Books of 2018- Installment #23

111. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman
This is a collection of short stories that take Asian myths and/or folklore as their inspiration. This anthology has authors I love and new favorites for me!!

112. Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, Rafael Alburquerque, Rafael Scavone, & Dave Stewart
This is a short little graphic novel set in the Sherlock Holmes world. I don't really read graphic novels or Sherlock Holmes stories, but my students love both so this seemed a good one to check out. It did a really nice job of being engaging, new, and surprising.

113. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I hadn't really heard of this book until my friend mailed it to me. Then suddenly I heard about it in a bunch of different places. There's a word for that, but I've forgotten it. This is a book that is quite unlike most books. It's a labyrinth. It's a book within a book. Or rather a tome within a tome, possibly a tomb inside a tome. And it's utterly fascinating!

114. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

My last book of 2018! A fantastic ending to the year! This is the follow-up to The Calculated Stars and that book was so good, I decided to put a hold on this book immediately after I finished The Calculated Stars. So good!! So good!!

Trixie and the Moai 2018 Awards

It is time to announce the winner's of the second annual Trixie and the Moai awards.

I forget how hard it is to narrow my list down to 5 books. I read over 100 books this year, which seems to be fairly normal for me, and at the end of the year, it's pretty easy to say, "I have these 50 favorite books!" And I post around that for the finalists. Then I set that aside and ruminate. Which books stayed with me? Which books didn't fall asleep once I stopped reading them? Then I try to whittle the list down some more. Some of the books are short, some are long. Should that factor into it? I don't think so but then when I'm trying to get down the list to 5, well, something has to be the criteria.... Some were anthologies- amazing anthologies!! Some were books in a series. Do I pick only one from the series? The first one? None of them? Some nonfiction- tough to get into my top 5 if you're nonfiction even if you make it to the finalist list! I'm just so much more into fiction.... Poetry, historical, horror, fantasy, and of course science fiction. I look for books that I just can't stop thinking about to be the final cut. That often means the ones I read in earlier in the year have had more time to "prove" themselves unforgettable. The ones that I read more recently have the advantage of being fresher in my mind. Oh, why did I limit myself to 5????? I guess, I can't keep to my own rules... So this year, we have 5 gold award winning Trixie and the Moai and 1 silver!!

Here are this year's honorees- in the order I read them!!

And our one silver recipient!

Books of 2018- Installment #22

106. Elevation by Stephen King
I had heard that Stephen King wanted to write an uplifting story in the midst of this very depressing political time. I thought, "I'd like to read that." So I did. And it was.

107. Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen
I came late to the Jane Yolen fan club, but I'm here now!! I love her and this book in verse is fantastic! I am definitely going to reread this book!!

108. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
I loved The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal, so I was excited to read this book. Apparently many a library patron did too because it was a long wait for this book!

109. Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau
I heard about this book on the podcast What I Should Read Next. It sounded interesting and did not sound like something Anne Bogel would be into. I mean it has time travel in it! Yeah, sign me up! And it made me laugh! I need more laughter in my life!!

110. The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox
This was a fascinating story of the decipherment of an unknown written language. It took half a century to figure out what the language was. This book talks about the who and the how and really makes you appreciate Alice Kober- the unsung hero of this story!

Book Journal

I decided to make a book journal for the first time. I am pretty pleased with the results! I came up with several different things (inspired by ones found online)- categories for books, bookshelves for by TBR and my literary canon, drawings about books, reading challenge bingos, mind maps, and quotes. Here are some of my favorite pages!!

Books of 2018- Installment #21

101. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
This retelling of Frankenstein is masterful! I love it! I love it!! This is a famous story and yet, I don't want to spoil how she comes at so instead here are some comments by Kiersten White.

The dedication is so beautiful: "For everyone made to feel like a side character in their own story"

From the author's note: "Two hundred years ago, a teenage girl sat down and created science fiction. She did it on a dare."

102. Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
I love Alice Hoffman, and I've had this book on my shelf for a long time. Her writing, as always, is lyrical. She takes the commonplace and illuminates the beauty in it. This story centers around a perfect marriage that faces its great challenge- the perfect husband is a criminal and no one knew. His crime is heinous. Heinous!! So do people who loved him deeply, trusted him implicitly, continue to love him? Would you? Would I? Can you truly change? I can't say I liked this book. It is awful sitting there with the heinousness of his crimes and the goodness he seems to be afterward. The author doesn't show us the transition. He don't see how he changed. It just seems like he flipped a light switch and went from being reprehensible to angelic. I have trouble reconciling that change with what I have seen of reality. But the questions central to the story- can people change? can you redeem yourself after such horrific actions?- are interesting and compelling.

103. The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2018 edited by NK Jemisin & John Joseph Adams
I love John Joseph Adams curated anthologies! Love them!! It's a delight to read these best of anthologies! The stories are amazing! You can feel the guest editor's influence, and it tickles me every time I discover I've read a story that is in these anthologies! This one is no different!!

104. Rosewater by Tade Thompson
This book has been getting a lot of buzz, so I had to check it out. It's set in Nigeria after an alien something has taken up residence in the town and the consequences of that. It's interesting that this book, The Spaceship Next Door, which I read earlier this year, and The Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers seem to share some of the same DNA. Regardless of that, this book is super interesting, and I am eagerly awaiting the second book in the series!

105. The Power by Naomi Alderman
This book was kind of intimidating with all its accolades like President Obama's favorite of 2017 and one of the 10 best books of the New York Times Book Review, but it was super interesting to read after having read Stephen & Owen King's book, Sleeping Beauties. I'd highly recommend reading these two books together. As an aside- I feel I'm reading a lot of books that talk about power and women, which feels possible because of the #metoo movement, even if that's not really the case.

2018 Finalists for the Trixie and the Moai Book Award

In 2016 I decided that I was going to give 5 books of the most amazing books I'd read that year awards. This is a completely arbitrary award with a little "sticker" as it's only prize. But in the end I want to recognize the amazing books and authors that I read every year.

So without further ado (and in the order I read them) here are the finalists for the third annual Trixie and the Moai Book Award!

As usual- there's a lot of stiff competition!!!