2011 Book List

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2011 was another busy year, with a job change, an international change of residence and all of the little commitments that come with a growing family.  Having said that, I managed to read a few books, and here they are:

#	Book	Author	Date Completed
1	Knife of Dreams	Robert Jordan	January 15
2	Good to Great	Jim Collins	February 6
3	First, Break All The Rules	Marcus Buckingham	May 2
4	Death By Meeting	Patrick Lencioni	May 10
5	The Burning Bridge	John Flanagan	May 17
6	The Icebound Land	John Flanagan	July 4
7	The Battle for Skandia	John Flanagan	July 12
8	The Sorcerer in the North	John Flanagan	July 19
9	The Siege of Macindaw	John Flanagan	July 26
10	Erak's Ransom	John Flanagan	August 2
11	The Kings of Clonmel	John Flanagan	August 9
12	Halt's Peril	John Flanagan	August 16
13	The Emporer of Nihon-Ja	John Flanagan	August 23
14	The Book of Mormon	Mormon, et all	November 12
15	The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team	Patrick Lencioni	November 16
17	The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie	Alan Bradley	December 2
16	The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag	Alan Bradley	December 15

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Again, loved it.  As I said in my comments on The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, these books are generally ageless, yet there are a few more adult themes in this book, yet they are left as themes.  You don't find adult scenes or major plot elements.  Concepts such as marital infidelity are still approached from the eyes of 10-year old.  I recommend this book, as I enjoyed it as much as its predecessor.

Question of the day:  What is the real series-wide conflict?  Is it the potential loss of Buckshaw?  Or is it the broken family relationships?  Or Harriet's apparent death?  (Yes, I said apparent.  I held out hope for Harry Potter's parents until Book 3 or 4, so I can afford Flavia the same optimism...)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two things come to mind when thinking about this book that I love in almost all of my favorite books.  Characterization and agelessness.

Characterization is a big word, so let me use some smaller words to explain what it means to me.  It means that the character is real to me.  They have a past, present and future.  Personality traits color their dialogue and perception of the world.  Acting for their own reasons, they shape the plot in an unconscious way, and yet at no time does the reader find them acting in a way inconsistent with who they are.  It is for this reason that I love the Junie B. Jones books, and with this bias is no possible way that I can't love riding on Gladys's handlebars with Flavia de Luce as she solves mysteries.

Flavia, a precocious 10-year old, is the star of Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and its progeny.  Her actions are consistent, her voice is contagious and her humanity is key to the plot.  I can't say enough good things about Alan Bradley's ability to introduce us to such a unique character.

So the other stand-out quality in this book is its agelessness.  By that I mean that it has a potential audience of anyone who can read a 300 page book.  There isn't a demographic that I can think of that wouldn't find something enjoyable about this plot or cast.  As an adult who favors juvenile literature, I really appreciate a story that can apply to all ages.  It is an art that is lost in many of today's action-oriented thrillers, philosophical book club favorites, and overly graphic love stories.

I must give some small comment about the fantastic nature of Flavia's chemical knowledge.  I don't see this as a character flaw, as much as an oddity of the plot or book as a whole.  Being a fantasy reader, I am ok with these kinds of exceptions to reality, and the passion that Flavia has for the subject carries the day for me.

Solid 5 stars.  Go read it now.