Books I’m most looking forward to in 2011

Young Adult
There are lots of other books I plan to read, but these are the ones I really, really, really want to read.

• Abandon by Meg Cabot. The myth of Persephone, “darkly reimagined” by Meg Cabot. I am intrigued.
• Deadly by Julie Chibbaro. The early 1900s New York setting got my attention. Throw in words like typhoid and investigation, and you’ve *really* got my attention.
• The Revenant by Sonia Gensler. A ghost! And a mystery! In 1896! At a Cherokee school!
• How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain. Doesn’t matter what it’s about, I can’t resist the title.
• The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines. World War II-era historical mystery. Oh, yes.
• Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris. Okay, zombies are getting a bit old, but it sounds fun and I really like the cover.
• The Returning by Christine Hinwood. I usually don’t put much stock into author blurbs, but this was blurbed by Megan Whalen Turner AND Melina Marchetta, and Adele raved about it.
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Johnson is a hit-or-miss author for me, but this just sounds soooooo good. Between Jack the Ripper and a paranormal branch of the British police, I can’t wait.
• Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi. See above, How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend.
• All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin. Even though the second half of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac fell apart for me, I’m curious to see what she does with a dystopia.

I know, none of these are multicultural. There are some that I do want to read (namely Alex Sanchez’s Boyfriends with Girlfriends and Dawn Metcalf’s Luminous), but nothing that I want to read as much as any of the above. Here are two booklists if you’re looking for more 2011 multicultural books, from Color Online and Crazy Quilts.

Not YA

• The Night Season by Chelsea Cain. I’ve been a fan since I snagged the last ARC of Heartsick (and got it autographed) at ALA in 2007, so even though I’m not sure how I feel about a new villain, I still really want to read this. But Gretchen’s gotta make an appearance anyway, right?
• Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill. New mystery series set in present-day Thailand by one of my favorite authors.
• The October Killings by Wessel Ebersohn. I’ve been curious since this Wall Street Journal article and the “Foreign Affairs” booklist, which mentioned Ebersohn along with Deon Meyer and Malla Nunn.
• Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant. Under the name Tracy Grant, she wrote Daughter of the Game (aka Secrets of a Lady) and Beneath a Silent Moon, two books with basically everything I could ask for in historical thrillers: spies and satisfying political intrigue, mystery, family secrets, and romance. (Links are to the reviews at All About Romance that introduced me to the series.) Vienna Waltz, if I understand it correctly, is a new story that features the same main characters. I feel a reread coming on.
• The Snowman by Jo Nesbø. Although, what is up with bringing over these books out of order? I mean, The Redbreast/Nemesis/The Devil’s Star are actually books 3-5, and The Snowman is book 7. What happened to The Redeemer?

YA Books Mentioned in Previous Posts

• You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin
• Betrayal by Lee Nichols
• Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang