Your Favourite Books of 2011
Last week, we asked you to send in your photos of yourselves with your favourite reads of 2011. For Books’ Sake editors, contributors and star supporters dutifully struck a pose. And we’ve got more to show you too.
Author Cathi Unsworth (above) sets a glamorous standard in her photo with The Furnished Room by Laura Del-Rivo. She says:
“Originally published in 1961, this lost classic of beat London literature has just had a timely re-release, which I hope will see it being recognised alongside Absolute Beginners and The L-Shaped Room as books that really define a time and a place.
Set in Ladbroke Grove, it was filmed by Michael Winner as West 11 in 1963, starring Diana Dors and also well worth seeking out. It was a revelation to me for two reasons.
One, that the author is someone I have known for over 20 years without realising this was part of her past, and two, that although I have only just read it, there are scenes in it that quite errily mirror stuff I put in Bad Penny Blues, especially the scene with Oswald Mosely’s street rally.
It also reminds me of another of my favourite books of all time, Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, in its superlative depiction of a mind unravelling.”
Sarah Chapman (also known as The Bibliomouse) opted for début novel Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, explaining: “Although I loved Delirium, this one was really brilliantly written, moving and original. I’ve been on a bit of a YA kick this year, but Oliver’s writing definitely isn’t just for tweenies (although the cover of this would suggest otherwise…). Even though it made me sob on a flight, which was embarrassing, I absolutely loved it.”
Amy Allen sent her picture of herself with The New Uncanny in via Twitter, so her explanation of why she opted for it is on the concise side. According to Amy, this star-studded collection of ‘tales of unease’ is “skilfully written, fabulously creepy, das unheimliche…” (That’s German for ‘the opposite of the familiar’). Featuring short stories from the likes of Sara Maitland, A.S. Byatt and Hanif Kureshi, we can believe it.
For Books’ Sake contributor Tara Hanks chose Purge, the third novel by Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Okasen. A traumatic tale, “Purge has been compared to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, and it certainly rivals that series in menace. But Oksanen surpasses even Larsson with sheer imagination and empathy.”
Last but by no means least, we’ve got Andy Harrod of Decoding Static with In Praise of Savagery by Warwick Cairns. He describes it as:
“A potent mix of humorous travelogue and serious thought about civilisation and progress and if ‘we’ can really call it progress. At the centre of it is Wilfred Thesiger, a man who has ‘killed so many people over the years that he’d lost count’. I like him; he experienced, saw and lived life. How many of ‘us’ in modern civilisation can say that?”
Didn’t send your photo in to us in time? You can still post it on your own blog or Twitter feed and send us the link, then we’ll add the link into this post! Or you can tell us in the comments which book you would have chosen…
(Image of Cathi Unsworth courtesy of Emma Murphy)
What do you think?