I’m about 15% into The Skeleton Clock by Justin Richards (Good, Good, Good, So Good!). It’s the first book I’ve read on the Kindle that I got for Christmas, and I find myself analyzing the little beast while I read on it. I thought I would post some of my pros and cons for anyone else still holding out on getting one. First off, I have the $79 one that you can get here: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wi-Fi-Ink-Display-Screensavers/dp/B0051QVESA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326200479&sr=8-1 so these pros and cons all relate to it.

Pros

Price: At $79 this thing is a steal, and free shipping too. I have the version with ads, but they are really not annoying at all, a little one shows up at the bottom of the home screen, and one shows up when you turn the thing half off. They never pop up where you read or play a game.

Games: Yes, I’m a dork and I was psyched to find out there were games. I only have the free ones that are mostly word games and not flashy or anything, but they’re a nice bonus.

Size: This thing’s only 6 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches and super thin. I can slide it right in my hoodie pocket if I want to. Very convenient. Just remember not to bend over and flush the toilet, I lost a phone that way.

Library Books: I was holding out on the Kindle because they couldn’t download library books before, but now they can and I am psyched to have easier access to books from my library.

Cons

Size: Okay, the size is a pro and a con. Yeah, it’s super sweet and little, but that also means that you’re only getting a couple paragraphs at a time per ‘page’. To me that made it a bit hard getting into the book. I knew I liked Justin Richards work, so I kept going, but I might have stopped reading a book I was less excited for. Also I’m worried if I leave the Kindle somewhere and my cats walk on it it will snap in two. I have to get a sleeve for it!

Page Buttons: This is a little bit of a nitpick, but both sides of the thing have two buttons to move the pages forward or back. It’s kinda a pain, because I always want the big button on the right to turn the page forward, and the one on the left to go back a page. I get that it’s for left-handed people, but it’s annoying.

That’s really it for cons, overall I love the thing. I get all giggly when I see it sitting somewhere in my house. Like a thirteen-year-old with a crush. It’s just so cute and little! I think I’ll get used to the two things that currently bother me a about it.

I didn’t even touch on the reading screen, but it really is great to read on. My eyes don’t get tired like they do when I read on the computer, it’s kind of amazing. I don’t think that the Kindle is going to replace my need to read books in real physical book form, but it certainly is a nice alternative.

According to Amazon, I wasn’t going to get my Kindle until next week, but it was here when I got home from work! I am super psyched to play with my Kindle and finally read some ebooks. Some of these are only available in ebook form, others are ones I’ve seen online at the library and have been waiting to have a Kindle so I could read them. Hopefully they will all be awesome.

The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer- Three thousand years ago, a god told a lie. Now, only a goddess can tell the truth. Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want–except for freedom. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice. Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny. But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.

So a retelling of the Persephone myth with a lesbian love story involved? Sounds good to me! I also follow this lovely author on twitter, so I’m dying to try something of hers.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey- Charlie Bucktin, a bookish thirteen year old, is startled one summer night by an urgent knock on his bedroom window. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in their small mining town, and he has come to ask for Charlie’s help. Terribly afraid but desperate to impress, Charlie follows him into the night. Jasper takes him to his secret glade, where Charlie witnesses Jasper’s horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion. He locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love, and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

This is one I’ll be getting from the library. It just sounds interesting. I was so bummed it wasn’t an audiobook and it’s been sitting on my wishlist ever since I first saw it. It reminds me of a Stephen King book. What can I say, I’m a sucker for coming of age books.

The Skeleton Clock by Justin Richards- After the flood…
Creatures stir in the watery depths, and monsters stalk the night. The City was once a thriving capital. Then the water rose and the ground fractured. At the ancient cathedral of Whispers, Jake and his friends Sarah and Geoff witness a murder. But as monstrous creatures rise from the murky depths, will they realise they have found the key to an ancient mystery? Will Jake discover the truth of what they have discovered? Will Sarah escape from the White Tower? And who will unleash the awesome power of the Skeleton Clock? Everything has its Time…

Okay, I guess Justin Richards isn’t so cool in America because otherwise there would certainly be reviews of this ebook. I love his other work and the idea that this well known author’s book is cheaper than ebooks by some less known people is both stunning and great to me. I downloaded this as soon as I got out my Kindle.

Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman- In a small New Jersey town, a lonely teen walking along a highway one autumn evening meets the boy of his dreams, a boy who happens to have died decades ago and haunts the road. Awkward crushes, both bitter and sweet, lead him to face youthful dreams and childish fears. With a cast of offbeat friends, antiques, and Ouija boards, Vintage offers readers a memorable blend of dark humor, chills and love.

Another one that has interested me for a while. I love a good ghost story, but they sometimes tend to be just more and more of the same. I’m hoping this one will be interesting.

This seems to be the thing to do as we end the year, so I figured I would jump on the band wagon. These books might not have been published in 2011, but I first read and enjoyed them this year. So without further ado, the five books I read this year and you should read next year!

Plain Kate by Erin Bow– When Kate’s wood-carver father dies, she is left to support herself with her woodworking talent while living in her father’s former market stall with a cat named Taggle. When Linay, a mysterious and magical stranger, comes to town and buys Kate’s shadow, he gives her the money she needs to escape her village home, where people are blaming her for the hard times that have fallen on them. It is rumored that her talent comes from magic, but Kate’s journey leads to unexpected consequences and danger for her and the Roamer family whom she joins. It’s up to Kate; her new friend, Drina; and Taggle to defeat Linay with their own magic, as they come to discover the truth about his past and his desire for revenge.

I really can’t say enough about this book, I just fell in love with it from the moment I saw the cover. I love any fantasy that sucks you in and won’t let you leave the world. All I have to do is think about this book and I’m back in that world even though it’s been months since I read it. Great for any lover of fantasy!

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey– Will Henry is the 12-year-old apprentice to Pellinore Warthrop, a brilliant and self-absorbed monstrumologist–a scientist who studies (and when necessary, kills) monsters in late-1800s New England. The newest threat is the Anthropophagi, a pack of headless, shark-toothed bipeds, one of whom’s corpse is delivered to Warthrop’s lab courtesy of a grave robber. As the action moves from the dissecting table to the cemetery to an asylum to underground catacombs, Yancey keeps the shocks frequent and shrouded in a splattery miasma of blood, bone, pus, and maggots. The industrial-era setting is populated with leering, Dickensian characters, most notably the loathsome monster hunter hired by Warthrop to enact the highly effective “Maori Protocol” method of slaughter.

Another book that had me hooked with the cover. Such a dark premise that in no way disappointed. Even though the book is a little long, I breezed through it with no problem, eager to see what happened next. I’ve read the first two books now, and I’m looking forward to reading the next in 2012.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick– It could happen tomorrow . . .
 An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Amazing, scary, hard to put down. Can not WAIT for the second book. I love a book that hooks you in a way you totally didn’t expect, and I went into this one not knowing what it was about. Boy was I surprised and thrilled by it. Sure, it’s a bit more end of the world stuff, but Bick presents it in a much more raw, engaging way than I’ve ever seen before.

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff– In the wake of a wildly disastrous affair with her married archaeology professor, Willie Upton arrives on the doorstep of her ancestral home in Templeton, New York, where her hippie-turned-born-again-Baptist mom, Vi, still lives. Willie expects to be able to hide in the place that has been home to her family for generations, but the monster’s death changes the fabric of the quiet, picture-perfect town her ancestors founded. Even further, Willie learns that the story her mother had always told her about her father has all been a lie: he wasn’t the random man from a free-love commune that Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely. Someone from this very town. As Willie puts her archaeological skills to work digging for the truth about her lineage, she discovers that the secrets of her family run deep. Through letters, editorials, and journal entries, the dead rise up to tell their sides of the story as dark mysteries come to light, past and present blur, old stories are finally put to rest, and the shocking truth about more than one monster is revealed.

I really don’t know what it was about this book that attracted me. It’s nothing like most of what I read, but it held me in thrall. I listened to the audiobook version and I would actually take walks just to listen to more of it. The way the present and past stories weave together was perfect. Groff has a new book scheduled for 2012 and I am more than psyched about it!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins– In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

Okay, it felt a bit obvious to pick this book, but it’s just so damn good! I can’t think of another series that I have recommended to so many people and waited so eagerly for them to finish so we could talk about it. I only hope the movie can live up to the book.

So there’s my top five books for the year. Next week I’m going to be posting the five books I’m most looking forward to reading this year!