Home

Just What is a Slat Rat Anyway?

Adventures in Technology

The Slat Rat and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromylagia

Wine of the Night!

Birds of the Day

Bathrooms I Have Visited

Hot Classical Music

Why a blog?

The Perfect Snowstorm of 2002

A Saturday at Gisene's

My Mom's Book!

	Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Kesler Award Winners for 2005 Yeah - I know I'm about a week late with my 2005 top books list. But, too bad. Every year for at least the past fifteen years, I've done the Kesler Award - my top books that I've read during the past year. Note the word "read" as opposed to "published". Since this is my award, I can make up the rules. I've always thought that I should also send some sort of piece of Alaskan Art to that year's winners. But I've never actually followed through on that. Without further ado, here are the 2005 Kesler Book Awards: Best Fiction: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell Hands down, the best fiction I read this year was Cloud Atlas. The book is a gripping series of six interlocking stories. An exceptional tour de force of style and technique - without sacrificing one iota of storytelling. Best Non-Fiction: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. This is on everyone's top ten list - and for good reason. One of the great books ever written on processing grief. And it's great because, thankfully, Didion doesn't oversentimentalize or dramatize. It is straight forward and intensely compelling. A fabulous book. Most Flat-Out Enjoyable Book: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. So, I picked this book up from the "Recommended by Staff" shelf at the Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle. The handwritten tag said something about "a real page turner and a good introduction to Sarah Waters". From the first few pages I was definitely sucked in - very Victorian in a Dickesonian swashbuckling sort of way. A great read - and then about a third of the way through, I sensed something - could this be? And after about fifty more pages, my intuition was confirmed. Lesbian erotica!!! Turns out that Sarah Waters is sort of the Queen of this type of writing. I do think that in this case, the phrase "Lesbian Erotica" is sort of overblown (so to speak). It's all very Victorian - which makes it even more fun. I've been pitching this one to our bookclub. The guys are certainly interested. All in all, 2005 was an absolutely fabulous year for reading. It's been a long time since I've had a run of such great books. 3:48:55 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2006 Stephanie A. Kesler. Last update: 2/1/2006; 4:25:07 PM.