Book Love: 2006

Okay, here are quick encapsulations of the great qualities in this year's books...

5.) Burning the Map - Laura Caldwell - This is chick lit with characters that are not just out to find a guy or go shoe shopping; this is chick lit where the characters are still trying to define themselves. The main character here is sensitive and real. Good stuff.

4.) The Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreelund... This is historical fiction along the lines of Tracy Chevalier's books - taking inspiration from a work of art and building a story about it. This book fictionalizes the provenance of a Vermeer painting, with a short piece about everyone that the painting touches along its journey from conception to current day.

3.) To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie WIllis... I am not much of a sci fi fan anymore - I used to love it but it's not my thing anymore - but this was a wonderful book, combining sci-fi and historical fiction in a time-travelling tale where the people from the future are comicly struggling to stay in character and in proper time while at the same time trying to make sure that they don't change history enough to negate their present. Very fun.

2.) The Day I Turned Uncool - Dan Zevin... The subtitle of this book is 'Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up,' which is quite telling. It's non-fiction about getting older - that is, graduating from your mid-twenties into your mid-thirties. At my age (33) this was an ideal read.
It's an extremely funny (yet frightfully true) book.

1.) Marley & Me - John Grogan.. I started this book one morning on the bus and had to keep covering my mouth, I was giggling so loudly. I finished it on the train home at night, and I was hunched in the corner, trying to make sure nobody saw me crying. This is a book for anyone who loves dogs, has a dog, has ever met a dog, whatever. It's a wonderful book.

And now I think I am caught up, time-wise, and thus I can go take a shower! See you in a half hour!