The 2011 Books, better late than never
Jan. 11th, 2012 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leahbobetIt's a testament to what the last week and a half has been like that posting this took...well, a week and a half. But right now I am sitting home with the distinct impression I'm about to get completely fluey and dizzy and sick (ugh), so. Book blogging.
What I read this year:
#1 -- Scott Westerfeld, Uglies
#2 -- Robertson Davies, Murther and Walking Spirits
#3 -- Scott Westerfeld, Pretties
#4 -- Scott Westerfeld, Specials
#5 -- Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
#6 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Doll's House
#7 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: A Season of Mists
#8 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Fables and Reflections
#9 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Brief Lives
#10 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Kindly Ones
#11 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Wake
#12 -- Jo Walton, Among Others
#13 -- Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists
#14 -- Joanne Harris, Chocolat
#15 -- Jim Munroe and Shannon Gerrard, Sword of My Mouth
#16 -- Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia
#17 -- Juliet Nicolson, The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911
#18 -- David Miller and Douglas Arrowsmith, Witness to a City: David Miller's Toronto
#19 -- Eva Ibbotson, The Secret Countess
#20 -- Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Daytripper
#21 -- Eva Ibbotson, Magic Flutes
#22 -- Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
#23 -- Emma Donoghue, Room
#24 -- E.L. Doctorow, Homer and Langley
#25 -- Jeff Lemire, Essex County
#26 -- Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping
#27 -- Judy Fong Bates, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe
#28 -- Carla Speed McNeil, Finder: Voice
#29 -- Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
#30 -- Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry
#31 -- Brian Lee O'Malley, Lost at Sea
#32 -- Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
#33 -- Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
#34 -- Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
#35 -- Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
#36 -- Robert Paul Weston, Dust City
#37 -- Alissa York, Effigy
#38 -- Tara Tallan, Galaxion #1
#39 -- Tara Tallan, Galaxion #2
#40 -- Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood
#41 -- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
#42 -- Timothy Taylor, The Blue Light Project
#43 -- Andrew Kaufman, The Waterproof Bible
#44 -- Gemma Files, A Rope of Thorns
NOT-#45 -- Jeff Bursey, Verbatim: A Novel
#45 -- Jim Ottaviani, Feynman
#46 -- Michael Kelly, ed., Chilling Tales
#47 -- Derryl Murphy, Napier's Bones
#48 -- David Nickle, Eutopia
#49 -- Carrie Vaughn, Kitty's Big Trouble
#50 -- Dave Meslin, Local Motion
#51 -- Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo
#52 -- Darren O'Donnell, Your Secrets Sleep With Me
#53 -- Misha Glouberman with Sheila Heti, The Chairs Are Where the People Go
#54 -- Halli Villegas, The Hair Wreath and Other Stories
#55 -- Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Turtle Valley
#56 -- Lindqvist, Let the Right One In
#57 -- Martha Baillie, The Incident Report
#58 -- Robert Rotenberg, Old City Hall
REREAD -- Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Cure for Death By Lightning
#59 -- Gregory Maguire, Wicked
#60 -- Mike Carey & Peter Gross, The Unwritten vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock
#61 -- David Mitchell, Black Swan Green
#62 -- Michelle Sagara, Silence (in draft)
#63 -- Catherine Bush, The Rules of Engagement
#64 -- Robert Rotenberg, The Guilty Plea
#65 -- Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony
#66 -- Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans
#67 -- Sean Dixon, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn
#68 -- Stevie Cameron, On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women
#69 -- Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City
#70 -- Patrick DeWitt, The Sisters Brothers
#71 -- Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns
#72 -- Robert J. Wiersema, Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen
#73 -- Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues
#74 -- Ian Rogers, The Black-Eyed Kids
#75 -- Dave Proctor, Blank Slate: Condopocalypse Now!
#76 -- Evan Munday, The Dead Kid Detective Agency
#77 -- Caitlin Sweet, The Pattern Scars
#78 -- Nicole Kornher-Stace, Blithen's Tarot (in draft)
#79 -- Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, The Rebel Sell
#80 -- Mike Carey, Faker
#81 -- Marissa Lingen, The True Tale of Carter Hall (in draft)
#82 -- James L. Sutter, Pathfinder: Death's Heretic
#83 -- Dave Proctor, Blank Slate: Death of a Spearholder
#84 -- David Mitchell, number9dream
#85 -- Moira Young, Blood Red Road
#86 -- Suzette Mayr, Monoceros
#87 -- Tristan Hughes, Eye Lake
#88 -- Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood
#89 -- Tahareh Mafi, Shatter Me
#90 -- Jenn Reese, Above World
#91 -- Nalo Hopkinson, The Chaos
#92 -- Patricia A. McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain
#93 -- Lev Grossman, The Magicians
Also, I watched some movies and TV and stuff:
#1 -- The Thin Man
#2 -- Nicholas Nickleby
#3 -- After the Thin Man
#4 -- Strange Days
#5 -- Shadow of the Thin Man
#6 -- The Thin Man Goes Home
#7 -- Song of the Thin Man
#8 -- The Big Sleep
#9 -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
#10 -- The Maltese Falcon
#11 -- Suckerpunch
#12 -- The Blue Dahlia
#13 -- Grosse Pointe Blank
#14 -- Say Anything
#15 -- Easy A
#16 -- The Secret of NIMH
#17 -- Figures in a Landscape
#18 -- Brick
#19 -- Princess Mononoke
#20 -- Stay
#21 -- Gaslight
#22 -- Casablanca
#23 -- Double Indemnity
#24 -- Midnight in Paris
#25 -- Persuasion
#26 -- Great Expectations
#27 -- Muppet Movie
#28 -- Hugo
#1 -- Sherlock
#2 -- Pride and Prejudice
#3 -- Castle season 3
#4 -- Criminal Minds season 6
#5 -- Endgame season 1
#6 -- Game of Thrones season 1
#7 -- Pushing Daisies season 1
#8 -- Pushing Daisies season 2
Interesting continuing themes this year: I'm still reading a lot of CanLit -- the Giller list, the Booker list, Coach House Books titles. I'm now reading a lot of graphic novels, which I used to borrow but never buy. And interestingly enough? Last year I started reading a whole lot more YA, and a lot of nonfiction.
Nonfic is funny territory for me. I used to not read it because I was in school, which is basically five courses of nonfiction all the time, and then it took me a bit to get into the habit. But I think the most impactful books this year, if not the most loved, were nonfic titles.
Books I flipped out over and would have handsold were I still working in the bookstore: Among Others, Room, Essex County, Lighthousekeeping, The Big Sleep, Redemption in Indigo, The Incident Report, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn, The Sisters Brothers, Half-Blood Blues, both Blank Slate books, Monoceros, and Anna Dressed in Blood. Lost at Sea is very, very imperfect, but I am weirdly fond of it. There was very little I couldn't actually finish, and very few rereads, which is kind of new for me.
I still have yet to find the kind of hard SF that makes my brain whir, but I'm not even sure if I actually care anymore. It's been years. I might be over it.
This year looks to be shaping up much the same, considering what's on my to-read table (yes, it's a whole little table): Laini Taylor, Geoff Ryman, Zoe Whittall, China Mieville; a bunch of nonfiction on topics from etymology to urban planning to 1920s history, etc. etc. etc.
I am sadly not very insightful on all this: There weren't really any major revelations about the state of fiction or of my own reading habits this year. Just a lot of mostly satisfying books. Which is nice.
What I read this year:
#1 -- Scott Westerfeld, Uglies
#2 -- Robertson Davies, Murther and Walking Spirits
#3 -- Scott Westerfeld, Pretties
#4 -- Scott Westerfeld, Specials
#5 -- Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
#6 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Doll's House
#7 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: A Season of Mists
#8 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Fables and Reflections
#9 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Brief Lives
#10 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Kindly Ones
#11 -- Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Wake
#12 -- Jo Walton, Among Others
#13 -- Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists
#14 -- Joanne Harris, Chocolat
#15 -- Jim Munroe and Shannon Gerrard, Sword of My Mouth
#16 -- Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia
#17 -- Juliet Nicolson, The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911
#18 -- David Miller and Douglas Arrowsmith, Witness to a City: David Miller's Toronto
#19 -- Eva Ibbotson, The Secret Countess
#20 -- Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Daytripper
#21 -- Eva Ibbotson, Magic Flutes
#22 -- Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
#23 -- Emma Donoghue, Room
#24 -- E.L. Doctorow, Homer and Langley
#25 -- Jeff Lemire, Essex County
#26 -- Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping
#27 -- Judy Fong Bates, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe
#28 -- Carla Speed McNeil, Finder: Voice
#29 -- Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
#30 -- Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry
#31 -- Brian Lee O'Malley, Lost at Sea
#32 -- Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
#33 -- Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
#34 -- Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
#35 -- Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
#36 -- Robert Paul Weston, Dust City
#37 -- Alissa York, Effigy
#38 -- Tara Tallan, Galaxion #1
#39 -- Tara Tallan, Galaxion #2
#40 -- Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood
#41 -- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
#42 -- Timothy Taylor, The Blue Light Project
#43 -- Andrew Kaufman, The Waterproof Bible
#44 -- Gemma Files, A Rope of Thorns
NOT-#45 -- Jeff Bursey, Verbatim: A Novel
#45 -- Jim Ottaviani, Feynman
#46 -- Michael Kelly, ed., Chilling Tales
#47 -- Derryl Murphy, Napier's Bones
#48 -- David Nickle, Eutopia
#49 -- Carrie Vaughn, Kitty's Big Trouble
#50 -- Dave Meslin, Local Motion
#51 -- Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo
#52 -- Darren O'Donnell, Your Secrets Sleep With Me
#53 -- Misha Glouberman with Sheila Heti, The Chairs Are Where the People Go
#54 -- Halli Villegas, The Hair Wreath and Other Stories
#55 -- Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Turtle Valley
#56 -- Lindqvist, Let the Right One In
#57 -- Martha Baillie, The Incident Report
#58 -- Robert Rotenberg, Old City Hall
REREAD -- Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Cure for Death By Lightning
#59 -- Gregory Maguire, Wicked
#60 -- Mike Carey & Peter Gross, The Unwritten vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock
#61 -- David Mitchell, Black Swan Green
#62 -- Michelle Sagara, Silence (in draft)
#63 -- Catherine Bush, The Rules of Engagement
#64 -- Robert Rotenberg, The Guilty Plea
#65 -- Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony
#66 -- Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans
#67 -- Sean Dixon, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn
#68 -- Stevie Cameron, On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women
#69 -- Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City
#70 -- Patrick DeWitt, The Sisters Brothers
#71 -- Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns
#72 -- Robert J. Wiersema, Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen
#73 -- Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues
#74 -- Ian Rogers, The Black-Eyed Kids
#75 -- Dave Proctor, Blank Slate: Condopocalypse Now!
#76 -- Evan Munday, The Dead Kid Detective Agency
#77 -- Caitlin Sweet, The Pattern Scars
#78 -- Nicole Kornher-Stace, Blithen's Tarot (in draft)
#79 -- Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, The Rebel Sell
#80 -- Mike Carey, Faker
#81 -- Marissa Lingen, The True Tale of Carter Hall (in draft)
#82 -- James L. Sutter, Pathfinder: Death's Heretic
#83 -- Dave Proctor, Blank Slate: Death of a Spearholder
#84 -- David Mitchell, number9dream
#85 -- Moira Young, Blood Red Road
#86 -- Suzette Mayr, Monoceros
#87 -- Tristan Hughes, Eye Lake
#88 -- Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood
#89 -- Tahareh Mafi, Shatter Me
#90 -- Jenn Reese, Above World
#91 -- Nalo Hopkinson, The Chaos
#92 -- Patricia A. McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain
#93 -- Lev Grossman, The Magicians
Also, I watched some movies and TV and stuff:
#1 -- The Thin Man
#2 -- Nicholas Nickleby
#3 -- After the Thin Man
#4 -- Strange Days
#5 -- Shadow of the Thin Man
#6 -- The Thin Man Goes Home
#7 -- Song of the Thin Man
#8 -- The Big Sleep
#9 -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
#10 -- The Maltese Falcon
#11 -- Suckerpunch
#12 -- The Blue Dahlia
#13 -- Grosse Pointe Blank
#14 -- Say Anything
#15 -- Easy A
#16 -- The Secret of NIMH
#17 -- Figures in a Landscape
#18 -- Brick
#19 -- Princess Mononoke
#20 -- Stay
#21 -- Gaslight
#22 -- Casablanca
#23 -- Double Indemnity
#24 -- Midnight in Paris
#25 -- Persuasion
#26 -- Great Expectations
#27 -- Muppet Movie
#28 -- Hugo
#1 -- Sherlock
#2 -- Pride and Prejudice
#3 -- Castle season 3
#4 -- Criminal Minds season 6
#5 -- Endgame season 1
#6 -- Game of Thrones season 1
#7 -- Pushing Daisies season 1
#8 -- Pushing Daisies season 2
Interesting continuing themes this year: I'm still reading a lot of CanLit -- the Giller list, the Booker list, Coach House Books titles. I'm now reading a lot of graphic novels, which I used to borrow but never buy. And interestingly enough? Last year I started reading a whole lot more YA, and a lot of nonfiction.
Nonfic is funny territory for me. I used to not read it because I was in school, which is basically five courses of nonfiction all the time, and then it took me a bit to get into the habit. But I think the most impactful books this year, if not the most loved, were nonfic titles.
Books I flipped out over and would have handsold were I still working in the bookstore: Among Others, Room, Essex County, Lighthousekeeping, The Big Sleep, Redemption in Indigo, The Incident Report, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn, The Sisters Brothers, Half-Blood Blues, both Blank Slate books, Monoceros, and Anna Dressed in Blood. Lost at Sea is very, very imperfect, but I am weirdly fond of it. There was very little I couldn't actually finish, and very few rereads, which is kind of new for me.
I still have yet to find the kind of hard SF that makes my brain whir, but I'm not even sure if I actually care anymore. It's been years. I might be over it.
This year looks to be shaping up much the same, considering what's on my to-read table (yes, it's a whole little table): Laini Taylor, Geoff Ryman, Zoe Whittall, China Mieville; a bunch of nonfiction on topics from etymology to urban planning to 1920s history, etc. etc. etc.
I am sadly not very insightful on all this: There weren't really any major revelations about the state of fiction or of my own reading habits this year. Just a lot of mostly satisfying books. Which is nice.
