Instead of putting together a predictable list of our top literary picks for 2011, we decided we wanted to get a sense of the year’s best books from a Torontonian perspective. While we couldn’t actually poll every reader in the city, the hard-working folks at the Toronto Public Library were kind enough to provide us with a round-up of 2011’s hottest titles, according to their popularity among TPL users. Beside each title, we’ve also indicated where you’d be in line (as of Dec. 20) if you placed a hold on the title now.
Fiction
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (1,616)
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (1,541)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (1,462)
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (1,144)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (1,041)
11/22/63 by Stephen King (669)
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (584)
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (547)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (511)
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult (36)
Nonfiction
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (1,627)
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (655)
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (438)
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (311)
Blue Nights by Joan Didion (283)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (233)
The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik (227)
Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer (205)
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (112)
From This Moment On by Shania Twain (47)*
*Amazon reviewers recommended Twain’s memoir, although many were dismayed by the singer’s vitriol toward “the other woman” who broke up her marriage to Mutt Lange.
Teen Fiction
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1295)
Inheritance: or Vault of Souls by Christopher Paolini (463)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (320)
Divergent by Veronica Roth (276)
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (274)
Crossed by Allyson Braithwaite Condi (264)
Ruthless: A Pretty Little Liars Novel by Sara Shepard (195)
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (151)
This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel (Cdn) (150)
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (115)
Children’s Fiction
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney (1109)
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (901)
The Amazing Voyage by Geronimo Stilton (143)
Amulet, Book Four: The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi (61)
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star by Rachel Renee Russell (34)
Big Nate on a Roll by Lincoln Peirce (4)
Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid (3)
Quest for the Spark by Tom Sniegoski (Cdn) (3)
Moose by Robert Munsch (Cdn) (2)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox (No holds; 136 copies available)
EBOOKS: Adult Fiction
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (215)
The Litigators by John Grisham (185)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt (Cdn) (177)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (159)
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (136)
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (111)
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (109)
The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay (107)
Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay (19)
Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich (1 copy available)
EBOOKS: Adult Nonfiction
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (66)
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie (62)
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (56)
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (50)
A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead (45)
Falling Backwards by Jann Arden (Cdn) (41)
Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War by Hal Vaughan (33)
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (6)
TPL Staff Favourites
Jane Pyper, City Librarian: “A The Free World by David Bezmogis is a beautifully written account of the Krasnanskys, a family of Soviet Jewish émigrés who leave Latvia for somewhere new. It is funny and unsentimental and captures all the uncertainty and ambivalence and hope of emigration and the friction and bonds of family. Also, there are 152 copies available at your local library!”
Catherine Auyeung, Manager, Toronto Reference Library Collections, Programs & Services: “My favourite book of 2011 is Julian Barnes’ Sense of an Ending. I love Barnes’ writing and this is one exquisite example, a story about an older man looking back at his past and coming to terms with the people and life-changing events he encountered. It’s a superbly written retrospect that triggered memories of my own.”
Margaret Elwood, Librarian who moderates TPL’s popular online book club, Book Buzz: “The most enjoyable book I read this year was a juvenile graphic novel called Hereville: or How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch, which was published in 2010. My favourite new release, though, would be The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta.”
Tina Srebotnjak, Manager of cultural programming for the Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library: “My pick is The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides. This wonderful writer puts a book out every ten years, so there’s a LOT of excitement when he has something new (which explains the full house at the Salon when he came there in October). This modern reworking of the Victorian marriage plot (with some semiotics thrown in) is a delight from start to finish—smart, funny and profound.”
Maria Cipriano, Collections Librarian, eResources: “My most enjoyable read (on a Sony ereader) this year was The Boy in the Suitcase, by the Danish writing duo Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. This crime thriller hooked me from the first paragraph and made me miss half a night’s sleep because I could not put it down! I also enjoyed Natural Order by Brian Francis, The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay, among others.”
Susan Caron, Manager, Collections Development: “My favourite books from 2011 were The Stolen Child by Alan Hollinghurst and The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta.”
Youth Librarians’ Favourites
Elsa Ngan, Branch head at Yorkville Branch
Gandhi: A manga biography by Kazuki Ebine (Nonfiction)
“I read this one quite recently and it summarizes all that Gandhi believed in and strived for in his lifetime. I think it’s a good first introduction to the life of Gandhi for youth and it may lead them to further reading about this extraordinary figure.”
Drummer Girl by Karen Bass (fiction)
“I like it because I think some youth can relate to the characters and the issues (e.g. trying to fit in, cyber bullying) that are discussed. The story can be a bit dark, but it isn’t far-fetched and it works, and even with the serious issues included, the book isn’t preachy.”
Flight volume 8 by various contributors (graphic novel)
“It was really awesome to meet Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo a few years back during a KTR event at NYCL. They are both very talented artists and storytellers. Flight volume 8 continues to inspire and impress—the theme (flight) just takes off in so many different ways! The artwork for each story is amazing and the stories themselves are unforgettable.”
Library Wars: Love and War by Hiro Arikawa (manga series)
“This is one that I’ve been really enjoying. It’s just cool that libraries have their own military group, the Library Forces, who are there to protect the library’s collections from being confiscated from a rather close-minded government committee. Of course, there is also a love story involved. Just a great read overall.”
Beautiful Days: A Bright Young Things novel by Anna Godbersen (fiction)
“This is a new youth series by Anna Godbersen, whose previous trilogy, Luxe, was quite popular. This is historical fluff. It’s about three different teen girls in the 1920s trying to figure their lives out. Of course, the story is glittered with descriptive fashion and fun parties, and there’s also some romance.”
Cameron Ray, Youth Services Specialist at North York Central Library
Every You, Every Me by David Leviathan
“I’m already a big fan of Leviathan, so I was really looking forward to his latest. Almost every time he comes out with a book it is a detour from what he did before. This supernatural thriller does a really good job of getting under your skin and it completely creeped me out, which is rare! I also enjoyed the way Leviathan analyzed the closeness of a platonic boy/girl friendship and what true friends are willing to do for each other.”
Money Boy by Paul Yee
“I really liked the honesty of this novel. Yee looks at homosexuality in Asian culture, set against [the experience of being] an immigrant in Toronto. The novel asks a lot of questions about what it is like to be an immigrant when you never wanted to come [to a new country] in the first place. The character of Ray is so complex and very much like a real person—he never does quite what you expect of him. A thought-provoking look at a life interrupted by beliefs and sustained by one’s own perseverance.”
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd
“This book impressed me with its weird duality: it’s about the idea of loss, and the author who came up with the concept for the novel died of cancer before she could complete it. The second author came in to finish the book because he feels so strongly about the subject. There’s also a monster motif that I really enjoyed—the monster is not all that scary, but there’s a routine to its appearance and it only wants the protagonist to tell the truth.”
The Dead Kid Detective Agency by Evan Munday
“Amazing first novel that manages to find a great balance between satire and mystery fiction for youth. I was hooked from the very first page by the tongue-in-cheek humour and the respect that this book has for the reader. It has a great paranormal theme, which is very popular these days, but it still manages to be fresh and new. Also the author is from Toronto and it is so nice to get quality books for teens from a local writer. I cannot say enough good things about this book—it needs to be read!”
Picks from the children’s book-selectors:
The Aviary by Kathleen O’Dell
“This story of the solving of an old family mystery is filled with suspense, steeped in the atmosphere of an early Victorian novel.”
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
“The fascinating and exciting story of two children in different eras whose stories magically touch each other across the years, through words and pictures.”
Press Here by Herve Tullet
“Imagination and interaction combine to create a simply magical picture book without gimmicks.”
Liesl and Po by Lauren Olive
“A captivating, magical fantasy with shades of The Secret Garden and touches of Grimm’s fairy tales.”
