Best of the YearHere are the five best books I read last year, alphabetical by author's last name, with first lines. I have completely cheated on this this year and included two series to count as one book each. I've only put the first line of the first book for the series. (This is actually a double cheat since the first book in one of those series was one of my best books of 2009, and a triple cheat since both series include books I've read before.)
- The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore.
For months, I relived the pas de deux in my dreams, in that multisensory Technicolor of a memory I'd much rather forget.
- The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.
- Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.
When I was little, my dad used to tell me, "Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."
- Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.
A long time ago, in the spring before the five days of the unspeakable, Finnikin of the Rock dreamed that he was to sacrifice a pound of flesh to save the royal house of Lumatere.
- The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner.
I didn't know how long I had been in the king's prison.
All of the YearA decade ago, I decided that I would keep a list of all the books I read. It would be, I thought, interesting to see how much, and what, I actually read. So when I read a book, I wrote it down in my notebook. I liked the whole project so much that I've been doing it again each year.
What's here:
- Books I read in 2011.
- Authors of the books.
- Dates I read the books.
- Short notes about each book, including links to my reviews if I did one. Note: reviews all contain spoilers.
- Approximately how many times I've read the book.
What's not here:
- Magazine and newspaper articles.
- Web-published fiction I read.
- Short stories and individual chapters I read to remind myself of what the book was about.
This year, I read 46 books. For those of you playing along at home, that's 15 more than last year. 38 of those, or 83%, are books I read for the first time. 27, or 80%, were Young Adult or children's books. 3 were written by a PoC author; 44 were written by a female author or coauthor. Of the 44 books for which I counted protagonists, 5 or 8 (depending on how you count Katniss Everdeen) had a PoC protagonist; 37 had a female protagonist.
( The List )