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impyEvery so often I get lucky and win a book from the LibraryThing or Goodreads giveaways. When I say every so often, I think this is my fourth book. Of those four, one broke my brain completely, one was terribly disappointing (do not say your ghost stories cover the continental U.S. and then ignore 85% of the country. It's rude!) and I loved the third.
Number four is giving me a bit of a fit because it's probably the best non y/a book I've read all year, but it doesn't come out til early next year, so do I still count it as the best of 2009? :P
While we've got a month and a half before the end of the year, I think it's time for me to round up my favorites of the year. I've got space left, so if the remainder of the year blows me away, they can always easily fit into this club.
Some might argue it was the year of the vampire. I say that's just bullshit. It's always the year of the vampire for me. The rest of those losers can just get in the back of the line and you can join me up here in pointing and laughing, even if you don't even LIKE paranormal stuff. It's okay. I've got plenty of popcorn for throwing. It'll be fun.
Since it wasn't the year of the vampire any more than usual (no. Really. It wasn't. Shut up, entertainment magazines!) what was it the year of?
Zombies, bitches. It was the year of the zombie. I don't like zombies. I think most paranormally/supernaturally inclined people have a thing they love and a thing they loathe, or at least something they'd prefer not to read. Mine happens to be zombies. And yet, I swear, I read quite a few zombie books this year.
We had Zombie Blondes which tricks you into thinking it's fluffier than it is because the cover is kind of toon-y and awesome. If you pick up the book, never forget that where zombies go, happy endings rarely follow.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is also a zombie entry, but it doubles as a best of the year pick as well. It has at least one major issue that drove me bonkers, but it's also one that I believe I read as quickly as possible without even really trying. It just read that quickly. Bits of it still float back and haunt me and I figure that combined with how much I liked it them definitely puts it on the list. So, if you haven't read it, go look it up and see if you're interested.
On a shallow note, I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous.
Zombies probably popped up in the various Anita crap I read through the year (because one of them was the graphic novel version of Guilty Pleasures) and... zombies, people. Just zombies.
Next we've got Hate List which probably wins as best overall, y/a be damned, but I'm listing it second because I've already gushed. You're excused from FHT because these things are not for everyone, but you're going to read and love Hate List because it is awesome.
And for number three, we've got next year's The Things That Keep Us Here. Which I should not have read because I don't need to think about a flu pandemic anymore than I already do.
Things is about a family that's coming apart at the seams. Ann and Peter are drifting further and further away from one another, and a year after they separate, just as the divorce is about to be finalized, the avian flu finally manages to make the trip across the ocean. Peter's work as a researcher has him tracking the various massive die-offs of migratory birds, but by the time he realizes the H5N1 virus has made it a little too close to home, things have already begun to spun wildly out of control.
Schools are closed, everyone is advised to stay home... things sound familiar?
Sadly, people don't seem to comprehend that they should be avoiding one another and the virus spreads quickly. So do paranoia and fear and it doesn't take long for people to turn on one another. A simple trip to the grocery store turns dangerous as people panic and hoard as much as they possibly can. I must admit that this is the one scene I call bullshit on. Day one people would be clearing things out, yes. That I believe. But I do not believe they would be reacting quite that violently as a general rule, at least not on the very first day. Especially when the following days have people going to the mall, and not for rioting purposes.
That little quibble aside, the book works because it isolates Ann and Peter's family (as well as Peter's student, Shazia) and focuses on how they work together and against one another when the world goes completely insane.
I originally planned on reading a chapter before going to bed prior to work. I read half the book and only made myself put the book down because I was worried that if I made it much further, I wouldn't want to go in to work.*
It's well written and while you might not like everyone all the time, I don't think I hated any of the main characters, even as they did things I thought were painfully stupid, but realistic, too.
Makes me insanely glad I don't live in a place where snowstorms are all that likely, however. Read it. You'll understand.
* You read about a monster flu and then go to work at a drug store where people believe it's totally fine to come in and cough all over every fucking thing while waiting for a prescription when they could just use the goddamned drive through. It takes all my self control not to Lysol these people down and inform them that the drive through is there for their convenience and to keep us all from getting their damn cold/sickness/whatever. This urge is lessened when they're shopping while they wait, but the people who basically wander aimlessly until they are called, coughing all over everything and everyone? Those people are begging for a beating. Or a Lysol shower. Whichever.
Number four is giving me a bit of a fit because it's probably the best non y/a book I've read all year, but it doesn't come out til early next year, so do I still count it as the best of 2009? :P
While we've got a month and a half before the end of the year, I think it's time for me to round up my favorites of the year. I've got space left, so if the remainder of the year blows me away, they can always easily fit into this club.
Some might argue it was the year of the vampire. I say that's just bullshit. It's always the year of the vampire for me. The rest of those losers can just get in the back of the line and you can join me up here in pointing and laughing, even if you don't even LIKE paranormal stuff. It's okay. I've got plenty of popcorn for throwing. It'll be fun.
Since it wasn't the year of the vampire any more than usual (no. Really. It wasn't. Shut up, entertainment magazines!) what was it the year of?
Zombies, bitches. It was the year of the zombie. I don't like zombies. I think most paranormally/supernaturally inclined people have a thing they love and a thing they loathe, or at least something they'd prefer not to read. Mine happens to be zombies. And yet, I swear, I read quite a few zombie books this year.
We had Zombie Blondes which tricks you into thinking it's fluffier than it is because the cover is kind of toon-y and awesome. If you pick up the book, never forget that where zombies go, happy endings rarely follow.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is also a zombie entry, but it doubles as a best of the year pick as well. It has at least one major issue that drove me bonkers, but it's also one that I believe I read as quickly as possible without even really trying. It just read that quickly. Bits of it still float back and haunt me and I figure that combined with how much I liked it them definitely puts it on the list. So, if you haven't read it, go look it up and see if you're interested.
On a shallow note, I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous.
Zombies probably popped up in the various Anita crap I read through the year (because one of them was the graphic novel version of Guilty Pleasures) and... zombies, people. Just zombies.
Next we've got Hate List which probably wins as best overall, y/a be damned, but I'm listing it second because I've already gushed. You're excused from FHT because these things are not for everyone, but you're going to read and love Hate List because it is awesome.
And for number three, we've got next year's The Things That Keep Us Here. Which I should not have read because I don't need to think about a flu pandemic anymore than I already do.
Things is about a family that's coming apart at the seams. Ann and Peter are drifting further and further away from one another, and a year after they separate, just as the divorce is about to be finalized, the avian flu finally manages to make the trip across the ocean. Peter's work as a researcher has him tracking the various massive die-offs of migratory birds, but by the time he realizes the H5N1 virus has made it a little too close to home, things have already begun to spun wildly out of control.
Schools are closed, everyone is advised to stay home... things sound familiar?
Sadly, people don't seem to comprehend that they should be avoiding one another and the virus spreads quickly. So do paranoia and fear and it doesn't take long for people to turn on one another. A simple trip to the grocery store turns dangerous as people panic and hoard as much as they possibly can. I must admit that this is the one scene I call bullshit on. Day one people would be clearing things out, yes. That I believe. But I do not believe they would be reacting quite that violently as a general rule, at least not on the very first day. Especially when the following days have people going to the mall, and not for rioting purposes.
That little quibble aside, the book works because it isolates Ann and Peter's family (as well as Peter's student, Shazia) and focuses on how they work together and against one another when the world goes completely insane.
I originally planned on reading a chapter before going to bed prior to work. I read half the book and only made myself put the book down because I was worried that if I made it much further, I wouldn't want to go in to work.*
It's well written and while you might not like everyone all the time, I don't think I hated any of the main characters, even as they did things I thought were painfully stupid, but realistic, too.
Makes me insanely glad I don't live in a place where snowstorms are all that likely, however. Read it. You'll understand.
* You read about a monster flu and then go to work at a drug store where people believe it's totally fine to come in and cough all over every fucking thing while waiting for a prescription when they could just use the goddamned drive through. It takes all my self control not to Lysol these people down and inform them that the drive through is there for their convenience and to keep us all from getting their damn cold/sickness/whatever. This urge is lessened when they're shopping while they wait, but the people who basically wander aimlessly until they are called, coughing all over everything and everyone? Those people are begging for a beating. Or a Lysol shower. Whichever.
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Date: 2009-11-18 12:30 am (UTC)/nerd.
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Date: 2009-11-18 01:10 pm (UTC)This, I should add, would make more sense if I weren't tired enough to be seeing double?