Welcome, 2012!
Happy (belated) New Year, everyone! I hope you all had fun (and safe) celebrations this weekend. As you might imagine, I'm chomping at the bit to start all my 2012 challenges, but right now it's time to look back at 2011.
For starters, I read 152 books this year -- or, to be more precise, 151 books plus two halves. Of these, 141 were new-to-me books and 10.5 were re-reads; the other 0.5 was a book I didn't finish.
January
((0.5 Jane Austen - Persuasion))
01 N. K. Jemisin - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
02 Helen Simonson - Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
03 Georgette Heyer - Footsteps in the Dark
04 Roberta Gellis - Roselynde
05 Luis Fernando Verissimo - Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
06 Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Pledge
07 Anna Gavalda - I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere
08 M. K. Hobson - The Native Star
09 Don Carpenter - Hard Rain Falling
10 Jack Henry Abbott - In the Belly of the Beast
11 Rachel Cohn and David Levithan - Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares
12 Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop
13 Nora Roberts - Happy Ever After
February
14 Lauren Willig - The Orchid Affair
15 M. M. Kaye - Death in Berlin
16 Jennifer A. Marshall - Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century
17 Monica Dickens - Mariana
18 Ilona Andrews - On the Edge
19 Nadine Gordimer - “Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black” and Other Stories
20 Janet Malcolm - The Crime of Sheila McGough
21 Robin Adair - Death and the Running Patterer
22 Gail Carriger - Changeless
March
23 Gail Carriger - Blameless
24 Seanan McGuire - Late Eclipses
25 Julie James - A Lot Like Love
26 Jocelyn Playfair - A House in the Country
27 Ariel Dorfman - Death and the Maiden
28 Frederick Buechner - Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
29 Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Judge and His Hangman
30 Sarah Addison Allen - The Peach Keeper
31 Faith Hunter - Skinwalker
32 Erin Hart - False Mermaid
33 Laura Kinsale - Lessons in French
34 Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
35 Mary Robinette Kowal - Shades of Milk and Honey
36 William Golding - Lord of the Flies
37 Simone Elkeles - Perfect Chemistry
38 Pramoedya Ananta Toer - The Mute’s Soliloquy
39 L. Jagi Lamplighter - Prospero Lost
40 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Thief
((41 Eva Ibbotson - The Morning Gift))
42 Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Laughing Policeman
43 Rebecca Dean - Palace Circle
44 Sharon Shinn, Rebecca York, Carol Berg, and Jean Johnson - Elemental Magic
April
45 Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Making of a Marchioness
46 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses / Dangerous Liaisons
((47 Emma Henry - The Nine-hour Date))
48 Haruki Murakami - Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
49 Sophie Kinsella - Twenties Girl
((50 Georgette Heyer - Faro’s Daughter))
((51 Agatha Christie - Sparkling Cyanide))
((52 Julie James - Just the Sexiest Man Alive))
53 Stephanie Perkins - Anna and the French Kiss
54 M. M. Kaye - Death in Cyprus
55 Alexandra Bracken - Brightly Woven
56 Jennifer Echols - The Boys Next Door
57 Jennifer Echols - Endless Summer
58 Anna Godbersen - Envy
59 Kristina Springer - The Espressologist
60 Ilona Andrews - Bayou Moon
((61 Agatha Christie - Death in the Clouds))
62 Aidan Nichols, O.P. - Christendom Awake: On Reenergizing the Church in Culture
63 Muriel Spark - Not to Disturb
May
64 Henry James - The American
65 Mary Gentle - A Sundial in a Grave: 1610
66 Margaret Leroy - The Soldier’s Wife
67 Emma Bull - War for the Oaks
68 Kate Elliott - Cold Magic
69 D. E. Stevenson - Miss Buncle’s Book
June
70 Frank Sheed - Theology and Sanity
71 Agatha Christie - “Double Sin” and Other Stories
72 Katherine Webb - The Legacy
73 Ellis Peters - The Pilgrim of Hate
74 Noel Streatfeild - Saplings
75 Susanne Alleyn - Game of Patience
76 Kate Chopin - The Awakening
77 Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
78 Marina Fiorato - The Daughter of Siena
79 Sharon Shinn - Mystic and Rider
80 D. E. Stevenson - Miss Buncle Married
81 Juliet Marillier - The Dark Mirror
82 Jennifer Crusie - Bet Me
July
83 Mary Balogh - A Matter of Class
84 Mary Stewart - The Moon-Spinners
85 Susane Colasanti - When It Happens
86 Kerry Reichs - The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life
87 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Rebellion
88 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Eater
89 Tessa Dare - Goddess of the Hunt
90 Scott Westerfeld - Leviathan
91 Stephanie Perkins - Lola and the Boy Next Door
92 Jennifer Echols - Love Story
93 John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
94 Virginia Graham - Consider the Years: 1938-1946
95 Sharon Shinn - The Thirteenth House
96 Martin Buber - I and Thou
August
97 Morgan Matson - Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour
98 Loretta Chase - Mr. Impossible
99 Tracy Winn - Mrs. Somebody Somebody
100 Lauren Barnholdt - Two-way Street
100.5 Stephen Hunt - The Court of the Air - DID NOT FINISH
101 Scott Westerfeld - Behemoth
102 Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
103 Ava Gray - Skin Game
104 William Faulkner - Light in August
105 A. M. Dellamonica - Indigo Springs
106 Jasper Fforde - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
107 C. S. Lewis - Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
September
108 Tracy Grant - Beneath a Silent Moon
109 Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
110 Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson - Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
111 Kody Keplinger - The D.U.F.F. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)
112 Mollie Panter-Downes - Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes
113 Ursula K. Le Guin - Lavinia
114 Seanan McGuire - One Salt Sea
115 Scott Westerfeld - Goliath
116 Charles Finch - A Stranger in Mayfair
October
117 Carol Berg - Breath and Bone
118 Selected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Thorndike Large Print Edition
119 Kady Cross - The Girl in the Steel Corset
120 Nikki Poppen - The Madcap
121 Bram Stoker - Dracula
122 Wendy Webb - The Tale of Halcyon Crane
123 C. FitzSimons Allison - The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy
124 Dorothy Whipple - The Priory
125 Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki !, eds. - Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories
About People Who Know How They Will Die
November
126 Gail Carriger - Heartless
127 Frances Towers - Tea with Mr. Rochester
128 D. H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley’s Lover
129 Connie Willis - Impossible Things
130 Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
131 Jacques Philippe - Time for God
132 Megan Whalen Turner - A Conspiracy of Kings
133 Alice von Hildebrand - The Privilege of Being a Woman
134 M. K. Hobson - The Hidden Goddess
135 Denis Mackail - Greenery Street
136 Robert P. George - The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis
137 Patricia C. Wrede - Thirteenth Child
138 Kate Ross - A Broken Vessel
December
139 Mary Stewart - Wildfire at Midnight
140 Kevin Hearne - Hounded
141 Shannon Hale - Forest Born
142 Charles Finch - A Burial at Sea
143 Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes from Underground
144 Thomas Godfrey, ed. - Murder for Christmas
145 Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!)
146 Anna Dean - A Gentleman of Fortune
((147 Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Styles))
((148 Caprice Crane - Stupid and Contagious))
((149 Georgette Heyer - Cotillion))
((150 Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer - Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot))
151 John Barth - The Floating Opera
These were my favorite books of 2011:
For starters, I read 152 books this year -- or, to be more precise, 151 books plus two halves. Of these, 141 were new-to-me books and 10.5 were re-reads; the other 0.5 was a book I didn't finish.
January
((0.5 Jane Austen - Persuasion))
01 N. K. Jemisin - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
02 Helen Simonson - Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
03 Georgette Heyer - Footsteps in the Dark
04 Roberta Gellis - Roselynde
05 Luis Fernando Verissimo - Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
06 Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Pledge
07 Anna Gavalda - I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere
08 M. K. Hobson - The Native Star
09 Don Carpenter - Hard Rain Falling
10 Jack Henry Abbott - In the Belly of the Beast
11 Rachel Cohn and David Levithan - Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares
12 Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop
13 Nora Roberts - Happy Ever After
February
14 Lauren Willig - The Orchid Affair
15 M. M. Kaye - Death in Berlin
16 Jennifer A. Marshall - Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century
17 Monica Dickens - Mariana
18 Ilona Andrews - On the Edge
19 Nadine Gordimer - “Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black” and Other Stories
20 Janet Malcolm - The Crime of Sheila McGough
21 Robin Adair - Death and the Running Patterer
22 Gail Carriger - Changeless
March
23 Gail Carriger - Blameless
24 Seanan McGuire - Late Eclipses
25 Julie James - A Lot Like Love
26 Jocelyn Playfair - A House in the Country
27 Ariel Dorfman - Death and the Maiden
28 Frederick Buechner - Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
29 Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Judge and His Hangman
30 Sarah Addison Allen - The Peach Keeper
31 Faith Hunter - Skinwalker
32 Erin Hart - False Mermaid
33 Laura Kinsale - Lessons in French
34 Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
35 Mary Robinette Kowal - Shades of Milk and Honey
36 William Golding - Lord of the Flies
37 Simone Elkeles - Perfect Chemistry
38 Pramoedya Ananta Toer - The Mute’s Soliloquy
39 L. Jagi Lamplighter - Prospero Lost
40 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Thief
((41 Eva Ibbotson - The Morning Gift))
42 Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Laughing Policeman
43 Rebecca Dean - Palace Circle
44 Sharon Shinn, Rebecca York, Carol Berg, and Jean Johnson - Elemental Magic
April
45 Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Making of a Marchioness
46 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses / Dangerous Liaisons
((47 Emma Henry - The Nine-hour Date))
48 Haruki Murakami - Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
49 Sophie Kinsella - Twenties Girl
((50 Georgette Heyer - Faro’s Daughter))
((51 Agatha Christie - Sparkling Cyanide))
((52 Julie James - Just the Sexiest Man Alive))
53 Stephanie Perkins - Anna and the French Kiss
54 M. M. Kaye - Death in Cyprus
55 Alexandra Bracken - Brightly Woven
56 Jennifer Echols - The Boys Next Door
57 Jennifer Echols - Endless Summer
58 Anna Godbersen - Envy
59 Kristina Springer - The Espressologist
60 Ilona Andrews - Bayou Moon
((61 Agatha Christie - Death in the Clouds))
62 Aidan Nichols, O.P. - Christendom Awake: On Reenergizing the Church in Culture
63 Muriel Spark - Not to Disturb
May
64 Henry James - The American
65 Mary Gentle - A Sundial in a Grave: 1610
66 Margaret Leroy - The Soldier’s Wife
67 Emma Bull - War for the Oaks
68 Kate Elliott - Cold Magic
69 D. E. Stevenson - Miss Buncle’s Book
June
70 Frank Sheed - Theology and Sanity
71 Agatha Christie - “Double Sin” and Other Stories
72 Katherine Webb - The Legacy
73 Ellis Peters - The Pilgrim of Hate
74 Noel Streatfeild - Saplings
75 Susanne Alleyn - Game of Patience
76 Kate Chopin - The Awakening
77 Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
78 Marina Fiorato - The Daughter of Siena
79 Sharon Shinn - Mystic and Rider
80 D. E. Stevenson - Miss Buncle Married
81 Juliet Marillier - The Dark Mirror
82 Jennifer Crusie - Bet Me
July
83 Mary Balogh - A Matter of Class
84 Mary Stewart - The Moon-Spinners
85 Susane Colasanti - When It Happens
86 Kerry Reichs - The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life
87 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Rebellion
88 Rachel Aaron - The Spirit Eater
89 Tessa Dare - Goddess of the Hunt
90 Scott Westerfeld - Leviathan
91 Stephanie Perkins - Lola and the Boy Next Door
92 Jennifer Echols - Love Story
93 John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
94 Virginia Graham - Consider the Years: 1938-1946
95 Sharon Shinn - The Thirteenth House
96 Martin Buber - I and Thou
August
97 Morgan Matson - Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour
98 Loretta Chase - Mr. Impossible
99 Tracy Winn - Mrs. Somebody Somebody
100 Lauren Barnholdt - Two-way Street
100.5 Stephen Hunt - The Court of the Air - DID NOT FINISH
101 Scott Westerfeld - Behemoth
102 Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
103 Ava Gray - Skin Game
104 William Faulkner - Light in August
105 A. M. Dellamonica - Indigo Springs
106 Jasper Fforde - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
107 C. S. Lewis - Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
September
108 Tracy Grant - Beneath a Silent Moon
109 Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
110 Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson - Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
111 Kody Keplinger - The D.U.F.F. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)
112 Mollie Panter-Downes - Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes
113 Ursula K. Le Guin - Lavinia
114 Seanan McGuire - One Salt Sea
115 Scott Westerfeld - Goliath
116 Charles Finch - A Stranger in Mayfair
October
117 Carol Berg - Breath and Bone
118 Selected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Thorndike Large Print Edition
119 Kady Cross - The Girl in the Steel Corset
120 Nikki Poppen - The Madcap
121 Bram Stoker - Dracula
122 Wendy Webb - The Tale of Halcyon Crane
123 C. FitzSimons Allison - The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy
124 Dorothy Whipple - The Priory
125 Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki !, eds. - Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories
About People Who Know How They Will Die
November
126 Gail Carriger - Heartless
127 Frances Towers - Tea with Mr. Rochester
128 D. H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley’s Lover
129 Connie Willis - Impossible Things
130 Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
131 Jacques Philippe - Time for God
132 Megan Whalen Turner - A Conspiracy of Kings
133 Alice von Hildebrand - The Privilege of Being a Woman
134 M. K. Hobson - The Hidden Goddess
135 Denis Mackail - Greenery Street
136 Robert P. George - The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis
137 Patricia C. Wrede - Thirteenth Child
138 Kate Ross - A Broken Vessel
December
139 Mary Stewart - Wildfire at Midnight
140 Kevin Hearne - Hounded
141 Shannon Hale - Forest Born
142 Charles Finch - A Burial at Sea
143 Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes from Underground
144 Thomas Godfrey, ed. - Murder for Christmas
145 Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!)
146 Anna Dean - A Gentleman of Fortune
((147 Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Styles))
((148 Caprice Crane - Stupid and Contagious))
((149 Georgette Heyer - Cotillion))
((150 Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer - Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot))
151 John Barth - The Floating Opera
These were my favorite books of 2011:
- Historical romance with the most compelling setting: Roselynde by Roberta Gellis. If you want a well-written medieval romance with some substance, look no further!
- Most edge-of-your-seat series installment: Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire. Oh, how the stakes were raised for Toby in this book! I couldn't put it down! If you haven't started the Toby Daye series yet, what are you waiting for?
- Pleasantest surprise from a beloved children's author: The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I didn't know she'd written books for adults, but this one was lovely!
- New-to-me fantasy series that knocked my socks off: The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron, which so far contains The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater. Each of these books was fantastic, and I can't wait for the next installment to come out this summer! If you like your epic fantasy with plenty of magic, roguish heroes, and lighthearted ass-kicking, you must check out these books!
- Most charming book set in an English country village: Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson. I also loved the sequel, Miss Buncle Married; these books are perfect for anyone who enjoys a good comedy of manners!
- Most helpful guide to prayer: It's a tie between C. S. Lewis' Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer and Jacques Philippe's Time for God. Both are must-reads for Christians hoping to improve their prayer life.
- Most swoon-worthy teen romance: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Yes, it's YA romance, which is not a genre one expects much from these days. But thsi book was passionate and romantic without being sickly-sweet, and it made me want to fall in love! Perkins' follow-up novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door, was also extremely good.
- Most unique fantasy setting: The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier. This book not only provides an interesting plot and a tender romance, but it also gives a fascinating glimpse into Druid culture. I'm beginning to think Marillier can do no wrong!
- Most epic faux-Victorian novel: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Yes, it's ridiculously long, and the plot moves ridiculously slowly; but this book is a remarkable achievement. If you're not put off by a Dickensian style, give this a try!
- Book whose plot I hope to imitate in my own life: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson. Cute guy driving me across America to the accompaniment of an impossibly cool soundtrack? Yes please!
- Best Regency-era mystery: A Broken Vessel by Kate Ross. This isn't quite as good as Cut to the Quick, Ross' first Julian Kestrel mystery, but this sequel is still pretty freakin' awesome! Only two books left, which is sad...I'm trying to savor them.
- Most disappointing mystery: Death and the Running Patterer by Robin Adair. The setting of colonial Australia had a lot of potential, but it couldn't make up for the bad writing and pointless infodumps.
- Blah-est family saga: The Legacy by Katherine Webb. Almost 500 pages of boredom.
- Dullest chick-lit read: The Best Day of Someone Else's Life by Kerry Reichs. Chick lit shouldn't be dull, but this book just dragged on and on.
- Most all-over-the-place steampunk slog: The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt. I got halfway through it and then had to give up, resulting in my only DNF of the year (hence no review).
- Classic that I most wanted to set on fire: Light in August by William Faulkner. I've tried and tried, and I just don't like Faulkner. His writing style bugs me, and at the end of this book, I was left thinking, "What was the point?"
- Most superficial historical romance: The Madcap by Nikki Poppen. Not only were the plot and characters totally unoriginal, but it's like Poppen didn't even try to make the book fun or interesting. Entirely two-dimensional.
- Worst book EVER: The Crime of Sheila McGough by Janet Malcolm. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.