2011 End of Year Book Survey

Last year, I participated in The Perpetual Page-Turner's End of 2010 Survey (you can see my post here), and this year, she has updated and expanded this survey, and I'm excited to participate again!

So here they are, my answers to the 2011 End of Year Book Survey:


1. Best Book You Read In 2011?
I read quite a few books that I LOVED this year, and I can't really narrow it down to just one, so I'll narrow it down to five:  Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Maze Runner series by James Dashner, Hourglass by Myra McEntire, and Divergent by Veronica Roth.  All YA SF.  (And yes, I realize this is actually 10 books, since the Uglies series has four books and The Maze Runner series has 3 books, but I can't whittle it down any more than this.)

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?

Probably Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  It was one of my picks for book club, and I was expecting it to be a lot more than it was.  I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I had hoped I would.  

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?

I guess that would have to be Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.  Several of my friends had read it and loved it, and one friend basically made me borrow it.  ;)  I'm not normally someone who loves Chick Lit, and this is YA Chick Lit, so I thought I would be groaning and rolling my eyes the whole time, but I ended up loving it!  I also really loved the companion novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and I look forward to reading the third companion, Isla and the Happily Ever After.

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?

I definitely think that would be Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  I received an ARC from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and not only was I ecstatic to have won an ARC, but I really, really LOVED that book!  I can't wait for the sequel!

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?
Well, the three series that I read in their entirety this year were The Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner (although he's releasing a prequel to this series next year, so I guess I didn't read the ENTIRE series).  I really enjoyed The Hitchhiker's guide series, although I didn't enjoy the last few books as much as the first couple.  But I LOVED the Uglies series and The Maze Runner trilogy!  I highly recommend both!  I also read most of The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa (I read the first book, The Iron King, in 2010 but re-read it and then read all the other books this year, and I'm currently reading the 4th book, The Iron Knight) and I really enjoyed those as well.  But I've also read quite a few books this year that are the first books of series, and the other books have yet to come out, like Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Hourglass by Myra McEntire.  Then I also read the first books of a few series that have sequels that have been published, like The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Line by Teri Hall, Alanna by Tamora Pierce, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Storm Front by Jim Butcher, and Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder.  I enjoyed all these books and hope to read some of the rest of each of these series next year.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?

Scott Westerfeld, James Dashner, and John Green.  I'd add Amy Kathleen Ryan, Beth Revis, Myra McEntire and Veronica Roth to that list, but I've only read one of their books each, so I'll save their names until after I've read more of their books next year.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?
I had never read any Steam Punk, so Boneshaker by Cherie Priest would be a good answer for this question.  Also, I hadn't read a lot of YA Contemporary before, and I enjoyed all of John Green's books (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson).  And I also hadn't read much Adult Chick Lit/Romance before, and I thoroughly enjoyed One Day by David Nicholls.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and all of the books in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?

Well, I don't really know the answer to this one.  I mean, I was looking forward to The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, but it wasn't like I couldn't wait for them to come out.  I think the books that I most wanted to get my hands on this year were The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, books 2 and 3 respectively in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.  Once I read The Maze Runner, I had to have those other books ASAP!

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?
That would have to be Hourglass by Myra McEntire.  The next book in the series, Timepiece, has a great cover too!  I'm excited to read that one next year!

Photo courtesy of yareads.com

Photo courtesy of hypable.com

11. Most memorable character in 2011? 

Hmm, I can't really think of any one character that stood out.  I enjoyed most of the protagonists, but I always find myself really loving side characters.  Like Bob the Skull in Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2011?
All of John Green's books.  He is such a beautiful writer, and he knows how to craft a sentence in a way that I can only dream of.  Plus, he's better at grammar than I will ever be, and I'm okay with that.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011?
I would say Night by Elie Wiesel, but I had to basically trick myself into believing that it was fiction so that I could get through it, so it didn't hit me as hard as it might have.  But it still was an amazing story, and one that everyone should read.

14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read?
All the Hitchhiker's Guide books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 1984 by George Orwell, Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Most of those qualified for my Off the Shelf challenge, though, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading them.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2011?
Hmm, I hardly write down specific quotes except for the books that I read for book club, and I couldn't find any great quotes in my notes from this year.  But I did star one part from John Green's Paper Towns that I really loved because it remind me of my time in high school:

"I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock.  I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise.  If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years."

16. Book That You Read In 2011 That Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2012?
Probably Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  Or Divergent by Veronica Roth, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, or Hourglass by Myra McEntire, all because the second books in these series come out next year, and I'll probably want to reread the first books before reading the next ones.  Also I can see myself rereading The Maze Runner trilogy before the prequel, The Kill Order, comes out.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!
Um, The Maze Runner series.  I really want one of my friends to read this series so we can go to lunch or dinner or something and talk all about it.

Book Blogging/Reading Life in 2011 (optional)

I'm not going to answer the questions in this part because, even though I have a blog where I review books sometimes, it isn't very consistent and reviewing books isn't the only thing I do on the blog.  Next year, however, I plan on writing a lot more reviews.

But I do want to answer one question from this section:

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes!  I set one goal of reading 35 books this year (I read 30 books last year - it was the first year I really started reading A LOT, so I wanted to at least surpass that number) and, as I'm writing this, I've read 76 books so far this year, and I'll probably finish one more before the year ends.  So I read more than twice my goal!  

I also participated in the 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by Bookish Ardour, where I challenged myself to read 15 books that were sitting on my shelf prior to the beginning of this year that I had yet to read.  And I completed that challenge as well!  I think that's pretty good for my first challenge, and my first year of setting any kind of reading goal!


Looking Ahead...

1. One Book You Didn't Get To In 2011 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2012?

Well, I have lots of books to read next year, and several of them are kind of prioritized as to when I will read them, so the books that I answer for this question might not be the first books I read in 2012, but I will definitely get to them.  That said, the books I didn't read this year but will read next year are Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire, The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2012?

I'm definitely looking forward to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  My friends and I are even traveling out of state to go to his book tour!  It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait!  I'm also really psyched for A Million Suns by Beth Revis, Insurgent by Veronica Roth, Timepiece by Myra McEntire, and Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  Oh, and The Kill Order by James Dashner.

3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2012?
My friend Courtney at Abducted by Books is hosting a reading challenge next year, called the 15,000 Page Challenge.  The goal is in the title - read15,000 pages in 2012.  And she's going to give away a couple of prizes!  Since I'll be participating in this challenge, I'll need to blog a lot more to show my updated page counts.  So I plan on trying to review many more books next year, which is also a nice challenge for myself.  My blog will hopefully grow because of it!

So there they are, my answers to the 2011 End of Year Book Survey.  I apologize for the extremely long post.  It's so hard to have just one answer for most of the questions!  Let me know in the comments if you completed the survey as well, and I'll hop on over to your blog and take a look!  Happy reading in 2012!

Book 10/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Yesterday I was looking at my book shelves and my husband came up to me and asked me what I was doing.  I told him that I was trying to figure out which book I should read next for my "Off the Shelf" Challenge, since I only have 4 months left to finish and I still needed to read 6 more books.  I told him that I wanted it to be kind of small, because I have a lot of other books that I want to read soon.  He randomly grabbed a book from the shelf and held it out.  It was small (120 pages), and it happened to be a book that qualifies for the challenge.

It was Night, by Elie Wiesel.  I grimaced and said, "But that's just depressing."  Handing it to me, my husband said, "Oh, just get it over with."  So I did.  I started it last night and finished it today, which isn't something that happens very often with me.  I have gotten faster with my reading in the past few years, but it still takes me a few days to read even the smallest of books, or even the quickest-paced, most engulfing reads (like Glow). 


For those of you who don't know, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he, along with his family, was forced into concentration camps during the Holocaust.  Night is his first-hand account of all that he went through during that time.  Not the happiest of stories.  I knew that it was a true story going in, thus the "But that's just depressing" comment above.  But since I read so much fiction, I realized once I was a few pages into this book that I was treating it like it was fiction.  My subconscious was taking in these characters, scenes, and events and making me think that they were part of a fictional tale.  I knew it was a true story, but I flew through it, almost pretending that it wasn't true.  


I'm not sure if I'm articulating this well.  Let me just say that, while this book is not explicitly graphic, there are a lot of horrendous (and I mean horrendous) events mentioned throughout.  Some of which dealt with small children.  Actually, the first horrible event that is told in this story has to do with atrocious things happening to small children.  And my brain just kind of clicked, tricking myself into temporarily pretending that this was all a tale of fiction.  Occasionally something would happen and I would stop and think, "Whoa, that person was actually real.  And he actually did and said that."  But my mind would kind of shake away the thought and go back into novel-mode.


I'm sure my psychologist friends would say this was a kind of coping mechanism or something.  Something to keep me from thinking too hard about such a depressing subject.  I agree.  That's totally what happened.  I couldn't think too deeply about these things that he described, because I would unravel and then I wouldn't have been able to finish this wonderful book.


Now, here, I want to clarify something.  The fact that I couldn't think too hard about the events in this book in no way means that I think that this book was fiction.  I know it was what actually happened to the author.  I know that all of these horrible things (and countless others) actually happened to millions of people.  I think the people who deny the Holocaust or say that it was a hoax have got to be the most ignorant people in the entire world.  And obviously, it goes without saying that Hitler, and the Nazis, were some of the most evil, messed-up people in the entire history of the human race.


I also want to say that, although I am not Jewish and I do not have any direct link to people who were killed or persecuted during the Holocaust, the way I read this book was in no way trying to belittle what happened to them.  I will never know their pain, but I feel for them as strongly as anyone else.  I also do not wish to go against Mr. Wiesel's impetus for writing this book:  so that we don't forget, and so that it never happens again.  The fact that I couldn't think too deeply about the events in this book as I read it does not mean that I will forget what happened, or that I will ever tolerate anything similar.  The Holocaust goes against everything that I stand for as a person.  


And even though I couldn't bring myself to think about the events in the book too deeply, I always knew that it was a true story, and that it was a story that needed to be told, and one that I needed to read.  One that everyone needs to read.

Pottermore, Glow, Writing, and More...

Wow, how long has it been since I've written a post?  The beginning of June?  Jeez.  Well, we've been pretty busy over at reviewsin5.com, so writing on my own blog which really has no major theme has fallen by the wayside...


So, what has been happening?  Well, if you've been under a rock you've missed the whole awesomeness that is Pottermore!  Basically it's an interactive website that allows Harry Potter fans (like me!) to explore the books and material in a new way.  Highlights:  you get to be sorted into a Hogwarts house and get a wand, both of which J.K. Rowling created the processes herself!  Now I'll finally get to officially see if I'm a Hufflepuff like I think I am...


So Pottermore opens to all in October, but recently there was this thing called The Magical Quill challenge, where fans could solve clues to gain early access to the site.  I was one of the lucky few to gain this early access (as were several of my friends)!  Now we just have to wait until we get our Welcome email that will let us know that we can go ahead and get onto the site.  Man, I try to be a very patient person, but it's proving to be quite hard waiting for that email!


I've also been doing A LOT of reading.  So far this year I've read 45 books!  Granted, 17 of those were Sweet Valley High books, which are only around 150 pages each.  But some of the other books have been pretty hefty!  My original goal was to read 35 books this year, and I reached that number in May!  Woohoo!  Unfortunately, my other reading goal was to complete the 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by reading 15 books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read.  So far I've only read 8 for that challenge.  But I still have 4 1/2 months to reach that goal!

Photo copyright St. Martin's Press

I'm super excited about one of the books I read recently.  It's called Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  I received an ARC through a giveaway on Goodreads, and the book will be released in late September.  Glow is a young adult novel set in the future, where two spaceships are on course to "New Earth," where they hope to preserve the human race.  The story revolves around two teenagers, Waverly and Kieran, who are poised to be the next leaders of their ship, the Empyrean.  But when the inhabitants of their sister ship, the New Horizon, invade the Empyrean and kidnap some of the children, the ships' course changes and an impending battle thrusts Waverly and Kieran into those leadership roles earlier than they expected.


Here's my review from Goodreads:  

WOW! I LOVED this book! There is so much action and suspense throughout the whole novel that it was really hard for me to put it down, so I only stopped reading when I absolutely had to!  

The characters are very complex; just when you think you have a character figured out, Amy Kathleen Ryan throws a wrench in your theory. I really found myself liking a lot of the characters, and even having sympathy for the antagonists.  

There are a lot of themes going on in this book, the obvious ones being one's duty to their community, and morality vs. faith or lack thereof. The religion aspect gets a bit heavy near the end of the book, but I think Ryan did a good job with showing the advantages and disadvantages of both organized religion and atheism/agnosticism.  

The only problem I really had with the book is that it's not even published yet, and the ending is left wide open for sequels, which means fans will most likely have a LONG time to wait for the second book in the series.  

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA books, especially those who also love Science Fiction!


Also, I just (finally!) started editing my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel.  I'm really excited about this book and I hope to have this 2nd draft ready for beta readers within the next few months.  But I really have no idea how long it will take me to get this draft done...


Other than that I've been taking care of my nearly two-year-old son and working hard on Reviews in 5.  The site has been live for about 4 1/2 months now, and so far it's going great!  Please visit the site and be sure to "like" us on Facebook!  


That's all for now.  Hopefully my next post won't be two months from now!