Books I Read: 2011

One of my goals this year was to read 104 books, an average of two each week. I'm excited to be able to say that I made that goal--and surpassed it--with a total of 108 books!

One of my writing projects was a young adult novel, so, in getting myself familiar with what's current in YA, many of the books I read were young adult. I also worked on memoir this year, and some of the titles reflect that interest as well. I'm currently reading three books:

1. Best Friends, Occasional Enemies by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
2. Mornings Like This by Annie Dillard
3. Pen on Fire by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (a reread)

Here's my 2011 list:

January:

1. Killer Cruise: A Jaine Austen Mystery by Laura Levine
2. Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
3. The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Fragile by Lisa Unger
5. I'm Down: A Memoir by Mishna Wolff
6. Letter to My Daughter by George Bishop
7. I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous and Obscure, edited by SMITH Magazine
8. Thin, Rich, Pretty: A Novel by Beth Harbison
9. This is Where We Live by Janelle Brown
10. How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

February:

1. The Paricular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
2. It All Changed in An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by SMITH Magazine
3. To Wish or Not to Wish by Mindy Klasky
4. With Friends Like These by Sally Koslow
5. Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by SMITH Magazine
6. The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch
7. A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff
8. Deep Down True by Juliette Fay

March:

1. This Must be the Place by Kate Racculia
2. Die for You by Lisa Unger
3. Rescue by Anita Shreve
4. I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
5. On Folly Beach by Karen White
6. Haunted Rochester: Supernatural History of the Lower Genesee by Mason Winfield
7. The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw

April:

1. Promises to Keep by Ann Tatlock
2. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
3. Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook
4. A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
5. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
6. Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros
7. I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
8. A Girl From Yamhill: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary
9. My Own Two Feet: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary

May:

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. It's Not Really About the Hair by Tabatha Coffey
3. Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary (reread)
4. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (reread)
5. The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson
6. Friendship Bread by Darien Gee
7. Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen
8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shaffer and Annie Barrows
9. Cleaning Nabokov's House by Leslie Daniels
10. How to Knit a Love Song by Rachael Herron

June:

1. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
2. These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
3. When You Were Mine by Elizabeth Noble
4. The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
5. Freefall by Mindi Scott
6. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
7. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
8. Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure

July:

1. Peace, Love & Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle
2. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
3. Displacement by Thalia Chaltas
4. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
5. Hourglass by Myra McEntire
5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
6. Paper Towns by John Green
7. Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks
8. Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
9. Monster High by Lisi Harrison
10. We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
11. Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
12. Happyface by Stephen Emond

August:

1. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
2. Wild Ink: How to Write Fiction for Young Adults by Victoria Hanley
3. The Rites & Wrongs of Janice Wills by Joanna Pearson
4. The Writer's Desk by Jill Krementz
5. You Don't Know About Me by Brian Meehl
6. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
7. Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
8. Stay by Deb Caletti
9. Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski
10. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
11. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

September:

1. Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
2. Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
3. Monster High: The Ghoul Next Door by Lisi Harrison
4. If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster
5. Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mylnowski
6. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (reread)
7. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close
8. The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

October:

1. When We Were Friends by Elizabeth Joy Arnold
2. The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
3. Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
4. The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly
5. Mothers & Daughters by Rae Meadows
6. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
7. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
8. The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin

November:

1. Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
2. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
3. The Lost Songs by Caroline B. Cooney
4. Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg
5. I Gave My Heart to Know This by Ellen Baker
6. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson
7. Best Staged Plans by Claire Cook
8. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (reread)
9. Sweetwater Gap by Denise Hunter

December:

1. When Did I Get Like This? by Amy Wilson
2. Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz
3. The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff
4. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
5. The Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe
6. A Love That Multiplies by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar
7. A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story by Isabel Gillies
8. Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy: Advice from Rock's Ultimate Survivor by Ozzy Osbourne

I also started several books this year that for various reasons I couldn't bring myself to finish. I'll include them here as well:

Books I Started But Couldn't Finish:

1. Tales from the Teacher's Lounge: What I Learned in School the Second Time Around--One Man's Irreverent Look at Being a Teacher Today by Robert Wilder (completed 142 pages)

2. Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield (completed about 49 pages)

3. How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley (completed about 160 pages)

4. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (completed only a few pages)

5. Model Home by Eric Puchner (read 230 pages)

6. Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart (read 164 pages)

7. Minding Ben by Victoria Brown (read 14 pages)

8. The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs by Christina Hopkinson (read 21 pages)

9. Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell (read about 44 pages)

All in all, it was a good reading year. Here's to an even better 2012!