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2010 Favorites: Kelly’s Picks

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Last year, instead of a top books or ranking, I threw down a handful of books that stood out to me as a reader and gave you the reasons why.

Welcome to the end of 2010, and I’m going to do exactly the same thing. Each of these books stood out to me as a reader for some reason and are books that will linger with me far beyond this year. These are books that took my breath away and leave me thinking about them all the time. They are the books I measure other books to, and ones where I can remember each character’s name. I think about them in the shower, while driving and a song comes on the radio, where the lines are ones I’ve underlined and memorized. Unforgettable.

I’ve read, as of today, 217 books, so it was a crowded field. To be completely honest though, I was disappointed in many titles this year. More hype than substance surrounded many books and a lot of substance was overlooked for more surface issues (take a minute and reflect on this — how much did the world spend thinking about covers and issues of appearance this year than on actual content?). Although I understand and appreciate cover hype, I think this year’s obsession with covers and the “unveiling” of covers only furthered this for me. I want more discussion of content and less of cosmetics.

But I digress.

Although I’d prefer to hold off on posting this until the very end of 2010 (because we still have over a week left of the year), I know with the holidays, the forthcoming Cybils decision making discussions, writing, and other distractions this time of year, I won’t get as much reading in as I’d prefer. Some of these you’ve likely heard me talking up and others, well, maybe less so. I’m sticking with YA titles again this year, since my adult reading of fiction was quite low this year and my adult non-fiction reading was, well, limited to books that would interest only the smallest segment of people. I’m also limiting them to books published in 2010.

Without further ado, here are the books I’m vetting this year as my favorites and ones which are worth your time, your money, and — as the case seems to be this year — your tears. In no particular order:


Stolen by Lucy Christopher

I’ve reviewed this one here, but the quick and honest truth is that Christopher has written a book that leaves the reader utterly conflicted throughout. Each page leaves you questioning what’s going on and leaves you wondering if the feelings you have as a reader are right or wrong. Ty is a horrible person in this story — he does something completely vile and wrong — and yet throughout, you can’t help but think he really, truly loves Gemma and that everything he does really is good and honest and out of love. I mean, I shouldn’t want to love Ty but I just can’t help it. And it feels so wrong and so right at the same time.


The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff

You can read my full review here. I have a soft spot for the average kid. The kid that’s not the super star and the kid that’s not the loser. For me, Brezenoff’s book is the quintessential story of three average kids. He makes use of a convention I find challenging to master (starting the story at the end and working backwards) and he depicts three distinct voices through Simon, Lily, and Noah. For someone who’s not usually a fan of multiple points of view, I was completely taken with the three (four, actually) I got here. The male voices are spot on and our female Lily is just as strong. Brezenoff’s book is the perfect tale of the average kid navigating the tricky terrain, the painful events, and the completely normal aspects of being a teenager in high school.


Dirty Little Secrets by C. J. Omololu

You can read my full review here. I kind of overlooked this book when it first came out. It didn’t really jump out at me, but when a colleague and trusted reading friend suggested I read this one because it left her speechless, I was on it. I devoured it. Lucy’s story is actually less about her than it is about her relationship with her mother and her mother’s relationship with things. The book takes place over one day and left me as a reader sick to my stomach. I felt sick for Lucy and I felt every single emotion she felt. Each item she touched, I touched too. And the end! It was absolutely perfect. There is no other way it could have ended for Lucy. She needed it, and so did I.

John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles

You can read my full review here. The sights and sounds of Los Angeles make this story of Hilda and Benji work. I absolutely love how much this one reminded me of a modern day take on Paul Zindel’s The Pigman, one of my all-time favorite books. Pace, plotting, and characters are pitch perfect, but for me, it’s the setting. It’s haunting and beautiful and quirky and vivid. I could smell the city and the people and the places in this one.

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Confession time before I continue here. I rarely reread a book. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done it. It’s not that I don’t believe in it or that there aren’t books worth rereading, but rather, it’s because there are so many other books that I want to read before I go back.

This year, I’ve reread two books by the same author.


Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

You can read my full review here. There is not a single likable character in this book, and yet, I love each of these characters because they’re so flawed and awful and miserable and horrific to watch. Each turn in this book left me feeling sick and beat up and yet, I wanted more. There is something punishing about this book. It’s sick and relentless and brutal and won’t even give you a resolution or satisfaction at the end. I still get queasy when I talk about this book. Yet, I can’t stop talking about it.


Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers

You can read my full review here. Eddie, Milo, and Culler will live on for a long time in my mind. The pain and loss and spot-on characterization and emotion are hard to forget. Despite all of the weight in this book, the horrible things the characters endure, this is a book I want to be in. These are characters I want to know, even if it means getting nasty text messages once in a while. I’ll let yesterday’s review stand for the rest of my reasoning on this one, but you can bet I’ll be revisiting this one again down the line for a third and forth read and pretending that Milo is all mine.

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My criteria for absolute favorites is tough, I admit, and it leaves off a number of really worthy and wonderful titles I read this year. But I’m not objective when it comes to *my* favorites and I don’t apologize for my tastes. However, I do want to spotlight a handful of other titles I read and liked a lot this year too, and these are titles I know will easily make top spots on other favorite lists. And believe me when I say there are still others I liked a lot this year but just aren’t quite top of the tops for me:

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers

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Eddie’s dad took his life — jumped off a building and died.

He left no note. No reason. No explanation.

This doesn’t work for Eddie, and she’s made it her mission to get to the bottom of this. To solve it, to come to terms with her grief and the loss. To understand what would possess her father, an artist who experienced brief but intense popularity, to jump off a building and end it all.

Enter Culler Evans: the last student her father ever took on. Another person struggling to come to terms with the loss. When Eddie gives Culler the last remains of her father, a box of photos she collects from his former office space, things change forever between them, between her and her best friend Milo, between her and her father, and between her and herself.

But Culler’s not the person Eddie thinks he is. And maybe he’s just what she needs.

Fall For Anything is Courtney’s first foray outside the mean girl world, though Eddie is anything but untroubled. She’s grief stricken, lost, and searching for answers to questions that may not have any. Best friend Milo wants to comfort her and help her through it, but he can’t. He himself keeps a secret from Eddie: he remembers the day her father died picture perfect, unlike her, and he won’t share it with her.

Although this book that focuses on grief, the true story is in the character development and the relationships that build among these perfectly flawed people. While we know Eddie is sad, there are so many more layers to her. With both Milo and Culler, she finds strong male companionship. She’s both dependent and completely independent, as well as weak and strong. She loves them and lusts for them but rejects them, too. Eddie craves connection to her world but repels it at the same time.

Milo is the true constant in Eddie’s life, despite how she treats him on more than one occasion. He’s the kind of guy girls want in their life but the kind that always get treated like dirt. The ones we misjudge. The ones we as readers can’t help but love a little bit (or a lot). Through the story, we see him lose his best friend in more than one way and our hearts ache for him.

Culler is the catalyst who moves the plot and characters forward. He himself is both lost and not lost as he leads Eddie on a search through the last photographs her father took, a journey meant to help both of them reconcile their grief and understand why her father did what he did. Culler is a photographer, and his method of coping and understanding is by processing through his camera lens. On their trip, he takes photos to capture thoughts and moments, many which include Eddie. These intimate exposures ultimately guide her to answers about who she is, and through this, she can construct the answers she needs about her father.

Courtney’s writing is sparse and so much happens between the lines that you must slow down to pick up what she does. There are incredible parallels between the loss Eddie experiences with her father’s suicide, the experience she has in her relationship with Culler, and the relationship she has with the photos Culler uses to “process” the loss of her father. It comes full circle. Subtle hints also suggest Eddie isn’t really interested in a romance with either Milo or Culler, despite the overt fantasies she has about them. Instead, she desires a different kind of affection: she wants to be loved and cared for because she’s a good and valuable person, something more important to her at this juncture than a traditional romantic relationship. It’s part of her grieving process, and it helps us understand her that much more. A couple of reviews — professional ones — seem to have overlooked the precision and weight of each word in the story, shortchanging the role the writing itself plays as a character.

My one criticism is fairly minor, and it stuck out more on a second read. Eddie repeatedly discusses how she doesn’t understand art and isn’t really interested in it, either. But on more than one occasion, she seems quite knowledgeable on the topic, engaging in dialog about light exposure and photographic techniques. I didn’t know Eddie well enough in this realm to tell if she was lying or if she was just that insecure (though I bet the latter).

The situations Eddie finds herself in are unrealistic, but because the boundaries in this story are pushed so far, they are completely believable. As a reader, you feel as exposed and vulnerable as the characters, smirking with Eddie one minute and wiping your eyes with your sleeve the next. You want to shake her to tell her she’s making mistakes but at the same time, you want to sit back and let them happen. Despite the build up and execution of several plot twists, the strength in this book comes in its moments of complete restraint.

Fall for Anything is unapologetic. Hand this to readers looking for edgy, thought-provoking, raw reads. Although there will be little doubt on appeal to readers and fans of Courtney’s prior works, this is the book that I think will really make her a bigger name and staple in the YA world, especially to those who may have too easily written her off as the person who writes about mean girls. It’s brutal and honest . . . but don’t go in expecting an answer to anything here.

You need to find the same thing Eddie did.

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If you’re intrigued, you still have time to enter to win one of three copies I’m giving away right here. I’ll pull winners on Wednesday morning. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, Courtney’s got a short story told from Milo’s perspective available, too. It’s set prior to the events of Fall for Anything and there are no spoilers. Enjoy it here.

Our childhood favorites

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Do you have a book from your childhood you remember the most — the one you maybe read over and over again for years or the one that left an impression on you that still sticks? We’ve shared some of our all-time favorites before, but we thought this week, we’d take a walk down memory lane for the singular most memorable books for us.

As I thought about the books I read as a kid, I remembered some of the horrifically formulaic series books I devoured (we’re talking Babysitters Club and Babysitters Little Sister and yes, I am still gloating about being able to leave school early in 2nd grade to meet Ann M. Martin at Anderson’s bookshop back in the day where she signed a book for me and I got a photo!). There was also a series about gymnasts I believe was just called The Gymnasts full of the angst and tension only imaginable in a gym of athletic girls working on the latest beam routine.

Beyond that, I remember reading a lot of classics, from the time I could. I was the kid that read Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew in 7th grade (and understood, thanks to Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You). In 12th grade, I had a teacher ask me to give him book recommendations because I read more than he did.

I also had my comfort reads. I specifically recall clutching tight to my 1980s Guinness Book of World Records and reading the mind numbingly long list of facts and figures whenever relegated to the basement because of tornadoes.

But the one book I remember most vividly is one that is the most simple and one that is, sadly, out of print.

That book?

Suky the Kitten by Sue Camm. The book was published by Brimax in England, 1985. This 12-page board book follows one kitten through an adventurous day. As you can see in my copy, it was well read, the binding worn down substantially, and there may indeed be a few teeth marks. Suky was delicious indeed.

A couple other page views for those piqued:
Suky, as you can see, is a terrible (yet all together realistic) cat who loves chewing on flowers. Would you believe that’s the happy ending, too?

A cat with a mission.
This book was part of a four book series, including Roly the Puppy, Tilly the Duckling, and Fluff the Rabbit. I’m a little sad it’s not in print any longer, but I am glad I still have this little gem in my possession.

My childhood was filled with Sweet Valley Twins and Babysitters Club, The Fabulous Five and The Boxcar Children—I loved series fiction, and devoured them in hours, waiting for the next monthly installment. I remember begging my dad to bring me to the bookstore for the next adventure of the Wakefield Twins–just before Hurricane Bob was supposed to hit Massachusetts. I needed my reading material to weather the storm, after all!

Rounding out these were the less frilly books that I still savor to this day: Sydney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family, Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes series, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (which I remember getting three copies of for one birthday–everyone must have known my interests!).

But above all others shone Anne of Green Gables, my kindred spirit. I admired Anne’s wounded pride, her spunky spirit, the way her imagination and heart lit up the world around her. I wanted my own Lake of Shining Waters, yearned for a tormentor every bit as charming as Gilbert Blythe (who I would fall in love with all over again when I watched the movies), and sobbed when her beloved Matthew died. Anne of Green Gables, along with the rest of the series, will always be my comfort book, the book I turn to as a friend. I even read some of Anne of Avonlea before bed the night before my wedding! Anne is the friend I wanted to have, the person I wanted to be, and the girl I think we all have a little bit of inside of us.

After all, “Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive–it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?”

The books I remember best from childhood are always the ones most closely tied to good memories unrelated to the story: a wonderful place where I read the book, an event that happened while I read it, a song I listened to while reading, etc.  Books for me are a little like certain music or smells for other people – they bring to mind a whole slew of memories that may have nothing to do with the story, but everything to do with the circumstances surrounding my reading of the story.  For that reason, I’m always careful to read books I feel I’ll really enjoy in comfortable surroundings – I don’t want my memory of the wonderful book to bring up other unpleasant memories of terrible music or illness or something along those lines.
When Kelly, Jen, and I began discussing the idea for this post, it was really a no-brainer for me.  Like most avid readers, I learned to read before entering school, and I honed my skills at home once I had learned.  One of my most vivid and treasured memories of my childhood is reading to my dad while he did the dishes (a near-nightly occurrence), and the books I best remember reading are the Oz books, beginning with L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
When I began reading these books out loud to my dad, they were a challenge.  As I worked my way through all fourteen of Baum’s books and started on Ruth Plumly Thompson and Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Rachel Cosgrove Payes, I grew older and the books grew easier for me to read.  The Oz books launched my love affair with fantasy (an affair that I don’t ever see ending).  And there were so many of them, and so many good ones!  
I loved how imaginative they all were, with interesting creatures like Tik Tok the robot and the Patchwork girl and Polychrome the daughter of the rainbow.  I loved reading about the dangerous hazards like the Deadly Desert which turned everyone who touched it into sand. I loved reading about the friendships between the main characters (not to mention the magic!) who all lived at the Emerald City, and I wanted to join them.  The world of Oz (and its surrounding environs) was so detailed, and each author added something new while also working within the framework Baum had created.
For the most part, reading is a solitary endeavor, but not in this case.  The act of reading aloud to my dad created a bond between us that still exists in my adulthood.  When I was about 10 years old, my dad and I wrote our own Oz book, one of the few longer-length works of fiction I’ve actually finished.  My younger sister illustrated it.  For years and years I was a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club (I still occasionally get mailers from them).  My dad and I always talked about going to one of the conventions (Munchkin, Winkie, Quadling, or Gillikin) but never made it – with my adult knowledge of Comic Conventions I wonder what that would have been like!  To this day, Oz is something my dad and I share: each year for Christmas he gets me an Oz trinket or ornament.
While the books are amazing on their own, particularly Baum’s, I wouldn’t love them quite so much if they didn’t help forge this special connection with my father.  For that reason, the Oz books are the books that made the strongest impression upon me and will always remain among my most treasured reads.

2009 in Review

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The blogosphere is awash with “Best of 2009” lists, so I’ve decided to review my 2009 reading in a slightly different way. These aren’t necessarily books that were published in 2009, just books that were read by me in 2009.

Best Book of 2009

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness

I couldn’t stop thinking about this book for months after I finished it. I’ve been coercing everyone I know to read it. If you haven’t read it, go check it out from your library today.

Biggest Disappointment

Impossible, by Nancy Werlin

Quite truthfully the worst book I have read this year. I know it has received many accolades; I know people love it. With many books like that, I can honestly say “I see why people like it.” I don’t see it with this one. Bland characters who all speak with the same voice, contrived plot (even for me, a diehard fantasy reader), bad dialogue. Huge disappointment.

Strangest

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

The best phrase to sum up this gem is still “What an odd little book.”

Most Overrated

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly

I’ve seen this one in the running for many people’s Newbery picks, but it just doesn’t have the kid appeal it should have. Then again, the Newbery committee isn’t really known for picking books that kids like.

Most Beautiful Book

Lips Touch, by Laini Taylor, illustrated by Jim diBartolo

Taylor sure can write, and unlike other readers, I think the third and longest story is the strongest. I’m so glad this was nominated for the National Book Award, because I never would have read it otherwise. The artwork (consisting of mostly grays and reds) is incredible and the cover is one of the best of the year. A beautiful package all around.

Book That Made Me Want to Throw it Against a Wall (in a Good Way)

I am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

An ending that really blew me away – I did not predict it at all. I had to re-read it and then immediately call up a friend to discuss it. Not as good as The Book Thief (nothing is), but still great.

Most Unique

Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman

Everything Pullman writes is golden, but this is a particularly neat little book because of all its extras, which I discussed in a previous post.

Most Eagerly Anticipated for 2010

Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness

barely edges out

Hunger Games Book 3, by Suzanne Collins

I like Katniss, but I love Todd and Viola. Oh, Todd and Viola. I must know how your story ends. Please don’t put them through any more torture, Patrick Ness. (I say this knowing that he will.)

2009 Picks

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There are a ton of “best of” lists floating around this year. I have a hard time choosing a best of anything, simply because I haven’t read everything and don’t want to make a decision when I could read something written in 2009 in, oh, 2011, and be disappointed I didn’t add it. Likewise, the reading experience itself changes as you read more and become a better reader.

So instead, I’m just going to give brief shout outs to some of my favorite 2009 reads this year. Many of these were not top-of-the-listers from their respective publishers or didn’t quite get the buzz they deserved. Although many of the other lists I’ve seen lately have had a lot of really great books on them, to me, they’re all the same books (you know I really liked Lips Touch but it’s been on everyone’s top list and it makes me wonder if people really consider their OWN favorites, rather than crowd favorites. Oh, and don’t get me started on Marcelo, which you already know my feelings on. But I digress…). These are all young adult picks; my adult reading this year mostly consisted of a few classics and a lot of non-fiction that either fell far from high opinion (Methland will be the topic of a future post about misinformation and the absolute importance of fact-checking) or was something that no one else would be interested in me gushing about (I love reading books about real estate, business, and finance, ok?).

In no particular order:


How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford really blew me away. It was absolutely original and the writing itself was fluid and gorgeous. I heard someone describe this as an indie hit of books. This is a fantastic story of friendship and of loss, as well as family and how family goes through cycles because each individual does, as well. I love the relationships here, particularly the one Jonah has to Matthew — to the idea of Matthew and what that relationship does to him as a person. I love Bea’s position as a person on the outside and on the inside of both Jonah’s relationship to Matthew and the relationship he has with himself. It’s so pitch perfect and moving.

I felt like this book was just different from so much that’s out there right now. There’s a lot of depth but there’s not necessarily a lesson to be learned: it’s a moment – a year in the life of Bea – that has a lot of meaning and power but at the end the main character realizes that it is indeed one year of many and that that helps shape who she is. She is and is not Robot Girl, just as Jonah is and is not Ghost Boy.

The use of a radio show and characters was beautiful and unique, but not unique enough that teens won’t “get” it. This was something so modern, even though it takes place via radio – we all have these networks outside our physical place and all of these people shape us as we shape them. The ending conversations nearly brought me to tears because they were so powerful. Add to that the notion of the boy behind the camera rather than the boy in front of it also worked really well for me.

What really made this a great read was that it never once felt like Standiford was trying too hard. Sometimes an author or artist just tries to hard to make things work, but in this book, it felt like things just tied together well. It was clearly a well-planned book but it wasn’t oversculpted nor manicured to a point. It was left with enough room to make connections and pull together ties for each reader to take away something personal.


Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker. I’ve already reviewed this one in depth. Since that review, I’ve taken every opportunity to talk this bad boy because it never got reviewed in a professional journal, which kills me. Sure it looks girly, but it is so much more. I recently talked this one to a group of 9th graders, and it went out….not only did it go out, but my co-talker said she’d never otherwise pick it up but is now interested. I’ve already mentioned, too, what I think is a turnoff on this one, but if you are able to look past it, you’re in for a real treat here. I’m dying to get my hands on Walker’s Violet on the Runway series, but it’s hard to come by. It’s on my 2010 to-read list for sure.

Ruined by Paula Morris is one I read recently that continues to stick with me. This is a ghost story, set in Lafayette Cemetery in post-Katrina New Orleans. I’m going to be honest, though, and say that it’s not the mystery or the ghost story that appealed to me; it was Morris’s absolutely enthralling descriptions of New Orleans and the history of Mardi Gras. What she weaves into a story that has massive teen appeal is something much deeper and more intriguing for adults. Setting plays such a huge role in this story, and Morris is able to make the city such a vivid character here. This isn’t to say that the entire plot, driven on the idea of spirits wandering the city, particularly after the disaster, isn’t interesting because it sure is. I’m not a mystery, ghost, or supernatural reader, but this one definitely did it for me, and it did it for me in a big way.


An Off Year by Claire Zulkey didn’t really give me a lot of emotions, to be honest, but that’s the point. Cecily and her dad drove from their home in the Chicago area to Ohio, where she’d be beginning her freshman year of college. We all remember those days, right? Well, Cecily decides when she gets there that she’s not actually ready and oh, hey, could she just go back home? Dad agrees to this, and the book follows as Cecily struggles to figure out who she is and why she made that decision.

There is not much action in this book, and frankly, Cecily did a lot of sitting around, whining, and picking fights. But as the book progresses, as a reader you really pull for her to figure herself out. Cecily is a little bit of all of us and I felt that Zulkey did a great job of making her totally human. And the lack of real plot is perfect because it’s realistic — but don’t worry. Cecily kind of figures something out at the end of her year, and it’s not a fabulous trip to Europe taken like many gap year kids.


Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson is another one I’ve already reviewed, but it fits my bill here. This book is hilarious and spot-on in narration of a teen boy. I’ve read a couple other books trying to fit the voice of a teen boy, and they have just not done it for me (Carter Finally Gets It made Carter a total jerk and I think it was trying far too hard with being funny and Two Parties, One Tux, and a Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath was just a bit too forgettable). But James Hoff? Yep, he’s a teen boy and really, really funny….because he’s not trying to be.

That’s it folks, my five favorites of 2009. I’ve got a couple more 2009er’s in my currently reading pile, too, including Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis (totally underrated and one that while I enjoy now, I would have absolutely eaten up as a teen, even though I have a contention with some poor editing [articles missing in more than one instance in sentences]) and Beautiful Creatures….and Along for the Ride, which I’ll likely go audio on.

I’m already thinking about the titles I’m excited about for 2010, but I also try not to get myself worked up about forthcoming titles because it’s this hidden gems that need to be uncovered and discovered.

What do you think? Do you agree/disagree or have any other favorites?