SATURDAY December 31st, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially 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, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, to link to yours, if I missed it and it’s not already here.
However, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks gathering up all the lists I could find and linking to them here. I’ll be posting each day this week leading up to Saturday a selection of end-of-the-year lists with my own comments. I’m also trying my hand at (unsolicited) book advisory by suggesting some possibilities for 2012 reading for each blogger whose list I link. If I didn’t get your list linked ahead of time and if you leave your list in the linky on Saturday, I’ll try to advise you, too, in a separate post.
Eric the Read: Top 10 Nonfiction Best Books of 2011. Eric’s tastes seem to run toward economics and history. My favorite book in the area of economics is an oldie, but still applicable in today’s economy: The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky. For something more recent, I also think he might like Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy by Eric Metaxis.
Lonestar Librarian at Speed of Light: Favorite Books, 2011. This one was hard because Ms. Lonestar Librarian seems to have read about as many books as I have. But in a quick search of her blog, I don’t see any reference to my favorite book of 2011, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Perhaps she would enjoy that one.
Farm Lane books: My Favorite Books of 2011. The books on this list are all books published in 2011. She plans to make lists of the most important books published in 2011 and of her favorite books released in previous years. Jackie reads and blogs from Surrey, England. Based on this list and on my poking around her blog a little, I think Jackie would like Lionel Shriver’s So Much for That (even though it’s a polemic on the American health care system) or perhaps the Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder.
A Common Reader: 2011 Round-up including Best Books. Tom Cunliffe, of East Sussex, England, lists several books that I’ve never heard of, mostly European in setting or authorship or both. I think he might like Anna’s Book by Barbara Vine (maybe called Asta’s Book in the UK), a discovery of mine this year or perhaps something by Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte. The Fencing Master or Captain Alatriste?
John Self at Asylum: Twelve from the Shelves: My Books of 2011. I’m not sure I’m literary or intellectual enough to advise Mr. Self, but I’ll make a stab at it anyway. I was going to suggest Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, but I see that he’s already read it. So perhaps Home by the same author? Or for short and quirky and death-filled, The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson could be a good bet for Mr. Self’s reading list.
Quieted Waters: My 10 Favorite Books of 2011. This young law student blogger read and recommended the same Eric Metaxis biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I chose as a favorite this year, so I’m recommending back to him that he read Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, if he hasn’t already done so. He also mentions a recent or impending marriage, for which I prescribe a dose of The Peacemaker by Ken Sande, not that it’s a marriage manual. It is, however, one of the best relationship books I’ve read lately.
Read. Breathe. Relax. Best Books of 2011. I’m wondering if this fantasy/sci-fi/romance reader has read all the books on this list. In particular, I recommend Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Epitaph Road by David Pateneaude, and The Declaration by Gemma Malley. Divergent by Veronica Roth was one of my favorites this year, too.
Reading is my cup of tea: Top 5 Best authors and Best books of 2011. For fifteen year old Molly, the Brit who blogs and drinks tea, I advise the same list as the one I had for Read. Breathe. Relax. above, since Delirium and Matched are already in her towering TBR stack. Divergent lovers of the world unite!
Thoughts of a Sojourner: Top books reviewed in 2011. Athol Dickson’s River Rising and My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa Mckay are the two thrillers with Christian themes that I would put at the top of Sojourner’s reading list.
Word Sharpeners: Favorite Books I’ve Read in 2011. For Tamera at Word Sharpeners, I propose Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr and The Cure by Athol Dickson.
Sommer Reading: My Favorite Books of 2011. Suggestions for Shelley: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (YA), The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic by Jennifer Trafton (MGF), and The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (Adult fiction).
The Anchoress: Those Year-End Book Lists. THe Anchoress’s list is very, very Catholic, and so I’ll suggest some Catholic or at least Christian books: Saint Training by Elizabeth Fixmer, because I think Ms. Scalia would appreciate this children’s book about a girl who wants to become a saint, and how about Praying for Strangers by River Jordan, because I think The Anchoress would identify with this true story of a woman who decides to pray for one stranger each day.
Here’s a bonus book list that I contributed to at Breakpoint’s Youth Reads: Books to Buy Your Kids for Christmas. The list is good for after Christmas, too.
Forgotten Road by Randall Arthur. Sheila at Book Journey makes this novel about loss, tragedy and redemption sound fantastic. (November 29, 2012)
The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr. “Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.
