It has been a long time since I posted here, but I hope you'll forgive me. There have been a few things happening that have prevented me from visiting again. I hope all of you who read here have a blessed and wonderful 2012.
I wanted to end the year by providing you the list of books that I read over 2011. I will note the "Billiam" or "Best Book" in each category and award what I think is the best book I read this year. Here is the list of what I read...
Juvenile Fiction:
Gathering Blue- Lowry
Messenger- Lowry
Where The Red Fern Grows- Rawls
A Wrinkle in Time- L’Engle
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry- Taylor
Island of the Blue Dolphins- O’Dell
The Outsiders- Hinton
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas- Boyne
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth- Kinney
Heroes Don’t Run: A Pacific War Novel- Mazer
Soldier’s Heart- Paulsen
Milkweed- Spinelli
Fair Weather- Peck
A Year Down Yonder- Peck
A Season of Gifts- Peck
The Amber Spyglass- Pullman
The Firework Maker’s Daughter- Pullman
Holes- Sachar
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever- Kinney
Fiction:
Animal Farm- Orwell
Twelve Angry Men- Rose
Pudd’nhead Wilson- Twain
The Confession- Grisham
Cattle Annie and Little Britches- Ward
The Color Purple- Walker
Christian Fiction:
Face of Betrayal- Wiehl and Henry
Hand of Fate- Wiehl and Henry
Skin- Dekker
Adam- Dekker
Heart of Ice- Wiehl and Henry
The Priest’s Graveyard- Dekker
Christian Devotional/Study:
Jesus: The Greatest Life of All- Swindoll
Finding God in Unexpected Places- Yancey
The Lord’s Supper- Marty
Slaying the Giants in Your Life- Jeremiah
In Every Pew Sits A Broken Heart- Graham
Heaven is for Real- Burpo
Finding Favor with the King- Tenney
Theology for the Community of God- Grenz
God’s Story Your Story- Lucado
Non-Fiction
The Hardball Handbook: How To Win At Life- Matthews
Invasion- Malkin
Heroes of the Holocaust- Zullo and Bovsun
Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government- Beck
Obama’s Wars- Woodward
The Yankee Years- Verducci and Torre
Common Sense: Paine
Extraordinary Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family- Rice
Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight- Rove
Change We Can Believe In- Obama
On the list you will find a total of 50 books. Here are the awards for each category.
Juvenile Fiction: A Season of Gifts- Peck This book was just a really good read. I enjoy Peck's writing style and his characters, in my opinion, jump off the page. The message of this book is uplifting and warm. I read it twice this year.
Fiction: The Confession- Grisham I am a big fan of John Grisham and this one did not disappoint. He is a bit more liberal in his political views than some others, but his stories always cause me to think. I believe Grisham to be the best current American fiction writer.
Christian Fiction: The Priest's Graveyard- Dekker I confess that this year my selections in this category were limited. I really like the Triple Threat series by Lis Wiehl, but Dekker wins. I read this one at the beginning of the Bible Bowl summer season. It was solid.
Christian Study/Devotional: God's Story Your Story-Lucado. I am a fan of both Yancey and Lucado and both of their books that I read this year were very good. I know I am aging myself a bit by going with Lucado as opposed to some of the more current and cutting edge writers, but I really enjoyed this one and read it in two days.
Non-Fiction: Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight- Rove I really liked several of the books in this category. Of note were the Condoleeza Rice book and Joe Torre's book. Both of these I read this last summer and liked a lot. Courage and Consequence, though, revealed more about Karl Rove than I had known previously. I have come to respect him even more and think he has some good ideas for our country.
The "Billiam" or the "Best Book" in my opinion this year is Richard Peck's "A Season of Gifts."
I hope you will invest your time reading this year. May God bless you and thanks for reading here at "Bill's View."
