Our 12 Best Reads of 2011

Here is a list we each made of our top 12 reads this year. It is never easy to choose only 12 because we read so many, but these are the ones we narrowed it down to. We've included the links to our reviews of the books for your further reading. You will note that several are on both of our lists.

Our Top Favorites That We Both Liked:

• Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
• Rose In a Storm by Jon Katz
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Iron House by John Hart

Gerard's Other Top 8 books of 2011 out of 157 books:

• Faith by Jennifer Haigh
• The Eighty-Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts
• Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams
• Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
• Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
• Blood Feud by David Robbins
• Vicious Cycle by Terri Blackstock
• Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Karen's Other Top 8 books of 2011 out of 106 Books

• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• The Maze Runner by Jim Dashner
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• True Colors by Kristin Hannah
• Lethal by Sandra Brown
• Night Road by Kristin Hannah
• A Difficult Boy by M. P. Barker
• Want to go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

Gerard bought me a Kindle for my birthday so I'm not sure if we can always include our books in our header like we have been doing, but so far we have.  I get the book from the library as well so I can take a picture of the cover to include it.  I am also considering changing our blog template to show more of our posts but think I'll lose our header.  We appreciate all our readers and are excited to see this blog has actually caught up to our Right Where We Belong one in number of followers!  HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HAPPY READING!

Have you read any of these? If so, feel free to share the link to your review.  If not, you definitely should! Do you have any "best reads" you think we should read?

Last day to help The Cleveland Pregnancy Center just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo

Abby thinks you should read this one!

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a young girl who befriends a dog that she names Winn-Dixie, after the store where she found him. Because of the dog, she gets to become friends with other people in the neighborhood. It's a very short children's book but I enjoyed it! The story is well told.
(Gerard's Review:  My rating: 3 of 5 stars)



Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"The Boy in the Moon" by Ian Brown (Non-fiction)

I enjoyed The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown, a non-fiction book. Ian's son, Walker, is severely disabled with C.F.C., a rare condition that only 100 people in the whole world have! This disease is a hodgepodge of a lot of issues. I respect Ian and his wife for all they did to help their son. It's a 24/7 job for sure. I also enjoyed the stories about the other people who have to raise sons or daughters that have C.F.C. They definitely have my admiration.

(Gerard's review:  My rating: 4 of 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Murder Past Due" by Miranda James

Murder Past Due by Miranda James is a cozy mystery that almost put me to sleep.  It's about a college librarian who takes his Maine Coon cat with him practically everywhere, even to a funeral!  This was the fun part of the book.  The college librarian's curiosity and concern for his college student boarder draws him into his private investigation of the murder of one of the alumni authors who came to speak at the college and donate all his materials to the archives.  There was a lot of lying by the characters and the reader was kept in the dark as to who the murderer was until the very end.  

This was slow moving and presented many possible suspects, some of which lied which caused more confusion for me.  The subplot of who boarder's biological father was somewhat interesting.  I liked the cover but was relieved when I finished it!
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs!

We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope" by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly

Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly is the true story of Arizona Congresswoman, Gabrielle Gifford's recovery after being shot in the head. It is a very inspiring story and is told by Mark, her astronaut husband. It reads like a novel and I enjoyed it a lot.
(Gerard's review:  My rating: 4 of 5 stars)


Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.