Readers' Choice Best Books of 2011

'Best-of' book lists offer readers a chance discover gems they may have missed.  Bookpage offers the top 30 books of 2011,based on votes from over 2,500 readers, all of which are available through your Community Library.  And here they are:

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
2. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
3. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
4. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
5. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
6. (2-way tie) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
8. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
9. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
10. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
11. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
12. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
13. (3-way tie) The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht, and The Affair by Lee Child
16. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
17. (2-way tie) Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks & The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
19. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
20. (4-way tie) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean, The Greater Journey by David G. McCullough, and The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
24. (3-way tie) A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
27. (3-way tie) The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
30. Bossypants by Tina Fey

New Nonfiction

Check out these new works of nonfiction! The Reading Promise and In the Garden of Beasts both deal with father-daughter relationships, one in the modern day and the other in Hitler's Berlin, while The Convert tells the famous true story of Margaret Marcus of Larchmont, NY, who abandoned the religion and country of her birth, converted to Islam, and moved to Pakistan. A History of Marriage and Origins of Political Order (a newcomer on the New York Times bestseller list) both trace the origins of two intriguing and often controversial social institutions: marriage and democracy.