The Official Blog of WordFest

Forgive me for posting this a bit late as by now you’ve seen similar lists with people gloating about all the books they’ve read in 2011.

Although it is part of my job to read books, I must admit that it fills a lot of my personal time as well, so I can  no longer pretend that I’m a social butterfly as I write this. Between my cats, Murder She Wrote reruns and books, I don’t get out much.

Also, you may see some odd book choices on this list, feel free to ask me anything about what I read in the comments section.

1. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
2. The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith
3. A Memoir of a Good Death by Anne Sorbie
4. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
5. Let the Good World Spin by Colum McCann
6. The Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor
7. Karma by Cathy Ostlere
8. By Love Possessed by Lorna Goodison
9. The Long Goodbye by Megan O’Rourke
10. Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby
11. The Canterbury Trail by Angie Abdou
12. Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul by David Adams Richards
13. When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
14. Bad Medicine by John Reilly
15. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
16. Not Anyone’s Anything by Ian Williams
17. Funeral for a Dog by Thomas Pletzinger
18. The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta
19. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
20. Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
21. Mennonites Don’t Dance by Darcie Friesen Hossack
22. The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich
23. Caesarion by Tommy Wieringa
24. Deadly Fall by Susan Calder
25. The O’Briens by Peter Behrens
26. The Cypress House by Michael Koryta
27. Various Positions by Martha Schabas
28. Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman
29. The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer
30. Day of Honey by Annia Ciezadlo
31. The Beggar’s Garden by Michael Christie
32. And Also Sharks by Jessica Westhead
33. The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton
34. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner
35. Games to Play After Dark by Sarah Gardner Borden
36. The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys
37. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
38. The Water Man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs
39. One Story, One Song by Richard Wagamese
40. Anticipated Results by Dennis E. Bolen
41. One Child by Jeff Buick
42. We Had it So Good by Linda Grant
43. The Meagre Tarmac by Clark Blaise
44. Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
45. The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
46. Monoceros by Suzette Mayr
47. The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy
48. Rex by José Manuel Prieto
49. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
50. The Return by Dany Laferrière
51. This is Where it Must Have Happened by Hal Niedzviecki
52. River City by John Farrow
53. Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
54. Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
55. Shatter the Bones by Stuart MacBride
56. A World Elsewhere by Wayne Johnston
57. A Good Man by Guy Vanderhaeghe
58. The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
59. This Will be Difficult to Explain and Other Stories by Johanna Skibsrud
60. Natural Order by Brian Francis
61. Starting from Happy by Patricia Marx
62. Tell it to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami
63. Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill
64. The Magician King by Lev Grossman
65. The Free World by David Bezmozgis
66. Death Plays Poker by Robin Spano
67. Autobiography of Childhood by Sina Queyras
68. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
69. The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
70. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
71. Sage Island by Samantha Warwick
72. The Submission by Amy Waldman
73. Rescue by Anita Shreve
74. Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston
75. Hand me Down World by Lloyd Jones
76. The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
77. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
78. The Measure of a Man by JJ Lee
79. Stories about Storytellers by Douglas Gibson
80. Hitching Rides with Buddha by Will Ferguson

Anne Logan is the Artistic Associate at WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival. For over three years she has helped the Festival Director program the WordFest line-up, and can frequently be found at local readings scouting for new talent.  Anne attended the Humber Creative Book Publishing Program in Toronto and previously worked as a publicist for Cormorant Books. Anne spends most of her free time reading, but is also known to take time from her literary endeavours to enjoy the outdoors with her husband and two cats.