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.

So Many Books: 2011 Reading in Review. Stefanie reads so many books that I’m not sure what to recommend for her. She read Bleak House in 2011 and enjoyed it, so I’ll say that my favorite Dickens novel is David Copperfield. I can see some of its flaws and still it’s a wonderful novel. I haven’t read it yet, but I wonder what Stefanie would think about P.D. James’s new take-off on Jane Austen, Death Comes to Pemberly?

The Reader Bee: Best Books of 2011. Wow, lots of vampires and zombies and YA romance here. Maybe Sara Zarr’s How To Save a Life? Or Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi?

Live, Learn, Love: Great Books Read in 2011. First of all, I suggest that Annette re-read that last book on her list, and I think I’ll join her. The Bible can always be profitably re-read. As for other book suggestions, I’m wondering if she’s read The Gammage Cup by Carolyn Kendall. It’s an older fantasy title that I’ve been wanting to recommend to someone, and since Annette has been enjoying children’s literature as well as adult books, I’ll give the endorsement to her. As for adult fiction, I think Annette would enjoy reading The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (Biblical/historical fiction), Christy by Catherine Marshall, or The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson.

U Krakovianki: Highlights from 2010 (Books, of course) For Karen in Poland, something old and something new. Has she read Mila 18 by Leon Uris? It’s the fictionalized history of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. As for new, perhaps she would like one of the books on this list of dystopian fiction, since she’s “a glutton for a good dystopia.” I particularly recommend Divergent by Veronica Roth and The Declaration by Gemma Malley.

Let’s Eat Grandpa: 2011 End of the Year Book Survey. Some of her picks are books I love (The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis), and others are books I want to read (Doc by Mary Doria Russell). I’d suggest for Cori: C.S. Lewis’s science fiction trilogy, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet, Boys Without Names by Kashmira Sheth, Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy, and For the Win by Cory Doctorow.

Secrets and Sharing Soda Books of the Year. Katie likes House (The TV show) and children’s books and picture books and Young Adult books, and she and I worked together on the Easy Reader/Short Chapter Books Cybils panel. So we have lots of stuff in common. She read one of my favorite books this past, The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, and she says she plans to read the rest of the books in the series. She also likes The Penderwicks, so I’m trying to think of a couple of books in that general vein. I think she’d like With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo, and All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor, and oh, go ahead and read The Hobbit. You’ll be glad you did.

Supratentorial: My Best Books of 2011. For Alice, a pediatrician and mother of three, I suggest The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer and The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon.

Magistra Mater: My 2011 Reading List. I want to read everything Carol has read, certainly everything that’s at the top of her “genre lists”. And I will venture to suggest for Carol The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. Both are favorites of mine that I pulled from this list, but she may have already gotten around to reading them.

OK, that’s it for now folks. If I didn’t get your list linked in my six posts on reading lists, then leave a link in the Saturday Review linky. I’ll try to recommend some books for each person who links in the Saturday Review. It sounds like a lovely way to spend the first week or so of 2012.

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.

Sheila at Book Journey: The Good, the Bad and the Ugh. Since Sheila enjoyed listening to Catch Me if You Can by Frank Abagnale, I’m suggesting the older book The Great Imposter by Robert Crichton (a book that was also turned into a movie, starring Tony Curtis). She might also like one of the books from this list about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, particularly Katherine Weber’s Triangle.

Hope Is the Word: Books I read in 2011: juvenile & YA fiction (plus top picks) Best Adult Fiction and Nonfiction of 2011. Amy would like The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd and The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, both about people on the autism spectrum, one for children and the other for adults. And I wonder if she and her girls might enjoy reading aloud one of the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood; B is for Betsy is the first one I believe. The books are hopelessly old-fashioned, very 1950’s, and therefore quite lovely.

Dolce Belleza: End of the Year Book Survey. Belleza is already planning to read Winds of War by Wouk for the Historical Fiction Challenge; she’ll want to follow that one with the sequel, War and Remembrance. She also has several books lined up for her own Venice in February reading challenge, but I’d like to suggest another by one of my favorite authors: The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes. As for children’s literature set in Japan, has Belleza read Katharine Paterson’s early novels, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, Of Nightingales That Weep, and The Master Puppeteer? I read them quite a while ago, but I remember thinking they were quite well-written, just as her later Newbery award-winning novels were.

The Literary Stew: End of the Year Book Survey. Another kindred spirit, as must be anyone who is a fan of Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries featuring Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey. I recommend C.J. Sansom’s stand-alone novel about the Spanish Civil War, Winter in Madrid. Also, Mrs. B should check out P.D. James—the detective novels, of course– but I’m thinking of her futuristic novel, Children of Men, which reminded me of Never Let Me Go (or maybe Ishiguro’s novel reminded me of the one by James).

Mental Multivitamin: Ten Memorable Books from 2011. It is with fear and trembling that I recommend any books to Melissa at Mental Multivitamin. She reads James Joyce and Joyce Carol Oates, and likes both, whereas I can’t . . quite . . . get it. Nevertheless, we do share some affinities: Both of us listed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson as one of our favorites reads of 2011. Alan Jacobs is a favorite voice of mine from the academic world, although I haven’t read the book Melissa includes in her favorites yet. We both enjoy many genres and media: children’s literature, young adult, literary fiction, movies, TV, at, poetry. And, of course, there’s the Bardolatry that we share. So, without further ado, I suggest that Madame MM-V might like The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock (and its sequels), Men to Match My Mountains by Irving Stone, and Exposure by Mal Peet.

Oversight of Souls:Best Reads of 2011. Best Reads With my Kids in 2011. I repeat myself, but to paraphrase the poet, “I contain multitudes.” Mr. Van Neste should read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxis.

My Friend Amy: 2011–The Year in Books. I see on Amy’s blog that she was looking forward to reading Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce, but I don’t see that she ever reviewed it. If she hasn’t read that one yet, it’s an excellent piece of “Christian fiction” that I think Amy would appreciate. I also suggest that Amy seek out and read any of the following books with the theme of community that she hasn’t already read: The Hardest Thing To Do by Penelope Wilcock, In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L’Engle, No Graven Image by Elizabeth Elliot.

Book Hooked Blog: Best Adult Fiction of 2011. Julie likes a lot of different kinds of books, so I’m suggesting that she try the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness or some of the others in my dystopian fiction post of a few weeks ago and perhaps Unplanned by Abby Johnson.

Challies: My Top Books of 2011. Tim Challies is a Canadian pastor with a hugely popular Christian blog. He reads mostly nonfiction. I suggest that he check out Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber and/or The Shooting Salvationist (aka Apparent Danger) by David Stokes.

Cindy at Ordo Amoris: 2011 Top 10 Fiction Reads. 2011 Top Ten Nonfiction Reads. Cindy says, “A year without (C.S.) Lewis is not a good year.” Yes. She plans to re-read Till We Have Faces, a plan I support, but has she read The Narnia Code by Michael Ward? (Don’t worry, good book, not all Davinci Code-ish, probably named by the publishers.) Also for Cindy, I suggest some older, now neglected novels, if she hasn’t read them: The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi, The Singer by Calvin Miller, and Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.

Dani at A Work in Progress: Favorite Reads of 2011 & Other Miscellanea. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is on Dani’s American Authors TBR list; I think she’d really enjoy that novel. I also see that she has a Helen Macinnes book, Decision at Delphi, “on the nightstand”–I love Helen MacInnes’s novels, and I highly recommend all of them.

Kimbofo at Reading Matters: My Favorite Novels of 2011. Kimbofo says she’s a sucker for an Irish novel, but I find no mention of Stephen Lawhead on her blog. Patrick by Lawhead is not his very best (Byzantium is my favorite), but it is his most Irish of novels. Kimbofo is also hosting an Australian Literature Month in January 2012, and although she says she already has a stack of Australian books to read, I can recommend On the Beach by Nevill Shute, A Town Like Alice by Nevill Shute, and Stolen by Lucy Christopher.

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.

Brandon at The Thin Veil: My Favorite 15 Books of 2011. This list is also very Catholic-centered. For Catholic writers, I’m wondering if Mr. Vogt has read any of G.K. Chesterton’s fiction, particularly The Man Who Was Thursday and the Father Brown detective stories. I also strongly believe that all engineers should read poetry, and you can’t get better than John Donne and George Herbert.

Ripple Effects: All the Year’s Best. Arti includes movies and books on her list of the year’s best, both lists of selections are quite literary and contemplative. I think Arti would like more Madeleine L’Engle, including my two favorite fiction books by Ms. L’Engle, A Severed Wasp and The Love Letters and also the memoirs, A Circle of Quiet, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother and The Irrational Season.

Happy Catholic: My 2012 Reading Challenge Lists. I don’t know if it’s fair for me to try to add anything to what is already an ambitious set of reading lists for Julie for 2012, but that’s never stopped me before. So hey, Julie, have you read any Peter Kreeft? Brandon (see above) reminded me that I still need to finish Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees by Kreeft, and I wouldn’t mind reading some of his other books. For “happy Catholicism”, he’s a must-read.

Book Chase: Best of 2011. Blogger Sam Sattler reads and reviews a lot of books, and at least a couple of his besties need to go on my TBR list (Doc by Mary Doria Russell and Grant’s Final Victory by Charles Bracelen). For Sam, my picks are River of Doubt by Candice Millard and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. (Yes, Unbroken is my favorite read of 2011, and I’m recommending it to more than one person.)

Linus’s Blanket: Best of 2011. Nicole reads supernatural fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction and contemporary fiction, and she lists favorites from 2011 in each category. I wonder if Nicole might enjoy Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog or perhaps the YA verse novel A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes?

The Fourth Musketeer: Raindrops on Roses, My Top 10 Favorite Books from 2011. Margo needs to read Mitali Perkins’ Bamboo People and/or the one I just finished from 2011, With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo—and then tell me what she thinks of them!

Devourer of Books: 2011–Best Books. Judging from the number of her favorites that I added to my TBR list, Devourer and I must have similar tastes in books. So, I’m fairly confident that she would like The Queen’s Daughter by Susan Coventry or maybe Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang.

CarrieK at Books and Movies likes to make multiple list, as do I: Favorite historical fiction of 2011
Favorite contemporary fiction of 2011.
Favorite Mysteries of 2011.
Favorite Nonfiction of 2011.
Favorite Speculative Fiction of 2011.
Favorite YA Reads of 2011.
Carrie needs to read City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell, and she needs to read Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry next in her pursuit of all things Berry-ish. Jayber Crow is my favorite Wendell Berry novel.

A Fuse #8 Production: 100 Magnificent Children’s Books of 2011. Elizabeth Bird, children’s librarian extraordinaire, makes a lovely list, but of course I see some notable omissions. Ms. Bird needs to read and make room for on her list The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic by Jennifer Trafton, and where’s Mo Willems and his three Elephant and Piggie easy readers that were published this year?
Fuse #8: The Ten Middle Grade novels I’m Looking Forward to in 2012. Betsy Bird knows about everything kidlit before I do, so I can’t really suggest anything new to her. And she’s working on a book about the history of kidlit, I think, so I can’t really suggest anything old either. She really needs to check the Jennifer Trafton book, though.

The Ink Slinger: Books Reviewed in 2011. I already recommended that Mr. Ink Slinger, who regularly beats me in Words With Friends, read The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, and The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailer.

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.