Rowena: It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that we’re doing things a little later than we planned. I did something that I never thought possible ever in the year 2011. I read 150 books. Despite losing my Mom, my nephew fighting cancer and worrying about everything under the sun, I found time to read 150 books. To say that I’m happy is not even close to the truth.
Holly: I set a reading goal of 211 books for 2011. Unfortunately I fell short. I read 191, including rereads. I’m not beating myself up about it, though. I had a pretty hard pregnancy, which means I couldn’t concentrate. Then I had the baby, and we all know how that goes…
According to Goodreads, I rated 23 books with 5 stars. 11 of those were rereads of old favorites. That isn’t quite accurate, however. Because Goodreads doesn’t do half ratings, I tend to grade high. In actuality, I gave five books a 5 star rating. I’m cheating a bit. Two of my top reads of 2011 don’t come out until 2012. Since I read them in 2011, however, I’m including them here.
1. Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
4. A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
5. What I Did For a Duke by Julie Anne Long
When I initially read these books – with the exception of Heart of Steel – I would have rated them in the 4.5-4.75 range. I ended up giving them 5 stars because I kept going back to them. I think I re-read Dragon Bound something like 40 times throughout the year. If that doesn’t deserve a 5 star rating, I don’t know what does. Unfortunately, I haven’t reviewed most of these. I always struggle to write reviews for the books I love. I’m going to work on doing better in that regard this year.
Casee: I didn’t make a goal for the number of books in 2011 because I had no idea that I could read so few books in one year. That should make my Best/Worst of lists very easy this year. I only read 91 books in 2011. That is really pathetic for me. I think I regressed to sixth grade.
Without further ado, here are my top five three.
1. Home Front by Kristin Hannah
2. Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh
3. Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
I couldn’t pick five. These were the three that were the most memorable.
These titles look interesting- I’m going to check them out…and you all have inspired me to definitely make it my goal to read more books : )
Rowena, I’m honored to be on your list. Twice! 🙂
I really need to try that Courtney Milan series! EVERYONE raves about it. Same with Dragon Bound.
I’m definitely feeling like I need to pick both those things up immediately. I know I can trust your taste, because all the books I’ve read that correspond with what you listed were up in my favorites range as well.
Great lists, ladies! I also really enjoyed Kiss of Snow and Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound. I’m glad to see Oracle’s Moon on your list, after reading the second book in her series and thinking it was really lack luster I’ve been hemming and hawing about reading the other books. I’ll be sure to pick that one up though.
Paula – do you keep track of your reads? I didn’t for the longest time. Now I like seeing what I read each month. Especially since my memory isn’t what it used to be.
Allison – I hope you’ll let us know what you think if you decide to read the.
Samantha – I thought the 2nd book fell flat, but I enjoyed the 3rd quite a bit.
@Paula: Good luck with reading more books. Like Holly, I like to keep track of the books that I read each month. It’s interesting to see what moods I was in each month.
@Jill Shalvis: Thank YOU for writing books that I can’t help but love. How’s Adam’s book coming along?
@Allison: I definitely recommend the Courtney Milan series, it’s wonderfully written with faulous characters. You’ll love it, I’m sure of it!
@Samantha: Shhh, I’m trying to go long periods of time without talking about that series because Holly swears she’s going to make me read it but I don’t want to…not right now, anyway. =)