Best of 2011

I love this time of year, and one of the things I enjoy most is looking over the list of books I read and putting together a list of my favorites.

I'm using my Goodreads account to create this list. The ratings system makes it easy to find my favorites of the year. I re-read a lot of my favorite YA books this year because I am leading a couple of book groups at our neighborhood library. I'll leave those off this list, and only include the books I encountered for the first time.

Fiction:
A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
The Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery)

Graphic Novel:
Ethel and Ernest (Raymond Briggs)

Middle Grade and YA:
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (Jeanne Birdsall)
Keeper (Kathi Appelt)
A Tale Dark & Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party (Emily Jenkins)
Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)
Inside Out & Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Inga Moore; abridged)

I didn't give any of the nonfiction I read five stars (unless you count the above graphic novel, which is about Briggs' parents). I gave four stars to these:

Nonfiction:
The Wilder Life (Wendy McClure)
The Circuit (Francisco Jiménez)
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age (Coco Irvine)