Can't believe it is that time of year already. Where did the time go. I am happy to say I reached my goal, and even did a tad better a second time. My goal of books this year was forty, I went over and beyond to 51 books. That is basically a book a week. But, I know there were times I read more than 50 a week. But, sometimes life gets in the way.
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Most of you know I have two book blogs, a Jewish literary, and secular literary blog. What I am going to do, is list all the books on both blogs and then break it down to best of literary, best of Jewish literary etc. I read all kind of books, but my favorite genre is historical fiction.Here is the list of books I read for 2012:
- Paris Wife by Paula McLain
- Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy
- Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingslover
- Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
- Midnight in Peking by Paul French
- Lola Quartet by Emily St. Mandel
- Cutting Season by Attica Locke
- Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam
- Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead
- Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
- Secret Sense of Wildflower by Susan Gabriel
- Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck
- Timekeeper by Mitch Albom
- Beautiful Lies by Clare Clark
- After All These Years by Susan Issacs
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
- Sipping from the Nile by Jean Nagger
- City of Women by David G. Gilman
- Flowers in the Blood by Gay Coulter
- Gold by Chris Cleave
- Defending Jacob by William Landy
- Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
- Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman
- Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
- The World without You by Joshua Henkin
- Summerland by Erin Hilderbrand
- Life Boat by Charlotte Rogan
- A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jami Ford
- I am Forbidden by Amouk Morkovits
- Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Linda Landvik
- Room by Emma Donague
- Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner
- Dressmaker by Kate Abbot
- The House of Tyneford by
- Ape House by Sarah Gruen
- The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
- Heft by Liz Moore
- Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Stout
- Empire State by Jason Shiga
- Midwife of Vienna by Roberta Rich
- Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly
- Israela by Batya Casper
- Book I thought I was going to like, but didn't was Summerland. I love all of Erin Hilderbrand's novels, because there is a bit of meat to them. Two of my favorites are Barefoot, and Silver Girl. But, Summerland was too depressing to read in the summer. L did not like anything about it.
- The most surprising novel I loved was Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. It is the book I most recommend to anyone. It has to be my all time favorite. It is multi layered, and peels away like a onion, little by little you learn about the story in bits and pieces like a detective. This is the book I recommend to most people.
- My favorite book out of my genre has to be, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It has a setting in history, and was a unique story, the story was told in vivid colors. Was magical as well.
- Most thrilling has to be Cutting Season by Attica Locke. Was a thriller, romance, mystery, and historical with leaving the night oil burning.
First, I would like to tell you what draws me to a book first, I hate to say is the book cover. I
judge a book by it's cover, thanks to the illustration and publicity departments. There are many
out there. My favorite is, Night Circus.
There are so many different books how do you judge which one was your favorite. Just like the movies. They are so unique and different and have good and bad merits. It is hard to judge which one is the best. But, this year I am able to tell which one is my favorites. Some are suspense, literary, historical( my favorite genre), memoir. I am not going to classify, just tell you my favorites are in bold print. But my one time favorite has to be drum roll please. Is Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.
historical( my favorite genre), memoir. I am not going to classify, just tell you my favorites are in bold print. But my one time favorite has to be drum roll please. Is Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.
Other favorite historical mystery is Attica Locke's Cutting Season.
Favorite Jewish read is a toss up and a tie between Jami Attenberg's Middlesteins, and Joshua Henkin's, World Without You.
Favorite Book Club pick was another toss up between, Paris Wife by Paula McLain, and Little Bee by Chris Cleave. But, one more Story of Beautiful Girl. The three are great for book club discussion and lots to talk about.
Suspense novel, with social justice was Walk in the Sun by Corban Addison.
My fun summer reads was Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple and the other a surprise debut author, Liza Klaussman's Tigers in Red Weather. Tigers is a sort of Literary mystery with lots of twists and turns. Non fiction is Train in Winter and Killing Lincoln.
The book that had the biggest impact with me is the novel, Cutting Season. I never thought about how a African American heritage looks at things with distate in this country before. Until you read Cutting Season.. How would you feel going to the plantations of the south? When a Afro- American's perspective. The novel opened my eyes.
The book I savored and waited to read had to be Paris Wife. I absolutely loved it, and savored the scene. The author knows how to play with words, and her prose was beautiful. My favorite scene was the literary circle of friends of Ernest Hemingway in Paris at Shakespeare and Co. I just loved it. Or when his wife had to tell him she lost all his manuscripts on the train. The anticipation of him loosing his cool never came. Favorite Book Club pick was another toss up between, Paris Wife by Paula McLain, and Little Bee by Chris Cleave. But, one more Story of Beautiful Girl. The three are great for book club discussion and lots to talk about.
Suspense novel, with social justice was Walk in the Sun by Corban Addison.
The shortest book to read this year was the God Daughter. It was a short and sweet novel. A good book to get away from it all, and just have fun with it. The longest novel is Flowers in the Blood.
My favorite relationship in a novel again, was Paris Wife. I could see Hadley and Hemingways going at it, hot and heavy.
There is not any books that I read from someone's recommendation this year. Most of the books came from publishers. But, next year I have a few I will read from a recommendation of friends.
My favorite review that I blogged about was Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. There was lot of things to talk about on my book blog.The book that I am highly anticipating and have waited for two years to read, was and is Unbroken. I set the goal, and did it. I finished it today, January 2nd. It gave me a lift, and the new year came in with a bang. I makes your day, when you are reading a good book and lifts your spirit
There are a few books I would like to get to read for 2012 it has been sitting there for a couple of years, hopefully I will get to it, is Lace Reader. I would like to get to Margaret Atwood, we'll see if I get to it. I did that with Bean Tree it took me ten years to read, and finally got to it. I love to blog about books that have been out there for years.
I am going to add a few other things:Favorite discussable book for a book club are Paris Wife and Forgotten Garden. There is just so much to talk about.
My favorite book club discussion was Paris Wife with Professor Campbell. He was awesome. You can read about him and our discussion here. The other favorite was Dovekeeper, we learned so much about that time period. The Dovekeeper peeked my interest for our next community read, Rav Hisda's Daughter. The topic of magic, woman, mystic, Talmud, and amulets. Rabbi Debbie will be speaking.
The two books I would like to get to for 2013 is Sutton, Chaperone, and When She Woke by Hilary Jordan, and Brain on Fire.
The one novel I am anticipating to read is,
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. It will be published this month. I was lucky enough to receive the review copy a couple of weeks ago. I have her other two novels, Remarkable Creatures, The Girl with the Pearl Earring.
I love fiction that is rich in character, and rich in history. Here is the article on NPR.
I would like to try and get back to read mysteries and suspense for a change. I have not read those in years, but it is time for a change. All I have been reading is depressing books without a solution. I need a change. I have never read David Baldacci and Jeff Archer. I am going to try if school doesn't get in the way. But, I do have many authors that I still have to read that were sent to me.
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