For the last few years I’ve had a tradition of listing my Top Ten favourite books of the year (usually based on what leaves the most lasting impression on me, looking back over a year’s worth of reading) and having a contest in which readers have the oppoturnity to win one of the books on the list.
I’m doing that again this year, but with a twist. Instead of posting my list and then a quiz, the quiz IS the list. I’m going to post clues to what my Top Ten favourite books were this year, and based on your own amazing knowledge of books, or simply looking back through the books I’ve reviewed here, you have to guess what they are.
When you think you have the list assembled, email it to me at trudyj65@hotmail.com (I’ve closed comments on this entry so you won’t post your list in the comments, which gives it away for others). In your email, also indicate which one of these books you’d like to have if you’re a winner.
I will select FIVE winners from the correct entries that come in to me before midnight, NST, on January 6, 2010, and each of those five winners will receive the book of their choice. I may also have some runner-up prizes but I’ll update you on that when I see how many entries I get.
So, without further ado, this year’s list … the top ten best, or at least most memorable, of the 98 books (58 novels; 40 nonfiction) I read and reviewed in 2010:
1. A novel that truly deserves to be called “epic” — this is a whale of a tale in every sense.
2. A memoir by someone whose young-adult wanderings around the world in the mid-80s were far more epic than mine, and included an ill-fated trip to China.
3. A parenting philosophy I can totally get on board with — even though my kids hate the book’s title!
4. It’s billed as a young-adult novel, but it’s definitely not light reading: a serious and moving story about how reading saves a young girl’s sanity in World War Two Germany.
5. A realistic guide to social justice for middle-class evangelical Christians.
6. My favourite Canada Reads selection!
7. A fascinating glimpse into sixteenth-century convent life.
8. Some writers set themselves a quirky challenge for a year and write a book about it. This writer did it all in one day — but what a day it was!
9. I wrote a short story about her, but this author wrote a whole book!
10. I could have been annoyed at the author for deceiving his friends for a whole year, but he managed to come off as a pretty nice guy all the same.
Compulsive Overreader 