a year of reading (in which our heroine discovers romance novels and steampunk…)

[errantmeme]

Reading was a big escape for me this year, and I was really surprised to find I enjoy contemporary romance novels, not to mention supernatural romance.  Jennifer Crusie was a huge find for me this year.  The subject matter that really drew me to these books or kept me reading is in brackets in the above list.  Taking note of what I liked about each book was a really fun way to see patterns in my reading - and will hopefully help me find more books to read in 2012, not to mention help other readers read their way from one author to another.

• Black Watch - Connie Willis (Time Travel, the London Blitz, World War II, History)
• All Clear - Connie Willis (Time Travel, the London Blitz, World War II, History)
• Not Less than Gods (a Company Novel) - Kage Baker (Travel, Orientalism, Victorian Europe, Time Travel, Cyborgs)
• To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (Time Travel, Victorian England, Comedy, Mystery Novels, Seances, History, Romance)
• Fingersmith - Sarah Waters (Victorian England, Con Artists, Crime
• Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters (Victorian England, Theatre, Romance)
• Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel (Mercantile Europe, History, Tudors, Economics, Statesmanhood, Domestic Drama)
• Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (Graveyards, Romance, Family Mystery, Supernatural, Seances, Ghosts)
• Mr Impossible - Loretta Chase (Romance, Egypt) (thanks Cassie!)
• Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris (Vampires, Werewolves, the South, Romance, Melodrama)
• Soulless - Gail Carriger (Victorian London, Vampies, Werewolves, Steampunk)
• Redemption - Pat Barker (WW1, Soldiers, War, Poetry, Psychology, History) (thanks Anna!)
• Changeless - Gail Carriger (Victorian London, Vampires, Werewolves, Steampunk)
• Agnes and the Hitman - Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (The South, Food, Romance, Crime, Weddings)
• Bellwether - Connie Willis (Trends, Chaos Theory, Research, Scientific Discovery, Romance)
• Blameless - Gail Carriger (Victorian London, Vampies, Werewolves, Steampunk)
• Heartless - Gail Carriger (Victorian London, Vampies, Werewolves, Steampunk)
• REAMDE - Neal Stephenson (The Internet, Technology, Gaming, Economics, Capitalism, Fantasy, Worldbuilding, Geography)
• Children of the Company - Kage Baker (Civilisation, World Building, Espionage, Conspiracy, Time Travel, Cyborgs, California, The Future)
• Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie (Food, Romance, Statistics) (thanks Cassie!)
• The Iron Duke - Meljean Brooke (Steampunk, Romance, Conspiracy)
• Busman’s Honeymoon - Dorothy Sayers (1930s, Aristocracy, Country Life, Mystery)
• Welcome to Temptation - Jennifer Cruisie (Small Town Politics, Romance)