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2011 Wrap-Up Despite 2011 Not Being Over

Have you all noticed that EVERYONE is updating today? Like, to the point where I almost didn't. But then I said "Screw that! I'm adding to everyone's feeds!"




You know what I enjoy? Ridiculous categories. Let's create some.

Book I Most Expected to Be Horrible But Which Exceeded My Horribleness Expectations: Twilight. What a piece of shit that book is. All I have to say is: "I would have been angrier if his laughter wasn't so fascinating."

Classic That Is Actually Eye-Poking-Out Bad: The Scarlet Pimpernel. I have a tag for that book. And it's not "OMG THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL IS AMAZING." Because I am not a dirty liar.

Lesbian Book Everyone Loved But Which I Don't Get Because It Is SO VAGUE: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. You know who sympathized with me about this book? My 15-year-old cousin Kathleen, who had to read it for school. SHE got that it was maddeningly vague. When I picked it up I was all "Hurray! A book with sexy ladytimes!" But you know what was missing? SEXY LADYTIMES. Instead it was all "Wait, what just happened? Is she still 12? No wait, that would be horrible. She's 18 here. I think. Maybe?" And like...the whole book was like that. I need CLEAR, DEFINED HAPPENINGS. And ideally, some ladies in 19th c. dresses looking soulfully at each other while drinking tea.

Best 'I'm a Funny Person and I'm Gonna Write a Book' Book: Humorous essay collections. So hot right now. Bossypants by Tina Fey (like you needed me to say that), The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman, and Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch all got 4/5 from me on Goodreads. But you know what got 5/5? How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent. It's still available for Kindle for less than six bucks. It's hilarious, and Julie and I have both adopted 'multi-application spiraling circle of hell syndrome' as a term.

Best Book I Ignored for Ages Because I Didn't Want to Read About Gay Dudes But Then It Turned Out to Be Amazing: Will Grayson, Will Grayson. This is seriously awesome. To the point of me being willing to read anything else by the authors. Everyone should read it; I don't care what your genre preferences are.

Book I Have Most Referred to Through the Year: The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. Get it, read it, love it.


So there's that. I feel bad not mentioning a bunch of other books. Read The Family Fang if you can. Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue (author of Room) is an awesome collection of kind-of-lesbianized fairytales, but aside from that it's just really well done. The Parasol Protectorate  and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress were disappointing. If you ignore Little Nell, The Old Curiosity Shop is truly excellent.

In other news, excluding memoirs, I read precisely three nonfiction books this year. That's not...good. Gotta work on that.

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