“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Eh, I didn’t want to do this before I finished blogging about the rest of the books I read in 2007, but I figured I could always come back and link those recaps later. Full list of books can be found here.

Last year had the honour of being a year for reading young adult fantasy (and some science fiction) books, though I hadn’t planned it to be that way. I found authors others had been enjoying since childhood and was ruing the fact that I hadn’t been introduced to these books earlier. I also learned that short story anthologies can be good, especially when they’re by authors I enjoy, and I still suck at reading non-fiction. Oh well.

Top five of the year (and I’m cheating, ’cause the first two are actually a series of books):

• The Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones

  I read all the Chrestomanci books this year, and enjoyed them immensely. My favourites were Conrad’s Fate and The Lives of Christopher Chant, and the other books follow very close behind. I also loved the short story “Stealer of Souls” from Mixed Magics. Now, if only DWJ can write endings (all the endings are pretty . . . odd, at least to me. Not the resolution of the stories themselves, but the last epilogue-like chapter or maybe the last few paragraphs leading to the very end of the books often leave me wondering why she ended it that way), then I would be the happiest reader in the world.

• The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper

  Funny how I never knew of the existence of these books earlier in my reading life. This is almost your standard coming-of-age, Light versus Dark story, but not quite. I loved Greenwitch and The Grey King best.

• Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

  This was a surprise favourite! I picked the book up knowing nothing about it, and fell in love with the characters and the countryside where Willie is evacuated to at the eve of World War II in England.

• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

  I went into this book with expectations it would be something like Larklight. Boy was I wrong. Fast paced adventure and flawed human relationships, and a future so bizarre (traction cities moving across the continent eating each other!) pretty much convinced me that I’ll have to get the rest of the books to the series. Somehow.

• Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space by Philip Reeve and David Wyatt

  Mr Reeve has the honour of appearing twice on this list, because I love his work in Larklight as well. And the illustrations! And space adventures in Victorian times!

Notice how all the books here are YA, and most of them are YA science fiction/fantasy? Broadening horizons, that’s what my 2008 resolution should be.

Other honourable mentions: Stardust and Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories by Susanna Clarke, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Ilium by Dan Simmons (which comes with a caveat, because I didn’t like its necessary sequel, Olympos, as much).

Best reread (only one, since total rereads were, like, three books):

• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

  I felt like I missed so many things the last time I read this. And I keep dissolving into laughter every other page. And Howl and Sophie! Howl and Sophie! How can anyone not love Howl and Sophie and Calcifer and Michael and everyone else in this book. Even my mother liked this book. It definitely gets a ringing endorsement from me.

Fortunately, there weren’t many books that were terrible (and I think I set my standards pretty low — I am mildly ashamed of this! I should be more discerning!) but two stood out as being not good enough that I remember that they were Not Good Enough:

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

  Seriously, this one bored me. I think my last comment about it was it was too self-absorbed. I also had issues on how easily the author went off tangent about so many things. It also didn’t help I wasn’t familiar with a lot of things that was going on . . . his world is nothing like mine, I suppose.

• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

  Uh. This one just suffers from “too much action/adventure” syndrome, in my humble opinion. I’d like to know my characters more, please. Even the unlikeable ones should have more personality. And too. Many. Sentence. Fragments. Seriously.

Overall, not a bad year, I say.