Now on to my favorites!
Since I don't read a ton of it, it was pretty easy to find a favorite. Armistead Maupin's LOGICAL FAMILY: A MEMOIR was my hands down winner. I love his TALES OF THE CITY books which I plan to reread this year, and this is that same funny, insightful voice telling his own story. My friend Sue and I went to hear him read and we were lucky enough to get to chat with him at the dinner beforehand but the fact that I get to post this adorable picture of us practically hugging in no way influenced my best-of choice. I also really liked THE BUTCHERING ART by Lindsey Fitzharris which is basically the story of how people started washing their hands before performing surgery. But I don't have a picture of me and the author. So there you go.
Most of my younger reads this year were re-reads which means they don't qualify for this award. When I was trying to decide which I loved best the three that I settled on were WOLF HOLLOW by Lauren Wolk - which already had the honor of being on the BHS summer reading list and THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE by Louise Erdrich which I just this minute learned is the first in a series. So clearly I did not love it quite as much as ONCE WAS A TIME by Leila Sales. This is a time travel story, set in WWII in part and I read it in one giant gulp. I love reading WWII and time travel books in one giant gulp! Okay, moving along, I have a lot of Birchbark House books to catch up on apparently...)
BEST PAIRS OF ADULT BOOKS IN SEVERAL CATEGORIES
Artists are so tortured! In THE CLOCKMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Kate Morton someone gets shot and there is a stolen jewel and a ghost and all the wonderful moody English-ness that Kate Morton does so well. New York City is the setting of Fiona Davis' THE MASTERPIECE, specifically Grand Central Terminal and the art school that was located there. Both of these books feature mysterious women who are not necessarily what they appear to be.
It isn't that Eleanor Roosevelt wasn't allowed to talk, she was one of the most vocal women of the 20th century. But she wasn't allowed to talk about her years-long relationship with journalist Lorena Hickok which appears to the modern reader to have been quite the love story. Amy Bloom's WHITE HOUSES is a fictionalized version that brings these two women to life on the page. If you feel like THE HANDMAID'S TALE is just too light and fluffy for you - you might like VOX by Christina Dalcher. In this dystopian future women are only allowed 100 words a day before they become subjected to increasingly more painful electric shocks via a bracelet all women are required to wear. Jean, our heroine, is a former cognitive linguist is given the opportunity to fight the power.
This August I read MY OXFORD YEAR by Julia Whelan - a delightful book about a romance that nearly doesn't happen at Oxford. This December I read ONE DAY IN DECEMBER by Josie Silver - a delightful book about a romance that nearly doesn't happen in London. They both had that will-they-or-won't-they vibe that you know is completely useless, because of course they will! They also have a slightly dry humor that owes a debt to Bridget Jones that light British romances continue to pay. They are a step up from fluff - tasty and easily digestible.
[Okay, at this point if I continue to put in cute pictures, I will never get this written! If you really need to see covers, you can google the author and title and voila - the internet will do all the work for you.]
MYSTERY SOLVING BROADS
I was lucky enough to attend the Betsy Tacy Convention in Minneapolis this summer and before I went, I read BALTIMORE BLUES by Laura Lippman since she was one of the speakers. The book was a nice twisty mystery that treated Baltimore the way my beloved Robert Parker treated Boston - with an insider's view of the city's workings. Amy Stewart's GIRL WAITS WITH GUN also has a Betsy Tacy connection in that it is set in the early 20th century just prior to WWI. Based on a true-life sheriff's deputy from New Jersey, this clever mystery was less a whodunit and more a who-gonna-listen-to-a-woman-in-this-era. Both of these books have plenty of sequels that kept me reading all summer.
WHAT YOU WILL DO FOR YOUR KIDS
Two books that made me cry like a spigot this year were about the lengths parents will go to to help their children, particularly those who don't fit the mold. HARMONY by Carolyn Parkhurst (my favorite SLOW WRITING author. Please, for the love of God, Carolyn, write more more more...) is the story of a family who follows a borderline cult-leader to an abandoned camp ground in an attempt to help their brilliant but tortured daughter find a place to belong. In Laurie Frankel's THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS, an unconventional but loving couple decide to add a fifth child to their family of four boys in the hopes that it might be the daughter they have always hoped for. When Claude is born, they don't expect that he will begin a journey that will completely change their idea of gender and their entire lives.
WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?
THE IMMORTALISTS by Chloe Benjamin is a little rich for my blood. There are truths in this book that you have to go digging for. And there is a character who works with primates which is often a dealbreaker for me in books. They are too close to us, but big and hairy, I don't like it! But this book was spectacular. It was on a lot of "best of" lists and I can see why. It tells the story of four siblings who learn the day of their death when they are children and live with that knowledge. I didn't know anything about Dara Horn's ETERNAL LIFE before I started it and it completely captured me! It is the story of a woman who has lived for 2000 year and every time she ends it all, she comes back as her 18 year old self and has to start all over again. Trust me, you don't want to live forever!
BEST PAIRS OR GROUPS OF YA BOOKS IN SEVERAL CATEGORIES
QUEENS OF TEENAGE FANTASY
It took me awhile to get into STRANGE THE DREAMER but once I did I was hooked. Imagine my surprise when I backed up and read Lanai Taylors DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE which I had poohpoohed when it came out only to find I loved it even more than STRANGE! The series is about angels and demons, but not in the conventional or Biblical way you might expect. And not in an irritating way. I have no patience for fantasy, but I adored the entire series. SIX OF CROWS was another book that I had to start several times after being nagged by students which I ended up loving. SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo actually showed up on my best of list last year, but it was the very end of the year and I had no time to read the sequals so we are going to count the Grisha trilogy for this year because it is wonderful. It's a different world, there is a lot of different stuff and a girl saves everyone. You've read that kind of story before, I am sure, but this world just keeps growing and growing and horrible as things are - I don't ever want to leave!
THINGS ARE GETTING TERRIBLE
In ALL RIGHTS RESERVED by Gregory Scott Katsoulis everything is copyrighted - I mean EVERYTHING! Words, gestures, any form or communication must be paid for and the only way to buck the system is to keep your mouth shut. (Hmmm... this is not the first book I have reviewed here that involves forced silence - perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something...) Justina Ireland's DREAD NATION follows Jane, a young woman training to be an attendant in the years following the Civil War, which in this book ended when the dead began walking the battlefields of Gettysburg. Zombies are a problem, of course, but the way the power structure responds is just as horrifying. Both of these books are quite likely to be on the summer reading list for BHS. You heard it here first!
BIG GIRLS ROCK
I love a fat girl book. Last year DUMPLIN' was a favorite and when I was road tripping this summer I listened to the follow up PUDDIN' by Julie Murphy and I liked it even better! Murphy takes two secondary characters from DUMPLIN' - beautiful, popular Callie and guileless, hard-working Millie and throws them together in the believable and enjoyable setting that I loved the first time around. I heard about Rae Carson's GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS from a student who also loves protagonists of girth. I loved Carson's WALK THE EARTH A STRANGER last year and gave GoFaT a try. It is a tight journey/quest other world book that kept me hooked all the way through. I should admit that I dropped the narrative thread afterwards and haven't hit the sequels yet. Someday...
TAKING CARE OF THE KING IS NOT EASY
I love when YA writers write short stories. In FATAL THRONE: THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII TELL ALL seven great writers tell the tale in 7 different voices - Henry and his six wives. It is beautifully done and as it progresses from viewpoint to viewpoint the shading changes. In GRACE AND FURY by Tracy Banghart two sisters - one a beauty who is supposed to catch the eye of the heir and one a rebel who is bound for trouble - swap destinies. Part THE SELECTION and part SHAWSHANK, it is a great ride!
SWEET, SWEET, SWEET, SWEET LOVE
WHAT IF IT'S US by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera is a splendid, splashy will-they-or-won't-they New York romance between two boys where none of the conflict is about the characters' sexuality but rather the capriciousness of love. Jaye Robin Brown's GEORGIA PEACHES AND OTHER FORBIDDEN FRUIT is a little more old school in that there is a big old closet and someone has to come out of it. But there is a twist in that our protagonist was out when she lived in the big city, but when she moves to a small town with her radio-preacher dad, he asks her as a favor to act straight. Yep, it is completely messed up, and yet it works. ROYALS by Rachel Hawkins seems to have had it's name changed to PRINCE CHARMING (yuck) when it comes out in paperback. Nonetheless, it is an adorable quick read about a Florida geek-girl who's big sister just got engaged to the Prince of Scotland. Hilarity ensues. Finally Elizabeth Eulberg's BETTER OFF FRIENDS was forced upon me by a student. The protagonist is named Macallan which, I'm sorry, is horrible. and she has a male best friend she would never think of being interested in romantically, until she does. I felt like this was going to be horrible, but it was adorable - more WHEN HARRY MET SALLY than MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING for sure.
BEING A TEENAGER ISN'T EASY
YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR by Mitali Perkins was the first book I read in 2018! It is half the story of two sisters who emigrate to the US with their parents and the other half is the story of the sisters' daughters. It is an intergenerational miracle. N. Griffin's JUST WRECK IT ALL is about Bette trying to come back from a tragedy that has her wracked with guilt and unable to let herself enjoy anything. The story is good, but the emotional arc of Bette is what makes it amazing. HEY KIDDO by Jarrett Krosoczka is a graphic memoir about growing up with an addict for a parent that is gritty, funny and heartbreaking.
And that is it! I'll see you next year...
