Content Nights of Supernatural Bone; Farm February Park

Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (e-ARC)
The stories in this anthology are absolutely top-notch; the noir element was sometimes more hardcore than I could comfortably handle. (Horror Noir is a different and grimier beast than Fantasy Noir, I tell you what.)
(222/200)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor
Dark fantasy of the wish fulfillment kind. Lovely, lush language and world-building, although the "real world" bits were too wish-fulfillment-y until I realized I should just treat them as if they all took place in a secondary world (that just happens to very closely resemble our own). Then I really got into the story - finished it in two days.
(223/200)

Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy, by Tanya Huff (nook)
Short fiction set in another world is probably my least favorite mode for Huff to work in, but since she's one of my very most favorite writers, "least favorite Huff" is still way more fun for me than most other things:). An excellent way to cleanse my palate between large chunks of The Idiot, too.
(224/200, 124/100)

Content, by Cory Doctorow (creative commons, nook)
The speed of change in the field of copyright, and for internet-related topics in general, is incredibly slow in some ways and incredibly quick in others. So some of these essays still read as forward-looking, while others made me nostalgic. Doctorow writes with such fluidity and inventiveness that I always enjoy his non-fiction, regardless of the topic. (I usually enjoy his fiction too, except when it is VERY CLUMSILY DIDACTIC, something that never bothers me - and doesn't feel clumsy - in his essays.)
(225/200, 125/100)

Hit by a Farm, by Catherine Friend
Frank, charming story of a children's book writer who took up farming in support of her long-term life partner's lifelong dream. I spent a lot of time on neighbors' farms as a kid, and we had horses in our pasture for most of my adolescence, so farming memoirs flood me with good memories. *happy sigh* This one is particularly full of sheep and chickens, if you have species preferences for such things.
(226/200)

February Thaw and Other Stories of Contemporary Fantasy, by Tanya Huff (nook)
This was great. I flew through it with relish. My appetite for Wild Ways, which just came out, is totally whetted, and I will be starting it this week.
(227/200, 126/100)

A Year in Fife Park, by Quinn Wilde (creative commons, nook)
Funny and brash and charmingly predictable without losing its originality of voice, this novella-length work made me smile fondly more than a few times, as I thought of the guy or two like that I knew in college, the man or two I know who seem to feel similarly about their own college years. Perfect airplane reading.
(228/200, 127/100)

top 3 titles of 2011

Usually I skim the top 10 percent or so of my reviews, and republish them at the end of the year. And there were certainly at least 22 or so books I super-dug this year. However, 3 of the things I read were so much brillianter than all the rest that I'm just going to post those. THESE BOOKS ARE THE BOMB AND I FELL MADLY IN LOVE WITH THEM, YO. xxoo, maribou

Among Others, by Jo Walton
This is a book I always hoped someone would write without imagining it was actually possible, and also a wondrous strange thing I never would've dreamed could exist.

I am all undone.

(I got home after 8:30 tonight and did almost nothing but read this book until I'd finished it around 1:30 in the morning. It is everything I hoped it would be, and my hopes were so high. And also, I was often surprised, thinking "I thought *I* was the only person who thought that thing that seems so weird". And also, I was frequently moved to audible reaction while reading it. I think I need to buy another copy for lending to people so that I can mark the hell out of my own. (And yes, there will also be copies bought for other people, for years to come.) Notice how I'm skipping it ahead of all the books I haven't written up yet? That's because it's so great I couldn't keep from telling you about it for one minute more. And also, did I mention? Perfect. I loved it. )
(25/200, 20/100)

Picture This!, by Lynda Barry
OMG THIS BOOK IS SO FUCKING BRILLIANT I CAN NOT EVEN TELL YOU. You would have to read it. Then you would run around saying NO REALLY YOU HAVE TO READ IT to everyone you know who cares about art or drawing or figuring out how to let yourself be yourself instead of freaking out all the time. WOW. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK SO MUCH. And if anyone says "oh, I don't know, it's good and all that..," I start RABIDLY EXPLAINING how amazing it is. That reminds me, I need to go send this book and another book to my aunt for her birthday! Right now!! There, I sent it. (Along with Marian Bantjes' _I Wonder_, which is wonderful in fairly different but not unconnected ways.)
(26/200)

Astro City: Family Album, Astro City: Life in the Big City, Astro City: Confession, Astro City: The Dark Age, vol. 1: Brothers & Other Strangers, Astro City: The Tarnished Angel, and Astro City: Local Heroes, by Kurt Busiek et al
The worst of these was still pretty good, and the best ones are amazing. Seriously. The best comics I've read all year. Meta, but deeply in love.
(164/200, 96/100; 165/200, 97/100; 166/200, 98/100; 167/200, 99/100; 170/200, 100/100; 173/200, 103/100)