The books of 2011: what did I miss?

[kestrell]

I don't know what it is about today, but I've been cold all day, so I finally gave in and pulled out the incredible oversized-and-still-growing sweater which Eitan knitted for me years ago. And when Isay oversized, I mean, it hangs to my knees--I swear when I throw it in the dryer it gets bigger.

And if I had the least bit of productivity left, it's gone bye-bye now that The NY Times has published its list of the top 100 books for 2011, a list which I always enjoy reading as I alternately mock and scribble down titles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html?_r=3&ref=books

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I have no excuse whatsoever for spelling her name wrong — I've proofed it in many a WisCon publication. It's Orkorafor (a instead of the e I typed earlier).

Here's the book's home page.
http://nnedi.com/who_fears_death.html

That page mentions how it was nommed for everything and won World Fantasy Award. There are first two chapters on the site, enough to see whether it's worth exploring more.

Tis available on Kindle: have you been able to get the free Kindle readers for iPhone or Mac to talk? If so, there's your answer for $8.

But if the Kindle version is sold with talking off, then I'm hoping the WisCon experience may have made her more open to the "lend the file for reading" request.

[kestrell]

The accessible Kindle for PC uses a combination of its own TTS and the user's screenreader, so it doesn't matter if the speech has been turned off for the Kindle ebook (I realize that sounds a bit contradictory, and I can't explain it either). It's accessible, but it's also incredibly slooooow, and it doesn't let you go through word by word or character by character to find out how things are spelled, which makes me crazy. However, I know someone who can massage the file into something I can read on any of my ebook readers, so I will add these (there was a YA title which came out this year also) next time I get a batch of ebooks.