowing out. The storyline I was most invested in resolved itself pretty satisfactorily, and that's good enough for me.
17. Forever, Now, series, by harriet_vane Darling, darling kidfic.
16. Deadline, Mira Grant. This was rough. Not like, bad-rough, but emotionally rough. It deals with loss a lot, in its way. But there was hope, and I powered through and then OMGWHATYAYWHATOMG.
15. Changeless, Gail Carriger. This one left an iffy-bad taste in my mouth. Like, I'm just not sure these were the characters I thought they were and maybe I shouldn't like them much after all?
The thing about Crusie, though, is that a lot of her stories, good enough that they are, kind of blur and swirl together and get all faded into one another in my head. Except for Agnes and the Hitman. That one stands alone.
14. Charlie All Night, Jennifer Crusie.
13. What the Lady Wants, Jennifer Crusie.
12. Strange Bedpersons, Jennifer Crusie.
11. Getting Rid of Bradley, Jennifer Crusie.
^^^^ And then I bought a Jennifer Crusie bundle on B&N and it was totally worth the $10.
10. Bossypants, Tina Fey. Tina Fey is an astute, sharp, funny lady.
09. A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter. Anybody else read this way back in the way back days? And then grow up with only the vaguest glimmering impressions of it and longing to remember what it was to reread it? Yeah, IT'S THIS ONE. And it's even better at 31 than it was at 13.
08. Devil in the White City, Erik Larson. Larson weaves a damn good telling. Will be seeking out others of his.
07. Clementine, Cherie Priest. Disappointing! I went straight into it form Boneshaker because I wanted to know more about those characters I got so attached to, and except for one man (one dashing man!) NONE OF THEM EVEN SHOWED UP.
06. Boneshaker, Cherie Priest. Adventuresome and touching and fun and I love alllll the characters and want to know more about them NOW.
05. Feed, Mira Grant. So good! The truth is out there and all! And zombies and fighting and corrupt Bible-thumping politicians! Woohoo! AND THEN SO DEPRESSING OH MY GOD. I am never reading another book ever. They just break your heart.
04. The Stepsister Scheme, Jim C. Hines. Almost fun, but too clumsy and ham-fisted. And... kinda skeevy? I have no solid details to point at to support that, I just couldn't shake the feeling.
03. Un Lun Dun, China Mieville. Yeah, this was pretty super great. You guys, it's like a literary version of Spirited Away. How up my alley is THAT? A lot, that's how much.
02. Soulless, Gail Carriger. Nothing strenuous in this one, absolutely no heavy lifting.
01. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis. This was not Connie Willis at her strongest. It was a decent enough read, but afterwards I felt like I needed to cleanse my palate with Bellflower.
Favorites roundup:
Un Lun Dun
The Feed series
Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue (Secret: Bitterblue is the besssssssst.)
Kraken
Aaaaand possibly The Emperor's Edge, although I'm reserving judgment until I see how more of the series progresses.
Up for next year: more non-fiction! Or at the very least, smarter fiction!