Best of 2011: Books Published in 2011

Yesterday, I talked about the best books I read in 2011. Today, I finish the Best of 2011 series with a post about my favourite books published in 2011. 

As I mentioned yesterday, narrowing this list down to five books was easy. However, ranking those books? It was nearly impossible. Each book on this list is on my all-time favourites list, and they could all be tied for number one. 

5. Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins

"Just because something isn't practical doesn't mean it's not worth creating."

Read my full review here. If I were an objective person, this book would not be on the list. There are problems with it, and I recognize those. However, I checked this book out during midterm season, right before a weekend I spent locked away in room. This book became my study-break, and reading it was the highlight of my weekend. It's so easy to get swept up in the sweet love story Perkins creates, and I felt like I was right there in San Francisco with Lola and Cricket. Also, the Anna and Etienne scenes were such a nice touch. Unfortunately, Santa didn't bring me Cricket like I asked for, but there's always next year, right? ;)

4. How to Save a Life - Sara Zarr

Sara Zarr is the master of quiet stories that capture your heart. This book could have been melodramatic, but it never felt that way; it was heart-shattering in how realistic it was. But, after Zarr shattered your heart, she took the time to put it back together. Also, this book is probably the best example of dual-POV I've read. Mandy and Jill had unique voices, and I cared about both of them. I often skip POV's in dual-POV novels to read the one I enjoy more, but I was never tempted to do that with How to Save a Life. I also loved the way the love-triangle is handled in this novel. It's nice to see one where both boys are viable options.

3. Divergent - Veronica Roth

"A brave man acknowledges the strength of others."

You don't know how many times I tried to review this book, but gave up because all I wanted to say was, "I really liked it!" I'm having the same problem now. But, there's something wonderful about that. It's rare for me to read a book now without thinking about it critically for a review, or analytically for my English classes. Roth pulled me into her story in a way that allowed me to focus on and enjoy the story. So, to sum up: I really liked  this book!

2. Like Mandarin - Kirsten Hubbard

"A person's actions could be interpreted in a number of  ways, depending on who was watching."

Read my full review here. Honestly, I said it all in my review. This is another personal book for me. I've been Grace, and this is one of those books I wish I was around when I was fifteen years old. All I can hope is that teenage girls who feel the way I did find this book, because I have no doubts that it'll help them. I had high expectations for Like Mandarin, but Hubbard surpassed them. Her characterization is spot-on and her prose is beautiful without being pretentious. I recommend this book to anyone who's ever been a teenage girl. 

1. Where She Went - Gayle Forman

"I wait for the day that you'll resurrect me."

I didn't expect this. I liked If I Stay, but it wasn't a favourite of mine. I expected to enjoy Where She Went, but not for it to be my favourite book of 2011, and one of my favourite books of all-time. I still remember sitting outside, reading this, and getting so into that, to use a cliche, the rest of the world disappeared. I also listened to Adam-esque music while I read it, and I found myself turning the volume up as I read and feeling everything. Adam's not always likable, but oh my gosh, I ached for that boy. I listened to this audiobook on my commute to and from school in November, which was a mistake, because I nearly cried on the bus. The prose in this book was incredible as well; there were moments I had to put the book down because I was so excited about the prose. When I went through the goodreads quotes to find one for this post, each quote brought me right back to a moment in the novel, and the emotion associated with that part. It's my favourite book of 2011 because no book made me feel as much as it did.

Best of 2011: Books Read in 2011

…That were not published in 2011. I divide my favourite books of the year into two categories: The best books I read in 2011 that were not published in 2011, and the best books I read in 2011 that were published in 2011.

Both lists posed different challenges. I read a lot of books in 2011 which were published in different years, and I had trouble narrowing it down to five. It was easy, however ,to choose my five favourite books published in 2011, but impossible to rank them, because they’re some of my all-time favourites. Don’t worry, you’ll hear more about my angst over that tomorrow.

So, how did I solve the problem for today’s list? Well, I have six books on the list instead of five. I won’t tell if you wont.

                  6. You Against Me - Jenny Downham

"Do you want this to be a love story?"

Full disclosure: I finished this book yesterday, and it was the first book I read on my shiny new e-reader. So, I’m attached to it, and I’m not sure how I’ll handle it when the library copy expires and I can’t click on the steamy and sweet scenes anymore. Seriously, this was the first book in a long time I went into without expectations. Sure, I loved Before I Die, and I read reviews for it awhile ago, but I’d forgotten by the time I downloaded the book. I didn’t even remember what the plot was. And guys, that made for such a nice and surprising reading experience. I’m not a fan of third person, but Downham made me forget that the book was in third person (I didn’t realize it until I was a few pages in, honestly,) because she still brought my into the characters’ heads. The plot kept me turning the pages (and I’m not typically a stay-up-until-two-in-the-morning-reading girl) and the characters gave me a reason to care.

5. I Know It's Over - C.K. Kelly Martin

"How many times can a person break your heart?"

Read my full review here. Martin’s such a rockstar. I’d argue that she writes the most realistic books in YA today, and I Know It’s Over is the perfect example of it. Nick’s voice is smart and poignant and so real; it almost feels like he’s your brother, the way you grow to know and care about him. The plot could’ve been melodramatic, but it wasn’t; Martin told the story in an honest and heart-felt way, which made it feel like the story of your brother. Also, this book is so Canadian, and I think this is the first time that a book which isn’t about mining in the maritimes (you guys don’t understand how many of those I had to read for school,) has felt Canadian to me.

3. Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler

"I'm heavy, like there's too much gravity on my heart."

Read my full review here. Ugh, this was the perfect summer read. Not because it’s a light-hearted romance—don’t let the title fool you—but because it captures the magic of summer so well. This was the book I wish I read when I was a teenager. This book deals with so many themes I could relate to—loss, summer love, how to handle temporainess—and I’m sure others relate to, as well. It’s become a really personal  book to me.

3. Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

"Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?"

It’s true, I didn’t read this until 2011. It’s the only book I read twice in 2011, actually; I read it for the first time in February, and for the second time when I went to Kazakhstan in July. I brought it to Kazakhstan because it’s the ultimate comfort read. Anna’s voice is perfect, self-deprecrating but still smart, and always funny. And, of course, there’s the Boy Wonder himself: Eh-tienne. I’m more of a Cricket girl myself, but St. Clair still made me swoon. This book is cute and poignant, and I think it’ll be my comfort-read for many years to come.

2. Please Ignore Vera Dietz – A.S. King

"If we're supposed to ignore everything that's wrong in our lives, then I can't see how we'll ever make things right."

To quote my goodreads review, "This is the kind of book that makes me wish I was a high school teacher so I could assign it to my students. It's just really, really good." And honestly, I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s just so good. But I’ll try anyway: It’s insightful but never pretentious. It has characters unlike any other characters I’ve read in YA that you care about. Its plot is page-tuner. It takes risks. It’s good.

.

1. A Blue So Dark – Holly Schindler

"Sanity is a sonnet with a strict meter and rhyme scheme-and my mind is free verse."

Read my full review here. Honestly, there’s not much more that I can say that I didn’t say in my review. This book caught me so off-guard. I didn’t expect to like it. I definitely didn’t expect it to get inside me the way it did. But, it joins Sarah Dessen’s The Truth About Forever in being one of the few books that I’ve connected with in a way I can’t even describe. Not only did this book help me deal with some issues in my personal life, but it also made me write again. That’s a pretty powerful book.

My connection to is why it’s number one, but don’t think that means it’s any less brilliant of a book. The charactertization and portrayal of relationships is spot-on and the prose is brilliant and poignant. Of all the books I read in 2011, this is the one I’ll take the most from.

What were your favourite books read in 2011?

I'll post my  favourite books published in 2011 tomorrow! 

Book Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn't believe in fashion...she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola's sytle is outrageous, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. (Summary and picture from goodreads.)

There are problems with Lola and the Boy Next Door. The plot is unrealistic, characters become villains when it’s convenient for them to be, and Lola is almost a manic pixie dreamgirl. I care about those problems.

 I care about Lola and Cricket more.

It’s unfair but inevitable to compare this book to Anna and the French Kiss. Halfway through Lola, I thought, “Oh my gosh, I like this more than Anna. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?” Unfortunately, I wasn’t crazy about Lola’s ending, so Anna is still my favourite of the two. But, there were moments of Lola where I thought it may be the best YA Romance I’ve ever read.

My love for Lola exists because of my love for Cricket. Etienne in Anna  was playful and charmning, but Cricket…he’s nice. And so real. I’ve know Etienne’s, sure, but almost always at a distance. The Cricket’s I’ve known have been some of my best friends and biggest crushes, so of course, I connected to Cricket more than I did to Etienne.

As she did in Anna, Perkins writes Lola with a teenage voice that is properly comic, melodramatic, and unique. She gives her characters passion which show that they are people beyond their romantic relationships. And, she can write a good kissing scene.

If you liked Anna, read this book. If you like romances, read this book, If you like books, read this book. 

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura's dad left them. Convinced that "creative" equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears. (Summary taken from goodreads.)

Based on its premise, Holly Schindler's Playing Hurt is my perfect match. I love reading about romance, sports, physical disabilities (especially in the context of sports), and love triangles, and Playing Hurt has all of the above.

But my library didn't have it. They had her debut novel, A Blue So Dark, which looked like a great book, but a great book for someone else. Poetic prose, mental illness, exploration of art, little romance...it just wasn't my type.

But it does have a gorgeous cover, so even though I wasn't crazy about the premise, I took it out because it was good looking. Ahem.

I approached it thinking: Ok, I'll try to appreciate this book for what it is, but if I can't get into it, it'll be nice eye-candy.

Now that I've finished the book, I realized the book approached me thinking: You have no idea what I'm going to do you. I'm going to go so far inside you that you'll forget what's fictional and what's real. I'm going to bring up memories and emotions you've worked for years to forget because they hurt too much. I'm going to explore your biggest fears...

And show you there's a way out of them. I'm going to show you that you're ok.

I'm going to make you write again.

Sure, I could talk about this book's gorgeous prose, realistic characterization, incredible portrayal of relationships...but who really cares when a book does that to you?

I have no experience with mental illness, so I did not see this coming. But I had a mom, and I have best friends, and I've had crushes, and I'm a writer. And I understood Aura's experiences, even if mine were different.

I'm between projects and haven't written more than 2k in the past two weeks. I had plenty of ideas, but I wasn't inspired. I didn't remember why I wrote, and honestly, it was all starting to seem pointless.

But I read this book, and I remembered, and then I wrote. And I'll just keep writing.

Book Review: Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

Before Like Mandarin came out, I read its query  and fell in love with the premise. I stalked kept track of the book after that, reading every ARC review and interview, following Kirsten's blog, and counting down until March 8th.

  

Then March 8th came, and I was beginning to save money for my trip to Kazakhstan, and the library didn't have it in stock yet. When the library did get it, there was always another book to read, something else to do, yada yada yada. Finally, I began the book on Tuesday, and finished it yesterday.

 I'm a slow reader, and I enjoy being a slow reader. For me, reading is like taking a vacation in another world, and I want it to last. The last book I read as quickly as I read Like Mandarin was Courtney Summer's Fall For Anything, which is an all-time favourite of mine. In fact, since Like Mandarin was the last book in my pre-Kazakhstan TBR pile, I had to stop myself from reading it in one sitting. I was hooked.

Though Like Mandarin's premise intrigued me, as I read reviews, I wondered if I'd enjoy the book as much as I first thought I would. Not that the reviews were bad--they were fantastic, actually--but they complimented Kirsten on her setting, and mentioned it was an engrossing read despite the lack of romance.

Setting bores me, and romance is my favourite part of any novel. I was a little worried.

But, I had no reason to be. Though the details of setting tends to bore me, I love books set in small towns, and Kirsten captured one perfectly with Washokey. I felt as though I was in the town as I read, and I understood how it affected the characters, how the wildwinds made people go crazy. I didn't skim over the town's physical details, because I wanted to know everything about it. 

As for the lack of romance, the relationships in this book are so real, and thus engaged me as much--if not more--than a romantic relationship would've. Grace's relationships with her sister, mother,  "friends", and Davey--I loved Davey--all fascinated me, and I believed in all of them.


Of course, Grace's relationship with Mandarin is the focus of the book, and oh my gosh, it is perfect. I've been Grace. When I was fifteen, I met a girl who only ever became an acquaintance, but was my Mandarin. Like Grace is with Mandarin, I was infatuated with her. She was beautiful in a way I'd never seen before. She often came to class in the morning, hungover, from a city twenty minutes away, after spending the night with a boy or girl  in their twenties. When she dated someone, she flirted with everyone else. Every conversation I had her with her felt like--and even now, I assume was--a test to see how experienced I was. I'm straight, but she's the one girl who made me question that.


And sometimes she came to class crying, and I realized her life wasn't the one I wanted, after all. I wish this book was around when I was fifteen, as I may have realized that sooner.


Grace and Mandarin are both three-dimensional, real, relatable characters, and it's so refreshing to see an example of how, for lack of a better term, strange a friendship can be in high school, while still seeming normal and necessary to those involved in it.

I haven't even mentioned Kirsten's prose, which is simply too good to ignore. It's gorgeous without being pretentious, poignant, and fills me with writer-envy. Her dialgoue is wonderful, too.


I got this book from the library, but I can't wait to buy my own copy. I want to reccommend it to every teenager I know.

Like Mandarin is on my all-time favourites list, and I can't wait to read the books Kirsten releases in the future.

Championing Contemporary YA: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps."  I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's "Fabbity fab fab!" (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

---

In grade nine, we often had silent reading at the beginning of English class. Nine times out of ten, I brought a Confessions of Georgia Nicolson book to class--often one I'd already read--as did nine out of ten girls in my class. 

We didn't have breaks between most classes, nor were we allowed to carry our schoolbags, so I had to bring my English books to science class. One day, my science teacher saw my book and asked me, dead serious, "What's snogging?"

And that was one of those rare times when all the girls I went to junior high with laughed together, instead of at each other. #YASaves, friends, YA saves.

Junior high was as awkward of an experience for me as it was for everyone else. But, I was so lucky to have a wonderful group of friends, who made even the worst days bearable. We all read this series. We measured any progress with boys by the snogging scale. All boys were given nicknames, much like Dave the Laugh and Robbie the Sex God. We were French immersion students, so it was natural for us to follow Georgia's example and speak in Franglais. 

I can't speak for them, but it's a safe assumption that we all saw ourselves in Georgia like I did (and we quite possibly saw each other the way Georgia sees Jas ;)). Of course, Georgia's a bit exaggerated, but everything feels so dramatic as a fourteen-year-old. Rennison captures that well, and even gives her readers a good-natured way to poke fun at themselves.

Oh, and this book is really funny. Like, really funny. Probably not the best book to bring for silent reading, as I definitely remember some girls (myself included) cracking up as they read it in class.

If I were to teach English to junior high students, I would love to assign these books to them. It's not The Giver, which I read and adored in junior high, but it's a funny, well-written series which united girls who were, more often than not, making life terrible for each other. Also, people who said they hated to read picked up this series by choice, and loved it. What more could an English teacher ask for?

For the record, I never answered my science teacher's question, because a girl I'd had issues with in the past saved me with a smart explanation, that surprisingly wasn't awkward at all. And that was a great moment. 

Championing Contemporary YA: Beatle Meets Destiny

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps."  I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Imagine your name is John Lennon, only everyone calls you Beatle. 

And then you meet your dream girl and her name is Destiny McCartney. 

But what if you're already with the perfect girl? 

A novel about change, chance and everybody doing the wrong thing. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

---

I'm infatuated with Australia. One day, I will go there, hang out with all of my awesome Australian friends, and then I will buy all the books. I mean it. I will buy all of them. 

I'd heard wonderful things about Beatle Meets Destiny, so when I realized it was available in Canada land, I looked a bit like this:

That was also how I reacted as I read the book.

This is a fun, fast-paced read. It's clever and entertaining, while also emotional and hopeful. I laughed out loud multiple times (once in the middle of a Tim Horton's, which proves that I could not censor my reactions to this book), felt for the characters, and turned pages like a maniac when the plot started to get twisty. I love elements of mystery in a story, and much like another one of my favourite Aussie authors, Jaclyn Moriarty, Williams kept me guessing until everything was revealed. Despite the plot essentially being a string of (in)convenient  coincidences (to be clear, that's not a criticism. I think since Willaims committed to it, it worked well), the book itself felt so realistic. Beatle and Destiny are so believable, and I love that they talk about their family and friends in a slightly exaggerated way, because  that tends to be how we view people. Also, the dialogue is perfect. Williams captured flirting so well by showing how often it is about saying really strange things (at least, that's been my experience, and I was relieved to find Beatle and Destiny's conversations to also be randomly romantic.)

Excuse me while I fly to Australia.

Championing Contemporary YA: Twenty Boy Summer

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps." I love contemporary YA (shocker, I know), so I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."

"Okay."

"Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?"

"Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?"

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie—-she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

This book was released June 1st, 2009, and I should have read it that July.


Instead, I picked it up in the bookstore approximately a million times, stared at the cover because it's gorgeous, read the back cover and knew it was book I'd enjoy. But, I always put it back down, because I couldn't get past the title.


I was almost eighteen, an adult according to Nova Scotia's laws. I was going to university in the fall as an English major. I couldn't read books about boys--especially twenty boys!--and summer anymore. I was mature, an intellectual, someone who loved William Wordsworth and The Canterbury Tales and would force herself into liking Shakespeare (ugh, Past Me and Present Me don't get along too well.)


I do love William Wordsworth and The Canterbury Tales. The only Shakespeare play I've ever loved is 1 Henry IV (I know, but Hal's my boy), I've liked a couple others, and hated the rest. In July of 2009, I entered into the weirdest relationship of my life, and it was with boys and summer.


I went away to a small town for a week in July where no one knew me, much like Anna and Frankie do in Twenty Boy Summer (though New Brunswick isn't quite California.) I met a boy. He taught me how to flirt. He and I had conversations I'd written, but I never thought I'd get to experience. He gave the best hugs, taught me how to play basketball, and was the closest I'd ever come to something. 


Then the week ended, I went home, and had a five-minute conversation with him over MSN. That was the last time I talked to him.


And it was hard, because I missed him, because I wanted to know what would happen if we'd had more time, because we never defined what we did have and I didn't know if it was something I could miss. When I read Twenty Boy Summer almost two years later (so, last week), I was over it, but I wished I would've read this book back then. I know it would've helped, and maybe I'd have another #YASaves story to tweet.


It's hard not to get spoiler-y here, so all I'll say is that temporariness is a theme of this book, and I love the way it's handled. Ockler recognizes that nothing lasts forever, and through her characters, expresses that, sometimes, that really sucks. I love that, because it validates every single time I've missed someone, and haven't moved on when, according to everyone else, I should've. That goes for the boy I met two summers ago, and to people I miss much more deeply than that, like my mom. There's a brilliant passage on the back cover which talks about how the acceptable grieving period is three months. As any book--including this one--and any person whose ever lost someone will tell you, the grieving period never ends, and it can be as intense ten years after you lost someone as it was the day you lost them. That's really hard, and Ockler shows that it's ok for it to be that hard.


But, Ockler also shows that temporariness can be beautiful, and even hopeful. She shows how everyone you meet and everything you do shapes who you are, and thus people never really leave you. I was so hopeful after I finished this book.


That's what affected me the most about this book, but there were so many other great things about it. It made me fall in love with summer all over again, a season I honestly believe is magical. As a Nova Scotia girl whose always been in love with the ocean, I appreciated all the attention Ockler gave to the ocean. Frankie and Annie's friendship is one of the best portrayals of friendship I've ever read.


Don't judge a book by it's title.


Have you read this book? What do you think of it? What's your favourite contemporary YA book?