38. American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang, 2006)

The graphic novels I've been ordering are coming in, and I keep forgetting to grab and read them. This one was a National Book Award finalist and won a YALSA award, for good reason. I have a hard time describing books like this without making them sound cheesy. Three interconnected stories make up the book, and I really enjoyed the way Yang moved back and forth between them. It took me a while to get how they were related, but I didn't care because I liked it all so much. I enjoyed the story and the artwork are equally, which isn't always the case for me with graphic novels.

37. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling, 2007)

Like eleventy million other people, I pre-ordered this and waited impatiently for the UPS truck to bring it on Saturday. When it still hadn't arrived after 6pm, I was vexed. A Twitter friend of mine told me hers came via USPS, and when I ran to the mailbox, I found that mine had, too. Why didn't UPS's tracker tell me they were handing it off to the (often unreliable in my neighborhood) mail delivery? Grr. In any case, I had an errand to run at dusk, so I was finally able to start reading it a little before 8pm. Interrupted only by an hour long phone call, I finished at 3:20am.

I'm not saying anything about the story, except that it was a really entertaining read that had me hooked from the first chapter.

36. The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep (Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout, 2007)

Another entertainment industry teen story for you. This time, the story focuses on a sheltered New Yorker who's selected to trade places with a girl from a big hippie family in Monterrey and have the whole thing taped for a new reality show. I thought it would be really implausible, but the story grabbed me. It's not genius, but was super entertaining. I have a few problems with the end of the book, but all in all, this was one of the more entertaining YA titles I've picked up in a while.

35. The Posse/Starlet

Starlet (Randi Reisfeld, 2007)

It seems this series was renamed before the first book came out. My galley was called The Posse, which is a better name and more descriptive of the story, in my opinion. Anyway, for a silly story about instant fame, it's pretty good. We follow the winner of an American Idol-like television show for aspiring actors as she hits Hollywood and becomes immersed in the movie industry. She brings two friends and her cousin along for the ride, forming the posse that gets into some of its own drama and conflict. The nasty anonymous blogger device is probably stolen from the Gossip Girls series, which I haven't read, but it worked nicely to create tension. The next installment comes out later this year, so if you can't get enough, you don't have long to wait. Starlet, as it's now called, is the literary equivalent of One Tree Hill. It's entertaining and quick, but you won't remember it in a week.

34. Fun Home

Fun Home (Alison Bechdel, 2006)

This book will definitely make my best-list this year. I'm a little annoyed with myself for not getting to it sooner. I picked it up for free at Midwinter on the last day, when the Houghton-Mifflin rep was trying to get rid of stuff (other scores included The Worst Hard Time and the latest Best American Short Stories, Essays, and Graphic Novels--worth hauling home). So it's been sitting in my massive, unwieldy pile for months. Damn.

What can I say that hasn't already been said much more eloquently than I'm capable of? I loved this book. The drawings are clever and funny and really descriptive. The dialogue is perfect and heartbreaking. I tend to shy away from stories of family drama, but I'm so glad I read this. It's wonderful.

33. Obsession

Obsession (Jonathan Kellerman, 2007)

Back in the day, I read all the Jonathan Kellerman I could get my grubby, teenaged hands on. They all blend together, and the only title I can actually remember is Silent Partner, because of the creepy twin angle and the graphic sex. Obsession is already blending into the rest of Kellerman's oeuvre, even though this is the first of his I've read in probably ten years. It all feels like a retread: implausible "mystery," waif-like patient with obsessive disorder, creepy psychopaths, hints of incest. I should have followed Nancy Pearl's 50 page rule and bailed on this, but it was a fast, brainless read that got me through a half-day home with an upset stomach. So I guess it was worth it.

32. Flower Children

Flower Children (Maxine Swann, 2007)

I read about Flower Children in the NYT recently, which prompted me to get it from the library. I like Swann's style and the dreamy quality of her prose, but I got kind of tired of the stories by the end of the book. A few of the stronger stories stand out and I'm betting those were the original material she published in lit journals. I'd like to read Swann's first novel, Serious Girls. From what I've read, I gather that Flower Children is almost a memoir, and I'd like to see what Swann does with different characters.

Several memoirs and memoir-style novels are in my vast bookpile, and for some reason I'm digging them right now. I keep starting and not finishing them, though. Maybe my next task will be to go finish all my half-read books or abandon them for good.

31. The Historian

The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova, 2005)

This is the book that really slowed my progress in this reading project. For months it's been sitting in my "to-read" pile and I've been avoiding it like the plague. Several people have recommended it enthusiastically, but it was hard to get in the mood to read something dense. I finally decided to tackle it, but it took me a week to get past the first couple of chapters and then a couple more weeks to finish it.

Basically, this book stressed me out. Once I was almost halfway through part one I was hooked, but it was slow going because the subject matter made me anxious. It's probably good I read this during the summer because it would have freaked me out more during the windy, bleak winter. Now I'm finished and still don't know how I feel or what I think about it.

Kostova is an excellent writer and her story is full of amazing detail. I enjoyed the heavy use of letters and exerpts from the documents the characters were studying, as well as the mystery central to the story. I must say that when Dracula finally appears, I was disappointed. He was kind of a dud, in fact. The other part that bothered me was the epilogue. I think I would have liked the book to just end after chapter 79, which was itself mostly exposition. That last chapter was different enough in tone to almost take me out of the story, but then to add the epilogue seemed like overkill. That's just my opinion. I guess I liked The Historian, but it thoroughly creeped me out for many nights and I'm glad to be done with it.