2011 Books

[proko5]

Although I am enthralled by Maphead, it's probably overly ambitious to assume I will finish it this year, so I will tentatively call 2011 over for books (reserving the right to enthusiastically update this list should I finish Maphead by 1/1/12).

This year I finished, in order:

1. January: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
2. January: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
3. February: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
4. March: Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Peterson
5. April: Bossypants by Tina Fey
6. May: Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
7. June: One of Our Thursdays is Missing! by Jasper Fforde
8. July: Packing For Mars by Mary Roach
9. July: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
10. August: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
11. September: The Princess Bride by William Goldman
12. October: The Magicians by Lev Grossman
13. November: The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
14. December: Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire

I finished 14 books by 13 authors. I achieved my reading goal for the year (12), and came one short of matching my record of 15 in one year (set in 2004 and achieved again in 2005 and 2008).

I also began:

• Broadway Nights by Seth Rudetsky
• Maphead by Ken Jennings

It was a good year for books, so the ranking is difficult. I have ranked the books below in the order that I enjoyed them, from most to least (this ranking is not a commentary on how good or bad I thought the book was):

1. Cooking with Fernet Branca
2. Bossypants
3. Never Let Me Go
4. The Princess Bride
5. The Help
6. Packing For Mars
7. The Wordy Shipmates
8. Mirror Mirror
9. Shades of Grey
10. One of Our Thursdays is Missing!
11. A Visit From the Goon Squad
12. The Magicians
13. Water For Elephants
14. The Red Queen

By genre:
11 novels
- 5 fantasy (Mirror, Magicians, Princess, Thursdays, Grey)
- 1 science fiction (Never)
- 4 historical (Mirror, Help, Elephants, Queen)
- 4 humorous (Princess, Thursdays, Fernet, Grey)
- 1 vignettes/character study (Goon)
3 non-fiction
- 1 memoir (Bossypants)
- 1 science (Mars)
- 1 history (Wordy)
- all funny

A look at the authors:
8 new to me: Egan, Fey, Goldman, Grossman, Gruen, Ishiguro, Hamilton-Paterson, Stockett
5 I'd read before: Maguire (Wicked & Son of a Witch), Vowell (Assassination Vacation), Roach (all), Fforde (Thursday Next series), Gregory (Other Boleyn Girl & White Queen)

7 female
6 male

8 American
4 British: Fforde, Gregory (though born in Kenya), Hamilton-Paterson (though lives abroad), Ishiguro (though born in Japan)
1 Canadian: Gruen (with dual citizenship in the US)

By publication date:
1973: 1 (Princess)
2003: 1 (Mirror)
2005: 2 (Fernet, Never)
2006: 1 (Elephants)
2009: 4 (Magicians, Wordy, Help, Grey)
2010: 3 (Mars, Queen, Goon)
2011: 2 (Thursdays, Bossypants)

By setting (at the beginning of the book):
1453: Queen
1502: Mirror
1630: Wordy
Fantasy past: Princess
1900: Elephants
1962: Help
late 1900s: Goon, Never, Mars, Bossypants
Present: Magicians, Thursdays, Fernet
Fantasy present: Grey

England: Queen, Never, Grey, Thursdays, Wordy
New York: Magicians, Bossypants, Goon
Italy: Mirror, Fernet
Boston: Wordy
Chicago: Bossypants
Mississippi: Help
Northeastern US: Elephants
California, Eastern Europe, Africa, etc: Goon
Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Japan, China, Russia, Low Earth Orbit, etc: Mars
Florin: Princess
Fillory: Magicians
The BookWorld: Thursdays
Chromatacia: Grey

Reasons for reading:
I read four of them with the ARMANl book club: Goon, Elephants, Never, Help. I also read Elephants and Never with the Page & Popcorn.
Princess and Magicians were recommended to me by friends.
The rest were follow-ups on series or authors I already knew.

Where I got them from:
4 were borrowed from Lindsay, with or without her knowledge: Mirror, Wordy, Mars, Grey
3 were borrowed from Bethany: Help, Thursdays, Fernet
3 were borrowed from other people: Magicians (Courtney), Princess (Patrick), Elephants (my mom)
The remaining 4 came from my very own bookshelf: Queen (a gift from Bethany), Goon (from B&N), Bossypants and Never (from Borders, sniff)

Past year-end book posts:
2010 (inside a larger recap post since I only finished 2 books that year)
2009
2008
2007 (inside a larger recap post)