Happy New Year, folks. I just returned from an overnight trip up north to Seattle to visit The Grand Tsubaki Shrine of America in the Japanese traditional first shrine visit of the year.

Now we're back, and I was reflecting on a year's worth of purposeful book reading. (Purposeful in the sense that I was paying more attention than usual to what I was reading as I was writing reviews of books that I didn't hate.) And I thought I'd go month by month and link to the books each month that I really loved. So here is a list of books that I enjoyed, and that probably reflect certain aspects of my taste (heavily genre, and alot of YA as I have tried to read alot in that area this year.)

January
One For Sorrow by Christopher Barzak. Because it was so sad, and the characters were so real in their painful adolescence.

February
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Because death and the holocaust is difficult to write about without plunging us all into despair, and this book managed to put human faces on both those touchy subjects.

March
The Somnambulist because it was weird and kooky and fun and defied genre lines. And also Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs because I am in LOVE with her Pacific Northwest were-coyote series.

April
Tiger's Eye by Marjorie M. Liu because it was the first book in her Dirk and Steele paranormal romance/action series that addicted me to that series. And Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce for being everything in a fantastikal YA novel with a spunky heroine that I could ever wish for.

May
I by-passed the latest in my vampire romances (From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris of HBO's True Blood fame and One Foot in the Grave by Jeanine Frost, and Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series) for Mary Pearson's YA mainstream-but-secretly-speculative book The Adoration of Jenna Fox wherein a girl finds out she's not who she thinks she is.

June
Life As We Knew It. A coming-of-age story set in a near future where a meteor hitting earth has totally mucked things up. And The Spymaster's Lady for being a historical romance novel that pushes all the right buttons and is interestingly historical to boot. And for having a heroine is convincingly speaks english as a second language.

July
Strangely enough, while I had some good reads that month, none of them were rated "Highly" recommended. So none for this month :)

August
Oh my gosh, even though I read a Patricia Briggs novel and discovered Adam Stemple's YA urban fantasy that month, still no highly recommended books!

September
I'll make up for two months of nothing by recommending Kathi Appelt's delicious, emotional book about human connections The Underneath . And also Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss for the same reasons as the Appelt book.

October
Foundling by Australian writer DM Cornish. Because it shows how you can take the tired old trope of boy-is-more-than-he-seems-travels-and-has-adventures and make it interesting, and original, and have cool illustrations.

November
Paper Towns because we've all wanted to use popular people to gain acceptance ourselves, and The Devil You Know by Mike Carey for bringing in an interesting male protagonist into the urban fantasy genre.

December
Ah, this is a difficult month. I was lucky enough to read a whole batch of very good novels this past month. But, on pain of death or dismemberment I had to pick two, they would be Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle for being an all around well-written, vivid characters, interesting history, exploration of love, disturbing-in-a-thoughtful-way book. And Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan for the same reasons.

Wow, so looking at my picks, I can see that 8 out of the 15 recommended books are YA. 2 are unabashed romances, and the rest are a mixed bag.

I probably will not continue my reviews in this way in 2009. I might review a particularly awesome book, but I think I'm ready to try some different kind of journalling in the new year. Cheers! and happy reading.