34. War Slut (105 pp.) by Carlton Mellick III (Nov. 18). At BizarroCon Christopher told me I should read this one. It wasn't what I thought it would be. It started in one place but ended up somewhere else. I loved it.

33. House-Keeping (219 pp.) by Marilynne Robinson (Oct. 26). Wow. I think Mom brought me this on her last visit. I've heard it was good and I could hardly put it down. I think I'm going to have to read it again.

The absolute black of the sky dulled and dimmed and blanced slowly away, and finally half a dozen daubs of cloud, dull powder pink, sailed high in a pale-green sky, rust-red at the horizon.

It's about a girl and her sister who are raised by a series of relatives after they lose their Mom. It doesn't all go well. Highly recommended.

32. The Lightning Thief (375 pp.) by Rick Riordan (Oct 20). I've heard good things about this book and had it on my list for a long time. I bought a copy during one of my big book buying binges at the UW bookstore during Clarion West. I know I'm not the target audience for this but there are many books for which I am not the target audience that I love. I did not like this book.

It's about a kid who discovers that one of his parents was a Mount Olympus god and he goes to a summer camp for other halflings or godlets or whatever their called. Then he discovers he has a power. Then he has to go on a quest. There were a few fun moments. But mostly it felt like a book where instead of a story someone was trying to think of a bunch of things that could happen. At times it felt like a huge smug inside joke for someone who sleeps with Bullfinch's on the nightstand.

I wanted to like it and it sells well. It's probably perfect for a 12 year old boy who loves to read.

31. Pyongyang (176 pp) by Guy Delisle (Oct. 13). I heard about this graphic novel on a website and bought it for Bob last Christmas. After we saw Spiegelman last week, I moved a stack of graphic novels onto my nightstand. I picked this one up just for a second to look at a few pages and see what it was like and didn't put it back down until I was halfway through. I finished it this morning. It's about an animator/cartoonist who goes to North Korea to work for several months and what life is like there. Really good and really depressing. Highly recommended.

30. Snuff (197 pp) by Chuck Palahniuk (Oct 4). This isn't a book I would have bought if Chuckles wasn't on of my instructors this summer. I liked Rant which I read earlier this year (#22). I didn't like this one at all. It's about a porn actress doing a big final gang bang film. The book is told in first person from four different points of view. And within each POV the character tells some backstory intercut with the present story that includes the other POV characters. Do you follow? I had a hard time. And I didn't like any of them.

29. The Miss Hobbema Pageant (200 pp) by WP Kinsella (Sep 24). One of my classmates sent me this book. These are short stories about first nation Indians in Canada and some are funny and some are sad-funny. Pizza Ria is one of my new favorite short stories of all time.

28. Four and Twenty Blackbirds (285pp) by Cherie Priest (Sep 5). I heard about this book several years ago but I don't remember where. I gave it to someone as a gift. Cherie visited our Clarion West class one afternoon and after that I ran out and bought a copy for me. Great creepy book with scary ghosts and hidden family secrets and a fabulous setting in the south. Recommend.

27. Dust (342 pp.) by Elizabeth Bear (Aug 22). I loved this book and it's the type of book that's hard to summarize in a sentence or two. It's got a generation ship that's been stalled for 500 years and a Amber-like warring family and Neil Gaiman-esque angels all held together with fancy nanotech. If I have one complaint, it's that there was a lot of information. I read about 50 pages and then went back and re-read and took notes to help me keep it all straight. Recommended and I'm definitely going to track down more of Bear's books.

26. Breaking Dawn (754 pp.) by Stephenie Meyer. (Aug 10). Finally, I finished a book and a mostly dreadful one at that. There will be spoilers in this review but nothing you wouldn't guess if you aren't following the series.

First of all, there's barely a 350pp book in this monster. There are long, long sections, including the first 400 pages that are just typing. People talk and talk and nothing productive or interesting happens. Second of all, she [the writer] jettisons everything that made Bella an interesting character. For the first half of the book she's like a child. Even her husband treats her like a child. In the second half she becomes a vampire and of course she's the most amazing vampire ever with fabulous powers. And she gets a Ferrarri and a closet bigger than a house. Then there's a long-winded super-talky showdown with the bad vampires.

Not recommended. I would not read another book in this series.

25. One Foot in the Grave (357pp.) by Jeaniene Frost. (Jun 11). I have about 5 books going right now plus I'm trying to clear out all the magazines and stuff in the nightstand before I go to Clarion West. I made a point to finish this one because I'm returning it this weekend. Boy, nothing like reading gnarly vampire sex on a 6am flight to Boise.

24. Halfway to the Grave (364 pp.) by Jeaniene Frost (May 22). This is a dopey but entertaining "paranormal romance." I had no idea such a thing existed. It's about a Buffy-ish half vampire/half human vampire hunter who hooks up with a Spike-like vampire so they can kill bad vampires and have lots of hot vampire sex that you can read on the bus with a totally straight face.

23. The Road (287 pp.) by Cormac McCarthy (May 18). I've been a Cormac McCarthy fan for a long time. A couple of years ago I read Suttree (book #9) which I described as grim and joyless. When The Road came out the first review I read said it was probably McCarthy's grimmest book to date and I couldn't imagine what that would be and was in no big rush to read it. Meanwhile it won the Pulitzer and everyone's read it and I finally picked it up. Oh my. I knew it was grim. I had no idea it was harrowing. I could hardly put it down, yet I wanted to avert my eyes. Here it is all in one sentence from p. 274 of the paperback:

"Ten thousand dreams ensepulchered within their crozzled hearts."

Very highly recommended.