First two books of 2010

Liar. I wonder if anyone else has difficulty spelling that word. I spell it six different times before I get it the right way and I do this repeatedly.

So I knew there was a surprise in this book when I started to read it(I promise not to give it away). And despite the knowing it still surprised me. And at the end, I also knew there was something else, another surprise. And that didn't surprise me as much but it has me thinking and thinking. Which I think was the intention. I wonder if I would have enjoyed this book as much if I had known the surprise. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the book more if I had not known there was a surprise. She is a skillful writer, Justine Larbalestier(another thing that is difficult to spell). I like how clear and crisp the whole book is(not my forte), and I love how it is written in short little pieces. And of course the big draw of this book is it's unreliable narrator. I recommend it. It was fun to read.

But maybe I enjoyed Odd and the Frost Giants more. Number one, this is the book to read if you have a quota you are aiming for this year. It is really fast. I'm sure you could finish it in a couple hours. And start on another one right away. It is also a quick and clean book. And I really loved the narrator. Unlike Liar, this is a third person narrator, a story telling voice that is smooth and easy to read. I love Odd's characterization. The narrator isn't exactly close to him, but closer to him than to anyone else. And perhaps it is this distance that Gaiman does so well, tells the tale just like a myth would be told, only so much better. I want to write one like this someday.

As Always (now I have to make a side bar list of books or something),
Tina