My Favorite Books, 2013

Okay, here's my Best of 2013 list -- all of the books that earned five stars from me on Goodreads this year.  I put an asterisk next to ones that were re-reads for me.

Fiction:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Mariana by Monica Dickens
*A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
*Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
*Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Emma by Jane Austen

Nonfiction/Memoir:
Night by Elie Wiesel
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
The Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Children’s/YA:
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
*A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg
*Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
*The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
*The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager

Graphic Novels:
Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson
Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson
Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Building Stories by Chris Ware

Best of 2011

I love this time of year, and one of the things I enjoy most is looking over the list of books I read and putting together a list of my favorites.

I'm using my Goodreads account to create this list. The ratings system makes it easy to find my favorites of the year. I re-read a lot of my favorite YA books this year because I am leading a couple of book groups at our neighborhood library. I'll leave those off this list, and only include the books I encountered for the first time.

Fiction:
A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
The Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery)

Graphic Novel:
Ethel and Ernest (Raymond Briggs)

Middle Grade and YA:
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (Jeanne Birdsall)
Keeper (Kathi Appelt)
A Tale Dark & Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party (Emily Jenkins)
Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)
Inside Out & Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Inga Moore; abridged)

I didn't give any of the nonfiction I read five stars (unless you count the above graphic novel, which is about Briggs' parents). I gave four stars to these:

Nonfiction:
The Wilder Life (Wendy McClure)
The Circuit (Francisco Jiménez)
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age (Coco Irvine)

My Best of 2008: Young People's Literature

I decided to give young people's literature its own category in my favorites, as I read so much of it this year. It's been wonderful to have two kids that enjoy books and ask me to read with them often. (I did ask Skye to help me put together a list of her top five or ten books this year, but as we looked through her 2008 book list, she couldn't choose. She loved them all!)

I am not going to include picture books here, just books for older readers, middle elementary and up.

Favorite book:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
How do I sum this one up? It's one of those books that makes you laugh a lot, and cry a lot. It's about so many things: what it means to be a family, where home is, racism in America. I was especially impressed with how Curtis explains the "why" of racism. That's the question every kid asks, and a question adults have a hard time answering: Why are people racist? Why do some people have such strong racist feelings that they do horrible things, hurting innocent people, even children? In the book, when the main character asks this tough question, his parents have a difficult time explaining why. It's his older brother that helps him process the sad things he's learned.

Favorite (start to a) series:

The Penderwicks and
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Jeanne Birdsall
Skye and I read these for our mother-daughter book club. These stories of a family with four girls are reminiscent of classic young people's literature. Jeanne Birdsall was a great reader as a child, and she says in this interview that "the first Penderwicks is really a love letter to the books I read as a child." She lists some of them: "Noel Streatfeild’s books, All of a Kind Family, Edward Eager, E. Nesbit." I love the list at the end of that interview of all the books mentioned by Jane, the biggest reader in the Penderwicks family. My daughter's online nickname here, Skye, comes from her favorite Penderwicks girl. Birdsall plans on three more Penderwicks books, and we look forward to them.

Favorite author discoveries:

Sharon Creech
One of Skye's friends always sings the praises of Sharon Creech when we talk books. In working on a Brownies Try-It badge, they were challenged to read something recommened by the other. Skye and I both read and enjoyed Granny Torrelli Makes Soup and Pleasing the Ghost, and we look forward to more Creech stories.

Ellen Raskin
This author is a re-discovery for me. Skye and I read The Westing Game and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) for her school book club last year. I remember carrying that second one around with me in elementary school, facinated by it. I love Raskin's quirky sense of humor and creative puzzle stories.

Andrew Clements
What a great writer for kids! Frindle was Skye's choice for our first time hosting mother-daughter book club. I've read another of his since (The Landry News) and Skye's read at least two more (The Janitor's Boy and Lunch Money). We don't think you can go wrong with a Clements book. (And how cool is it that Brian Selznick does the illustrations?)

Honorable mention:

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Excellent! I missed this one as a kid, so it was a treat to read it with Skye.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Another pick from our mother-daughter book club. Beautiful writing, beautiful story.
Babymouse books by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
These comics are great! I love that a sister/brother team writes them. Check out Babymouse's neat website.
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
How can you not want to read a book with a title and cover art like that? MBS did not disappoint.
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
This is a possible future mother-daughter book club read. Think of the food possibilities for this party! Great story; I want to read more Horvath.

My Best of 2008: Nonfiction

Part two of the best books I read this past year will focus on nonfiction. I read a lot more fiction than nonfiction, so this will be a shorter list, but it was hard to pick favorites because they were all quite good.

Out of the eleven works of nonfiction I read this year, I think my favorites would have to be these two:

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
Jacobs is both funny and earnest in his pursuit, and his account of this year is very entertaining as well as enlightening. I love people like Jacobs, who jump so completely into a project, and I love people like his wife, who bring people like Jacobs back to earth with firm, funny, needed reminders of what's truly important.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A friend lent me her copy of this memoir, telling me it was a facinating read. I'm not big on stories of horrible childhoods, but this book is much more than that. Wow, what a childhood! Walls' parents were brilliant, self-absorbed, creative, neglectful, and eccentric idealists. Walls writes about them and about her growing-up years truthfully, from her point-of-view as a child, living in this sometimes confusing, often dangerous, always exciting family. It's facinating, heartbreaking and inspiring. (Are those enough adjectives for you?)

Honorable mention goes to many of the others I read this year:

The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries by David Ansel
Cool book. Yummy soups! Jen and I made one together.
Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan
You can read my review of this book here.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert's search for self is funny, honest, and sweet. (Of course I loved the Eat section the best.)
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
What a neat graphic memoir for young adults.
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
I loved reading this memoir of his childhood and young adulthood, exploring identity and race. Really thoughtful, insightful, and honest, as well as funny at times and touching -- not in an overly sentimental way, but in a quiet and important way, if that makes sense.
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
This graphic memoir of a mother/daughter trip to Paris brought me back to my year in France, and I'm grateful to Knisley for the lovely visit!
Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas by John Baxter
Another vicarious trip to Paris for me, and a perfect book to read in December. Slowed me down again when things got hectic.

My Best of 2008: Fiction

How do I write this post? I've been avoiding it for almost a month now. Choosing my favorite books read this year has been a delightful challenge. I read some really good stuff.

I've taken my friend Jennifer's idea and decided to split this into three different posts: favorite fiction, favorite nonfiction, and favorite literature for young people. (This way, I can include more books and won't have to cut my list too ruthlessly.)

My absolute favorite of this year is actually not a choice. It's an "of course, what else would it be?" The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a wonder. If you haven't read it yet, you must. Now to the challenging picks....

Favorite Fiction

If The Book Thief belongs in a category all its own (Almighty Winner of 2008, perhaps?), then the first place prize for my favorite fiction books has to be split between these two:

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
I scooped these stories up like spoonfuls of ice cream. Well, no, not exactly like ice cream. They go down easy, but they aren't happy stories. Many of them are painful or melancholy, but she writes them so beautifully that they made me happy. I'd read one and then sit with it awhile. Lahiri shows exactly what a great storyteller can do.

The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe
My Uncle Charlie introduced me to this lovely novel. Again, the story is painful and melancholy, but the telling is gorgeous. I was so engrossed in this book that I dreamed of the characters and settings every night that I read it.

Second place for fiction goes to these three winners:

Hens Dancing by Rafaella Barker
Now, this one was a happy book. It's perhaps the book that made me laugh out loud the most this year, and for that it gets second place. It's written in a wonderful style with a great voice: Venetia is a hoot.
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
I smiled my way through this novella. It's smart and funny and an absolute treat for a book lover.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
"A book that's fun to read, and that teaches you something" -- that's how this one was described at Conversation with Books this year, an annual event put on by my alma mater. I loved this very satisfying epistolary novel, and I expect I'll reread it someday. I borrowed Jennifer's copy, but I think I'll get the paperback when it comes out.

Honorable Mention:
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Conjoined twins?? Yes!
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Rightly a classic. I put it here, but it is often categorized as YA lit.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Stories of an important book -- a work of art -- and the people whose hands it passes through.
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Historical mystery (before and after World War I in England); a great start to the series. I want to learn more about Maisie.
Donna Leon's Inspector Guido Brunetti mysteries
I love spending time in modern-day Venice with Brunetti (and his family). I read the first three this past year.