What is all this about books for kids?

This is the “everything else” post, of books that don’t fit into any other categories. They fall into three categories: books I loved as a child, books that are gorgeous and I fell in love with as an adult, or Caldecott winners. And often books fall into more than one category.

Tony DiTerlizzi: The Spider and the Fly

Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly

I utterly adore this book.

Neil Gaiman: Wolves in the Walls (2003)

The Dangerous Alphabet

M Is for Magic

I have long been a fan of Neil Gaiman, and his books for kids are utterly delightful (there will be other books appearing for older kids as well).

Just be aware that in addition to kids book, Neil Gaimain also writes adult book, so check the book before giving it to a small person.

Elsa Holmelund Minarik: Little Bear illustrated by Maurice Sendak (1957)

Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. That is all.

Jory John: The Bad Seed

I’m a bad seed.

A baaaaaaaaaaad seed.

William Joyce: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

Munro Leaf: The Story of Ferdinand (1936)

There was a little bull, and his name was Ferdinand

This book I clearly remember both owning and reading.

Robert McCloskey: Blueberries for Sal (1948)

One day, Little Sal went with her mother to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries.

Little Sal brought along her small tin pail and her mother brought her large tin pail to put berries in. “We will take our berries home and can them,” said her mother. “Then we will have food for the winter.”

Lauren Mills: The Rag Coat

Acknowledgements:
Inspiration for this book was drawn from numerous sources, including the Foxfire books, a song by Dolly Parton, and my own childhood.

Jon J Muth: Zen Shorts

“Michael! There’s a bear outside!” said Karl.
“A what?” called Michael.
“A bear. He’s really big. And he’s in the backyard.”
“What’s he doing?” Michael asked.
“He’s sitting. He has an umbrella,” said Karl.

Patricia Polacco: Babushka Baba Yaga (1993)

The Keeping Quilt (1988)

Rechenka’s Eggs (1988)

As a fan of Baba Yaga, how could I not love a kids’ book about her?

Antoinette Portis: Not a Box

Why are you sitting in that box?

It’s not a box.

Terry Pratchett: Where’s My Cow? (2005)

OOK!

This book is really just for Terry Pratchett fans, but since everyone should be a Terry Partchett fan, of course I’m listing it.

Peter H. Reynolds: Ish (Creatrilogy)

The Dot (2003)

John Rocco: Blackout

It was a normal summer night in the city.
Hot,
Noisy,
Busy.
And then…
The lights went out, and everything changed.

Maurice Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are (1963)

In the Night Kitchen (1970)

Chicken Soup with Rice (1972)

Eating once
Eating twice
Eating chicken soup with rice

Uri Shulevitz: Snow (1998)

Herve Tullet: Mix It Up (2014)

Press Here (2011)

David Wiesner: Sector 7 (1999)

Flotsam (2006)

Free Fall (1988)

Art & Max (2010)

Tuesday (1991)

If you have never read Sector 7, then you should immediately find it and give it to a small person in your life.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

What is all this about books for kids?

As a geek of long-standing, I want to encourage all the small people in my life to get excited about math and science. Actually, I want them to be excited about anything they love, but as I love math and science, I want them to be unafraid of subjects that are sometimes imposing or scary. I want them to see a seed turn into a plant and smile in joy. To see chemicals react and gasp in amazement. To look at numbers and see beauty.

I want them to be geeks, and to see joy and amazement everywhere around them.

Pretty much everything here overlaps with another category.

Math & Science

Andrea Beaty: Rosie Revere Engineer (2013)

Ada Twist Scientist (2016)

Barbara Cooney: Miss Rumphius (1983)

The Lupine Lady lives in a small house overlooking the sea. In between the rocks around her house grow blue and purple and rose-colored flowers. The Lupine Lady is little and old. But she has not always been that way. I know. She is my great-aunt, and she told me so.

Demi: One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale

Long ago in India, there lived a raja who believed that he was wise and fair, as a raja should be.

Deborah Heiligman: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos (2013)

If you have read many scientific journals, then you are probably aware of Paul Erdos, the man whose name is on more scientific papers than any other person. This story talks about the boy who became that man–and also about how he ended up publishing with so many people.

Ashley Spires: The Most Magnificent Thing (2014)

Laurie Wallmark: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine (2015)

Any geek worth their salt knows that Ada Lovelace was the mother of computing. But if you aren’t a geek, then you may never have heard of the daughter of Lord Byron who created programming and changed the world to come.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

What is all this about books for kids?

Having a number of girls in my life, and having been a girl once myself, I search out books with female characters. Especially of the self-rescuing princess type.

There is again a good deal of overlap with other posts.

Girl Power

Andrea Beaty: Rosie Revere Engineer (2013)

Ada Twist Scientist (2016)

Cynthia Chin-Lee: Amelia to Zora (2008)

Barbara Cooney: Miss Rumphius (1983)

The Lupine Lady lives in a small house overlooking the sea. In between the rocks around her house grow blue and purple and rose-colored flowers. The Lupine Lady is little and old. But she has not always been that way. I know. She is my great-aunt, and she told me so.

Demi: One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale

Long ago in India, there lived a raja who believed that he was wise and fair, as a raja should be.

Paul Goble: The Girl Who Loved Horses

Kathleen Krull: Wilma Unlimited (2000)

No one expected such a tiny girl to have a first birthday. In Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1940, life for a baby who weighed just over four pounds at birth was sire to be limited.

But most babies didn’t have nineteen older brothers and sisters to watch over them.

Most babies didn’t have a mother who knew home remedies.

Rafe Martin: Rough Faced Girl

Mal Peet: Cloud Tea Monkeys (2000)

Tashi and the monkeys met in their usual place, where the endless rows of tea bushes were broken by a jumble of rocks and a tree spread its shadow on the ground. Here she sat and crossed her legs. The monkeys watched her with their deep, serious eyes.

Doreen Rappaport: Elizabeth Started All the Trouble (2016)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton couldn’t go to college but more importantly, she couldn’t vote.

A brief look at the start of the Women’s Suffrage Movement–and a time when women were still often treated as property rather than citizens.

Allen Say: Tea with Milk (1999)

From the window in her room, the girl could see the city of San Francisco. She imagined that it was a city of many palaces. And one day her father would take her there, he had promised, riding on a paddle steamer across the shining bay.

Her parents called her Ma-chan, which was short for Masako, and spoke to her in Japanese. Everyone else called her May and talked to her in English.

Ashley Spires: The Most Magnificent Thing (2014)

Tanya Lee Stone: The House that Jane Built

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her social activism.

Deborah Underwood: Intersteller Cinderella

Laurie Wallmark: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine (2015)

Any geek worth their salt knows that Ada Lovelace was the mother of computing. But if you aren’t a geek, then you may never have heard of the daughter of Lord Byron who created programming and changed the world to come.

Jonah Winter: Frida (Art) (2002)

I am a heathen. I know next to nothing about art, and generally don’t appreciate it. But even I know of Frida Kahlo.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

What is all this about books for kids?

So, I asked for a category name for books that are about cultures and people other than white English speakers. The best I got was multi-cultural, but that wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so until someone gives me a better recommendation, I’m going with Non-WASP.

You’re going to start to get some overlap here, because I have books that are about female characters that are also minorities etc.

Verna Aardema: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears (1975)

The mosquito said, “I saw a farmer digging yams that were almost as big as I am”

“What’s a mosquito compared to a yam?” snapped the iguana grumpily. “I would rather be deaf than listen to such nonsense!” Then he stuck two sticks in his ears and went off, mek, mek, mek, mek, through the reeds.

Ada Twist Scientist (2016)

Cynthia Chin-Lee: Amelia to Zora (2008)

Jen Cullerton Johnson: Seeds of Change (2010)

Demi: One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale

Long ago in India, there lived a raja who believed that he was wise and fair, as a raja should be.

Cathy Goldberg Fishman: When Jackie and Hank Met (2012) (Sports) (History) (Non-WASP)

Jackie and Hank were born eight years and one thousand miles apart.

Nobody knew these babies would grow up and play baseball. Nobody knew Jackie and Hank would meet and become heroes.

Arthur A. Levine : The Boy Who Drew Cats

In fifth grade this story was in my reading book. There weren’t any pictures, but the story stuck in my mind, and eventually I decided to try and find the story. First, there are several versions of this story. The one I first read was the more gruesome of the tales.

Avoid large places at night–keep to small!

Paul Goble: The Girl Who Loved Horses

Susan Hood: Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay (Music)

Rachel Isadora: The Princess and the Pea

Ezra Jack Keats: Goggles (1969)

“Archie, look what I found,”
Peter shouted through the pipe.
“Motorcycle goggles!”
Archie watched Peter through the hole.
He listened and smiled.

The Snowy Day (1962)

I love winter and the snow, so this was an easy pick for me.

Kathleen Krull: Wilma Unlimited (2000)

No one expected such a tiny girl to have a first birthday. In Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1940, life for a baby who weighed just over four pounds at birth was sire to be limited.

But most babies didn’t have nineteen older brothers and sisters to watch over them.

Most babies didn’t have a mother who knew home remedies.

Gerald McDermott: Anansi the Spider

One year I received a book that was a collection of folktales from around the world (that book will come up later) and some of my favorite tales were Anansi the Spider tales.

It’s one of the reason I was so delighted by Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods, because of Aunt Nancy.

Rafe Martin: Rough Faced Girl

Arlene Mosel: The Funny Little Woman (1972)

Long ago, in Old Japan, there lifed a funny little woman who liked to laugh, “Tee-he-he-he,” and who liked to make dumplings out of rice.

Arlene Mosel: Tikki Tikki Tembo (1968)

Once upon a time, a long time ago, it was the custom in China to give firstborn sons great, long, important names. Second sons were given only little, short names.

In a small village there lived a mother with two sons. The second son was called Chang, which means “little or nothing”. But the first son was called Tikki tikki tembo nosa rembo chari bari ruchi pip pen pembo, which means “the most wonderful boy in the whole world”.

Mal Peet: Cloud Tea Monkeys (2000)

Tashi and the monkeys met in their usual place, where the endless rows of tea bushes were broken by a jumble of rocks and a tree spread its shadow on the ground. Here she sat and crossed her legs. The monkeys watched her with their deep, serious eyes.

Andrea Davis Pinkney: Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra (2006) (Music)

You ever hear of the jazz-playin’ man, the man with the cats who could swing with his band? He was born in 1899, in Washington D.C. Born Edward Kennedy Ellington. But wherever young Edward went, he said, “Hey, call me Duke.”

Christopher Raschka: Charlie Parker Played Be Bop (1997)

Never leave your cat alone.

Be bop.

Mysterious Thelonious (1997)

John Coltraine’s Giant Steps (2002) (Music)

I love jazz. It’s the music that influenced so much of what we listen to day, but the music and the men who composed and played it were just as amazing.

Allen Say: Tea with Milk (1999)

From the window in her room, the girl could see the city of San Francisco. She imagined that it was a city of many palaces. And one day her father would take her there, he had promised, riding on a paddle steamer across the shining bay.

Her parents called her Ma-chan, which was short for Masako, and spoke to her in Japanese. Everyone else called her May and talked to her in English.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

What is all this about books for kids?

Since elementary school I have had a love for folktales and folklore. So when I’m looking for new books, I tend to seek out tales based on folktales.

Folklore

Verna Aardema: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears (1975)

The mosquito said, “I saw a farmer digging yams that were almost as big as I am”

“What’s a mosquito compared to a yam?” snapped the iguana grumpily. “I would rather be deaf than listen to such nonsense!” Then he stuck two sticks in his ears and went off, mek, mek, mek, mek, through the reeds.

Tomie dePaola: Strega Nona (1975)

In a town in Calabria, a long time ago, there lived an old lady everyone called Strega Nona, which meant “Grandma Witch.”

Although all the people in town talked about her in whispers, they all went to see her if they had troubles.

The Clown of God (1978)

Arthur A. Levine : The Boy Who Drew Cats

In fifth grade this story was in my reading book. There weren’t any pictures, but the story stuck in my mind, and eventually I decided to try and find the story. First, there are several versions of this story. The one I first read was the more gruesome of the tales.

Avoid large places at night–keep to small!

Paul Goble: The Girl Who Loved Horses

Rachel Isadora: The Princess and the Pea

Gerald McDermott: Anansi the Spider

One year I received a book that was a collection of folktales from around the world (that book will come up later) and some of my favorite tales were Anansi the Spider tales.

It’s one of the reason I was so delighted by Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods, because of Aunt Nancy.

Rafe Martin: Rough Faced Girl

Arlene Mosel: Tikki Tikki Tembo (1968)

Once upon a time, a long time ago, it was the custom in China to give firstborn sons great, long, important names. Second sons were given only little, short names.

In a small village there lived a mother with two sons. The second son was called Chang, which means “little or nothing”. But the first son was called Tikki tikki tembo nosa rembo chari bari ruchi pip pen pembo, which means “the most wonderful boy in the whole world”.

Esphyr Slobodkina: Caps for Sale (1940)

I don’t actually remember owning this book as a kid, but I clearly remember reading it.

The monkeys, of course, stuck in my memory.

Margot Zemach: It Could Always Be Worse (1976)

This is another book that I don’t think I owned as a kid, but I definitely remember reading and loving it.

Once upon a time in a small village a poor unfortunate man lived with his mother, his wife, and his six children in a little one-room hut.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

If you are interested in other books on folk and fairy tales, I have a page for them, separated by region of origin.

What is all this about books for kids?

These are picture books about historical figures or historical times. These books are for kids ranging in age from pre-school to about second grade.

History

Aliki: A Medieval Feast

The King is coming to visit! The lord and lady of Camdenton Manor must work quickly to prepare for his arrival. It will take weeks to ready rooms, set up tents, and prepare the feast itself. Everyone is busy hunting and hawking, brewing and churning.

What’s not to like about food?

Cynthia Chin-Lee: Amelia to Zora (2008)

Cathy Goldberg Fishman: When Jackie and Hank Met (2012) (Sports) (History) (Non-WASP)

Jackie and Hank were born eight years and one thousand miles apart.

Nobody knew these babies would grow up and play baseball. Nobody knew Jackie and Hank would meet and become heroes.

Deborah Heiligman: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos (2013)

If you have read many scientific journals, then you are probably aware of Paul Erdos, the man whose name is on more scientific papers than any other person. This story talks about the boy who became that man–and also about how he ended up publishing with so many people.

Margaret Hodges: Saint George and the Dragon

A re-telling from Spenser’s The Faerie Queene of George, the Red Cross Knight.

The Kitchen Knight (1990)

In the days when monsters and giants and fairy folk lived in England, a noble knight was riding across a plain. He wore heavy armor and carried and ancient silver shield marked with a red cross. It was dented with the blows of many battles fought long ago by other brave knights.

Kathleen Krull: Wilma Unlimited (2000)

No one expected such a tiny girl to have a first birthday. In Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1940, life for a baby who weighed just over four pounds at birth was sire to be limited.

But most babies didn’t have nineteen older brothers and sisters to watch over them.

Most babies didn’t have a mother who knew home remedies.

Andrea Davis Pinkney: Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra (2006) (Music)

You ever hear of the jazz-playin’ man, the man with the cats who could swing with his band? He was born in 1899, in Washington D.C. Born Edward Kennedy Ellington. But wherever young Edward went, he said, “Hey, call me Duke.”

Christopher Raschka: Charlie Parker Played Be Bop (1997)

Never leave your cat alone.

Be bop.

Mysterious Thelonious (1997)

John Coltraine’s Giant Steps (2002) (Music)

I love jazz. It’s the music that influenced so much of what we listen to day, but the music and the men who composed and played it were just as amazing.

Doreen Rappaport: Elizabeth Started All the Trouble (2016)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton couldn’t go to college but more importantly, she couldn’t vote.

A brief look at the start of the Women’s Suffrage Movement–and a time when women were still often treated as property rather than citizens.

Allen Say: Tea with Milk (1999)

From the window in her room, the girl could see the city of San Francisco. She imagined that it was a city of many palaces. And one day her father would take her there, he had promised, riding on a paddle steamer across the shining bay.

Her parents called her Ma-chan, which was short for Masako, and spoke to her in Japanese. Everyone else called her May and talked to her in English.

Tanya Lee Stone: The House that Jane Built

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her social activism.

Laurie Wallmark: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine (2015)

Any geek worth their salt knows that Ada Lovelace was the mother of computing. But if you aren’t a geek, then you may never have heard of the daughter of Lord Byron who created programming and changed the world to come.

Jonah Winter: Frida (Art) (2002)

I am a heathen. I know next to nothing about art, and generally don’t appreciate it. But even I know of Frida Kahlo.

Click through on any of the title (or book covers) to see the books on Amazon. (And if you buy, I get a few parts of pennies to build up towards a book for me!)

Anyone who has known me for more about about thirty seconds knows that I love to read. Because I want to share that love of books, all the small people in my life get books for their birthdays (and also for Christmas, if they’re family).

Since I’ve been doing this for more than 18 years at this point, and because I keep track of the books I give (because I don’t want to give the same books to the same families multiple times) I have a pretty substantial list of kids book. So I’m going to be make some recommendations, divided into age groups.

Picture Books: History & Historical Figures
Picture Books: Folklore
Picture Books: Multi-Cultural
Picture Books: Girl Power
Picture Books: Math & Science
Young Readers: More Pictures
Young Readers: Fewer Pictures
Middle Grades
Older Kids
YA Books

Some books will appear on more than one list, because my thought is this. If a kid loves to read, then some YA books are more than appropriate for them, because their reading level is higher than YA. But some YA books contain themes that might not be appropriate for middle age readers (acknowledgement of boinking, primarily), so they belong only in the YA category. It’s up to you to know the kid for whom you’re giving books, to know if acknowledgement of sex is something they’ll be ok with.

This is less a morality thing IMO, than whether the kid will be comfortable with the material. I read James Baldwin in middle school, and I remember being really confused by the idea of two male characters having sex–because I could not for the life of me figure out how that would work, but there is no way I was going to *ask* someone about it.

So, know your kid.

This will be the reference post, with links to the different posts. If you have any questions or would like to make requests or recommendations, PLEASE feel free to do so.

Also, I want to add some classifications to the books, and one of those is for books about non-white characters. I’m currently using the tag Non-WASP, since no one could give me a better term.

If you want to start browsing as I write, I have two existing pages that are somewhat regularly updated:

Kids’ Books
YA Books

Now for my FAVORITE! Pulling apart the year as a whole to look at the different parts!

I read a ridiculous number of books this year. Ridiculous. I blew past last year’s total of 189 in October and kept on reading.

Total books read: 230

First up: Book format

The trend of reading primarily eBooks has continued, although I did listen to more audio books this year than in any year previous.

You’ll also notice that I did a lot of re-reading this year. The past year was difficult for me mentally, so I did a lot of comfort reading–reaching for those books I already know I love to escape my brain.

The multiple formats simply means that I own the book in more than one format–most commonly I owned a mass market paperback and then got the same book in electronic format, but audio books also count. Especially since I rarely listen to a fiction book I haven’t already read.

The multiple formats was lower than I might have expected, because a lot of the books I was looking for were available from the library as ebooks or audio books. (There are weird gaps in what the library has though.)

eBook: 179
Audio: 30
Trade Paperback: 18
Paperback: 3
Hardback: 0
Multiple Formats: 48
Re-read: 128

I like this chart because you can see precisely when I got an eReader, and exactly how that changed my reading habits.

I also think that kindle and the ability to read the same book across devices has helped increase the number of books I’ve read, since any time I have any kind of wait I can just pull out my phone and start reading. I no longer have to make sure to put a book in my pocket or purse, since as long as I have my phone, I have a book to read.

Next: Genre

These numbers are going to be a little more confusing, because a single book (especially the books I read) can be multiple genres (fantasy AND mystery AND romance). But for the most part things were pretty evenly split between fantasy and mystery.

Fantasy: 105
Mystery: 99
Romance: 42
Comic: 24
YA: 7
Non-Fiction: 6
Anthology: 3
History: 2
Cookbook: 1

If you’re curious, that dip in mysteries occurred after Grandmom died. It was a while before I was in the mood to read straight-up mysteries, since then I’d often think, “Grandmom would have loved this…”

Finally, the thing that made me start tracking all these stats in the first place: the authors.

It has been a constant complaint (mostly by men) that there just aren’t that many female authors out there. This is, of course, bullshit, but I figured the best way to show that would be to a look at my own reading habits over time.

This year, as with most other years, my reading was relatively evenly split between male and female authors.

Female: 105
Male: 91
Joint + Anthology: 34
Initials: 0
Male Pseudonym: 0
Anthology: 15
Joint: 19

Male: 40%
Female: 46%
Joint + Anthology: 15%

I’ve actually plotted both genre and author gender on a single chart, to see how reading romances affected things, but even in chart form it’s still confusing and it turns out mysteries are more closely correlated to author gender than any other genre of book I read. And even then, the relationship doesn’t always hold up. (FREX, the year I re-read all of Donna Leon’s 20-some Brunetti mysteries.)

Regardless, my point remains that it is not difficult to find excellent books my female authors to read. So if someone complains they don’t know of any good female authors, send ’em my way. Chances are I can recommend something they’d like.

And that’s 2017 in reading!

The Books of 2017

Here are the books of December!

Some of my favorite books of December were Flame in the Dark by Faith Hunter, the Jacqueline Kirby series by Elizabeth Peters, and The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan.

Also: the complete 2017 round-up!

Fantasy

The Tropic of Serpents (2014) Marie Brennan (8/10)

Mystery, Historical

Lady Darby
The Anatomist’s Wife (2012) Anna Lee Huber (7/10)
Mortal Arts (2013) Anna Lee Huber (8/10)
A Grave Matter (2016) Anna Lee Huber (8/10)
Lord John
The Custom of the Army (2010) Diana Gabaldon (8.5/10)
Barker & Llewellyn
The Hellfire Conspiracy (2007) Will Thomas

Fantasy, Supernatural

Soulwood
Flame in the Dark (2017) Faith Hunter  (8.5/10)

Mystery

Jacqueline Kirby
The Seventh Sinner (1972) Elizabeth Peters (8/10)
The Murders of Richard III (1974) Elizabeth Peters (8.5/10)
Spenser
Thin Air (1995) Robert B. Parker (8.5/10)

Audio

Chance, Audio Version (1996/1997) Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds (8.5/10)
Jar City, Audio Version (2000/2004/2011) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder narrated by George Guidall
Bangkok Tattoo, Audio Version (2005) John Burdett narrated by Paul Boehmer

And now the stats!

Lots of re-reads last month (although there were three audio books, which are always a re-read for me).

eBook: 10
Audio: 3
Multiple Formats: 3
Re-read: 8

Genre-wise it was mostly mystery, with a little bit of fantasy thrown in.

Fantasy: 3
Mystery: 10

As for the authors, mostly women this month!

Male: 3
Female: 10

We ended 2017 with a hike and Coopers Rock, and began 2018 in the same way.

It was cold, but the days were beautiful so we had wonderful hikes!

Date: 2017-12-31
Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Headwaters, Roadside Trails
Distance: 3.3 miles
Elevation: 1874-2412 feet
Temperature: 11-14 F

Date: 2018-01-01
Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Hemlock Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles
Elevation: 1620-1866 feet
Temperature: 8-10 F

The Best Urban and Supernatural Fantasy of 2017
The Best Historical Fantasy and YA of 2017
The Best Mysteries of 2017
The Best Comics of 2017

The Best Book Covers of 2017:
Mystery
Comics
Fantasy

The Book Covers I HATED This Year.

General note on links: Clicking on the text of a title should take you to my review. Clicking on the image of the cover should take you directly to the Amazon page for that book. Clicking on the author’s name should take you to my page for that author, which includes a chronological list of all their books I’ve read, and a compendium of my reviews for that author.

And now a bit of everything else:

Historical Romance

A Dangerous Deceit (2017) Alissa Johnson (8.5/10) – Gentleman Thief-Takers book 3

I loved the previous two books in this series, and so was happy to snatch this up. Although the two previous books are are closely tied together, with the main characters being sisters, this book is far more of a stand-alone, and far different from most historical romances.

For one, the female romantic lead has a disability. This seems minor to a modern reader, but at the time such disabilities were enough to cause people to be locked away; thus there is a great necessity for her to hide her disability even though it causes problems between her and the hero.

Secondly, there is a good mystery here as well.

I recommend all three books in this series, starting with A Talent for Trickery but this one can be read on its own.

Non-Fiction

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions  (2014) Randall Munroe (10/10)

Not at all recent, but I finally got around to reading it.

If you have come across xkcd, you should definitely own and read this book. It is a marvel and a delight.

Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment (2006) David Bodanis (8/10)

Again, not recent, but if you have any interest in the women who shaped science and mathematics and engineer, but we forgotten or hidden by the men of the day, you’ll want to add Emilie du Chatelet to your list of women to discover.

2017 Monthly Roundups
January
February
March
April
May
June
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Michelle’s All-Time Favorite Books

Although comics get more props than they used to, but not as much as they deserve, I’m mentioning comics that I loved this year, even though most of them are a little older.

Princeless: Vol. 1: Save Yourself (2012) Jeremy Whitley and Mia Goodwin (10/10)

Princeless, Vol 2: Get Over Yourself (2014) Jeremy Whitley and Emily Martin (8/10)

Princeless Vol 3: The Pirate Princess  (2014) Jeremy Whitley, Rosy Higgins, Ted Brandt (8/10)

These are utterly delightful. The oldest group of small people in my life are just reaching the sweet spot for these comics (9-11), so I’m looking forward to this coming year’s birthday gifts.

Princess Adrienne Ashe is a tomboy and a twin and does NOT want to be locked in a tower to await rescue by a prince. So she decides the best thing to do is rescue herself and her sisters.

Princess Ugg Vol. 1 (2014) Ted Naifeh and Warren Wucinich (8/10)

Princess Ugg Volume 2 (2015) Ted Naifeh, Warren Wucinich (8/10)

This is a similar theme to Princeless, except for it’s for teens and older (there is partial nudity, but it’s not sexy–it’s just a body; and there is acknowledgement of boinking).

Ulga wants to save her people, and believes that the only way to do so is to learn how to deal with the “civilized” world, so she goes down to into the low lands to the Princess Academy, which does NOT teach what she was hoping or expecting to learn.

It’s pretty marvelous.

Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones (9/10)

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg (8/10)

This is confusing as all get out, and takes a couple of reads, but is still fabulous.

Bobbi Morse has changed from secret agent to superhero after being given experimental drugs to save her life. Vol 1 is how she deals with the changes. Vol 2 is how she deals with her ex-husband being accused of murder.

It’s extremely confusing, yet extremely wonderful.

Rivers of London Volume 3: Black Mould (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan

Rivers of London: Vol. 4 Detective Stories (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Luis Guerrero, Lee Sullivan (8/10)

The best thing about the Rivers of London comics is they let you see more about secondary characters. Body Work showed us how Peter came to start working with Guleed, and Black Mould has them working together more and lets us spend more time with her.

Detective Stories not only lets us see Peter taking his detective tests, but we get see more of Leslie May’s past and the differences between Leslie and Peter. (I keep hoping all this means Leslie is working undercover.)

Plus, I just found them fun stories.

Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery (2013) Kurtis Wiebe and Roc Upchurch (9/10)

THIS IS NOT FOR KIDS.

This has sex and drugs and drinking and fighting and is utterly delightful.

Vol 3 went completely off the rails, but I have hopes that the recent reboot will make it better,so we’ll have to wait and see.

But this first volume? Completely irreverent and utterly delightful.

The Books of 2017

My favorite genre after fantasy is mystery. Nothing like a good murder to make me feel better about my life. I have several mystery authors that I pre-order because even if those mysteries aren’t excellent, they are still thoroughly enjoyable.

Police

Strange Shores (2010/2012) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Victoria Cribb (9/10) – Inspector Erlendur book 9

This is not a super-recent book, but it’s a series I loved and that I don’t think got enough attention.

The Inspector Erlendur series set in Iceland; the main character is depressive and brooding, but very good at his job, which makes up for his moodiness. Erlendur suffered a terrible trauma in his childhood and that single event is a theme running through the entire series–and also why he is so tenacious on the job.

If you are looking for a good mystery series I highly recommend checking Erlendur out. Stranger Shores is the final book in this series, so do NOT start here. Go get Jar City and work your way forward.

Earthly Remains  (2017) Donna Leon (8/10) – Brunetti book 26

I love this series.

This is not a book for those unfamiliar with Brunetti, but if you’ve even read a couple of stories you should love it. The corruption in Venice and Italy are a theme of these books as much as the food and mysteries. For the most part, Brunetti accepts this corruption as the way things are done, but in this book it finally gets to him and makes him wonder why he bothers.

It’s an excellent addition to the series, but like the Erlendur series, I recommend starting at Death at La Fenice, the first book in the series.

Historical

Where the Dead Lie (2017) C.S. Harris (8/10) – Sebastian St Cyr book 12

This book is a bit darker than the previous books in this series. Sebastian and his wife, Hero, discover more about the abuse of children in London in the early 1800s than anyone would ever want to know.

This remains an excellent series and I recommend reading the whole thing, starting at What Angels Fear and going forward.

A Curious Beginning (2015) Deanna Raybourn (8/10) – Veronica Speedwell

I’ve read other Deanna Raybourn mysteries and found them ok, but I got bored and stop reading at some point, so I waited for the first book in this series to go on sale before I bought it.

I very much liked the first book–the adventures of a young woman alone in the world, embarking on adventures that may well have to do with her mysterious past.

I didn’t like the second book quite as well, but it was good.

The Books of 2017

Historical

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent  (2013) Marie Brennan (8/10)

If I’d read this book when it came out, it’d certainly have made one of the best covers of the year. As it happens, I’m late to the game, but I do get to tell you how much I enjoyed the book now I finally read it. It’s more straight up fantasy than historical, except that it has a very strong feel of an historical, with dress and mores and discovery.

This is the first book in this series.

YA

Ghost Girl in the Corner (2016) Daniel José Older (8.5/10) – Shadowshaper Cypher novella

Shadowhouse Fall  (2017) Daniel José Older (8/10) – Shadowshaper Cypher book 2

One of the things Daniel José Older does extremely well is write female characters–especially teenagers. It’s obvious that not only does he have teenage girls somewhere in his life, but that he LISTENS to them. Not just their chatter, but what is important and the hassles they deal with every day.

The other reason I really like this series is that as a white woman from a rural area, I have no knowledge of what it’s like to be an person of color living in a big city–it’s just as foreign to me as being a Hobbit traveling through Mordor. But unlike Hobbits, teenagers of color exist. Hopefully this gives me a bit of understanding of something I can’t experience.

And the fantasy elements are MARVELOUS.

The first book in this series is Shadowshaper

Firebug (2014) Lish McBride (8/10)

This book is outside my normal window for the best books of the year, but I love Lish McBride’s writing and I only put off reading it because her books never go on sale, so I had to wait until someone bought it for me as a gift.

She writes stories where the fantastic is in our world, but most of us can’t see it, so these teenagers have to navigate both being teenagers and members of a world most people don’t know about–in this case the main character is a fire-starter and an orphan who has been raised by the past several years by a family friend, and is trying her hardest to remain outside of the supernatural cabal she had to choice but to join.

The Books of 2017