August 14, 2011 at 1:31 PM

Here are the books I've read and especially admired in recent months, January-July 2011.

• Just Kids by Patti Smith, memoir
• Freedom by Jonathon Franzen, fiction
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, fiction
• Major Pettrigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, fiction
• Focus by Mike Schmoker, professional
• Essays by Wallace Shawn, essays
• The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi, biography
• Paris Was Ours: Thirty-two Writers Reflect on the City of Light by Penelope Rowlands, editor, essays
• I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish, autobiography/memoir
• One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing by Diane Ackerman, memoir
• The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity by Russell Roberts, fiction
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, fiction
• Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers, nonfiction
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, fiction
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, nonfiction
• The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heide Durrow, fiction
• Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girls' Holocaust Memories by Fanya Gotesfeld Heller, memoir
• Literacy Achievement and Diversity: Keys to Success for Students, Teachers, and Schools by Kathy Au, professional
• The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede, nonfiction
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, nonfiction
• Every Last One by Anna Quindlen, fiction
• The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister, fiction
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, fiction