2011: Bookish Snapshots

(Stats courtesy GoodReads)

This has been such an exciting year. I didn’t get as much reading as I though I’d get done, but I read some wonderful books, discovered great authors and series and just had fun.

In other life-altering news, I also decided to go back to school and moved to London to do my MA in Publishing.

Here is a round-up of my reading and reviewing activities in 2011.

To see how I did on my reading challenges, see this page on 2011 Reading Challenges.

Here are other stats:

No. of posts: 92

No. of books read: 78

No. of books reviewed: 66

Top books of 2011

This is obviously a hard list to come up with and it’s taken me weeks to narrow it down and I still can’t make it a top 10. So here is a Top 19.

Most of these are books that I rated 4.5 or higher. Some that I rated 4 have also made it into the list – simply because when I thought back to them I decided that they were some of my favourite reads of the year.

See all the reviews here:

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas
Five Queen’s Road by Sorayya Khan
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver
Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert
An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson
Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner
The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy
Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill
The Taker by Alma Katsu
Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman
The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma
This Burns My Heart by Samuel Parks

I also discovered audiobooks with a vengeance and participated in Audiobook Week 2011.

New author discovered

Jo Nesbo

I listed to The Snowman and The Leopard this year and absolutely love these chilling, gruesome crime thrillers set in chilly Norway.

These books are narrated by  Sean Barrett whose voice fits the character Harry Hole and is just perfect to tell these icy tales. I’m definitely going to finish the entire Harry Hole series this year.

Favourite series

The Reincarnationist series by M.J. Rose

I ran through these three books in the series. Loved the past-life memories and reincarnation aspect. The thriller and adventure angle were also just great. I’ve already requested and received for review the next book by M.J Rose around the same theme.

Read my reviews of The Reincarnationist, The Memorist and The Hypnotist.

In 2012, I hope to follow books published in the UK a little more and hopefully review books for publishers based in London. (London publishers, are you reading this?)

Here’s to another great year of reading. Happy 2012!

Book Review: This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park

Genre: Literary fiction, Historical fiction

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pub date:12 July 2011

Source: Publisher via Bookpleasures.com

(This is a short review of a book I read a while ago and made notes on. I don’t have this book with me now, so you’ll notice the review is a little thin on the details.)

Synopsis

Soo-Ja Choi is a beautiful and intelligent young woman in postwar South Korea. Her ambition is to become a diplomat, but there is no way that her parents will agree to this. She decides to marry Min, a weak, timid man believing that she can convince him to let her do what she wants. But once they get married, she realises that she is the one who has been fooled. Min insists that they live with his parents and Soo-Ja’s life is all about taking care of them and being treated like an unwanted servant. What makes this even more heartbreaking for her is that just before marrying Min, she met a young medical student, Yul whom she was attracted to. She turned down his proposal to continue with her plans, but regrets this the minute she finds out what her situation is really going to be.

Soo-Ja must pay the price for making the wrong choice, but can she better her life and provide for her daughter?

Review

I wish I had the book with me to refresh my memory and tell you some more about it, but here goes… What has stayed with me is the beautiful lyrical language in which This Burns My Heart is Written.

Soo-Ja is a character who makes an impact. Min has lied to her and her reality is completely at odds with what she hoped to make of her life. Her father-in-law loses all his money in the business, borrows from Soo-Ja’s father and flees to America leaving Min, Soo-Ja and their daughter behind. Soo-Ja finds a way to make money for her family while Min does nothing to help. Through all this Soo-Ja can’t help but think “what if”. She finds herself wondering about how her life would have been if she had accepted Yul’s proposal.

But the story is not all about regrets and tears. We see Soo-Ja’s strength and determination right from the beginning and bad luck and a loveless marriage doesn’t stop her. She finds ways to survive and all her energies are devoted to making sure that her daughter Hana has all the opportunities that she didn’t.

Soo-Ja is far from perfect, but the way she takes on life made me admire her. Min is not a straight “bad guy” either. Unable to break free of his duty as the oldest son and not having any personal drive or direction in life, he is pathetic, but someone you feel for at times.

Parks’ beautiful prose is what really made this book a delight for me to read. The story jumps forward months and years at a time, but the pacing was just right and the prose so enjoyable.

Verdict

Highly recommended for all fans of literary fiction and character driven stories. This was one of my favourite reads of the year.

Rating: 5*

I received this book as a reviewer for BookPleasures.com

*See my Rating policy

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© Stargazerpuj and Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

South Asian Challenge 2011 Wrap-Up

I’m a South Asian Guru!

Hosted by Swapna at S.Krishna’s Books, the South Asian Reading Challenge is one of the challenges that I have managed to complete rather well this year. It worked great for me since I want to read more authors from the region and there have been some wonderful new books and authors that I’ve discovered this year.

In my sign up post, I had set a goal of over 10 books to become a South Asian Guru. And what do you know, I am one! I read 18 books by South Asian authors this year! It feels good to reach my goal and complete this challenge successfully, but what I’ve really enjoyed are many of these books. It’s wonderful to discovering new authors that I love and I’ll keep an eye out for new titles by all these authors.

So here is my complete list of books read and reviewed for the South Asian Challenge 2011. You can read my reviews for all of them – just follow the link.

A Circle of Souls by Preethan Grandhi
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
A Nice Quiet Holiday by Aditya Sudarshan
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Climbing The Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
Five Queen’s Road by Sorayya Khan
Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
New Miss India by Bharati Mukherjee
Show Me a Hero by Aditya Sudarshan
The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy
The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair
The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam (review on 6 Jan 2012)
The Monochrome Madonna by Kalpana Swaminathan
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna
Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

My favourite South Asian titles this year:

All of these books had beautiful settings, characters you could really like or dislike and beautiful writing which makes the story that much more enjoyable.

I’ve decided to participate in this challenge in 2012 as well, but maybe I’ll take on fewer books, since I know I’m going to be rather busy with university this year.

Historical Fiction Challenge 2011 Wrap-up

This challenge was hosted by Historical Tapestry.

For this challenge I signed up at the Daring & Curious level. This meant I had to read 5 books in the genre to complete the challenge successfully. I’m really glad to announce that I read double the number I signed up for. Here is my list. Follow the links to read my reviews.

Ancient History

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

The Gates of Rome (Emperor #1) by Conn Iggulden

Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick

Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner

The Traitor’s Wife by Kathleen Kent

In the not-too-distant-past

Five Queen’s Road by Sorayya Khan

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Smuggled by Christina Shea

I have not been too good at keeping track of these and have not update the monthly posts Linky at the host blog in many months now. Will try and get that done over the next few weeks.

I’ve almost decided to sign up for this challenge again. I’ll probably stick to the same level as this year, just so that I have some chance of completing this challenge.