Michele Young-Stone

Dec 31 2010

My Favorite Reads of 2010

I mentioned on Twitter last night that it looks like I will close out 2010 having read about 60 or so books. A few people asked about my favorites so I figured it would be worth it to wrap up 2010 with a post.

After looking at the list I decided to do so by breaking it out a bit. The list breaks down into three categories which divide my reading into roughly thirds: Young Adult Fiction, Fiction, and Non-Fiction.  So below are my favorite reads in each of those categories.

Young Adult Fiction

Cover of "Leepike Ridge"

Cover of Leepike Ridge

Yes, I’m a grown man and I read young adult fiction. As I have explained a few times, I do this because I find the YA fantasy fiction genre creative and entertaining. Some of them are just fun relaxing reads (admittedly quick and easy as well) but some of them are complex and imaginative in ways that make the label superfluous. They are just great books.

The List (in no particular order):

  1. Factotum (The Foundling’s Tale, Part Three) by D. M. Cornish (If you love epic fantasy that is a mix of Tolkien and Dickens you will enjoy this series.)
  2. Boom! by Mark Haddon (A great little story – action, adventure, intrigue and humor all in less than 200 pages.)
  3. The Necromancer by Michael Scott (An enjoyable fantasy thriller where you race to read the book only to be forced to wait for the next release to dive back in again.)
  4. Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson (“An original mix of Robinson Crusoe, King Solomon’s Mines, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Odyssey”)
  5. Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill (A creative and intelligent mix of myth, mystery and coming of age stories.)

“Adult” Fiction and Non-Fiction below.

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May 14 2010

The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone

Something about the hook for the The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors intrgued me when I heard about the book from NetGalley. Here is the publishers blurb:

On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1977, Becca Burke, flame-haireddaughter of Mary and Rowan Burke, was struck by lightning. She was eight years old. Noone believed her, even when her Winnie-the-Pooh watch kept losing time and a spookyhalo of light appeared over her head in every photograph taken after the strike. She was hitagain when she was 16. Becca survived, but over time she would learn that outsmartinglightning was the least of her concerns.

Buckley R. Pitank never knew his real father, but his mother was the love of his life–until the day she was struck and killed by lightning on a boat in Galveston, Texas, just asthey were making a new home far away from their troubled past. Reeling from the loss ofthe one person who truly understood him, Buckley returns to Mont Blanc, Arkansas, tolive at the mercy of his mother’s estranged husband, the Reverend John Whitehouse.When he finally escapes, Buckley’s quest to understand the power of lightning will leadhim around the country and into the heart of a young woman who once thought she wasalone in the world.

So with a few clicks I had it available to read on my Kindle – and I finished a few weeks back and wanted to finally post on it. It turned out my hunch was right and it was an engaging read.

More thoughts below.

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