Saturday, January 7, 2012

My 22 Favorite Books of 2011

Yes, the list is twenty-two.  I know it is pathetic that I can't even narrow it down to twenty, but what's a reader to do?  Here's the list of my favorite books read in the past year:


The Swan Thieves-Elizabeth Kostova

The Heretic’s Daughter-Kathleen Kent

Wench-Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Room-Emma Donoghue                                                        

Three Junes-Julia Glass                                                        

Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verghese

Winter Garden-Kristin Hannah                                 

The Forgotten Garden-Kate Morton

Drowning Ruth-Christina Schwartz                          

Olive Kitteridge-Elizabeth Strout                                                     

The Kitchen House-Kathleen Grissom

Scout, Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh

The Devil’s Dream-Lee Smith

Mudbound-Hillary Jordan

My Old True Love-Sheila Kay Adams

Two Rivers-t.greenwood

Fall On Your Knees-Anne-Marie MacDonald                                 

The Gift of Peace-Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey-Walter Mosley

The Art of Fielding-Chad Harbach

Homer and Langley-EL Doctrow                                                      

The Patron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

I think that the list is a nice mix of both old and new books.  I am kind of sad to say that only two of the twenty-two are nonfiction.  I am going to try to do better with that this year!   

What's that?  You need it narrowed down?  Ok, out of the above list, here are the top eleven:

Room-Emma Donoghue                                                        
Three Junes-Julia Glass                                                        
Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verghese
Drowning Ruth-Christina Schwartz                          
Olive Kitteridge-Elizabeth Strout                                                     
Scout, Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh
Mudbound-Hillary Jordan
Two Rivers-t.greenwood
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey-Walter Mosley
Homer and Langley-EL Doctrow                                                      
The Patron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

Still not narrow enough?  This is the best that I can do: 

Room-Emma Donoghue                                                        
Drowning Ruth-Christina Schwartz                          
Scout, Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh
Mudbound-Hillary Jordan
The Patron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

You will just have to read them for yourselves if you want to make the list smaller...I just can't choose.

































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