Books!
From a conversation with Bruce Neiger, my picks on the best books I read (mostly this year) written last year:
Catherine Valente's Orphan's Tales duology (hands down the best)
Holly Black's Ironside (which was kinda a sequel to her Tithe and Valiant).
Derek Landry's _Skulduggery Pleasant_ -- kinda Potterish, but written for older readers (still YA, but older YA).
Delia Sherman's Changeling -- a modern changeling tries to solve a fairy challenge on the streets of NYC.
Nancy Springer's Dussie -- girl hits puberty. Girl's hair turns into snakes. Humor and character growth ensues.
Kate Thompson's New Policeman: Irish music, fairy, and time. What's not to like?
Garth Nix's Keys of the Kingdom. Ongoing series about an "ordinary" boy pulled into, more or less, a war in heaven; the "real world" is actually a science fiction alternative present. Really cool; up to book 5 (of 7) at this point.
And from the high faluting end of things:
Hopkinson's New Moon's Arms: A not entirely likable mother going through menopause starts having parts of her life back while also trying to deal with a Selkie orphan. She also has a few secrets in her past, some of which she has issues facing.
Theodora Goss's _In the Forest of Forgetting_ -- various short stories, some painful, some poignant. Some lovely stuff in there;best are the ones about the witchy Mary Poppins equivalent.
Honorable Mention goes, of course, to the conclusion of Harry Potter.
Some are YA, some are not, all are fantasy (I did read some SF too, of course, though nothing immediately pops out)
Catherine Valente's Orphan's Tales duology (hands down the best)
Holly Black's Ironside (which was kinda a sequel to her Tithe and Valiant).
Derek Landry's _Skulduggery Pleasant_ -- kinda Potterish, but written for older readers (still YA, but older YA).
Delia Sherman's Changeling -- a modern changeling tries to solve a fairy challenge on the streets of NYC.
Nancy Springer's Dussie -- girl hits puberty. Girl's hair turns into snakes. Humor and character growth ensues.
Kate Thompson's New Policeman: Irish music, fairy, and time. What's not to like?
Garth Nix's Keys of the Kingdom. Ongoing series about an "ordinary" boy pulled into, more or less, a war in heaven; the "real world" is actually a science fiction alternative present. Really cool; up to book 5 (of 7) at this point.
And from the high faluting end of things:
Hopkinson's New Moon's Arms: A not entirely likable mother going through menopause starts having parts of her life back while also trying to deal with a Selkie orphan. She also has a few secrets in her past, some of which she has issues facing.
Theodora Goss's _In the Forest of Forgetting_ -- various short stories, some painful, some poignant. Some lovely stuff in there;best are the ones about the witchy Mary Poppins equivalent.
Honorable Mention goes, of course, to the conclusion of Harry Potter.
Some are YA, some are not, all are fantasy (I did read some SF too, of course, though nothing immediately pops out)