The Best of 2009, According to Merideth

So, it’s that time again. You can almost set your watch by it. Just like decorating the tree/lighting the Menorah and eating too many candy canes, December means it’s time for those annoying year end best lists. You know the ones, “Best Reality TV Featuring People Who Were Celebrities Before You Were Born” ; “Best Albums from Bands You’ve Never Heard Of Because The Critic Really Wants to Show How Much Cooler He is Than You”. And, of course, my favorites, the “Books of the Year List”.

Now maybe it’s because so much of the reading I do is for work, or because I have such specific reading tastes, but none of the books that I really really liked wind up on these lists. Even the “Best Graphic Novel” lists are disappointing, because they tend to focus on the first person, black and white, navel gazing, indie comics that make my teeth itch.

So, in an “if you can’t beat’em- join’em” moment, I am making my own Best of 2009 book list. These are the books I liked best this year. Not the most important or the best written, just the ones I liked the best. Some may not have come out in 2009. Sue me.

Along for the Ride by Sara Dessen. I’m not a romance reader, but Dessen gets me every time. I think it’s because the romance is a part of her heroine’s life, but not the best or only part.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I didn’t think I was going to like this book. I’m not an alternate history fan, and steampunk has always baffled me, but I couldn’t stop reading this. The alternating voices were wonderfully done.

Fire by Kristin Cashore. I honestly think this was my favorite book this year. I loved almost everything about it, and it’s not often I can say that. And, I want Fire’s hair.

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce. This book was almost good enough to justify the long wait since the first Beka Cooper Book. Almost.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman. If you have to have a funeral for Batman, this is how you should do it.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray. This reminded me of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If absurdity and “weird for the sake of weird” works for you, you’ll like it too.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Another book I didn’t expect to like. Then I looked down and was on page 200, and wanting to read more.

BPM: Beats per Minute by Paul Sizer. After a couple of readings, I’m not sure if this graphic novel is 100% successful, but I can’t stop thinking about it, which means it did something right.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This book is beautifully written, and feels very “true”.

Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. What I love about this book is the voice and the beautiful black and white artwork.

Devil's Kiss

What do you know, another novel with the Templars as the main characters! It seems that many authors have found them to be fertile ground for novels.

Devil's Kiss is a mishmash of various supernatural and legendary elements that it is almost too much even for me. It may be a bit hard to follow all the bits and pieces that the Chadda includes in his novel. It would have been better if Mr. Chadda had used only a few devices so readers could see the connections the author was trying to make.

Billi SanGreal, as the first female Templar is an interesting twist, since Templars could not have anything to do with women. Ordinarily, being sympathetic to the Templars, I generally like the characters. I found this group only nominally interesting. They all seemed too one dimensional and I could never get into any of them.

The Templars have their back against the wall these days. There are very few of them left to fight the good fight. It also seems that training Billi to be a Knight Templar has caused a great deal of friction among the remaining knights.

Billi is put in an untenable position of being forced to become a Templar and trying to be a "normal" girl going to school. She is an outsider and because the only friend she had has been sent away for training (Kay is also part of the Templar group) so she has no one.

With Kay coming back, the Templars are being threatened with dark forces. Which are being led by Michael, the Archangel. Michael is determined to take back the last Templar treasure (a mirror) that keeps his brethren imprisoned. If this happens the tenth plague will be unleashed into the world and firstborns will die everywhere.
At all costs the Templars must keep this from happening.

While the actions scenes were good for those of us that like good fight scenes, the novel was not one that I was wanted to pick up as soon as I could. However, if the reader has an interest in the Knights Templar they will likely be satisfied with Devil's Kiss. It will be interesting to see future offerings from Chadda.

Good Ideas = Good Books?

So, a question – can a killer concept save a book? Or conversely, can a killer concept be sunk by other, less successful parts of a book?

I ask this question because I’ve recently read two books that I thought should be better than they really were. Both feature awesome concepts – the basic idea that the book is built around – but ultimately weren’t that successful.

In Candor by Pam Bachorz, everyone is perfect. Everyone eats healthy. All kids get good grades and study. A hot date is holding hands over carrot juice at the local theatre. How is such perfection achieved? By constant bombardment with subliminal messages. However, there is a catch – once you start listening, you can never stop. The messages are “addictive” and not hearing them anymore will make you crazy. Oscar Banks knows this. As the son of the founder of Candor, he’s been hearing the messages longer than anyone, and has been able to develop a resistance to them. Now he has a nice little business on the side, smuggling teens out of Candor for a fee. Plus, he’s not above accepting a little junk food or the occasional M-rated game from a grateful client. Can’t pay? Enjoy perfection.

Awesome, right? Oscar is a great anti-hero and the whole design of Candor, one of those teeth-grindingly perfect “planned communities” sounds like it would make an awesome book. However, things soon get tied up in a boring romance with a magic-pixie-artist-girl. I was really disappointed by the ending of this book, which sort of fell into a very clichéd place.

The other book in my “Killer Concept” list is Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines. In the near future, Neo-Gladiators have become big business. Think Ultimate Fighting with swords, an honor code, and a lot more killing. In addition to the Gladiators themselves, there is a whole set of rules governing the behavior of the “Glad Wives” -- the women who are married to the gladiators. Lyn is the daughter of seven gladiators, meaning her mother has been married to seven different Gladiator Sports Association victors. However, when her seventh father dies in the ring, her world is upended when the GSA states that she must marry the gladiator who defeated her stepfather.

Again – doesn’t that sound amazing? Near future blood sports! How can that fail? However, this book suffers from trying to do too much, and it never figures out what it really wants to be – is it a cautionary tale about violence as entertainment? Is it a coming of age story about a girl taking charge of her destiny? Is it a book about a problem family? It tries to be all of these things, and never really does any of them very well. Also, don’t be fooled by the cover blub, there really isn’t that much fighting in this book.

So there you have it – great ideas, but less-than-great books. However, as always, your mileage may vary, and both these books are worth a look, if only to think about how YOU might have told the story.

Into The Wild Nerd Yonder

Jessie is a girl who doesn't really like her friends. At least, she doesn't really like what her friends have turned into, because somewhere between Freshman and Sophomore year, her two best friends, Bizza and Char, have transformed themselves into wanna-be punks -- multicolored dreads, shaved heads and combat boots. Jessie has no desire to be a punk poser, drinking bad coffee in the smoking section at Denny’s; she'd rather listen to audio books and work on her collection of whimsical skirts. Bizza and Char seem to want to spend more time with the band that Jessie’s brother plays with than with Jessie. Things don't come to the breaking point till Bizza "hooks up" with the guy that Jessie has been crushing on for years. Finally breaking free of the "posuerettes" puts Jessie on the lookout for new friends, and finds them in the local D&D players. But will hanging with the nerds make her a nerd too? And does it matter if it does?

I really liked Jessie. She seems like the kind of girl I'd like to hang out with, and she has excellent taste in books. Plus, she made herself a skirt with Wonder Woman on it, which I now totally covet. Julie just seems very comfortable in her life, and has great relationships with her brother and parents. As an adult I was annoyed with her preoccupation with looking like a nerd. However, I know that being "cool" is something that takes up a lot of teenager's mental energy, so Halpern probably got that right. What I really liked was how excited Jessie was about D&D, how much she enjoyed the game. Role playing isn't an area of the geek forest that I ever really explored much, but anyone who's watched as much Doctor Who or read as many comics books as I have has no right to judge anybody. One thing I do wish is that this book has a better cover. For some reason, this one reminds me of paper dolls.

Purple Heart

A young soldier, Matt, is injured in an ambush. His memory is faulty as to what actually happened and his keeps seeing an Iraqi boy he befriended as part of the ambush. Matt is so terribly afraid that he killed the boy. Matt comes to realized that things are not what they seemed. Once Matt finally realizes what happened, he still has a very hard time accepting the circumstances. It still makes no sense, yet he must go on and try to live with his memories and his actions.

McCormick wrote a very realistic novel. It unrelenting in its portrayal of what life is like for our men and women in the Middle East. My nephew served in Iraq and reading this book made me want to cry knowing what he went through and what other soldiers go through now. I also mourn the kind of life the civilians and other living beings have to endure.

It is a hard novel to read, not very long, but I kept wanting to read that Matt and his squad had served their time and were going to go home in one piece. War is dirty, tiring, heartbreaking and senseless. All of these emotions are played out on the pages of Patricia McCormick's Purple Heart. I wish this was a fantasy book instead of a well researched book that used actual experiences of soldiers who gave their lives and of civilians who also died while we occupied their country. It is well written and I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good book.

Hate List

Ordinarily I do not read these kind of novels. I read to escape because there is too much of this kind of stuff in the papers, on the radio and on television. However, the synopsis inside the dust jacket got me curious. It was a little slow getting into the book, but I was definitely glad I stuck with it.

On a May morning at Garvin High School, Nick Levil leads his girlfriend Valerie Leftman into the Commons looking for a girl who broke Val's MP3 player. Val thinks that Nick is going to make Christy Bruter give her the money for a new player. Instead, to her horror, Nick pulls out a gun and shoots Christy in the abdomen. He then proceeds to shoot other students. As Valerie begins to realized that Nick is not going to stop, she runs to him so she can make him stop. As she shields another student, Nick shoots her in the leg. Perhaps the shock of seeing her shot, makes Nick turn the gun on himself, but at any rate the shooting stops.

I cannot even imagine how I would react if I experience such a traumatic, horrific event. The author seemed to capture the atmosphere of Garvin after the shootings. How the whole community was affected and how the people were changed. No one was left unscathed.

The journey that Valerie began after that tragic day is mind boggling, extremely painful (both emotionally and physically) and emotionally draining. Alternating between despair, guilt, loneliness and need for forgiveness and acceptance, Valerie barely makes it through the school year. She was very troubled and confused. Perhaps if she hadn't been so angry, she might have been able to prevent Nick from killing anyone. She gets help from a psychiatrist and unexpected help from someone she would never have thought would give a damn about her.

The other characters who run the gamut of those who want her in jail to those who see her as a hero, seem to be true-to-life. It was interesting to get to know the characters before the shooting in flashbacks and see how much they have changed. I could identify with each one of them and could understand why they felt that way. And yet I abhorred those that hated her because hate was the very reason so many had died.

The end is bittersweet. I guess I wanted a happy ending, but how could something like this be a live happily ever after kind of ending? Perhaps this is as good as it can get. At least there is some hope. Jennifer Brown wrote what seems to me to be a realistic novel. Too bad this one has played out way too many times not only at schools but at too many other places in the world.

Hate List makes you think about how fragile life really is and how all to easily anyone could make up their own hate list and do something about it. This is a book that should read and discussed. Perhaps if we looked more closely at our own feeling and tried to come to terms with our bias, we could prevent some of the tragedies that occur all too often in this world.

Going Bovine

Who knew mad cow disease could be so hilarious? Going Bovine by Libba Bray is one of the funnier and more satisfying books I've read this year. First off, great cover. That's always a plus in my shallow book. Second off, what an adventure, one that might be taking place only in the main character's mind but that's not for certain. Basically nothing is for certain in this book.

Sixteen-year-old Cameron finds out he has mad cow disease before he's even lived enough of his life to lose his virginity. There's no cure. His brain is slowly falling apart and as a result he's suffering hallucinations. While in the hospital, Cameron is visited by Dulcie, a pink-haired, punk rock angel, who sends him on a quest to save the world. Is she simply a product of his fevered mind? Who can take the chance when a black hole threatens to swallow the world, fire giants are on the loose, and finding the mysterious Dr. X who has set this all in motion might mean finding the only cure for your fatal disease? Cameron heeds the call and escapes from the hospital along with his classmate, Gonzo, and joined by an enchanted yard gnome who's really an immortal Viking warrior. As Cameron follows the random clues he finds along the way--it's all connected, as Dulcie explains--he goes on the advenute of a lifetime--a life that will end far too soon if he fails in his task.

There's been a lot of buzz about this book and the buzz is merited. Fabulous, funny, and fun, though not without its sad side this book is good for those who like road trip fiction, humor, adventure or all three, narrated by a lovable-though-possibly-doomed teenage hero.

Love You, Hate You, Miss You

Elizabeth Scott continues to impress me as a writer. I first read her work when I got my hands on an advanced reading copy of the amazing though emotionally devastating Living Dead Girl. (I doubt anything can compare to the emotional punch of that novel.) Love You, Hate You, Miss You will be a much more palatable read for a general audience although it too deals with Big Issues—teenage drinking, drug use, and death. Amy survived the car accident that took her best friend, Julia’s, life. Amy blames herself for reasons the reader understands only as the plot develops. The reader can see what Amy cannot, mainly that she isn’t really to blame for the accident though she did play a role in the events leading up to it. Amy, who usually functions through life by drinking booze, goes dry in order to feel all of the bad things the alcohol usually deadens. Amy thinks this should be the least of her punishment—to experience the pain. As she returns to home and school from a teen treatment center, Amy’s work is only just beginning. Socially, she’s isolated. Julia was her closest friend and now she’s gone. Her parents have always seemed like a couple who didn’t need a child and Amy feels like the third wheel. At school, she hears the whispered rumors about her and she’s also stuck in a group project with Patrick, a guy she almost slept with at a party and now can’t face, for reasons that are more sophisticated and complex than shame. This is the strength of Elizabeth Scott’s books—she really gets into the psychology of her characters. There are no easy fixes. Characters’ motivations are complicated, the way human motivations often are.

I liked this one a lot and have very few criticisms of it, the general criticism being that lots of information was repeated, particularly Amy’s notion of her parents not really wanting her. I often felt I was reading the same sentence about the parents, stuck into different parts of the book. Other than that--and my wish for a better title-- there was little to quibble over. It’s a read that captures your attention from the start. Both Amy’s voice and her situation are authentic. This is no morality tale “issues” novel but one that goes deeper than the surface in portraying Amy’s pain and guilt.