Reading Stats 2011

Reading statistics from the year 2011. There are a few books that I started in 2010 and have not finished. If they have been around for at least a month I counted them as unread for 2011 since I probably won’t finish them. Unfinished books are included in the stats.

The summary is in % followed by raw numbers. This year I attempted to read 84 books and finished 75 (about 10% unfinished.) A significant drop from last year, 104/94. Translations got a boost via Scandinavian mysteries.

56% Fiction/Literature  47
26% Mystery  22
6% Science Fiction/Fantasy  5
6% Thriller 5
2% Non-Fiction  2
2% Graphic Novels  2
1% YA 1

45% Men 38
55% Women 46
14% Translations 12

Swedish 3
German 3
Icelandic 2
Norwegian 1
Spanish 1
Japanese 1
French 1

77% Liked 65
13% Ambivalent 11
10% Disliked 8
11% Reviewed 9
7% Book Club 6
19% Would recommend 15

Light from a Distant Star

My review of Light from a Distant Star by Mary McGarry Morris is available online at Library Journal (August, 2011.)  You will need to scroll down from the top of the Fiction Reviews page to read it. It’s about halfway down. I didn’t like it. I haven’t read any of her other novels so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the problems with the plot were exceptions rather than the rule.

Luminous Airplanes

My review of Luminous Airplanes by Paul La Farge is available online at Library Journal (September 1, 2011). The review is on the Fiction Reviews page. Scroll about halfway down the fiction section. Not really my thing, but it should appeal to lots of people who are not me. I’m glad to see Library Journal left in my description of it as a WMFUN (White Male Fuck-Up Novel), a phrase I stole from The Morning News Tournament of Books,* as it sums up the novel in one short phrase.

*This link leads to a discussion of Next as a WMFUN, the WMFUN’s relationship to chick-lit and why the writers think WMFUNs get taken more seriously than chick-lit.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

My review of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker and translated from the German by Kevin Wiliarty is available online at Library Journal (November 1, 2011). The review is near the bottom of the Fiction Reviews page. Not my kind of thing but I could see how other readers, less cynical readers, might like it.

Angela Sloan

My review of Angela Sloan by James Whorton Jr. is available online at Library Journal (August 5, 2011). It is listed in the Xpress Reviews section under the Fiction heading. There will be scrolling. I need to review more authors whose last names are at the beginning of the alphabet. I liked this one, but it is a little out there.

Untold Story

My review of Untold Story by Monica Ali is available online at Library Journal (June 15, 2011). The review is the second one on the Fiction Reviews page. No scrolling! I was not a fan, but it’s hard to be mean in 175 words. It probably won’t make you want to read the novel, so still effective.

In This Light: New and Selected Stories

My review of In this Light: New and Selected Stories by Melanie Rae Thon is available online at Library Journal (May 15, 2011.) You’ll need to scroll almost all the way to the end of the Fiction Reviews page; that’s where they stick the short story reviews.

Oil on Water

My review of Oil on Water by Helon Habila is available online at Library Journal. You will need to scroll down from the top of the Fiction Reviews page to read it. It’s from the April 15, 2011 edition. I also have a copy of Conquistadora which I look forward to reading.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

This heavily annotated novel by Reif Larsen is self-consciously quirky. The only normal character is T.S.’s sister Grace and she stands out as the weird one amongst so many oddballs. T.S. Spivot and his parents are all extremes. T.S. and his mom, Dr. Clair, are both undiagnosed obsessive/compulsives. Dr. Clair is obsessed with beetles, and has been trying to find a rare, possibly non-existent beetle for twenty years. T.S maps everything. A number of the maps are included in the margins of the novel. The father is a silent looming figure, an outdoorsy cowboy type that T.S., the scientist, feels little kinship with.

It was one of these maps that got T.S. invited to the Smithsonian as the recipient of the Baird Award. Because of the strained relationship he has with his parents since the shooting death of his younger brother, Layton, T.S. keeps the invitation a secret. He decides to ride the rails from his home state of Montana to Washington D.C. without telling his parents.

The emotional heart of the novel is Layton, the younger brother whose death has devastated the Spivot family; who cannot or will not speak of Layton’s death. The novel is touching and T.S. is a smart yet naïve young boy who is well aware that he is being thrust into adulthood before he is ready, but does not know what he needs to do to stay a child amidst of his slowly disintegrating family.

Last Rituals

Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s “Last Rituals”  is an Icelandic novel of secret symbols, medieval witchcraft and modern murder. Thora Gundmundsdottir is a lawyer and single mother. Matthew Reich is a lawyer dispatched to Iceland following the murder of a German graduate student, Harald Guntlieb. Haralod had been studying witchcraft and witch trials at the University of Iceland and may have gotten a little too involved in his research. Matthew, who works for the Guntlieb family, teams up with Thora to solve Harald’s murder.

We know enough about Thora’s personal life to connect with her, but not too much to distract the reader from the mystery. The historical information is extensive, yet fascinating. We learn, along with Thora, about the “Witch’s Hammer,” medieval sorcery and the history of witch trials in Iceland. There is a lot of background information but it does not distract from the mystery. The tour of the Witchcraft museum is a delightfully creepy treat, and minus the tour guide, pretty accurate. (The museum is real and they do indeed have a pair of pants made from human skin on display.)

Even if you never plan to visit Iceland, I highly recommend “Last Rituals” for fans of mystery and suspense novels.