Thursday 29 December 2011

BTT: Booking Through 2011

This week, Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

What were your favorite books of 2011?

I did try this year to pick up the habit again of keeping a list of the books I read. Looking at it now, I have a suspicion I probably left some out. (I got out of the habit back when an old computer crashed a couple of years ago.) Well, never mind. When I look at the list, these are the ones that at the end of the year strike me as most memorable:

A novel by Swedish author P O Enquist, English title Lewi's Journey, (but I read it in Swedish), about the life of Lewi Pethrus: founder of, or at least very influential in, the Swedish Pentecostal movement back in the early 20th century.

A novel by Anna Gavalda (French author), English title Hunting and gathering (but I listened to it as Swedish audio book) -
"four people living in an apartment house [in Paris]: a struggling young artist who works as an office cleaner at night, a young aristocrat misfit, a cook, and an elderly grandmother"

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, which I wrote about in an earlier BTT post (24 November). A feel-good novel with a touch of fairy tale magic to it, and leaving behind a delicious smell of newly baked cakes. (Almost, anyway!)

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. My most recent read. (How memorable it will seem in a year’s time… remains to be seen!) This book won “General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards”.

I mentioned it in my BTT post last week, when I still had 1/4 left to read, saying: “I’m still feeling that on the one hand I want to just keep reading to find out about the mysteries involved; on the other hand I want it to last because I so much like reading it.” I finished it over Christmas, and I have to say it did manage to keep up the suspense until the end. It is a story told from more than one perspective, and going back and forth in time, so sometimes a little hard to keep in memory or be sure who in the story really knows what. (Or, indeed, how much I as reader can trust what I know!) I would call it a modern Gothic tale, and from three real classics mentioned in it I would say it also picks a lot of inspiration from those three: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Mysteries of Udulpho.

Listen in this YouTube video to the author’s own introduction:

 

http://youtu.be/XGHOhbtykzs

Oh, and I should perhaps add that the last three (books and authors) were unknown to me before I picked them up.

7 comments:

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed the Anna Gavalda book.

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  2. I've been wanting to read The Distant Hours...

    Thanks for sharing!

    Here's MY BTT POST and
    MY WEBSITE

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  3. Without a doubt the one book that will stay with me for a long, long time is The Gargoyle by Anthony Davdson.
    A wonderful book about the power of love and redemption. I read it about a month ago and I find myself thinking about it all the time and recommending it to others which I don't normally do.
    I, too, liked the Distant Hours.

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  4. I'v enot read any of those - I'll have to check them out!
    Here’s my Booking Through Thursday post. :)

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  5. I just got a sample of "The Girl Who Chased The Moon", it is the first chapter. This video is interesting for a peek into the creative process. I also just got "The Tiger's Wife" it is getting amazing reviews.

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  6. New titles to me, must look into.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/12/booking-through-thursday_29.html

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  7. i read every day of my life, and average 2 books a week, but i can not tell you what i just finished yesterday. i did finish one, but for the life of me can't remember the name. i read so much and i never know what i read. most times i can remember the story line but not name or author. no favorites, i liked them all.

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