• Mood: complex
• Music: KMRB is spinning Iron & Wine, "Biting Your Tail"

top 3 titles of 2011

Usually I skim the top 10 percent or so of my reviews, and republish them at the end of the year. And there were certainly at least 22 or so books I super-dug this year. However, 3 of the things I read were so much brillianter than all the rest that I'm just going to post those. THESE BOOKS ARE THE BOMB AND I FELL MADLY IN LOVE WITH THEM, YO. xxoo, maribou

Among Others, by Jo Walton
This is a book I always hoped someone would write without imagining it was actually possible, and also a wondrous strange thing I never would've dreamed could exist.

I am all undone.

(I got home after 8:30 tonight and did almost nothing but read this book until I'd finished it around 1:30 in the morning. It is everything I hoped it would be, and my hopes were so high. And also, I was often surprised, thinking "I thought *I* was the only person who thought that thing that seems so weird". And also, I was frequently moved to audible reaction while reading it. I think I need to buy another copy for lending to people so that I can mark the hell out of my own. (And yes, there will also be copies bought for other people, for years to come.) Notice how I'm skipping it ahead of all the books I haven't written up yet? That's because it's so great I couldn't keep from telling you about it for one minute more. And also, did I mention? Perfect. I loved it. )
(25/200, 20/100)

Picture This!, by Lynda Barry
OMG THIS BOOK IS SO FUCKING BRILLIANT I CAN NOT EVEN TELL YOU. You would have to read it. Then you would run around saying NO REALLY YOU HAVE TO READ IT to everyone you know who cares about art or drawing or figuring out how to let yourself be yourself instead of freaking out all the time. WOW. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK SO MUCH. And if anyone says "oh, I don't know, it's good and all that..," I start RABIDLY EXPLAINING how amazing it is. That reminds me, I need to go send this book and another book to my aunt for her birthday! Right now!! There, I sent it. (Along with Marian Bantjes' _I Wonder_, which is wonderful in fairly different but not unconnected ways.)
(26/200)

Astro City: Family Album, Astro City: Life in the Big City, Astro City: Confession, Astro City: The Dark Age, vol. 1: Brothers & Other Strangers, Astro City: The Tarnished Angel, and Astro City: Local Heroes, by Kurt Busiek et al
The worst of these was still pretty good, and the best ones are amazing. Seriously. The best comics I've read all year. Meta, but deeply in love.
(164/200, 96/100; 165/200, 97/100; 166/200, 98/100; 167/200, 99/100; 170/200, 100/100; 173/200, 103/100)