Best and Not Best Books of 2011

I keep track of the books I read all year and then divide them into two groups at the end.  Instead of worrying about favorite and least favorite books, I just choose which ones I would likely recommend to friends and which ones I probably wouldn’t.  My list is completely subjective and not in the least scientific.  It’s not even in any particular order!

Best Books

Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls
The Memory of Running – Ron McLarty
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
Bossypants – Tina Fey
Magyk – Angie Sage
Room – Emma Donoghue
Winter’s Bone – Daniel Woodrell
Decoded – Jay-Z
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
Beat the Reaper – Josh Bazell
Just Kids – Patti Smith
The Financial Lives of the Poets – Jess Walker
The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
The Passage – Justin Cronin
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie – Wendy McClure
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
The Curse of the Wendigo – Rick Yancey
Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo
50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days — Dean Karnazes
Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Lies My Teacher Told Me – James Loewen
Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor
Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town – Nick Reding
The Isle of Blood – Rick Yancey

Not Best Books

Chinatown Beat – Henry Chang
The Hangman’s Daughter – Oliver Potszch
Brainbox – Christian Cantrell
The Second Ship – Richard Phillips
Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
Pagan Christianity: Exposing the Roots of Our Church Practices – Frank Viola
Mr. Peanut – Adam Ross
Here on Earth – Alice Hoffman
Love Wins – Rob Bell
Island of Lost Girls – Jennifer McMahon
Summer at Tiffany – Marjorie Hart
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
Flyte – Angie Sage
A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
A Little Death in Dixie – Lisa Turner
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
22 Britannia Road – Amanda Hodgkinson
Death Wore White – Jim Kelly
The Gospel of Anarchy – Justin Taylor
Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
Full Dark, No Stars – Stephen King
The Last Town on Earth – Thomas Mullen
Shine – Lauren Myracle
The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

I use Goodreads to keep track of what I read and what my friends read.  I definitely recommend it!

1 thought on “Best and Not Best Books of 2011

  1. I really liked The Wilder Life – that book made me laugh and I totally understood Wendy McClure’s angst and finally her satisfaction over the things she “discovered” on her journey of all things Laura…

    btw, Wendy wrote a really funny book (out of print now) called The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards from the 1970s. It’s about old Weight Watchers cards and the disgusting concoctions they advertised. It’s amazing anyone lived after that diet plan, lol

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