Best Books of 2011

I had set a goal for myself to read 100 books in 2011. I knew it was a stretch goal, but I thought I'd see how close I could get. I ended up reading 40 books total this year and probably started, but did not finish another 15 or so. They were not finished either because they were due back at the library and I could not renew them or I just could not get into the book and decided not to force myself to finish it. That 40 does not count the fact that I re-read the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood Series.

Lots of online forums are asking what was the best book you read in 2011. I don't know if I can qualify one book as being the best because I read books from many different genres, but I will summarize a few of the books I enjoyed the most.

Here is my list of books read for the year.

The book that suprised me the most:
Soulless by Gail Carriger--I started this book really not liking it, but I continued to read it to give it a fair chance since so many of my friends and ended up really liking it. I read all four books in the series this year.

Best Non-Fiction:
Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein--Over the course of reading information online about birth options, I saw this book and the documentary they also made mentioned several times. I decided to read it and see what I thought. The main premise of their book is that no matter what type of birth you have, have the one you want. Reading this book was really the turning point from me being somewhat depressed about the pregnancy to realizing I can do it and have a really good birth. I highly recommend it.

Enjoyable Historical Fiction:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Tamar by Mal Peet
I am not a historical fiction reader and I was really suprised how much I liked all three of these books. The Book Thief is told from the point of view of a young girl from the age of 10-13 during WWII, The Other Boleyn Girl is about Anne Boleyn, and Tamar is told from the point of view of a young girl in the early 2000s and her grandfather during WWII. They are all three very different, but they were able to hold my attention.

I read several other really good books including several popular books for the year (The Hunger Games, Room and Robopocalypse), but these are some of the ones that stuck out for me during the last year.