Last year I participated in the . . .
It was a blast.
Although I have been part of a book group for many years and read a lot on my own, getting over 100 books took a little time and dedication. I listed and reviewed all my 2011 books over on Shelfari.com's 2011 Book Challenge Group (where I am also Humbledaisy) and got up to 147 books.
Whew!
What did I learn from all this reading? Some of the best books are "Young Adult" books. Not everyone has the imagination of Jane Austen. Sometimes, the silliest books have the best "morals." Charlaine Harris
writes the best "small town" tales - no matter how crime-ridden or supernatural. Craig Johnson's western/mysteries are amazing! I never imagined I'd like a western. After reading many historical novels, I am so glad I live in the 21st Century! Antibiotics, vaccines, printed books and the right to vote - woot! Despite all that, I am a definite Anglophile. Knitting books are wonderful.
My favorite book of 2011? A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Yes, it's a supernatural/mystery/romance but that lady can write a book! I read it two times in a row and then bought the audio book and loaded it onto my Ipod and I have the CDs at home.
Most surprising read of 2011? Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith
. Yes, it's a mash-up of history and horror but oh, so funny and potentially believable. It's been made into a movie that comes out in June and I can't wait.
Here's the list if you are interested in looking up any of them:
January 2011:
Through the Children’s Gate - Adam Gopnik
Turkish Delight and Treasure Hunts - Jane Brocket
Shop class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford
East of the Sun - Julia Gregson
The Makioka Sisters - Jun’ichiro
Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl
It sucks to be me - Kimberly Pauley
Troubling a star - Madeline L’Engle
This Book will save your life - A.M. Homes
The dead travel fast - Deanna Rayburn
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot:
Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country - Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Bleeding Violet - Dia Reeves
Silent in the grave - Deanna Raybourn
Silent in the Sanctuary - Deanna Raybourn
Silent on the moor - Deanna Raybourn
February 2011:
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Slice of Cherry - Dia Reeves
The Grand Tour, or, The Purloined Coronation Regalia: Being a Revelation of Matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, Including Extracts from the Intimate Diary of a Noblewoman and the Sworn Testimony of a Lady of Quality - Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline
The Random House Book of Ghost Stories - Susan Hill
The Englishwoman’s Wardrobe (Twenty-Five Englishwomen talk about their Clothes) - Angela Huth
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
A Hat full of sky - Terry Pratchett
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story - Glen Duncan
The shooting in the shop - Simon Brett
I shall wear midnight - Terry Pratchett
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - C. Alan Bradley
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower - Rumer Goddard
Impunity Jane - Rumer Goddard
The Dolls’ House - Rumer Goddard
China Court - Rumer Goddard
March 2011:
Cowl Girls: The Neck’s Big Thing to Knit - Cathy Carron
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag - Alan C. Bradley
The Wee Mad Road - Jack Maloney
Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder
The forgotten garden - Kate Morton
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York - Deborah Blum
The distant hours - Kate Morton
Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches - Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne
The Attenbury Emeralds - Jill Paton Walsh
The House at Riverton or, The Shifting Fog - Kate Morton
April 2011:
Scary Stuff - Sharon Fiffer
Backstage Stuff - Sharon Fiffer
The Knitter’s Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn: Techniques and Projects for Handpainted and Multicolored Yarn - Lorna Miser
The Kitchen Madonna - Rumer Godden
A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan C. Bradley
Busy Body - M. C. Beaton
The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner
Missing Susan - Sharyn McCrumb
The pms outlaw: an Elizabeth MacPherson novel - Sharyn McCrumb
The Agatha Christie mystery - Derrick Murdoch
May 2011:
Staggerford: A Novel - Jon The Mysteries - Lisa
The Red Garden - Alice Hoffman
Across the Universe - Beth Revis
The Pillow Friend - Lisa Tuttle
Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War - Drew Gilpin Faust
Dead over heels - Charlaine Harris
Last Scene Alive - Charlaine Harris
Spinning Around: Spinning, Dyeing & Knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Classics - Jeannine Bakriges
Poppy Done to Death - Charlaine Harris
Why We Get Fat And What to Do About It - Gary Taubes
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War - Drew Gilpin Faust
Meet the Austins - Madeleine L’Engle
The Staggerford Flood - Jon Hassler
Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey - Jill Bolte Taylor
Mother-Daughter Knits: 30 Designs to Flatter and Fit - Sally Melville & Caddy Melville Ledbetter
Warm Knits, Cool Gifts: Celebrate the Love of Knitting and Family with more than 35 Charming Designs - Caddy Melville Ledbetter & Sally Melville
June 2011:
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There - David Brooks
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ultraviolent Mayhem! - Seth Grahame-Smith
Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne - Michael R. Waters
Galloway’s Book on Running - Jeff
Writing Road to Reading 5th Rev Ed: The Spalding Method for Teaching Speech, Spelling, Writing, and Reading - Romalda Bishop Spalding
The New Woman : A Staggerford Novel - Jon Hassler
The Staggerford Murders and Nancy Clancy’s Nephew - Jon Hassler
Mummy Dearest - Joan Hess
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance- Edmund De Waal
92 Pacific Boulevard - Debbie Macomber
1022 Evergreen Place - Debbier
Gingerbread Cookie Murder - Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine, Leslie Meier
Queen of Kings - Maria Dahvana Headley
The Alice behind wonderland - by Simon Winchester
The Union Quilters - Jennifer
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home - Rhoda Janzen
July 2011:
About Alice - Calvin Trillin
Side Jobs - Jim Butcher
Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance - edit. Jean Rabe
We Took to the Woods - Louise D. Rich
Little Women and Werewolves - Porter Grand
Here If You Need Me: A True Story - Kate Braestrup
Finger Lickin’ Fifteen - Janet Evanovich
The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker - Roger Ebert
A Turn in the Road - Debbie Macomber
The Cold Dish - Craig Johnson
August 2011:
The Gentle Art of Domesticity - Jane
The Home-Maker - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography - Rob Lowe
The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child - Donalyn Miller
At Mrs Lippincote’s - Elizabeth
Forever - Pete Hamill
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love - Kristin Kimball
A discovery of witches - Deborah Harkness
Sizzling Sixteen - Janet Evanovich
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth
What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen
A Certain Justice - P. D. James
September 2011
A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio Marsh
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn
Hell Is Empty - Craig Johnson
October 2011:
Counting My Chickens . . .: And Other Home Thoughts - Susan Hill & Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish Devonshire
Growing, older : a chronicle of death, life, and vegetables - Joan Dye Gussow
Graveminder - Melissa Marr
The Devil’s Diadem - Sara Douglass
Wait for Me! - Memoirs - Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish Devonshire
Louisa and the Missing Heiress - Anna Maclean
Travels with Alice - Calvin Trillin
November 2011:
How to Knit a Love Song: A Cypress Hollow Yarn - Rachael Herron
How to Knit a Heart Back Home - Rachael Herron
Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs
The Greyfriar - Susan and Clay Griffith
The Knights of the Cornerstone - James P. Blaylock
No Plot? No Problem! -
A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days
- Chris Baty
River Marked - Patricia Briggs
Lady Audley’s Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Her Majesty’s Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage - Stephen Budiansky
Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis
December 2011:
The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime
- All the Great Detectives and a Few Great Crooks - Michael Sims
Pride and Prescience (Or A Truth Universally Acknowledged) (Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mysteries) - Carrie Bebris
Suspense And Sensibility -
Or, First Impressions Revisited - Carrie Bebris
Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K.
North By Northanger Or, The Shades of Pemberley - Carrie Bebris
The Matters at Mansfield
Or, The Crawford Affair - Carrie Bebris
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows - Alan C. Bradley
Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor
The Intrigue at Highbury - Or, Emma’s Match
by Carrie Bebris
The Deception at Lyme or, The Peril of Persuasion by Carrie Bebris
What Would Madame Defarge Knit? - Heather Ordover
That Holiday Feeling (Silver Bells / The Perfect Holiday / Under the Christmas Tree) -Debbie Macomber, Sherryl Woods, Robyn Carr
To paraphrase knitting guru Elizabeth Zimmerman, "Read On!"
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