Top Ten Books Read in 2011

Several of my favourite books from last year weren't actually published in 2011, but I still believe that they're all worth sharing. Without further ado, here are my favourite books of 2011, whittled down from the 135 total books that I read last year!

#10 - The Prodigal by Beverly Lewis

While many new authors of Amish fiction have emerged over the last few years, Beverly Lewis still stands out as one of the best novelists in this genre. 

See my review here.

#9 - Seek Me With All Your Heart by Beth Wiseman

The Land of Canaan series may turn out to be even better than Beth's first series.

Look out for a review of this book soon!

#8 - Plain Promise by Beth Wiseman

I got so involved in the lives of Sadie and Kade, it was almost as if I was experiencing events alongside them. 

Read my mini-review in this post.

#7 - The Promise of an Angel by Ruth Reid

Ruth Reid brings something entirely new and refreshing to the full-to-bursting genre of Amish fiction, and I would not have known that this was her debut novel.

Check out my full review here.

#6 - When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley

I was so captivated by this novel that I honestly could not find any faults with it.

Review coming soon!

#5 - Head in the Clouds by Karen Witemeyer

Karen Witemeyer certainly knows how to create a compelling and enjoyable story, and Head in the Clouds had everything I look for in a good historical romance. 

Read my full review here.

#4 - Along Wooded Paths by Tricia Goyer

The spiritual and emotional depths of Tricia’s characters are something that I’m particularly fond of.

See my review here.

#3 - Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer

New Amish authors need to make their work stand out from the crowd, and Tricia has succeeded in doing this through placing her characters in a new setting and a more liberal community.

Full review here.

#2 - Lilly's Wedding Quilt by Kelly Long

If there’s such a thing as edgy Amish fiction, Kelly Long is undoubtedly the queen of it.

Read more here.

#1 - Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

No review I write of this book will ever be able to do it justice. 

See why here.

I hope that you all had such fruitful reading experiences as I did in 2011. Here's to another great year of reading!

Off The Shelf Challenge for 2012

I'm signing up to this challenge from Bookish Ardour as, due to reviewing and studying, I keep neglecting some books that I've owned for years. They sit on my bookshelves, languishing and gathering dust, despite the fact that I'm actually really looking forward to reading them! I'm going to aim to read 15 books (Level 2 - Trying) that I already own physical copies of. No ebooks for this challenge! And if you're interested, check out the sign up page here for the challenge.

Here's my provisional list and the reasons why I feel I should read these particular books.

1. Oklahoma Brides by Vickie McDonough

WHY: My mum bought a set of ten novella collections from CBD almost a year ago because they were ridiculously cheap. I've yet to read any of the books in this set and I think she's already read half of them, even though they've been on my bookcase! My mum raved about this book and since I read a novella by Vickie this Christmas and loved it, this seems like a good way to break into this stack of books. And by stack, I really do mean stack - I can no longer place books the usual way on my bookcase. That's how bad my bookcase situation is...

2. A Promise for Ellie by Lauraine Snelling

WHY: This is another book that my mum bought me, except this time she bought me the entire boxed series. I feel especially guilty for books that I haven't read when I actually own all of the sequels, and this is one I've even taken to university and placed on my bookcase there to convince myself to read it. These books actually look pretty good and it won't be as taxing as some other books on my list.

3. Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

WHY: Okay, I'm starting to see a theme here. I think it may have been last year? My mum bought a set of Helen Dunmore books from The Book People (like me, she can't resist a sale when it comes to books!) and gave me five of the books for my Christmas. And sadly I've not got around to reading any of them, even though the covers are gorgeous and I do really enjoy historical fiction. I've picked this one as the story appeals to me and because I'm sure I once checked it out the library but never finished it.

4. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

WHY: I swear, I didn't get this book from my mum! Just my mother-in-law. Seriously, my fiance has a mum and stepmum and both of them love to read just as much as I do, so getting married is not going to put a  stop my reading at all! My MIL got me a lovely set of Harper Perennial books for my Christmas this year, ten books in total. I went through the synopsis for each book and decided to add this one to my challenge.

5. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

WHY: My copy is actually the Penguin Modern Classics edition, but it's close enough. As I said, my MIL does not help my bookshelves at all, and for my 20th birthday she and my fiance's stepdad got me a set of ten Penguin Modern Classics. I've picked this one to be part of my challenge partly because I liked the sound of the story and had heard good things about it, and also because I quoted E. M. Forster's opinion of Northanger Abbey in my History project and figured I should read one of his books.

6. When the Heart Cries by Cindy Woodsmall

WHY: I bought this book sometime in 2010 with an Amazon voucher I got for my birthday but for some bizarre reason, never got around to reading it. A while back I discovered that my local library has the other books in the series so figured I should take this chance and read all the books in the series at once...but now that I've checked again, they only have #2 so I might have to get #3 from Audible. An excuse to get more audiobooks? Yes, please! Also, I've only ever read Cindy's Christmas novellas but have heard good things about this series. 

7. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

WHY: Partly because I discovered the TV show Sister Wives this year and find polygamy quite fascinating, and partly because my mum recently read this book and recommended it. That encouraged me to hunt in the box of books under my bed (yes, I've ran out of shelf space that badly that I keep books in boxes!) and find my copy of this book. It's quite long so may have to wait until the summer when I have more time to read. But I've been wanting to read this book ever since it was first published, which I've now realised was in 2008...

8. The Memory Garden by Rachel Hore

WHY: I couple of years ago, my mum bought me Rachel's first three novels for my Christmas. Yes, it was a Book People offer. My MIL is addicted to these as well. I read The Dream House sometime last year and loved it, but have neglected to read the other two even though I know I'll enjoy them as well. I love dual-time narratives and it's refreshing to read books set in the UK, so this is definitely going to be part of this challenge.

9. Plain Jayne by Hillary Manton Lodge

WHY: A friend of mine managed to get this book for me on a bookswapping website back in 2010 and while I was super thankful for her getting hold of the book for me (Thanks, Kate!) I've still not read it! Instead, I think it sat inside a box of books in the bottom of my wardrobe and got forgotten. It is most sad, especially as some of my friends have loved this book.

10. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 

WHY: My copy is actually a giant airport edition (even more reason why I need to read it, it takes up more shelf space than other books) but I can't find a decent picture of my edition. A lot of people have raved about this book and said that it's a "must read", especially now that a film has been made about it. I've owned it for quite a while, long before there was all the hype so I really should get around to reading it.

11. Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

WHY: Again, I own a different edition. I can find picture of the cover, but only foreign-language editions, which will just confuse everyone! I'm a massive "Anne" fan but, with the exception of LMM's short-story collections, haven't read any of her other works. Since I own the entire Emily series (varying editions, including one 1930s hardback) this seems like a good place to start.

12. Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin

WHY: Three reasons! I read Valerie's Property a few years ago and loved it; a friend sent me this in the post as she knew how much I'd enjoyed it (Thanks, Anne!); and I kept putting this off until I read the original story of Jekyll & Hyde, on which this book is based. Well, GoodReads tells me that I read Stevenson's original back in October 2009 so I've put this book off for too long. It's not exactly a long book so this should be an easy addition to my list.

13. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

WHY: I'm also a massive fan of the Little Women series and have owned this book since I was about 11. I'm sure I started reading this book as a child, and even have a memory of falling asleep while reading this book and waking up with it on my chest. I also own a lovely 1950s illustrated (and sadly abridged) hardback of Rose in Bloom, the sequel, so would love to finally get around to reading this book.

14. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

WHY: This is another one that there was a lot of hype about several years ago, including from my own mother! I actually managed to get hold of a copy of it on a bookswapping website back when it first became popular, but it's languished for a while on my shelf. I get the impression that the synopsis is ambiguous, in the style of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which is another book I really appreciated, so I hope to read this book in 2012 as well.

15. An Accidental Woman by Barbara Delinsky

WHY: I truly do love Barbara's novels and own quite a few of them that remain unread, but sadly only read a couple in 2011. My love of her books was revived when I downloaded Not My Daughter from Audible, and I've decided to start working my way through those books that she's written that I actually own copies of - and there's quite a few! Why start with this one? It's a giant hardback and takes up a LOT of space!

"Reserves", in case any of these books are disappointing and end up unfinished. Or in case I become ambitious and want to aim higher:

16. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (giant airport book and has been on my shelf for two years)

17. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (a lot of hype about this book but yet still unread)

18. Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell (given by a friend as it was on my wishlist years ago)

19. My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson (loved Marshmallows for Breakfast and am a failure as a chick-lit reader if I haven't read this book by now)

20. The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond (went to all the effort of getting a copy of the from the US when it was virtually unheard of over here)

21. Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard (I used to really like her books, and another book about Mormonism)

Anyone else fancy signing up to this challenge? Or have any recommendations of which books to start with?

Top Ten Books I Hope Santa Brings

Thanks, as usual, to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this wonderful meme every week. 

Also, yet again, Blogger has decided to insert random paragraph breaks between my images. I'm not sure what's going on as I can't actually see these random white spaces when I edit the post. I may have to attack the HTML later, if I can. Please ignore the awful formatting for now and join me in glaring sternly at Blogger. That is all. 

1. The Blythes are Quoted by L. M. Montgomery
This was on my Christmas list last year, and I've had my eyes on it ever since I heard that L. M. Montgomery's last ever manuscript was going to be published in full and completely uncensored. I preordered it from Amazon but when it was released I was told they didn't have it in stock. I don't think they had enough interest from UK readers to bother stocking it, to be honest. So this is one that needs to actually be purchased from Canada, unfortunately. My mum seems to have been investigating this one recently so it may end up in my stocking this year!

2. Lilly's Wedding Quilt by Kelly Long
Those of you who remember my review of  this book may be confused by its presence on my wishlist, but I read a Kindle edition of this book from the publisher back in March and loved it so much that I want to own a physical copy to display on my bookcase. This book really touched me when I read it, so hopefully it'll have the same effect the second time I read it...providing this is one book I get for Christmas!

3. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees
I heard about this book a while back and recently stumbled across this beautiful cover on Amazon while having a look at prospective presents for my mum, who is also a Little Women fan. This is another one that made the shortlist for my Christmas list this year and I'd love to read it sometime.

4. A Widow's Hope by Mary Ellis
While making my Christmas list, I checked out which books had been on my GoodReads wishlist for several years, and this was one of them. I read Mary Ellis's Christmas novella last Christmas and absolutely adored it, but somehow I've not got around to reading any of her full-length novels this year. I read a sample of this book and was hooked, so this is another one I'm hoping to receive this Christmas. 

5. A Man of His Word by Kathleen Fuller
Kathleen Fuller is pretty much in the same boat as Mary Ellis. I've read nearly all of her novellas and have had my eye on this book for a while but just not had the opportunity to read it. I also read a sample of this book and found it very engaging, so fingers crossed!

6. Courting Miss Amsel by Kim Vogel Sawyer
I had my eye on this book when I heard of its release at the end of 2010 and it was on my list of prospective review books, but I never got the chance to review it in the end. This one didn't make the cut for my Christmas list, which I limited to five books, but since I've just received a lovely little cheque from my uncle and aunt I may use my Christmas money for this book. I've read a couple of Kim's novels recently and really enjoyed them.

7. The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini
I've heard some really good things about this series but unfortunately I can't find this book in either of the library systems that I'm connected to. This looks like it'll be one that I'll have to buy at some point down the line! I'm not a quilter myself, but I'd love to try it sometime. 

8. To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer
I read Head in the Clouds earlier this year and adored it, and was hoping that I'd get the chance to request To Win Her Heart to review at some point this year, but I had too much on my plate. And since this story includes a librarian, this has to be one that's high up on my wishlist. I've only read one of Karen's books but I love her style of writing. Another one that I may spend my Christmas money on. 

9. Virgin River by Robyn Carr
Someone recently recommended this series to me but it's another one that I can't find in either library catalogue! It is on Audible, so if I don't end up buying this with my Christmas money I'll probably download the audiobook. I normally read Historical or Amish fiction, but I do enjoy some contemporary romances and sagas from time to time and this series has some great reviews.

10. Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin
Another librarian love story! I worked in my school library a lot in my final two years of high school and enjoy alphabetising books far too much (so much so that my fiancé's film collection is also alphabetised, and I volunteered to do it...) This was another would-be review book that sadly didn't make the cut, and I almost forgot about it until several of my friends on GoodReads started to rave about it. Plus, isn't this cover just absolutely gorgeous? This one needs to be pushed higher up on my wishlist for definite.

A Quick Bookish Survey

I stole this from this post here over at The Broke and Bookish as I thought it would be a good way to keep everyone up to date with what I've been reading lately, and let them know what book reviews to expect from me soon!

1. The book I'm currently reading is A Log Cabin Christmas Collection by various authors, including Margaret Brownley, Kelly Eileen Jake and Wanda E. Brunstetter. I'm currently reading the sixth novella in this collection and really enjoying it. Barbour released a similar collection this time last year called A Prairie Christmas Collection. So far, I'm thinking that I preferred the first collection as while I'm enjoying these stories, I've not yet read one that I absolutely loved. I have really enjoyed Margaret Brownley and Liz Johnson's stories but Wanda E. Brunstetter and Liz Johnson's weren't quite as compelling. Kelly Eileen Hake's was in the middle!

2. The last book I finished was an audiobook from my local library system, Suddenly by Barbara Delinsky. It's one of her earlier novels and while the plot was as complex as some of her later ones and I really enjoyed observing the characters evolve over the course of the novel (which is very long, about 15 hours in total on audio CD) there was a lot of sex in this book. One or two sex scenes I could overlook but there were at least five or six in total, three of them very close together. Sliiiightly awkward when you're listening to the audiobook while hanging up the washing and your fiancé walks in to ask you a question to hear an awkwardly written sex scene being read about by the narrator from the loudspeaker on your Blackberry. So while this was a generally enjoyable novel, there was too many sex scenes for my liking.

3. The next book I want to read is The Shadow of Your Smile by Susan May Warren. This is a contemporary novel about a husband and wife who are considering a divorce when the wife is involved in an accident that causes her to lose her memory, giving the husband a second chance at his marriage. I'm intrigued by this premise so hope to read it next.

4. The last book I bought was Waiting for Summer's Return by Kim Vogel Sawyer because it the ebook cheap on Christianbook.com and with the exchange rate as it is, it only cost me about £1.50. Granted, I did have to hack the ebook to make it work on my Kindle but this book has been on my wishlist for quite some time and since I hadn't used up all of my book budget for December I decided to take this chance to grab it! I think the paperback is actually out of print right now so I would have had to have bought an ebook at some point if I did want to read it.

5. The last book I was given was The Christkindl's Gift by Kathleen Morgan which I received along with some other Christmas books in a bag passed on from a friend of mine. I'm looking forward to reading this one as it appears to have some German characters in it and I like the fact that the title has a German word in it. I love German Christmas traditions and honestly think they have the best Christmas food, particularly Stollen and Lebkuchen! 










Apologies for the random gaps in this post, they don't show up when I edit the post so I don't know how to get rid of them!

Day 8 - Least Favourite Super Special

I realise I haven't updated this in a few days. Apologies, but sadly university work has to come before the Baby-Sitters Club! I know, it's shocking, isn't it? 

30 Days of the Baby-Sitters Club

Day 8 - Least Favourite Super Special

This was difficult for me as I don't remember any Super Specials that I particularly disliked. There are a few that I don't have terribly strong memories of, such as the book that took place at Shadow Lake, but none that I have bad memories of from my childhood. However, I did read Here Come the Bridesmaids! for the first time last year and found the story quite contrived. To be honest, most of the Super Specials are pretty contrived but sometimes reading a children's book for the first time as an adult can make you pick up on these things easier, without the smokescreen of nostalgia! I remember actually getting bored with the California part of the story and preferring the parts set in Stoneybrook with Stacey, and by the end of the book I felt like this plot would have worked a lot better as a regular series book told from the point of view of Dawn. I did enjoy this story as it was pretty fun, but it would probably have to be my least favourite of the Super Specials.

Also, I actually have a US copy of this book, but I love the cover-art for the UK edition so I had to use it on this post!

Day 7 - Favourite Super Special

30 Days of the Baby-Sitters Club

Day 7 - Favourite Super Special

As a kid, Sea City, Here We Come! was definitely my favourite book. I must have read it at least ten times. It just seemed so exciting, with the hurricane hitting Sea City and everyone having to evacuate and pack up their stuff and take emergency measures. I live in Scotland and we never have extreme weather. The biggest thing that's happened to me weather-wise is the extreme snow we had in 2010, and the most that happened then was that Tesco ran out of bread and milk for a day because the Forth Road Bridge was shut because of snow! So books with extreme weather emergencies were always exciting to me.

And to be honest, they still are! I reread Snowbound recently and found that I enjoyed it a lot more than I'd remembered. Although there's extreme weather in this book, all of the situations were much more normal and realistic than in the Sea City book, and the girls have their parents help them out when they're stuck with their baby-sitting charges! Definitely one of the more "real" Super Specials.

Day 6 - Least Favourite Mystery

30 Days of the Baby-Sitters Club

Day 6 - Least Favourite Mystery

Without a doubt, I'd have to say Beware, Dawn! I read this book earlier this year and as much as I love to escape into a BSC book and ignore the unbelievable aspects of the story, there were too many ridiculous things about this plot for me to ignore. The story surrounds the girls being given threatening notes but not consulting each other on this because they're too busy competing to win some sort of sitter-of-the-month award and don't want to look bad by being scared by the notes. I can buy Kristy doing this because she is competitive and I can see her wanting to look brave in the face of the threats, but the other girls, especially Mary Anne and the younger sitters would be scared for themselves and for the kids they were sitting for. The competition was blatantly just a plot device put in place to stop the girls talking to each other, since otherwise they would have solved the mystery immediately. As much as I like non-mysteries, this one was lame: Dawn had told off some boy for teasing someone else and got him in trouble with his parents so he rode around the town on his bike, leaving threatening notes for each of the girls as payback. Kudos for continuity as this kid had been causing trouble in other books, but otherwise this plot was pretty lame. Definitely one of the weaker mysteries.

What was your least favourite mystery?

Day 5 - Favourite Mystery

30 Days of the Baby-Sitters Club

Day 5 - Favourite Mystery

I didn't read many of the mysteries as a child, but the one that I do remember the most fondly (and the only one I ever owned rather than borrowed from the library) was actually non-mystery, as such. 

Yes, I am talking about Jessi and the Jewel Thieves. And yes, the British mystery covers were even worse than the covers for the regular series, although at least Jessi looks a) like a real eleven-year-old and b) African-American rather than just being tanned. 

I know that some people hate the mysteries that didn't actually feature a real mystery, instead focusing on the BSC members worrying over something that they'd misheard or misinterpreted, but I preferred the more realistic non-mysteries. The way that Jessi and Quint rush around NYC convinced that they need to stop a jewellery heist is quite amusing, and it was nice to see kids acting like, well, kids for once.

Did you ever read the Mystery spin-off series? If so, which was your favourite book? Did you prefer the "non-mysteries" or not?

Day 4 - Least Favourite Regular Series Book

30 Days of the Baby-Sitters Club

Day 4 - Least Favourite Regular Series Book

This is another one that I've split between books that I remember, and books that I've read recently. In all honestly, there aren't any books from the main series that I particularly disliked, but there were some that I didn't care for very much or don't have any strong memories of. This seems like a rather big list, but to be entirely truthful, I really just have little niggling issues with the following books.

From my childhood. This is one of the books that focused on Stacey and one of her many boyfriends, with an issue that was partly altogether too mature for someone who is thirteen and really shouldn't be having boyfriend problems, but also dealt with in a manner that seems appropriate for someone is thirteen. Here, Stacey goes on holiday with her dad and her best friend, Claudia, but spends all her time with her boyfriend, Robert, which annoys Claudia because she didn't tell her Robert would be there also. I suppose Stacey's Lie sparked my hatred of books surrounding "Big Misunderstandings"!

This was one of the last BSC books that I ever read, once I'd almost altogether finished reading the series when I was almost eleven and had moved on to more "mature" literature...like Sweet Valley High! But a friend of mine was still really into the BSC and lent me this. I didn't particularly enjoy this book, maybe because I was growing out of the series or maybe just because the entire plot surrounded synchronized swimming, a hobby of Jessi's that was mentioned in one book and then never again! I adored ballet as a kid so normally loved the books about ballet, but Jessi's Gold Medal just didn't interest me.

It's sad but true - a lot of my least favourite BSC books involved Jessi. I don't think it was anything in particular to do with her; her family was most like mine (small, little drama and not Caucasian [yes, I'm actually Anglo-Indian, despite the fact that my skin is literally white]) and I wanted to be a ballerina for a brief period when I was a child and even took classes for a while. By all means, I should have loved Jessi's books, but she just got the most boring or unrealistic plots! Here, I think, she babysits some bratty kid who is a movie star. Sadly, that's all I can remember about Jessi and the Superbrat so it can't have been that interesting.

 

Here we have evidence that, yes, not only did Jessi get the worst plots, she also had some of the least flattering covers! I honestly cannot remember what Jessi's issue was in Jessi's Horrible Prank, I'm not sure if she pulls a prank on the teacher or if she just doesn't stop the other kids from teasing him. I think this was another book that my friend lent me - she must have been a Jessi fan - but I do remember that the font on this cover was silver because it was the 75th book. I think it came with a free bookmark with vague paisley-style swirls on it. Not sure if it actually had much to do with the BSC, I imagine that they put a lot less thought into the UK releases than the US ones.

* * *

But as an adult? I'd have to say that Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook jumps to mind immediately. I think the whole BSC fan community is in agreement that the ghostwriter of this book was high when they wrote this book as it just isn't in keeping with the rest of the series at all. One of the weirdest, least-explained and just downright bizarre mysteries in the main series.












Then there's Abby the Bad Sport, and not just because it shocked me with the use of the word "mental-retardation". Maybe it was still considered PC to use this word in 1997, so I could be making a fuss out of nothing. Mainly, I just wasn't interested in a book about football, and most of this book focuses on either Abby playing football, the other girls watching Abby play football or Abby bragging about how good she is at football. (Or soccer, if you're American). (Also, this book never got published in the UK, hence the garish pink cover. I'm sure my copy is more of a baby-pink so this may be just a bad picture).

I read Dawn's Family Feud fairly recently, actually over this particular summer. But despite this, I don't have any particularly strong memories of it, except that the kids were complete brats! Dawn, Mary Anne and Jeff were all very out-of-character. Although, I will admit, they probably acted like normal kids, it wasn't in keeping with their usual behaviour in the series. It reminded me a lot of Dawn's Wicked Stepsister, in which the problems seemed a bit contrived and then were fixed very quickly and never mentioned again. 

Finally, I'd have to say Mallory and the Mystery Diary. Why? Because I read it last year and can barely remember the plot. Except that I found it weird that the mystery belonged to Mallory, not Stacey, despite most of the story taking place in Stacey's house. Not quite as weird as Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook, but definitely not very memorable. And the cover-art? Oh, my. Poor Mallory indeed!












What's more distinct for you, your favourite novels or your least favourite? Do you have specific reasons why you don't like some of the books, or were they just not as interesting as others?