This brings my total for the year to 88 books so far. I have 2 more books in process, but I might only complete one of them, or possibly neither of them, depending on how much time I have to read between now and Saturday. I'll do an analysis of my list and reading goals around Jan. 1
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"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by David Levithan and John Green, as an audibook. The book takes place from the viewpoint of two teenage guys named Will Grayson who live in the greater Chicago area. One is gay, closeted and depressed. The other is straight and best friends with a very out and very large gay teenager named Tiny Cooper. In a fun twist,
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"The Conference of the Birds" by Farid ud-din Attar, 12th century mystic Sufi poetry. This book takes the form of a journey, with many parables illustrating spiritual ideas throughout. All the birds gather together to talk about who will be their king, and make the hoopoe the leader of their quest. They decide to go on a pilgrimage to see the
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"California" by Edan Lepucki, as an audiobook. Frieda and Calvin are living in a near-future U.S. where the environment has gone to hell, the economy is collapsing, big cities have devolved into chaos, the rich have built walled communities, and terrorist groups have staged violence to protest the growing inequality. Frieda and Calvin decide Los
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"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. This book is shelved as a mystery at my library, but it's not a "Whodunnit" -- you know who died, roughly who did it and roughly how it happened in the first few pages. The suspense comes from finding out what series of events lead to the murder and what would happen to the protagonist, Richard, and his friends
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"The Raven King" by Maggie Stiefvater, the last of the 4-book Raven Cycle. The final book wraps up many, though not all, the loose threads from the first three books. Each of our main characters finds something important out about themselves and each is put to the test as it seems Gansey's quest to find a magical dead king is almost at an end. In
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"Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity," a collection of essays edited by Matt (Matilda) Bernstein Sycamore. This collection of essays touches on various types of "passing" -- whether it's passing as a specific gender or as a specific racial/ethnic identity or as disabled or able-bodied, and often by authors dealing with a
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"Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex" by Eoin Colfer as an audiobook (read by Nathaniel Parker, who I adore). I love this series but felt like this book was a weak link. Artemis has big plans to make the world better, but while he's convened with his fairy friends, they're suddenly attacked by an unknown enemy who tries to drop a space probe on
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"The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi. In this future, agricultural megacorps have loosed gene-hacked plants and bugs on the world, causing famine and wrecking the global economy. Thailand seems to be an oasis where existing strains are thriving and old once-thought-dead plants are being brought back to life. Scientists have also created a race of
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"Blue Lily, Lily Blue" by Maggie Stiefvater, 3rd book in The Raven Cycle, as an audiobook. In this installment of the series,[Spoiler (click to open)]Blue's mother has disappeared, attempts to find her and Owain Glyndwr's tomb are frustrated at every turn, and it's getting harder and harder for various characters to keep secrets from one another. The stakes are very high
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