Avid Reader's Musings

Book reviews of everything from literary fiction to classics to nonfiction.

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Blog Archive

  • ►  2012 (112)
    • ►  May (21)
      • Reading the States: Maryland
      • The Shallows
      • Standalong
      • Top Ten Blogs/Sites You Read That AREN'T about Boo...
      • Mini Reviews on Nonfiction Reads
      • The Year of Great Reading
      • Reading the States: Maine
      • V for Vendetta
      • Wordless Wednesday: My Brother's Wedding!
      • Top Ten Authors I'd like to See on a Reality Show
      • Cold Comfort Farm
      • Reading the States: Louisiana
      • Readers are the best!
      • Wordless Wednesday: NYC Public Library
      • Top Ten Favorite Quotes from Books
      • A Streetcar Named Desire
      • Pinterest
      • Reading the States: Kentucky
      • A Lesson Before Dying
      • Wordless Wednesday: Mockingbird Bird Feeder
      • My Ántonia
    • ►  April (22)
      • The Distant Hours
      • Reading the States: Kansas
      • Mini Reviews: Pairing Books with Movies (or TV) 5
      • Wordless Wednesday: Salisbury Cathedral
      • Nicole Krauss and Jhumpa Lahiri
      • Bleak House
      • Dewey 24 hour Read-a-Thon!
      • Reading the States: Iowa
      • Let’s Pretend This Never Happened
      • Wordless Wednesday: Taliesin Studio
      • Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers
      • Book Ratings
      • Reading the States: Indiana
      • Clara and Mr. Tiffany
      • Wordless Wednesday: Budapest Holocaust Memorial
      • Top Ten Books That Were Totally Deceiving
      • The Submission
      • Reading the States: Illinois
      • Rereadings
      • Wordless Wednesday: Dauphin Island
      • Top Ten Books to Read in a Day
      • The Yearling
    • ►  March (23)
      • Cloud Atlas Readalong: Final Post
      • Reading the States: Idaho
      • Rainbow Valley
      • Wordless Wednesday: Civil Rights Memorial Center
      • The Hunger Games
      • Mini Reviews: Pairing Books with Movies 4
      • Reading the States: Hawaii
    • ►  February (22)
    • ►  January (24)
  • ▼  2011 (252)
    • ▼  December (25)
      • Happy New Year
      • The Paris Wife
      • Perfect Fifths
      • Wordless Wednesday: Golden Gate Bridge
      • Top Ten Favorite Books I Read in 2011
      • Christmas is Awesome
      • Christmas Movies
      • Chaos Walking Series
      • Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas!
      • Top Ten Books I Hope Santa Brings
      • Jane Austen Made Me Do It
      • 2011 End Of Year Book Survey
      • Shakespeare and Comapany Bookstore
      • And the Pursuit of Happiness
      • The Great Bridge
      • Wordless Wednesday: Garmisch-Partenkirchen Picnic
      • A Study in Scarlet
      • The Grey King
      • Books Lead to More books
      • Will Grayson, Will Grayson
      • Wordless Wednesday: NYC, old and new
      • Top Ten Childhood Faves
      • I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
      • The House of Mirth
      • The End
    • ►  November (22)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (20)
    • ►  August (19)
    • ►  July (19)
    • ►  June (18)
    • ►  May (18)
    • ►  April (24)
    • ►  March (22)
    • ►  February (20)
    • ►  January (24)
  • ►  2010 (268)
    • ►  December (23)
    • ►  November (20)
    • ►  October (22)
    • ►  September (23)
    • ►  August (21)
    • ►  July (26)
    • ►  June (26)
    • ►  May (22)
    • ►  April (23)
    • ►  March (26)
    • ►  February (21)
    • ►  January (15)

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About Me

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Melissa (Avid Reader)
I love books and I'll read just about anything. I tend to read a lot of literary fiction and classics, but I'm always looking for recommendations. I'm in my 20s and have been reading for as long as I can remember. My Rating System (I rate on my personal reaction to the book): ★ = one star ☆ = 1/2 star ★★★★★: A new favorite, a must-read ★★★★: Liked it a lot ★★★: Nothing special, but OK ★★: Not my cup of tea ★: Waste of time
View my complete profile

2011 Books



1) Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner ★★★★
2) And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman ★★★★★
3) The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster ★★★★★
4) Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers ★★★★
5) The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking: Book Two) by Patrick Ness 

    ★★★★☆
6) Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell ★★★★☆
7) Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis ★★★☆
8) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver ★★★★☆
9) Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster ★★★★
10) Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen ★★★☆
11) The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ★★★★
12) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas ★★★★
13) Bossypants by Tina Fey ★★★★☆
14) Brooklyn by Colm Toibin ★★★★
15) The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster ★★★★☆
16) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières ★★★★
17) Case Histories by Kate Atkinson ★★★★☆
18) Cesar’s Way by Cesar Milan ★★★★
19) Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine 

      Gilbreth Carey ★★★★
20) Chesapeake Bay Retriever by Nona Kilgore Bauer  ★★★★
21) The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier ★★★
22) Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland ★★★
23) The Color of Water by James McBride ★★★★☆
24) Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin ★★★★☆
25) The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart ★★★☆
26) Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan 

      ★★★★☆
27) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ★★★★★
28) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness ★★★
29) The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha

      Mukherjee ★★★★
30) The End (Book 13) by Lemony Snicket ★★★★
31) Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy ★★★★☆
32) Forever by Peter Hamill ★★★
33) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton ★★★★★
34) Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman ★★★☆
35) Freedom by Jonathan Franzen ★★☆
36) French Milk by Lucy Knisley ★★★★☆
37) Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg 

      ★★★★☆
38) Fun Home by Alison Bechdel ★★★☆
39) Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh ★★★★★
40) The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow ★★★
41) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ★★☆
42) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ★★★★☆
43) The Great Bridge by David McCullough ★★★☆
44) The Great White Hope by Howard Sackler ★★
☆
45) The Grey King by Susan Cooper ★★★★☆
46) Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls ★★★★★
47) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling ★★★★☆
48) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling ★★★★★
49) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling ★★★★★
50) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling ★★★★★
51) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling ★★★★☆
52) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling ★★★★★
53) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K Rowling ★★★★★
54) Heidi by Johanna Spyri ★★★☆
55) Hemingway and Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American 

      Writers by Mark Bailey    ★★★★☆
56) A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham ★★★
57) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★★
58) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton ★★★★★
59) Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones ★★★★
60) How to Raise the Perfect Dog Through Puppyhood and Beyond by            Cesar Milan ★★★★
61) I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley ★★★★☆
62) I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman ★★★★
63) I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton ★★★★
64) The Iliad by Homer  ★★★★
65) Illumination Night By Alice Hoffman ★★
66) The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury ★★★★☆
67) Inkdeath (Book 3) by Cornelia Funke ★★★★
68) In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson ★★★☆
69) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ★★★★☆
70) The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells ★★★☆
71) The Jane Austen Handbook by Margaret Sullivan ★★★★
72) Jane Austen Made Me Do It Edited by Laurel Ann Nattress ★★★
73) Jude, The Obscure by Thomas Hardy ★★★★
74) Kafka was the Rage by Anatole Broyard ★★★
75) The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith 

      ★★★☆
76) Kim by Rudyard Kipling ★☆
77) Kindred by Octavia Butler ★★★★
78) King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard ★★★★
79) The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking: Book One) by 

      Patrick Ness ★★★★
80) The Liars' Club by Mary Karr ★★★★☆
81) Little Bee by Chris Cleave ★★★☆
82) The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke ★★★★☆
83) The Lost City of Z by David Grann ★★★★
84) The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson ★★★
85) The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees     

      ★★★☆
86) The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie ★★☆
87) Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork ★★★★
88) Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind by Ellen F. Brown and John 

      Wiley Jr. ★★★☆
89) The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ★★★★☆
90) The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare ★★★★
91) Middlemarch by George Eliot ★★★★☆
92) A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller ★★★★
93) The Misanthrope by Jean-Baptiste Moliere ★★★★
94) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs ★★★★
95) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness ★★★★★
96) Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking: Book Three) by Patrick Ness

      ★★★★
97) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein ★★★☆
98) More Early Horror Works by H.P. Lovecraft ★★★★
99) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass  

      ★★★★
100) The New World by Patrick Ness ★★★★
101) The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst ★★★★☆
102) Only You, Sierra by Robin Jones Gunn ★★★☆
103) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon ★★
104) The Paris Wife by Paula McLain ★★★★
105) A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz ★★★★☆
106) The Penultimate Peril (Book 12) by Lemony Snicket ★★★☆
107) Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty ★★★★
108) Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi ★★★★☆
109) Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi ★★★★
110) The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ★★★★
111) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ★★★★★
112) The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ★★★☆
113) A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley ★★★★☆
114) Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly ★★★★
115) Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe ★★★
116) A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf ★★★★☆
117) The Ruby in the Smoke (A Sally Lockhart Mystery) by Philip Pullman 

       ★★★★
118) Sarah’s Key by Taiana de Rosnay ★★★
119) Scout, Atticus, and Boo by Mary McDonough Murphy ★★★★
120) Simple Times Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris ★★
121) Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn ★★★☆
122) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See ★★★★
123) The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell ★★★★★
124) Spousonomics Paula Szuchman and Jenny Andersn ★★★★☆
125) Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris ★★★☆
126) A Study in Scarlet  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
127) Summer Promise by Robin Jones Gunn ★★★★
128) Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck ★★★★★
129) Talking to Girls About Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield ★★★☆
130) Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald ★★★★☆
131) This Year Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy ★★★★
132) Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose ★★★★☆
133) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne ★★
134) Unafraid by Francine Rivers ★★★
135) Unspoken by Francine Rivers ★★★
136) A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan ★★★★★
137) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy ★★★★☆
138) The Waste Land and Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot ★★★☆
139) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ★★★★★
140) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead ★★★★
141) Where She Went by Gayle Forman ★★★★☆
142) Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant ★★★☆
143) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

        ★★★★
144) The Woman in Black by Susan Hill ★★★★★
145) The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan ★★★★
146) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ★★★★☆
147) 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith ★★★★☆
All  books reviewed on my Library Thing account here.
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