Books Read 2011

I read quite a few books this year.  36 in fact.  I'm pretty proud of that number considering that I have two small kids at home and a husband who has to stay away for a few days for work.  Here's the list of what I read and some thoughts about them.

Baby Wise and Baby Wise II - Baby Wise gave me some good pointers and helped Noah to start sleeping through the night, but I had issues with Baby Wise II, and I'll leave it at that.

The Year of the Flood - Not my favorite by Margaret Atwood.  I felt like some things were left out at the end.  I wasn't satisfied.

The Children of Men - Once again, not satisfying.  It didn't really make a whole lot of sense, and it didn't go into the stuff that could have happened after the main story ended, which I was disappointed with.  It did however make some interesting statements about the thoughts of the world right now about children and families.  I would NOT recommend the movie.  It was about 100 times worse than the book, and the book wasn't that great.

**The Kite Runner - Finally, I got a good book!  I really loved this one.  Although it deals with some rough subjects, I really thought that it felt honest and had a great message.  It was written very well.

The Mortal Instruments Series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass) - This is a YA fantasy series.  I enjoyed it and want to read the 4th one that just came out, but it didn't take the place of any of my favorite series.

Her Fearful Symmetry - After the Time Traveler's Wife, I was expecting great things from Audrey Niffinegger.  I wasn't entirely impressed with this book.  The story was interesting enough, and dorky as I am I really loved when they were watching a Doctor Who episode and I knew exactly which one they were talking about, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.  One thing that Audrey Niffinegger does really well though is blend reality and fantasy/science fiction so that it seems that those things could actually happen.

Backseat Saints - I really had a rough start this year.  I didn't really like this one either.  It's about a woman in an abusive marriage who tries to leave.  I wasn't a fan.  Not because of the premise, but because of how it played out.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Will someone please explain to me why this series is so popular?  I HATED this book.  It was just terrible.  I wanted to figure out the mysterym which is the only reason why I finished it.  The ending and explanation came out of absolutely nowhere though, and the book had looooooong stretches of boring.  There was also a whole lot of unnecessary grossness.

**The Happiness Project - Yay!  Another good one!  This is Gretchen Rubin's year spent trying to be happier.  I thought it was funny and had some good ideas and thoughts.  It was really just a pleasant read.

Sapphique (The second in the Incarceron series) - Decent.  Not as good of an ending as I wanted for this series.  I liked Incarceron way better.

Matched - The start of a YA series and an interesting concept.  It's about a girl who lives in a society that chooses your spouse for you.  But she finds out that she could have had a different match than the one she was given.  I really liked it and I'm looking forward to reading the second one.

**The Lost Hero - The beginning of the Heroes of Olympus series which is a follow up to the Percy Jackson series.  I loved Percy Jackson (although not the movie) and this one is shaping up to be just as good.  I love being able to put Greek mythology to use. :)

**The Help - I'm sure most of you have read this, or seen the movie, so I won't go into much detail.  But this was definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

The Journal of Curious Letters - Meh.  It was pretty James Dashner-esque (if you've read The Maze Runner), but it left something wanting.  It was fantastic (in the fantasy sense) and kind of fun, but it wasn't quite complex enough for me.  I'm not really that interested in reading the rest of the series.

The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues Series) - I enjoyed this one.  It was fast and fun, and even has an interactive website that you can use to play along with the characters.  There are several books in this series (I think around 11) and each of the books is written by a different author.  This particular one was by Rick Riordan and I thought it would probably keep the attention of a lot of young kids.  I'll definitely read the rest of the series.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - Once again, fast and fun.  I enjoyed having a little bit of background on the Harry Potter series, and I thought that JK Rowling did a pretty good job of creating fairy tales.  They really read like them and present morals and all.

Lunch in Paris - This is a memior with recipes.  The lady who wrote this book met her husband in Paris and then married him and moved there, knowing no one.  It's her life getting used to a new culture and the food that helped her to do it.  It was a nice story, and some of the recipes are just amazingly delicious.  She describes the food so well too, that I feel like I can taste it.

Peter and the Starcatchers - If you know the Peter Pan story (and who doesn't?) this story might be too much for you.  It is the story of how Peter Pan and Neverland came to be.  Although it's interesting, it's a little bit too predictable since we all know how the story ends up.  It doesn't really leave room to be surprised or have any suspense.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - A pleasant little book with a nice story that ends exactly the way you want it to.  It's not life changing, but it is worth a read.

Mansfield Park - All I have to say is that this is most definitely not Jane Austen's best work.  I found it massively boring and slow, except for about 50 pages.  Also, if you have seen the newer movie, it's pretty much nothing like the book.

**The Harry Potter Series - Yes, all of them.  Yes, I've read them all more than once already.  I'm nerdy, what can I say?

**The Infinite Atonement - A lovely book with so many insights about the atonement.  It really gives you a lot to think about.

Eat, Pray, Love - I wasn't sure about this book and I put off reading it for a long time, but I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it.  I don't identify with this woman at all.  Seriously, on almost no points - but I still liked getting to know her, hearing her story, and especially hearing about all of the food she ate in Italy.

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything - This was a true story about a guy who entered the world of competitive memorization.  Very interesting, he lets you in on all of his secrets, and it's definitely funny.

The DaVinci Code - This was a re-read, and I still enjoyed it.  I love when I can use my humanities skills to picture art and places that are being written about.

**Book of a Thousand Days - I cannot express how much I loved this book.  It's simple, but lovely.  It starts with a maid and a lady that have been trapped in a tower for 7 years.  I don't want to say anything else because I really want you all to go out and read it.  Right now.

The Death Cure (The 3rd in the Maze Runner series) - I think this one could have been a little bit better, but it did answer all outstanding questions from the first two books, and I did enjoy it.  The series as a whole was a good one.