Reading Diary 2011
I read 67 books in 2011. I gave up on a few, having adopted Nancy Pearl’s rule — if a book hasn’t grabbed you by page 50, it’s okay to put it aside.
Click on the links to be taken directly to the title’s record in our library catalogue.
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews. Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg. Jar City, Silence of the Grave, The Draining Lake, Arctic Chill, and Hypothermia by Iceland’s Arnuldur Indridason. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Snow Angels by James Thompson (takes place in Turku, a Finnish city we visited in 2010). Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders by Kevin Sylvester. The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrub. Diary of Anne Frank (read it to prepare to see the Broadway play Compulsion starring Mandy Patinkin). The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay. The Tiger by John Vaillant. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy: The Hunger Games; Mockingjay; Catching Fire (loved them!). Robin Stevenson’s Youth Fiction titles: A Thousand Shades of Blue; Out of Order; In the Woods; Inferno; and Outback (It had been a real privilege to host Robin at the Ingersoll Library during Canadian Children’s Book Week. She is still in touch with some of the young people who attended her workshops). The Year of Eating Dangerously by Tom Parker Bowles. American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones. Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell. Growing Up Jung: coming of age as the son of two shrinks by Micah Toub. Dream When You’re Feeling Blue and Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee. Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay. The Trade Mission by Andrew Pyper. Consumption by Kevin Patterson. Divergent by Veronica Roth. Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart (not much buzz around this book, but it deserved it.) The Recruit by Robert Muchamore. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag and A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (I so enjoy these Flavia deLuce mysteries — just bought the newest). So Much for That by Lionel Shriver (great read). Moon Over Marrakech by Nazneen Sheikh (should have put it down after 50 pages, but wanted to read about Marrakech, having vacationed there a couple of years ago). Nemesis, and The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (can’t wait for his new Harry Hole mystery to come out this March). Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris. Toast: the story of a boy’s hunger by Nigel Slater (fantastic). Deadly Slipper: a novel of death in the Dordogne by Michelle Wan (pretty vapid, but again, a place I’d visited so was curious). Moby Duck: the true story of 28,800 bath toys lost at sea by Donovan Hohn. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell. Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. A World Elsewhere by Wayne Johnston (beautiful). Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us by Daniel H. Pink. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik (couldn’t resist that title). Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch. The Remains of War by Pauline Kok-Schurgers (Pauline did an author visit at the Innerkip Library). Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. The Perfect Order of Things by David Gilmour. Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom (wow!). Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul by David Adams Richards. The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje. Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner (another atmospheric Finnish mystery). Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (the only e-book I’ve yet read). In the Kitchen by Monica Ali.
So many books…. -LM
