Sunstone Issue 164: Fiction and comics.

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Just one of each this time. Let's start with the comics, shall we?

The Book of Mormon by Noah Van Sciver

This is a continuation of Noah's Joseph Smith biography (I think---I didn't ask him . . . maybe I should have) that started in the previous issue. Like that one, Noah's take on familiar Mormon stories are fresh and push me out of my regular understanding. It's tempting to pin this on his own tumultuous history with the Church (splitting, as it did, his family in two, with mom and kids going one way, dad and kids going another), but it might simply be true that he has a talent for finding fresh angles to tell stories that, while important, are often tired.

With this three-page telling of the Book of Mormon, he's in top form. But pause for a second and consider: how would you sum it up in three pages of comics?

Here's how Noah did it:

1½ pages of First Nephi
¼ page of Second Nephi
⅜ page of Third Nephi
⅛ page of Fourth Nephi (v20)
⅜ page of wiping the Nephites out

Interesting, huh?

Good stuff.

In related news, directly behind this month's table of contents is a poem by Paul Swenson (featured in Fire in the Pasture, natch) in response to the first installment of Van Sciver's Joseph Smith series (reviewed here).

It's pretty good. And, perhaps, the first time a significant Mormon poet has responded to Mormon comics. So there's that.


Return of the Native by Levi S. Peterson

To start, I've not the Hardy novel. I can't make connections for you.

So instead let me start by quoting Peterson's first paragraph.

The Phoenix-bound plane was airborne before I allowed myself to consider the negatives of what I was doing. I told my stepdaughter who lives in Seattle and outright lie about my destination, saying I was flying to Corvallis to visit an old buddy from my Navy days. I knew I would have to expand on that lie when my wife, on a cruise with her sisters, got around to calling me. Even worse, I would have to expand on the lie I had been telling myself for a long time, that there was no resemblance between who I'd become and the fifteen-year-old kid who forced himself on his first cousin in a barn back in 1951.

Now that's an opening paragraph.

I'm ashamed to admit how little of Peterson's fiction I've read. If my memory's accurate, this is only the second story of his I've read (the first was "Brothers" in Dispensation), but both have been terrific. This particular story has a very steady pace and is always heading to a certain collision, but whether the collision will happen or what it will mean remain unclear until the closing moments. And that moment has an earned beauty I recommend to all.

Comparing Feinstein with Feinstein

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So I was wrong. I did not get an identical form letter this time. Instead, after the blackout, Feinstein's song has changed in some rather significant ways. Check them out, side by side. Original letter is on your left.

A good start to 2012 (which, as we all know, will have a bad end)

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005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21


If you have not been following Hark! a Vagrant! online, why the heck not?

The book has a good selection of the best strips (though, naturally, not just what *I* would have chosen) as well as some new ones which match her high standards. Here are a couple early strips before she found her feet that aren't in the book (but which I like; language warning on second):

perhaps five days



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004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12

Prepare to hear me gush about this novel all year long. It's terrific. Read my full review on AMV.

two days



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003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9


The Big O's friend gave him Dingers!: A Short History of the Long Ball for his birthday in 2010. As I looked at the book I realized that many of the great heroes of the game have been forgotten by the most of us. One that struck me was Jimmie Foxx who a) has a memorable name and b) came darn near to breaking Babe's single-season homer record more than once.

Al Simmons played with Foxx on perhaps the greatest team of all time and, even here in the A's new home, is essentially forgotten. It's a shame.

Nicknamed Bucketfoot because of his bizarre batting stance, Al still had an incredible career as a batter. He was a great fielder. And Parker let's us meet him as a person as well.

The book is almost painfully well researched. Which I do appreciate --- a historian who can show that the contemporaneous accounts don't always agree is my kind of historian --- but sometimes it did get a little much. I think I would have preferred some rollicking end/footnotes.

The book did have some minor editing errors but nothing that would make you doubt the accuracy of the facts.

In the end, if you like baseball history, are an A's fan, are curious about historical sabremetrics, enjoy a bit of tragedy with your sports Olympia, or Poles from Wisconsin, then this is the book for you.

a month or so



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002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9


What a book! This is meant for, like, ten-year-olds---yet it's a pretty successful work of horror for adult standards as well. In essence, a kid from a timeless (half Victorian/Edwardian, half now) era visits an aged uncle who tells him awful stories which, weirdly, seems to be somehow true. Priestly has nailed the diction and syntax, and the stories themselves are genuinely chilling. Even the ones I thought would fall into old ruts did not. Each provided surprises along the relentless plodding to disaster.

I think it's good for scary kids' books to be scary (an amen).

This one is.

Here are a couple others worth considering: The Graveyard Book. If You Want to Scare Yourself.

Uncle Montague has spawned a couple sequels which also consist of strange adults telling a child or children strange stories. I may well pick one up some time. And I'm sure you can read them in any order.

David Roberts's illustrations are decidedly Goreyesque (and appropriately so, I think, as Gorey has built the visual vocabulary for this brand of out-of-time horror. The primary difference is that Roberts's kids have bigger (and thus cuter) eyes. Here's an example:

about a week



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001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5


Read my review here.

maybe a month max

An open letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein on this issue of SOPA/PIPA

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I know you're just sending form letter replies and thus your letter had NOTHING to do with mine, but I said nothing about copyright etc etc. But since you brought it up, now I will.

Copyright as currently constituted is a far stretch from the Constitutional phrasing. Allow me to quote:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

A LIMITED TIME

Congress has been lengthening and lengthening copyright. Part of copyright is to protect creators. Part of copyright is to insure that works enter the public domain and become part of the Great Corpus of Human Thought.

You, as my representative (as well as Hollywood's), need to work on this.

As someone who makes a living through copyrighted work myself, I'm not suggesting we screw the artist. I'm suggesting we don't screw the future.

Looking forward to getting the same form letter a third time,

I am,

-------------th-

The Big O's baptism (svithe)

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The Big O was baptized yesterday. He took it very seriously. And I am left humbled before the holiness of God.

I don't know how to be eloquent on this subject.

I will just say this is right and this is good.

previous svithe

Because everybody else is doing it and because you so totally care about my opinions here's a rerundown on the Mormon books I read in 2011

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(Click the titles to read my full reviews.)

Comics and about comics

Jake Parker
The Missile Mouse books have become Thteed family favorites, rereading Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher (book one) and Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 (book two) are brilliant and fun and the best way to introduce kids to science fiction.

Mike Allred
This is a big year for Brother Allred, it being the twentieth anniversary of Madman and everything. I wasn't a huge fan of the Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special, however. But next year's much delayed (and physically huge) Monster looks cool even if it doesn't have much stuff by Mike himself. It's what I'm spending my Christmas gift certificate on.

More fun for me in 2011 were the iZombie books, which Mike drew but did not write. Check them out: iZombie: Dead to the World (volume one) and iZombie: uVampire (volume two).

Red Rocket 7 is the most Allredian thing I've ever read. That may be good or bad, of course.

Finally, I also read Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred (as interviewed by by Eric Nolen-Weathington) which is terribly useful if you're planning on writing a dissertation on him any time soon.


Floyd Gottfredson
I'm still sad how disappointed I was in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley. Watch for a full review in a coming-soon issue of Dialogue.



Fiction

FICTION OF THE YEAR

Moriah Jovan
Magdalene is the best and most explicitly Mormon novel I've read in some time. Even if Moriah doesn't like me trying to sell it to Mormons (it has some sex, you see). Check it out.


CLOSE SECOND

Jack Harrell
A Sense of Order and Other Stories. Embarrassingly, I still haven't written my Motley Vision review of this book. I need to get around to it. Suffice it to say that this is as good a single-author collection as Todd Robert Petersen's. Maybe better. It's a close call.


It was a great year for YA book as well, charge led by the Wells brothers.

Robison Wells
Variant was the more propulsive read, but I don't feel like I can pass final judgment on a cliffhanger like this till I read the sequel. However, I have been called to repentance and now tell you to buy and read it without waiting for book two. You won't regret it.


Dan Wells
Mr Monster (book number two) and I Don't Want to Kill You (book three) finished up the best threesome of books I've read in recent memory. Way better, to name just one example, than The Hunger Games.

Also in fiction:

Orson Scott Card
Ender in Exile: I just read an analysis by Wm Morris yesterday that pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with this book compared to Card's earlier work:

[Card] has adjusted his writing style and focus. His fiction of the past 15 years or so is markedly less literary and more transparently ideologically motivated than it was previously. His disdain for psychology and for intellectuals, for example, comes through more strongly in his later work. In addition, he has seriously toned down the “deviance” in his work.

Exactly.

For completists only.



NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

Grant Hardy
Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide. Buy it today. You really really need to. If you're Mormon and care about about literature, you need to read this literary analysis of where it all began.



Screenplay

Kohl Glass
Redcoat: I read this in MS form, so I won't say much except I hope this moves onto screens while it still has major zeitgeist potential.



What a great year! These were all good to great! of course, I was pretty selective and didn't finish the one Mormon book I was hating, but hey! 2011!

Even better, perhaps, this year saw the release of two freaking astonishing book from sǝɓɐԀPeculiar, Fire in the Pasture and Monsters & Mormons.




APPENDIX: A book with significant Mormon content not by a Mormon

James Rollins
The Devil Colony: I pretty much hated it. With a couple notable moments as exceptions.

Is Pujols worth the money?

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I'm reading a biography of Al Simmons right now (gift from the publisher) and it's got me to thinking about Albert Pujols and his recent run to Anaheim for lots and lots of money. Now, no question Pujols is a terrific athlete and one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but he's getting old. He failed to tie Al's MLB record of starting a career with 100+ RBIs 11 seasons in a row. Now sure, 99 is nothing to sniff at, but Pujols is slowing down. Simmons's 12th season was far off his previous marks. Injuries start to accumulate (Pujols missed 13 games last season), power gets softer and less consistent----

Now, I'm not questioning Pujols's importance to the Cardinals last season, and on the right team he can still be an important force. But he's like Simmons---one of the best batters of his generation (some said Simmons was better than the Babe) and aging rapidly. He'll still hit some amazing balls, and maybe DHing will keep him in more games, but he's not going to last forever.

I'm not saying anything new here, but reading about Simmons----

Well. Maybe the Angels didn't get such a sure thing.

Could this be the final list of 2011 books?

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I was hoping I would get to 100 books this week, but, clearly, I have fallen short yet again. Maybe my shiny new Nook will get me back to that mark next year. Time shall tell.

Also, if I stopped picking up old issues of The New Yorker. That might help the book count.

As if the book count even matters.

Sigh.

Anyway, here are the the final few books of 2011. Unless I surprise myself in the next nine hours.



094) Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce, finished December 26/27 (midnightish)


I have terribly ambivalent feelings about this book. Luisa recommended it to me (reason enough to get it from the library) in part because of the Bay Area connections.

These connections were fun, although I had a hard time reconciling the geography --- I think the Bay Area of the fantastical Califa is somewhat smaller than the Bay Area of the realistical California. But no matter.

What bugged me most about the book was how overly (and cutely) plotted the book was. Constant minicliffhangers, many of which were cheap and unnecessary. (Example: we hear of a character who is Very Dangerous, then it ends up he's probably dead, then he's really strong, then he's really friendly, then he's going to eat our hero, then he's really nice again . . . and so on --- the book's full of little switchbacks like this.)

Which is not to say I did not like it. In fact, I'm going to strongly recommend it to Lady Steed, whose taste, I think, will better appreciate the book.

But I was not enamored of it. I could set it doing in the middle of an Exciting Part and not even think about the characters until I picked it up again. I was never really vested in the characters. Until about the last fifty pages.

That said, what I am enamored of is Wilce's world-building. Clearly, this world is built and built well. I would probably get more enjoyment of a history book of Califa than I did of this novel. I'm as curious about the for-adults short stories set in this world as I am in the further YA adventures of Flora Nemain Fyrdraaca ov Fyrdraaca. I would love to read detailed synopses of these books, but I found them too frustrating to read to want to read all the subsequent volumes.

Other things I liked: The use of eths in the language. The use of a nonce writing system to spell magical words (brilliant, really, when you think about it --- JK Rowling should have thought of this). I loved the apparent etymology of nonce words. I loved the richness of allusion.

In other words, I like the nuts and bolts of the words, but not the plot and characters. A weird thing, when I think of it.

The way the book ended, I do suspect further volumes may get better. I suspect, however, that I will completely forget about book one before I decide whether or not to read book two.



nearly three weeks



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093) The Trouble with Igor by Christopher P. Reilly and Gus Fink, finished December 23


A bit like Frank in its surreality but without providing the pleasure Frank gives me. I think because I didn't so much care for the art, which was jerky and sloppy which made characters hard to distinguish from one another.

Not to say I didn't find things to like. The hand-puppet reaper was a fun idea, for instance. But, ultimately, I didn't find much enough to like here.

Anyone want my copy?

two or three days



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092) Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide by Grant Hardy, finished December 20


An utterly brilliant book. Buy a copy.

(my motley-vision review)

I also highly recommend his Reader's Edition.

some months



Previously in 2011 . . . . :

91

091) Fountain City wrecked by Michael Chabon, finished December 20



86-90

090) Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker, finished c. December 13
089) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré, finished December 10
088) Uzumaki, Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito, finished December 9
087) How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, finished December 9
086) Umney's Last Case by Stephen King, finished December 6



83-85

085) Room by Emma Donoghue, finished November 30
084) The Armed Garden and other stories by David B. (translated by Kim Thompson), finished November 27
083) The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, finished---was it November 26?



78-82

082) Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, finished November 13
081) Variant by Robison Wells, finished November 12
080) Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain, finished November 10
079) The Devil Colony by James Rollins, finished November 9
078) Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, finished November 7



75-77

077) The Best American Comics 2011 edited by Alison Bechdel, finished November 5
076) The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 by Charles Schulz, finished November 3
075) Ghost Story by Peter Straub, finished October 27



71-74

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23
073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15
072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18
071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18



70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12


65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12


64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21


59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18


58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

This unsettling dream I had last night

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[WARNING: I REALLY AM ABOUT TO BLOG ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S DREAM]
[EDIT: This post was written on Dec. 23, though not posted until later.]

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I don't know how I ended up at this farmhouse (or something) out in the country far from my family. I don't know who all those people were or why I was with them. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I met a woman. Nothing remarkable about her appearance though she was blonde and I don't think of myself as a blonde-preferer. Anyway, we hit it off---I had never known anyone quite like her before and we fell into a deep friendship, took to hanging out all the time, that sort of thing. Then the dream took a turn for the literary and behaved more like a novel than a movie. One of the snippets announced during this phase of the dream is that we, er, consummated the relationship (though this was merely mentioned and not ever shown), and later I gave her a ring, making her an honest woman and me a polygamist (which, weirdly, felt totally appropriate).

Twenty years of wedded bliss pass and I happen to see Lady Steed at a bus stop. My first reaction is to avoid her, even though I have missed her terribly and still love her and am anxious to know how she and our kids are doing. So we talk. And she is pleased to see me, holds no bitterness, we have a nice chat . . . .

And then the dream changed channels and became about something else entirely.

Here's what's unsettling about this dream:

I would imagine, were we to do an extensive survey, that "normal" adultery dreams involve sex and function primarily out of a pent up bodily need. You know what I mean. This dream was nothing like that. The sex was wholly incidental. Just an obvious fact of a close and loving relationship, and merely implied anyway. This dream was not about physical infidelity. It was about emotional infidelity. And, for those few minutes of REM, I was genuinely in love with two women. Upon waking, this filled me with unease.

What is the lesson here for me?

The best albums of 2011 (sort of) via Spotify

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PLAY WHILE YOU READ;
I MADE YOU A MIXTAPE

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I have fallen in love with Spotify these past few months. Partly because I finally have an affordable way to stay up with new music. To that end, I have a list I keep called "2011 Albums I Like"; some albums have been added later to be kicked off, some are albums I like enough I owned them before I got Spotify, some of the albums on this list are still in danger of getting kicked off, some albums may get added to the 2011 list in years to come. Below is the list of albums, sometimes with comments. Albums that have not yet earned their place on this list and that may yet be kicked off are signified with an *.


They Might Be Giants
---->Join Us (Spotify) (Amazon)
---->Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (Spotify) (Amazon)

Any new TMBG album is reason to pay attention, but a new album and a new "album" (like untoish Severe Tire Damage)? A very good year indeed. With lots of great, classic TMBG material on both

The Dø
---->Both Ways Open Jaws (Spotify) (Amazon)

Some new Europop with a new sensibility to match.

Low
---->C'mon (Spotify) (Amazon)

I really just discovered Low this year (though I've known of them for some time). You can read about initial impressions here, but I have really come to love this album.

Florence + The Machine
---->Ceremonials (Spotify) (Amazon)

Tegan And Sara
---->Get Along (Spotify) (Amazon)

Barnaby Bright
---->Gravity* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Jeff Bridges
---->Jeff Bridges (Spotify) (Amazon)

Unquestionably my favorite new country music of the year. Who would have guessed?

The Decemberists
---->The King Is Dead (Spotify) (Amazon)

Anyone arguing that this is the best album of the year I'm willing to listen to.

PJ Harvey
---->Let England Shake (Spotify) (Amazon)

I still haven't gotten over the weirdness of this album.

Julianna Barwick
---->The Magic Place (Spotify) (Amazon)

Feist
---->Metals (Spotify) (Amazon)

Dad Rocks!
---->Mount Modern* (Spotify) (Amazon)

I really can't decide if I like his hyperironic rock music for parents or not.....

(various)
---->Muppets: The Green Album (Spotify) (Amazon)
---->Rave on Buddy Holly* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Not all the tracks are equally great, but listen to The Green Album. Honestly, the OK Go version of the "Muppet Show"'s theme song is now the one I play in my internal jukebox.

Tori Amos
----Night of Hunters (Spotify) (Amazon)

Both the regular and instrumental versions.

Dan Mangan
---->Oh Fortune* (Spotify) (Amazon)

I'm a big fan of an EP of his, but I haven't really listened to this album yet.

Dia Frampton
---->Red* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Meg & Dia
---->Cocoon* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Apparently Dia did well on one of those tv singing-contest shows. I can't decide if I like either her album or the one with her sister yet. They're nice, but kind of poppy and packaged. Time will tell.

Beirut
---->The Rip Tide* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Considering how long I've been listening to this ablum, I'm not sure what to make of the fact that I'm still *ing it.

Amy LaVere
---->Stranger Me (Spotify) (Amazon)

My choice for best album of 2011. Terrific stuff.

Arcade Fire
---->The Suburbs (Spotify) (Amazon)

Took me a while to warm up to it, but really, it is as good as critics say.

tUnE-yArDs
---->W H O K I L L (Spotify) (Amazon)

Weirdest good album of the year.

The Civil Wars
---->Barton Hollow (Spotify) (Amazon)

Haven't actually listened to this yet---I only thought to add it to the list today---but I have heard several tracks which were good if over mellow. I'm excited to give it some turns, though.

Pistol Annies
---->Hell on Heels* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Just added (I'm giving it a first listen now, as I type). Not sure what I think yet. (This is not the only album on this list thanks to NPR.)

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Something you may notice is that this list is, really, rather short. So yes: I am open to your suggestions. Please dish.