I may be known to the wider world as a shopaholic & a
shoe girl, but my first love was (and always will be) books. My idea of a
perfect Friday night is spending it with a 2 foot stack of library books, and I
often refer to my social life as “cutting into my reading time.” Clearly I have
a problem. Then again, as addictions go, it’s a pretty tolerable one because my
substance of choice is free (woohoo libraries), I’m kept out of trouble, and it
increases brain cells instead of destroys them. If you want to see how deep my
affection for books goes take a look at my Goodreads account (there’s a link
under the socialize page), but I’ll start you off with an example of my 5 top
books this year!
The Ocean at the End
of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
No top 5 book list is complete without an entry from the
ever-popular Neil Gaiman, and I was super glad that his latest adult
publication stands up to his past reputation of awesomeness. The Ocean draws themes from a lot of his
other novels, but the story still stands up well on its own. Many have called
him a modern-day myth maker, and this book proves once again that his stories
are ones for the ages.
Vader’s Little
Princess by Jeffrey Brown
I knew before I even picked up this book that it was going
to be hilarious. Darth Vader with a teenage daughter is an alternate universe
that really should have come to fruition in a sit com. Then again, the single
page sketches perfectly contain Brown’s witty and satirical prose, so this
format was perfect as a dose of laughs.
Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible by Tim Gunn
I read a lot of fashion books this year (thanks to the
inter-library loans at Dalhousie and the surprisingly robust fashion collection
at the Regina Public Library), but the most amusing, well-written, and helpful
of the lot was penned by style guru Tim Gunn. The pages may not be filled with
beautiful fashion photography – I got my fix of that elsewhere – but Gunn’s
knowledge of fashion history and the development of trends lends itself to
extremely well placed advice. Plus it’s organized into easily referenced
chapters for each kind of clothing – and you know I love me some organization!
The Perks of Being a
Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky
I shall confess: I was badly behaved and watched the movie
before I read the book. Thankfully Chobosky had a lot of influence on the film,
so I found myself remembering parts of the film as I read the book because they
were so similar. Even when the two formats differed (translating speech from
books to film is tricky) I found that they both evoked similar feelings,
whether they were laughter or tears, and was very glad for this synergy.
Daughter of Smoke and
Bone by Laini Taylor
There has been a lot of drivel published in the teen fantasy
genre in recent years (I blame the advent of Twilight entirely), so I was utterly surprised when I found myself
spellbound by this novel. Taylor’s lush mythlogy and well-written prose redeems
the entire genre, and goes to prove that there are decent urban fantasy books
out there – they’re just a little bit hidden. Considering how well this book
seems to be faring on the ratings charts it would not surprise me if it was the
beginning of a new supernatural being popularity change. Get on the band wagon
now, or you’ll definitely regret it!
all images from Goodreads.
No comments:
Post a Comment