Tuesday, January 10, 2012

my favorite books of 2011



favorite book


The History of Love -- Nicole Krauss. I finished this book on January 1, 2011, and no other book came close.


favorite fiction


{other than The History of Love} Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay


favorite non-fiction


Devil in the White City - Erik Larson. It took me what felt like forever to read this book, but it was so worth it. I now have a strange fascination with World's Fairs and, if I had a time machine, I might choose to go to a World's Fair rather than save Kennedy or Lincoln or stop Hitler. Does that make me a bad person? Don't answer that.


favorite book about food


If I got hate mail, I would get hate mail for this choice: I read a Ruth Reichl book this year and, well, it wasn't my favorite book about food. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake had enough gorgeous descriptions of food for me to consider it a food book. Although the ending weirded me out, I loved the road that led up to it.


favorite "beach read"


The usual suspects, Emily Giffin and Lauren Weisberger, didn't hold a candle to Jennifer Close's Girls in White Dresses. Yes, the plot was non-existent and the characters kind of confusing, but I loved it because reading about these girls felt like a 300 page conversation with your best friends, complete with sarcastic one-liners and complete ridiculousness.



favorite audiobook


It's a toss up - The Help had a different actor reading each character.  Bossypants and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) equated to 12 hours of basically hanging out with Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. I guess The Help was harder to turn off since it had a plot with twists and turns and all that, but really - apples and oranges.


edited to add - My least favorite books of 2011? Probably Heart of the Matter, Palace of Illusions, and let us not forget my hatred of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.


(Are you a total bookworm, too? Let's be friends on Goodreads!)

9 comments:

  1. 1. I also loved "A Visit From the Goin Squad"! It was a total airport Kindle impulse buy and just loved it.
    2. My Dad is from New York and I've heard him tell this crazy story about sneaking into the 1964 World's Fair by climbing under a fence. It's one of those exaggerated Dad'esque stories that you kind of don't believe happened.

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    1. I forgot to tell you how exciting your dad's story is to me. Can he meet me for coffee or something and tell me the whole thing!? PS Is he still calling himself "papa of love" these days? I'll never forget that!!

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  2. Also I'm so envious and can't wait to be done with law school so I can read this many books in a year!

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  3. Ohhhhhh I am going to read The History of Love ASAP. I need a new book to read so why not start with a book you rave about right??

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  4. I JUST ordered The History of Love... I'm so excited :)

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  5. My favorite kind of year in review post... I have read and loved a whole bunch of these - some in the last year (and The History of Love was one of my absolute top books for 2010). Several of the others are already on my "to read" list, and even more so now that I see they're on your list!

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  6. I've read many of these, and they are good. The History of Love was one that had me really thinking about it a lot after I was done--great book. I just read someone's comment about sneaking into the world fair, and it made me laugh. In 2003, my brother and I jumped the fence to an international fair being held in Madrid, and then got stuck inside. Ha!

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  7. Really enjoyed The History of Love. Hate when you read a good book and nothing else quite measures up to it. Didn't care for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake because I was too weirded out by it...definitely going to check out Devil in the White City. I think a fair sounds so cool!

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  8. The History of Love is one of my all-time favorites!! And I am a huge fan of Aimee Bender - I own Particular Sadness but haven't read it yet. Have you read her Girl in the Flammable Skirt? It's a short story collection, but it's AMAZING.

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