Books of 2011: Part 1

Another year, another round of books! Looking back I'm kind of amazed that I got through so many considering how much else I had going on. There were more than 45 so I've broken the list into two posts.

Enjoy, and may you have a New Year full of words!

1. The Poisonwood Bible; Barbara Kingslover: Loved! Hits all my buttons about ethnocentrism and missions.
 

2 & 3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Beyond the Looking Glass; Lewis Carroll: Meh. They were good stories.

4. The Concubine's Daughter; Pai Kit Fai: Another love. Definitely a page-turner.

5. Rereading Sex: Battles over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth Century America; Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz: Great information, and highly interesting. Factoid dense.

6. & 7. Upsetting the Balance & Striking the Balance; Harry Turtledove: I pretty much love this series. Basically, in the middle of WWII, lizard aliens attack with the intent of conquering Earth and colonizing. A good mix of "history" and sci-fi.

8. Simply Forbidden; Kate Pearce: Smutty, in a good way. If you're a fan of Anne Rice's The Sleeping Beauty series, you'll love this series.

9. The White Queen; Philippa Gregory: It's a Philippa Gregory, so it's good, but not very memorable.

10. Cutting for Stone; Abraham Verghese: Another love! A must-read.

11. Ender in Exile; Orson Scott Card: A must if you're an Ender's Game person. If you haven't read Ender's Game, go do that. Right now.

12. The Year of Living Biblically; A. J. Jacobs: HI-LARIOUS!

13. First Meetings; Orson Scott Card: A nice little novelette.

14 through 19.  Ill Wind; Heat Stroke; Chill Factor; Firestorm; Windstorm; Thin Air; Rachel Caine: This is a cute little series about a woman who can manipulate the weather and her {mis}adventures. There's a whole network of these people, and she always manages to get in a scrape. They're quick reads.

20. 365 Nights; A Memoir of Intimacy, Charla Muller: Awful. Don't read.

21. & 22. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo & The Girl Who Played With Fire; Stieg Larsson: Lived up to the hype. Also quick reads.

23. The Forgotten Garden; Kate Morten: Love!

24. My Year With Eleanor; Noelle Hancock:  Love, but kind of...wishy washy? Would read again.

25. Entwined; Heather Dixon: Cute fairytale-based YA novel.

26. Mistress of the Revolution; Catherine Delors: LOVE. This is why I read historical fiction, for novels like these.

27. Bridge to Terebithia;  Katherine Paterson: Good. Glad I finally read it.

28. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest; Stieg Larsson: See #'s 21 & 22. Good end to the series.

29. The Tsarina's Daughter; Carolly Erickson {audiobook}: Carolly Erickson is a bit dubious, but hearing this on an audiobook left me absolutely entranced. I don't know if I would read it in print, though.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in a few days!