Best Books of the Year

As the year draws to a close, it's only natural to reflect on what the year brought into your life. Books are always a big part of that for me. I find new books (or at least new to me) by browsing bookstores (online and mortar) or by word of mouth. Sometimes I take a risk based on an online review. That's getting more common for me. Since I thought it might be for you as well, I decided to share the ups and downs of my year and invite you to do the same. 

What was the best book you read this year? The best new author you discovered? The most astounding non-fiction? The biggest disappointment? Don't limit yourself to one per category. I know that sometimes it's impossible to choose just one and I won't make you.
Here's my choices. Maybe you'll find something you just have to read.
The Best Book:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Wild Fling or Wedding Ring by Mira Lyn Kelly

Honorable Mention:
All Larry Brooks' back list. He's like a darker, more twisted version of Harlan Coben.

Blood and Circumstance by Frank Turner Hollon. He always amazes me because he writes such tight stories in like 200 pages and this is no different, except he completely blew my mind with this. Ambiguous endings don't usually make me happy, but this one just made me reread the story, trying to build a case for the ending my heart wanted.

Sugar Creek by Toni Blake. What can I say? She's one of my favorite authors.



Non-Fiction
Highway to Hell - John Geddes. Written by an ex-SAS officer who is boots-on-the-ground in Iraq. Timely and informative.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell. I "discovered" Thomas Sowell because, well, frankly, I'm an economics junky. But he's written on so many subjects that one has to classify him a true renaissance man. Clear thinking and wise.


Reaper's Line:Life and Death on the Mexican Border by Lee Morgan. Another timely book. Written by an ex-border patrol officer, this illuminates a lot of what's really going on at our southern border.

And for me, there's always a special category labeled "Writing Books."


Most Disappointing:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I don't think I need to elaborate  about this choice.

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King. I'm not very forgiving when an author takes the easy way out and gives the character an "I'm TSTL" moment to make the plot work out. What else can you call it when a "retiring" pirate strips her ship of all it's weapons while still sailing the waters where she plied her trade? Something bad then proceeded to happen. Uh, gee. Ya think? (Gotta wonder—didn't her editor notice either?)

So here's my favorite part. Share your favorites with me (or your disappointments.) What did I miss that I absolutely should read?

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Music for your Christmas

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Writing Nuggets for December

As promised, I'm posting links that I think will take you to interesting and useful places. These all seem to revolve around character this time. I've already blogged here about how important character is, so my focus this month shouldn't be too surprising.


An interesting way to measure character motivation and growth

If you're like me, you don't find those character charts very useful. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that think you should know what each character's favorite color is. On the other hand, these nine questions will lead to interesting insights into your characters.

This is a little harder to get to because you have to be a member of Savvy Authors. Basic membership is free however, and this article describing a technique for deepening character point of view is worth every penny. ;) I turned a critique buddy onto it (hi Joey) and her writing jumped several levels almost instantly.

If you visit any of the sites and find them useful, I'd love it if you came back and wrote a testimonial to help guide others.
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