I’m trying to be a better bear. There are many things I do well, and a few things I don’t do so well, but it’s amazing how effectively the few can derail the many. One of the areas which I’m attempting to improve is my knowledge of international affairs. In the past, I have resolutely avoided watching the news—it depresses me—but I have reached a point in my life where not knowing is more depressing than knowing. Besides which, outlets like NPR include uplifting stories and whole sections devoted to books and music (according to some: fluff). At work, in the in-between moments, I have taken to reading a few articles here and there, some serious, most otherwise.
Which is how I happened upon this poll:
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| Click HERE to Read the Article and Cast Your Vote |
I read the list, obviously. Many of the books I'd never heard of. Many I had, but had never read. There were books I thought shouldn't be on the list that were, and books that weren't on the list that should have been. And there were books that saved changed saved(?) my life.
There was a time when it felt like all I had was literature. My best friends were fictional. My favorite places were tucked inside alternate realities. And I could, when I needed to, read myself out of a life that felt like a fiction and into a fiction that felt like my life. I lived books; I lived through books. Reading NPR's list reminded of the stories that kept me going, the characters that I related to and felt like I knew. It makes me want to revisit them and see where they take me now that I am older and more grounded. In any case, I owe a great debt to these books and would be remiss not share them with you.
My Top 10
Dimple Lala doesn't know what to think, She's spent her whole life resisting her parents' traditions. But now she's turing seventeen and things are more complicated than ever. She's still recovering from a year-old break-up and her best friend isn't around the way she used to be. Then, to make matters worse, her parents arrange for her to meet a "suitable boy." Of course, it doesn't go well...until Dimple goes to a club and finds him spinning a magical web of words and music. Suddenly the sutable boy is sutiable because of his sheer unsuitability. Complications ensue.
This is a story about finding yourself, finding your friends, finding love, and finding your culture--sometimes where you least expect it.
With her gift of weaving silk thread and creating light, Sandry is brought to the Winding Circle community. There she meets Briar, a former thief who has a way with plants; Daja, an outcast gifted at metalcraft; and Tris, whose connection with the weather unsettles everyone, including herself. At Winding Circle, the four misfits are taught how to use their magic--and to trust each other. But then disaster strikes their new home. Can Sandry weave together four kinds of magical power and save herself, her friends, and the one place they have ever been accepted?
Servant. Lady's maid. Handmaiden. Her masters have called sixteen-year-old Claidi many things, but she has always known she is a slave. Then--in a small act of rebellion--Claidi steals a blank diary from her mistress and begins The Claidi Journals.
When a charming stranger arrives and is imprisoned, Claidi decides to risk everything to free him and deliver him home to a distant kingdom. At its heart stands the mighty Wolf Tower, where a Law more oppressive than the one she has known is meted out. There Claidi finds herself tangled in a web of conspiracy and lies, and she must escape again.
On this journey, Claidi's diary is her only solace. Within its pages she confides a story of bittersweet yearnings, startling discoveries, and dazzling epic adventure.
Angus: My mixed-breed cat, half domestic tabby, half Scottish wildcat. The size of a small Labrador, only mad.
Thongs: Stupid underwear. What's the point of them, anyway? They just go up your bum, as far as I can tell.
Full-Frontal Snogging: Kissing with all the trimmings, lip to lip, open mouth, tongues...everything.
Her dad's got the mentality of a Teletubby (only not so developed). Her cat, Angus, is trying to eat the poodle next door. And her best friend thinks she looks like an alien--just because she accidentaly shaved off her eyebrows. Ergghhhlack. Still, add a little boy-stalking, teacher-baiting, and full-frontal snogging with a Sex God, and Georgia's year just might turn out to be the most fabbitty fab fab ever!
Menolly is a gifted musician. But on Pern, where men are the makers of music, she is forbidden to express her talent. Without music, life in Menolly's small fishing community becomes unbearable and she runs away from home. But with no hold to protect her, Menolly must find other ways to hide from Thread, a mysterious substance that falls in tendrils from the sky--and burns everything it touches. In a cave above the sea, Menolly finds shelter and a clutch of mythical fire lizard eggs that will become the key to her future--and her song.
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broom-stick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.
It is no ordinary life for a young girl: living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College and tearing unsupervised through Oxford's motley streets on mad quests for adventure. But Lyra's greatest adventure will begin closer to home, the day she hears hushed talk of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the magical dust--found only in the vast Arctic expanse of the North--is rumored to possess profound properties that could unite whole universes. But there are those who fear the particle and will stop at nothing to destroy it. Catapulted into the heart of a terrible struggle, Lyra is forced to seek aid from witches, gypsies, and formidable armored bears. And as she journeys into unbelievable danger, she has not the faintest clue that she alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle . . .
The dark, fearsome Ringwraiths were searching for a hobbit. Frodo Baggins knew they were seeking him and the Ring he bore--the Ring of Power that would enable evil Sauron to destroy all that was good in Middle-earth. Now it was up to Frodo and his faithful servant Sam, with a small band of companions, to carry the Ring to the one place it could be destroyed--Mount Doom, in the very center of Sauron's dark kingdom of Mordor.
Ponyboy is fourteen, tough and confused, yet sensitive behind his bold front. Since his parents' death, his loyalties have been to his brothers and his gang, the rough, swinging, long-haired boys from the wrong side of the tracks. When his best friend, Johnny, kills a member of a rival gang, a nightmare of violence begins and swiftly envelops Ponyboy in a turbulent chain of events.
Spinners (and other fairytale re-writes)
This is the story of two spinners. The first honed his craft at a stolen wheel, cramping and crippling his leg, truing a room full of straw into a glittering dress for his beloved--and losing her.
The second steals moments to teach herself, moments from her father's eye. The yarn she creates is like no other. Saskia is her name, and she grows up to be a master spinner herself. Nothing is beyond her--until she, too, must spin straw into gold.
And it is then that they meet...
