Blog Tour and Giveaway!

I am participating in two blog tours. One is "The Day the Sun Stopped Shining." This tour is up and running. Take care of it now before you forget! Join my blog as a follower. Vote for the genre you like. Leave your email, the word "sun," and your favorite genre under comments for this post. Results in February. Giving away one paperback copy of one of the BEST books in the genre of the winner.
Our fourth "Sun" Tour Stop is for my very own "Flash Warden" priced at only 99 cents.
See giveaway rules for this tour here: Books by Eileen Granfors

The second blog tour is has now ended. Winner to be named 1-3-2012. Thank you to all participants and Inspired Kathy of "I'm a reader, not a writer" blog.

YA and Children's Books

Here is a list of the YA and Middle School books I read and enjoyed. Please note that I am not a zombie or paranormal reader, so those great books others have on their YA lists are not necessarily on mine. Children’s and YA Literature
1. True Blue by Jane Smiley

2. The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee

3. Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde

4. This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

5. Twinkles by Cassandra Black

6. Want to Go Private by Sarah Darer Littman

7. Every You Every Me by David Levithan

8. Crow by Barbara Wright

9. The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde
(not published in 2011 but when I read it)
My contribution to this category, Some Rivers End on the Day of the Dead

Women's Fiction

These are books that I particularly loved for the way the women move in the world. While many are on my best fiction list, these books are also highlighted here as great reads for women. Most of these would not appeal to my husband, for example, but touched my heart deeply. Watching others stumble and regain their feet in fiction transfers to the lives we lead in the real world. I would not call these books "chick lit" as they delve into deeper problems and carry fuller characterizations than most chick lit, getaway-from-it-all beach reads. Women’s Fiction
1. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

2. Close Your Eyes by Amanda Ward Eyre

3. The Orphan Sister by Gwendolyn Gross

4. The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

5. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

6. Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

7.Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt

8. Daughters-in-law by Joanna Trollope

9. The Four Ms. Bradwells by Meg Waite Clayton

10. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth
My contribution to Women’s Fiction, Stairs of Sand

My Favorite Historical Fiction, 2011

Favorite Historical Fiction, 2011

Historical novels take us to a time in the past. We learn of the manners, beliefs, everyday hardships, and everyday joys. We watch the fall of kings and empires, the ascension of the lowly to new heights. Of all genres, this is one of my favorites.
1. Slammerkin (not written 2011, but that's when I read it), Emma Donoghue

2. The Maid by Kimberly Cutter

3. Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell

4. At the Mercy of the QueenAnne Clinard Barnhill

5. Noah’s Wife by T.K.Thorne

6. Elizabeth I by Margaret George

7. Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

8. Becoming Marie Antoinetteby Juliette Grey

9. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell

10. All the Flowers of Shanghaiby Duncan Jepson

My contribution to historical fiction: First draft of prequel to A Tale of Two Cities, Coming to you in 2012, I hope.

My Favorite Anthologies, Poetry, and Literary Fiction for 2011

Collections or longer works that made me put my thinking cap on. These are pieces I come back to again and again, to puzzle over, rehash, regenerate the images. Some are long, some are short, all are wonderfully unique.
1. Horoscopes for the Dead, Billy Collins

2. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett

3. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale

4. Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

5. New California Writing, edited by Gayle Wattawa

6. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

7. 365 Days of Flash Fiction edited by PillHill Press

8. Northwest Corner by John Burnham Scwhartz

9. Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer

10. Swan by Mary Oliver

My contribution to anthologies: Flash Warden and Other Stories

Non-fiction—My Top 10 of 2011

These non-fiction books taught me history, science, self-reliance, optimism, and recovery.

1. Ghost Wave by Chris Dixon

2. Life Itself by Richard Ebert

3. Basketball Junkie by Chris Herren

4. The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

5. Outrage by Vincent Bugliosi

6. Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

7. Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand

8. A Box of Darkness by Sally Ryder Brady

9. A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres

10. Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku