Armchair BEA: Best of 2011 [so far]

Dear Blog,

so, today's Armchair BEA topic is your favourite books read in 2011 so far.

A lot of the books I've read in the last few months have been pretty awesome, so this hasn't  been a very easy list to make.  I tried my best.

Oh, and another slightly-relevant note: I have access to wi-fi today, which means I am in fact spending day two of Armchair BEA sat on a sofa.  Not quite an armchair, alas, but the power lead to my laptop won't stretch to the armchair. 

 This is All by Aidan Chambers

Even though I'm not making this list in any kind of order, I believe it should go at the top.  This book.... I have no words. I love it I love it I love it.  All of you have to go and buy a copy this very instant and sit down and read it all in one go even though it's insanely long. That's why it's so good.   *flails*

After Dark or South of The Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is turning out to be one of my favourite authors.  He just creates characters that are so real and ordinary and throws them into the surreal, and the results are absolutely fantastic. 

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Yeah, I know, Ayn Rand was pretentious and  her characters are varying degrees of hero depending on how much they comply with her beliefs, but philosophy intrigues me and dammit she does tell a good story.   I came about Anthem because it's set in a dystopian-type world à la We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, and original perceptions of the future of humankind make me a very happy bookworm.  Speaking of which; We holds a similar place on this list. 

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

There's lots of LGBTQ fiction about characters who are in the process of coming out, and while I still think it's entirely awesome that fiction with gay protagonists is more available these days, it's kind of refreshing to read a book like Pink, where the main character has a long-term girlfriend and is actually wondering whether they're not gay. This probably sounds really corny, but it's a celebration of identity and love and being yourself.  Proper review to come.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

I have much, much love for Ellen Hopkins. There are a lot of writers aspire to write books that are entirely *edgy* in a forceful way, like that's the only way a YA writer could sell. And it's entirely true that her books, of which I've read four, are entirely dark and not for the faint-hearted, she seems to write about them in such an effortless, flowing way. Impulse is no different.  It's dark and twisted but in an utterly compelling sort of way, and the voices of her characters could totally resonate with anyone.

So, there you go.  They're among the best books I've read in the last five months; We'll see about the rest of the year.