Books of 2011! - Part 1

Well, another year has passed! 2011 brought me many good books, a number of mediocre books, and a few good laughs from books. I’m happy to share this list with you all and I hope it brings the right book your way in 2012! If you looked at last year’s list, let me know which ones you read and enjoyed.

Here’s a round up:

Total books completed - 48!

46% audio books (22 books)
17% non-fiction (including biography/memoir/psalms) (8 books)
30% of fiction books were mysteries (14 books)
19% books I bought (9 books; up from only 4 books last year!)

(e) = audiobook

1. Geography of Home: Writing on where we live – Akiko Busch (for an American Studies class at Yale that I audited; wonderful, readable collection of essays about rooms in American houses and the meanings we attribute to each room)
2. The Dogs of Babel – Carolyn Parkhurst (entertaining and quirky story of love/death; some sad stuff about dog abuse)
3. True Grit – Charles Portis (everyone talked about the plucky voice of the young girl in this movie, and the characters are even better and more witty in the book!; western story)
4. (e) Persuasion (Abridged) – Jane Austen (absolutely love this story about missing love and finally finding it again)
5. Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture – Kenneth Ames (for the Yale class; about Victorian customs related to homes and dining rooms)
6. (e) Devil’s Food Cake Murder – Joanne Fluke (the first of many amateur sleuth/professional baker stories I listened to this year; cozy mysteries that are good for really light reading and building up an appetite for coffee and cookies, set in rural Minnesota)
7. The Secret to Power in Business – Glenn Clark (written in 1945; some good, timeless tips about respecting customers, building a good work environment, etc.)
8. Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England home 1760-1860 – Jane Nylander (fascinating books confronting myths surrounding the ideal rural New England homes; loved the section about the creation of the “traditional” Thanksgiving holiday)
9. The Boxcar Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner (loved this book as a kid; re-reading it I found some of the “bootstraps” rhetoric a bit heavy-handed)
10. (e) A Summer in Sonoma – Robyn Carr (really terrible book!; woman swears off men and then “surprisingly” finds the perfect mate in her best guy friend)
11. (e) Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (great gothic story of love and betrayal all with Austen’s great characters)
12. (e) Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (The next 6 audiobooks I listened to while working shelving books at the Yale Library; never read this book in school, enjoyed it on CD; young boy receives an inheritance and tries to make something of himself)
13. (e) Howard’s End – E.M. Forster (classic novel, family epic, descriptive language)
14. (e) The Yiddish Policeman’s Union – Michael Chabon (LOVE Chabon, great mystery and interesting alt-history; narrator of audiobook was fantastic)
15. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco (this took me over 5 months to read; really would have been better as a 30 page novella; mystery set in monastery in 1327, interesting setting)
16. (e) Code to Zero – Ken Follett (fast-paced thriller, complete with communist plot and memory loss)
17. (e) The Song of the Lark – Willa Cather (lovely story from 1915 set in Colorado; main character sings opera; loved descriptions of Chicago and the “west”)
18. Rum Diary – Hunter S. Thompson (dead-end journalist goes to work at a newspaper in Puerto Rico; lots of rum is had by all as they try to sort out the meaning of life)
19. Buying Murder – Nancy Lynn Jarvis (mystery set in Santa Cruz and written by a local author; decent mystery; fun to read descriptions of all my favorite hometown points of interest!)
20. (e) On The Road – Jack Kerouac (bohemians bum around US thinking about life; in a much less interesting fashion than those guys in Rum Diary)
21. (e) Fudge Cupcake Murder – Joanne Fluke (can’t actually remember distinguishing features of these mysteries but I love listening to them!)
22. The Mirror Crack’d – Agatha Christie (Have you read any Agatha Christie lately? She sure puts together an amazing mystery; this Miss Marple story is perfect with its meddling amateur sleuth)
23. (e) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) – Philip K. Dick (not at all similar to the movie Blade Runner; sci-fi with thoughts on human connections to the natural world; helped on the long car ride to S. Carolina)
24. (e) Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (Even Boyd liked this young adult fantasy book; plucky girl fights to the death and finds love in the process; it’s better than that description would lead you to believe)
25. (e) Gentlemen of the Road – Michael Chabon (somewhat less successful Chabon story of Jewish bandits in 950 AD Russia)

To be continued... (Read Part 2)