Books

I haven't read as much this year as I read in 2006, 2007, or 2008, but that's okay, and I still wanted to do a book post.

I reread last year's book post, and I noticed that I didn't mention Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I don't remember when I read it. It came out in October 2008, so who knows when I read it. Anyway, I really liked Graceling, and this October Fire came out. Fire occurs before Graceling, but isn't really a prequel; it's more of a companion novel. The two books only have one character in common.

This year I read the following Shakespeare plays: Merchant of Venice, All's Well that Ends Well, Merry Wives of Windsor, Cymbeline, Love's Labour's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew.
My favorite of those is Merchant of Venice. I think it's the best written of Shakespeare's comedies, though I think Much Ado About Nothing is still my overall favorite.
I also really liked Merry Wives of Windsor and The Tempest. I didn't like All's Well that Ends Well or Two Gentlemen of Verona.

I already mentioned Fire, and I like it as much as I liked Graceling. Maybe more? I'm not sure. I'll have to reread Graceling and see. The third book, which is a sequel to Graceling, is called Bitterblue and is coming out...sometime.

This year, for my birthday, my mother gave me a very tall stack of books. They're mostly fluffy books -- but fluffy books that I like. Noel Streatfeild, Jean Estoril. The stack included some books not published in the U.S. I read all of them after the AP exams, though I'm not sure if it was a reward or simply a way to relax -- fluff instead of study books. The stack also included two books by Lorna Hill, which were okay, but not as good as the others.

In April, Bloodhound came out. Bloodhound is the second book in Tamora Pierce's Rebakah Cooper trilogy, and it came out right before my birthday...so I got Bloodhound for my birthday. I didn't save it for after the AP exams. I read it immediately. Now I am eagerly awaiting Mastiff, which still has TBA 2010 as its publication date on the website. Grr. But considering I was able to wait 2.5 years for Bloodhound after Terrier, I shouldn't be this impatient. *sigh*
Also by Tamora Pierce -- I hadn't read Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen until this month -- actually, this past week. They're very good, though one thing kept bothering me off and on as I read. Lady Knight, the last book in the Protector of the Small quartet, occurred in the year 450. Trickster's Choice begins in the year 452, but it feels like it is supposed to start the spring after Lady Knight, which would be 451. But that's minor, and not really part of the book, since the dates are mostly there to help keep track of when events within the series happen in relation to each other.

Books I read in French this year: Un long dimanche de fiançailles, Comme un roman, Autour du monde en 80 jours, Chagrin d'école. Actually, I haven't finished the last one. I feel like there was at least one other book, but I don't remember. And I can't remember when I read Candide -- 2008 or 2009. I've liked all four of those books. Un long dimanche de fiançailles has a rather painful first chapter, but after that it is interesting and occasionally beautiful. I really like Verne's style and Autour du monde en 80 jours. Comme un roman and Chagrin d'école are both nonfiction by Daniel Pennac. The first is about reading, what's wrong with how it's taught, how it could be improved, etc. The second is about students who don't do well in school and feel they can't do well in school, and what is wrong that makes this true. Pennac has a really beautiful way of stating things, and I like the topics.

Last spring in English class we read Tale of Two Cities. I liked the plot and admire Dickens' ability to weave a complicated plot, but the verbosity...*shudders*
Our summer reading in English was To Kill a Mockingbird and Night. I hadn't read either before, and neither one took me much time. I didn't really like Night, and I loved To Kill a Mockingbird.

This semester in English we haven't really read anything. Okay, okay, so we've read some interesting short stories. We've also read some not-very-interesting short stories.
Also in English class, we have started having one day per week to read, and then we have to write a reflective paragraph. I read The Tempest, and now I'm reading Invisible Man. I'm not far in Invisible Man, but it's a good book, though it goes from very intense to almost light (though not quite) rather quickly.

This summer at Mathcamp I read Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht.
Oh my goodness.
I think I'm at least slightly obsessed with this play. I like Brecht's style, and the play made me think perhaps more than any other novel or play I've read. Scene 14 is my favorite, and it might not be an exaggeration if I said that I had that scene half memorized. Well, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration. Not much, though.

I reread a few Horrible Histories -- the special one about France, the two about WWII, the one about WWI, the one about the Georgians, the one about revolutions, and the one about the Tudors are the ones that I can think of. I read Righting the Mother Tongue by David Wolman, which was interesting.

I read the first two books in the Alchemyst series by Michael Scott. They're okay. I might read the other books, but I don't know.
I read Sasha by Joel Shepard. It's pretty good; I would read the future books in the series. I thought it was a little bit slow at times, even during battle scenes, but still liked it.

(Some books I mentioned here I mentioned because I read them recently and remember them well, so I'm sure there are some notable books that I read last spring that I'm forgetting. If I remember them, I'll edit this post.)