I didn’t manage to hit my goal number. So close! I read a very respectable 72.
Top Five:
The Dovekeeper. Alice Hoffman. Just amazing historical fiction that brought to life a little known incident in history. Fantastic detail and imagery.
Pale Demon. Kim Harrison. Could be the best in the Rachel Morgan series yet. A road trip with an elf, a pixie and a witch? Sign me up!
Among the Wonderful. Stacy Carson. Life inside PT Barnum’s world of curiosities from the viewpoint of the Giantess.
Maphead. Ken Jennings. A fun look at geography and all things related from the Jeopardy Champion.
The How to Ruin… trilogy by Simone Elkenes. A very realistic look at a long distance relationship, a teens growing relationship with her once estranged father and her exploration of her religion. Some very silly unrealistic stuff too but on the whole a well done trilogy.
The Bottom Three:
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Helen Simonson. This was a book group read that I had trouble getting into. There was nothing specifically wrong with it, it didn’t work for me.
One Day. David Nicholls. This was another book group read but this one was chosen because the Library was gifted a dozen or so copies before the movie came out. I have not watched the movie but I hope it was better than this. I HATED the characters and didn’t care about them at all. The guy in the story drank like an alcoholic and was rude and condescending to anyone he thought was below him and the girl was whiny and self absorbed.
Retribution (Dark Hunters). Sherrilyn Kenyon. Normally I adore Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books but this one didn’t make the cut. The romance between the two leads was rushed and involved only one love scene that took place in a car. What is it with cars lately? Remember Smokin’ Seventeen with Stephanie and Ranger in the Porsche? This installment of the series didn’t involve too many of the recurring characters but introduced a whole new set of deities and demons. Luckily the one that followed, The Guardian (part of the Dream-Hunters) was far better.
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Now to break it all down:
Non fiction – 7, high for me as I tend to read mostly fiction. Three of those were cookbooks, two were celebrity memoirs, one was a memoir and the last was a fun look at Geography.
Fiction – 65 total
Format
- graphic novels – 3
- Audio book – 9
- ebook – 5
Level
- Teen books – 10
- Children’s – 1
Genre (these numbers won’t add up to 72 since some books are classified in more than one genre and others aren’t genre fiction)
- Fantasy/Paranormal – 26
- Magical Realism – 4
- Romance -10
- Historical Fiction – 6
Number of pages (according to GoodReads.com) – 23767
So there you have it, 2011 all broken down and rounded up. What did you read in 2011? The best book? The worst book?
I had the same feeling about Major Pettigrew, it just wasn’t doing it for me at all. I think the best book I read this year was probably The Help.
Glad it wasn’t just me. The Help was a wonderful book. Have you seen the movie? I haven’t yet.