The best five books I've read in 2009
Jul. 25th, 2009 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mllelaurel1. The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim C. Hines
I can't say enough about how much I love Hines's characters here. They're so real and so very kickass! October, when the sequel comes out, cannot come soon enough.
2. Memory and Dream, by Charles de Lint.
Wow, was this book intense! This is de Lint at his finest, with the razor-edge insight into both the darker and the more hopeful facets of magic and humanity.
3. Shambling Towards Hiroshima and City of Truth, by James Morrow
I love how Morrow can take an absurd concept like an actor being hired to play Godzilla, to convince WWII-era Japanese dignitaries that the US has a megabeast biological weapon on their side, and make it both genuinely funny and genuinely heartwrenching.
In City of Truth, it's not the concept that gets you (though that's damn nifty too), but the raw insight into the way people uplift themselves and sink into denial all at the same time when faced with a painful truth. I also love that Morrow didn't go for a clear moral regarding the truth-only and lies-only lifestyles. Both are painted as positive in some aspects but ultimately flawed.
4. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
I can't describe it any better than to say that Gaiman makes it magical and does it right.
5. Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey
Whereas I found the much-anticipated Naamah's Kiss to be a huge disappointment, Santa Olivia carried me right in and made me want to stay. I cared about the world and the characters. On a more specific to me note, this book features a relationship facing difficult decisions which could have easily dissolved into Big Misunderstandings and drama and it didn't. The characters communicated. God, that felt good.
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This is the part where I request that you SPONSOR ME. This is also where I ask for your book recs. Cause books make the Lily geek happy.
I can't say enough about how much I love Hines's characters here. They're so real and so very kickass! October, when the sequel comes out, cannot come soon enough.
2. Memory and Dream, by Charles de Lint.
Wow, was this book intense! This is de Lint at his finest, with the razor-edge insight into both the darker and the more hopeful facets of magic and humanity.
3. Shambling Towards Hiroshima and City of Truth, by James Morrow
I love how Morrow can take an absurd concept like an actor being hired to play Godzilla, to convince WWII-era Japanese dignitaries that the US has a megabeast biological weapon on their side, and make it both genuinely funny and genuinely heartwrenching.
In City of Truth, it's not the concept that gets you (though that's damn nifty too), but the raw insight into the way people uplift themselves and sink into denial all at the same time when faced with a painful truth. I also love that Morrow didn't go for a clear moral regarding the truth-only and lies-only lifestyles. Both are painted as positive in some aspects but ultimately flawed.
4. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
I can't describe it any better than to say that Gaiman makes it magical and does it right.
5. Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey
Whereas I found the much-anticipated Naamah's Kiss to be a huge disappointment, Santa Olivia carried me right in and made me want to stay. I cared about the world and the characters. On a more specific to me note, this book features a relationship facing difficult decisions which could have easily dissolved into Big Misunderstandings and drama and it didn't. The characters communicated. God, that felt good.
---
This is the part where I request that you SPONSOR ME. This is also where I ask for your book recs. Cause books make the Lily geek happy.
