Less reading than usual this year, possibly because there was more writing. Need to find more balance next year–because writing is better than anything, but writing drains the well, while reading fills it.
(Also possibly for next year–finishing this year’s reading challenge.)
2. How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
3. House of the Star, Caitlin Brennan (magical horse-girl happiness)
4. Archaic Smile, A.E. Stallings (love her Greek-mythology based poetry)
5. Love and Lies, Ellen Wittlinger
6. Fat Vampire, Adam Rex (anything I want to say about this book–and its ending–would be a spoiler)
7. Indigo Springs, A.M. Dellamonica (nicely original eco-post-apocalyptic)
8. The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands, Margaret Regan (from which I learned much about Arizona border issues)
9. A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whelan Turner (still love this series; not so sure I still love Gen)
10. Among Others, Jo Walton
11. Story of a Girl, Sara Zarr
12. The Essential Bordertown, edited by Terri Windling and Delia Sherman
13. Gone, Lisa McMann
14. Blackbringer, Laini Taylor (some lovely world-weaving here)
15. The Last Hunt, Bruce Coville (sometimes it’s worth waiting a couple decades for the last book of a series)
16. Liar, Justine Larbalestier
17. Riding Invisible, Sandra Alonzo
18. Party, Tom Leveen
19. White Cat, Holly Black (anything I want to say about this one would be a spoiler, too)
20. This World We Live In, Susan Beth Pfeffer
21. Fairy Tale, Cyn Balog
22. Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
23. Lost in the Labyrinth, Patrice Kindl
24. The Neverending Story, Michael Ende (the first reread of this book that didn’t utterly engross me)
25. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
26. Bamboo People, Mitali Perkins (like Marge Pellegrino’s Journey of Dreams, a gentle look at a harsh subject)
27. The Dragon Heir, Cinda Williams Chima
28. Keeper, Kathi Appelt (no one writes fantasy the way Kathi Appelt writes fantasy; no one writes the way Kathi Appelt writes at all)
29. Beige, Cecil Castellucci (love the deep-running spare prose)
30. Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner (amazingly, my first time reading this)
31. The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope (reread)
32. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle (re-re-re-re-reread) (this one held up far better, though there are some gender issues I’d never seen before)
33. Midnight Never Come, Marie Brennan (at once lush and semi-rationalized faerie story)
34. Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (yes, you can be an orthodox Jewish girl and still slay dragons)
35. Spells, Aprilynne Pike
36. The Plain Janes, Cecil Castelucci
37. The Princess and the Hound, Mette Ivie Harrison (“For it is not the animal magic that is evil, any more than it is an arrow or a knife in a man’s back, but those who wield such weapons.”)
38. Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey (that I love the resolution of the romance in this one probably says things about me)
39. Enchanted Ivy, Sarah Beth Durst (another writer who doesn’t write quite like anyone else, in the best way)
40. The Curse of Addy McMahon, Katie Davis
41. Foiled, Jane Yolen (makes excellent use of the form, and at the same time the prose shines through it)
42. Careers for Your Cat, Ann Dziemianowicz (pretty much confirming that Elder Cat really is suited for world domination, and Younger Cat really is suited for long naps in the sun)
In-progress: The Princess and the Bear, Mette Ivie Harrison