Thank you to those of you who responded to our query for “The Best Book of 2011.” We asked that the title be published in 2011 and only the following two titles fulfilled that criterion:

Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and Geraldine Brooks’s Caleb’s Crossing are both readers’ favorites. They have also made many 2011 lists elsewhere.

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Ahmad, Jamil. The wandering falcon.
“The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from the area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, fleeing the cruel punishments that come from going against the rigid tribal rules on love and marriage. Their son, Tor Baz, descended from chiefs and outlaws, becomes the Wandering Falcon, journeying among the tribes in their towns and tents, over the mountains and the plains.”–adapted from inside cover.

Altenberg, Karin. Island of wings. [HISTORICAL FICTION]
Arriving in the St. Kilda islands in 1830 to serve as a minister to the small community, Neil McKenzie and his pregnant wife, Lizzie, struggle with life and their marriage in a climate that is beautiful but also extremely difficult.
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Got the Downton Abbey fever? Can’t get enough of this compelling story and world? Give these titles a try…

FICTION

Fellowes, Julian. creator/writer of Downton Abbey & Gosford Park–also wrote: Snobs (2005). Preparing to marry heir Charles Broughton, attractive accountant’s daughter Edith Lavery makes humorous and astute observations about contemporary England’s class system.

Forster, E.M. Howard’s End. (1910) Howards End, an English country house, passes to the moneyed, the cultured, and then to the lower class.

Galsworthy, John. The Forsyte Saga (1920). The classic portrait of upper-middle-class life in Victorian England contains three novels–The Man of Property, In Chancery, and To Let–and their interconnecting interludes. Also an ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre production on DVD.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day (1988). Also a stunning film–Stevens, an elderly butler, hopes to rise to the top of his profession, and he remains stoic and unemotional at his father’s death and neglects the opportunity to pursue a relationship with a former housekeeper.
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Supper Sleuths, a mystery discussion group, meets every second Tuesday evening at 6:00pm to discuss mysteries of every genre and type. Feel free to bring your own snack or brown bag lunch with you to the meeting.

Vote for your Classic Mystery Author on our website by 2/14/12.

The next Supper Sleuths Discussion takes place February 14, 2012 at 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the Lecture Hall where the group will discuss any mystery.

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The next gathering of Beebe Library’s book discussion group, Books By the Lake, is on February 15, 2012. The discussion of Chris Cleave’s Little Bee begins at 7:30pm in the Lecture Hall.

Bring in your suggestions for the April ballot to this meeting.

While reading, please consider: What happens to the characters that carry their stories with them, both physically and mentally? What happens when we try to forget our past? How much control over their own stories do the characters in the book seem to have?

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You either love them or hate them — but there is no escaping the Best Books of 2011 lists. Most of these titles do have some things in common — they appear on multiple lists and they are books that force you to slow down and enjoy the author’s ability to put words together in unexpected and intriguing ways. Book Awards and “Best of” lists reflect the particular taste of whoever happens to be judging for that particular award or list, so the discerning reader will bear that in mind while perusing and comparing these ubiquitous and entertaining compilations.
One of the best places to find these lists on the Internet is on the Reader’s Advisory Blog Online compiled by the Readers’ Advisory librarians at Libraries Unlimited. Continue »

Click on the titles below to search the catalog 

Beattie, Ann. Mrs. Nixon: a novelist imagines a life.
Pat Nixon remains one of our most mysterious and intriguing public figures, the only modern first lady who never wrote a memoir. Beattie, like many of her generation, dismissed Richard Nixon’s wife as “interchangeable with a Martian.” But decades later, she wonders what it must have been like to be
married to such a spectacularly ambitious and catastrophically self-destructive man. Continue »