Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

Search options

Teen Blog

Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Tag: Best of 2010

Best Of 2010 : Music

At the end of every year, every single website is contractually obligated by the internet to publish a list of their top ten albums released that year. Not wanting to void our contract and, let’s be honest, because it’s fun too, here’s ours.

The rules are that it must have been both released and catalogued into the YA collection in 2010.

10. BARB – BARB
Local goodness from Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin and pals. Felt like this one flew under the radar a little bit, undeservedly so.

9. Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
The best of the lo-fi indie girl band bunch in a year that said bunch was of a ubiquitously high quality.

8. Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son Of Chico Dusty
On this album Big Boi proved that he is far from just “that other dude from Outkast”

7. Connan Mockasin – Please Turn Me Into The Snat
My favourite NZ release of the year. It’s a psychedelic pop gem.

6. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Apparently this is the last album from Damon Albarn’s cartoon band. If so, it was a great one to go out on.

5. The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights
No new material, just some great live performances of old favourites, rarities and a brilliant behind the scenes DVD

4. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles II
The noisiest and most “punk rock” electro band returned with their second and it stayed on my ipod all year long.

3. Pavement – Quanrantine The Past
Do greatest hits albums qualify for lists like this? Seeing as it’s my list, I’d say yes. More so because this is some of the best indie rock ever made. Ever.

2. The Black Keys – Brothers
This album not only features the best use og guitar and drums this year, but also the cover features the best use of Cooper Black.

1. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Pretty much the perfect electro album. Which is more than enough to qualify for album of the year.

So there you go. Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments section. Perhaps write your own, discussion generating list?

Best of 2010: Andrée’s and Lucy’s Pick

Manstealing for Fat Girls, Michelle Embree

A great book for older teens, characters are not your usual beautiful mall rats but interesting people with quirks, family issues and are just trying to get their rubbish together.

~ Andrée

(Set in St Louis (in the US) in the 1980s; the goodreads.com description says this is an “off-kilter” novel, which we like.)

This is also favourably reviewed by Lucy Longstockings!

Based in the 1980’s and published in 2006, Manstealing for Fat Girls came to our library this year and the odd title and pretty cover intrigued me. Warning though: this book is RAW. This messed up account of Angie aka ‘Lezzylard’ is not your typical tale of high school romance with football jackets and promise rings. Angie’s crowd are the outcasts, the dealers, the kids who wag school and get wasted on whatever. I highly recommend this, and, although the setting might be different and the music and the slang are way 80’s, the angst of being a teenager, frustrated and bored, is timeless.

~ Lucy

Best of 2010: Monty’s and Raewyn’s Picks

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel

Slightly epic fantasy ghost comic with nicely gruesome humour and characters you like – to be released as a film soon…

~ Monty

Geektastic : stories from the Nerd Herd

What happens when a Klingon wakes up in the morning next to a Jedi!? I mean they are the enemy – Star Trek versus Star Wars! “Once you’re a Jedi, you’re a Jedi all the way” is the first short story scenario in this anthology of funny stories of geeks.

~ Raewyn

Best of 2010: Grimm’s Pick

The Piper’s Son, Melina Marchetta

<3

I recommended this book to (I think) absolutely everyone I know. Sorry to the people I nagged (except my sister, who I shall continue nagging until she reads it), but it is a wonderful book and I now recommend it virtually, again.

It’s about Tom (who you might know about if you’ve read Saving Francesca), and his aunt Georgie, and how important family can be, and how devastating it is when your incredibly tight-knit family cracks under pressure, and how not forgiving people can tie you up in knots, as well as the person you’re steadfastly not forgiving. It’s also got some very funny moments (in case that all sounds a bit hard).

Read it!

~ Grimm

Best of 2010: Pippa’s Picks

Two trilogy-completing dystopian epics from Pippa – an interesting combo.

I can’t decide between Mockingjay (last in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins) and Monsters of Men (last in the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness). Both are very exciting, action packed books (and very violent, so maybe not suitable for under teenage years) that deal with issues of power and corruption in very different societies from our own (futuristic settings, but not sci fi really). Both have strong female and male teen characters who have to make terrifying decisions in order to survive. Fantastic!

~ Pippa

Which Book Was Best in 2010?

Best of 2010Was 2010 a good book year?

Tell us which book (or books) you thought was (or were) the best this year – if you’re lucky enough you could even win a spot prize*. Fill in the form below, or (coming soon) do it the old-fashioned way at a library branch near you.

The close-off date for sharing your opinions is Friday 17 December, so go to it.

Can’t remember what you’ve read? Have a look at some of the new books posts to jog your memory – perhaps your favourite is in there somewhere. Or, or, it could be in one of the Most Wanted lists here.

* Ahem: spot prize can obviously only be won by people who let us know their name and card number.