Best Reads of 2011

I know I still need to post about Christmas, and I will, but that post will take longer, so for now: books!

Since I read between 100-200 books a year on average (although oddly enough, the number has been significantly lower the past two years since I've become a mom), I just picked a few of my favorites that I read in 2011.  Most of them are of course YA fiction and out of the list below, three books really jumped out as my top three:

1. Across the Universe by Beth Revis (only 7 more days until book 2 releases - I am SO excited!) For me, this book pretty much had it all: space travel, dystopian society, teen romance. I LOVE this book.
2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver (sequel in February!)
3. Matched by Ally Condie (the sequel, Crossed was good too, but I still liked Matched better)

And in no particular order, these books were also very good:
The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen
City of the Dead by T. L. Higley
The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig
The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking
Her Royal Spyness (Lady Georgiana) series by Rhys Bowen
Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn
Dangerous to Know and A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters - A Victorian-era female Egyptologist as the heroine? Yes please!  I also love the subtle humor of these books.
Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie
Virtue by Amanda Hocking
The Girl Who Chased the Moon and the Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The House on Tradd Street, The Girl on Legare Street, and The Strangers on Montagu Street by Karen White (also On Folly Beach by Karen White)
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead - I am so glad that Richelle Mead decided to continue the world of Vampire Academy through this awesome spin-off series!
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Declaration, The Resistance, and The Legacy by Gemma Malley
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Worst/Most Disappointing Reads of 2011:
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult - I think I am done with Jodi Picoult at this point - her books are more propaganda than plot these days
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl- this book wasn't bad, but it was just so weird and random that I was disappointed by it
The Scorpio Trials and The Death Cure by James Dashner - (see previous post on this)
The Returners by Gemma Malley - I loved her other books, but this really bored me.  And the ending wasn't great.
Blood Red Road by Moira Young - I wrote a review of this that I still need to publish.  This book got a lot of hype, but I just didn't love it.  I liked the folksy feel of the first half but after that it just got kind of weird and I wasn't feeling it.  Also I found the narrative style more distracting than anything.
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian - I normally love Chris Bohjalian, and I was intrigued by the premise of this book so I kept reading, but the horrible ending completely ruined this book for me.
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel - I'm not really a fan of zombies, but I read a sample of this book on my Kindle and thought it was really cool.  Unfortunately, the first few chapters are the best - after that, the book just felt really slow and I had to struggle to finish it.  I won't be reading the sequel.

And one more thought: I picked a fabulous book as my first read for the year.  Just before we went on our road trip for Christmas, I sampled 5 books on my Kindle: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Dearly Departed by Lia Habel, Enclave by Ann Aguirre, and Divergent by Veronica Roth.  Based on the samples, I chose the first 3 for my road trip.  I wasn't that into the other two by the ends of the samples.  I did eventually read the last 2 also, and ironically, they were the better books - they just got off to a slower start.  Divergent had been my least favorite of the samples, but I had heard tons of good stuff about it, so I decided to give it a try.  And I'm so glad I did.  I could not put this book down.  It was amazing.  Although I'm pretty sure that by setting the bar so high on my first read of the year, most of the rest of my reads are going to be disappointing.