The 2011 Book Review Round-Up

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

So here are all the books I read in 2011:

1. The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
   
2. Lapham's Quarterly Winter 2011 -- Celebrity
   
3. Spellbound: Inside West Africa's Witch Camps by Karen Palmer
   
4. God's War by Kameron Hurley
   
5. Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks
   
6. The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford
   
7. Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard
   
8. New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson
   
9. The Crippled God by Steven Erikson
   
10. Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
    
11. Blue Mauritius -- The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps by Helen Morgan
    
12. Nothing to Envy -- Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
    
13. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
    
14. Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession by Dave Jamieson
    
15. Enigmatic Pilot by Kris Saknussemm
    
16. Wonton Soup Vols. 1 and 2 by James Stokoe
    
17. Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
    
18. The Emperor's Coloured Coat: In Which Otto Prohaska, Hero of the Habsburg Empire, Has an Interesting Time While Not Quite Managing to Avert the First World War by John Biggins
    
19. Best American Short PLays 2008-2009 edited by Barbara Parisi
    
20. Equations of Life by Simon Morden
    
21. Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
    
22. The Terror by Dan Simmons
    
23. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt
    
24. Lapham's Quarterly Spring 2011 Work
    
25. My Friend the Mercenary by James Brabazon
    
26. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
    
27. Warriors of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures Vol. 2 by Harold Lamb
    
28. Vietnam Infantry Tactics by Osprey Press
    
29. Yangtze River Gunboats 1900-49 by Osprey Press
    
30. The Damned Highway -- Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene
    
31. Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell
    
32. Hell Ship by Philip Palmer
    
33. Lapham's Quarterly Summer 2011 Food
    
34. Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer
    
35. In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl
    
36. Boston Theatre Marathon XI (2009 Anthology) edited by Kate Snodgrass
    
37. Laugh Lines: Shore Comic Plays edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold
    
38. Template -- A Novel of the Archonate by Matthew Hughes
    
39. Breaking Open the Head: A Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck
    
40. The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
    
41. The Golden Age by John C. Wright
    
42. The World of Yesterday. Stefan Zweig
    
43. Dancing—in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns
    
44. Crack'd Pot Trail by Steven Erickson
    
45. Debris by Jo Anderton
    
46. The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterson
    
47. Child of Fire: A Twenty Palaces Novel by Harry Connolly
    
48. Infidel by Kameron Hurley
    
49. Master of the House of Darts by Aliette de Bodard
    
50. LAV-25 The Marine Corps' Light Armored Vehicle from Osprey Publishing
    
51. Lapham's Quarterly Fall 2011 The Future
    
52. The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
    
53. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
    
54. Habibi by Craig Thompson
    
55. Artemis by Phillip Palmer
    
56. The Other by Matthew Hughes
    
57. The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
    

I did a lot less reading this year than I did last year. Part of that is that I've been ramping up my miniature gaming and so I've been spending a fair amount of time painting little dudes rather than reading. But there was less this year that really grabbed me and so some books spent quite a bit of time languishing before I finished them.

Still there was some good reading to be had:

Top Sci-Fi Books of 2011:

• Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
  
• Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
  

Top Fantasy Books of 2011:

• The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford
  
• Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
  
• The Terror by Dan Simmons
  
• Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell
  
• The Obsidian Knife series by Aliette de Bodard
  
• The Crippled God by Steven Erikson
  

Top Non-Fiction Books of 2011:

• Nothing to Envy -- Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
  
• Dancing—in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns
  
• Spellbound: Inside West Africa's Witch Camps by Karen Palmer
  

Top Plays of 2011:

• The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
  
• In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl
  
• III by Joe Salvatore
  

So we'll see how the new year turns out. There's a bunch of stuff on my wishlist and a some interesting-looking new sci-fi coming out in January so perhaps I'll do a bit better in 2012.

later
Tom