yearly reading 2011
YOUNG ADULT
Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) - Suzanne Collins
Livvie Owen Lived Here - Sarah Dooley
The London Eye Mystery - Siobhan Dowd
Everlost (Skinjacker #1) - Neal Shusterman
The Wizard Children of Finn - Mary Tannen
Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles #1) - Suzanne Collins
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (Underland Chronicles #2) - Suzanne Collins
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (Underland Chronicles #3) - Suzanne Collins
FICTION
Room - Emma Donoghue
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary - David Sedaris
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishigiro
Outlander (Outlander #1) - Diana Gabaldon
The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) - Patrick Rothfuss
NON-FICTION
Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous! - Rory Freedman
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures - Nicholas Wade
Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer
The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why - Jonny Bowden
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back - Todd Burpo
The Lupus Book: A Guide for Patients and their Families - Daniel Wallace
Managing Life with Chronic Pain - Pendleton Wickersham
The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way - Bill Bryson
Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts - Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
Shit My Dad Says - Justin Halpern
God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales - Penn Jillette
GRAPHIC NOVELS
One! Hundred! Demons! - Lynda Barry (reread)
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour (Scott Pilgrim #6) - Bryan Lee O’Malley
The Arrival - Shaun Tan
Ghostopolis - Doug TenNapel
Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton
AUDIO
Netherland - Joseph O’Neill (fiction)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (fiction)
Middlesex - Jeffery Eugenides (fiction)
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland - Patton Oswalt (non-fic)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (non-fic)
Feed - MT Anderson (fiction, I think technically YA?)
Bossypants - Tina Fey (non-fic)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks (fiction)
Hands down favorite for this year was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Man, that book dazzled me and broke my heart. I also really loved Room. Best non-fic I think was Mistakes Were Made, which is a book I think all humans should be required to read (same goes for Eating Animals). Bossypants was funny and might have competed for best non-fic if not for a few random racist parts. I also enjoyed The Mother Tongue a lot, even though there are some questions about its accuracy.
Other thoughts? I think it's time to officially downgrade my yearly goal from 50 to 40 books. I'm sad that yet another year went by without me reading an entire poetry collection (though I read tons of individual poems) or a play, but I am proud of all the non-fiction I read, which always makes me feel smart. As usual, a lot of YA stuff, b/c that's my relaxing brain candy.