2010 Fave Books and 2011 Reading List

Before I get to my  2011 Reading List , I wanted to reflect quickly on my faves from 2010 including:

• The Help – This is so good and by far the book that stuck with me the post.  Told from multiple perspectives, this book will touch, shock and make you laugh out loud.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  (Stieg Larrson series) – a little dark and sometimes twisted, this series (especially the first book IMHO) keeps you engaged and caught up in the adventures.
• I was Told There’d be Cake – recommended by my awesome sister-in-law, the collection of essays reminded me of the girl version of David Sedaris, whom I love. Check out Lindsay’s original  post to see the pretty cover.
• My Horizontal Life – perfect for a  light summer read and great to share with girlfriends - the always hilarious Chelsea Handler is shocking and doesn’t disappoint.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the abovementioned books, with the exception of The Help there wasn’t anything that really stuck with me.   In prior years,  The Glass Castle and Water for Elephants both captured my attention and stayed with me for months…

 

So here is what I’m reading in 2011 and some editorial review comments…

  Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

“Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom, like his previous one, The Corrections, is a masterpiece of American fiction . . . Freedom is a still richer and deeper work—less glittering on its surface but more confident in its method . . . Like all great novels, Freedom does not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author’s profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew.”—Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

 

Perfection by Julie Metz 

"Metz's Perfection chronicles with lapidary precision one woman's climb back to happiness after not just a spouse's death, but also the shocking recognition that her life before that death was not what she had thought it was. The journey is a painful one, but Ms. Metz is much the stronger for having survived to recount it."
--Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia

 

 Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand

“….inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time.” -- Juliet Disparte

What are you reading this year?  I’d love to hear additional suggestions or comments.