Reading 2011: A Year in Review
Top Ten Reads of 2011
-Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
-Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
-Faithful Place by Tana French
-The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb
-At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
-What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
-Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days by Douglas Brown
-The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
-Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
bonus pick:
-Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff by Dinah Sanders
Total Read: 133, give or take
Fiction: 83
Non-Fiction: 69
Female Authors: 97
Male Authors: 56
Plays Read: 5 (so, not one a month which was my intent)
Number of rereads this year: 25 (give or take)
First book I read in 2011: All Clear by Connie Willis
Author who appears most frequently in my books-read list: Jeffery Archer
Best sequel I read this year: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (sequel of sorts to Eat, Pray, Love)
Most useful books: The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments and Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff
Last book I read (so far) in 2011: I'm about to finish The Heart of Valor by Tanya Huff.
Under the cut is the
January
All Clear
The War Memoirs Of (HRH) Wallis, Duchess Of Windsor
The Reluctant Widow
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
No More Clutter
A Reliable Wife
The Help
Winter's Bone
Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Live as TV's Most Influential Guru Advises
The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Lettice and Lovage
Faithful Place
High Wages
Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill
February
A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary
Silver Dagger
The Plains of Passage
The Fry Chronicles
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
The Shelters of Stone
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cordelia's Honor
The Guinea Pig Diaries
Weddings for Grownups: Everything You Need to Know to Plan Your Wedding Your Way
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Better Days
Stylish weddings for less : how to plan your dream wedding on a budget
Educating Esme
1001 ways to save money - and still have a dazzling wedding
Bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex
March
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Fear the Worst
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It
The Hatbox Letters
Uglies (Uglies #1)
At Home
Living History
The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
April
Remarkable Creatures
The Land of Painted Caves
Snoop
This is Water
A Little Bit Wicked
Always Looking Up
Bossypants
Arcadia
The Dinner Diaries
Julie and Julia
The Lady in the Tower
Ratha's Challenge
May
The Best American Sports Writing 1992
The Best American Sports Writing 1994
U is for Undertow
Paper Towns
The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life
Doc: A Novel
Life's That Way
The White Queen
The Daughter of Time
Substitute Me
The Prince of Tides
The Little Stranger
The False Princess
The Bride's Farewell
June
The First Verse
What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal
Howard's End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading From Home
Bad Marie
Graceling
Ratha's Creature
Private Lives
In a Sunburned Country
Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Into the Wild
The Happiness Project
Royal Pains
Unclutter your Life in One Week
July
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
The Mysterious Benedict Society
P.S. I Love You
Tooth and Claw
His Majesty's Dragon
Poison Study
Speak Softly She Can Hear
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
A Dance with Dragons
August
Let the Great World Spin
The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments
Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling
Frederica
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie
Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Twelve Self-Help Programs, One Whirlwind Year of Improvement
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
The Woman Who Walked to Russia
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
September
The Book Thief
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Last Chance Saloon
The Daughter of Time
Unfamiliar Fishes
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
When Patty Went to College
Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture
Pirate King (Mary Russell #11)
Shanghai Girls
Eifelheim
Blood Trail
One Pair of Hands
By the Rivers of Brooklyn
Water for Elephants
October
Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
The Damned Utd
The Red Queen
Pride and Prejudice
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
The Daughter of Time
Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff
Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings
The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories
Still Alice
The Name of the Rose
Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy
November
Only Time Will Tell
A Prison Diary Volume 1: Hell
Come Thou Tortoise
A Prison Diary Volume 2: Purgatory
A Prison Diary Volume 3: Heaven
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
To Hold the Crown
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Attachments
The Amateur Gourmet
Actually Read in December:
Little Town on the Prairie
The Long Winter
Oleanna
The Truth of Valor
Billy's Best Bottles: Wines for 2012
Started in December:
Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States
The Perilous Gard
Individual reviews are available in each of the Year of Reading posts.
First planned reads of 2012, other than finishing books I started in December:
-The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)
-The Last American Man
-Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
-Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
-Faithful Place by Tana French
-The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb
-At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
-What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
-Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days by Douglas Brown
-The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
-Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
bonus pick:
-Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff by Dinah Sanders
Total Read: 133, give or take
Fiction: 83
Non-Fiction: 69
Female Authors: 97
Male Authors: 56
Plays Read: 5 (so, not one a month which was my intent)
Number of rereads this year: 25 (give or take)
First book I read in 2011: All Clear by Connie Willis
Author who appears most frequently in my books-read list: Jeffery Archer
Best sequel I read this year: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (sequel of sorts to Eat, Pray, Love)
Most useful books: The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments and Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff
Last book I read (so far) in 2011: I'm about to finish The Heart of Valor by Tanya Huff.
Under the cut is the
January
All Clear
The War Memoirs Of (HRH) Wallis, Duchess Of Windsor
The Reluctant Widow
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
No More Clutter
A Reliable Wife
The Help
Winter's Bone
Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Live as TV's Most Influential Guru Advises
The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Lettice and Lovage
Faithful Place
High Wages
Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill
February
A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary
Silver Dagger
The Plains of Passage
The Fry Chronicles
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
The Shelters of Stone
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cordelia's Honor
The Guinea Pig Diaries
Weddings for Grownups: Everything You Need to Know to Plan Your Wedding Your Way
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Better Days
Stylish weddings for less : how to plan your dream wedding on a budget
Educating Esme
1001 ways to save money - and still have a dazzling wedding
Bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex
March
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Fear the Worst
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It
The Hatbox Letters
Uglies (Uglies #1)
At Home
Living History
The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
April
Remarkable Creatures
The Land of Painted Caves
Snoop
This is Water
A Little Bit Wicked
Always Looking Up
Bossypants
Arcadia
The Dinner Diaries
Julie and Julia
The Lady in the Tower
Ratha's Challenge
May
The Best American Sports Writing 1992
The Best American Sports Writing 1994
U is for Undertow
Paper Towns
The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life
Doc: A Novel
Life's That Way
The White Queen
The Daughter of Time
Substitute Me
The Prince of Tides
The Little Stranger
The False Princess
The Bride's Farewell
June
The First Verse
What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal
Howard's End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading From Home
Bad Marie
Graceling
Ratha's Creature
Private Lives
In a Sunburned Country
Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Into the Wild
The Happiness Project
Royal Pains
Unclutter your Life in One Week
July
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
The Mysterious Benedict Society
P.S. I Love You
Tooth and Claw
His Majesty's Dragon
Poison Study
Speak Softly She Can Hear
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
A Dance with Dragons
August
Let the Great World Spin
The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments
Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling
Frederica
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie
Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Twelve Self-Help Programs, One Whirlwind Year of Improvement
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
The Woman Who Walked to Russia
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
September
The Book Thief
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Last Chance Saloon
The Daughter of Time
Unfamiliar Fishes
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
When Patty Went to College
Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture
Pirate King (Mary Russell #11)
Shanghai Girls
Eifelheim
Blood Trail
One Pair of Hands
By the Rivers of Brooklyn
Water for Elephants
October
Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
The Damned Utd
The Red Queen
Pride and Prejudice
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
The Daughter of Time
Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff
Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings
The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories
Still Alice
The Name of the Rose
Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy
November
Only Time Will Tell
A Prison Diary Volume 1: Hell
Come Thou Tortoise
A Prison Diary Volume 2: Purgatory
A Prison Diary Volume 3: Heaven
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
To Hold the Crown
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Attachments
The Amateur Gourmet
Actually Read in December:
Little Town on the Prairie
The Long Winter
Oleanna
The Truth of Valor
Billy's Best Bottles: Wines for 2012
Started in December:
Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States
The Perilous Gard
Individual reviews are available in each of the Year of Reading posts.
First planned reads of 2012, other than finishing books I started in December:
-The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)
-The Last American Man