2011 in Books

It's time for my yearly round-up of books.  It includes all the books I completed in 2011.  It's funny how just looking at the titles reminds me of where I was when I read each one.

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 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver*
The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life by William Nicholson
The Overloaded Liberal by Fran Hawthorne
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer*
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin
Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver*
A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
A Walk In the Woods by Bill Bryson*
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer ed. by Eve Ensler*
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver*
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Orientation: And Other Stories by Daniel Orozco
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell*
Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt
The Dirty Life by Kirstin Kimball*
I Am An Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler*
Printing By Hand by Lena Corwin
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Marukami*
Do Good Design by David B. Berman*
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough

I've starred the ones I particularly recommend.  I think The Lacuna was my favorite book from this year. Barbara Kingsolver is an astonishing writer, and The Lacuna just included so many things that I love that I was bound to like it.  Secret caves! Spanish! Frida Kahlo!

As always, there were a few books I didn't quite finish.  The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman was ambitious to start with- I didn't make it past the second chapter.  I started both Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and On The Road- both books that have been repeatedly recommended to me, but they just didn't hold my interest.  I barely read anything this semester.  There's something about reading for pleasure that requires a purer concentration than my mind can provide during the school year.  

I'm starting off the new year part of the way through Toward the Gleam by D. M. Doran, and I secured a copy of The Hunger Games to read whilst I'm in Peru.  Any other book recommendations for the new year!?