Notable Boy-Friendly Books Read in 2009

At the end of the week, when one year ends and another begins, I will post my Best Books of 2009 list at Bildungsroman, my book blog. I have a sneak-peek version available at Amazon: Best Books of 2009 (So Far) - but, as I've read over 300 books this year, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Today, for GuysLitWire, I thought I'd post a list of some good books I read this year which were written by men and/or feature male protagonists. These are all works of fiction, though some are inspired by true events. (Hurrah for historical fiction!) I've included graphic novels and novels with artwork, dramas and comedies, sequels and series, first-person narratives and ensemble pieces. The titles are in the order in which they were read, so a title's placement is not indicative of anything other than when I read it. No rankings here -- just recommendations.

* This is What I Want to Tell You by Heather Duffy Stone
* The Waking: Dreams of the Dead by Thomas Randall
* The Map of Moments: A Novel of the Hidden Cities by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon (Note: This is adult fiction, not YA, and thus shelved in the sci-fi/fantasy section of bookstores and libraries.)
* Dancing on the Head of a Pin by Thomas E. Sniegoski (the follow-up to A Kiss Before the Apocalypse)
* So Punk Rock (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother) by Micol Ostow with art by David Ostow
* Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost
* Legacy by Tom Sniegoski
* Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles
* The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan
* Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
* Bug Boy by Eric Luper
* After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick (coming out in February 2010, this is the follow-up to Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie)
* Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes

I'm throwing in four bonus titles - two picture books and two non-fiction titles - which may not be typical GLW fodder but are completely worth your time:

* Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler, a sweet picture book about a dog whose injury is overshadowed by his wonderful imagination and upbeat attitude;
* Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell, another adorable Mutts book about a happy-go-lucky dog named Earl
* Guardians of Being, with powerful words by Eckhart Tolle and lovely art by Patrick McDonnell
* The Complete Professional Audition: A Commonsense Guide To Auditioning For Musicals and Plays by Darren R. Cohen with Michael Perilstein (and a foreword by Jason Robert Brown), one of the best resources I've ever read on the subject. I highly recommend it to any and all of my fellow stage actors.

Break a leg, GuysLitWire folks, and crack open a good book!

Gone by Michael Grant

Gone, the first novel in a planned six book series by Michael Grant, starts off with a bang. Or, to be more accurate, without a bang, a flash of light, or an explosion. But, wow, is it an exciting start to a series.

Sam Temple is in history class when his teacher suddenly disappears. As in, was there one moment, and the next he was gone. Sam and his classmates soon realize that EVERYONE over the age of 14 disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California.

While the other kids in town quickly look to Sam for leadership, Sam just wants to find a way to escape and find out what really happened, worried about his recently discovered ability to create light from his hands. Into this leadership void step the Perdido Beach School bullies and, eventually, a small group of students from Coates Academy, a boarding school for wealthy troublemakers, who have an agenda of their own. Led by the charismatic Caine Soren, they quickly move to consolidate power, enforcing order and creating new rules. Caine immediately realizes Sam is their biggest obstacle, both because of how the Perdido Beach kids look to him and because the strength of Sam’s superpowers may rival Caine’s own. And if the Coates kids need to eliminate Sam to retain power, well, they don't see anything wrong with trying to do just that.

Even at 558 pages, Gone is a very fast read. Despite its length, though, there isn’t much character development, something that didn't actually bother me since it’s plenty entertaining on plot alone and this is the first book in a series, setting things up for future books. Grant manages to sustain the fast pace by combining multiple sources of suspense—why did the adults disappear? What do the hours and minutes running down before each chapter mean? Will they have enough resources to survive? What caused all the superpowers and mutations? Will there be a Coates Academy vs. Perdido Beach showdown? and more—in such a way that enhances the momentum of the story instead of bogging it down. He doesn't let up on the tension, and the fast pace of the story will have many readers racing through the pages, eager to find out what will happen next.

Once you've read Gone, you'll want to pick up the second book in the series, Hunger, which was published this past May. You will, however, have to wait until May 2010 for book three, Lies.

Let's hear it for the Second Line

Poppy Z. Brite had a collection of two novellas come out from Small Beer Press in October that are both excellent. Second Line includes both The Value of X and D*U*C*K. The Value of X should be particularly noteworthy for teens, as it is the coming out and coming-of-age stories of two of Brite's long time characters, future chefs (and restaurant owners) Rickey and G-Man. Here's a bit on the collection from Small Beer:

These two short novels bookend Poppy Z. Brite’s cheerfully chaotic series starring two chefs in New Orleans. The Value of X introduces G-man and Rickey, who grew up in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and who are slowly realizing there are only two important things in life: cooking and each other. Rickey’s parents aren’t quite so taken with the boy’s plans and get him an impossible-to-resist place at the Culinary Institute of America.

In D*U*C*K, Rickey and G-man’s restaurant, Liquor, is doing well but there are the usual complications of running a kitchen: egos get bruised, people get fired . . . and then Rickey is jumped in an alley by one of their ex-waiters.

On the mend, Rickey takes a side job to cater the annual Ducks Unlimited banquet, where every course must, of course, include the ducks the hunters have bagged. Rickey’s crew are ready to meet the challenge, but Rickey’s not sure he can do it all and deal with the guest of honor—his childhood hero, former New Orleans Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert.

Originally published in limited hardcover editions by Subterranean Press, these two novels are full of the pure joy of love, hard work, and great food and are a tremendous extension (or introduction) to Brite’s series.

Brite's books and stories about New Orleans are some of my all time favorite comfort reading and fans of southern writing and food should not let this collection pass them by. Great stuff, for sure.

I KILL GIANTS by Joe Kelly + JM Ken Nimura

You go to school and announce to your fifth grade class that you kill giants. Really. You kill giants. What do they say?

You are crazy. A nutcase. A freak.

Barbara Thorson is a skinny kid with bunny ears and a heart-shaped purse holding her magic hammer named Coveleski. With that hammer she kills giants. And she is angry, so she may be the worst (or perhaps the best) kind of giant-killer: an angry giant-killer. So, you would do yourself a favor and not get Barbara pissed. But giants can do exactly that to all of us. We never really know when our own giant will rear its ugly head. So, wouldn’t we all be lucky to have our own magic hammer?

I Kill Giants started life as a short series of comic books, and now, wonderfully for all of us, it’s available as a single graphic novel. It’s tough to review this book without giving away key elements to the plot, but I’ll dance around those and give you just a taste of the story. First and foremost, don’t assume too much from the title. Barbara may slay giants, but the world is filled with so many different kinds of towering beasts.

Tormented at school, without a friend, and struggling through her own private turmoil, Barbara’s life is a bowl overfilled with grief and fury. But no matter the words people say or the cruelty they inflict, Barbara refuses to back down. After all, she can confront those enraged giants and eliminate them with the mighty Coveleski hammer.

Two people become important to her. Sophia, a new girl in town, is the friend she desperately needs. Mrs. Molle, the school social worker, refuses to give up on Barbara – even after the girl lands a vicious slap across her face. There is a beautiful scene I just loved. Barbara learns that Mrs. Molle did not tell the principal about the slap. They sit together and Mrs. Molle says, “Tell me about giants.” So they talk about giants. Barbara tells Mrs. Molle about the magic hammer, and she asks to see it. Barbara says no. “Because I like you… I don’t want you to hurt yourself. When Coveleski speaks, the world cries.”

The black and white artwork is splendid. Messy. Intense. Angry. It perfectly captures life inside Barbara’s brain. We see the world through Barbara’s eyes – not just what she sees, but how she sees it. I Kill Giants is a perfect example of the power of graphic novels to not just tell stories, but to tell different kinds of stories. The images are as vital to the story as the words. And don’t let anyone tell you graphic novels can’t be about important ideas. Read I Kill Giants and you will find plenty of ideas. Filled with humanity and emotion and grace, this story will resonate with all of us as we move through life confronting our giants.

You will listen... Candor

Prepare your brain.

*Incoming message transmitted.*

You must read Candor. This book is different. This book has a clever boy. Too clever if he thinks he has a chance against a town's (his father's!) subliminal messages.
So I think I have discovered my favorite read of 2009. Candor by Pam Bachorz.

We all love stories about boys who fight against the system. After all, when we're on the sofa or at the beach reading, we're basically just loafing about, so if we can live vicariously through a hero facing incredible odds, we're cheering on the inside as we flip the page.

Oscar Banks is my new hero. He's the worm in the pretty apple that is Candor, a town that is seemingly perfect. Too perfect. No crime, no violence, everyone listens. That's because Oscar's own father has invented a system of messages that the brain picks up. Yep, good ol' brainwashing. At school the kids are told not to be late to class, not to cheat, not to disobey. At home, the kids hear (without ever being aware of it) to eat their veggies, do their homework, make their beds.

Oscar's aware of what is going on and fights every day to keep control. If he fails, he'll slowly become one of the grinning good boys. If his father ever finds out he resists, he'll be hauled off to the Listening Room for a complete mental wipe.

In other words, the stakes are dire.

Why does he stay? Well, he's a bit mercenary and been running an underground freedom train for rich kids who want out (parents pay a million dollars to buy a house in Candor).

Things start to go awry when Nia moves into town. She's rebellious when she arrives and Oscar's attraction is sudden and fierce. Which leaves him in a dilemma: if he helps her out of town, he probably won't ever see her again; but if she stays, she'll become a drone and what he likes in her will be destroyed. What's a schemer to do?

Complications like a dreadful rich kid client who is jealous of the attention Oscar's giving Nia as opposed to helping him escape Candor, Oscar's old girlfriend, and dealing with the family dysfunction that drove the father to create a "perfect environment safe from harm" mean that the book has plenty of moments where you'll go damn. In a good way.

I love so much the many subliminal messages. For instance:

Saturday night is family night. Save your weekends for family time. Make your family a priority.

Always be courteous.

Respectful space in every place.

The great are never late.

Kinda chilling in a numb, whitebread way, right?

This is Bachorz's debut novel. I'm impressed. I'm envious. I didn't want to stop reading. Oh, and what an ending... but I can't tell you that. I want to, I so do. But something is keeping me. Like a whisper at the back of my mind...

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Librarians love lists. They especially love making lists of books. More than anything though, they love lists of "if you like book A, then you will also like books B, C and D." Candor by Pam Barchorz will soon be on numerous read-alikes lists for Lois Lowry's The Giver.

While Candor will never be the classic must-read that The Giver is, it fits in a lot of the same themes. Oscar Banks is the most popular kid in Candor, Florida. Oscar's father built Candor, a town where parents bring their troubled families to live their ideal life. What the town's children don't know is that they are being manipulated and re-programmed by messages piped into the city through music. The only way to leave Candor is through Oscar, who knows how to neutralize the messages and sneak other teens out of town. Oscar has carefully crafted his life in Candor to please his father and provide a cover for undermining his father's "perfect" creation. Eventually he meets Nia, an amazing girl who he wants to save from Candor, but he is not sure he can accomplish that without exposing what he is doing.

Candor is a smart and occasionally creepy Sci-fi novel about individuality and the problems in any modern society. This is a very solid debut by Bachorz, though readers will need to suspend some belief in order to keep up with a couple of the book's unrealistic premises.

Candor is for fans of The Giver and The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle.

The Maze Runner

James Dashner's The Maze Runner is about as action-packed as a book can be. If you are at all inclined to start reading a book at bedtime and then just keep on reading because it is way too exciting to stop, then make sure you don't have to set your alarm when you settle into bed with this book. It has "all-nighter" written all over it (also because it's seriously freaky. You won't be doing any sleeping after you meet Dashner's "Grievers." Trust me).

The Maze Runner is the first book in a trilogy, with book two, The Scorch Trials to be released in fall 2010. Maze Runner begins when a boy wakes up in a lift, with his memory almost entirely gone. All he knows is his name. This boy, Thomas, can't remember anything of his former life beyond the vaguest traces that seem to hover at the very edge of his consciousness. His new home is a vast open area enclosed by high stone walls, called the Glade, where other boys like him have found themselves likewise stranded with no answers about their past lives or present situation. Every thirty days another boy is brought to the Glade in the lift, deposited there like all the others before him. Beyond the stone walls of the Glade is a maze. During the day, the stone walls open up for the boys to access the maze. At night, the walls seal up again which is just as well, because fearsome creatures called Grievers crawl through the maze at night, hunting anyone who remains inside. The Gladers believe that solving the maze is the only way they will be able to find their way home again so they assign some boys to become Maze Runners. These boys run the Maze everyday trying to map its shifting patterns. When Thomas arrives, everything starts to change. Escape and survival seem more distant than ever.

Here's the snazzy book trailer:





Pretty scary stuff. The book conveys all of that menace and "you-can't-see-what's-out-there-in-the-darkness" tension. Over and over again as I was reading I was impressed at the tight pacing in the novel. Dashner sure knows how to end a chapter so perfectly that you simply have to turn the page to see what happens next. Closing the book seems impossible. The characters are well differentiated, with a dynamic that is a believably complex mix of camaraderie and ruthlessness. The Grievers have got to be the creepiest monsters I've come across in a really long time. Since you are as clueless about the true nature of the Glade and the Maze as the boys, it makes for a disorienting reading experience - thought not in a bad way. By keeping you in the dark, always guessing and wondering, Dashner jacks up the tension and helps you to sympathize all the more with the characters' feelings of futility and powerlessness.

There is a website devoted to the book, where you can read the latest news, see what others are saying about it, and even play a game where you "map the maze" and avoid getting squished and stung by the Grievers. It's fun/terrifying - a lot like the book itself. The Maze Runner is an ideal choice for someone who is a fan of The Hunger Games. Like that bestseller, this is a survival story, with intrigue and nonstop action. This is a downright frightening read, backed up with strong themes exploring justice, freedom, ingenuity and hope.

The Maze Runner is published by Delacorte Press.

A preview of what we'll be doing next year

Following in the success of our wish list for the boys in the LA County jails, Guys Lit Wire will be building and hosting wishlists for two tribal schools. Here's hoping our readers are as generous this time as they were last year. Stay tuned for more info in early 2010.

Onward to victory!

What lad doesn't dream of joining the British Colonial Expeditionary Forces?

There's simply no life for a man like exploring the solar system, trusty aetheric oscillator (or "ray gun" in the youngsters' parlance) is hand, bringing peace and proper table manners to the jibber-jabbering natives of the moon, Venus, and beyond. (And must I even mention that the uniforms are bang-and-crackers with the ladies?) Why, maybe he'll even meet every boy's hero, Lord Cockswain, that famed naturalist who's responsible for discovering and blasting away more unknown species than anyone else.

But even before he's ready to sign up, a young man can still learn about the solar system and his place in charge of it with Dr. Grordbort Presents: Victory.

This almanac, illustrated by Greg Broadmore, is full up to its snodgers with thrilling scientific niblets. Pursue the handy guide for spotting the early warning signs of a robot uprising. Wonder at the bestiary of Venusian wildlife (including information on which of the majestic creatures make the best pair of boots.) There's even compartmentalized picture essays--some common types refer to them as "comics"--about Lord Cockswain and his many triumphs over the possibly dangerous and certainly gross-looking Moon Men.

Victory is printed specifically for our young men and literate ladies by the good people at Doctor Grordbort's Infallible Aetheric Oscillators, Inc. This of course puts one in mind of that other paper-and-ink treasure of childhood, Doctor Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory. I can't tell you how many rainy days me and my little compatriots spent pouring over the directory, marveling at the wonders our gadget-tastic age had to offer. Need a portable massmotron? An Automaitre D' robo-servant? Or maybe a Victorious Mongoose concealable ray pistol? Doctor Grordbort has every necessary item for home or moonbase.

Like Victory, this year's directory was fully illustrated by Greg Broadmore, and includes helpful information about each quality item. For instance, did you know the Goliathon infinity beam projector can dissolve 7/9ths of an African Elephant in ten Earth seconds? Put a rush on my order, Doctor Grordbort!

Ours is a vast and miraculous solar system, filled with sights mankind has yet to even dream of. But don't worry. With luck, pluck, and the good Doctor Grordbort on our side, we'll crush all that tosh under our collective boot as we march ONWARD TO VICTORY!



Cross-posted on Kristopher's blog.

Destroy All Cars

James Hoff thinks there needs to be big change in the world. Not just using reusable shopping bags or building bike paths. To save the environment, he thinks that cars just need to go. All of them. Preferably now. Of course, life isn’t that simple for James or for anyone. Sometimes you just can’t avoid using cars or being part of the consumer culture. Just like you can’t avoid your ex forever. Sadie wants to work within the system to change the world (getting petitions signed and such), and James just can’t deal with that. Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson takes James through 6 months of expressing his opinions on the environment, consumerism, and girls.

James mostly expresses his opinions through essays he turns in as English assignments, often getting them returned with the feedback that he needs to focus, stop ranting, and back up his points. He also tries to get over Sadie. While he hangs out at the library, James scopes out other girls (who will never compare to Sadie), and reads classic political and environmental writings by the likes of Black Elk. Over time, James refines his writing and learns that there are many ways to work to change things both within and outside of the system. He learns that obsessing over someone and getting over them are not the same thing. He learns to deal with his dad, who wants him to go to college -he knows James so little that he offers him a car if he goes! But James has other ideas about how he wants to live his life and try to make a difference. Join James as he spends some time figuring things out, writing about it, and (maybe) finally getting over Sadie. Check out Blake Nelson's web site, too. Cross posted at Dwelling in Possibility.