2011 Book Review

For those who know me well can say they know I love to read. It’s just something I have been fond of since a little girl. I spent many summer mornings riding my bike to the library, playing my one hour of Oregon Trail and finding a good book to read for the rest of my day in air-conditioning. Though I moved on from Goosebumps and R.L. Stine’s older teen novels, I can’t say that I don’t have a certain love for most things supernatural or filled with a bit of mystery.

This is not a full list. I started tracking my reads via my library website mid-June. I put as many pre-June reads on as possible but I’m sure I missed a few. Here is what I was reading this year:

1. Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
3. The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
4. Bossypants by Tina Fey
5. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
6. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
8. Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
9. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
10. The Last Letter from your Lover by Jojo Moyes
11. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
12. Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward
13. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
14. One Day by David Nicholls
15. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dressen
16. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
17. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
18. Divergent by Veronica Roth
19. Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo
20. The Passage by Justin Cronin
21. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
22. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornest’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
23. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
24. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
25. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
26. The Preacher by Camila Lackberg
27. Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
28. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
29. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

The bold titles are my recommendations. (Not bad, 14 out of 29 were excellent reads.) But I would like to point out a few of my favorites from this list of 14. You already know that I like them, so below are the book descriptions from my library. (To save you some time from looking it up yourself, you were gonna do that right?)

#1 One Day – “Over twenty years, snapshots of an unlikely relationship are revealed on the same day--July 15th--of each year. Dex Mayhew and Em Morley face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.” (Mad me laugh and cry a lot. But in a very good way, and the banter between Dex and Em is fantastic.)

#2 A Game of Thrones – “A Song of Ice and Fire, Book One: As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin's stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction. In a time long forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons off balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. As the cold returns, sinister forces are massing beyond the protective wall of the kingdom of Winterfell. To the south, the king's powers are failing - his most trusted advisor mysteriously dead and enemies emerging from the throne's shadow. At the center of the conflict, the Starks of Winterfell hold the key: a reluctant Lord Eddard is summoned to serve as the king's new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder both family and kingdom.” (I admit I put this put down more than once when I tried to get started. So I picked it up on audio book to push through the rough beginning. And I’m very glad I did.)

#3 Warm Bodies – “A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love with a human, in this original debut novel. R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn't enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Not just another zombie novel, this is funny, scary, and deeply moving.” (I honestly picked this book up because I was just intrigued about a zombie who falls in love thinking “how absurd” but it turns out…I really liked it.)

#4 Before I Go to Sleep – “An amnesiac attempts to reconstruct her past by keeping a journal and discovers the dangerous inconsistencies in the stories of her husband and her secret doctor.” (A gem I found from my Entertainment Weekly…thanks EW…it was one I didn’t want to put down.)

#5 Bossypants – “From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you're no one until someone calls you bossy.” (I recommend the audio book; Tina Fey reads and delivers her story better than you would read it by yourself. Downfall though, she includes pictures in the book with her stories that I missed. Though the audio book comes with a disc with the pictures, it was something convenient for my drive.)

Don’t let this five recommendations fool you…I truly recommend all the ones in bold. And to give you warning I will share with you my least favorite reads.

#1 Seriously…I’m Kidding - I love Ellen. But Seriously…this book sucked. It had zero to offer. The jokes were lame and I just didn’t like her non-sense. Unlike Tina Fey’s book where I felt I knew about her life and especially a few things about behind the scenes of SNL, this book left you with nothing. It’s awful, sorry Ellen.

#2 The Kitchen House – I’m not worried about you picking up this book because it’s not now or ever will be on anybody’s list of recommendations. I found it because someone had reviewed it recently on my library website and the description sounded like something I would like. What I got was a story that I found dreadful and full of angst without any real sense of relief at the end. Made me feel awful, therefore it is awful. Don’t read!

#3 Dead Reckoning – I’m so sorry to say because I really enjoyed them for awhile but I really don’t like the Sookie Stackhouse series anymore. Don’t’ get me wrong, I still love the first six or so. I just don’t like where these books are headed AND the books are weak. I swear, nothing really happened in this book and I wish I could stop myself from reading. (I know, I’ll still pick up the next one but it’s with gritted teeth.)

So there you go…if you ever read any of these books, let me know. It would tickle my pickle.