The Best Albums of 2011

2011 was the year I fell back in love with music.  It helped that I had ended a soul-crushingly bad relationship at the end of 2010 and felt reawakened in every sense of the word.  It also helped that I started dating boys who were total music freaks.  Wherever the credit is due, the fact remains that I have consumed an immense amount of music this year.  After a lot of thought and a lot of agonizing, these are the 10 albums that stood out to me this year.

1. EMA — Past Life Martyred Saints

Erika M. Anderson is the woman behind EMA.  Before becoming EMA, she was in the band Gowns, and this, her debut album as a solo artist, is something of a departure for her.  It’s also really, really great.  Past Life Martyred Saints is an album that relies on solo guitar, piano, voice and tape collage, and the result is beautiful, haunting, and intimate.  It takes a couple of listens, but this is without a doubt one of my favorite albums of the year.

Favorite Track: “California” (see video)

2. Yuck — Yuck

Yuck is a band that is often talked about in relation to 90s-revival music.  The band clearly loves the 90s–no one is denying that–and while their sound is definitely more than a little Pavement-meets-Dinosaur Jr.-meets-Teenage Fanclub-meets-Elliott Smith, they also manage to craft emotional songs that resonate with many listeners.  Their debut album is a coming-of-age record, and songs like “Get Away” (which is probably my favorite) and “Georgia” help make this album distinguish itself from the other 90s-throwbacks available.

Favorite Track: “Get Away”

3. Lykke Li — Wounded Rhymes

Li’s sophomore effort (a follow-up to 2008′s Youth Novels) is more cohesive than her first, but it still has the rough-around-the-edges feel that makes her so appealing.  The songs on Wounded Rhymes play with opposites and dichotomies, alternating between brash anthems and slower, more contemplative ballads.  It is a novel that grows each time it is listened to.  Li’s powerful vocals and intriguing lyrics only make the listening experience that much more powerful.

Favorite Track: “I Follow Rivers”

4. The Weeknd — House of Balloons

An internet sensation who blew up after some of his mixtape leaked and Drake signed him, The Weeknd’s House of Balloons is one of the two albums that Toronto-based Abel Tesfaye (the singer behind The Weeknd) released this year.  Both are very good; House of Balloons is better.  The druggy atmosphere of The Weeknd’s sound and lyrics means that it won’t work for everyone, but it’s hard to deny how creepily fantastic the songs on this mixtape are. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the songs focus on drugs and sex in an overt way, and that more often than not, the album’s content is a little terrifying.  That being said, it’s also really, really great.

Favorite Track: “House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls”

5. Smith Westerns — Dye it Blonde

The Chicago-based band was known for lo-fi music before the release of their second album, Dye it Blonde.  Before this album, the band’s sound was much noisier–the kind of garage-rock one would expect from a bunch of high school kids (which is what the band was doing when they released their first album).  The second album, created after being signed to Fat Possum, had the production budget teens usually only dream about.  The result is a much slicker, much more accessible sophomore album that retains the brilliant hooks the band promised their first go-around.

Favorite Track: “Weekend”

6. Cults — Cults

Cults first attracted attention when their single “Go Outside” appeared (magically) on the internet.  It was instantly catchy–how could it not be–but many wondered how far a band could go with such a hook and a sing-a-long feel to their music.  The reality: much farther than people thought.  The debut album from the New-York based duo provided not only the creepy song “Go Outside,” which features audio tape from infamous cult leaders, but also provides other startlingly resonant lo-fi pop music that keeps readers listening again and again.  While the 1960s girl-pop influence is pretty evident, the choices in editing are not as obvious and are quite the audio treat.

Favorite Track: Go Outside

7. Gang Gang Dance — Eye Contact

Although I’ve never been a fan of electronic music before, I’ve found a few albums this year that have worked especially well for me.  Gang Gang Dance’s Eye Contact is one of them.  Much more accessible than their earlier work, Eye Contact’s often joyful music provides the perfect accompaniment to those runs that I don’t quite want to finish.  Despite this, though, listeners should be warned: Gang Gang Dance is a weird band, and their music often pairs club beats with lyrics about communicating with the dead.  This is trippy stuff, but it’s also really entertaining.

Favorite Track: “MindKilla”

8. Wavves — Life Sux (EP)

Wavves is one of those bands that’s fairly polarizing: if you don’t like stoner noise-pop, you’re probably going to hate them.  If you do, you’re going to love them.  I’m not going to lie: I love Wavves.  The discovery of Nathan Williams and his weird, crazy music was the best thing to come out of one of my worst breakups ever this past spring.  King of the Beach just might be one of my favorite albums of all time, so I was pretty excited for this year’s Life Sux EP to come out.  While it doesn’t quite live up to my admittedly high expectations, Williams delivers more of what fans want: drug references, noisy guitar, and a completely ridiculous attitude.

Favorite Track: Nodding Off (feat. Best Coast)

9. Drake – Take Care

I loved Drake’s new album so much that I wrote a review of it a few weeks ago.  I’m not sure there’s much more to say about it: the album continues to grow on me and surprise me in new ways.  It’s emotional, introspective, and a little ridiculous.  I love it.  There isn’t a single song on the album that feels like filler.  Each one stands on its own.

Favorite Track: “Marvin’s Room”

10. tUnE-yArDs — Who Kill

Probably my favorite artist of 2011, tUnE-yArD’s Merrill Garbus is totally weird.  She’s not afraid of her weirdness, though, and her primal music reflects that.  Combining all sorts of music, including rock, funk, R&B, and funk into a sort of hybrid that is uniquely her own, tUnE-yArDs delivers another killer album full of infectious, thought-provoking songs that require repeat listens.  Have you seen the video for Bizness?  Why aren’t you watching it right now?

Favorite Track: “Bizness”

What are your favorite albums of the year?

The Best YA Books of 2011

Well, Gentle Readers, the time has come.  It’s time for me to compile a list of the 10 best YA books of 2011.  Criteria were simple: the book must be marketed to YA readers, and it must have been published in the United States in 2011.  Without further ado, here are the 10 YA books that blew me away this year.

1. Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

Listen up: You’re about to get rocked by the fiercest, baddest all-girl hip-hop crew in the Twin Cities – or at least in the wealthy, white, Bible-thumping suburb of Holyhill, Minnesota. Our heroine, Esme Rockett (aka MC Ferocious) is a Jewish lesbian lyricist. In her crew, Esme’s got her BFFs Marcy (aka DJ SheStorm, the butchest straight girl in town) and Tess (aka The ConTessa, the pretty, popular powerhouse of a vocalist). But Esme’s feelings for her co-MC, Rowie (MC Rohini), a beautiful, brilliant, beguiling desi chick, are bound to get complicated. And before they know it, the queer hip-hop revolution Esme and her girls have exploded in Holyhill is on the line.

I’ve extolled the virtues of Goode’s debut novel on this blog several times before, but it’s worth mentioning again.  I connected with this book in the rarest, purest of ways, and I loved every second of it.  Goode’s representations of faith, identity, and female friendship rang true, and it didn’t hurt that the girls in her story are funny as hell.  If you haven’t read this one, please don’t let the slang-filled summary dissuade you: go get your hands on a copy of this right now.

2. Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls might be one of the most polarizing YA books to come out of 2011.  It seems as though readers either hated it or loved it.  I fell into the second camp, though the book took a while to grow on me.  Rarely has a book gotten under my skin the way Imaginary Girls did.  I was so supremely creeped out while reading it that it was almost a painful process.  However, Suma’s beautiful prose, tight plotting, and compelling story about two sisters whose bond crosses from tight to inappropriate ultimately won me over.  This one is definitely worth a second look.

3. The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt

Drew’s a bit of a loner. She has a pet rat, her dead dad’s Book of Lists, an encyclopedic knowledge of cheese from working at her mom’s cheese shop, and a crush on Nick, the surf bum who works behind the counter. It’s the summer before eighth grade and Drew’s days seem like business as usual, until one night after closing time, when she meets a strange boy in the alley named Emmett Crane. Who he is, why he’s there, where the cut on his cheek came from, and his bottomless knowledge of rats are all mysteries Drew will untangle as they are drawn closer together, and Drew enters into the first true friendship, and adventure, of her life.

One of the most beautiful little books I think I’ve ever read, Reinhardt’s book about a girl, her rat, and her best friend made me want to believe in miracles.  Although it’s definitely not the flashiest book, this is one that stayed with me long after I finished the last page.  Beautiful.  Heartbreaking.

4. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss. The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming. . . .

This monster, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Full disclosure:  Before I picked up this book, I had read a bunch about it and didn’t think I was all that interested in it.  Despite the critical acclaim the novel was attracting, I couldn’t seem to muster the enthusiasm required to read it.  But then I started to read it at the gym.  I didn’t leave the treadmill until I finished it (sobbing).  It is absolutely emotionally resonant, true, and beautifully rendered.  It deserves the praise that has been heaped upon it, and if you haven’t read it, you should.  Right now.

5. Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .

In the summer before Cullen’s senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone’s eating “Lazarus burgers.” But as absurd as the town’s carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.

While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.

Despite my vaguely uncomfortable feelings about the female characters in Whaley’s book (I can’t be the only one, right?), I can’t deny that this book is something really extraordinary.  Literary fiction for the teen set, this book is definitely aimed at a more sophisticated reader.  Those who stick with it, though, will be fully rewarded.  Whaley crafts a story about Cullen and the people whose lives intersect with his that is compelling, fascinating, and a little nail-biting.  Worth it.

6. Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice. Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

What could have been a preachy, issue-driven novel in a lesser author’s hands becomes one of the  most compelling, heartbreaking stories of the year.  I remember reading this, being blown away by it, and forcing it into the hands of my much-more-skeptical younger sister on a camping trip this summer.  While she claimed to not like it as much as I did, she devoured the novel in about a day.  Full of flawed, realistic characters and a dark portrait of the rural south, this is a book that shouldn’t be missed.

7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Obviously, something went terribly wrong. Genetic mutations have festered, reducing human longevity to twenty-five, even less for most women. To prevent extinction, young girls are kidnapped, mated in polygamous marriages with men eager to procreate. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery, a recent victim of this breeding farm mentality, has vowed to break loose from its fetters; but finding allies and a safe way out is a challenge she can only hope she will survive.

The thing about Wither is that it could easily be like so many of the dystopian series that are popping up all over the place.  In fact, when I first started Wither, that’s pretty much what I thought.  But then I let myself stay in DeStefano’s world, and I started to realize that Wither offers much more than many of its peers in the dystopian genre: richly-drawn characters and absolutely gorgeous prose that never feels overwrought.  Whereas many books being marketed to dystopian fans seem to lack character development, Wither offers it in spades.  No character, however minor, is neglected.  That kind of attention to detail is worth taking a look at.

8. Blood Red Road by Moira Young 

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she’s a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Perhaps closest thing to replace The Hunger Games-shaped hole in many readers’ hearts is Blood Red Road, the first in a planned trilogy.  Part dystopian adventure, part science-fiction epic, this novel has a lot going on (probably a little too much): giant sand worms, hovercraft ships, sibling rivalry, undeniable attraction, etc.  Moving along at a whip-fast speed, Young’s novel about Saba (a seriously kick-ass heroine) is just enough adventure and fun to keep readers riveted.  I really liked this one.

9. Stay With Me by Paul Griffin

Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn’t expect to fall in love. She’s a sensitive A student; he’s a high school dropout. But soon they’re spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they’d planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can’t stay.

I’m not going to lie: this is not an easy book to read.  It’s clear from the start that life is not easy for Cece or Mack, and that things are definitely going to get worse.  But there’s something so compelling about the story that Griffin tells in Stay With Me that it’s impossible to stop yourself from rooting for these characters who continually mess up their lives.  It’s a beautiful love story, full of drama and heightened emotion that marks first love (especially in adolescence), but there’s also a lot of grittiness to the story.  Complex, well-written, and full of characters who will stay with readers for a long time.

10. Tighter by Adele Griffin

When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple’s tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie’s connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

A twisty little retelling of Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw, Griffin’s novel about an au pair whose perceptions of the world are already suspect before she starts seeing ghosts is one of the most entertaining novels I read all year.  Brilliantly paced and absolutely surprising, this is a book best read either on the beach or right around Halloween.  You won’t be disappointed.

There are other books that could have easily  made this list.  What did I miss?  What do you think belongs on this list?  Talk back, folks.

Rankings, Best of Lists, and Why I Love Them

 

If you’re a nerd like me, the end of the year means one thing: Best of Lists.  I love these lists so dearly.  I eagerly anticipate their arrival and then pour over them, comparing what I’ve seen/read/heard and what I haven’t, what I loved and what I hated.  For years, it’s been movies and books and maybe music.  This year, I had a sort of falling out with movies, and fell back in love with music (and by “fell back in love” I mean “became obsessive-compulsive about collecting”).  For the first time in a while, I’ve heard almost every album that’s making the best of music lists.  Even the really obscure ones.  Amazing?  Yes.

But I digress.

This post isn’t about the best of music (although I will be doing a post on that–so brace yourselves!).  This is a post about other dorks just like me who love to compile best of lists.  Like Kelly Jenson at The Hub, who has taken a look at the best of lists for YA books and done some hardcore awesome analysis.  It is amazing.

She looked at the superfecta (I had to look that one up, Readers) of review journals: Kirkus, School Library Journal, the Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly.  What she found is interesting, to say the least.  A few of the statistics:

• Combining all four lists, a total of 63 titles appeared, written by 69 authors and illustrators.
• The gender breakdown was 42% male, 58% female.
• 4 books–Chime, Anya’s Ghost, The Scorpio Races, and Blink & Caution–made all four lists.
• 3 books–A Monster Calls, Between Shades of Gray, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone–made three of the lists.
• 8 books featured a main character of color
• 2 had LGBTQ teens.

You should really go check out Jenson’s research–because it’s really interesting and has a lot of shiny graphs.  What’s most disconcerting to me is the lack of LGBTQ representation in books, as well as the relatively small number of books featuring characters of color.

Also, it would be interesting to compare the genders of authors making the list for children’s/YA with those on the best of adult fiction lists.  I have a feeling it would be very, very different.

Thoughts?  Opinions?

Golden Globe Awards 2011 Fashion Recap

Well, it’s here, y’all.  After months of eager anticipation, we’ve got awards show fever.  The dresses at last night’s show (which I didn’t even make it through, because that’s the kind of weekend I had) were pretty underwhelming and sometimes a bit head-scratching, actually.  Trends that I spotted included dresses in the champagne family, salmon-y pink numbers, and a lot of one-shoulder action.  As usual, here’s my completely unqualified rundown of what was there to be seen.

Starting on a positive note (or a positive jam, if I’m channeling The Hold Steady), Glee’s Amber Riley absolutely killed it.  Look at how hot she looks!  While I am, admittedly, not a fan of the one-shoulder strap, everything about this dress is working for her.  The black belt cuts her waist in a flattering way, the sparkles aren’t overwhelming, and the train is just the right length for her to rock it properly.  Nicely done.

Next up is Amy Adams, who looks great in a navy blue strapless number.  Although the weird poofy thing on the front is a bit much, I thought she looked pretty good, actually, and I was happy to see she did something with her hair, as opposed to just letting it hang in her face.

Then there was Anne Hathaway, whose dress did absolutely nothing for me.  I didn’t feel like it was a flattering color, and I thought that the huge shoulder pads were way too eighties (and not in a good way).  It fit her nicely, and the back was mostly just a plunging cut-out, but overall the effect was less than breathtaking.  Her hair is pretty gorgeous, though.  I have hair jealousy.

Moving on.  Can we talk about Christina Aguilera for a minute?  Something about this dress is very mid-to-late 90s for me, and I don’t like it one bit.  Also, her hair looks terrible–it’s clear that she’s wearing a bunch of fake hair, and it looks super unhealthy and almost synthetic.  The dress doesn’t fit her right, and she looks uncomfortable in it.  No.  Just, no.

Another Christina rocked the red carpet, though.  Christina Hendricks looked amazing last night, rocking a red dress whose one-shoulder strap was awesome enough for me to overlook my aversion to it.  Seriously, how hot is this woman? It’s not just because she represents us pale girls so well–she’s just absolutely gorgeous.

Claire Danes picked up an award for her work in the HBO movie Temple Grandin, but I’m not sold on her work in this pale pink dress.  While I like the cut of it in theory, I thought that it made her arms look weird, and I kept getting distracted by glimpses of her ribcage.  Do we like the color?  I kind of like it more in this picture than I did on the TV last night.

Dianna Agron’s one of those women whose outfits usually border on being too precious but usually work for me.  This one doesn’t do it for me, though.  It’s simple enough in theory: it’s a column-dress, and it fits her nicely. Her makeup and jewelry are good, and she looks statuesque in it, but it’s so boring.  The color is boring, and the dress itself isn’t exciting in any way.  The most exciting part of it is the weird detailing at her waist that makes her look slightly pregnant.  Ehhhh.

 

I don’t know what it was about blond women wearing salmon-colored gowns, but Emma Stone (who was almost unrecognizable without her red hair) rocked a dress that was similar to Danes’s pink one.  I don’t like the cut of the dress–the sleeves seem a little matronly for a girl who’s something like 23 years old.  I thought that the color washed her out, and I was underwhelmed by the ensemble as a whole.  Disappointing.
Please ignore Helena Bonham Carter, who seems to be doing everything in her power to actually become a Tim Burton creation instead of merely being married to him.  Hot mess.

If I look half as good as Helen Mirren when I get to be her age, I’ll be a happy camper.  She looks really good here, although I’m not completely in love with her hair.  The gold dress is working for her, it’s flattering and sexy without being over-the top, and the sleeves have enough detailing to keep them from being boring and matronly.  Seriously, how hot is this woman?

I think I have to officially give up on January Jones.  After last year’s red carpet disasterpieces, I just don’t think I can support her anymore.  This one is a great color for her, but I feel like everything else about it is completely ridiculous.  The cut is weird (seriously, is it a plunging neckline or one of those stupid, stylized bathing suits?), the fringe on the bottom is a TERRIBLE idea, and the whole thing gives me a headache.  Onward!

Unfortunately, next up is Julianne Moore, who seems to have decided to raid the prom dress racks at Ragstock.  This is the only explanation I can come up with for what she chose to wear, which basically looks like a pink garbage bag held up with a necklace.  It’s terrible.  I hate everything about it.

I realize I have a bias when it comes to Julia Stiles (I love her, and she can do no wrong), but I don’t know if that’s coming into play here.  I think she looks awesome.  The dress is super classic-looking, and the cut is lovely on her.  She was one of the rarities on the red carpet, choosing to wear a dark color, and it totally worked for her.  Nicely done.

Soft grays were another trend on the carpet last night, and Kelly MacDonald rocked it pretty hard.  She looked really good, and the dress fit her perfectly–it was the drapey kind that could have looked wrong if it wasn’t cut properly, but it hugged her curves and fell nicely around her.  Her red lips and soft waves completed the look.  This may have been one of my favorites of the night.

Did anyone else get a kick out of Lea Michele’s completely overblown facial reactions when speeches were being given?  She was trying so hard to cry every time the camera was in her face.  Although she’s become somewhat of a red-carpet darling since breaking out on Glee, this dress sort of disappointed me.  Another one to hop on the pink train, she managed to pull the color off better than Emma Stone and Claire Danes, but it still doesn’t wow me.

I didn’t even see Mandy Moore on the carpet last night, but when I happened across this photo this morning, I got excited.  I love the color on her, and the dress itself is pretty awesome…until I saw that there’s a sheer mesh material over her shoulders, which totally harshed my buzz.  Even so, it’s a nice dress, and she looked lovely.

Michelle Williams’s dress was so disappointing.  She usually looks so good, and this dress was so completely underwhelming that I felt kind of crushed, actually.  The flower pattern is completely out of place for a formal event (not to mention the exact same design that my grandmother wallpapered her kitchen with), and there’s something off about the cut, especially across the bust.  Nope.  Awful.  Sorry sweetie.

The color of Mila Kunis’s dress is gorgeous, and I really liked the back of it, but I can’t completely get behind the poufy thing on her shoulder strap.  I don’t know, man, it’s just not working for me.  The emerald color is perfect for her, though.

Olivia Wilde’s crazy poufy dress was my favorite of the night, which is why I saved it for last.  Still with me?  Excellent.  I loved everything about it, you guys.  The sparkles, the color, the skirt that fluffs out just far enough.  She also rocked some incredible gold stilettos that I’m coveting like crazy.  The only problem with the look is that I wish she’d done something with her hair instead of letting it sit there, flat and dull.

That’s all, kiddies.  See you at the Oscars.

Reading Goals for 2011

This past year, I read 177 books.  I managed to meet–and exceed–my goal of reading 144 books in a year, which is awesome.  But a lot of those books were re-reads.  I want to grow as a reader, and growth means challenging myself.  So for this upcoming year, I’ve changed my goals.  After some careful consideration, I’ve come up with the following goals or guidelines to inform my reading this upcoming year:

1. I will read (at least) 100 books.
2. I will not reread any books (this does not count books that I started previously and then abandoned), with the possible exception of the Harry Potter series, which I re-read every summer (we’ll see how it goes).
3. At least 10 books (roughly one book per month) must have been published before 1950.
4. I will read at least 10 books by authors of color.
5. At least 10 books will be nonfiction.

In addition to these specific, concrete goals, I hope to continue to improve in my writing reviews for books.  Keeping track of what I read, when I read it, and where the book is from is something that I love to do, and I will continue to do that this year.  I’m still working on creating a more organized, streamlined system.

In addition to these reading goals, I’m participating in the 2011 Debut Author Challenge.  In addition to reading 2011 debuts by authors, I hope to read more title published during the course of the year.  I’m excited about this challenge, as well as the personal challenges I’ve set for myself.  We’ll see how it goes.

Happy reading, y’all.