I've sadly neglected this blog, I fear. Amazing how Facebook and Twitter seem to have taken over . . . Seems that when I do write an entry, it's about books.
Once again I don't really want to call this a list of my favorite books of 2011, because not all of these were books that entertained or gave me pleasure. So this is a list of ten books, alphabetical by author, that had a particular impact on me in 2011.
The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins.
The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge, by T.J. English. The author focuses on a single decade in New York's history, 1963-1973, by telling the stories of three men (one wrongly accused of murder; one a member of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army; one a bent NYPD officer).
ASH: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle. Jane Fletcher recommended this book to me several times, and it was every bit as good as she said it would be.
Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason. Not sure why, but I still like the Icelandic crime authors the best!
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine, by Howard Markel.
Kraken, by China Miéville.
Heartstone, by C.J. Sansom. Book 5 in the Matthew Shardlake series.
Up the Walls of the World, by James Tiptree Jr. This is a book I re-read every so often. It had been a few years, so it was time.
Among Others, by Jo Walton.
Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson.
I read a lot of good books last year. Some of them made me cringe, some made me cry, some made me laugh, some made me hopeful, others made me fearful. I love that books can do that!
This year my reading goals are different. I have a backlog of really long books, and this year I want to get through a bunch of them. My Friday Reads posts are likely to be quite boring as I work my way through them from week to week, but I'm looking forward to it!
Talk to me!