Beyond Reality discussion

At the end of every year I usually make a list of my favorite and least favorite books that I read each month. I didn't do it by month this time because my reading slowed waaay down once the baby was born and there were some months when I didn't even finish one (grownup) book, but here are my favorite and least favorite books of the year, out of 39 total read in 2011. It's copied and pasted from my LiveJournal blog and I'm too lazy to go back and put in the book links - sorry... ;)

Favorite books of 2011:
Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett - historical fiction, last in the Niccolo series. Fantastic ending and neat to finally learn how Niccolo is connected to Francis Crawford of Lymond!
The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois Bujold. Her fantasy is as much fun as her SF!
and speaking of Bujold's SF: also CryoBurn, which I actually finished just yesterday. I love me some Miles!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. I have to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy.
Grand Conspiracy and Peril's Gate, by Janny Wurts. Slowly working my way through the series bit by bit!
Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science & Sex, by Mary Roach. Fascinating :)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. As a biology major, I read about so much research that came from this poor woman's cells, it was interesting (and very sad) to learn her story.
In The Woods, by Tana French. I'm usually not a big mystery reader but for some reason this one caught my eye and I loved it.
Foreigner, by C.J. Cherryh. There is no one better at writing sf where it's the human who's the alien. I just bought the second and third books in this series to continue with it.
Little, Big, by John Crowley. This one took me a month and a half to finish but I loved every word. Gorgeously written.

Least favorite books of 2011:
The Kingdom, by John Mabry. This was a FirstReads win, and though it was mildly entertaining the dialogue was irritating as hell.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. A memoir that could have been absolutely fascinating - by a neuroscientist who had a stroke, writing about the experience as informed by her training in brain science. But the actual memoir part was too brief, and then the book devolved into new agey rubbish (evidently the experience was quite enlightening. or something like that).
Graveminder, by Melissa Marr. Just meh.



and you?

My favorite:All the books by Haruki Murakami, Endymion,The Lovely Bones

My least favorite:11/22/63, The Wise Man's Fear

My favorite books of 2011:
The SF/F:
- Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney - wonderful story full of linguistics-based shenanigans
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin - I agree with you, Shel. This was fantastic, and I really need to continue reading the series.
- Embassytown by China Miéville - More linguistic fun!
- Zazen by Vanessa Veselka - This was an unexpected pleasure. It is part apocalypse story, part psychological portrait. I intend to re-read and review it in the coming months, because I don't feel I have the lucidity I need to review it now. I think I'll glean many new insights with a second read-through.
Non-SF/F:
- Best Historical Fiction read in 2011: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt - Very satisfying. I reviewed it on Goodreads here.
- Best "contemporary classic" lit-fic read in 2011: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Delightful and surprisingly dark...nothing like the film. I reviewed it on Goodreads here.
- Best mystery read in 2011: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie - Wholly deserving its many accolades, this was pure enjoyment all the way through. I reviewed it on Goodreads here.

My least favorite book of 2011: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. When King is good, he's fantastic...but when he's bad? This is part of a multi-author detective series, and I read it because it's the book that forms the basis for the show Haven, (one of only 2 shows I'm currently bothering to follow once they go up on their networks' sites) but was sorely disappointed. It's not only nothing like the show, it's plain bland and bordering on unreadable.

I read over a dozen 5 star star books this year, but most of them were rereads for groups; the Empire trilogy by Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts plus a few books each by Roger Zelazny & Poul Anderson.

Of the new 5 star books, 2 were nonfiction: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell was an awesome look at both Campbell & the movie industry. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach was a fantastic look at our space program, as I expected. Roach never fails. (Shel, I really liked 'Bonk' too.)

The only new fiction that got 5 stars were George R.R. Martin's first 3 books in his Fire & Ice series. I gave the 4th 4 stars. Almaty-Transit by Dana Mazur should be mentioned too. While I gave it 4 stars, it was an awesomely off beat ghost story, especially since it is a debut, self-published novel.

I only read 4 books that I gave 1 star to:
- Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, an accurate, depressing story that was ruined because of some artsy idea that paragraph & sentence structure doesn't need to be followed. It does!!!
- From Hell With Love by Simon R. Green - poor writing all the way around.
- Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror by James Hynes was just obvious & boring.
- World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks was another bore.

It's been a great year of reading. I keep thinking I'm being too generous with my 4- and 5 star reviews, but I'm just choosing - and being recommended - good books!

My outstanding reads for the year are:

Towing Jehovah
The Shadow of the Wind
The first two volumes of NK Jemisin's trilogy
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood and Faster
Mr Sammler's Planet
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

(plus a few re-reads - Perdido Street Station, American Gods, The Shawshank Redemption)

The only book that got one star was The Dawkins Delusion.

My favourite reads for this year for me were:

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Small Gods and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, I've just started getting into the Discworld books and really enjoying them.
The Chaos Walking trilogy (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men)

The books that I wasn't too keen on were:

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, I didn't find it very original. It was a watered down version of WWZ.
And I also tried a classic this year and listened to Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I'm sure the lack of interest was just the differences in cultures, but if I hasn't have been using an audio book, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

My best reads were (all 5*):

The Handmaid's Tale
The Year of the Flood: A Novel
The Line of Beauty
Counterpoint: Dylan's Story
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay: A Novel
Betrayer
Old Man's War
Willy
The Carnivorous Lamb

And, All of the books of The Wars of Light and Shadow which I only discovered this year.

And best re-reads: American Gods The Tenth Anniversary Edition, The Lathe of Heaven, The Day of the Triffids

My worst reads were (all 2*):

The Da Vinci Code
My Summer of Wes
Salt

As for 1* books, there was only 1 and I threw it away after the 1st chapter, so don't remember the title—self-published, unedited tripe.

Most of my non-fiction reading is work or avocation related and I don't really consider it Reading.

New books I rated 5 stars this year:

- Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories by John Joseph Adams (a brilliant anthology of short dystopian SF)
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
- The Arrival by Shaun Tan (a wordless graphical novel that's purely brilliant)
- Feed by Mira Grant (because I couldn't put it down and it made me very emotional)
- Reamde by Neal Stephenson (the most fun I've had with a novel all year)
- Traitor's Knot and Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts

... and two rereads:

- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

It's quite a big list. Books I had recommended by friends that I loved were: The Hunger Games trilogy, One Day, Water for Elephants. Personal finds: You're Next, The Wise Man's Fear and book 1, The Gargoyle. Good reads groups or recommendations: The Crown Conspiracy, Feed, The Magician (won't give me a link), Time's Edge, Fortress series, Tigana, re-reading Hobb too.

Told you it was long! Didn't enjoy The Ill-Made Mute

My high lights in Fantasy mostly involved finishing up the Malazan series-I truly LOVED them! I also found a new favorite in All the Windwracked Stars

I also really got into Sci-Fi this year, and have some new favorites there with Oryx and Crake, Neuromancer, Spin, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I had 27 5 star books this year - I did a reread of Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow series. I also read C.J. Cherryh's Fortress series. All of these were 5 star reads. Others that stick out in my memory were Cyteen, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and King Hereafter.

I only had one 1 star read - Ringworld, and 14 - 2 star reads. None of them aroused my ire, particularly - just kind of felt 'meh' about them.

Stefan wrote: "- Reamde by Neal Stephenson (the most fun I've had with a novel all year)"

That's been on my to-read for a while. I really need to get around to it eventually.

Looking through my books, my favorite of the year was
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Periodically I'll go back and reread one of the stories just because I enjoy them so much. Supposedly he lives in my area. I've considered hunting him down and forcing him to write more. ;)

I wouldn't say I had a worst read of the year exactly, but the most disappointing was Composition. There seems to be a trend for photography books to focus more on the equipment and less on the art. Given the book was supposed to be about composition, I had hoped this one was going to be different.

Just realized it is New Year's Eve about half an hour ago. (Am I sharp or what?) Since I didn't manage to make any plans, or prepare, or do anything really, maybe I'll just curl up with a book. Or maybe I'll play a game with the hubby. :D

I hate to note my favorite reads of the year until the year is truly belly up.

There were several:
The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg
C J Cherryh's latest installment in her Foreigner series.

For nonfiction, and truly outstanding:Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

For mainstream, The Help, and Witch Light.

I read or listened to 130 books this year and gave 35 either a 5 or 4 star rating. My favorite science fiction/fantasy books of the year were:

The Children of Men - P.D. James

Air - Geoff Ryman

Spin - Robert Charles Wilson

Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson

I read 40 books in 2011. In my 10 point system, I had 8 books that rated a 10 (all by Janny Wurtz, C.J. Cherryh, and Guy Gavriel Kay), 7 that rated a 9, and 3 that rated an 8. I had only one book that was a 2 Elantra: Song of Tears, Lady of the Dawn, a First Reads win.

This year has been the one where I discovered a love of fantasy and so I've been excited by quite a bit I've read!!

Highlight has to be NK Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, especially The Broken Kingdoms. I also really loved Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant. Oh, and Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light was another favourite, as was Ursula le Guin's classic A Wizard of Earthsea

I published a brief blog post about my favorite reads for 2011 last Saturday. I'll recap succinctly below:

For printed books:

The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts
The Empire Trilogy by Feist and Wurst
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

For ebooks:

Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
Initiate's Trial by Janny Wurts

My favorite reads of 2011 that came out in 2011:
Hark! a Vagrant by Kate Beaton
Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories edited by Kelly Link & Gavin Grant
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson
Among Others by Jo Walton
Embassytown by China Mieville

My favorite books that I read in 2011, regardless of when they were published:

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cathrynne Valente
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

Books that had been on my list forever that I finally read and enjoyed:

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Riechl
Babel-17 by Samuel Delany

Also really enjoyed:
Boneshaker, Clementine and Dreadnought, all by Cherie Priest
the first six or so Vorkosigan books
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
Lifelode by Jo Walton
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders

I read my first Agatha Christie & Octavia Butler, finally found some Mieville that I didn't hate, and continued my slow way through Dorothy Sayers, Kage Baker, and Lois McMaster Bujold.

Only really intensely disliked two things that I read: Lord of Misrule and the Buffy comics.

I don't feel like listing everything, but that's a start anyway.

I posted a full write-up on my blog, here. But to recap:

1. The Habitation of the Blessed, by Catherynne M. Valente
2. A whole slew of Georgette Heyer novels
3. Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
4. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, by Ursula K. Le Guin
5. The Changeling Sea, by Patricia A. McKillip
6. Meat: A Benign Extravagance, by Simon Fairlie
7. Embassytown, by China Miéville
8. The Bone Palace, by Amanda Downum
9. Mockingbird, by Sean Stewart
10. Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente
11. Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler
12. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
13. Commitment Hour, by James Alan Gardner
14. The Fox Woman, by Kij Johnson
15. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

Yes, there are three Valente titles on my list. ;)

As for worst. . . I only rated one book 1 star this year, and it was a surprise because I had figured going into it that it was a sure bet to be enjoyable: The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. I despised the narrator, and that wrecked all the pleasure I might otherwise have taken in the nested story, which was in fact exactly the same as in the movie which I love. Alas.