For those of you that
follow my Goodreads, much of this will already be known to you, but for the
next few posts, I’m going to breakdown my Top-Five Reads. These are simply
books that I read this past year. While a few came out here in 2012, they can
have been released anytime in the past. All that matters is that I read them.
This year. Enjoy.
I don't think I'm the demographic for this
book. At all. But holy crap... I loved this book so much.
On the cover of my copy, there’s a blurb from Kate DiCamillo: "I feel a deep gratitude that Ida B. exists." On first read, I thought that was a rather odd thing to say about a book. Definitely not the traditional blurb that I'm used to (“I couldn’t put it down!” or “I was spellbound!” or some other such nonsense). Yet, after having read the book, I see what she means.
This isn't simply a story to be told and entertained by and forgotten. This is a story that shoots straight to your core and simply makes you FEEL: happiness, sadness, anger, and everything in between. My emotions rollercoastered right along with Ida B's, and I couldn't have been happier about it—mostly because of the narrator’s way of seeing the world.
The voice in this book is nothing short of amazing. Any author and would-be author has constantly heard about voice, about what your narrator sounds like. It's a concept drilled into you. Yet it's still such a rarity to see and hear and feel such a well-developed voice as Hannigan creates in this book. You can HEAR Ida B the whole way through, and it's a voice that you want to listen to. Despite often used images, Hannigan still manages to make Ida's outlook so unique that you can't help but love the way the story is told. And by the end, you want more, to follow this wonderful character around a bit longer, if only to keep hearing this voice.
I'm not saying that anyone and everyone should run out and buy this book, as I don't feel like it's one for everyone, and there will be many that it simply won't resonate with. But, like DiCamillo, I'm just glad that this book exists. To me, this is why I write, in hopes I can create something that will click so strongly with even a single person.
On the cover of my copy, there’s a blurb from Kate DiCamillo: "I feel a deep gratitude that Ida B. exists." On first read, I thought that was a rather odd thing to say about a book. Definitely not the traditional blurb that I'm used to (“I couldn’t put it down!” or “I was spellbound!” or some other such nonsense). Yet, after having read the book, I see what she means.
This isn't simply a story to be told and entertained by and forgotten. This is a story that shoots straight to your core and simply makes you FEEL: happiness, sadness, anger, and everything in between. My emotions rollercoastered right along with Ida B's, and I couldn't have been happier about it—mostly because of the narrator’s way of seeing the world.
The voice in this book is nothing short of amazing. Any author and would-be author has constantly heard about voice, about what your narrator sounds like. It's a concept drilled into you. Yet it's still such a rarity to see and hear and feel such a well-developed voice as Hannigan creates in this book. You can HEAR Ida B the whole way through, and it's a voice that you want to listen to. Despite often used images, Hannigan still manages to make Ida's outlook so unique that you can't help but love the way the story is told. And by the end, you want more, to follow this wonderful character around a bit longer, if only to keep hearing this voice.
I'm not saying that anyone and everyone should run out and buy this book, as I don't feel like it's one for everyone, and there will be many that it simply won't resonate with. But, like DiCamillo, I'm just glad that this book exists. To me, this is why I write, in hopes I can create something that will click so strongly with even a single person.
P.S. Much as I wanted to 8-bit the covers for these, I simply don't have the time, as my top albums and films of the year will follow.
