“Books to the ceiling, books to the sky, my pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.†~Arnold Lobel
Happy New Year to all, and Happy Reading, too!
Today, SATURDAY December 31st, is a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books just for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2011, a list of all the books you read in 2011, a list of the books you plan to read in 2012, a list of all the books you got for Christmas, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. I’ve already collected a list of those end of the year/beginning of the year lists that I see all over book blogger world, and you can scroll down for those lists. However, I might very well have missed yours, so please come by on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and add a link to the list of lists.
I’m also trying my hand at a little reader’s advisory, so for every list linked I’ll try to suggest a book or two that you might like to read in 2012. Because all of us need more books on our TBR lists, bedside tables, towering stacks of unread books, etc. If you don’t have a blog or don’t have a book list on your blog, you can leave a list of your favorite reads from 2011 and I’ll try to give you a recommendation for the new year.
Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So link to yours for a Happy New Year.
It’s Dangerous Saturday…all these lists and recommendations. But, sigh, it is glorious. I love the reading life. Thank you, Sherry, for making my reading life rich through your work on Saturday Review of Books. ♥
I love your book quote today. I read that poetry book OFTEN to my boys when they were young.
Melissa MM-V and Carol, your suggestions are in the posts below.
Hopeinbrazil: If you’ve not read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand yet, it really does live up to all the hype. WWII biography at its best. And you would probably enjoy The Belfry by May SInclair, one of my favorite reads from this past year.
I listed all the reviews I posted in 2011 with double stars for the ones I really liked! Happy New Year!
I look forward to your suggestions! 😉
~Jeanneisi
Sherry,
I went ahead and linked up all my lists again. I hope that’s okay! I hope you had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas, and I look forward to a very bookish 2012 for us all! Thanks for all you do for the book blog community!
At a Hen’s Pace: Have ever read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Circle of Quiet and Summer of the Great-Grandmother? They’re nonfiction meditations on life and family that I think you would like. Also, are you familiar with Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork and Anything But Typical by Nora Baskin? Both are very different books (YA) about young men who are on the autism spectrum. I thought both books were excellent in their portrayals of coming of age in an atypical way.
I also love that quote! I’m including two links…hope that is okay…because the books I listened to on audio were fabulous!!
Ditto what Carol in Oregon said.
Happy New Year, Sherry!
Harvee at Book Dilettante: So Much For That by Lionel Shriver and For the Win by Cory Doctorow.
Janet at Across the Page; I see that all your favorites were nonfiction. Have you read Lewis’s The Great Divorce? Sort of fiction, but with real life spiritual applications. What about Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River? (I’m looking at your list of blog reviews, which I’m sure doesn’t reflect all the books you’ve ever read.) For children, I just read With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo and liked it a lot. Also, for nature fiction and nonfictionJean Craighead George is my favorite: All Upon a Sidewalk, All Upon a Stone, My Side of the Mountain, Frightful’s Mountain, Julie of the Wolves.
Bonniie at Dwell in Possibility: Now we’re both Josephine Tey fans. Sigh of happiness. Do I dare suggest another Oprah pick? Jewel by Brett Lott is an excellent novel even if Ms. O did like it, too. And have you read G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday? You have to be in the mood for broad comedy, but it might be just quirky enough for you to like it a lot.
Dawn at ladydusk: What Is a Family? and The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. Also, The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. Fiction: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.
Barbara H: I’ve been feeling like Job lately, which probably means I’m in the throes of self-pity. But anyway, your first two picks sound as if they are calling my name.
For you, I suggest City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell and perhaps try Jane Austen again? Maybe Emma or Sense and Sensibility instead of Pride and Prejudice? I think the film versions of P & P have made expectations for the pace of the novel too high.
Sherry, great taste …. I’ve read them all 😉 Perhaps time for some re-reads, though LOL
For Donovan Richards: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy.
For Andrew Jacobsen: Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead and The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain
For both men: Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Wolf Hall, guys? Really? I couldn’t get through it, thought it was ponderous and pretentious. But each to his own. Happy New Year, and may 2012 be full of good books.
Europeanne: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff, For Freedom by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I think you’d enjoy all three if you haven’t already read them. I need to read more Christian nonfiction as you have on your list, but honestly I find it boring and tedious most of the time. The Bible, yes, books about the Bible and the Christian life, not so much. Maybe I’m just not picking the right books.
Okay, Dawn, I’ll try again. The Hobbit, because the movie is coming out next Christmas. And Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman because it’s another Christian homemaking/memory-making book from which you might glean some ideas.
I wasn’t really asking for others, mostly amused at how spot-on you got my taste from this years list of books which I thought went a bit afield from my typical … But thanks! I haven’t heard of the Zimmerman book and it is def time to re-read The Hobbit which I read and loved 30 years ago.
Bluerose’s Heart: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Also, if you haven’t read it, Carney’s House Party by Maud hart Lovelace. Thanks for linking.
Melinda of Wholesome Womanhood: I based these recommendations partly on your favorites of 2011 book list and partly on your 101 list.
Celebrate the Feasts of the Old Testament by Martha Zimmerman
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
John Adams by David McCullough
Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Contentment by Linda Dillow
I’ve enjoyed reading your suggestions for other book bloggers. I’m not really a book blogger but once a year I make sure to write something bookish. 🙂
Pingback: My Top Ten in 2011 « europeanne
A “list of lists” – a kind of meta-list. Thanks for hosting.
Oops, I should have scrolled down. I see you already linked to mine in the post below. This is such a fantastic idea;I am loving reading all the lists and all your suggestions. Happy New Year!
My review of the year has 6 parts. Only part 1 has been published so far but the rest will beup over the following week.
This was on last year’s best books list, but I highly recommend The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell to anyone who hasn’t tried it. Yes, there are zombies but they are more of the background (like wolves prowling just outside a campfire’s light) than anything. The story is the thing. That … and the lovely prose.
I left a link to my Goodreads list of books read in 2011 as I don’t think I will have time to put up a post today on my favorite books this year.
This special Saturday Review of Books prompted me to write lots of lists. I hope it’s not too many!
Sheila, since you liked The Woman in White, you might also enjoy The Moonstone, another mystery by by Wilkie Collins. WW II biography: We Die Alone by David Howarth; although the voice in this one is sort of detached, it’s an exciting story.
Page Turner, you have read some wonderful books this year: Les Miserables, Jayber Crow, To Kill a Mockingbird, all favorites of mine. Have you read Lewis’s Till We Have Faces? Some people hate it, but I think it’s quite thought-provoking. Also recommended if you haven’t read them are Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailer, and Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott.
Lisa Writes: I liked Surprised by Oxford, too, and Killer Angels and Unbroken. Such good book memories. Have you read Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard? Or how about more Dickens, maybe A Tale of Two Cities or my favorite, David Copperfield?
Second list is linked.
I’m looking forward to your unsolicited suggestions.
OK. The final list I’ve written is linked up. I’d like to write one more list today, but I’m not sure I’ll have time to get to it.
I’m loving your recommendations for everybody–way to go! My list is of 52 books that have been sitting around on my TBR for way too long–that need to get read at last. Except I accidentally read one from the list already, so I need to come up with that 52nd book. Maybe you can help… 🙂
Wayside Sacraments: A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot might be a biography you’d enjoy reading. Also, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson reminded me of Barbara Pym’s novels if you liked Crampton Hodnet. Of course, more Barbara Pym would be good reading, too.
Ink Slinger: You have such wonderful books on your list of reading goals; I don’t want to distract you from those. I can recommend Mornings on Horseback, Ender’s Game, Crime and Punishment, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby. Read those first. If you like the book about TR, you might also like Candice Millard’s River of Doubt, also about TR when he went to explore an uncharted riveer in South America at the age of 55. He was an amazing man.
Happy end of year, readers, and here’s to the new one! Shall we all swear off our swearing off of buying new books? Lots of good stuff this year, as well as some dreck, but gotta take the bad with the good. I hope for a better signal to noise ratio next year!
Annette, Marijo, and everybody else: It’s a party! Link as many lists as you want/have.
Collateral Bloggage: have you and “the boy” read The Gammage Cup by Carolyn Kendall? Or The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander? How about The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr? Actually, almost all of the books on this list that I made for my son a couple of years ago would be good father/son read alouds. As for your personal reading, I liked Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees by Peter Kreeft, or really anything by Kreeft. As for fiction, I searched your blog but saw no reference to Connie Willis. If you like time travel science fiction, Connie Willis is the best: Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout and All Clear. I think you’ll like them all.
Ajoop on Books: The Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins, anything by Mitali Perkins, Divergent by Veronica Roth. Your picture is beautiful, and your new blog looks like it will be a delight. Thanks for linking. Come back every week on Saturday to link your book review to the Saturday Review.
I just discovered this blog through Happy Catholic and am excited to subscribe. I’m looking forward to your recommendations. Thanks so much!
Glynn hesitates to recommend. As for me, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. First of all, more Dale Cramer, more Athol Dickson, if you haven’t read all of their books. I’m a fan of both writers. Then, have you read Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle. Good book for writers and artists of all sorts.
Oh, these lists are going to keep me busy for a long time. 🙂
Thanks to everyone for their great lists!
Debnance: The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald and Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exypery.
Patricia at Oh Canada, Y’all: I see that your and list and your TBR shelf are full of Lewis and McCullough, so I won’t recommend those, even though they’re both great. For Shakespeare, start with a comedy, perhaps Comedy of Errors or Much Ado About Nothing. Then watch it, either live or as a movie if necessary. Shakepeare’s plays were meant to be performed and viewed. Check out this post by the incomparable Melissa at Mental Multivitamin:
http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/2011/09/shakespeare-for-all-ages-and-stages.html
I hope you enjoy your year of Shakespeare so much that it becomes a lifetime habit.
Beckie at By the Book: Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer, Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand, and The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon.
Small World Reads: Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard, Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, and Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.
Julie at Happy Catholic: I’m going to try again. Have you read Louis L’Amour Education of a Wandering Man? It’s a wonderful reading memoir. How about A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle?
This is almost overwhelming! I love your recommendations. What would be interesting is if you had a link-up of reviews of the books you recommended to see readers liked them. Now off to do some reading!
Gigi at Book Lust Journal: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. If you’ve already read those, then Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry.
Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews should probably be doing this book advisory thing instead of me recommending books for her, but I am nothing if not rash and foolhardy in the area of reading and book recommending. Becky, have you read the new book, beginning of a new series, by Atinuke called No. 1 Car Spotter? I read it for Cybils and loved it. I also don’t find Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand on your blog anywhere. You need to read that one, lady. Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce?
Kevin Holtsberry: Heaven by Randy Alcorn and Hood by Stephen Lawhead or my favorite Stephen Lawhead book, Byzantium.
Oh, Marijo, I love Eight Cousins, too. It’s my favorite Louisa May Alcott book, even better than Little Women. Have you read the sequel Rose in Bloom, too? Ummm, dare I suggest both Moby Dick by Melville and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, not at the same time, maybe not even in the same year. But read them both. Skim through the boring parts, the sewers of Paris and the whiteness of the whale, but read them. Persevere. Enjoy.
Bekahcubed: What should you read first from your list? Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson To add to your list, I suggest The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, and then see if you can find a production of the play to watch. I tok that from your Great Books list because it’s a beautiful play, and it’s short and easy to read. But full of meaning.
Nicola, first of all I have to apologize because there are very few genres of books that I just don’t read, but graphic novel is one. If anyone wants a suggestion in the area of graphic novels, go see Nicola. For your Titanic 100th Anniversary Reading Challenge, you and other participants can check out this post, Reading About the Titanic.
Have you read Saint Training by Elizabeth Fixmer? I think you’d like this light-hearted middle grade novel about a Catholic girl growing up during the 1970’s.
Girl Detective: You need more Jeeves/Wodehouse. I prescribe a dose of P.G. whenever you’re feeling a little depressed and overwhelmed It works for me. Then, for serious, I’ll suggest Home by Marilynne Robinson, A King Must Die by Mary Renault, Crossers by Philip Caputo.
I only read twelve of the twenty books I planned to read in 2011, but that doesn’t stop me creating another to-read list. Besides, I read 92 books that weren’t on the list. 🙂
Ruth in Haiti: Have you read No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency or any other books by Alexander McCall Smith? I think you would like his writing style and humor. And for you and your students you might try either of the two boos that I just read: Saraswati’s Way by Monica Schroeder or Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy. Both books were engaging and readable.
Joseph at Zombie Parents’ Guide: On Writing Well by William ZInsser is a classic writing book, and I also like Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Prydain is wonderful, and I wish you a happy year in the psalms.
Amy at Book Musings: The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow and Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
Great recommendations!