RTW: Top Five Reads of 2011

Today’s Road Trip Wednesday question on YA Highway is: What were your top five favorite books of 2011?

If you’ve been following my blog for the past few months, you’ll already know some of my top picks. So, here’s how I’m going to do this. First I’ll give you my top book for December (which is also in my list of “top reads of 2011”). Then I’ll go through the other four that made the list.

My top read for December was going to be Anne Perry’s CALLANDER SQUARE, the second in her series of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. Although there are some things that annoy me about Perry’s style (in particular the way she uses a variety of speech indicators–“she declared,” “she uttered,” “she commented”–when “she said” would be sufficient), the story is captivating enough that these become minor irritations. The story revolves around the discovery of two infant skeletons buried in Callander Square, an area of London where some of the richest and most influential people live. Thomas is called on to lead the investigation, but Charlotte gets herself thoroughly involved and, indeed, takes much of the spotlight of the novel. The story gives a fascinating insight into the social mores of Victorian England, where, despite “Victorian values,” the upper classes turn a blind eye to scandal among their own.

That was going to be my top pick for December, but then my wife (bless her cotton socks) got me BEHEMOTH for Christmas! This is the second part in Scott Westerfeld’s LEVIATHAN series, and was not a disappointment. Indeed, I thoroughly enjoyed this for all the same reasons I enjoyed LEVIATHAN: a great story, great characters, and a page-turning style. Keith Thompson’s illustrations compliment the story, but, at least for me, are not integral; I would enjoy the story as much without them. Without giving too much away, the focus of the story shifts to Constantinople (or rather Istanbul), where the future success of the allies against the German Clankers could rest on the position of the Ottomans. But the Germans are already infiltrating the cultural hodge-podge of the ancient city, and a gift from the Germans to the sultan appears to have bought his favor. And while our two heroes, Deryn (the Scots girl disguised as a boy), and Aleksander (the Austrian nobleman who is in fact the heir to the Hapsburg throne), have built a strong–though unlikely–friendship, where will their ultimate allegiances lie now that their respective countries are at war? BEHEMOTH is hands-down my pick of December. The final part in the trilogy, GOLIATH, came out a few months ago… and I’m sure I’ll be ordering it soon!

I have already reviewed three of the other four picks of 2011 in previous Road Trip Wednesdays, so here are links to them. They are:

LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld

DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

THE CATER STREET HANGMAN by Anne Perry

For my fifth pick of the year, I’m going with UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld. I haven’t enjoyed this series as much as LEVIATHAN, but it’s still a good read. The first book is definitely the best of the series. I think the premise is interesting: a society that seeks to eradicate prejudice by making everyone “pretty” on their sixteenth birthday. This means that for everyone over the age of sixteen, there is no distinction between the attractive and the unattractive because everyone’s gorgeous. And no-one judges based on race or beauty because everyone has perfect skin and a beautiful face. No-one is too fat or too thin, too short or too tall. But, as our hero Tally Youngblood discovers, there’s more to the operation than ultimate beautification, and she must decide whether she wants to become a Pretty, or remain an Ugly. A decision that’s made harder when she meets the mysterious David and his fellow Smokies–a mini society of people who have avoided the “pretty” operation.

There’s my top five for the year. On Saturday, I’ll reveal which of these is my book of the year. Can you guess which it will be? While you’re thinking about that, jump over to YA Highway and look at everyone else’s picks for 2011…