Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought 2011: Part 1

I think it's time for Part 1 of my 2011 Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought post.  See 2009 here, 2010 Part 1 here, and  Part 2 here.  Does this make it a tradition?  I'm going to pretend.  It does.  Hooray for me - I'm traditional!

1. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry -  Do you ever read a book and then, shortly thereafter, forget completely what it was about?  Boom.
2. Beasts of Burden (Vol. 1) by Evan Dorkin - Dogs (and cat) fight the supernatural.  Good illustrations. Entertaining but not mind-blowing. 
3. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - Be nice to horses.
4. Bloodroot by Amy Greene - Appalachia. Very lovely.  Very sad.
5. Bumped by Megan McCafferty - Teens "pregging" for profit in a no-one-over-18-is-fertile future.  Kinda irritating at first, but all the lingo kinda grew on me.  Not un-likeable.
6. Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein - Fairy tales aren't evil, but turning "princess" into a merchandizing behemoth that adds another layer to a world of warped cultural messages aimed at girls just might be.
7. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susana Vreeland - Stained glass is totally bitchin'.  Women are awesome.
8. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier - Retelling (reimagining?) of The Six Swans.  First half of the novel: awesome. 2nd half: okay.  Summary claimed she was kidnapped by enemies, turns out she just sort of fell in with them.  Slightly less dramatic that way.
9. Divergent by Veronica Roth - In future-Chicago you can supposedly only be one thing and must live with people exactly like you: brave (Dauntless), honest (Candor), happy (Amity), selfless (Abnegation) or smart (Erudite). I'm all over Amity - they play banjos.
10. Duma Key by Stephen King - Art is going to kill your loved ones.  Dolls are scary.
11. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff - I liked it SO MUCH. I wanna go off and have super sweet bro adventures in ancient-y times!
12. The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal - Inoffensive. Princesses. Some stuff. 
13. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - Zombies own the world.  There is one compound of humans left All is not as it seems.  Things go horribly wrong.  As usual, an obnoxious love triangle...damn you, YA fiction.
14. The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman - Amazon warriors are kind of badass.
15. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Extremely engaging.  Read it in 2 sittings.  They're making a movie.  We'll see what that's like.
16. The High King's Tomb; Blackveil (Green Rider Books 3 & 4) by Kristen Britain - I wish I rode a super smart horse and had magical powers.
17. Invincible (Vols. 3-5) by Robert Kirkman - Still rad.
18. Locke & Key (Vol. 3) by Joe Hill - Also still rad.
19. The Lost Saint (Dark Divine #2) by Bree Despain - Even more boring than the first one.  EXCEPT someone gets stuck in wolf form and can't change back.  That kinda made me smile (but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a bad thing in the book...).
20. Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon - Admit it, it's obnoxious how the Little Mermaid gives up everything for a boy she's seen once.  Carolyn Turgeon expands on why the mermaid loves him and the human world and it almost makes sense! Beautiful descriptions of the undersea world.  Damnit, why am I not a mermaid?  
21. My Life In France by Julia Child - I will travel back in time and move to France and be Julia's best friend.  We will be tall and loud and eat together.
22. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - My GOD, but does Gaiman's use of language make me wish I were British.
23. The Passage by Justin Cronin - A pretty darn entertaining post-vampire-apocalypse story.  Can't help but wonder just how long canned goods and clothing really remain usable.
24. Plague (Gone Series, Book 4) by Michael Grant - My gosh, WHY is it so fun to read about horrible things happening to children and teenagers?  Also, the plague had very little to do with this story - disappointment.
25. The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan - Sign language is NOT of the devil, I swear. Also, people are horrible.
26. Red Garden by Alice Hoffman - As usual, very well written.  A quick, pleasant read.
27. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley - Beauty and the Beast retelling.  Meh.
28. Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry - Inexplicable, essentially useless "I'm magically bonded to a sea serpent!" story line tacked onto your basic small-town-girl-is-more-powerful-than-you-think-and-saves-the-kingdom plot. It could have lifted right out with no trouble - I felt like I was reading two books at once and just getting them confused with each other.  While trying to develop a mythology around the "Serpentinas" (pardon my eye-roll), she forgot to develop the kingdom in peril plot into anything even remotely tense or weighty.  Aren't coups sort of important? Maybe she should haveOH LOOK!  A SPECIAL GIRL WITH A SPECIAL SEA SERPENT FRIEND! SQUEEEE!
29. Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan - Young British girl in colonial India learns that people shouldn't be stomped all over no matter what your dashing military father or terrifyingly stingy aunt might say.
30. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell - SpecTACular word-smithing! Relatively interesting but strangely detached characters!  The regular world is a fascinating but horrible place full of off-putting people!  Sudden child molestation! 
31. Touch by Alexi Zentner - An amazing Canadian-family-ghost-history-monster-small-town-fiction story about loss, connection and the presence and power of the past in our lives.
32. The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein - Fairy tales are real and can make you both lucky AND unhappy!  Also, hippies.
33. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown - I want to live in a small town with my family and read and bake bread all day.  But I will skip the cancer, embezzlement, extramarital affairs, unplanned pregnancy and self-imposed guilt.
34. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo - For the love of God, BE NICE TO HORSES!  Like Black Beauty but with war. Read it in an afternoon, loved it, went online and instantly became a little obsessed when I found it's already a play with the most BITCHIN' puppets (I want to see it so badly!  I own the amazing soundtrack! It won the Tony for best play!), and has been made into a movie! I'll probably cry like a baby when I see it.
35. What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz - Serial killer ghosts.  God dislikes horrible murders, fights them with time travel.

My goodness, I'm so proud of myself! As of now I've read 92% new stuff.  That's unheard of for me, a lifelong re-reader of books.  

19% General fiction

17% YA fiction

25% Sci fi/fantasy/horror

25% YA sci fi/fantasy/horror

6% Non-fiction

8% comic books