2011 Book Log

Here is a list of all of the books (give or take one or two from when I wasn't keeping good track) that I read in 2011. There is a total of 44 books. October and December were heavy reading months. I have no idea why. Actually I think September through December were all heavy reading months, and just October and December reflect that because I actually finished more books in those months. On to 2012!

January

Liar - Justine Larbalestier (YA)
Not sure how I feel about this book. It said right on the cover that I was about to be manipulated. So why did I feel so put out by it? I spent a lot of time thinking about it afterward, but there was too much wondering whether I had just wasted my time reading it for my taste. I am ambivalent.

Tennyson - Lesley M. M. Blume (MG)
Set in the 30's, but looks back to earlier times within the book through dreams. I liked the writing, but felt that only the surface of the story was scratched. I was not pleased with the outcome.

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

Bella at Midnight - Diane Stanley (MG)
A re-telling of Cinderella

February, March, April (???-didn't keep track very well during these months)

Chaos Walking-Bk 1
The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness (YA)
The main characters couldn't seem to catch a break. One damn thing after another. Definitely a page-turner. Future society on another planet, telepathy.

Chaos Walking-Bk 2
The Ask and the Answer - Patrick Ness (YA)

Forever... - Judy Blume (YA)
first love, first sexual exploration, dated (fondue party!)

Perfect You - Elizabeth Scott (YA)
romance, main character's inability to accept that male interest actually likes her and isn't just playing her is unbelievable, stretched too far

Savvy - Ingrid Law (MG)

May

Lips Touch Three Times - Laini Taylor (YA)
Sooooooo good, three short stories or novellas, the language is so sensually perfect, the stories are compelling, this is the sort of thing that makes me want to weep because I don't know if I could ever write anything that good

Chaos Walking-Bk 3
Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness (YA)
Pretty good stuff. Toward the end it started to feel like some things were strained, credibility-wise, where characterization was concerned, but I was satisfied with how it was tied up in the end.

White Cat - Holly Black (YA)
It's about a month after I finished this and I just realized I didn't like this book enough to read the sequel that I have had out from the library for at least two weeks. Maybe I'll change my mind.

June 

Going Bovine - Libba Bray (YA)
I really liked this book. It was full of humor and weirdness and Don Quixote references.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling (MG)
We watched part 1 of Deathly Hallows on DVD and it inspired me to start the whole series over again from the beginning. Yay!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling (MG)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling (MG)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling (MG)

July

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling (MG/YA)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling (MG/YA)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling (MG/YA)

Imaginary Girls - Nova Ren Suma
Strange and wonderful. Beautiful language.

August

Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby
quick, easy read. amusing.

I Heart You, You Haunt Me -Lisa Schroeder (YA)
A ghostly romance in verse. I didn't know it was in verse when I requested it, or I probably wouldn't have gotten it because I'm not a big fan of verse novels. That said, I liked it okay. For verse.

May Bird and the Ever After -  Jodi Lynn Anderson (MG)
I liked this, but I wanted to like it more and somehow didn't. I will read the subsequent books. I liked the idea of the Ever After and I've had a fondness for ghosts for a while now, so that was good. Reminded me a bit of Beetlejuice, but that may have been because it was recently on TV and we caught the end of it. I'm not sure what it was about it but it just didn't connect with me as well as I would have liked.

September

Welcome to Bordertown - Edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner (YA-short stories)
Short stories by different authors set in a shared world, a city on the border of Faerie and the real world. I really enjoyed most of these stories. A great mix of ethereal and gritty.

The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card
This is the first full Orson Scott Card book I've read, if you don't count Characters and Viewpoint, his Elements of Fiction Writing book. I liked this book, but there was something about it that didn't quite sit right and ironically enough I think it was the characterization. Also I had trouble following some of the explanations of magic part. Like I could tell he was able to picture exactly what he was talking about, but I was having a harder time. It wasn't a huge hindrance. I still liked the magic, the story, and the characters. One thing that really did bother me though was that there was absolutely no indication whatsoever on the cover of the book that it was to be the first of a trilogy or series, which may have kept me from reading it until I could read all the books together. Which was probably the point.

Magic Under Glass - Jaclyn Dolamore (YA)
Fantasy setting, with a 19th century feel. A girl falls in love with an automaton (or is he????). It was just good enough that I will probably get the second book.

Fallen - Lauren Kate (YA)
I don't know if I should include this in my list! I didn't finish it. But I very nearly did. It's not unusual for me to abandon a book when I realize it's just not working for me, but to do so at the very end, after the climax, is very unusual. I'm not sure what kept me reading it for so long. It was so slow and nothing was happening, but at the same time, it seemed like a lot of information was being withheld and so I guess I was sticking around to find out some answers. Which, it turns out, I could have either just figured out on my own or they were unsatisfying and stupid. The book was very reminiscent of Twilight in it's weak female/mind-bogglingly attractive male/when is this story going to actually do something way.

October

Enna Burning - Shannon Hale (YA)
A companion book to The Goose Girl, which I read last year (or maybe the year before). A few years ago I read Princess Academy to the girls and I also read Book of a Thousand Days sometime in the last couple of years. So now, having read four of Shannon Hale's books, I have come to a conclusion. I really like Shannon Hale. I love her fairy tale fantasy style. There are two more companion books to The Goose Girl and I think I'll put them on hold at the library.

Green Angel - Alice Hoffman (YA)
Magical Realism, Dystopian, I liked it.

Green Witch - Alice Hoffman (YA)
Sequel to above, liked it too.

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson (YA)
A teenage girl goes to Europe with only a backpack at the urging of her dead aunt. This was really good.

Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta (YA)
One of only 30 girls in an all-boy school, mom going through a depression. The only other book I read from this author was Jellicoe Road, which I remember as being good but confusing. This book was not confusing and I liked it a lot.

Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin (YA)
the afterlife for a 15 year old who died when hit by a car. I wanted to like it, but I had some trouble with liking the main character and there were some details which didn't sit right with me. Still, I liked the concept (in Elsewhere you age backwards until you become a baby again and get sent back to Earth) and enjoyed it enough to finish it.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan (YA)
I loved this book so much that I stayed up too late to finish it and I cried real tears at the end, which doesn't ever happen. Two boys both named Will Grayson grapple with life and love.

Everlost - Neal Shusterman (YA)
Another book about being dead. I liked this one much more than the other one. However I just found out it's the first in a trilogy. Argh! Someone please save me from trilogies! Two teenagers die in a car accident and navigate their way through Everlost, which is filled with children who got lost on their way to where they were going. (No adults.) This one had more of a fantastic feel to it than Elsewhere. It was more fun.

November

The Game - Diana Wynne Jones (YA)
A girl figuring out who she is in a world filled with real-life myths and fairy tales. Pretty good. I like DWJ.

River Secrets - Shannon Hale (YA)
Another Book of Bayern, this one about Razo, just as good as the previous ones. Razo adds a touch more humor as the main character.

December

Scumble - Ingrid Law (MG)
Companion book to Savvy, takes place a few years later, same family, different branch.

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
Love.

11-22-63 - Stephen King
Time travel a la Stephen King. If I had been trying to predict the ending, I could have, but I wasn't, so that was all right. And maybe it would have been all right even if I had been trying to predict it. I like my SK.

The Last Little Blue Envelope - Maureen Johnson (YA)
The further adventures of Ginny and her dead aunt. Thumbs up.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor (YA)
So, I had already established that I very much like the way Laini Taylor writes when I read Lips Touch Three Times. This book, despite being the first in a series which hasn't been written yet, despite having a male lead who is mind-bogglingly beautiful (perhaps forgivable due to his angelic status and also because it isn't as hounded upon as in certain other books), and despite the romance of the story being of the immediate, ethereal, TRUE LOVE variety, was pretty good. Not my favorite ever, but I'll read the next one. If I remember.

Forest Born - Shannon Hale (YA)
The last (as far as I know) of the Books of Bayern, this one centered on Razo's sister Rin. Youngest of all boys, often feels like her mother's shadow, self-discovery. Started a little slow, but caught up to itself. Thumbs up.