The Year of SSR

As the new year is about to launch, I relish looking backwards at the year finishing up.  In the reading department it's been fun to peruse this year's take--and very fun to recognize there's been a year's take to ponder! Hopefully that trend will continue. When the boys were young, there was a school term that wandered the house regularly: SSR.  Stood for 'Silent Sustained Reading'. I've definitely been earning my SSR points for the year!

Probably above all, it's been the year of the memoir.  That wasn't preplanned--but once I entered the genre it was hard to step out. Didn't really want to.
I have not read some of this year's memoir headliners--notably George W & Sarah's second. Why knowingly stick your finger in the ghost-writing socket? (My favorite Mudflats has done a nice 'twelve days' tribute to Palin, including her book.)
Instead, I've been randomly pulling items off the library shelf & in most cases have been pleasantly surprised. By my count, I've finished sixteen memoir this year, with another five that might be considered 'second-hand-memoir' (told by another).

Top three for the year I think would be: McCraken's An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, O'Brien's The Things They Carried which launched me into all of his books, and Steil's The Woman Who Fell From the Sky.

Close runner-ups: Janzen's bittersweet Mennonite in a Little Black Dress and Patchett's timeless Truth & Beauty.

I happily 'met' authors Christopher Moore (Lamb was my favorite) & Ariana Franklin. Slowest slog but worth it: Baker's Family of Secrets. Fanned my love of Tracy Kidder with three additional works by him this year. Also worth noting, Ivin's Bill of Wrongs & Stockett's novel, The Help. 

I know a book or so a week isn't a land speed record but it's about a ten-fold improvement for me! And that doesn't count the many wonderful books on quilting & all the related techniques that I've enjoyed diving into.
Here's to all the places I'll go & people I'll meet in the books of 2011...