Category: Favorite Books

Favorite Books of 2011

Favorite New Authors:

Sarah Dessen
Sarah Addison Allen

Favorite Children’s Audio Books:

The Pain and the Great One series by Judy Blume
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Favorite Chapter Book Read-Alouds:

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

Blake would say Harry Potter, but that was a hard and long read-aloud and not MY favorite.

Favorite Picture Books:

Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator! by Mo Willems (pretty much anything by him is great)
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch
“I’m not Santa!” by Jonathan Allen

Favorite Fantasy Novel:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Favorite Romance:

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Favorite Classic:

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Previous Favorites: 2010, 2009

Favorite Books of 2010

Well 2010 is over and this baby still hasn’t arrived. Isaac arrived 17 days early and was over 8 pounds so I got my hopes up about this baby coming early as well. No such luck. I was dilated 2 cm two weeks ago and today I’m just 3 cm dilated. She’s due on Saturday so we’ll see if she can make it by her due date.

In the meantime, I thought I’d post my favorite books of the year.

Children’s Recommendations:

Best Audio Book:

Best Memoir:

Best “Fluff” Series:

Best Young Adult:

Most Anticipated:

Best Classic:

Best Fantasy Series:

Last Year’s Favorites: 2009

Favorite Books of 2009

This year I joined Goodreads and started following the books my friends are reading. I LOVE it. And it’s caused me to read a lot more, since I have so many books “to read.” (This year I read 93 books, last year it was 57 – don’t know where I found the extra time, but I did start reading chapter books to Blake and I counted all of them.)

Here are some of my favorite books from this year:


And some of my Favorite Series:

Favorite New Author: Janette Rallison


Favorite Children’s Author to Read to my Kids: Roald Dahl

Favorite Non-Fiction Book:

Favorite Graphic Novel: (only read one – but it was very cool)

Princess Academy and Rapunzel’s Revenge

I’m going to try to do a quick book review for every book I read this year. So far I have completed 2 books by Shannon Hale (an author I LOVE!)

The first book I read was Princess Academy. I have read it once before in 2007, and my husband gave it to me for Christmas. It was just as good the second time around. The main girl, Miri, is just like any other teenager. She yearns to be accepted by her friends and family and isn’t quite sure where she fits in. She lives in small mountain village that is named as the place where the prince’s future wife is. So it’s decided that a Princess Academy must be formed in order to teach all the teenage girls how to be proper ladies. Miri has trouble at first and seems to have lost her friends after a severe punishment, but slowly she pushes herself to be the best in the class and helps the other girls around her as well.

It is a wonderful story for young girls and what they can become. And like the rest of Shannon Hale’s books, there is some romance and humor as well. Very enjoyable read.

The second book I read by Hale is quite different than her ordinary books. She has a relatively new book out that she wrote with her husband, Dean Hale. It is a graphic novel, and I wasn’t even sure what that was when I heard it. It’s like a comic book with lots of pictures and the characters talking to each other. I was somewhat hesitant to try it out, but as I said earlier, Shannon Hale is a great favorite of mine. I will read anything that she writes.

So I got it at the library last week and read it in about 1 1/2 hours while all of my kids were napping. It was awesome! We’ve all heard the story of Rapunzel before and this was very loosely based on that story, except with a tough chick twist. Rapunzel escaped from the tower and used her long hair as a lasso as she fought all the ruffians to get back to her wicked pretend-mother and take her down. Along the way she becomes friends with Jack (and slowly a romance develops). I’m sad to say I didn’t realize quickly that he was Jack from Jack and the beanstalk. He was carrying a goose the whole time, so I should have picked up on that sooner than I did. Together they fight the bad guys and become friends.

There is lots of humor and a tiny bit of romance and Rapunzel’s Revenge is just a very enjoyable and quick read. What girl doesn’t like to read about a chick out there kicking butt? And the illustrations are amazing. Really a great book for kids age 9 and up.