Bookwi.se

I have posted my list of favorite books I read over the previous year since I started Bookwi.se.  In years’ past, I wrote a brief introduction and then reposted the review and spread the ‘best of’ list over two weeks.  This year I have a lot more books that I think need mentioning.  I had a hard time narrowing and still ended up with 29 books.  So today I am going to talk about the Honorable Mentions.  These are books that I think are well worth reading, that I really enjoyed, but for one reason or another didn’t make the top 10 cut.  Monday I will post my 10 favorite Fiction books and Tuesday, my 10 favorite Non-Fiction books.

As always these books are based on the year I read them, not the year published.  And they are based on my enjoyment of the book, not necessarily its literary greatness.  Of the total 29, 11 of the books I listened to on audiobook (and the audio was excellent and in several cases they made the list because of the audio.)

Of the 29, 9 were published this year, 6 last year and only 5 were published before 2000.  The remaining 9 were published between 2001 and 2010.  These are not in a particular order. Links are to the full reviews.

Fiction Honorable Mentions

Back on Murder by J Mark Bertrand – My fiction tastes do not normally run to murder mysteries or police procedurals, but after having this book recommended over and over again, I picked it up.  It is one of the books that are regularly free on Kindle.  I picked up the discounted audiobook with promotional Audible credit because I tend to listen to books I am reluctant to read.  That was probably a bad choice, the audio I think detracted from the story.  But the story was excellent.  Especially considering that it is published by a Christian publisher.  Unfortunately this excellent book’s author is looking for a new publisher since he thinks that the Christian publisher does not know how to market this genre.  And the publisher is not making any money on a book that has had great reviews but not sold all that well.  It is the first of a trilogy.  I have picked up the rest of the trilogy when they were on sale, but I have not read them yet. (Currently Free)

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – Margaret Atwood is a well known author that I have not read.  I picked this up on audiobook when it was on sale and because it was narrated by Claire Danes as part of Audible’s A-List Series.  Handmaid’s tale is one of the classic dystopian books.  The books is narrated by a woman who’s name is never revealed.  Society has collapsed, fertility rates have plummeted and women have lost all of their rights.  So the woman OfFred (named for her relationship to her owner/husband, not with her own name) describes her life and the world around her.  The dry plain narration fits with this book very well and it is easy to see the power of a real dystopian nightmare.

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Summary: More bodies keep piling up around the 34th in line to the throne.  And she needs to find some answers in order to stop an international incident.

The first book in the series, Her Royal Spyness seemed to play clear homage to Dorothy Sayer’s Peter Wimsey series of mysteries.  So I thought about reading the next Peter Wimsey book before reading this second book.  But I changed my mind, because I needed another audiobook. I have listened to both of these books on audio and I think the excellent narrator (Katherine Kellgren) has really made these books shine.

As I have said before, I listen to audiobooks while I am processing data for my work or doing housework or caring for my daughter.  Audiobooks keep me entertained while working and make the time pass quickly.  But a good narrator really makes or breaks the audiobook.

In this case, Katherine Kellgren has done a great job with the light humor that sets this these two books (and presumably the whole series) apart from a lot of other cozy mysteries.

This second books feels less like Dorothy Sayers.  Georgie, the 34th in line for the throne, has established herself in London.  She is living out from under the influence of her brother and his wife, but also without any financial support.  So in spite of her title and position, she is broke.  In the last book she started a house cleaning service to make money while trying to discover her place in London society (she grew up in a Scottish Castle) and keep her work a secret from the Queen.

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Summary: The character continue to get deeper into the mythology and danger.

This is essentially the 9th fully book (with a couple more short story collections) of the Percy Jackson series.  This second series Rick Riordan has expanded his available mythology so that both Greek and Roman mythologies are available.  I am far outside my own depth and knowledge at this point.  That is not a problem because Riordan does not expect the reader to know everything.  But there are more and more minor figures involved in every book.

At the end of the last book, Percy and Annabeth were sucked into Tartarus (the deepest place of the underworld where the Titans and other monsters get banished).  The rest of the crew has to try to get to the door to the House of Hades to both let Percy and Annabeth out and to seal the door to keep the monsters from over running the world and to stop Gaia from waking up.

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Empire of Bones is the third and final book in the Ashtown Burials series, and it’s best one. Wilson does a superb job of sourcing his villains and protagonists from classic literature and poetry, ancient history and mythology. It lends an immediacy and real-world feel the novel, like it all could be true and we common folk simply haven’t had visibility to the supernatural undercurrents swirling through our world history.

Teenager Cyrus Smith is an Explorer and card-carrying member of the ancient Order of Brendan. The Order is under threat from various forces (contemporary traitors and ancient evil powers alike), and the centuries-old battle threatens to spill over decisively into the broader geopolitical theater. With book 3, a lot of questions are finally answered and plot lines resolved, making it the fastest-paced and most emotionally satisfying of the series.

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