10. Half A Life

By Darin Strauss (205 pp)

This book is tough, but really, really good. Two months before he graduated high school, Strauss was out with friends and a bike swerved in front of his car. The bicycle rider was a classmate and she died from the accident. He was not at fault. This happened in 1988. The story is about him dealing with it for the rest of his life, so far. It is, at times, completely heart-breaking. There are a lot of ways a book like this could go wrong but this one does not. It does not tie up in some neat conclusion. Recommend.

9. Confessions of a Shopaholic

By Sophie Kinsella (269 pp ebook)

Another light reading book for travel. A young woman can't stop buying things and it catches up with her. There was a part of me that experienced severe anxiety about her spending. "You don't need that," I wanted to shout at the book. But there was another part of me that understood her rationale. "I should get that white coat. I would be known as that girl with the white coat." Hilarious and fun to read.

8. On The Island

By Tracey Garvis Graves (281 pp ebook)

After I finished the Twilight series I figured I'd never again find a book that I enjoyed as much as I thought it was awful. I was wrong. On the Island is the story of a 17 year old boy recovering from a serious illness and his 30 year old tutor who get stranded on a island in the Maldives. Don't worry, nothing happens until he's legal. The writing is weak and cliched. Implausibility builds upon implausibility. I completely enjoyed it during a long day of travel.

7. Footnotes in Gaza

By Joe Sacco (418 pp)

Last year I decided I would read more graphic novels and this is the first one I've managed to read since then. It's a journalistic account of a couple of incidents in Gaza in the 1950's. It's also a journalistic account of the author researching and interviewing to tell this story. It's dense and lost me in a couple of spots. It's a tough story but really well done.

6. Jagannath

By Karin Tidbeck (111 pp. ebook)

I go through these phases where I try to support small presses and look for books I might normally not read. I think if you call yourself a writer you should do your best to support all kinds of reading.

I had a credit at Weightless Books and this is the book I tried. These are short stories with odd speculative elements. Tidbeck is Swedish and her voice and perspective are original and sometimes disturbing. Definitely recommended for folks who like strange with their stories.

5. Beautiful Creatures

By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (563 pp)

This book just came out as a movie. I saw a movie trailer and a couple of references to the book online and thought: this looks just the kind of cheesy teen romance book that I love. It was not. I really wanted to like the book and it started out pretty good. Small town in the South. New girl moves in with relatives in the creepy rundown mansion. She doesn't fit in. Strange powers.

But the longer it goes on the more it goes off the rails. The story execution is criminally terrible. Every stereotype of the South you've ever seen. Pedestrian, on-the-nose dialogue. Random potentially interesting story elements that come up and then disappear. In the acknowledgements the authors say it took 3 months to write and it shows. Do not recommend.

4. Beautiful Ruins

By Jess Walker (337 pp.)

This fabulous book was a gift from Hannah. There is no way to sum it up briefly without criminally short-changing it. It starts in Italy with a pitiful young man whose family owns a pitiful inn called Hotel Adequate View. A dying starlet shows up and changes everything. It's funny and sad and really wonderful. RECOMMEND.

3. The Marriage Plot

by Jeffrey Eugenides (406 pp.)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed reading it but it didn't totally work for me. Although now that I'm writing this I realize what didn't work for me was what happened in the story. It's not like it's the author's job to make the characters do what I want them to do. It's set in 1982 and it's about three college graduates trying to figure out what they're doing with their lives. Also troubled romance.

2. City of Dark Magic

by Magnus Flyte (448 pp.)

This book is about a music student who is invited to Prague to work on restoring Beethoven for a museum. One of her professors was also working on the project and appears to have committed suicide. Turns out there is a lot going on with this museum and a number of people with something at stake in the collection. There's also a speculative element. The story is silly at times especially the ending. But I liked the setting in Prague and it was perfect bus reading.

1. The Waste Lands

by Stephen King (588 pp.)

This is book #3 of the Dark Tower series and yike-a-roni, it's a slog. Fortunately, SK had the foresight to end it right in the middle of an action bit so people would have a hard time skipping #4. I'm going to assume the books get better since the series goes to #7. In this tome, our band of heroes wander around and do lots and lots of talking by the campfire. They deal with some crazy-pants stuff. I think SK could have knocked out 200 pp and had a real page turner. But I liked the good parts enough that I'm going to continue with the series. After I read my stack of xmas books.

Book List for 2013 Starts Here

I read 37 books in 2012. Not bad but I'd still like to read more. You should see the stack I got for Xmas/Birthday. Yay.

For 2012 My list of short stories/novellas/novelettes says I read 166 and that's not everything. I don't always keep track of the shorter stuff.

For a change in 2013 I'm going to count pages on novels. Counting for the short stuff is too much work. How about a goal of 15k?

My favorites for 2012 were the pair by Kendare Blake: Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares. Among Others by Jo Walton, Angelfall by Susan Ee, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, the Megan Whalen Turner series and the two by Patrick Rothfuss, Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear.

37. Perfect Gallows

 
By Peter Dickinson (234 pp)

Peter Dickinson is a terrific writer of all kinds of stuff. This particular book is a 1988 mystery. It opens with a body being found. It's set during WWII and this young man is told he's the heir to a huge fortune when the son is lost in the war. But then the son appears and who is to inherit is in question. Except there is a twist. There were parts of the story that were uncomfortable but overall a good one.