The OF Blog: A look at 2011 reads nearing the year's halfway point

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A look at 2011 reads nearing the year's halfway point

Although it is way too early for me to proclaim many (any?) sure-fire "Best of 2011" books, I thought I'd provide a run-down of 2011 reads completed or nearly completed that may (or may not) factor in discussions six months from now.  The list will only continue to grow:

2011 Releases Read

Bradford Morrow, The Diviner's Tale
 
Giorgio Agamben, The Sacrament of Language:  The Archaeology of the Oath (non-fiction)

J.M. McDermott, Never Knew Another

Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (debut novel)

Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes

Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife (debut novel)

Steven Erikson, The Crippled God

R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Peter Beagle, Sleight of Hand (collection)

Tibor Moricz, O Peregrino (Portuguese)

Nick Mamatas, Starve Better (non-fiction)

David Albahari, Leeches

Michael Cisco, The Great Lover

Jonathan Strahan, Eclipse Four (anthology)

Roger Manley, Weird Tennessee (non-fiction)

Jeff VanderMeer, Monstrous Creatures (non-fiction)

China Miéville, Embassytown

Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers, The Steampunk Bible

Chris Adrian, The Great Night

Minister Faust, Journey to Mecha (collection)

Inky Johnson, Inky:  An Amazing Story of Faith and Perseverance (non-fiction)


2011 Releases Currently in Progress

S.J. Watson, Before I Go to Sleep

David Anthony Durham, The Sacred Band

Lila Azam Zanganeh, The Enchanter:  Nabokov and Happiness (non-fiction)

Drew Magary, The Postmortal (debut novel)

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairland in a Ship of Her Own Making (revised book form; YA)

Jonathan Wood, No Hero (debut novel)

Blake Butler, There is No Year


Twenty-two books completed and another seven that will either be finished by month's end or early July that are 2011 releases.  Not too bad, although I suspect the number of books in various categories will increase once I swing my focus more toward surveying current releases like I typically do the second half of the year.  Now I suppose some people might like a provisional "top 10" list or so of these books, so here's a little something that will not be placed in order as such:


Current Best of 2011 Contenders

Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife

David Albahari, Leeches

Michael Cisco, The Great Lover

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Bradford Morrow, The Diviner's Tale

Lila Azam Zanganeh, The Enchanter:  Nabokov and Happiness

S.J. Watson, Before I Go to Sleep

R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior

David Anthony Durham, The Sacred Band

Karen Russell, Swamplandia!


Again, opinions are likely to change.  Oh, and I should note that when I cover anthologies in December, I'll be leaving out two reprint anthologies that I'm most excited about, September/October's ODD? and October's Weird, because those will include translations that I have done.  Otherwise, I'd be very confident about those books appearing there.  Oh, and there's some "dance" I'm supposed to read about in July, not to mention these few:

Lev Grossman, The Magician King (review copy arriving shortly)

David Lodge, A Man of Parts:  A Novel of H.G. Wells (review copy arriving shortly)

Ben Loory, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day (collection; review copy arriving shortly)

Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (eds.), The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (arriving in July)


Any of these you curious to learn more about?

2 comments:

Ray Garraty said...

Thanks for the list. I would like to see your review of Albahiri's Leeches.

Ελλάδα said...

Hard to believe it's a debut novel, SJ Watson's Before I Go to Sleep has garnered star reviewed from Kirkus and Booklist and was in development to be adapted into a movie before the book was even released. And though I've read some excellent books this year, I haven't come across a novel that would appeal to so many readers. This book has all the makings of an absolute block buster.

 
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