The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean

This book is a marvelous story about a young man coming of age. In addition to the bildungsroman at the heart of the story--which is quite well done--there are the brilliant surrounding settings. I really enjoyed the idea of Bod being raised in a graveyard and hearing the stories of all the residents of the graveyard. There was also a healthy dose of mythology and the otherworldly. It all came together for a really wonderful story.

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

This book features a weak, and ultimately forgettable, mystery that allows Maisie to dither about her future. I had assumed that she had decided against marrying James Compton based on the previous book, but she's still considering it, and frankly I hardly understand why she cares either way. The time period is still fascinating, but I don't think Ms. Winspear uses it as well as she used to. I wonder if this series has been over extended.

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

This novel is Discworld at its best. There's a bit of a Bond spoof, lots of Death (who works to reunite the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but doesn't count on Ronnie, who left before they hit it big), lots of Susan, and a great storyline involving monks of time and a glass clock that can stop it entirely. It's the sort of story you have to read to fully understand, and reading it is a real pleasure.

Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luis Fernando Veríssimo

I really enjoyed this book, which plays on Poe and Borges as it creates a locked-room murder mystery at an international conference on Poe, attended by Borges. The narrator, our main source of information on the murder, gives plenty of clues--both to the red herrings that abound and to the real murder--but it's up to the reader (for the most part) to figure it out. Lots of fun with symbols and numbers, too. I suspect this book might not be as entertaining for those not so into this kind of academic guessing game, but I found it a really great and entertaining book.

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This book still suffers from some of the problems that plague earlier books in the series: clunky Southern accents, fake-sounding Latin, a magic system that is difficult to parse, and (although this might be new I can't remember) bad poetry supposedly written by one of the protagonists. However, I thought the plot worked really well--it had a nice shape and I finally understood what was at stake in the Caster world. I wish we had seen more of the power structure and understood more of what goes on in the Far Keep earlier. I found starting with Ethan in a between-place after death refreshing, and I liked that the story forced its characters to make sacrifices and suffer the consequences of their choices. I think I would have liked this series better if I could have read the books one right after the other instead of each as they were being published, so the fact that they're all out now should be a boon for future readers.

The Sea by John Banville

In this book Max Morden confronts his memories of the past as he moves to the village where he summered as a child after his wife's death. The tone is elegaic, but as Max reveals more and more of his memories, we quickly discover that his childhood was not all that it seems. Max must confront questions of responsibility for long-past tragedies as he struggles to live through his latest loss. Winner of the 2005 Booker prize.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

This book is not Harry Potter. Rowling's skill at managing a large cast of characters and connecting widely diverging elements of the plot is still present, and she presents some scenes really well, with dark humor coming through. Whether recounting the disappointments of a dinner party or a mid-life infatuation with the lead singer of a boy band, she seems especially sharp on both life's little disappointments and the struggle of putting up a good face in spite of them. The story's sharply plotted and entertaining--Rowling takes the occasion of the sudden death of a parish councilor in the small town of Pagford to air the town's hypocrisy and deep-seated divisions. The novel's point-of-view jumps rapidly from character to character, and the many connections between characters from all walks of life (and between the people who live in Pagford village proper and the Fields, a low-income housing development which many Pagfordians are trying to annex to the neighboring town of Yarvil) belie the idea that the Fields are not properly part of Pagford. Rowling also investigates the motivations of charity and social work (many characters who are professionally involved with helping the poor ignore huge problems within their own families). The book defiantly sets itself apart from the Harry Potter series with plenty of drug use, sex, violence, and rough language. This roughness does not, in and of itself, make the book a bad book (although it does make it inappropriate for many of Rowling's younger readers). Still, my biggest disappointment with this book is that it has lost the magic that imbued the Harry Potter books. I'm not talking about actual magic here, obviously, but the magic of a story with epic scope--even if the Harry Potter books didn't always live up to their potential, they started with the idea that we can be our best selves; The Casual Vacancy proposes that, despite our best intentions, we rarely escape our worst selves.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

This book is about the Fall of the House of Compson, as told through the points of view of its last three sons--Benjy, who is mentally retarded, Quentin, who is suicidally insane, and Jason, who is morally bankrupt--and a third-person, omniscient narrator. Although the majority of the narration technically happens during Easter weekend 1928, the story is continually haunted by its past traumas, which keep slipping in and out, along with Faulkner's cruel golf jokes. This book is a hauntingly beautiful warning about the dangers of getting caught up in the past and about the dangers of settling for a flawed modernity.

The Gathering by Anne Enright

This book is a study in grief and loss: after Liam Hagerty's suicide, his remaining family gathers for his wake, and his sister Veronica tries to sort out her complicated feelings for her brother, her husband, and her children as she tries to make sense of why Liam died. Long-buried family secrets come to light as Veronica teases out how the past created the present she's now living in. Elegiacally and patiently this book slowly unwraps years of family trauma. Booker prize winner, 2007.

Communion Town by Sam Thompson

This book tells the story of an unnamed, but intricately described, city through the eyes of several of its residents. Even the person of the narration changes from chapter to chapter. The place is all that connects each story to the next--but the city changes in the eyes of each of its beholders. I really enjoyed these stories--they are entertaining in their own rights, and cross many different genres. What links them thematically is the question of what is our humanity, what links us together as people. There's a sense of the city-dwellers' fear of what lurks at night and what lurks below the surface, and I thought that part in particular was very well handled.

Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell

This book is about people turning out to have mysterious pasts and to be almost unknown despite being a colleague or a family member. It's also about the long hand of history reaching out beyond expectation to address wrongs. I thought the mystery was pretty well handled--although the murderer is identified pretty quickly, there are a lot of layers of motivation and facts to untangle.

Before the Frost by Henning Mankell

This book features Linda Wallander's first case as a policewoman--before she's technically part of the Ystad police department. She works with (and occasionally against) her father as they struggle to put together a series of mysterious disappearances, attacks on animals, and murders. I really liked seeing Linda's personality develop (she's a lot like her father, especially in her disregard for certain departmental policies). The mystery was fairly well presented as well.

Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins

I found this collection of poetry beautiful and moving. Collins does a great job writing poems that are both accessible and entertaining, as he reflects on life and mortality. Both the language and the metaphors in this collection are sprightly and surprising at times.

On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Berry

This book chronicles the sense of loss that its narratory, Lily Bere works through during the days following her grandson's death by suicide. As she deals with her grief, she also reflects on the entirety of her life, from her early days in Ireland, to her flight to America, and her days as a cook here. The book is both elegiac and beautiful as it slowly develops into a portrait of a life.

A Life by Elia Kazan

This autobiography recounts Kazan's life, in detail until the end of his film career, and then in sketches (mostly focusing on the death of his second wife and friends) until the late nineteen eighties. The tone of the book suggests that Kazan isn't holding anything back (not always true, as he himself admits), although he tends to speak forthrightly about most subjects (it seems the people he wants to impress, or at least not to scandalize, are his children, despite their relatively small parts in the book itself). There's a bit of back and forth--the story doesn't always go strictly chronologically, especially where Kazan's Congressional testimony in 1952 is concerned. It does give Kazan's take on that testimony in fairly straightforward rehearsal of his side of those events. Overall, the book is enjoyable--definitely an entertaining read. It explains a lot about Kazan's behavior, his choices, and his methods of directing, even if its subject is not always sympathetic (the womanizing without apology, in particular, struck me as egregious).

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvette Edwards

This book tells the story of Jinx, whose beloved mother was murdered in their own home and who carries the guilt of that murder, since she suspects her own actions and inactions contributed to her mother's death. But when an old family friend comes to visit and they return to that troubled time, Jinx gets a chance to escape from the crippling guilt that's been slowly dismantling her life ever since. This story is both luminous and horrifying and above all a compelling read.

Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

This book has a number of elements (evil stepmother, orphans, two boxes that get confused for each other) many readers will find familiar, especially for a young adult story, but they come together in a creative and satisfying way. Despite all the elements of adventure and mystery (although the solution to the mystery's clear from the moment you realize that something mysterious is going on...), the really strong parts of the book are the ones about family and dealing with moving on after someone has died. This book does a beautiful job dealing with death and a sad world with just the right touch of gravity.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

This book starts as a brief bildungsroman, but it develops into an intriguing story about regret and whether you can go back to reevaluate the past. Anthony Webster is a young man whose girlfriend dumps him for one of his best friends. When that friend later commits suicide, Anthony puts the whole episode out of his mind. But forty years later, he receives a strange bequest that prompts him to reexamine his past. While the book comes together in a thought-provoking way and was generally enjoyable, there's something a bit pat about the whole thing.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

I definitely appreciated the achievements of this book much more this time around than I ever have before. I'm not quite sure what clicked (whether the epic ambitions / ultimate parody of the journey the Bundrens take, Darl's prescient ability to know what's going on, poor Vardaman's inability to process his mother's death, Cora's self-righteous assumptions, or Anse's sly laziness), but I could see how this novel works better than ever.

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley

This collection of poetry covers a wide range of topics. Most of the poems are religious and meant to console the reader for losses suffered during this earthly life (many poems feature dead loved ones waiting for the live in Heaven). The poems are mostly written in heroic couplets. Wheatley uses some really beautiful imagery to express herself.