A bibliophile's work is never done

I did a movie re-cap a few days ago so I guess it's time for a book re-cap. I usually do this in January, part of my New Year's Resolutions, to summarize the books I read last year and then to make some projections for the new year. I can't believe I've done neither. So, a few months late, here's my 2011 book reading experience in summary.

I think 2011 was the year of the blah books for me. In the previous years I've been able to spout titles of some of the greatest books I read that year but in 2011 I can't seem to find any that just make me scream, "WOW THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!" I also know it was one of those type of years because I actually re-read some of my favorite books in the entire world like 19 Minutes and The Smoke Jumper. That being said, there were some standouts. So my votes for the best books I read in 2011 are:

1. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian, with its twist ending and its tie to The Great Gatsby.
2. And I thought Ella Minnow Pea was super cute, about the island of people to started banning certain letters from the alphabet.
3. Everlost, a YA book about a land of children who died in this world but are still alive in another one. And it wasn't creepy!
4. Bliss Remembered was just a wonderful fictional story of a dying woman who was sharing her memories of WWII and the Olympics when she had a chance to swim for the USA
5. The Paris Wife is probably my favorite book for 2011. It's a piece of historical fiction about Hemingway and his first wife and their time in Paris.
6. State of Wonder is probably second favorite book of the year. It's a wonderful tale of a trip into the Amazon and science and the characters are amazing, the words are textured and rich. I loved it!
7. South of Superior is about a woman who goes to the UP to care for a relative and about what she learns of herself and her family during her time in this isolated place
8. Burnt Mountain is a strong novel with complex characters and storylines that all run together to make this story come alive.
   

Honorable mentions: Case Histories, a thriller that's Cold Case TV style but with one PI instead of the police; Shiver, the first book in a YA trilogy about a girl and a wolf and a boy; Mourning Gloria, part of the China Bayles series of mysteries which is always a favorite of mine; The Midwife's Confession about people left in Noelle's life after he suicide and her friends and family discover who she really was after her death; The Ninth Wife is about a woman who is proposed to and discovers that if she says yes then she'll be the 9th wife so she goes on a journey to discover if this would be a mistake or not (and it's not chick lit); Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult who is one of my fav author's ever; Sisterhood Everlasting, which is the latest and probably the last in the Traveling Pants novels which finds all the girls now 29 year old women; Then Came You by another fav author Jennifer Weiner who explores woman and child baring and family make ups; and finally, Smokin' Seventeen about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her crazy crew in this mystery series.

My least favorite reads of 2011:

1. I didn't like Room. Reading an entire novel in the voice of a 6 year old was enough to make me scream.
2. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake had such potential to be an AMAZING book. A girl can "taste" the feelings and emotions of the people who make the food she eats. This could've been astounding but instead it sucked.
3. The End of Everything- creepy, creepy book.
4. Last Night at Chateau Marmont- stupid chick lit and i want Lauren Weisberger, author, to write another smart, sassy, grab you by the hair novel again like Devil Wears Prada and she doesn't in this one. Not even close. I would rather have worked for the Devil without Prada for a year than have read this book.
   

Here's my other dilemma. I'm looking at titles of books I read that I either gave 4 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads account OR I gave a high B or even an A on my books blog and without reading my own review, I can't remember what it was about. How could I have liked a book so much that I rated/ ranked it that high but here I am months later and I can't remember a single detail. In all honesty, if I wasn't looking at my own list, I probably wouldn't even remember reading it at all!!! These books would be The Peach Keeper, Red Hook Road, and Friendship Bread. WTH? I don't remember any of these. If I rated them so high, shouldn't I be thinking these are the best books of 2011??????? Ack!

I also, occasionally, pick a theme through the year or get on a certain kick whether it be an author, a subject, a genre. At one point in 2011, I tried to read as many books as I could IN A ROW with a female in the title: Gatsby's Girl, The Reliable Wife, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Postmistress, The Paris Wife, The Weird Sisters, and The Bird Sisters. And ironically enough, all of these had something else in common: they all took place during WWII or right before or after WWII and WWII influenced the storyline.

Because I'm a librarian in a high school, which was a new gig to me in 2011, I read LOTS of young adult fiction (YA) and that's out of my normal realm. I think that while I enjoyed some of it, I'm not the target audience as I like to say, so I think it's hard for me to feel astounded by some of that writing. I read 2 YA trilogies and I thought the first ones in each trilogy were AMAZING and then didn't particularly care for the rest of the books (the Skinjacker trilogy in which Everlost is the first book, and the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy in which Shiver is the first.)

So that was my 2011 reading year. I miss 2010 when I read astounding books so I have high hopes that 2012 is better!

See ya in the stacks,
Mags

Book 68 (2011): One Day

David Nicholls story about Dex and Em spans over 20 years, all on the same day, each year. From the moment Dex and Em slept together on the night of graduation from college they bound for the rest of their lives.

Then as their friendship grows and they change and evolve and their lives go separate ways, sometimes they're friends, sometimes not, and sometimes more.

This is a will they or won't they ever get together romance.

I like this novel. It's more than just chick lit and I think the characters are likable and then not so likable.

The one thing I did not like was the ending. At all. (437 pages)

A

Book 67 (2011): The Tenth Circle

I read this novel by Jodi Picoult many years ago but for some reason I couldn't remember much about it so I decided to give it a re-read over Christmas vacation, and I'm so glad I did.

I forgot how much I love her stories, with all the different narrative voices. And this one stayed out of the court room and was focused on one event and how it affected an entire family. I liked the twists and turns, and the shifting, drastic setting. And it's fun that there's experts of a graphic novel sprinkled throughout.

Jodi Picoult is at her best here and I certainly recommend The Tenth Circle. (400 pages)

A

Book 66 (2011): Smokin' Seventeen

Smokin' Seventeen is one the best in the Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie and Ranger have sex. Lots and lots of sex.

And stuff blows up and bail jumpers get the best of Stephanie and the the former ho Lula, her partner in anti-crime. And since Vinnie's bail office is gone and is now in Mooner's RV, Stephanie has to catch more 'bad guys' to guarantee her job.

And her mother is working hard to get her to break up with sexy fellow bounty hunter Ranger and her on again-off again boyfriend cop Joe Morelli. She has a childhood friend of Stephanie's who is trying to cook his way into her heart.

There are dead bodies, Grandma Mazur at the funeral home, Grandma Bella's evil eye, Tasy Cakes and all other great things expected. (308 pages)

A

Book 65 (2011): Burnt Mountain

Thayer grows up loving camp in North Carolina where she meets her first love and gets her first broken heart. She was an unloved child after her father died when she was young and could only find solace and happiness at summer camp or with her grandmother.

As an adult, Thayer marries Aengue, a Irish folklorist, and they move into her deceased grandmother's home, near her beloved childhood camp. Instead of finding happiness as an adult with a man she loves in a place bequeathed to her by her beloved grandmother, near her childhood haven, she finds scary truths about her past and present.

This is a wonderfully told story, spinning a Goth Southern tale. (323 pages)

A

Book 64 (2011): The nineth Wife

I love love loved the book The Nineth Wife. And I am so glad. I checked it out from the library thinking it was probably going to end up as lighthearted chick lit cotton candy junk and I was so wrong and I am so glad!

The premise is that thirtysomething Bess had given up on love and marriage and then she meets Rory, an Irish musician and they fall in love. Then Rory drops the bombshell that he's been married before-- 8 times and she, Bess, would be wife number 9. Bess is taken aback and isn't sure that's a good thing for her so she decides to meet some of the exs, unbeknownst to Rory, as she takes a cross country trip with her fighting grandparents (helping them move), her gay neighbor, a mannequin, and a shar-pei.

Yes it is witty and silly sometimes, but it's also insightful. I like the changing narrator voice of Bess and Rory and how we, the readers, gets let in on Rory's marital history before Bess-- and we know far more than Bess.

Good read! (448 pages)

A

Book 63 (2011): South of Superior

I loved South of Superior! I loved the complex characters, the setting location, the characters felt like people I would want to know. I LOVED the voice of the story and I fell in love with the hotel and the UP. It was a story I didn't want to end.

Amazon says:

When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she isn't prepared for how much her life will change. Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters-one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents. It's a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but friendship, community, and compassion run deeper. As the story hurtles along-featuring a lost child, a dashed love, a car accident, a wedding, a fire, and a romantic reunion-Gladys, Arbutus, and the rest of the town teach Madeline more about life, love, and goodwill than she's learned in a lifetime. A heartwarming novel, South of Superior explores the deep reward in caring for others, and shows how one who is poor in pocket can be rich in so many other ways, and how little it often takes to make someone happy.

Wonderful!!! (384 pages)

A

Book 62 (2011): Winters In Bloom

Amazon says the following about The Winters in Bloom:

Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be. They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, whom they love more than anything. Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn't last - that the life they created was destined to be disrupted. And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they've always kept hidden. But they will also have a chance to discover that it's not too late to have the family they've dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker's most optimistic work to date. This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.

I didn't find it enchanting at all, not optimistic or charming. I didn't really care for it at all... (288 pages)

D

Book 61 (2011): The Uncoupling

From Amazon:

When the elliptical new drama teacher at Stellar Plains High School chooses for the school play Lysistrata-the comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war-a strange spell seems to be cast over the school. Or, at least, over the women. One by one throughout the high school community, perfectly healthy, normal women and teenage girls turn away from their husbands and boyfriends in the bedroom, for reasons they don't really understand. As the women worry over their loss of passion, and the men become by turns unhappy, offended, and above all, confused, both sides are forced to look at their shared history, and at their sexual selves in a new light.

Even though it sounds like something I should enjoy with it being set in a school, about sex, directing plays, relationships.... well, I just didn't like The Uncoupling at all. I didn't care for the subject matter. I figured out the "conceptual ending" about 40 pages in. I didn't like the voices of the characters or of the author. It's not a favorite book, obviously and it just didn't set well with me--- the characters rang so false and I don't like "all angry, all the time". Feh. (288 pages)

D

Book 60 (2011): Cemetery Girl

When I read Cemetery Girl I thought I liked book overall but it left me feeling creepy about the end, something just so off and wrong and it gave me the heebeeejeebees, it was so twisted. With a society like ours, unfortunately, maybe the twisted part that creeped me out was too real and it felt like a story we could hear on 20/20 or read about in the papers. So I think that means author David Beil did his job. This story was good but still left me.... icky at the same time.

Summery from Amazon:
Four years after Tom and Abby's 12-year-old daughter vanishes, she is found alive but strangely calm. When the teen refuses to testify against the man connected to her disappearance, Tom decides to investigate the traumatizing case on his own. Nothing can prepare him for what he is about to discover. (400 pages)

A-

Book 59 (2011): Fragile

Here is a summery of the book Fragile by Lisa Unger that I've taken from Amazon who took it from Publisher's Weekly:

Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother, Maggie and Jones wonder if she ran off to Manhattan, but are reminded of the disappearance 20 years earlier of Sarah Meyers, whose mutilated body was found after she vanished on her way home from school. Though the alleged killer confessed, there are still unanswered questions, and Maggie and Jones find themselves forced to revisit the past as suspicion falls on Rick.

I liked the book well enough. It was better than some I've read this year. There's a very small group of characters and their development is shallow. (336 pages)

B-

Book 58 (2011): The Midwife's confession

I LOVED this book. Here's a great summary I found, written by a reviewer at Amazon. com, named DC:

On a beautiful day in September, Noelle commits suicide. Her two closest friends, Tara and Emerson, are completely shocked that the woman they had known -- caring, committed midwife, champion of babies-in-need, strong independent Noelle has done this. Why? Turns out that Noelle had a lot of secrets -- a history of lies, betrayals and a hidden past that neither of them knew.

The story is a mystery and also a study in friendship and family relationships. The ability to write believable characters is a definite strength of author Diane Chamberlain. The women in her books are mothers, daughters, wives, etc. who are able to form strong bonds that are tested but that don't break even in the face of tragedy or heartache. Ultimately, this is a book about the extent that someone could go to in an attempt to make a wrong a right; or how loving someone too much can cause a person to do things that ordinarily wouldn't be considered. And at what cost? Told from the viewpoints of the key characters in the novel, the story also shifts back and forth in time as Noelle's friends and their children Jenny and Grace try to make sense of the suicide and to find answers to the questions it brought to light. It seems that none of them really knew Noelle at all!

This was a great thriller and an amazing look at people, and definitely makes you ask the question "How well do we know anyone?" Great read! I tore though it in an afternoon and went in search of other books by Diane Chamberlain. Great voice of characters, and I liked how all characters were presented, even though I didn't 'like' them all! Wonderful, jarring and a good mystery, too. (432 pages)

A

Book 57 (2011): Everwild

The second book in the Skinjacker series just didn't excite me like the first one did. I LOVED the first book, but again, it's a case of an author writing a great first book and then spinning it into a series, which was weak.

I guess it's not fair to say the whole series is weak, but this second novel is.

Nick, "The Chocolate Ogre" is still trying to get every kid in Everlost to take a coin and "go to the light", which is against what Mary High Tower wants. Mary joins with scary allies, and Allie the Outcast joins with Skinjackers, learning more about her powers. There's also a wicked twist ending, which of course will lead readers to the third novel of the trilogy.

It was ok. Again, not the target audience and I'm sure this appeals to junior high kids. I like the creative-ness and I like the idea of the world of Everlost. Otherwise, I think Everlost as a novel should have stood alone. (432 pages)

C

Book 56 (2011): The Imperfectionists

It's been awhile since I read this book but I did like it well enough.

A bunch of folks work at a English speaking newspaper in Rome. The cast of character- editors, reporters, staffers, management- all have their own stories of how they came to Rome and to the paper. The paper was originally started by a millionaire and it's struggled to stay afloat for 50 plus years. The Imperfectionists tell the stories of the current staff while blending the back story of the previous staff and the newspaper's history.

Each chapter tells the story of a different member, almost like a bunch of short stories tied together with a central theme, setting, etc, and how they all come together. (288 pages)

B

Book 55 (2011): Forever

Forever is the last book in the Wolves or Mercy Falls trilogy.

I remember when I read the first one I was really excited and as it went on.... I became less enchanted, like I did when I read all the Twilight book series. I liked each one less and less with each book I read.

We know Sam is human and Grace is a wolf. Isabel's father is trying to get a legal wolf hunt to wipe out the pack behind the property and Cole is trying to find a cure for the shifting.

All these stories blend together in a race against time to save them all and let true love prevail.

I think teens will like it the way they like Twilight, but I just felt it was forced and would've enjoyed Shiver had it been a stand alone novel. (400 pages)

C

Book 54 (2011): Sworn to Silence

When Kate Burkholder was 14, she experienced a horrifying encounter with a serial killer that left her alive but scarred for life, which caused her to shun her Amish community upbringing and become an "English" police officer. She is now the Chief of Police in her hometown, Painter's Mill. Kate's biggest problems were stray cows until a girl is found dead and all the traces are similar to Kate's past horror.

Although Kate is an excellent police officer, she is a woman and inexperienced so the town officials bring in more help with more experience. BCI agent John Tomasetti, a federal agent who's on the verge of being washed up and has his own secrets is sent to help Kate catch the killer.

The murders get more and more gruesome as the killers takes more victims. Kate, who is trying to do her job, protect her family and their secrets as well as protect herself, might have to quit her job to save the next victim, as well as herself.

It was a fine mystery and an interesting new character but Kate had too much personal angst to keep me interested in reading her any more. And having all these cops with issues when trying to solve a murder just made it an unpleasant read all the way around. I just couldn't seem to like any character! (336 pages)

C

Book 53 (2011): After

Devon Davenport is on trial because she had a baby and threw it away in a dumpster. The thing is... she doesn't remember it ever happening.

Devon, age 15, has a crummy home life, but she's a model student, a star soccer player, holds down a job and is involved in all things a perfect student does. So why is she in a juvenile detention center, awaiting a trial to see if she will be sentenced to life for an act she doesn't even remember committing?

After is an excellent young adult novel. It's well written and it gives Devon a realistic teen girl voice. I think teen girls will eat it up. (354 pages)

B+

Book 52 (2011): State of Wonder

I like Anne Patchett's novel State of Wonder. I can say it's the first time I wasn't all that thrilled with the book's ending but I still like the novel- it didn't change my appreciation of it.

A doctor- Dr Swenson- doing research in the Amazon jungle stays out of contact with her pharmaceutical employer for 2 years. The company sends a fellow researcher to find her, only to die under mysterious circumstances. So Dr Marina Singh goes to investigate her colleague's death and to see what progress is being made on this new drug that could change humanity as we know it.

This story is multi -layered because Marina has her down dealings with Dr Swenson in her professional past, as well as the story of traveling to the Amazon, to the tribe and living and working in the jungles and all that entails.

I found this to be a profound and riveting novel. (368 pages)

A

Book 51 (2011)-The End of Everything: a novel

The End of Everything is a yucky novel and it made me feel icky.

Lizzie was the last person to see her best friend, Evie before she disappeared. The girls were best friends then suddenly, at age 13, Evie was gone and there were no clues, just the faint remembrance of a maroon car, and the knowledge that Lizzie was the last to Evie.

Lizzie, who was lost without Evie, started her own search for her friend. However, as Lizzie dug deeper, she started to learn that she and her best friend really didn't share all their secrets, and maybe Evie wasn't who she thought she was.

The End of Everything is well written, but difficult to read because it is so disturbing. It's dark and sad and made me, as a reader, very uncomfortable and feel rather icky. I thought it would be a good mystery or psychological thriller but instead its teenage sexuality, as well as a glorified or romantic view of a pedophile was shocking and harsh.

There is a loss of innocence here which was difficult to read, too. The characters were disgusting and it felt like all the relationships were really warped, from that of Evie and Lizzie to that of Lizzie and... well, everyone, as well of that of Evie and her abductor.

Author Meg Abbott creates an uncomfortable (there's that word again, I know) atmosphere but her characters are not flat. I work with teens and she does seem to have a firm grasp on the mind of a child who thinks they know things but in reality, really know nothing. This story is narrated by 13 year old Lizzie and often the assertions that come from her are twisted and creepy, even eerie, which make Abbott a good author, even though the subject matter is quite repulsive. The sexual overtones through the whole story were uncomfortable. Between the feelings Lizzie seemed to have for Evie's dad, as well as the feelings she seemed to have for Evie and Evie's sister Dusty, all these seemed to appear sexual in nature. It was hard for me to read that Lizzie thought Evie's kidnapper took her because he loved her and wanted to have a romance, rather than the pedophile sexual predator he was. There was something sadly realistic which led to the uncomfortable feelings this story left with me.

As I said, this book is yucky and icky. I wish I hadn't read it. (256 pages)

D-

Book 50 (2011): In Search of the Rose Notes

I liked this book. Something about it just drew me to it and I enjoyed reading it all the way to the end to see what the twist was going to be. I love a good twist!


Nora and Charlotte are friends as young 11 year old girls when the babysitter they both idolize, Rose, goes missing and is never found. Charlotte is strong and assertive and wants to see if they can find her, using their Time Life Mystery Books as a guide. Nora, quiet and introverted, wants nothing of the sort, and shortly after the disappearance of Rose, the friendship ends and is never rekindled. Nora graduates from high school and leaves town, vowing to never look back since she will forever be known as "the last person to see Rose".

Now years later, Nora returns to her home town, drawn by the news that Rose's remains have been found. Nora comes back and is again drawn into memories of that time before and after Rose went missing, and she does a bit of investigating on her own, since no killer was found-- just her remains.

While back in her small town, she and Charlotte re-kindle their friendship, as it were, working through old demons as well as new ones. And many misconceptions from the past also surface, between them and between others childhood friends.

I did like In Search of Rose Notes, especially the pacing. There were two things that left me questioning the plausibility of the story. The first was that Nora, having not spoken to Charlotte since one brief conversation in high school, so basically since they were 11 years old, that she would go back to stay with her, in Charlotte's home, for weeks on end. That left me troubled- the too casual quickness of the friendship coming back together, especially since both women were uneasy with each other, and Charlotte was quick combative, strange and angry. The second was just... sort of uncomfortable. There was a distinct pre-occupation with sex when the girl's were 11 years old, and Nora was always uncomfortable just sort of turned on, but she didn't know that's why she felt tingly or giddy or whatever adjective. The sex was subtle and often just talk but Nora's shy thoughts still seemed to make her feel good and she chastised herself for feeling good. It was just strange.

Other than that, which I could overlook, I did enjoy this psychological thriller and will certainly be hunting for more books by Emily Arsenault. (384 pages)

B+