My favorite books from 2011

This was my second year to track the books I read, and again, I found it interesting to look back on those I really enjoyed during the year.  Of the 106 books I read this year, here are my top 10:

1. My favorite of the year was Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.  Based on the life of Clara Driscoll, a glass cutter and later designer at Tiffany, I found the story fascinating and the characters engaging.  Plus, I love historical fiction!

2. I read a number of non-fiction books in 2011, but my favorite was Ted Gup's Secret Gift.    Gup discovered that during the depression, his grandfather placed an ad in the newspaper under the name of a fictitious benefactor, offering $5 to families in need.  The response was overwhelming and the letters sent by families in true form the basis of the book.  Gup was able to follow up with the descendants of many who wrote and determine how his grandfather's small gift made a difference in the lives of the families he touched.

3.  I discovered Kate Morton this year, starting with The Forgotten Garden, and then read her other two books (The Distant Hours and The House at Riverton), both of which I also enjoyed.  She's a writer I'll be adding to my list of favorites!  At age 5, Nell is discovered alone on a ship that just arrived in Australia.  Adopted by the harbor master and his wife, Nell lives a full life in Australia.  Upon her death, her granddaughter goes on a quest to discover her grandmother's roots and how she ended up abandoned.  All three of Morton's books feature a mystery in a family's past.

4.  I read about Kathleen Grissom's The Kitchen House in an email from the library.  I put in on my list of books to read when I had time and discovered it at the end of the year.  At age 7, Lavinia traveled from Ireland to America with her family.  By the time the ship landed, Lavinia was alone and was brought to work in the kitchen house of a Southern plantation under the guidance of a slave named Belle.  Straddling the two worlds that co-existed on the plantation, Lavinia's struggle to find her place creates trouble for all.

5.  Chosen at the book to be read by all incoming KSU freshmen this year, Zeitoun is the story of Hurricane Katrina and prejudices faced by US citizens of Middle East descent.  This non-fictional account of a contractor who decides to stay behind during the hurricane to protect his assets was a fascinating account of the hurricane and its aftermath.

6.  Yet another non-fiction winner this year was Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by journalist Thomas French.  Tracing the history of the animals at the Tampa Zoo, French spent 6 years researching this book.  As an animal lover, I have always struggled with zoos.  I understand the need for species protection as well as genetic diversification, but reading these stories again brought home the true lives of these animals on display for our entertainment.  I am very thankful that our Sunset Zoo focuses on education and conservation.

7.  Lisa See is another author I discovered this year.  I read three of her books (Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) and found all fascinating.  While Snow Flower was my favorite of the three, I would strongly recommend Shanghai Girls as well.  Set in the China of the 1800s when foot binding was the norm, Snow Flower tells the story of a friendship between two girls, Lily and Snow Flower, that is arranged much like an arranged marriage.  At age 7, Lily and Snow Flower become "old sames," signing a contract that will bind them together in friendship for life.  Lily narrates the book, telling the story of her life as well as that of Snow Flower and their communication through a secret language written on a fan. 

8.  I previously wrote about this Target Club Picks selection, One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.  Trading a life in an insane asylum in Chicago for a life as the bride of a Cheyenne Chief, May Dodd is part of a program established by the US Government to trade 1,000 white women as brides for 1,000 horses.  The Cheyenne believe that children belong to the tribe of their mother, and in having children with the "white tribe" believed they could bring peace to the future.  While this was fiction, it was true that a Cheyenne Chief proposed this trade to President Grant. 

9.  Shilip Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter tells the story of Asha.  Adopted at birth from an orphanage in Mumbai by an American doctor and her Indian husband, Asha leads a life on privilege in the United States.  Now in college, Asha travels back to India to discover her roots and the true meaning of family. Another Target Club Picks selection that I truly enjoyed!

10.  I feel somewhat guilty about including a Stephanie Plum book on my top ten, but no one makes me laugh like Janet Evanovich!  This was her best effort since book eleven (which I read on an airplane and was laughing so hard I was crying, causing my seat mate to ask me what I was reading!).  Will Stephanie settle down with her long-time boyfriend Joe Morelli (my pick for her beau!) or will she chose Ranger?  If you haven't read the Stephanie Plum books, I suggest you skip the first one and start with Two for the Dough.  I can always fill you in on the history! 

11.  Okay, I know I said top 10, but I had to add this one at the end.  Another Target Club Pick (can you tell I generally like their selections?), Wildflower Hill by Kimberely Freeman tells the story of Emma, a prima ballerina, and her grandmother Beattie who owned a very successful clothing business started at her Australian sheep ranch.  Definitely worth reading!

12.  Finally, some of my favorite authors had new books this year that were some of their best in years.  I truly enjoyed Stephen King's 11/22/63, Michael Connelly's The Drop, and John Grisham's The Litigators.

One Thousand White Women

Fact: In the mid-1870s, Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf approached President Grant with a rather odd request.  The Cheyenne (called "The People" in the book) wanted 1,000 white women in exchange for giving the US Government 1,000 horses.  The reason?  The People held the belief that children belong to the tribe of their mother, and if these white women would bear bi-racial children, these children would help to bring peace between the whites and The People, as they would belong to the "white tribe."  There is no evidence this request was ever granted.

Jim Fergus's One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd imagines the Brides for Indians program became a reality.  The story is told through the journals of one of the brides, May Dodd.  May's upper crust Chicago family had institutionalized her for the crime of falling in love with someone "below her station" and giving birth to two children out of wedlock.  Rather that stay incarcerated, May agrees to join the trek west to become an Indian bride. 

The book is incredibly well written, and the characters quite well developed.  Fergus did an incredible amount of research to make the story as accurate as possible.  I am still livid from the actions of the US Government in regards to The People, all of which were reported accurately in the book.  Treaties were broken regularly, as the white settlers wanted protection while on land given by the Government to the Cheyenne and Sioux tribes, including the Black Hills where gold was discovered. 

Very thought provoking and an excellent read.  Come December 31st, I have no doubt this book will make my top 10 list for 2011!

A Decade of Hope

I saw this book in one of the Book Pages Daily emails I receive from our public library.  With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 just past, I was interested in learning more about those who survived, and those families who are still dealing with their loss.  Written by a former firefighter, the book has a heavy focus on the first responders on 9/11.  343 firefighters lost their lives doing their job on 9/11, and 23 police officers.  Dennis Smith conducted interviews with 25 individuals or families touched directly by the events of 9/11.  While they were all touching, I learned the most from Dan Nigro (director of operations for FDNY who became Chief on the Sunday following 9/11), Ray Kelly (police commissioner), Lee Iepli (FDNY, retired, whose sons were both firefighters and responded on 9/11 and founder of the Tribute Center at Ground Zero), and Ada Rosario Dolch (who was the principal of a high school just a block from the World Trade Center).

While this book deals with a very difficult subject, most interviews focus on a message of hope and those who have tried to make a difference in memory of their loved ones lost.

Kaiden's Favorite Books ages newborn to one

Just like I made the decision last year to track my books, I decided I should keep a book log for Lily.  I write down the names and authors of all the books we read to hear.  So far, she's listened to 240 books!  I'm sure there are more that I forgot to record. 

I'm going to write about her favorite books from each year, hoping that it will help those of you reading with children of the same age!

By far, her favorite books were these two from DK Publishing - Baby Colors and Count with Me.  She LOVED looking at the pictures of babies (and particularly loved the little boy on the cover of Baby Colors!). She read and/or looked at these books into her first year.

Another favorite was Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson.  Jane Pelletier gave this to Lily as a gift, and we loved the rhythm of the story along with the illustrations.  This is one we still read occasionally.

Another gift from Jane, Mommy Loves Me was great with the photographs!

Lily loved the Karen Katz books - Shake It Up Baby, Where is Baby's Belly Button, Peek-A-Baby, Where is Baby's Valentine, Where is Baby's Easter Egg.  This one was my favorite, with a rattle in the spine.

Tails was a gift from the Holdman girls at Lily's baby shower.  I probably should have waited until she was a little older, as she played pretty hard with this book and we lost a number of the tails!  However, it was worth it!  We also liked One Yellow Lion by Matthew van Fleet.

Finally, and still one of our favorites, is Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton.  The song from this book is available for a free download when you buy the book and is also on our all-time favorite CD, Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton.

EVERY CHILD NEEDS THIS CD!  The songs are catchy, the rhythms are great, and many of the songs just make you want to dance.  Lily has loved it since birth.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Our motto at the office is, "You can't make this shit up."  We even talked about having shirts printed!  For years, we've believed we could write stories of the things our CASA families have done and could pass them off as fiction, because no one would believe they were true!

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit could be one of the stories we tell in our office.  Mark Seal interviewed more than 200 people who knew Clark Rockefeller in his various locations and identities.  The ultimate con man, Rockefeller (originally Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter and then many other names) was constantly changing his identity as he moved up the social ladder.

This book was absolutely fascinating - I didn't want to put it down.  It begins with Rockefeller's kidnapping of his own daugther during a supervised visit and culminates with a court hearing for that charge.  His wife, an incredibly successful business woman, describes the typical domestic violence relationship dominated by power and control.  Her realization that her husband wasn't who he claimed to be and the courage it took her to leave a dangerous man was the highlight of the book for me. 

Vacation Reading

While walking a half-marathon at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer was the purpose of my recent trip to Santa Barbara, I also had some time to relax and read!  Here are the four books I read, all of which were worth reading!

I started with The Flamenco Academy by Sarah Bird, having recently read and enjoyed her newest book, The Gap Year.  While this was the fictional account of a woman who as a senior in high school fell in love with a Flamenco guitarist, which changed the course of her life, I particularly enjoyed it for the lesson on Flamenco and the Gypsy culture.  I learned about Spanish Gypsies, who created Flamenco as a means of expressing their frustration and grief.  The guiding principle for Flamenco is "Dame la verdad" ("Give me the truth), meaning the dance should reflect what is most true in your life or in your heart. 

Next I read Lisa See's Shanghai Girls, which was published a couple of years ago.  Much like The Flamenco Academy, I enjoyed learning about China in the 1930s, the second Sino-Japanese war, immigration at Angel Island off the coast of San Francisco, and the Chinese immigrant community in California in the mid-20th century.  At the start of the book, sisters Pearl and May are "beautiful girls," meaning they model for painters.  Their family is financially sound, and Pearl has graduated from college.  However, their father owes a significant amount of gambling debts to a local gang, and he trades his daughters for his debt, arranging marriages to the sons of a Chinese immigrant in America.  The girls refuse to board the ship to America, and in doing so, become stuck in Shanghai at the start of the Japanese invasion of China and are caught in the middle of a war.  They eventually make it onto a boat, but are detained for months at Angel Island.  Will they ever be happy in their arranged marriages?  This was by far my favorite of the four books I read on my trip.

I next read Ann Patchett's highly acclaimed book State of Wonder about drug exploration in the Brazilian rain forest.  When Marina's lab partner fails to return from a trip to visit their company's researcher in the rain forest, Marina must make the trip to determine what happened to him and to see what progress is being made on a fertility drug.  After many road blocks, she finally makes into the heart of the rain forest and learns much about herself.  I have to say I have no desire to go to Brazil after reading this book!  Biting bugs galore, giant poisonous snakes, and high humidity aren't my idea of a good time.  However, the book was interesting if not completely worth the hype.

Finally, I read the first book in Alexander McCall Smith's latest series, Corduroy Mansions about people living in three flats in a converted mansion in London.  Much like his series, 44 Scotland Street, the characters are quirky and have a number of interesting interactions throughout the book.  My favorite character in this book was Freddie de la Hay, the vegetarian dog who comes to live with the main character, William, in the hopes that Williams' dog-hating adult son Eddie will move out of the flat.  Much like 44 Scotland Street, this book was published daily in the Daily Telegraph by chapter over 100 days.  The second book in the series has just been released, and I'm on my way to the library tomorrow to check it out! 

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captivity

I read a review of this book in The Manhattan Mercury and checked it out from the public library.  I've always had mixed feelings about zoos.  Certainly in their current incarnation, most zoos are designed for maximum space and stimulation for the animals and the majority of the animals in zoos were bred in captivity rather than being captured in the wild.  And accredited zoos (like our own Sunset Zoo) are active participants in conservation education and breeding programs to help maintain genetic diversity for endangered animals.  However, I have always felt sad for the animals kept in captivity and on display. 

Thomas French is a reporter in Florida who wrote a series of articles on the Tampa Zoo, which he used to write this book.  His in-depth look at the animals in the zoo (including their life histories) along with the humans who choose to work daily with these animals is fascinating.  The politics of zoos is also examined, particularly through the lens of the overambitious director of the Tampa zoo. 

This book made me cry more than once for the animals and their keepers.  If you love animals and nature, this book is well worth your time.