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First the official bio: David Mack is the author and artist of The Shy Creatures children’s picture book, and the award winning KABUKI graphic novels, and the Eisner Award nominated writer of Daredevil for Marvel Comics. KABUKI: The Alchemy is his current story published by Marvel Comics.

Mack is the subject of a new award winning documentary film: “The Alchemy of Art: David Mack” now released on
DVD. Go to fan site davidmackguide.com for links and more information.

I have been a fan of David's for years, and love not only his art (as seen on the much lamented Alias series which had no relation to the tv program) but also his writing and have Kabuki both in trade paperbacks and single issue comics. (I receive every issue of his ongoing series, Kabuki: The Alchemy, as it is released.) The Shy Creatures was a real surprise though; it's Seussical style is wonderful and the story is very sweet and sassy and most certainly has large appeal to picture book reading boys and girls. Here's a bit of my review from this fall:

One of the interesting hooks here is "the shy girl" who hides behind a pile of books at her school desk. She has a very big imagination and clearly has not been afraid to research the topic that interests her so much. The creatures here are not of the common variety; there is Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and a unicorn, but also Phoenix, the Cyclops and Chupacabra. Mack reaches into literature for the Pushmi-pullyu and outer space for the "Grey Aliens." This is clearly a shy girl who lets nothing limit her dreams; or her kindness.

I also interviewed David as part of the WBBT which was a great treat for me and provided some insight into how he incorporates the themes of children's literature into the very adult themed Kabuki series:

The inclusion of picture books in the Kabuki storyline came first. The Kabuki volumes have always had children’s literature as a theme that runs through them. The first volume is a retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Each of the characters in the story matches to a character in Carroll’s world and each corresponds to a piece on the chess board.

I had created another picture book that became a book within the story as well called My Invisible Friend. The Shy Creatures continued with these themes. The book within a book motif gives me a way to show a whimsical kid’s perspective of how to read the surface themes of the story.

David is one of the most innovative writers and artists out there today and if you have somehow missed his work than I urge you now to go out and buy copies of Kabuki and The Shy Creatures. You will be impressed, I promise. Now onto David's favorite reads this year.
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Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison. A wonderful memoir of the author who discovers he has Asperger’s Syndrome as an adult which shed’s light on the quirks and misadventures and human interactions of his childhood and early formative years. An account of a life lived according to his gifts rather than limitations, and the book is a method of the author taking stock of both of those to better understand himself.

I related to this book because it echoed dead on many of my own experiences through the lens of Asperger’s
and gave me a sober perspective of the expectations of human interaction.

Blink by Malcom Gladwell. The pros & cons of making decisions from the first look and gut instinct verses a continued study. The way our mind makes judgements before our conscious mind understands how or why.

If They Give you Lined Paper Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn. An author’s response to the question “How do you do what you do?” Told in a back and forth Q&A form of dialogue which I enjoy.

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen. A wonderful book of his poetry.

How to Think Like Einstein by Scott Thorpe. A wonderful collection of practical ways to re-think your world and solve problems great and small by breaking the rules of your pre-conceptions. I referenced this in my current KABUKI: The Alchemy story.

The Classic Stories of Philip K. Dick. The multi book collection of all of Dick’s short stories. Around a 150 short stories that include thoughtful ideas and twists of reality and philosophical questions of free will, what is real, and what it means to be human. Read these to see where the current road of Sci-Fi came from.

The War of Art (Winning the Inner Creative Battle) Steven Pressfield. A wonderful book on how a writer does what he does from a practical standpoint of how to do just about anything by doing it, instead of resisting the urge to do it. Makes a moral case for why you must do what you are creatively compelled to do.

RANT by Chuck Palahniuk A biography of the main character told in chunks through the subjective lens of the people in his life. I love all of Palahniuk’s work and find it thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring. This was an advance reading copy sent to me by the author with the inscription “To David Mack, Thank You for the inspiration!” So it will be even closer to my heart. One time someone asked what film would best describe my live so far and I said it would be a re-mix mash-up between Fight Club & The Royal Tanenbaums.

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. Documenting a variety of research in multiple areas, of what makes a social phenomenon jump to the next level and become something else.

Einstein’s Cosmos by Michio Kaku. The renowned Theortical Physicist gives an accessabile tour of how Einstein thought in simple physical structures that had vast implications.

Magical Thinking by Augustyn Burroughs. I’ve read all of his books and enjoy them all.

Word Virus by William S. Burroughs. The nature of language. The built in story and thought control inherent in the use of any language. Love it. The author one of my influences, and this book was the most influential.

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Whoa - I did not see any of these coming! What fascinating subjects and interesting choices. I'm trying to figure out how Gladwell, Einstein, Quinn and Augustyn Burroughs (not to mention Chuck Palahniuk and Philip K. Dick) all come together in David's head as he writes his fiction. Never would have guessed these - not one of them. What an unusual group and some great choices for further reading for the rest of. (Hello - The War of Art?! How awesome does that sound?)

Thanks for stopping by David - back tomorrow with First Second designer (and comic book writer/artist herself) Danica Novgorodoff.

Liz Noland is the publicist for the new imprint Feiwel & Friends (as well as Square Fish) and after corresponding with her for some time during her tenure at Penguin, I was quite pleased to hear from Liz about all the new imprint had to offer. I reviewed several Feiwell titles this year, including Carpe Diem, The Shy Creatures and The Poison Apples. I'm really impressed by the collective teen voice Feiwel is offering and look forward to seeing what will be coming from them next season. But more than that, I've been enjoying talking books with Liz who always has bright things to say about books for the young. She's very cool and has a lot to offer this industry.

Here's what Liz has to say about her 2007 reading:

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My ongoing reading is basically divided into 3 categories: books I read for work, books I read for book club, and books I read for me. I’ve picked a few favorites of my year in reading for each group.

I’ve been very fortunate in my job at Feiwel and Friends and Square Fish to have a wonderful, varied selection of books to read, and it is so hard to choose my personal favorites. I was incredibly moved by Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate; her writing is readable and beautiful, and the images and experiences of Kek, the main character (a refugee from the Sudan who moves to Minneapolis), have stuck with me since I first read this book. Meg Powers in Long May She Reign, Anna Bloom in Get Well Soon, and Liz Hall in Elsewhere (which I had not read until I was working on the paperback edition this year) are three witty, refreshingly complicated girls that I wish were all real people who I could have been friends with when I was a teen.

For picture books, I am especially excited for Bloom by Maria Van Lieshout (coming out in January)—I think the story of falling for the wrong person, while the right person is under your nose all along, will strike a chord with readers of all ages, and the text and illustrations are adorably whimsical and funny. At my previous job, I was not disappointed by the newest series installments from two of my favorite author/illustrators, Anna Dewdney (Llama Llama Mad at Mama) and Judy Schachner (Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones).

Now that I’ve also been working on audiobook publicity, too, I’ve enjoyed learning to appreciate this format and the special things that an audio edition can add to a book. Meryl Streep’s and Stanley Tucci’s readings of the stories in The One and Only Shrek! are fabulous (as one would expect from these fine actors), and reminded me that William Steig was beloved not just for his recognizable illustrations and cartoons, but for his distinctive, humorous writing. Several months ago, I was looking for a teen audiobook to listen to at work when doing publicity mailings, and I thought I would try Twilight as an audio—I’ve ended up being fascinated by hearing Stephanie Meyer’s atmospheric story and intriguing characters brought to life by Ilyana Kadushin.

When Harry Potter 7 came out in July, my book club had an unusual assignment in which we were given a variety of children’s fantasy/sci-fi series to choose from—Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising sequence, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.—and each member was to read a book that was new to them, sparking a larger discussion at our meeting about the genre’s themes. I took the opportunity to finally read The Golden Compass, which was given to me by my parents in hardcover when it was first published but had languished on my childhood bookshelf for many years. Of course, after reading the first of His Dark Materials, I couldn’t stop until I had bought and read books 2 and 3, and it truly has been one of my favorite children’s book discoveries as an adult. We also read Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics for book club, and while this book was marketed for adults, the page-turning combination of history, literature/culture, and mystery reminded me of many of my favorite books growing up: The Westing Game, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Twenty-One Balloons. The subject matter is of course older than what you will find in these middle grade classics, but I think Special Topics… is destined to become a classic for teen readers.

Favorite books I’ve read for pleasure this year include (in totally random order): The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, The Dead Father’s Club by Matt Haig, Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.

Happy (Holiday) Reading!
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What's interesting here is that all of the books Liz has at the end of her post as "favorite books for pleasure" are titles I either plan to read or have already read and raved about (see my review of Sherman Alexie's latest). I knew there was a reason I liked corresponding with her on books - we are 100% on the same wavelength! I've been dancing around Special Topics for a while now - several reviewers mentioned that it was a bit too cute for its good or used quirky format to carry it over narrative problems. Of course the author was saddled with being selected as a young and beautiful by most of the folks she gave interviews too, so I think there were chips on the shoulders of many who picked up her book. I am going to give it a shot though and see if it works as a teen recommendation. I'm always looking for something different to present to YA readers that they might miss otherwise.

As for Long May She Reign, Liz and I have actually emailed on this title because I'm not sure if I loved it or hated it (or loved parts and hated parts). I finally realized though that my issue with the book was all about Meg's choice in boyfriend - I just didn't think he was the right guy for her. Then I had an epiphany - Meg is in college! Of course the guy isn't perfect for her! Are we ever perfect for each other in college? (Do we even know who the heck we are in college?) At the end of the day, I think Long May She Reign is perfectly written for a teen audience and maybe not so perfect for adults. Which is the way it should be. I will be writing more about this in my review of Reign this spring, along with other books about teens who are facing some big life challenges. Final word though - loved it and looking forward to recommending it.

Thanks for stopping by Liz - back later with David Mack.

First the official mini-bio:Margo Rabb's novel Cures for Heartbreak was recently named one of the Best YA Books of 2007 by Kirkus Reviews. Visit her online at www.margorabb.com.

I first encountered Margo's work when I read her girl detective series which led to an an interview at Bookslut. When her novel, Cures for Heartbreak, was released I was very excited to review it. That book had a very personal and powerful impact on me - here are some of my initial thoughts from a post at Chasing Ray:

In Margo's book the mother dies from melanoma (it happens in the very beginning). I had melanoma when I was 27 years old. I grew up in Florida and was a major body surfer and beach girl - it was a huge part of my life. I grew up in the 1970s and 80s when the sun was not perceived as dangerous so sunburns and suntans were part of my everyday. I know how I got this disease. But reading about melanoma in this book has not been easy. It's a wonderful book (Jen is the latest to love it) but it's so raw, so close to what losing someone can be like, that it fairly hurts you with its own pain. In the story entitled "The Healthy Heart" teenage Mia thinks she sees a difference in a mole on herself - she suspects that it might be cancerous. I tried to get through this on the first try but it was too close. Every day I think I see something that has changed; something that is may not be right. Everyday I panic just a little. Trust me when I say that Margo has perfectly nailed what that kind of worry is like. It's as real as it gets in this book and a couple of times it just got a little too real for me.

Can I give a book any higher recommendation than that? Sometimes it was fiction that was so true it became real. Amazing.

Margo Rabb is one of my favorite writers and I think she deserves way way more notice than she has received from the general reading public. She will break your heart and give you hope all in the same breath. It's an awesome talent Margo has, and I look forward so much to what she does next.

Now here is what Margo has been reading and enjoying this year:

A Big Storm Knocked it Over by Laurie Colwin. Laurie Colwin is one of my favorite writers on earth. This novel is about a book designer named Jane Louise, "who was almost relentlessly domestic, whose idea of a good time was to stay home," and how she grapples with marriage and motherhood. A cup of tea, a snowy day and a Laurie Colwin novel = perfect contentment.

The Group by Mary McCarthy. I read this for the first time many years ago, and it was so much fun to read it again now. A classic.

Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson. Jackson (author of the short story "The Lottery") wrote this in 1953, and it's a great memoir about family and motherhood. My favorite part is when she lights a cigarette in the taxi on the way to deliver her baby in the hospital.

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier. The writing in this book took my breath away. I can't wait to read the rest of this trilogy.

(Not That You Asked) by Steve Almond. These essays (and rants) are so funny, smart, and irreverent. If you ever have a chance to hear Steve speak in person, by all means go. His passion for art and writing is contagious.

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton. I've been a lifelong fan of Sandra Boynton's ever since I read Chocolate: The Consuming Passion. Now that I have a baby daughter I have an excuse to read all of her children's books. My daughter will follow me around the apartment waving this book at me until I read it to her.

It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh. I come from generations of hoarders, and though I'm doing pretty well considering this legacy, I can still use a little assistance. This book has helped me deal with my tendency to inexplicably save things such as, um, Anthropologie shopping bags (Sometimes I do re-use them, though...)

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber. This was my first year as a mother, and without this book I wouldn't have had enough energy to read ANYTHING.
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I love Peter Walsh - did you see him on Oprah with that family who filled a warehouse full of their stuff? It was amazing (in a "well, at least I'm not that bad" kind of way). Just about everyone I know has a hoarding problem to some degree or another (even the ones who keep nothing - to me they are almost so paranoid of having clutter that they repel it with some level of fear. ) Anyway, very cool guy and I'm sure his book is great.

I have walked past Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages so many times and really I need to just read it. She's such a good writer and the original cover photo alone makes this one hard to pass up. (Of course I can't find one online, but it's a great shot of the kids all in a row.) As for my thoughts on Justine Larbalestier's trilogy, well here's a bit from my post earlier this year:

As the best SFF authors do, Justine has created a wholly viable and believable world with her Magic series. But beyond that, she has tweaked big time the ideas of good and evil when it comes to magic and also played a bit with the idea of religion (not nearly as indepth as say Philip Pullman, but way more than the average fantasy book). Also, in the third book, she shows her Science Fiction roots a bit and creates almost a Sci Fi and Fantasy blend - something that is really uncommon in the two fields. They get thrown together a lot as a category, but readers know that the books are often very different. Few authors can write a fantasy novel that incudes Sci Fi aspects, but I really think that Justine has done that with Magic's Child.

Thanks for stopping by Margo - back tomorrow with Liz Noland of Feiwel & Friends.

Gwenda Bond directed Matt Ruff my way and after reading and enjoying his latest book, Bad Monkeys, I see that I owe her (yet again) for her fine fine literary taste. (Sharyn November has also told me to read his earlier title Set This House in Order asap and I do have a copy so expect more on that novel later!) Here's a bit from my review of Monkeys, which is in my column this month (it is not a YA title, but I thought it would work for some teens):

There were a lot of reasons Bad Monkeys impressed me, but mostly it was the sheer audacity of the plot -- and the fact that Ruff pulled it off in such fine style. The reader does not know whether to root for Jane or hope that Vale sends her away forever and the revelations about her past and especially her childhood only muddy those waters more as the story progresses. Part science fiction, part thriller, with elements of police procedural (minus the police of course), family drama and even humor thrown in, Bad Monkeys is both deliciously subversive and outrageously savagely brilliant. The inclusion of a sexual hint or two as well as some violence means it is only for the high school crowd, but I’m certain they will love it. Boys and girls are fair game here; don’t let them pass this one by.

Bad Monkeys was most definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. Now onto what Matt enjoyed:

Endless Things, by John Crowley – This long-overdue conclusion to Crowley’s Aegypt Cycle is my book of the year. Anticipation has something to do with that—as I describe in this essay on The Millions, my love affair with Aegypt dates back to the waning years of the Reagan presidency—but it’s also a great novel, and a satisfying conclusion to the series. I want to offer a special holiday thank-you to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link at Small Beer Press for seeing this into print, and to Overlook Press for committing to reprint the entire Aegypt Cycle (beginning with book one, The Solitudes) in trade paperback.

The Codex Seraphinianus, by Luigi Serafini – After Endless Things, which I waited two decades to read, the book that most excited me this year is one I can’t read at all. The Codex Seraphinianus is an encyclopedia from an alternate universe. Its folio-sized pages are covered in a flowing, alien script and numerous color illustrations. One picture shows a lake with what appear to be many pairs of eyes peeping up out of the water; an accompanying set of sketches reveals that these are actually fish with pupil-and-iris patterns on their sides and overarching, eyebrow-like tailfins. Another section of the book, devoted to gastronomy, shows a dish with teeth that pre-chews the diner’s food. And those are some of the tamer images.

The Codex was published in several limited editions, all of which are now scarce and expensive (I found mine at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair). If you can afford it, it’s a nice addition to your SF library. And you’ll feel like the coolest LOLcat on the block as you walk around the house chanting “I has a codex! I has a codex!”

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage – Forget Strunk and White’s flimsy little style pamphlet. What you’ve got here is nearly a thousand pages of distilled commentary on the most vexing grammar and usage questions of our time, such as whether it’s OK to say that one thing is different than another, or whether “my friend and I” can be used as the object of a sentence. The way you judge such a book, of course, is by seeing how often it supports your side of an argument, and so far, the Dictionary has been right every time.

Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge – A collection of short stories by the author of Solitaire. To quote my own blurb from the jacket: “It takes a special talent to write about emotions this raw without embarrassing yourself. In Dangerous Space, the very talented Kelley Eskridge offers tales of the human heart that are searing, moving, and true.”

Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts, by Claire Clark – A gorgeous book of dessert recipes by the pastry chef at The French Laundry. Unlike that other great work of food porn, The French Laundry Cookbook, this one’s actually useable by mere mortals.

The Mad Scientists’ Club, by Bertrand R. Brinley – A YA classic about a group of boys who use their knowledge of science to pull cool pranks (and occasionally help out the community). This was reprinted recently along with its sequel, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club, and two previously unpublished Mad Scientist books, The Big Kerplop! and The Big Chunk of Ice.

The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, by Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown – And one more for the holidays. My wife Lisa bought this to give to our niece and nephew for Hanukkah and ended up keeping it for herself.
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I have the first Mad Scientist book on my shelf right now and love it. It has a distinct 1950s feel in that there are a bunch of boys building crazy contraptions and having wild adventures but all of a decidedly nonviolent and nonthreatening manner. Purple House Press has done a great job reissuing out of print classics and I wholeheartedly recommend the Mad Scientist series.

I have never heard of The Codex Seraphinianus but one look at this article in The Believer has me absurdly jealous over Matt's find. Here's a bit of that article:

I got my Codex for the relative bargain of two hundred and seventy-five dollars. It’s the 1983 Abbeville Press edition, the only American edition of the book ever printed. “Organized in eminently logical fashion,” the jacket copy tells me, “it describes a system of knowledge that—at least in its structure—mirrors our own: here are botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, engineering, anatomy, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and urban studies, each describing its object with a peculiarly recognizable exactitude.” It continues, in a tone not unlike that of a carnival barker: “Discover for yourself, reader, such wonders as the purple-caged citrus, the spider-web flower, the parfait protea, and the ladder weed. This is a world inhabited by weird half-sentient flora such as the tadpole tree and the meteor-fruit, by the lacy flying-saucer fish, the wheeled caterpillar-rumped horse, and the metamorphic bicranial rhino. The planet’s sentient species are here as well—races like the Garbage-Dwellers, the Road-Traffic and the Yarn People, and the exotic Rodent-Skin Wearers… Nor can we forget to mention the Homo-Saurians, whose unusual sexual life-cycle is graphically described.” One presumes the “Homo-Saurians” are the couple-cum-gator on the book’s cover (the illustration also appears inside the book). The jacket copy cheerfully concludes that “merely to name these creatures is to confront the limits of our language.” Well, yeah.

(You know, every time I think The Believer is just too full of itself I read an article like this one and realize that it is unlike every single magazine out there. Nobody else would print a story like this one on such an unusual book.)

Thanks Matt for letting us know about this amazing book (and all the others you mentioned here). Back tomorrow with Margo Rabb.

I found Kelley Eskridge's collection Dangerous Space one of the most unusual books I read this year. She twists and turns with gender in ways I did not think were possible - it always works but blows your mind in the process. In my review at Bookslut I wrote the following:

In her new collection, Dangerous Space, science fiction novelist Kelley Eskridge pushes the boundaries of the status quo. She has put together a series of stories that make readers ponder issues of gender, sexuality, and the nature of free choice. Nothing comes easy to the characters in Eskridge’s stories, and, whether they are surprised or shocked by the events she surrounds them with, readers know from the very beginning that reaching resolutions to her often sublimely simple plots is going to require a lot of personal fortitude and courage.

I'm sure that I was only one of many to nominate Space for the Tiptree Award but I can not imagine any other title coming close to what Kelley accomplished. It will be interesting to see what makes the shortlist.

Now on to Kelley's favorite reads for the year!
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I had a conversation this year with an editor of YA fiction who suggested I consider writing a YA novel "as gritty and real" as the title novella of Dangerous Space. I pay attention when editors encourage me to write for them (grin), and I'm intrigued by the idea. I love best to write about characters on emotional journeys. I'm drawn to big feelings, especially those that sneak up on us in our everyday moments, which is pretty much a definition of my own teenage years. And so I've spent much of my reading time this year exploring the field, finding new books and revisiting old friends; looking for work that takes me over, takes me in, takes me back.

You haven't read A Little Princess? I said to Nicola. You must read it now! And so she did, and I reveled in the glee of introducing a book I love to a person I love.

Hmm, she said, does it remind you of The Blue Sword?

Yeesh, no! I said, and scuttled off with the book muttering My precious! And it doesn't: it reminds me so strongly of my own middle school years that I wonder how Frances Hodgson Burnett, who died in 1924, could possibly see into the heart of a young Florida girl who wanted more than anything to be more than she was. A Little Princess walks so carefully the line between hard truth and big drama that it still makes me cry when I read it.

That conversation with Nicola also sent me back to The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. Robin McKinley makes it look so easy: a world full of particular, interesting, complex people, built so gracefully that Bam - there I am walking behind their eyes and feeling the hot sun, the hot hope, the despair and determination.

Or I'm sitting with Maggy-the-artist of Kathe Koja's Speak (and whose story, as of this writing, has an astonishing 1,146 customer reviews on amazon). I don't imagine there's a regular reader of Chasing Ray that doesn't know this book by Laurie Halse Anderson, but if you don't, get your skates on. Melinda is funny and sad and broken and brave.

Burnett and McKinley make me want a cold day in front of the fire, or a summer afternoon in a window seat. The Koja and Anderson books are bus books, subway books, stories to read alone over phad thai in the neighborhood restaurant. But I’ll read any of them anywhere; I'll go with them willingly and come back feeling young again, the particular part of youth where we are newly changed, newly scarred, and so full of possibility.
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I reviewed The Blue Mirror way back when it first came out and loved it. I really fell hard for Maggy and all of her artistic longings. Here's a bit of that review:

It is in the Mirror that she meets Cole and his companions, Marianne and Jouly, and her sudden descent into bad love and tragedy begins. They seem to be a happy group, and Cole seems to fall in love with her quickly and completely, but appearances rapidly prove themselves to be deceiving, and Maggy is faced with a difficult choice: fight for the hard life she has, or disappear into one she can not even begin to imagine.

I have not read Kissing the Bee (one of Sharyn November's favorite reads this year) and simply must. Clearly, Kathe Koja is a writer to watch.

As for Kelley writing a YA novel based on "Dangerous Space" - I would like to yell loudly: BRING IT ON! There is most definitely a place for her style of writing in the YA world and we are woefully short of rock and roll novels for teens. Please Kelley - don't give this idea up!

Thanks for stopping by - back tomorrow with Matt Ruff.

I read Nicola Griffith's Always at the urging of Gwenda Bond, who has never sent me on a bad literary path. After being blown away by the latest Aud novel (it was my first - so no worries that you need to read the series to enjoy Always), I wrote about how much the book affected me here at Chasing Ray and then reviewed it for Bookslut and also participated in the LBC round table discussion. Then I started hearing about Griffith's memoir in a box (from Gwenda and Sharyn November - how could I resist?!) and bought myself a copy. I wrote about that wonder of writing, music, and search for self here at Chasing Ray (more than once) and just slid a brief review into my January column, because I know - I know - there are a bunch of teenagers out there who will flat out adore it. (The honestly cool kids for sure.) After reading Nicola's list of fav reads for the year I am even more blown away by her - she is not a writer who lets herself get bored as evidenced by the many fascinating directions her craft takes her. There's a lot to think about in her work; do give her books a read if you are eager for something that will challenge and enlighten you in many wonderful ways.

Now onto Nicola's list!

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This year I'm starting the novel I've been aiming for my whole life. It's utterly unlike the stuff I've written recently (two books in 2007: Always, an Aud novel, and And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer's Early Life, a multi-media memoir in a box). The new novel is set in the north of Britain in the 7th century, after two centuries of flux: migration, culture and religious change, urban collapse, ethnic struggle. The Romans had left, the previously tamed and co-opted British Celts had experienced a resurgence of ethnic glory--reverting to old dreams, old fashions, old songs--and promptly had the cream of their warrior elite wiped out by much more pragmatic Angles. The church (Roman and Irish) was battling for the hearts and minds of pagans and lapsed Christians. Picts and Scots, Angles and Saxons, Irish and British, Frisian traders and Gaulish queens, Italian bishops and Greek monks all mixed and melded and mangled each others mothertongue. It was a century that formed the foundation of Britain as we know it (and, therefore, democracy and law as the Western Industrialised world knows it).

As it's such a huge project, I've felt unwilling to venture too far into others' imaginary worlds. Instead I've done a lot of re-reading of old favourites, reading new work from old favourites, and looking at translations of or new scholarship on old favourites. I'll chunk my readings into groups (featuring that most fabulous of punctuations, the exclamation point!).

Brightly coloured thriller/crime fiction with baboons on the cover:

My new novel, Always, has an electric Kool-Aid purple cover; it made me pay attention to other cartoon-coloured books, such as Next, by Michael Crichton (in which he's back to his old form in a kind of caper novel about gene tweakery--reminiscent, faintly, of Carl Hiassen: humour and inevitably descending spirals of doom for the Bad Guys--and it has a neon green cover!) and Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff (antic speed, whiplash reversals, a protagonist, Jane, who has as little compunction about killing as Aud, and an acid yellow cover!).

Children's/YA:

I think Robin McKinley is a very, very good writer. I've been in love with The Blue Sword for over twenty years. This year, I re-read it just a couple of weeks after reading Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. I was struck by the many parallels between Harry Crewe and Sara Crewe--the name is just the beginning. I had a delicious time doing literary detective work, following throughlines and character traits; I think the subject is somebody's masters thesis waiting to happen. So then I read McKinley's latest, Dragonhaven, which is a really different kind of work. It's closer in tone to Sunshine than to her earlier books. For example, it has that breathy YA first person tone that I don't like very much. But McKinley is just so damned good I read it anyway. She blew me away. For the first time (to my knowledge) she writes from a male perspective, and then she turns gender roles inside out like a sock by having her teen boy protagonist mother a baby dragon--really *mother* it. If Dragonhaven doesn't make it onto the Tiptree honour list I'll raise my eyebrows.

Non-fiction:
The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, a new translation by Barney, Lewis, Beach & Berghof from CUP. I can't tell you how amazing this book is. It's made me fall in love with Latin all over again. It makes me laugh. It makes me marvel (that one man sought to codify what was known to be known in the 6th C). The translation (and book design--all those typefaces!) is a tour-de-force.

Wildwood, by Roger Deakin, aches with his love of trees. He travels all over England, and then ventures to Austalia for plums, to Kazakhstan for wild apples, and on to Haut-Languedoc for the walnut trees. It's beautiful--though startlingly syrupy and sentimental in places. Ignore that if you can and give yourself to the wildwood.

Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England, by Penelope Walton Rogers. Did you know that at least 60% of women's time in the 7th C would have been spent on textile production? Nor did I. After reading this book I had to completely redesign my viewpoint character's world because that's mind boggling: sixty percent. In the end I had to invent a wholly new social concept concerning the relationships women formed as weaving teams, and give it an A-S neologism (well, okay the 'neo' part here is reaching a bit; I repurposed an existing word, gemæcca). You want to know what it takes to turn a sack of flax seed and some sheep shearings into an embroidered underdress and jacket? Read this book.

Work by my sweetie:

Dangerous Space, by Kelley Eskridge. Possibly some people will tut-tut at including work by my sweetie, but for me it would have been disingenuous to leave it out. It's the best new fiction I've read all year. Most of the critics out there don't understand how good it is. They don't see because while it's brilliant, it's not flashy; it doesn't call attention to its own technical expertise. Kelley messes with gender six ways from Sunday, and she does it at the same time as creating real people moving through believable milieus. And she makes this thrilling stuff look easy.

Historical novels:

The Earl, by Cecilia Holland, and The Great Captains, by Henry Treece. These both feature male characters in a time of war and social unrest (12th C Anglo-Norman civil war, and 5th C Brythonic Celt defence against Anglo-Saxon invasion, respectively, both in Britain). The Treece is raw and brutal, and yet sentimental, too, about manly things like national honour and pride. The Holland is clean and clear and strong, emotionally naked and as pitiless as a knife. I went back and forth between these two books, wondering why it's women who are most often labeled sentimentalists.

Ancient poeticals:

One of the things I'm aiming for with my novel-in-progress is a constant language gear change: a slow, stirring Old English when Hild (my viewpoint character) speaks Northumbrian Anglisc; otter-quick, darkly gleaming phrases in Brythonic Celtic; cool Latin sentences clicking together like tile; the witty, periphrastics of Irish. To do that, I've been reading ancient poetry in a variety of languages.

The Gododdin. The story of the three hundred British warriors who went to reclaim Celtic tribal glory and got slaughtered. Originally written in Cumbric by the bard Aneurin, it's known from one manuscript partly in Middle Welsh, partly in Old Welsh, of which there are now dozens of translations. But I like the Project Gutenberg version, translated a hundred and fifty years ago by Sir John Williams.

Cædmon's Hymn, in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. Most extant Anglo-Saxon poetry (for example The Fight at Finnsburgh, or The Ruins) survives only in the West Saxon dialect, but Northumbrian is just, well, it's better.

The Fenian Cycle and other Ancient Irish verse: full of avenging women, battles over cattle, and the coolest curses ('I will bind their urine into their bodies and the bodies of their horses...') that illuminate a culture far more brightly than most boring academic text. If I can make my 7th C world come alive the way these poems do, I'll count this year's time reading and rereading time well spent.
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Wow - I can't believe the book Nicola is working on! Talk about a diverse writer! I wrote about Roger Deakin a few months ago after seeing Jenny D.'s post about his book on swimming, Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain. Here's a bit of what Jenny had to say about that one:

I've just almost finished reading a book that is perhaps my favorite of everything I've read this year, a magically good book about swimming but also about a host of other things. Imagine if Sebald had a light-hearted English cousin with a passion for natural history, and this is the book that cousin would have written!

I have heard from many folks on Dragonhaven, and as a big fan of Sunshine I really need to get this one. (Coincidentally, Jenny D. also enjoyed this one - Nicola you might want to start reading her blog as you have a bit in common reading-wise!) When I look at Nicola's post though, I'm deeply intrigued by seeing how a writer works - how she gathers the tools necessary to embark on a literary journey like this one. Such fascinating reading is happening here - can't wait to see the end result.

Thanks Nicola - next up is Kelley Eskridge (where I will be writing all about the wonder that is Dangerous Space).

I have written about my deep love for Nick Abadzis' Laika several times in the recent months and still can not recommend that book enough to fans of historic fiction. It is a gorgeously drawn graphic novel, but more significantly (to me anyway) it is a powerfully written story. Here's a bit from a recent post:

In his very detailed and near sumptuous fictionalized biography of the first living creature to orbit the earth, Nick Abadzis has written a touching story in Laika that is devastating in both its historical accuracy and emotional punch. He starts with the story of “Kudryavka” who was found as a stray and became part of the Russian space program. Abadzis reinvents those unknown early years in the dog’s life and the effect is that long before Laika is placed in her capsule, readers care deeply about this dog. Because of this early section, comparisons to such animal classics as Shiloh, The Incredible Journey and, dare I say it, Old Yeller, are spot on. But Abadzis’s book is about far more than a loveable dog; it is about why this dog was sent into space and what that mission meant to so many different people.

There is so much to be impressed by with this book, not the least of which that it shines a light on a relatively ignored portion of history. What I really loved though was the psychological insight into why we (all humans) went into space, and how political so many of our space decisions were. So much for doing the right thing, the safe thing, even the scientific thing - let's just get there first and put a metaphorical flag on it. Then we win!! (Except of course for the ones doing the actual "flag bearing" - they didn't win anything at all.) The space race was a lot like the polar races, the races across the oceans and into Africa and Central Asia. All of it was for rewards that never balanced the cost and yet still we feel that urge to be first. Nick explores this compulsion to win as he considers what specific decisions went into sending Laika on her suicide mission, and what that final outcome meant to all the people directly involved.

I also interviewed Nick for the WBBT where we had some fascinating discussion on 20th century history, the Soviet space program and decisions humans make for animals. Be sure to check that out. Now on to what Nick read and loved in 2007.

Most of the books I read this year were graphic novels. We seem to be going through something of a golden age of comics, and these were among the best I read.

The Salon by Nick Bertozzi. This is what I wrote about The Salon on my blog just after I’d read it:

“I’m not a great one for writing reviews or articulating in detail why I like something, or why I think it works, but sometimes you just have to shout about the good stuff that makes the world a better place to live in. This book certainly falls in to that category. I enjoyed reading this so much and urge you, dear reader, to go and find yourself a copy. Nick Bertozzi is one of those cartoonists who make it all look so easy; he's a master visual storyteller. The Salon has everything you could possibly want from a great comic – sorry, graphic narrative. It’s a murder mystery starring a bunch of modernist painters, among them Picasso and Braque, and has an eccentric, loony central conceit that I won’t spoil for you by describing here. The art and coloring are gorgeous, the writing is exemplary. If you’ve never tried reading a graphic novel before, begin here; if you have, then this is one of the best you’ll find this year.”

Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. I bought this book twice this year and was so impatient for the second volume, I bought it in French. And I can only read French very slowly, with a French/English dictionary to hand to help me decipher the difficult stuff. Why did I buy the first volume twice? Well, I had a chance to have Clément Oubrerie do a sketch inside a copy, and I didn’t have my own one to hand. One is the British edition, one the North American and I’m keeping them both. The illustrations by Oubrerie are both funny and beautiful. He draws with such warmth and belief that you are instantly engaged in Aya’s world. And they’re only half the reason to love this book: Abouet’s writing is possessed of an enormous charm and truth, conveying the reader to the African Ivory Coast of her youth. Go there by reading this.

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan. I knew nothing about Rutu Modan or her work when I bought this graphic novel; I just really liked the cover and what the cover blurb said it was about. Instincts like that pay off; within its pages I found the sort of story that I long for in modern graphic novels. “Good Comics” are that rare thing as everyone’s idea of what makes a good comic is different. For myself, I like a bit of depth of emotion, of exploration of the human condition and the terrible humours, tragedies, beginnings, endings and loves contained therein.

I was lucky enough to meet Rudu at the Small Press Expo in Washington DC back in October. Indeed her lecture about her work immediately followed mine and we sat in on each other’s. I guess we immediately hit it off. She is not only an extraordinary artist, as daring and experimental as they come, she is an uncompromising cartographer of the human heart. Someone in the audience at SPX - I forget the exact wording of his question - asked why she hadn’t made more of the backdrop of modern Israel in this book – I think he meant war, terrorism, bombs and the like. I was surprised at this question, because as far as I was concerned, she had – it was there all the time in the background, omnipresent; it’s just not placed center stage. Indeed the whole story is kick-started by a person gone missing in a suicide bombing. But Modan is more concerned with the small, human stuff that ripples outward from this event, the sorts of stories that go unreported in the media.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon. Am I allowed to talk about books that are published by the same imprint as me? Well, I didn’t commission them. This book hits the heartstrings in an endearing tale of a dog who builds himself his own friend and then has to deal with the guilt he feels at abandoning him. A lovely book.

Notes For A War Story by Gipi. A darker tract for the author of the excellent Garage Band, this is another tale of war where the greater battles don’t take center stage, just the small human ones. This one is about the cost of war upon three young men and of how the fracturing of society affects them.

Lucky by Gabrielle Bell. Gabrielle Bell wears many different hats. For this book, she is a stream-of-consciousness diarist whose humanity, sense of humor and ability of observation we should all aspire to.

Watching Days Become Years by Jeff Levine. I’ve described Jeff LeVine’s work before as “meditative existential nausea” but that doesn’t do justice to the lyricism he also instills in his pages. These four pamphlets, available from Sparkplug Comic books, are an unfolding marriage of picture and word; a kind of comics poetry. Seek them out.
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I have both The Salon and Exit Wounds and rank them up there as those books that make you think - are they enjoyable to read? I'm not so sure but they are pretty darn interesting from start to finish. I would consider them the more "literary" end of graphic novels - if that makes any sense - and challenge any reader with a love of great deeply thought out novels to give them a shot.

I'm holiday bleary at this point - back tomorrow with Nicola Griffith.

First the official bio: Kristopher Reisz lives in Athens, Alabama. He writes books about mushroom gods, very strange crows, and heartbroken werewolves. His first book, Tripping to Somewhere, is out now. His second, Unleashed, is coming in February. Writing about himself in the third person always makes him feel a little shifty.

I reviewed Tripping to Somewhere earlier this year and was quite surprised by it, for several reasons. It is urban fantasy, but with some serious twists. First, the protagonist is gay and involved in a relationship with her best friend that sometimes includes sex and sometimes doesn't. This pretty much tears Gilly apart as she loves Sam, while Sam isn't quite sure who she is or who she wants to be - let alone what she thinks of Gilly. (A pretty accurate depiction of any teen relationship when you think about it.) The fantasy part comes in when the two girls run away from their suburban lives in search of the mythic Witches Carnival. They find it and all sorts of possibilities (including immortality) are opened up to them. But real life - home life - doesn't fade away so easily and Gilly has to make some hardcore choices both for herself and Sam. It doesn't hurt that she finds another romance along the way which makes her believe that maybe she is worth living the best life possible - that maybe the harder choices are the ones that will bring her the best rewards.

The more I have thought about Tripping the more impressed I have been by it. There is nothing pedestrian or ordinary about this book and I think Reisz has taken a dazzling number of chances here. Tripping is such a bold book - so in your face kind of fearless - that I dearly hope the author is ultimately rewarded for being so brave. A further explanation of why I liked the book so much can be found in my archives, where I posted about why this book really is that good. Here's a bit:

Is Tripping to Somewhere about a universe where "the highest value is being cool "? Well yeah - it's about high school and being a teenager and I'm sorry, but in that place and time cool is really all there is. The definition of cool is constantly shifting, and a lot of the officially cool people are widely accepted to be jerks, but that doesn't change anything about the social order. The fact that Gilly doesn't buy into all of that by the end of the book - that she's sees that loyalty has a higher value than cool - was the major payoff for me in this book. It's a rich, complex, sexy and profanity laden story but more than anything it's honest and I can see alot of frustrated teenagers embracing these girls from start to finish.

I look forward to his next book and seeing just what he can do with the werewolf genre. Now on to Kris' favorite reads for the year.

Three great urban fantasies I read in 2007 were Holly Black's Ironside, Steve Berman's Vintage, and Neil Gaiman's The Ultimate Sandman.

Ironside picks up where Black's first novel, Tithe, left off, detailing two faerie courts' war through the fringes of New York. Vintage is a gothic romance, as slim and finely-honed as a razor blade, about a gay kid who feels lost in the world falling for a ghost who truly is. Gaiman's Sandman comics, originally published in the 90s and now collected in beautiful hardcover volumes, is about the King of Dreams and how vital story-telling is to human existence. Each of these writers finds connections between ancient legends and modern thought, and each work captures the hand-in-hand terror and wonder of man's oldest myths.

I didn't read much nonfiction this year, but I devoured Barbara Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. Ehrenreich tracks ecstatic revelry from Dionysian cults of the Roman Empire to medieval carnival to Woodstock, showing how the primal urge to dance has survived countless attempts to quell its transcendent and revolutionary power.

Friends have been pushing them on me for years. My brother has two cats named Esme and Gytha. And in 2007, I finally got around to reading Terry Prattchet's Discworld novels. I started with Wee Free Men, burned through the rest of the Tiffany Aching series, then started back at the beginning with The Colour of Magic. They're just as funny and brilliant as everybody kept telling me, and with nearly 30 books left to go, I have plenty to look forward to in 2008.
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Okay, strike me down now but I have not read the Sandman series. I don't know exactly how I missed it although I was still very much enamored with my cape titles in the 90s when the series began. And I don't think I really started reading Gaiman until Neverwhere, although none of that is a good enough excuse. So Sandman reading will certainly commence this year as well. (Man am I getting the world's most eclectic reading pile from all these recommendations or what?!)

As for Vintage, I've heard about this book from several different places and it sounds more and more like it might work as a good entry in a romance column I'm plotting for next year. You can read a recent short story by author Steve Berman at Endicott Studio ("Bittersweet"). Terri Windling's thoughts on the book can be found at Endicott as well - here's a bit:

Vintage is his first novel, and one I wish had been around when I was a teen. It's a smart, stylish coming-of-age story about a gay teenager, a seductive ghost, and the many ways that the past shadows the present. It's also a love story, but one that's dark and sharp and full of unexpected twists. Much like adolescence itself.

Thanks for stopping by Kris - we'll be back tomorrow with Nick Abadzis.

Cherie Priest writes the kind of smart scary stories that are exceedingly rare in the publishing world today. Her books are not horror - not in the great buckets of blood sense anyway. Rather, they are filled with hauntings and horrifying beasts (werewolves, zombies and very old people who should be long dead) but more than that, it is the atmosphere of possible scariness that permeates every page she writes which elevates her books and stories up a serious notch. Her ghosts don't just appear, they are troubled and bothered and bothersome. One is clearly insane and another has been driven mad by the nature of her death. Ghosts of war still haunt battlefields, asylums are home to disembodied screams and way in the swamp a homicidal maniac refuses to give up his nasty hold on life. In her Eden Moore trilogy, Cherie gifted us all with a major dose of southern gothic while her novella Dreadful Skin was somehow a combination of Mark Twain's worst nightmare and Clint Eastwood's finest cowboy moments.

You can read my full review of Dreadful Skin at Bookslut and I wrote about my love for the Eden Moore trilogy here at Chasing Ray and reviewed her latest, Not Flesh Nor Feathers, at Bookslut. Now on to Cherie's favorite reads this year:

Two titles stand out for me this past year:

World War Z, by Max Brooks (yes, a 2006 book -- but I didn't read it until a few months ago). I was inspired to ramble at length online about it, so much did I verily verily love this book. See more at Cherie's site.

and Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. I did a ChiZine review of that one here.

Otherwise, I've been tied up in forensic texts, historical stuff, books I've read a half dozen times already (mostly Dash Hammett), and research for books in progress.

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The subtitle for World War Z is "An Oral History of the Zombie World". Okay - pretty clear what you are getting on that one! ha! Here's a bit from Cherie's review of Ghostwalk: Despite its compact and elegant appearance, Ghostwalk is an astonishingly dense and dark piece of fiction that defies such a tidy synopsis. This tale asks difficult questions about the whisper-thin boundaries between magic and science; it demands that the reader form uncomfortable conclusions about the cycles of history—and how directly those old patterns intersect and interact with the modern world. This is not a book about dry post-graduate drama. It’s a story about the vengeful ghosts of wizards and madmen, and how far the limits of their power may extend.

Hmm - now that sounds like something worth seeking out (I love a vengeful ghost or two).

As for what she is working on now, here's Cherie's own description of the WIP: "the west coast steampunk Victoriana book with zombies, air ships, toxic gas clouds, mad scientists, dead folk heroes, secret criminal societies, and now Bonus! extended deleted scenes from the Civil War." Is it any wonder why she's one of my favorite authors?

Thanks for participating Cherie - back tomorrow with Kristopher Reisz.

Loree Griffin Burns' amazing book, Tracking Trash, is one of my favorite reads of the year. Everyone - regardless of age - who has looked at this book has blown away by the environmental story it tells and the images it shares. I first reviewed the book as a "Cool Read" in my column a few months ago and then was able to interview Loree as part of the WBBT. Here are her thoughts on how writing the book changed her:

To be honest, the environmental part of this story snuck up on me. I was still very focused on the science of ocean currents the first time I interviewed Curt. At some point during that interview I asked him how many containers fall off of cargo ships each year, and his answer shocked me: between one thousand and ten thousand. Ten thousand! That was the moment I began to wonder how much trash was actually in the ocean, and the direction of my research changed dramatically.

Tracking Trash is a perfect example of the value of nonfiction books for children - it's smartly written, beautifully designed and compelling from start to finish. This is "change your life" reading. No one - no one - can read this book without thinking about the oceans and marine wildlife for a long time afterwards. Because of Loree's book, I have gone on to read and review several other titles in the same "Scientists in the Field" series. I am mightily impressed with what Houghton Mifflin is doing with these books and delighted with each and everyone of them. But Tracking Trash carries a special place in my heart. It's a dazzler and I can't wait to see what Loree does next. Now on to her favorite reads this year.

Loree’s Top Ten of 2007

Because I still wonder about it:
THE PULL OF THE OCEAN
By Jean-Claude Mourlevat
Translated from the French by Y. Maudet
Delacorte Press, 1999
Read more about it at Loree's site.

Because it is fun to go back in time:
A WRINKLE IN TIME
By Madeleine L’Engle
Dell Yearling, 1962
Read more about it at Loree's site.

Because it is perfect for reading out loud:
HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS
by Thomas Rockwell
Illustrated by Emily McCully
Dell, 1973
Read more about it at Loree's site.

Because it broke my heart:
BEFORE I DIE
By Jenny Downham
David Fickling Books, 2007
Read about it at Loree's site.

Because I was there for its birth (and am oh-so-proud):
BIG SLICK
By Eric Luper
FSG, 2007
Read about it at Loree's site.

Because she is a hero:
UP CLOSE: RACHEL CARSON
By Ellen Levine
Viking, 2007
Read about it at Loree's site.

Because he makes so much sense:
THE CREATION, AN APPEAL TO SAVE LIFE ON EARTH
By E.O. Wilson
W.W. Norton & Company, 2007
Read about it Read about it at Loree's site.

Because it will forever remind me of Nana:
THE TENTH GOOD THING ABOUT BARNEY
By Judith Viorst
Illustrated by Erik Blegvad
Aladdin Paperbacks, 1971
Read about it at Loree's site.

Because it as fun to read as it is to say:
CHICKY CHICKY CHOOK CHOOK
By Cathy MacLennan
Boxer Books, 2007
More at Loree's site.

Because if you buy five copies of a book (one for every toddler on your shopping list), said book must be on your BEST list:
WHO’S HIDING?
By Satoru Onishi
Kane/Miller, 2006
More at Loree's site.

Check out the PW review of The Pull of the Ocean:

"A mute 10-year-old boy stars in this inventive modern-day play on Charles Perrault's Tom Thumb. Yann, the size of a toddler, is the youngest of seven sons of poor, sour parents and the only one who is not a twin ('Yann came last and alone. Like the period at the end of a sentence'). The lad silently communicates with his brothers, but never with his parents. One night, he overhears his parents bickering and awakens his siblings, letting them know that their father plans to harm them (the author reveals the actual content of the couple's conversation later). Yann then leads the three sets of twins out into the rainy darkness. The peripatetic story weaves together first-person accounts by each twin as well as individuals who have spotted or interacted with the children. Under Yann's direction (he navigates by turning his head in all directions and then pointing the way), the brothers traverse the French countryside, heading west toward the ocean. The story takes a dark turn before they are reunited with their seemingly softened parents. Yet Yann slips away once more, stowing away on a merchant marine ship to continue his journey west. The captain observes, 'I had the sudden impression that this child wasn't real, that he had stepped right out of a fairy tale.' Indeed, Mourlevat enchantingly blends the harshly real and the make-believe, with the latter tipping the balance as this effectively haunting, fluidly translated tale comes to a close. Ages 12-up."

I am so getting this book asap. It sounds amazing. As for A Wrinkle in Time, well that was one of those books that changed everything for me, and I'll always adore Meg Murray. For adults looking for an excellent (and relatively compact) biography of Rachel Carson, I heartily recommend The Gentle Subversive, a book I raved about last summer.

Lots of folks are going dark next week but I will be here daily with more book recommendations from tons of readers. Still coming up: Matt Ruff, Nick Abadzis, Nicola Griffith, Kelley Eskridge, Liz Noland, Kris Reisz, David Mack, Margo Rabb, Cherie Priest and Danica Novgorodoff, from First Second Books. Check back tomorrow for Cherie's list!

Jen Robinson's Book Page is a popular destination for anyone looking for information on kid's books and literacy. She reviews a ton, while also actively participating in Readergirlz, the Cybils and the SBBT & WBBT. Jen has also started a new email newsletter, "Growing Booksworms" which distills a lot of the information from blog in handy dandy format for occasional visitors. If you're looking for reading recommendations for the younger set, Jen's site is a must see. Here's what she had to say about reading in 2007 (all of these books were reviewed at her site; you can read those reviews via her "Books Read in 2007" page):

I've read many wonderful books this year. These are just a few that stand out as personal favorites, books that I want to keep on my shelves. I'm not saying that these are the "best books" of 2007 (some of them are actually from 2006 or 2008). I'm saying that these are some children's and young adult titles that I first read this year that resonated with me personally. There are many others that I loved, too, including some re-reads, but I tried to keep the list to manageable proportions.

Picture Books*:
The House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies (ill. Lee White)
The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan
Hugo and Miles in I've Painted Everything by Scott Magoon
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt (and the sequel, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend)

Middle Grade (in age order):
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (ill. Marla Frazee) (and the sequel, The Talented Clementine)
Me and the Pumpkin Queen by Marlane Kennedy
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (ill. Carson Ellis)
Heat by Mike Lupica
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (I don't have a review on my site for this one because I originally listened on audio, and I find it harder to write those reviews, but I thought that The Titan's Curse absolutely held up to the promise of the earlier books in the series.)

Young Adult:
Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor (Read Jen's recent review.)
Nothing but the Truth and a Few White Lies by Justina Chen Headley
Dairy Queen and The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Life As We Knew It and the dead & the gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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I am a fan of so many of these books - Dairy Queen and Nothing but the Truth are two particular favorites, especially for teen girls who like their literary heroines smart, funny and willing to take a chance or two. I also enjoyed The Mysterious Benedict Society - I'm still not sold on it being as good as it could have been, but it was a page-turner and perfect for kids looking for secret societies, deep mysteries and creepy bad guys (who get what they deserve of course.)

Jen is one of the few reviewers I've found who is just as capable (and knowledgeable) when it comes to picture books as teen fiction (and she discusses a fair amount of adult titles on her site as well). If she recommends a book, you can bet it has merit. Thanks so much for stopping by Jen! Tomorrow brings mystery writer Matt Beynon Rees.

*As Jen provides links to reviews and amazon for every one of these books, I'm not going to link to them here - just peruse her Books Read in 2007 page!

The official short bio: Jason Rodriguez is the editor of the Random House/Villard graphic novels Elk's Run and Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened. He is lives in Arlington, VA with his fiancée were he is currently cowriting a graphic novel about the life and times of Sam Cooke as well as his first Young Adult novel.

I reviewed Postcards in my column this past summer and was so impressed both with the idea (crafting short graphic novel stories around found postcards) and the execution. I embraced this book for its sheer depth and breadth of creativity - it's not often that you see so many different people doing something so well and so unique as can be found in this book. Jason pulled off something special with Postcards and if you have a reader who is bored with the same old thing, then I heartily recommend this book.

As for Elk's Run (written by Joshua Hale Fialkov), Pop Matters had this to say in its long review:

It’s a powerful work with gripping, edgy art that directly addresses the isolationism, paranoia, division, and anxiety so prevalent in the United States today. It is a story that asks difficult questions, rapid-fire, about the tacit social contracts we make and the ability of people to overlook what they see happening right in front of their eyes.

Digital painting techniques have elevated the old four-color medium of comic book illustration to a whole new level in recent years and this is apparent throughout Elk’s Run. The predominant colors of the pages shift with the mood of each scene. The illustration style varies from stark to sketchy in more ominous scenes to cartoon-like when the teenagers fleeing the town remember scenes from their childhoods. From start to finish, though, it is both beautiful and visceral.

Now onto what Jason enjoyed in 2007:

Super Spy by Matt Kindt (Top Shelf Productions) – This story of spies and the sacrifices they make was the best graphic novel I read this year. The amount of love and thought that went into this project is astounding. The design of the book knocks you out from cover to cover and the story is so subtle and moving that you find yourself instantly vested in all of the characters’ lives. The notion of “good spies vs. bad spies” is completely thrown out as you dig through a book where you want everyone to win but you know some of them have to lose. An incredible book from one of comics most gifted creators.

Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations

Pulp Hope by Paul Pope (AdHouse Books) – This book is poetic and gorgeous - stories from Pope’s childhood, theories on the art form, short sequential pieces, and fantastic studies of the female body are just a small sampling of what you could expect from this tremendous project.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil (Wildstorm/DC Comics) – Volume One and Two of The League were incredibly smart books that I highly recommend for anyone new to comics. This third offering is…dense. Sequences of comics mixed in with “lost” Shakespeare plays and short fiction from Jack Kerouac’s fictional Sal Paradise makes the online annotated notes a must for this book but gives you a bang-for-your-buck factor that you rarely see in comics these days. Plus the last section of the book is in 3D. Sold!

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Peterson (Archaia Studios Press) – It’s just damn pretty. It’s a great story, don’t get me wrong, but it’s impossible not to pause on every page and admire the tremendous talents of Peterson as he lays down illustrations of mice in full armor, going to war.

Mr. Big by Matt and Carol Dembicki (Little Foot/Silent Devil Productions) – The perfect book for that young adult on your list. The inhabitants of a pond want to oust the snapping turtle, Mr. Big, and they ask a murder of crows for help. The crows, of course, have their own reasons to get rid of Mr. Big…

Finally, I’d like to say a little bit about the ongoing books you can get for anyone on your shopping list, comic fan or not. Fables and Y the Last Man (both from Vertigo/DC Comics) continued to be strong this year. Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 is as pretty as the first series. And I want to give a plug to two fantastic series that ended this year: Action Philosophers (Evil Twin Comics) and Skyscrapers of the Midwest (AdHouse Books). Grab the individual issues if you can find them but keep your eyes open for any collected editions that may be coming out next year…I know Action Philosophers, at least, has one planned.

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I've been dancing around Super Spy since I first saw it in Diamond Previews but with Jason's recommendation it just went on my list from Powells. (For those of you who don't shop Powells regularly, they have a great selection of graphic novels.) I've also been hearing good things about Mouse Guard for awhile now - all fans of the Brian Jacques novels should take note of this one. Mr. Big was completely out of left field - I've heard nothing on this one - but I see that the creators also have another all ages comic, The Lives of One-Eyed Jack, which is available online. If you have a reluctant reader, comics are an excellent way to interest them in the written word. (It works, people - don't fight what works!)

And as for Fables - well, I've been with it since issue 1 and loving every minute of it. This is one of my all time favorite titles and I look forward to it every month. If you loved fairy tales as a kid, then you will not want to miss it. (Perfect for teen readers too!)

Back tomorrow with blogger Jen Robinson!

Lisa Ann Sandell writes novels for young adults that stand out both for their format (her first two books are written in verse) and subject. The Weight of the Sky is a contemporary novel about a teenage girl visiting Israel, and discovering the truth about herself and life in a nation perpetually at war, while her new book, Song of the Sparrow, revisits the legendary King Arthur from the perspective of of Elaine of Ascolat, who was immortalized as the Lady of Shalott. I reviewed each of Lisa's books in my Bookslut column and was also delighted to interview her last month for the Winter Blog Blast Tour. Here are her thoughts after seeing John William Waterhouse's 1888 painting, "The Lady of Shalott", which inspired her to write Sparrow:

In it a young woman—the lady of Shalott—sits in a boat, cushioned by a lush tapestry, her long red hair flowing down around her white gown. On her face there's this look that stopped me; it's a look of haunted sorrow, but in some way, it's serene, as though she has come to terms with an awful fate that awaits her. It's gloomy, but not depressing,which fit the weather and my mood at the time. I fell in love with that painting. When I got home, I went back to my books of Arthurian legend and read about the character Elaine of Ascolat, on whom the painting is based. There was something fundamentally unfair about how she was cursed and doomed to die for no other reason than her naive love for Sir Lancelot. She stayed with me through the years, as I always wished I could give her a better story, a better ending.

And now Lisa Ann Sandell's favorite reads this year:

All around, this was a wonderful year for books and for my own, private reading.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan: An extraordinarily charming story full of grace and heartbreak. I can't help but compare it to a perfect pearl. It's just perfect in itself.

The Uncommon Reader, a novella by Alan Bennett: This story about the Queen of England becoming a reader is just wonderful. Bennett describes her world opening up in such a marvelous and nuanced way that really touched me as a writer and a reader. Oh, to reach someone like that! This story perfectly captures the reasons why writing for young adults is so rewarding—because they're so much more open than most adults to letting their worlds expand this way.

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje: Like all of Michael Ondaatje's novels, this one is lyrical and poetic and beautiful. He paints his stories and characters alive. This is a rare and precious gem.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie: Wow, I don't even know where to begin. This book is one of the best I've ever read. I can only echo what has already been written about it, but I was laughing and crying (sometimes at the same time) on the subway, on the street—I couldn't put it down and sometimes read while I walked (which is tricky to do in New York City!). Junior's story is familiar in many ways, but told in such a fresh and moving and captivating way, it feels brand new. Although the details of Junior's life are quite specific to Indian life on (and off) the reservation, Mr. Alexie has written a story that is wholly universal and that captures the full spectrum of the human experience. Just beautiful.

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie: Okay, so I have a giant crush on Sherman Alexie now, and am scrambling to read everything he's written, but it's all good, because the man can write. There is a sort of subtle magic at the root of this story, in the guitar of Robert Johnson. The characters are quirky, but they remain so very human in their quirkiness. Next on my list is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which I probably should have read first.

Phaedrus by Plato: I'll admit it took me about three weeks to read this seventy-page work, but once I finished, I realized how glad I was that I'd taken my time with it. At first this dialogue seems to be simply a discourse on love—which is interesting in itself. But the piece evolves into an exploration of how we communicate, which was just fascinating.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: I reread the His Dark Materials trilogy in its entirety, really, but The Subtle Knife is my favorite. It's an incredible work, sophisticated and provocative and fascinating, a remarkable read. This trilogy is a magnificent accomplishment, and one that deserves to live in the pantheon of great works.

The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen: I must 'fess up: At first, I only read this novel, because I am editing a paperback reprint of it. Seriously, though, I wouldn't ordinarily write about a book I work on as an editor (conflict of interest and all that), but holy cow, this book is amazing. It was a Newbery Honor book, so it's not unsung, but it's not "sung" enough, to my mind. I cried and laughed out loud—when I think about the scene where Eldon's brother tries to jump out the window onto the horse's back and the way he lands flat on his back, I snort and shake with laughter. People in my office think I'm weird because of it. This is a gorgeous, subtle book that is quiet in its power. Sublime.

King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher: The title says it all. This book is hilarious and poignant and heartbreaking and so true.

These all sound so good! I just finished reading Ondaatje's memoir, Running in the Family, and enjoyed it a great deal. I also reviewed his novel about jazz legend Buddy Bolden, Coming Through Slaughter, for Voices of NOLA last month and was very impressed. I like his unique style and it works for me. I totally need to check out Divisadero. I've also been hearing quiet rumblings about The Uncommon Reader and have just added it to my list for 2008; I'm quite intrigued by what Alan Bennett has tried to do with this idea and from Lisa's comments it sounds like he succeeds on all counts.

As for my thoughts on Sherman Alexie - well, I've already posted on why The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is one of my favorite reads of the year. The book is also reviewed in my column this month.

Back tomorrow with Jason Rodriguez and a list of graphic novel recommendations.

First the short, official biography: Nicholas Christopher is the author of fourteen books: five novels, most recently The Bestiary, published in July by the Dial Press; eight volumes of poetry, including Crossing the Equator: New & Selected Poems, 1972-2004; and a nonfiction book, Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir & the American City. The Bestiary will come out in paperback in June, along with a new edition of Christopher's second novel, Veronica.

I pretty much gushed about Nicholas during my 12th Day of Christmas postings. He is one of my favorite writers and I'm always impressed by the way he blends fact and fiction into his books - intricately working so many different people and interests into one over-arching narrative thread. My mind goes in dozens of different directions when I read his work and I find them to be the perfect stories for endlessly curious readers. There's no one else like him and I reread his books over and over again.

You can read more about The Bestiary at his site, where he provides an enormous amount of background on writing this novel and bestiaries in general. Here's a bit:

Among the “real” bestiary hunters I read about, or whose works I found of interest, are: Conrad Gesner, a 16th century animal encyclopedist who dedicated his life to tracking down rare bestiaries. Sir Thomas Browne, who catalogued fantastical beasts in 17th-century England, using a dazzling array of sources. In the 19th century there was Thomas Wright; Charles Cahier, who searched for bestiaries in a dozen European countries between 1847 and 1877; and E.P. Evans, who made spectacular finds at the end of the century in the illicit networks of the antiquarian book underground that flourished in Britain. The closest predecessors to my hero are all from the 20th century: M.R. James, who employed modern bibliographic detection techniques to search ecclesiastical and monastic libraries along the ancient Amber Route, from Wales to North Africa; P. Ansell Robin, who constructed his Zoological Pedigree in 1932, charting all known bestiaries from ancient times on; and G.C. Druce, who between 1908 and 1937 scoured university vaults, discovering a host of forgotten and uncataloged illuminated volumes.

Now onto Nicholas's thoughts on some good reading in 2007:

An amazing novel that I discovered this year is The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, by Jan Potocki. Written around 1800, it is a gorgeously wrought labyrinth of stories within stories -- replete with vampires, renegade Cabbalists, gypsy chieftans, and geometers -- that echoes The Decameron and The 1001 Nights and is a precursor of every surreal novel of the 20th century.

I've read all Charles Nicholl's books and can't say enough about them. His specialty is works of historical detection: the murder of Christopher Marlowe, Ralegh's ill-fated search for El Dorado in the Amazon basin. The book I read this fall, Somebody Else, traces Arthur Rimbaud's years of exile in East Africa, as a coffee trader and gunrunner, leading enormous caravans across some of the most hazardous terrain in the world. Much of what Rimbaud imagined at 20 in his masterpiece, A Season in Hell, he would later live through in the mountains and deserts of Aden. Nicholl writes some of the clearest, most lyrical, and least academic historical prose today.

I also read Storm of Steel, Ernst Junger's brilliant, harrowing memoir of fighting in the trenches of the First World War, one of the finest and most unsparing books about war ever written -- required reading, I would suggest, at a time when politicians without experience of war are trying to sell the Iraq debacle as a "product," sanitized of human suffering.

Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems

Wow! What a list. I see here the mind of a writer at work...looks like Nicholas is working on a book that involves war and maybe espionage, as well as some travel to distant shores. You can read a 1947 review of Rebecca West's book at the NY TImes (register for free). It is out of print although Powells and amazon both list numerous used copies. I will most certainly be looking for Charles Nicholl's books (how did I miss this one - Arthur Rimbaud is so up my alley!) and I've been impressed by Ernst Junger in the past - nice to see him show up here. And can you believe that Potocki book (in a nice handy Penguin classics edition) - does that sound amazing or what?!

And oh just go read Rebecca West - always and forever, the wonderful Rebecca West.

Thanks for stopping by Nicholas! More literary delights from 2007 tomorrow - this time from Lisa Ann Sandell.

The force of nature that is editor Sharyn November has happily checked in at Chasing Ray to share her favorite reads of 2007. For those of you who are not acquainted with November, she is a senior editor at Viking Children's Books and the Editorial Director of the Firebird imprint. (One of Firebird's current titles, Indigara by Tanith Lee, is reviewed in my December column.) To learn more about her you can visit her extensive web site which includes a ton of quirky information (her obsessive behavior patterns entry is a fav of mine) as well as major booklists for the past few years. Sharyn reads 1,000 words per minute, so there are a lot of books to those lists.

Here are five books she read and liked a lot this year:

Elizabeth Hand: GENERATION LOSS
Ellen Emerson White: LONG MAY SHE REIGN
Gabrielle Zevin: MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC
Gustav Hasford: THE SHORT-TIMERS
Kathe Koja: KISSING THE BEE

Okay, I definitely have to read Liz Hand's book - Gwenda gave it lots of love also (as well as like a zillion other people) and so even if I don't get it for Christmas (it's been on my list for a month!) I will still be reading it next year. That's it - I'm committed to this one.

I just finished Long May She Reign and both loved it a lot and wanted to throw it across the room. I'm very conflicted by this book. I think White did an amazing job of showing PTSD in a teenager and also revealed so much about life in the White House that you wonder how she could write about it so effectively without having lived there. But...the big romantic relationship in the book did not work for me; it never seemed honest or real and frankly, I think any other girl would have dumped this guy in a second. So I'm frustrated by the overall story and feel a wee bit cheated.

See the conflict?

I have not read Kissing the Bee or Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, but I'm a fan of both authors and look forward to these books - Kathe Koja's especially. As for The Short-Timers, that title, as it turns out, is the basis for the movie Full Metal Jacket, one of the most impressive war movies ever made, in my opinion. Here's Harlan Ellison on the book:

"Nothing I've read that tried to convey the monstrousness of that grave-maker known as the war in Viet Nam even remotely approaches the eloquence of The Short-Timers. It is one of the most amazing stretches of writing I've ever encountered. Like Paths of Glory, Company K and The Red Badge of Courage, it is an unsparing, clenched-teeth, last will and testament that names us all as heirs to the madness of war. Gustav Hasford has written a fine, fine book: honest and painful and terribly important."

While the book is out of print (travesty!) Gustav Hasford has made the entire text available for download at this site. Chapter by chapter, this is on my list for 2008.

Thanks for the recommendations Sharyn!

[Be sure to check Bildungsroman where authors have been checking in all week with their favorite reads for 2007.]