Books Read in 2011

.

January

1. The Rehearsal, by Eleanor Catton

2. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, by Howard Rheingold

3. Notre-Dame de Paris , by Victor Hugo

4. Annabel, by Kathleen Winter

5. Goethe’s Faust, translated by Walter Kaufmann

February

6. Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life, by Julia Briggs

7. The Emperor’s Children, by Clair Messud

8. Got No Secrets, by Danila Botha

9. Tell Your Sister, by Andrew Daley

March

10. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov

11. The Paris Review Interviews, Volume I, edited by Deckle Edge

12. The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald

13. Ariel, by Sylvia Plath

14. True Stories, by Margaret Atwood

15. The Mourner’s Book of Albums, by Daniel Scott Tysdal

16. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

17. The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith (writing as Clare Morgan)

18. Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow

19. Where Do Demons Live?, by Frater U.’. D.’.⁽¹⁾

- Blankets, by Craig Thompson

April

20. Ritual Body Art, by Charles Arnold

21. Agony & Alchemy: Sacred Art and Tattoos, by M Young

22. 1000 Tattoos, by Henk Schiffmacher

23. Patternicity, by Jim Johnstone

24. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood

25. Contrary, by Ruth Roach Pierson

26. The Nights Also, by Anna Swanson

27. Sunday, the locusts, by Jim Johnstone

28. Man-Made Monsters, by Bob Curran⁽²⁾

29. Heart of a Dog, by Mikhail Bulgakov

30. Loneliness and Revelation, by Brendan Myers⁽³⁾

31. The Hockey Sweater and Other Stories, by Roch Carrier

32. The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith

33. Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method, by Daniel Scott Tysdal

34. The Burning Alphabet, by Barry Dempster

35. A Model World and Other Stories, by Michael Chabon

36. Little Venus, by Carla Drysdale

37. Open Slowlyby Dayle Furlong

May

38. The Paris Review Interviews, Volume II, by The Paris Review

39. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

40. The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008, edited by AF Moritz and Molly Peacock

41. Etcetera and Otherwise, by Sean Stanley

42. A Thousand Profane Pieces, by Myna Wallin

43. Eating Fruit out of Season, by David Clink

44. Contents of a Mermaid’s Purse, by Phoebe Tsang

45. Psychogeography, by Will Self

46. The Animal Bridegroom, by Sandra Kasturi

47. A Manual For Immigrants, by Fraser Sutherland

48. Wrong Bar, by Nathaniel G Moore

49. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

50. Monster, by David Clink

51. Pigeon, by Karen Solie

52. Confessions of a Black Magician, by Nathan Neuharth

53. The Origin of Species, by Nino Ricci

54. A Game of Thrones , by George R R Martin

55. A Clash of Kings, by George R R Martin

- Sandman, Volume 9: The Kindly Ones, by Neil Gaiman

June⁽⁴⁾

56. Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine, by Madelain Bullwinkel

57. A Storm of Swords, by George R R Martin

58. A Feast for Crows, by George R R Martin

59. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

60. Open Secrets, by Alice Munro

61. Ripley Under Ground, by Patricia Highsmith

62. The Reprieve, by Jean-Paul Sartre

63. Electric Light, by Seamus Heaney

64. Go the Fuck to Sleep, by Adam Mansbach⁽⁵⁾

65. F in Exams, by Richard Benson

66. Come Closer, by Leanne Averbach,

67. Where No Window Was, by Ruth Roach Pierson

- Spike: The Devil You Know, by Bill Williams

- Spike: After the Fall, Volume 1 , by Franco Urru

July⁽⁶⁾

68.  Psychogeography, by Merlin Coverley

69. The Stone Skippers, by Ian Burgham

70. The Days You’ve Spent, by Suzanne Bowness

71. The Paris Review Interviews, Volume III, by The Paris Review

72. The Essential Tales of Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov

73. Apropros Rodin, by Jennifer Gough-Cooper

74. Digital Barbarism, by Mark Helprin

75. Zen: Simply Sitting, by Philippe Coupey⁽⁷⁾

76. The Light of Sex, by Maria de Naglowska⁽⁸⁾

77. The Brave Never Write Poetry, by Jones

78. The Grammar of Distance, by Ian Burgham

79. Best Tarot Practices, by Maria Masino

August⁽⁹⁾

80. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

81. Ripley’s Game, by Patricia Highsmith

82. The True Names of Birds, by Susan Goyette

83. We Sure Can, by Susan B Hood

84. The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

85. outskirts, by Sue Goyette

86. Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay

87. Your Love is Murder, by Paul Hong

88. Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, by Matt Bissonnette

89. Stormthrower, by Julia McCarthy

90. Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon

91. The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2009, edited by A.F. Moritz

92. Like Shaking Hands with God, by Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer

93. Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

94. All My Friends are Superheroes, by Andrew Kaufman

95. The Chairs Are Where the People Go, by Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti

September⁽¹⁰⁾

96. Summer of My Amazing Luck, by Miriam Toews

97. The Sexual Politics of Meat, by Carol J Adams

98. Player One, by Douglas Coupland

99. The Sentimentalist, by Johanna Skibsrud

100. The Black House, by Patricia Highsmith

101. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer

102. Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon

103. Fortune Cookie, by Heather J Wood

104. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen

- The Crow, by James O’Barr

October

105. Short Talks, by Anne Carson

106. 100 Jams, Jellies, Preserves & Pickles, by Gloria Nicol

107. Working the Room, by Geoff Dyer

108. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

109. Grunt of the Minotaur, by Robin Richardson

110. Be Good, by Stacey May Fowles

111. Return from Erebus, by Julia McCarthy

112. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman

113. The Discomfort Zone, by Jonathan Franzen

114. Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose

115. Aide-memoire, by Ruth Roach Pierson

- Black Hole, by Charles Burns

- Doorways, by George R R Martin

November

116. Jacob’s Room, by Virginia Woolf

117. The Boy Who Followed Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith

118. I Can Say Interpellation!, by Stephen Cain

119. Afflictions & Departures, by Madeline Sonik

120. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

121. The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco

122. Friend of My Youth, by Alice Munro

123. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

124. The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt

125. Girlwood, by Jennifer Still

- The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone By, by Robert Kirkman

- Che, by Spain Rodriguez

- The Walking Dead, Volume 2: Miles Behind Us, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars, by Robert Kirkman

December

126. The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

127. CBGB, edited by Jamie Hernández

128. Speaking Out Louder, by Jack Layton

129. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote

130. Half-Blood Blues, by Esi Edugyan

131. Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

132. Killdeer, by Phil Hall

133. Inseperable, by Emma Donoghue

134. Goodnight iPad, by Ann Droyd

135. Bonk, by Mary Roach

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Volume 5: Predators and Prey, by Jim Krueger

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Volume 6: Retreat, by Jane Espenson

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Volume 7: Twilight, by Brad Meltzer

- The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart’s Desire, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 5: The Best Defense, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 6: The Sorrowful Life, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 7: The Calm Before, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 8: Made to Suffer, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 9: Here We Remain, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 10: What We Become, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear the Hunters, by Robert Kirkman

- The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them, by Robert Kirkman

- Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton

- Skim, by Mariko Tamaki

Footnotes:

1. Review of Where Do Demons Live?  published in Witches & Pagans #23. [↩]
2. Review of Man-Made Monsters on SpiralNature.com. [↩]
3. Review of Loneliness and Revelation on SpiralNature.com. [↩]
4. For more, see Shelf Life: June 2011. [↩]
5. More on Go the Fuck to Sleep in “A-fucking-dorable“. [↩]
6. For more, see Shelf Life: July 2011. [↩]
7. Review of Zen: Simply Sitting on SpiralNature.com. [↩]
8. Review of The Light of Sex on SpiralNature.com. [↩]
9. For more, see Shelf Life: August 2011. [↩]
10. For more, see Shelf Life: September 2011. [↩]