FAVORITE READS OF 2011

I read a lot of non-fiction this year, much of it so good that I find I'm continuing to read it. When I pick my favorite reads for a year, there are several reasons why a book might be chosen. Sometimes in non-fiction it's the subject that is so fascinating - Elvis Presley, for example, or Gina Welch, who "embedded " herself in Jimmy Swaggart's church in West Virginia. Sometimes it's the human spirit that endures despite terrible hardship, as the "Unbroken" or in "The Boy In The Moon". There are only four novels on this list, and one of them is a Christmas novel, but each of these spoke to me in different ways. The Christmas novel was probably the best-written of all of them, but Ian Brown in Boy In The Moon comes pretty close. Anyway, before I get off on a "why and how I read" tangent, here's my favorites for this year, in the order in which I read them.

1. Unbroken by Lauren Hillebrand ( also the top pick of the year on Book Browse)
2. Charlotte and Emily by Jude Morgan ( the story of the Bronte sisters)
3. Elvis Presley: Careless Love and Last Train To Memphis by Robert Guralnick
4. The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
5. The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein
6. In The Land of Believers - Gina Welch
7. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - William Shawcross
8. The Boy In The Moon - Ian Brown
9. Mrs. King by Charlotte Gray
10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
11. Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb