Books read in 2011

It's a bit late, but I should try and analyse my booklist for 2011! First of all, I should point out that I think I might have missed out some books, as I ended up being a bit busy at times and got behind with keeping my list up to date. Secondly, the list below is in the wrong order! I've read 49 books this year.

1. Deep Waters - Barbara Nadel
2. The Black Book - Orhan Pamuk
3. Arabesk - Barbara Nadel
4. A 3rd helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul
5. Nation - Terry Pratchett
6. A Chemical Prison - Barbara Nadel
7. The Wizard of the Crow - Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
8. Cosmic - Frank Cottrell Boyce
9. Framed - Frank Cottrell Boyce
10. Skinner's Festival - Quintin Jardine
11. Carbon Diaries 2017 - Saci Lloyd
12. Carbon Diaries 2015 - Saci Lloyd
13. Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness
14. The Ask and the Answer - Patrick Ness
15. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
16. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr
17. The Bride's Farewell - Meg Rosoff
18. Out of Shadows - Jason Wallace
19. The Butterfly Tattoo - Philip Pullman
20. A Rush of Blood - Quintin Jardine
21. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
22. The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie
23. Belshazzar's Daughter - Barbara Nadel
24. The Secret Countess - Eva Ibbotson
25. No and Me - Delphine de Vigan
26. Skinner's Rules - Quintin Jardine
27. HIVE: Zero Hour - Mark Walden
28. HIVE: Rouge - Mark Walden
29. Pretty Dead Things - Barbara Nadel
30. Petrified - Barbara Nadel
31. Dance with Death - Barbara Nadel
32. The Other Side of You - Salley Vickers
33. An Expert in Murder - Nicola Upson
34. HIVE: Dreadnought - Mark Walden
35. The Diamond Takers - Karen Wallace
36. The Time Machine - HG Wells
37. Maps for Lost Lovers - Nadeem Aslam
38. Season of the Songbirds - Nadeem Aslam
39. Some Kind of Black - Diran Adebayo
40. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
41. Toast - Nigel Slater
42. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

So...

Books by men - 29
Books by women - 20
Books by Barbara Nadel - 7
Books by Mark Walden - 3
Books by Quentin Jardin - 3
Crime/thrillers - 14 (ish?)
Children's/young people books - 18
A prize for literary merit? - Would probably go to Patrick Ness, for the trilogy starting with The Knife of Never Letting Go.

But this year has mostly been about escapism, relaxing from the stress of my day to day job! (Until this summer that is!)

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

And so I quickly came to the final installment. Monsters of Men is another one of the short listed books for the Carnegie Medal. In act, I've just checked and discovered that it is 2011's very worthy winner. (I'm glad I read it first without knowing that!)

This has been a truly fantastic series. There is so much fantasy and yet so much realism within the story of Todd and Viola. The characters, which include animals as well as different types of beings, are clearly drawn and every incident shines vividly within the imagination. I have lost myself in these books. I have escaped - if "escaped" is the right word to describe journeying to a land where women are branded, where animals talk, where everyone is caught up in a war and has to make life and death decisions, where you are at a risk of being controlled without your knowledge.

What an imagination Patrick Ness has. And how good of him to share it with the rest of us.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

And so the "Chaos Walking" trilogy continues ... images of holocaust, genocide, war, terrorism ... one of my overriding thoughts was, if we had not had World War Two, and other terrorist events and wars, would this seem unbelievable? And what is so shocking and sad is that, while reading of the horrifying events, they don't seem as unbelievable and incomprehensible as they should, because equivalents have happened.

A moving way of helping young people understand the atrocities of war and life in war-torn countries. A shocking indictment on the human race. A beautifully written story of love and hope in a hopeless, bleak situation.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

With Monsters of Men being another of the Carnegie Medal Short Listers, I thought I'd better attempt the whole trilogy. As they were such thick books, I thought that this could take me a while. How wrong I was.

I remember hearing good things about this book when it was first published a couple of years ago. And it more than lived up to its reputation. With a talking dog, and a town where you can hear everyone's thoughts, the last boy in town is looking forward to becoming a man ... until he senses ... silence. An exciting story, you follow Todd and Viola through all sorts of struggles, adventures and misadventures, until you reach what you hope will be - hope. But will they make it through? I never looked so forward to reading the next book before!