Favorite Books Read in 2013 – #’s 9 & 10

As we dip into the top 10, we’ve got the last book I read this year, and the oldest book I read this year.  James Scott’s debut novel was harrowing and emotionally wrenching.  It would have been even higher on the list except that the ending, while appropriate, seemed a little rushed.  Charles de Lint is a writer of urban fantasy who has been publishing novels for thirty years.  I’ve always meant to read one of his books, and I finally did so, a book that he published in 2003.

The Kept#10 – The Kept by James Scott

James Scott has crafted a harsh tale of life in upstate New York in the late 1800’s. Elspeth works as a midwife, often on the road helping women give birth across the State of New York. At home, her husband Jorah, tends to their six children until the day Elspeth returns home after weeks away to find her family recently gunned down and left for dead. All that is save for her 12-year-old son Caleb, hidden from the massacre, yet traumatized by the violent events, Caleb and his mother must face harsh weather, serious wounds, damaging secrets and an unforgiving world as they seek revenge on the men who destroyed their lives. Both protagonists carry secrets  that manifest in a guilt that nearly causes them to make ill-fated decisions.  In fact, nearly all of the main characters  harbor anxiety producing secrets, and as any good reader of stories knows, those secrets are bound to come out.
Scott weaves an intricate tale that touches on so many issues, while keeping the story of a mother and her son at the core. The bleak landscape both without and within make for somber reading, but it’s well worth the effort to walk some miles in these tragic characters’ shoes.

Spirits in the Wires#9 – Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is a prolific writer of fantasy whose books often deal with spirits, faeries, worlds just beyond our perception where all matter of magical folks live. In this novel from 2003 he posits that the world wide web has evolved into one such world where spirits have taken up residence alongside our own world as well as the Borderlands and the Otherworlds where hobs, pixies, goblins, faeries, hellhounds and other such beings lurk.

One website in particular, the Wordwood, seems to be home to a very powerful spirit, and when the site is attacked by a computer virus, the devastating effects are made manifest in our world in the disappearance of dozens, possibly hundreds of people. In fact, Christy Redding’s girlfriend, Saskia, disappears right before his eyes, her body pixellating into nothingness. Of course, Saskia isn’t a normal person. She was born of the web; a spirit cast out from the web to awaken fully cognizant with implanted memories but no actual experience in a human body.  Then there is Christiana, Christy’s shadow; all of the traits that Christy didn’t want at age seven that he cast off into his shadow. Christiana began life as everything Christy wasn’t: where Christy was male, Christiana was female; where Christy was cautious, Christiana was impetuous… etc.  After Saskia’s disappearance, Christy reaches out to a ragtag assortment of friends and allies to help him try to find her, little knowing that her best source of information would be his shadow, Christiana.

Spirits in the Wires is a rollicking adventure held on multiple fronts as a variety of fun and fascinating characters all do their part in helping the people who have disappeared. Some of his supporting characters come across as slightly stereotypical, but that might be the shorthand of the fact that many of these characters have appeared in other works that I haven’t read. de Lint handles the female characters particularly well, especially in their relationships with each other. At its heart, Spirits in the Wires is more internal story of where we come from and who we are. Saskia and Christiana struggle with their unconventional beginnings and ask whether that makes the any less human? By the end of the novel we will know the answer, but in de Lint’s skillful hands, how could they be anything but?

Favorite Books Read in 2012 – the Complete List

And now, here is my complete list of my favorite books read in 2012.

  1. Day for Night by Frederick Reiken
  2. May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
  3. Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A. McKillip
  4. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Blunt
  5. Among Others by Jo Walton
  6. Coral Glynn by Peter Cameron
  7. The Paternity Test by Michael Lowenthal
  8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
  9. Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
  10. All This Talk of Love by Christopher Castellani
  11. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
  12. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
  13. The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen
  14. Elza’s Kitchen by Marc Fitten
  15. Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
  16. Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

Two more books got a special mention:

  1. The First Time I Heard… Kate Bush, ed. by Scott Heim
  2. Kicking & Dreaming:  A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock and Roll by Ann & Nancy Wilson with Charles R. Cross

Then there were ten other books that I considered for my list of favorite books read in 2012, that for whatever reason, just didn’t make the cut.  I would say they are all good books and well worth reading.  These are listed in alphabetical order.

  • Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
  • Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray
  • Canada by Richard Ford
  • The Collective by Don Lee
  • Falling Backwards: A Memoir by Jann Arden
  • Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez
  • The First Warm Evening of the Year by Jamie Saul
  • Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
  • The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Eviston
  • Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Finally, five or six more books I read that just didn’t make the cut at all.  Not that they were bad, but they just weren’t in the league of the other books I’d read.  There were really only a couple of books that I either actively didn’t like, or that disappointed me.  I will not be listing these books here.  Ask me privately if you want to know what they were.

Favorite Books Read in 2012 – #1

My favorite book read in 2012 was published in 2010, and recommended to me by my dear friend Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company, an independent bookstore in Milwaukee.  Daniel is one of the best recommenders of books around, and he has a very active blog.  When Daniel mentioned Day for Night, I jotted it down on my list of books to be read, but by the time I was looking for something to read and stumbled over that title, I couldn’t remember anything he said about it.  Still, trusting Daniel’s book recommendations, coupled with the fact that the author lived in the Boston area, I decided to give it a try.  I was blown away.  So superb, and a debut too!  I am eagerly awaiting Frederick Reiken’s next novel.

Day for Night#1 – Day for Night by Frederick Reiken

Near the end of Frederick Reiken’s powerful novel Day for Night, one character says of another, “… if I thought hard enough, I’d come to understand her purpose.” With Reiken’s novel, I feel the opposite. The harder you ponder and try to make all the many story threads come together, the more elusive it all becomes. Yet when you take a step back and don’t try so hard to figure it out, it all flows and comes together like elegant artwork or music. In Day for Night, each of the ten chapters is told from the point-of-view of a different character. They are structured like individual short stories, yet all the stories are linked in some way, and they all build a larger tapestry. With topics as far ranging as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marine biology, the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews, and environmental sensitivity syndrome, and a cast of characters that span continents and generations, Day for Night has mystery, romance, history, adventure… even a little science fiction when looked at from a certain angle. It’s the kind of tale that sticks with you for hours or days after you’ve read it, and haunts you in the best of all possible ways. I loved it.

Favorite Books Read in 2012 – #2

A new book by A.M. Homes is always an event in the Colford household.  Homes is one of the few authors that both Scot and I love and read together.  Homes is the author of six novels, two short story collections, a memoir, a travel memoir.  She adapted her own novel for teens, Jack, as a teleplay.    Her celebrated collection of short stories, The Safety of Objects was adapted to the screen by Rose Troche.  Her latest novel is a twisted literary odyssey that is, while being in the runner-up position for best book I read in 2012, is definitely my favorite book published in 2012 that I read.

May We Be Forgiven#2 – May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

A.M. Homes has created something astounding with May We Be Forgiven. This modern tale of redemption followed Harold Silver, a man on the outside looking in, who is forced to stop watching and start participating, when his older brother George comes unwound and becomes responsible for a series of deaths. Harold suddenly finds himself responsible for the care of George’s two children, his home, his pets, and getting his own life back on track. But before he can do any of that, he must descend into the surreal, rhythms of a life that buffets him around from one unsettling experience to the next. I loved this book. It starts off with a series of shocking events, then peels back the facade of the upper middle-class to expose some pretty bizarre, and sometimes ugly behavior. Readers will be left alternately disturbed and chuckling by Homes’ straight-forward writing style married to her startling circumstances. Characters frequently misunderstand each other to comic or tragic effect. But somewhere along the way, with sublime subtlety, Homes starts to turn things around, and allow George to piece his life back together. As the title may suggest, this is a powerful, and beautifully rendered story of forgiveness.

Favorite Books Read in 2012 – #’s 3 & 4

A debut novel and a collection of previously printed short stories — not what I was expecting for my third and fourth favorite books read in 2012!

Tell the Wolves I'm Home#4 – Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Carol Rifka Brunt has crafted a beautifully, sad, coming-of-age tale about fourteen-year-old June Elbus, her older sister Greta, and her Uncle Finn. Set in the early 1980’s, June’s world is rocked when her beloved Uncle dies of complications from AIDS. Recent changes in her relationship with Greta have made June believe that Finn was truly the only person to understand her. Enter the mysterious Toby, much maligned by the rest of her family, June finds in Toby a potential kindred spirit and someone from whom she can at the very least, learn more about Finn’s life.

Brunt masterfully negotiates the twists and turns of adolescence, while adding an additional layer of adult, emotional trauma in a story that is both powerful and incredibly moving. It also demonstrates just how far we’ve come as a society since the early 80’s, with regard to AIDS. Yet at the same time, some of the themes Brunt explores would still be scandalous in today’s world, which is a shame. This is a terrific debut novel, and I highly recommend it.

Wonders of the Invisible World#3 – Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A. McKillip

I was thrilled when I found out there was a new Patricia McKillip book recently released; then mildly disappointed when I found out it was a collection of previously published short stories. Not that I had read any of the stories yet, but generally, I enjoy McKillip’s novels more than her short stories.

Much to my surprise, the stories in Wonders of the Invisible World were truly wonders, and rose to the heights of some of McKillip’s best writing. This gifted artist paints literary landscapes across my heart and mind whether the setting be Puritan New England, a mysterious village in the woods, or an underwater realm. She snaps characters to life with the turn of a phrase, a phrase that seems familiar in the fantasy context, yet is at once strikingly original.

There is a lot of water imagery in this collection, which delighted me. I can’t recall many of her novels featuring the magic of water, and she writes it beautifully. I would love to see an entire novel devoted to the characters and setting of ‘Knight of the Well,’ or ‘The Kelpie.’

McKillip doesn’t just stick with fantasy in this collection either, but dips her hand into science fiction, as with the time travelling researcher in the title story, ‘Wonders of the Invisible World.’

It was nice to see some of McKillip’s less seen humor creep into several of these stories. While her creation and depiction of fantasy realms is the strongest weapon in her literary arsenal, this collection shows off the prodigious talent in her juxtaposition of fantasy with the modern world. And as is now to be expected, her stellar command of language shines through in this magnificent collection.