Adult:
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins:
Soooo messed up. Soooo creepy. Soooo funny. SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. Carolyn
and her siblings have been adopted by a man named Father, the owner of a
library whose knowledge gives him and the children unparalleled power.
Now Father is gone, and the Library remains for the taking. 
Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua: Like math, comics, steampunk, and
historical inaccuracy? It's the historical/mathematical/graphical
novel adventure with more footnotes than you can imagine for you! In
our boring world, the computer gets invented in the 80s, partially due
to Ada Lovelace's early death in her 30s, and partially because the
actual construction of the computer would have been unfathomably massive
and Babbage was already bankrupt. Now imagine if those things never
happened, and Lovelace and Babbage used the computer to solve mysteries
and meet other luminaries of the day.
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu: Won
the Hugo this year, with pretty worthy credentials. A hard scifi book
with dark, deep moralities. A video game has been introduced to the
world, that takes people to a world where nothing is stable for long.
But it's just a video game, right? Probably not a depiction of an actual
alien world. This is fine.
Children's
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh:
A retelling of A Thousand and One Nights that caused me to go all
flustered. Shazi's best friend gets taken by the king and killed, and
Shazi wants revenge. But after being the only woman to volunteer to
marry the king and survive the night, peculiar things begin to happen,
and Shazi learns there's more to the story than she thought. (12+)
Other favorites!
Adult
Lafayette and the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell:
So I didn't like this one as much as her other books, but! For me at
least, it was fun to read under the current of the Hamilton Musical's
popularity, which I'm totally not obsessed with in every way, shape, and
form. It satisfied a need for a messy, humanizing depiction of the
Revolution. (Also everyone should listen to Hamilton, I am not biased.)
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho:
Regency era fantasy magicians with PoC, good writing, political
chicanery, cool plots, also dragons? Great world building too, and
Austenesque, social commentary-wise and witty diatribe-wise.
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente: A
art-deco scifi noir alt-history with space whales? Basically it's early film era alt
history where instead of doing the Westward Expansion, we headed out to
other planets in our solar system. It's about a woman named Severin, a
documentarian who went missing doing an expose on a colony that went
missing on Venus. As usual by the author the book is stupid pretty as in
it makes me sound incredibly stupid talking about it.
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor: In the town of Night Vale, a middle aged mother of a shapeshifting teenager and a nineteen-going-on-twenty-and-
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie:
A great finish to the trilogy that's won so many awards that I've
learned about new awards in reading about how many awards it's won. Has a
near perfect meld of plot and character, and explores new boundaries of
conceptual and speculative morality, as scifi should - my fave of the
trilogy!
After Alice by Gregory Maguire:
Alice's friend Ada stumbles into Wonderland and follows in her footsteps
while Alice's sister Lydia deals with being a teenager during a time
where "teenagers" did not exist as a concept, the death of their mother,
and the dawning of a Darwinian reality. Definitely worth a read for
Alice fans (both fans of me and of Lewis Carroll's Alice.) Joe Hill
liked it too and wrote a review somewhere!
Childrens
Toymaker's Apprentice by Sherri L. Smith:
A new, quirky take on the story of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
The mice of Boldavia have taken over the country because the main
character Stefan's cousin, the esteemed Royal Clockmaker Christian
Drosselmeyer, accidentally broke the barrier between the men and mice.
Fun and interesting with just enough serious undercurrent to make it a
bit more. (9-12)
Court of Fives by Kate Elliot: This was
the teen book this year that I had my face glued to. Jessamy lives in a
duel world, the child of both the upper class, dominant Saroese, and the
lower class, oppressed Efeans. Her difficulties are heightened with her
want and need to run The Fives, a cultural obstacle course thingy that
provides no boundaries of class/race/gender. Melds in actiony dystopian
stuff with genuine commentary on social difficulties well. (12+)
Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights by Lemony Snicket:
The conclusion to the All the Wrong Questions Quartet. Some questions
get answered, most of them don't. Had enough enjoyable twists and turns
for it to feel thrilling, for young fans of mysteries and intrigue.
(9-12)
Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell: In
Tsarist Russia, nobles take in wolves as appearance pets, and it always
ends the same way: the wolf rebels, someone gets hurt, and the wolves
are given to the wolf wilders, who teach them how to live in the wild
again. Feo's mother gets taken under a new, arbitrary law restricting
wolf wilders, and Feo journeys to St. Petersburg to find her,
discovering a country on the verge of revolution on the way. An intense
story with a sheen of fairytale-esque storytelling. (9-12)
The Story of Diva and Flea by Mo Willems:
Full of heart that forces me to blubber out of my face incoherently
when I read it. Diva is the dog of the landlord of an apartment complex
in Paris, and Flea is a street cat (though he prefers to call himself a flaneur).
When they meet, they introduce each other to their respective worlds
and everything is made better WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. (6-10)
Comics
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North:
Came out as a trade and everyone should read it and be overwhelmed with
how much funnier Ryan North is than the rest of humanity. The premise
is in the title, there is a girl, she is also a squirrel, she is
unbeatable. She also goes to college to blend in with the human folk
with some success.
Star Wars: Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen:
So I hear there's a movie coming out and it's a big deal or something.
Marvel has been doing a whole slew of Star Wars comics but honestly the
best one that I've been reading is Darth Vader, which takes place
between Ep IV and V, detailing the circumstances that push Vader from
being a small bit player in the first film to a higher commanding power
in the second. Introduces a lot of really awesome new characters,
including Triple Zero, a human protocol droid designed for torture while
still looking like C3PO, thus making him hilarious.
Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson:
2nd Volume is out and life is worth it to read it. Girl Scout camp with
mysteries! Greek Gods sometimes! Giant Bear women! A conspiracy? As a
Girl Scout I can confirm this book is 1000% accurate.
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