05 June 2011

My Favorite Reads of 2011 So Far

We've hit the half way point in the year so I thought between this and the fact people are looking for their annual Summer Read Recommendations I'd chime in.  Without further adieu here are the books I most enjoyed this year so far.  These are not in any particular order.

2011 Releases

Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi
City of Ruins by Kristine Katherine Rusch
The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones  (reviewed here)
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine (review here)
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie  (reviewed here)
God's War by Kameron Hurley  (reviewed here)
Brave New Worlds ed. by John Joseph Adams  (reviewed here)
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan  (reviewed here)
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson  (reviewed here)

Published Prior to 2011

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang

Of all of the above Among Thieves, Robopocalpyse, The Desert of Souls, and The Warded Man would make particularly good beach reads. They all move so effortlessly and definitely fall in the page-turning category. Also, note all four of these books are debuts of one sort or another, which I didn't realize until finishing this list. There are still plenty of other good chances to make it on my year-end list. We've got Mark Charan Newton's next Legends of the Red Sun, Leviathan Wakes still slumbers on my shelf as does The Map of Time and The Magician King. And the chance that Scott Lynch's next book will be released is still a possibility albeit a very thin one this late in the year.

You Might Also Like:
The Mad Hatter's Gift Guide
Top 5 Reads for first half of 2010 (Plus Top 5 Most Anticipated)
Best Books of 2009 (That I've read)
Best Books of 2010 (That I've read)
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5 comments:

  1. redheadJune 5, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    well you just made my "books I want to read" list explode.

    thanks a lot!!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RyanJune 5, 2011 at 2:07 PM

    Wow. You've been a busy reader this year sir! Looks like a have a few more books to add to my "must read" list.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JustinJune 6, 2011 at 2:55 PM

    Leviathan Wakes is very good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 7, 2011 at 7:39 AM

    Robopcalypse the title alone sells me. How is Bacigalupi's The Alchemist compared to The Windup Girl?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mad Hatter ReviewJune 7, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    The Alchemist does use the similar themes having to do with the environment, but in this case the major environmental disaster is caused by the use of magic. It was really well done and does leave things on a more hopeful note that The Windup Girl. I'm actually a more a fan of Bacigalupi's short work as his sometimes sad style can be a lot to take over a long period. The Alchemist was the perfect length being a novella. Also, word on the street is he wants to write a novel in this world.

    ReplyDelete