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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, January 16, 2012


The Best Books of 2011

I reviewed 71 books in 2011. These below are the best of the bunch.

Non-Fiction:

Bluestockings – The remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education by Jane Robinson

Jane’s Fame – How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman

The Resistance – The French Fight against the Nazis by Matthew Cobb

The Planet in a Pebble – A Journey into Earth’s Deep History by Jan Zalasiewicz

The Buried Soul – How Humans Invented Death by Timothy Taylor

Fiction:

Heart of the Comet by David Brin and Gregory Benford

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Ship of Rome by John Stack

A Gentle Axe by R N Morris

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

Sharpe’s Trafalger by Bernard Cornwell

Emma by Jane Austen

Captain of Rome by John Stack

Destroyermen - Maelstrom by Taylor Anderson

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

The Sword of Albion by Mark Chadbourn

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Honourable Mentions: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Blood and Ice by Robert Masello, Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

2 comments:

dbackdad said...

Well done. It would not be worth me doing a list as my volume of reading does not come close to yours, though I am working on a movie one. I'm just trying to watch a bunch of the year end top 10 ones first.

I really like the 2 Jane Austen books you read. I'd like to read the book about Jane Austen you mentioned.

I have a book by Brin and a book by Benford, but have not read either (or any books by those authors). It's encouraging to see you liking their book.

Glad to see you read Into the Wild. It's one of my favorites.

You are much better about reading general history and all the books of that ilk you mentioned sound interesting. The past year, it seems most of my non-fiction has been science/physics/cosmology related, though I did read Where Men Win Glory about Pat Tillman, also by Krakaeur, which was also good.

CyberKitten said...

dbackdad said: You are much better about reading general history and all the books of that ilk you mentioned sound interesting.

Over the past few years I've become seriously addicted to history - both fiction and non-fiction. I'm trying to narrow the focus a bit so I don't spread myself too thinly. I'm planning to concentrate on UK and European History mainly.... I feel its about time I learnt more about the Continent I'm living on/near... [grin]

dbackdad said: The past year, it seems most of my non-fiction has been science/physics/cosmology related...

I definitely need to read more science this year. Nothing so far but its still early days...