So to recap 2011, I’d like to share my top six favorite books I read this year (in no particular order)!

1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I didn’t blog about this book, but it’s one of my recent favorites. I liked how it combined dystopia with the supernatural, and I’m looking forward to what this series brings next.
2. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan. I didn’t like this book at all at first. I thought it was weird, didn’t get it, and almost stopped reading. Until I kept reading, and I enjoyed the mystery and suspense, the action, and then, the story and the characters. It was certainly unique, very jarring at times, and I loved it.
3. Lauren Kate’s Fallen series. I avoided these books for so long, I read the synopses, always kept picking them up at the store and the library and then putting them back down. But when I got my Nook, I checked them out from my local eLibrary and fell in love with Daniel and Luce, and can’t wait for the 4th book!
4. All of Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. I picked these up for the first time this year as well, via my Nook and the local library. These books were hilarious, and something completely new when I was seeking a fresh voice from an author.
5. Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien. This is another book I kept annoying  until I finally checked it out and loved it! I enjoyed the romance in this story so much. I have Prized on my Nook right now to read very, very soon!
6. Hourglass by Myra McEntire. I have to be honest, any time travel romance is going to get me, and I loved this.

Be sure to check these out!

• Back in May, I graduated with my Master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University with a 3.98 GPA. It was exhilarating and yet also very scary, as I spent most of April and May searching for a job! (And they are few and far between in the library world!)
• On the day before graduation, I was offered a position at OverDrive, a digital distributor of eBooks and audiobooks, working with libraries (specifically, school and college libraries).
• I started working at OverDrive in late May, and ever since it’s been a whirlwind, learning new things, meeting new people, actually having to get up every day and go to work – ahh!
• I’ve only just now been able to get back into reading!

And there is the brief update on my life, and other wonderful things. I’m very fortunate to be employed right now, and I’m really enjoying my job and all I’m learning! I’m finally also reading like crazy again. I’m currently working my way through Fallen by Lauren Kate, and a reread of The Hunger Games. I’m working on a program with my YALSA mentor for THG, so I need freshen up on the story!

I also recently purchased a Nook, which is my new best friend, and I am crazily downloading books from my local library, through, who else, OverDrive! So, please, keep reading, and look for some new, fresh reviews soon. Can’t wait to get back into blogging!

1. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
2. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. City of Ships by Mary Hoffman
4. The Heart Is Not a Size by Beth Kephart
5. My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
6. The Ruby Notebook by Laura Resau
7. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
8. Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
9. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

• The Maze Runner by James Dashner, October 6th (first in a trilogy)
• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, September 29th (Loved The Time Traveler’s Wife, hoping this is as good!)
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, October 6th (droolworthy excited)
• Fire (prequel to Graceling) by Kristin Cashore, October 5th (really regretting that I loaned a friend Graceling because I am dying to read it again!)
• ArchEnemy (The Looking Glass Wars) by Frank Beddor, October 15th (great series on an alternate view of Alice in Wonderland)
• The Van Alen Legacy (4th book in the Blue Bloods series) by Melissa De La Cruz (like Gossip Girl but everyone is a vampire – fantastic!)

I’m not sure how I’m going to keep up with all of these great books, plus the ones I currently have, but I will try! I definitely have some catching up to do, and a lot of discussing to begin!

A few months ago, the cover for Liar was released, and the ensuing blogosphere reaction was intense and amazing! Liar is told from the point of view of an African American teen that lies about everything, literally, but yet the cover of this soon-to-be-released novel featured a white teen. People were upset. The author was upset. Word spread like wildfire and people spoke out. Everyone talked about the publishing business and how this was not the first in a long line of atrocities it had committed against people of color.

Thankfully, the publisher decided to change the cover, which now features a young African American woman. But this isn’t the end of the debate–many people in publishing and outside still feel that covers with white people on them sell better. Is that true? Maybe so, but that doesn’t make it right. And this is definitely not the fault of just people in the business. We readers are at fault as well, if we just judge a book by its cover.

I definitely encourage everyone to read outside of their race, their gender, their age, and really–read outside everything you have ever known. Isn’t that the point of fiction and being able to read? To imagine new things, to become a new person, to feel what it’s like in another person’s shoes?

Later this month, Book Divas will be hosting an online discussion about Liar, and I encourage everyone to check it out, whether or not you have read the book yet. And definitely look for my review of it in the next month!

I’m very excited to have been able to get Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey, which has just been released! This is definitely one of my most anticipated sequels for this year.

I also After by Amy Efaw and Kendra by Coe Booth, both of which I have heard a lot about on the blogosphere. Look for my reviews on those and many more books this next month.

Next week I’ll also share with you my experiences in my first week of library school!

I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of these. The fantasy aspects are great, and I’m finding the plot very different from other fantasy novels I’ve read lately, so it’s refreshing. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated as I continue on with the series!

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart; I just finished the first book (The Mysterious Benedict Society) and absolutely loved it. The tone of the books and the style of his writing reminded me a lot of the Series of Unfortunate Events, minus quite a bit of that misery! I adored the 4 children in this novel: each had a distinct, unique presence and character that grew more and more developed as the story went on. For slightly younger readers than what I usually read, I’d recommend this one for anyone looking for something with a bit of adventure, mystery, humor, and suspense.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen; Love, love, love this, even though it takes my most favorite novel and chops it into tiny pieces, inserting much more humor, snarkiness, and zombies throughout. I’ve been reading this one for quite awhile, and slowly, mostly because I’m making it my “read-at-lunch” novel. But I do recommend it for any fan of Jane Austen OR zombies.

Oh, and I am still in the middle of so many more books (I read many books at the same time, a weird habit of mine) including: Need by Carrie Jones, Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey, I So Don’t Do Mysteries by Barrie Summy, and on and on. Will keep you updated, my faithful readers, on what I think of those next! I’m also going to be hitting up the library soon to catch up on some of the latest graphic novels.