Book-Talk Monday: What I Read in 2011, and Goals for 2012
Happy New Year!
Now that the holidays are past us, it’s time to get back down to business . . . and the business of this blog is to talk about reading and writing (for the most part—and movies and TV and whatever else happens to cross my mind when I sit down to write a post). So let’s begin 2012 with a review of the reading we did in 2011. You don’t have to post a list of everything you read—you can post just your favorites, or you can post a link to your 2011-In-Review post on your site/blog.
2011 was a banner reading year for me.
Ever since I started graduate school in 2004, and especially since I started working as an editor in 2006 and signed my first book contract in 2007, my pleasure reading has suffered—to the point at which in 2010, I hardly read anything at all for pleasure. In 2011, not only did the book contracts end, freeing up my time, but the editing tapered off to very few projects (few and far between) which also freed up my mind to be able to make the switch from editor mode to reader mode much more easily.
It may not sound like a whole lot, but I read thirty novels completely for pleasure this year. And considering that I didn’t do much reading in the first four months of the year (when I was recovering from my broken ankle, completing edits/revisions on Ransome’s Quest and The Art of Romance, and writing Turnabout’s Fair Play), I’ve actually been doing a lot of reading in the last six to eight months—helped along by the fact that I went back to work (part-time) in September and now have a 20-minute commute during which I listen to audiobooks, increasing my reading time.
Here are a few highlights of what I read in 2011:
Favorite New-to-Me Author
Late in the autumn, the Nashville Library system started offering Kindle e-book lending. So I went through my wishlist on Kindle (sample chapters I’d downloaded and read and wanted to read the rest of the book) and found some books that were available to borrow from the library. And that’s how I found my favorite new-to-me author this year: Jennifer Blake. I read Blake’s Three Graces trilogy—By His Majesty’s Grace, By Grace Possessed, and Seduced by Grace—between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. While Blake has a few quirks that do annoy me (like the tendency to get stuck on a word/description in a section of or throughout the book), her storytelling ability and character development are such that I’m willing to overlook that slight annoyance for the enjoyment I know I’ll get from the story. I also really enjoyed the fact that Blake chose a unique time period in which to set her trilogy: the court of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII—the father of Henry VIII—opening just a few years after the end of the War of the Roses.
You can click the titles to read my further thoughts on the books on Pinterest (and links to the reviews of Possessed and Seduced on Amazon). Please note: these are general-market romance novels with content that may be offensive to some readers.
Feeding My Tudor Obsession
One of the things I did do with my pleasure reading this year was to find books that feed my current obsession with the Tudor era (as evidenced by the books discussed above), and I read three books that not only fed that obsession, but which took me by surprise with how much I enjoyed them.
To Die For by Sandra Byrd. I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I was when I saw that a Christian publishing imprint (Howard) was putting out not just something set in England but something other than a Regency. To Die For is the story of Henry VIII’s second and most famous wife, Anne Boleyn, as told through the viewpoint of one of Anne’s best friends and ladies in waiting, the fictional Meg Wyatt. I had the added bonus of listening to this on audio, read by the incomparable Charlotte Parry who brought Byrd’s excellent prose/story to life in a way that shot the book from great to excellent for me.
The Tudor Secret by C.W. Gortner. There’s a trend in this section of the post, because this is another one I “read” via audiobook, and it, too, had an excellent reader. Gortner’s book is set during the tumultuous time after Henry VIII’s death when his son, Edward, was king—but pretty much in name only. It’s the first book in a planned series (The Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles) and is told from the viewpoint of Brendan Prescott, a squire to Robert Dudley, who gets caught up in the intrigues of the court and becomes a friend of Princess Elizabeth during a time fraught with danger for the future queen. I’m anxiously awaiting the second book in this series!
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory. For years, I’ve avoided Philippa Gregory’s books—mostly because of my experience watching the theatrical-film version of her most famous book, The Other Boleyn Girl. But when I read the description of The Boleyn Inheritance—that it focuses on Henry VIII’s fourth and fifth wives (Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard)—I knew I had to give it a try. And like the other two books in this section, I decided to do so on audio. What a great decision. Not only does Charlotte Parry (who read To Die For) make Katherine Howard’s character come vividly alive, but the other two narrators did a fabulous job with the voices of Anne of Cleves (my favorite of the six wives) and Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law). I also enjoyed Gregory’s writing style, so I’ll be looking for more of her books to read in 2012.
Hey—I just noticed another trend in this section . . . all three of these books were written in first-person, the POV I usually don’t enjoy. Just goes to show how well written each was that I loved them so much!
First Book, Great; Second Book, DNF
When it was announced that HBO would be making George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series (the books are the Song of Fire and Ice series, the TV show is the Game of Thrones series) into a TV show, I downloaded the sample chapters of the first book so I could see what it was all about. By the fifth or sixth page I was so confused/lost that I deleted the sample from my Kindle and decided to wait on the reviews of the TV series to see if I’d be interested in watching it. For the first few weeks of the show’s airing, I read detailed episode synopses—which not only pulled me into the story, but helped me visualize the characters with images of the actors in the roles. Not wanting to have the story spoiled for me by these episode descriptions, I went back and re-downloaded the sample. And as soon as I whipped through that, I downloaded the entire book, which I blazed through in less than a month. While Martin has some quirks/writing habits that annoy me (what author doesn’t, really?), I enjoyed the story enough that, as soon as I had the disposable income to do so, I bought the second book. 
It took me at least two months to get through the first half of the book. And, eventually, I just didn’t pick it up again. Though we lost a couple of viewpoint characters from the first book, the second book introduces at least double the number of viewpoint characters and spreads them out all over this fantasy world so that it’s hard to remember who’s where and what they did eight chapters ago last time we were in their viewpoint. So the second book is a “DNF” (did not finish) for me, though I’m still eagerly awaiting the release of Game of Thrones on DVD in the spring.
Looking Forward to 2012
You can see the rest of the books I read last year and my thoughts on them on my Pinterest page, “Books Read in 2011.” And this year, rather than set a specific list of books I want to read in 2012, which I’ve done in years past and utterly failed to accomplish, I’m only setting a number goal—my goal for 2012 is to read at least 36 new-to-me books by December 31. (My total of thirty for this year includes several re-reads.) And considering how many books I currently have sitting unread on my Kindle right now, that shouldn’t be hard!
It’s your turn! What did you read in 2011, and what are your plans/goals for 2012?
KayeDacus.com 
Hey Kaye! I ❤ reading! I forget how many books I ended up with last year – in the 100 range I think, but I only work 2 days a week and only 10 mos a year and while I did do a lot of writing/editing, I don't think I did near as much as you!
I read a total of 6 Kaye Dacus books this year – loved them ;). I don't think I could list the rest…
I posted my goals for this year on my blog [I posted last year's too – experienced only moderate success :p]. One of the goals for this year was to get caught up on my book reviews and I did manage to do that yesterday :D. Turnabout Fair Play is scheduled for… Wednesday I think ;).
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In addition to your blog :-D, I subscribe to several other book-review blogs, both CBA and ABA. I’ve had to start skipping past reviews in recent weeks, because in the past nine months since I got my Kindle, I’ve downloaded more than 150 free books or samples based on reviews I’ve read. I think I need to add to my goal that I won’t buy any new books until I get through what I already have—either reading it or trying it and deciding to remove it from my device.
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Ahem. Did I read that right? You’re subscribed to *my* blog?!?!?! MINE?!
[And if I read that wrong, feel free to pretend you didn’t see this and let me live in my happy little bubble ;).]
I’ve been getting a bunch of books to influence or review. I’m doing better about keeping up with them and being more selective in what I choose.
I also have about a zillion free books [ahem, including the first Ransome book] on my Kindle. I, however, have very little compulsion to read them at the moment ;). They’re sitting there, blissfully waiting for me to get to them at some point in the future :D. I also share the account with my sister so she may read them before I do…
Off to live in my bubble and start on a new book – at least for a couple hours until it’s time for me to dive back into the mess that is the MS-that-quite-sadly-is-not-in-Nashville.
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You read that right—I subscribe to your blog!
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Excuse me while I go all fangirl squeeingness here…
Ahem. I’m calm now. I think.
Which also reminds me that I was meaning to email you some more feedback on TFP that I didn’t put in the blog because I was afraid it would get too spoilery etc.
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Welcome back, Kaye!! I’m not sure how many books I’ve read this year…but pretty sure it’s been a lot and several of your books were in my pile and now on my bookshelf. 🙂 I haven’t set any definitely goals on reading, but I am definitely enjoying my Kindle.
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I’ve been wanting to follow your lead and use NetGalley for some of my reading, especially with new-to-me authors, but, as I posted above, I already have so many free books/samples on my Kindle that I think the selection at NetGalley would just overwhelm me.
One thing that setting up the Pin Board on Pinterest has done for me is forced me to actually write down my thoughts on many of the books I’ve read more recently. So that, too, should probably be part of my goal—not just to read the books, but to post some kind of review of them, even if it’s just a star-number and one or two sentences on Pinterest.
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Can’t name them all, but just a few are Bluegrass Hero by Allie Plieter, A Distant Dawn by Jane Peart, A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner and A Tailor-Made Bride by Karen Witemeyer, Karen has become one of my all time favorite Authors.
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Karen Witemeyer is one of the new-to-me authors I hope to read this year. I’ve had Tailor-Made on my Kindle for a while, so I need to just sit down and read it.
The problem with having all these free books and samples on my Kindle is that once I sort them into the appropriate collection, all I see is a list of collections and the number of titles in it—not the spines, the titles, the authors’ names, or the covers—and those are the things that usually draw me to pick up a book to start reading. Maybe I need a better method of sorting or seeing what’s on my Kindle so that I have a more visual reminder of what’s on it. A Pinterest board, maybe? 😉
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I also have “Head in the Clouds” and “To Win Her Heart” by Karen Wiemeyer but haven’t read them yet. I have yet to get her most recent book entitled “Short-Straw Bride”.
I also forgot to mention the book that I am currently reading which is ” A Lasting Impression” by Tamera Alexander It is also very interesting. I am around half-way through it.
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By the way Welcome Back, I Missed You!
Happy New Year!
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Welcome back to blogging land! 🙂 I read and reviewed 40 books this year — which is the most in a while. Less than I’d rather (ambitiously) hoped for at the beginning of 2011, but considering how crazy the last few years have been I’ll take it. I’m looking at 2011 as a baseline — so for 2012 I’m hoping to read and review 50 books on the blog.
Regarding Gortner’s book (so happy you enjoyed that one too, BTW!), he posted something on Facebook about only having 100 pages or so of revisions left on Spymaster #2 — the current title is The Tudor Deception. I haven’t heard a publication date yet, but it can’t come soon enough to suit me!
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Woohoo! Can’t wait! Hopefully, it will live up to the promise of the first book.
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Gortner’s become a favorite author so I have high hopes!
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I read close to 25 books this past year. I have just begun The Flinch by Julien Smith and The Huguenot Sword by Shawn Lamb. Both are new-to-me authors and recommendations from other bloggers. Hope they pan out!
I plan on reading 30ish books this year and finishing the writing my first YA novel!
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I want to read To Die For, though I have no interest in the Tudors. I hear it’s very good. I talked with a relative over the holidays about the Martin books. He’s reading them now, and said so many of the main characters keep being killed off that it’s disappointing. I think I’ll give those a pass, though it’s too bad because I usually enjoy those big fantasy tomes. As for the HBO version, I went on Youtube and watched clips of the characters I was interested in, and read those detailed recaps you mentioned. I feel content. No need to see it. Or read the books.
I blogged about the books I read in 2011 yesterday. I picked a favorite novel read in 2011 and a favorite nonfiction book. http://tinyurl.com/79wa74j
If I had to name my favorite new-to-me author from 2011 it would be a toss up between Mesu Andrews (Love Amid the Ashes) and William O. Steele, who wrote frontier fiction for children and YA during the middle of the last century. Both authors left an impression on me.
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I’m so excited that Mesu’s new book will be releasing in just a few short weeks! The pub date is March 1 which means it should start shipping first of Feb.
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Yay, you’re back! I’ve missed your blog 🙂
I just checked my goodreads page, and it looks like I read 62 books in 2011, 8 of which were audiobooks and 5 of which were nonfiction. Pretty close how many I read in 2010 (65) and not quite as many as in 2009 (76). I don’t set goals for reading… for me, that would be like someone else setting a goal of watching a minimum amount of TV. I actually put more effort into forcing myself to be productive and NOT read. (When I was a kid, for punishment my mom would send me to my room “with no books” because she knew otherwise I’d be up there reading and it wouldn’t be a punishment at all.)
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Since I’m really not a fan of first person I don’t read very many. But I love listening to them, especially the Philippa Gregory ones. Charlotte Parry reads The Other Boleyn Girl too. I’ve listened to part of The Constant Princess and it’s good too.
I honestly have no idea how many books I’ve read this year. Some of the ones at the top of my list are Jewel of Persia by Roseanna M. White, Lady of the Mist by Laurie Alice Eakes, The Art of Romance, Digitalis and Wolfsbane by Ronie Kendig, A Heart Revealed by Julie Lessman and Courting Morrow Little by Laura Frantz.
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Hey Jennifer Blake is my official name but no I am no author.
I read about 130 last year and hope to read at least 100. I also read a book from every state of the USA. Mississippi being the last one.
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I don’t know how many I read but your Art Of Romance made my favorites list @ http://www.duhpaynes.com 🙂
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Hi Kaye! Glad to have you back to blogging. Missed your voice.
I read about 120 books, which continues my downward trend over the past five years. The total is only that high because I intentionally read a lot of category romance this past year and I can read those in a day or two, at most. I keep a log of what I read, but what sticks out in my mind are the Biblical fiction tltles I read by Mesu Andrews, Ginger Garrett, Jill E. Smith and Tessa Afshar. All of these ladies write amazing fictional accounts of Biblical stories based on extensive researcha and great imagination of what life was like beyond what the Scripture tells us explicitly.
I plan to reduce my reading total some more in order to write more but I too have a gazillion titles downloaded to the Kindle app on my Android phone. And something about reading on the phone is so effortless. I find that I’m reading new-to-me authors much more than when reading physical books and so far, most have been pretty good. There were only one or two titles that I didn’t finish.
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