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Original post on xoxoxo e
I've been spending a lot more time reading this year, for a variety of reasons. Our local library is fantastic, and it's impossible to walk out without something. I signed up for the Cannonball Read III, a great cause where folks can read a full (52) or half (26) cannonball - basically a book a week in a year (I signed up for a full one.
I've also taken my reviewing up a notch and now receive new releases that strike my fancy directly from publishers, which I review on my blog or for other websites (Blogcritics, BlogHer). Through all these new connections and fellow Cannonballer recommendations I have been exposed to a lot of great books. This list reflects the ten best books I've read so far this year. They aren't all new releases — some have been around for ages — but they're all great books that I heartily recommend, if you're looking for some reading material.
The books aren't in any order of preference, just the order I read and reviewed them. Here are some excerpts from my reviews, to give you an idea:
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman - A truly beautiful book, for kids and adults.
The other touching aspect of the novel are all of the dead characters. How many of us have lost someone, and wished or wondered if there was some sort of existence, similar to their living one, that might continue? Bod gets to know people from many different eras in his town's history. He gets a built-in history lesson as well as the reassurance that death is not final. He learns not to fear death or endings.
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell - I finally succumbed to reading this, and am so very glad I did.
[Scarlett] is caught between what her mother taught her, which point-for-point is to be subservient to men but rule the roost—just never let the man know. In essence, as Rhett referes to her, a lovely little hypocrite. But Scarlett's true nature is to be the absolute opposite of everything her mother taught her. Scarlett owns and manages property (Tara, Frank Kennedy's store, and the saw mill). Scarlett drinks secretly, sometimes to the point of getting drunk. Scarlett is always outspoken, and she is never kind, gracious or forgiving. But she is in no way masculine or trying to take on the role of a man in Southern society. Her simple, direct mind just sees that she is as smart as any man, so why shouldn't she do as she pleases? She certainly never intends to wait patiently for anyone else to do it for her. She is a pragmatic feminist, but she would be horrified if that fact was pointed out to her (if she could even understand it), as she holds on to her persistent self-delusion that she is still a Southern belle, modeling herself after her mother.
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel - This is an amazing book, beautifully written. Mantel makes history come alive, and not just the Tudor story we have all heard before, but the man behind the throne. She makes Thomas Cromwell as compelling, if not more so, than his boss, Henry VIII.
How a blacksmith's son could travel the world, learn law, multiple languages and manage to carve out for himself a dynasty back in England is made utterly believable. But Cromwell remains a puzzle to those who surround him. "A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires." Mantel brings history to life with her Cromwell, a modern man, forward-thinking and always on the alert for advancement. Anne Boleyn could never have become queen and Henry would never have become the head of the Church of England if not for Cromwell.
Just Kids, by Patti Smith - Patti Smith, no surprise, has a wonderful way with words. She also takes a pretty unflinching look at her life with and without Mappelthorpe and brings a certain time in New York to vivid life.
The Chelsea Hotel was their Montmartre, their source and hotbed of creativity. For every young artist, young person, there is a time and place that is almost sacred. It’s where and when they found their true peers, had their first deep personal and
