With Christmas break, I ended up getting a few mysteries under my belt, and finished up with 65 books read this year.
December:
Death in the Floating City - Tasha Alexander - 4 - next in the Lady Emily mystery series. Much better than the last few. Not my favorite series, but I enjoy them.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling - 4 - finished on New Years' Eve, so we could watch the movie New Years' Day.
An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery - Charles Todd - 4 - I really like this series. Bess is a normal person, and I noticed it never mentions anything about her appearance. I like that! I have never read much about WWI, so I am enjoying this.
A Beautiful Blue Death - 4 - Charles Finch - a new series, with gentleman Charles Lennox solving mysteries in Victorian London.
The Mayflower Adventure - Colleen L. Reece - 3 - Christian American historical fiction, written for kids. Covers the Mayflower to the end of WWII. Read this aloud with the younger boys.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan - 4 - excellent book, reconstruction of events by a young woman whose body began attacking her brain, and the month she lost.
And now, for the year-end wrap up....a few years back I started doing a Superlatives list on a homeschooling forum. You remember superlatives, right? Best Smile, Most Gullible, Super Senior, etc. Well, these are for the yearbook of the past years' reading. So, without further ado....
2012 Year in Reading Superlatives
What was the best new (to you) author you discovered this year?
A tough decision, as I found so many new authors this year! I am going to go with Janice Holt Giles
What was your favorite new (to you) series?
Bess Crawford Mysteries, by Charles Todd
Best parenting book?
Only read one, an Ebook "True Christian Motherhood" by June Fuentes. It was ok. Mainly just a series of blog posts, at least that is how it read.
Book that made you cry?
None of them did
Book that made you laugh out loud?
I am sure something must have, but I can't recall it now. Must not have been all that funny.
Book that totally changed your perspective on something?
Maybe Hard Times in Paradise, by David and Micki Colfax. They were VERY politically liberal, and I am.....not. Reminded me that we don't have to agree on everything to agree on some very important things.
Best homeschool(ing) book?
Hard Times In Paradise, by David and Micki Colfax. By the way, one of the best homeschooling books EVER. Back to the basics, before homeschooling was such a trendy thing to do.
Worst book that you managed to finish?
I had two with only 1 star - Fairy Tail Interrupted: What JFK Jr. Taught Me About Life, Love and Loss by RoseMarie Terenzio (just never liked the author at all), and Six Horse Hitch by Janice Holt Giles. Loved most of her books, but this one was just too melodramatic.
Book with the best surprise plot twist?
The Hidden Flower, by Pearl S. Buck. I always think I know how her stories are going to go, and they never go that way.
Best book-that-was-better-than-the-movie?
The Hunger Games
Most over-hyped book of the year?
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Very disappointed. Lame, lame, lame.
Best online-reader recommendation of the year?
I don't think I got any I really enjoyed from individuals this year, most of them came from goodreads, or even better,
www.fantasticfiction.com
Book you have recommended to the most people this year?
The American Diabetes Association Complete Guide to Diabetes
Best feel-good book of the year?
Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen by Joe Draper
Best childrens/young adult book of the year?
A tie: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A re-read, read aloud with my younger boys; and Hittite Warrior, by Joanne Williamson. I read it with the older boys for school.
Book you’ve been meaning to read for years and finally got to?
Evidence Not Seen: A Woman's Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of WWII by Darlene Deibler Rose
Read aloud that the family enjoyed the most?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Best cookbook/knitting/gardening/or other household how-to?
Complete Guide to Carb Counting by Hope S. Warshaw
Best non-fiction?
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susanah Cahalan, or Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen by Joe Draper
Best religion/theology/doctrine/philosophy?
Practical Theology for Women by Wendy Horger Alsup. Her blog is in my blogroll, over to the right.
Best political book?
Didn't read one. Sick of it.
All-around best story of the year?
The Believers by Janice Holt Giles
Book that you feel is SO INTEGRAL to your library……you’d even pay full price for it?
I paid full price for a couple - most notably, Practical Theology for Women
And the Award for Best All-Around Book of the Year is Presented To……………
Hannah Fowler, by Janice Holt Giles
I rate my books 1-5, and so does Goodreads. I had a whole bunch of 4 Stars, but only a handful are worthy of that 5th star. These were the books this year that earned my coveted 5 Star rating:
Hannah Fowler, by Janice Holt Giles
The Believers, by Janice Holt Giles
Hard Times in Paradise, by David and Mickey Colfax
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
Hittite Warrior by Joanne Williamson
The American Diabetes Association Complete Guide to Diabetes
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Fiov
