(no subject)
I meant to post this yesterday, but whatever. I read 59 books and a ton of short stories during 2009. My favorites were:
The Rookie by Scott Sigler
An AWESOME sci-fi podcast audiobook about an inter-species football league. The main character is Quentin Barnes, this totally racist nineteen-year-old amazing quarterback from a backward planet where he was playing on human-only teams. Basically, he gets his big break, but it involves having to get over his prejudice and work with his alien teammates. Which he struggles with, because he's got this humongous ego.
2001 by Arthur C. Clarke
Uh, I totally can't remember why I started reading 2001, but by the end of it, I was completely floored. I still haven't seen the movie yet. The beginning and ending of this book, though, were both mind-blowing. It's one of those books that make me, as an atheist, almost inclined to believe that there really is a greater power at work out there.
Seaborn by Chris Howard
Okay, any book with mermaids in it is going to get my vote. However, Seaborn is really strong in its own right. Howard does an awesome job of developing an entire society of people on the bottom of the ocean. There's royalty and betrayal and magic and birthrights and armies. Someone described this book as Dune combined with The Little Mermaid and it kind of is. Also, it doesn't pull punches. It's ruthless and bloody. But my favorite part of it is that it has two incredibly strong female lead characters despite being written by a man.
Some other awesome books: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
The Rookie by Scott Sigler
An AWESOME sci-fi podcast audiobook about an inter-species football league. The main character is Quentin Barnes, this totally racist nineteen-year-old amazing quarterback from a backward planet where he was playing on human-only teams. Basically, he gets his big break, but it involves having to get over his prejudice and work with his alien teammates. Which he struggles with, because he's got this humongous ego.
2001 by Arthur C. Clarke
Uh, I totally can't remember why I started reading 2001, but by the end of it, I was completely floored. I still haven't seen the movie yet. The beginning and ending of this book, though, were both mind-blowing. It's one of those books that make me, as an atheist, almost inclined to believe that there really is a greater power at work out there.
Seaborn by Chris Howard
Okay, any book with mermaids in it is going to get my vote. However, Seaborn is really strong in its own right. Howard does an awesome job of developing an entire society of people on the bottom of the ocean. There's royalty and betrayal and magic and birthrights and armies. Someone described this book as Dune combined with The Little Mermaid and it kind of is. Also, it doesn't pull punches. It's ruthless and bloody. But my favorite part of it is that it has two incredibly strong female lead characters despite being written by a man.
Some other awesome books: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.