Smugglivus 2011 Guest Author: Jackie Kessler

Welcome to Smugglivus 2011! Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2011, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2012.

Who: Jackie Kessler, writer of Urban Fantasy, Comics (heck, how cool is this: she is officially part of the Buffyverse canon) and Young Adult books. We have reviewed many of her books and have invited her to guest blog for us several times (check out this guest post in which she says she became a writer because of the awesome Neil Gaiman).

Recent Work: This year she has published several adventures in the Whedonverse as well as Rage, her second entry in the YA series Riders of the Apocalypse.

Please give it up for Jackie and her best of 2011 lists!

Books:

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher. As the button says, Harry Dresden is my hero. Even when he’s dead.

The entire Tiffany Aching series of YA Discworld novels from Sir Terry Pratchett. Yeah, I know, these came out before 2011. I finally read them. Back-to-back. Simply wonderful. I want to be a witch!

Everybody Sees The Ants by A.S. King. One of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read. If you haven’t read it, do so. Now. (Go on. I’ll wait.)

Honorable mention: A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. While I didn’t think this was the best book in A Song Of Ice And Fire so far (A Storm of Swords, in its 1,000+ page glory, takes the cake — and if you’ve read it, you know why), any book that I’ve waited for six years to read damn well makes the list!

Movies:

Between the kids and the cost of movies, the only thing I got to see in the theaters was The Smurfs. (I still want those two hours of my life back!) These days, I wait for movies to come to Netflix.

Television:

Hands down, HBO’s brilliant Game of Thrones. Words don’t do it justice. From the opening credits (I sort of can play the music on the piano. Badly.) to the acting (PETER DINKLAGE!!!) to the writing to the costumes (and hello, Jason Momoa, lack of costumes!), this series proves that even the biggest, fattest epic fantasy can be translated wonderfully to the small screen.

OMG close second: Doctor Who season six, specifically:

“The Doctor’s Wife” – Shut UP, it’s not just because this episode was written by Neil Gaiman. Okay, yeah, that’s a big part of it. But seriously, who else could have given the TARDIS a voice? (And a body?)

“Let’s Kill Hitler” – I have a serious girl crush on River Song. And the chemistry between Alex Kingston and Matt Smith is just terrific.

“The Wedding of River Song” – To quote Christopher Eccleston’s Nine: FANTASTIC! Because really now, it all comes down to “the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight.”

Third: AMC’s The Walking Dead. I haven’t read the comic books (YET), but I’m going to have to get my butt in gear, because this is a phenomenal story of survivors of a zombie apocalypse. It’s like the creators said, “Let’s take Stephen King’s The Stand and switch Captain Tripps and Randall Flagg with zombies.” Because really, zombies make everything better. Sort of like bacon. And chocolate. Nom!

Fourth: American Horror Story. I never would have thought I could sympathize with the ghost of a homicidal maniac. What Ryan Murphy & Co is doing with the Tate and Violet relationship is simply heart-wrenching.

Musicals:

American Idiot, with Billie Joe Armstrong as St. Jimmy. YEAH!

Most looking forward to in 2012:

Books: Heather Brewer’s first book in her Legacy of Tril series. The next book A.S. King writes. (AUTOBUY!!!) The next Dresden Files book.

Movies: The Hunger Games (OMGOMGOMGMARCH!!!)

Television: All of the series above, plus 30 Rock. I love you, Tina Fey!

Thanks, Jackie!