Saturday, December 17, 2011

My Top 20 Books of 2011

As of this writing, according to Goodreads, I have read 266 books this year. That's a lot. A good number of them are romance novels that only take a few hours to consume and since losing my full-time job in May, I have lots of extra hours in the day. None of those appear on my "best of" list, however, so those of you who don't read that genre don't have to worry.

This list is in no particular order and consists of the books that I gave 4 and 5 stars this year on Goodreads. I have included links to the full reviews on my blog. Here goes:

Zone One by Colson Whitehead





My Soul to Take by Tananarive Due





Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones










Hurricane by Jewell Parker Rhodes





Pym by Mat Johnson





Surrender the Dark by L.A. Banks





Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
A very clever novel about an man who aspires to leave the corporate world and be a great American novelist. Unfortunately, his father has already achieved great notoriety as just that. Lots of funny anecdotes about the workplace.

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens by Brooke Hauser
Exactly what the subtitle says. Interesting stories about teens who have emigrated from all over the world and the lengths they have to go through to get an education in this country.

Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools by Steven Brill
Outlines the real problems in our schools today and gives a great history lesson on how they got that way. Especially eye-opening was the information about teacher's unions and the power they wield.



The Gift by Elle










The GQ Candidate by Kelli Goff





The Shopping Diet by Phillip Bloch




Voice of America by E.C. Osondu





The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate





Peace From Broken Pieces by Iyanla Vanzant





 If Sons, Then Heirs by Lorene Cary





Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World by Kathy Freston
An easy way to ease into the vegan lifestyle.













So, there you have it. Sorry it was so long, but I just couldn't limit it to just 10. 


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2 comments:

  1. Wow! Among my blogger friends, you read the most books this year. No wonder it was so hard to narrow the best books list down to just 10.

    SILVER SPARROW and PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES made my list this year too. Both were excellent reads.

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  2. I read 22 books this year. And that was a push for me! So I cannot imagine that there will be a time when I can get through 266 books in year! I haven't read any of these but I do have a few on my radar.

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