I’m getting WG 2009-43 in just under the wire – it’s due today. This time around we’re revisiting the best books published this year. I don’t read much recent stuff, especially since I stopped signing up for ARCs quite so often, but amazingly I did manage to pick up four titles in 2009. So here are my picks, in order:
- Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton – Excellent. I devoured it in about a day.
- When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris – Probably my second favorite of his books.
- Silverstein and Me by Marv Gold – A touching memoir about my favorite poet.
- The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire – Funny and tragic, but not all that great. If I’d read more than ten books published this year, this book would not have made the list.
So there you have it.
by Katherine Neville: The long-awaited sequel to Neville’s excellent debut novel, 
by Karen Cushman: A diary of a 13-year-old British girl in 1290. Absolutely delightful. Birdy’s commentary is loads of fun: earthy, funny, and brutally honest. Things just get better when she obtains a book of saints and marks whose feast day it is, often with hilarious commentary. I wonder how many of them are real. (Probably most, given the level of Christian superstition during those days.) Definitely recommended for anyone – children and adults alike – looking for an interesting and entertaining sample of medieval life (pay particular attention to the food – eww!). I don’t know why I didn’t read this years ago.
by Stephenie Meyer (unabridged audiobook read by Ilyana Kadushin and Matt Walters): This final book of the Twilight series opens with Bella and Edward’s wedding and subsequent honeymoon, and covers the first six months or so of their life together. There’s a bit of drama here and there, but by and large it’s not nearly as suspenseful as the earlier books – and those were pretty tame. As I’d expected, imprinting was used as a convenient solution to the love triangle. The idea is that when a werewolf meets his soulmate, he “imprints” on them and suddenly has eyes for no one else. Bella can’t be with Edward without breaking Jacob’s heart? Simple: Jacob imprints on somebody else and ceases being interested in Bella all together. Problem solved. Pretty cheap, if you ask me, but hardly unexpected. It’s not like I ever thought Jacob ever had a chance with Bella, even when Edward was out of the picture in New Moon.
by David Sedaris (unabridged audiobook read by the author): One thing I really appreciate about Sedaris is not only does he share the often unflattering foibles of everyone around him, he never spares himself. Indeed, he often paints himself as the one with the worst intentions and habits. I laughed particularly hard at “In the Waiting Room” and “What I Learned”. The final and longest essay, “The Smoking Section,” goes through his first few months after quitting smoking. It’s made more interesting by the stay in Japan during this time. These essays are sometimes poignant, often funny, and always unexpected. All in all, this is one of Sedaris’s better collections. It doesn’t beat out Me Talk Pretty One Day as my favorite, but it’s probably in second place.
by Michael Paterniti: When Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey autopsied Albert Einstein in 1955, he removed the great scientist’s brain, though whether he had the family’s permission to do so remains in doubt. Either way, he kept the brain in his house, in a couple of cookie jars. When Paterniti learned of this, he sought out the elusive pathologist. When Harvey mentions his intentions of giving part of the brain to Einstein’s niece Evelyn in California, Paterniti offers to drive him. Not quite as much of a romp as I’d hoped. I found myself a little nauseated every time he described the brain itself, which was in pieces, floating in formaldehyde. It doesn’t help that Paterniti seems to want to present the brain as a sort of religious relic, but often falls short. The main draw for me was the opportunity for a vicarious cross-country road trip. Unfortunately, Paterniti and Harvey don’t make for very interesting company.