BookBalloon's Best Reads of 2011

Thursday, 16 February 2012 18:06

And now, a drumroll, please.....

BookBalloon's Unofficial and Unauthorized Best Reads of 2011 (not necessarily published in 2011):

Our Winner: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt!

Runners Up:

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan

Galore by Michael Crummey

A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Special thanks to Julie (Starling) for collecting votes and compiling this list.

Q&A with Sharon Kay Penman

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 00:00

Sharon Kay Penman will be available to answer questions about her writing and talk about her newest book, Lionheart, Wednesday and Thursday, February 15-16. Please join us in the Forum for this discussion.

Margaret George, author of Elizabeth I: A Novel, writes:

"The great Crusader king Richard the Lionheart comes alive in all his complex splendor in this masterpiece of a medieval tapestry by Sharon Kay Penman. She brings him and his legendary enemy, Saladin, before us, both on the battlefield for Jerusalem and in the quiet of their private chambers. It's as if you were there, in this strange, beguiling, vanished time that haunts the Middle East even today. Penman has triumphed in capturing its elusive essence and the blazing glory of the English king called Lionheart." (-Margaret George, author of Elizabeth I: A Novel )

You can read an excerpt of Lionheart here.

Sharon Kay Penman is the author of seven critically acclaimed historical novels: The Sunne in Splendour, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, The Reckoning, When Christ and his Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil’s Brood.

Q&A with Margot Livesey

Thursday, 09 February 2012 00:00

Margot Livesey will be available to answer questions about her writing and talk about her newest book, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, this coming Friday and Saturday, February 10-11. Please join us in the Forum for this discussion.

“The Flight of Gemma Hardy,” Livesey’s appealing new novel, is, as she has explained, a kind of continued conversation, a “recasting” of both “Jane Eyre” and Livesey’s own childhood. Set mostly in Scotland in the late 1950s and ’60s, the narrative follows the fortunes of a young girl, Gemma Hardy, who is beset by bad luck. Born to a Scottish mother and an Icelandic father, she was orphaned by the age of 3, when she was taken from Iceland to Scotland by her mother’s brother. There her original Icelandic name was discarded. As the novel opens, 10-year-old Gemma’s beloved uncle has also died, and her cold, snobbish aunt is sending her off to be a “working girl” at a harsh boarding school.

Margot's previous novels include Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street.

Lauren B's Best Books of 2011

Tuesday, 07 February 2012 16:02

Lauren B shares with us "what I loved this year":

Book of the Year for me is a tie between the elegant and affecting The Hare with the Amber Eyes and the rollicking and affecting The Wilder Life. Both books took me somewhere else and left much powerful emotion in their wake.

I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson. Spot-on re: teenage girls' sexuality and a really compassionate take on David Cassidy.

Cities of Salt by Abdulrahman Munif. A profound novel about the oil industry in Saudia Arabia and the destruction of the nomadic life. Everyone should read this.

Corrigan by Caroline Blackwood. Wicked, wicked novel.

Bossypants by Tina Fey. I read most of this in a public place, even though I was laughing so hard, I was practically hyperventilating.

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti. Looking at the West Bank through the eyes of a Palestinian poet.

This Human Season by Louise Dean. Humane and thoughful novel about the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.

The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon. College sweethearts meet again as adults. If you are of a certain age, this book will move you.

Just Kids by Patti Smith. It took me two tries, but I was totally charmed. I adore her tender account of her younger self.

Upcoming visits from authors Livesey and Penman

Sunday, 05 February 2012 22:40

Two terrific authors are coming to visit BookBalloon this month. Margot Livesey will be available to answer questions about her writing and talk about her newest book, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, this coming Friday and Saturday, February 10-11. Please join us in the Forum for this discussion.

Later this month, Sharon Kay Penman will be our guest. Her most recent book is Lionheart, the second volume of the Henry II trilogy. Sharon will be visiting with us on Wednesday and Thursday, February 15-16.