Trishcuit's 2012 reading list topic got me thinking about some of the books I read last year and I was wondering what books everyone enjoyed last year.
One of my favorites was Stephanie Meyers novel "The Host". Reading it you would never know it was written by the same person who did the "Twilight" books. It's in a totally different style. It gets into an interesting examination of what it means to be human and takes a look at what a truely altrusitic society could be like.
Then there were the new Mercedes Lackey books. I've noticed that of late a lot of her books are reading alike. She'll re-do the same fairy-tale, say beauty and the beast or cinderella, for both of her major series - one book for The Elemental Masters and one for The 500 Kingdoms - and both books will be nearly identical. I still enjoy her take on things because she does still put in some unique twists on old stories but I have to say I enjoy her older works more than most of her newer books.
A lot of the reading I did last year was really re-reading of old favorites. When I got my Kobo I did read some of the free books that came with it. Some were things that I have never read before. I read 'A Christmas Carol', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Invisible Man' for the first time. Some were things I've read before but not for some time like many of the fairy tales and the Sherlock Holmes.
MikePaterson
Posted on: 01/17/2012 12:27
ONE stands out a mile:
Paul William Roberts: Journey of the Magi: in search of the birth of Jesus (Stoddart): fun, wonderful, ideas-rich, mind-enriching, spiritually enlightening… and full of wit, discovery and humour.
Not TOO far behind is:
Robert Bringhurst: A Story as Sharp as a Knife: the classical Haida mythtellers and their world (Douglas & MacIntyre). This is a majestic, illuminating re-visiting of John Swanton's 1900-1991 ethnological work among the Haida by Canadian poet and cultural historian Robert Brighurst whose Coming to Light: contemporary translations of the native literature of North America is also a brilliant, stop-you-in-mid-step must-read for all Canadians.
And…
John Dominic Crossan: The Greatest Prayer; rediscovering the revolutionary message of The Lord's Prayer (Harper One). Gives on "pause to think" in John Crossan's persuasive way.
David Levering Lewis: God's Crucible: Islam and the making of Europe, 570-1215 (W.W. Norton). A magnificent story told well from a position of considerable scholarship.
Comments
Rowan
Posted on: 01/14/2012 22:17
One of my favorites was Stephanie Meyers novel "The Host". Reading it you would never know it was written by the same person who did the "Twilight" books. It's in a totally different style. It gets into an interesting examination of what it means to be human and takes a look at what a truely altrusitic society could be like.
Then there were the new Mercedes Lackey books. I've noticed that of late a lot of her books are reading alike. She'll re-do the same fairy-tale, say beauty and the beast or cinderella, for both of her major series - one book for The Elemental Masters and one for The 500 Kingdoms - and both books will be nearly identical. I still enjoy her take on things because she does still put in some unique twists on old stories but I have to say I enjoy her older works more than most of her newer books.
A lot of the reading I did last year was really re-reading of old favorites. When I got my Kobo I did read some of the free books that came with it. Some were things that I have never read before. I read 'A Christmas Carol', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Invisible Man' for the first time. Some were things I've read before but not for some time like many of the fairy tales and the Sherlock Holmes.
MikePaterson
Posted on: 01/17/2012 12:27
ONE stands out a mile:
Paul William Roberts: Journey of the Magi: in search of the birth of Jesus (Stoddart): fun, wonderful, ideas-rich, mind-enriching, spiritually enlightening… and full of wit, discovery and humour.
Not TOO far behind is:
Robert Bringhurst: A Story as Sharp as a Knife: the classical Haida mythtellers and their world (Douglas & MacIntyre). This is a majestic, illuminating re-visiting of John Swanton's 1900-1991 ethnological work among the Haida by Canadian poet and cultural historian Robert Brighurst whose Coming to Light: contemporary translations of the native literature of North America is also a brilliant, stop-you-in-mid-step must-read for all Canadians.
And…
John Dominic Crossan: The Greatest Prayer; rediscovering the revolutionary message of The Lord's Prayer (Harper One). Gives on "pause to think" in John Crossan's persuasive way.
David Levering Lewis: God's Crucible: Islam and the making of Europe, 570-1215 (W.W. Norton). A magnificent story told well from a position of considerable scholarship.