Britt's Picks

Britt's top choices for 2011

Britt's Picks for 2012
(For some other fun stuff, click here!)

Tina's Mouth - Keshni Kashyap and Mari Araki

Tina M. attends a "fancy" school. At this school she is taking a philosophy class in which she has been assigned to keep an existential diary. She decides to address her diary to Sartre, who is one of the philosophers they are studying. In it we watch Tina discover how to be, how to grow up and who she really is. 

Definitely check this one out if you enjoyed Persepolis or love graphic novels that make you think.

Damosel - Stephanie Spinner

The Lady of the Lake played a crucial role in the tale of the Great King Arthur. But what did she do when she wasn't helping the king? She did what others do, bide their time. She talked with her cousin and found a fellow whom she cared deeply for. She used magic and tried to right some wrongs. In this novel, you will get to read about The Lady of the Lake's life before and after she helped Arthur.

If you are an Arthurian legend fan, I highly suggest that you check this one out.

When Things Come Back - John Corey Whaley

"If I had a gun, I would shoot the Lazarus woodpecker in the face." Colin is your typical seventeen-year-old kid in a small, dull Arkansas town. Nothing exciting ever really happens, and he dreams of escape. Enter John Barling. He is a middle-aged man who has supposedly seen a bird that was thought to be extinct—and he's seen it in Lily Arkansas. Now Colin's town is in a Lazurus frenzy. Everyone has high hopes about what this means and what this means for Lily. Then Colin's brother Gabriel disappears. Hardly a mention can be made above the woodpecker hubbub. Weeks pass and Colin gets more hopeless, while the town's hopes raise higher at the thought of that damn Lazurus woodpecker. In another Southern town a young missionary has returned from Africa down-trodden. He wants to spread God's word, but doesn't think that just feeding people is enough to do it. Slowly these two stories meld together and show that things don't always make sense or happen as you expect them to.

Winter Town - Stephen Emond

It's winter again, which means Evan is eagerly awaiting his childhood friend's arrival. The Lucy that comes this year though, isn't what Evan was expecting. After her parents divorced she went south to live with her mother. Little by little that has been changing her. This year Lucy shows up with piercings, dyed hair and a distant attitude. At first Evan is completely taken aback. He wanted his old Lucy, slowly he sees beneath the surface and catches glimpses of his old friend. She grew up with him, but has been spending the last few years growing up alone. They are in different universe now, but they both want to share the same one again. The timing might not be right though, they both have to figure out who they are and where they are going. 

Blood Wounds - Susan Beth Pfeffer

Happy families are not all the same, they're just better at faking it. Happy families hide the anger and resentment right below the surface, waiting for it to boil over.
Willa has a happy family. She has a stepfather and sisters, but they are all happy and love each other. Everything seems fine, until Willa's real father murders his family and comes for her. She doesn't really remember him and didn't know he had little girls, didn't know she had half sisters. Willa decides that she has to go to where her parents came from and mourn those little girls. She has to find her roots, what she's made of. Even her happy family isn't enough for Willa until she can go dig in the past and find out the truth about her life that she's forgotten.

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May B. - Caroline Starr Rose
May's father decides that May needs to help the family out. The harvest was great this year, and they need some extra money. He takes her fifteen miles west out in the prairie to help a new couple settle into prairie life. Unfortunately the wife is less than willing to accept the quite loneliness of the great west. Soon the wife, Mrs. Oblinger, takes off to head back home. Mr. Oblinger, upon finding out races into town to try and stop her. May is left alone to get supper ready. Night comes and goes, and then another, and then another and May thinks they might not ever come back. A month or so passes and May is still completely alone. She has no way of telling her family what has happened and she has no way of getting home. Then the blizzard comes and May isn't prepared. She's trapped inside the home with no escape, and no one coming to get her for a while yet.


Love & Leftovers  - Sarah Tregay

When things get rough in Marcie's parents marriage, she's dragged away from Idaho and all her friends to New Hampshire. What she thought at first was going to be a summer trip, last well past labor day. Marcie now doesn't know if she will ever be going home, and it's hard to have long-distance friends and a boyfriend. Her mother has her own issues going on, so Marcie is left on her own. Then a cute boy starts paying her attention. What starts out as a friendship may turn into so much more. How can she live two lived though, how can she know who to love? Will she ever go home, or is she stuck in New Hampshire forever?

I would definitely recommend this to lovers of novels in verse, realistic fiction and, of course, love.

Born Wicked - Jessica Spotswood

Cate and her sisters are witches. Their mother was a witch too. Now that she's dead though, Cate is tasked with looking after her sisters and keeping their eccentricities a secret. You see, people don't like witches, they are considered wicked and are sent away...or worse. Cate's mother did not leave her very much advice on how to go on, she said no one could be trusted not even their father. Cate also has to worry about coming of age. If she doesn't pick a husband or choose to go into the Sisterhood, the Council will choose for her. With all this on Cate's shoulders it would be nice for her to have an ally. Someone who could know her secret and help her and her sisters stay safe.

I would recommend that anyone who likes a good old-fashioned witch novel should pick this up.

Chopsticks - Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral

Glory and Frank are now neighbors. Glory is a piano prodigy with a dead mother and a demanding father. Frank is a Mexican immigrant doing poorly in school. They fit together though and everything is okay. Until Chopsticks. They both become obsessed with the song and Glory accidentally plays it when she's not supposed to. Over and over again. They need to find their sanity. They need to find their place in the world. All they need is to be together.

Still Waters - Emma Carlson Berne

Hannah doesn't know for sure if she loves her boyfriend Colin. The pressure is on her to say it though, since he's already said it a few times. Each time she says she has to think about it or that the moment has to be perfect. Hannah just wants them to be alone, really alone so that she can know for sure. She decides to surprise him with a trip to his family cabin for the weekend. Colin isn't thrilled about going there, because he doesn't remember liking it but he reluctantly agrees. It's way off the beaten path though, hidden deep in the woods. Hannah gets a very uncomfortable felling, but tries to let it go. She just wants this too be a nice weekend before Colin goes off to college. When more strange things start happening, the trip goes from fun to scary. Hannah and Colin don't know what's going on, but this is not the trip they had planned.

If you like Psychological Thrillers, snatch this one up right away. This book really creeped me out. I read it in one sitting, right before bed and could feel the cool lake air drifting into my dreams.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Sometimes there are magicians who pretend to have magic, but are simply skilled at illusion. Other times there are magicians who have real magic but have to pretend they are just illusions. The Night Circus is spawned and one of the latter magicians audition for the illusionist job. She has been practicing and training all her life to face her competition. She does not yet know who they are, but they know who she is. They are playing a game that has rules not made clear to them. The circus and all the people involved are pawns, and sometimes sacrifices are made. The two competitors get in too deep, when they let their emotions get the better of them. Few people know of this hidden secret that the circus keeps, most are just dazzled by it's elegance and whimsy. Step inside a tent and perk up your ears to hear the story of Le Cirque des Rêves.

What a wonderful story. I never wanted it to end. I took my time with this, devouring just one morsel at a time. The story plays out as if you were meandering around the circus.

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Looking for some other great recommendations? You can try Wicked Awesome Books or the YALSA website.

Here are the Top Ten Books that were picked for last year from YALSA!

1. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare 
2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 
3. Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick 
4. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore 
5. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa 
6. Matched by Ally Condie 
7. Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson
8. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White 
9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 
10. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer