Best of 2011 Reading List

Being doing a lot of reading last year, and would like to share some of my fave reads, some of which I came across by chance. I used to love reading when I was a kid, and I could still remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, BFG, Ramona the Pest (I read all the Ramona series during my Primary school days and I love them all and wish I am Ramona sometimes during then...haha), the Pigman by Paul Zindel, How to eat fried worms, Alice in a rapture, sort of (all the Alice series, I practically grew up with Alice in my teens), Flowers for Algernon, etc. Even though it had been more than 10 years since I last read them, these stories still left a deep impression in my mind till now. A good book is like brain food to me.

Firstly, top of the list is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It had even been made into a major motion picture. This is a story about the plight of black people working as help for their white employers during the early civil right years of Martin Luther King. Blacks were racially discriminated in the society. They were not allowed to go to the same school, hospital, library and even use the same bathrooms as white people. The story centered around Abileen, a black woman who had lost her son, and working as help to a white lady, Miss Leefolt and her family. Abileen's best friend, Mimi was fired by her white employer, the mean Miss Hilly who falsely accused her of stealing. They were helped by Miss Skeeter who wrote their experiences as help into a book so that the world would know about their plight. Only when people started to realize what actually happened, will things start improving, however this was considered a dangerous move during then as there were many people opposed to the civil right movements. Overall, I was deeply absorbed into the story as the characters were very well portrayed and seemed to come alive. It is a book that is hard to put down once you started.

There are no second place after that as I enjoyed reading all the rest of the stories and its hard to rank which are my fave. I came across The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davis and its sequel, The Lemonade Crime, by chance while browsing on kindle store looking for something interesting. After reading the first chapter, I was hooked and ended up buying it and its sequel. The story is about a pair of siblings, Evan and his younger sister, Jessie who ended up competing to see who made the most money selling lemonade during the hot summer vacation days. It was a very enjoyable and easy to read story with a good story plot which centered around sibling relationships and honesty. In The Lemonade Crime, the story continues where it ended in the first book on the whereabouts of the missing money. Evan and Jessie finally worked out their differences and worked together to nab the thief who stole all their lemonade money. Although they knew who it was, they dun have the evidence. The second book gave a juvenile insight into the workings of the judicial system as the children decided to hold their own court hearing to convict the thief. Overall, a good and easy story, which was surprisingly not boring to me at all.

Somehow, this book reminded me of Charlie and the chocolate factory. Gil Goodson was a normal happy boy until one day, his father, an employee of Golly Toy and Game Company was wrongly accused of embezzlement. Disgraced and penniless, Gil lost his friends and was bullied at school. However, his chance came when the Toy company decided to hold a huge event, the Gollywhopper Games where the winner will get a huge prize money, which is what his family needed. After many grueling rounds of wits and skills, Gil and a few kids managed to get into the final round. The event was held in the Toy factory and each child was allowed one guardian with them. Sounds familiar, rite. The Toy factory was an amazing huge place with mazes with weird gadgets and strange environments, just like the chocolate factory isnt it?? Anyway, there were many interesting puzzles in the story and overall, it was fast paced and very exciting to read. I wont be surprised if this book was made into a movie.

A very informative and darkly intense historical story about a young girl called Mattie Cook who lived in Philadelphia with her mother and grandfather, managing a coffee house during 1793. If I had not read this book, I would never know that Philadelphia was once the capital of US during the times of George Washington, and that was actually an epidemic called Yellow fever that killed thousands of people. During the summer of 1793, people started falling ill mysteriously with fever, convulsions, becoming hysteric and vomiting blood. The victims usually died within 2 days and all of them had yellow coloured eyes, and thus the name-Yellow Fever. The story gave us an insight into the horrors of an epidemic, with corpses laying on the streets, and the stench of rot and death everywhere in a time where people do not have the medical and scientific knowledge to know how to deal with it. During those times, people boiled their clothings and bedsheets as a way to disinfect them, letting blood as a way to remove the sickness inside them, etc...all of which proved ineffective. For Mattie and her family, it was like her life had suddenly turned into a horror story as she watched her mother and grandfather became sick. She, herself was also affected by the Yellow Fever but she managed to survive and became immune. Soon, the town she lived became a ghost town and she struggled to survive the epidemic all alone with hardly anything to eat. The epidemic ended when winter came. Its causes was unknown during those times but now we know it was actually caused by mosquitoes. Kindda strange to me coz I dinoe malaria or dengue fever can cause yellow eyes.

Maybe becoz I couldnt get enough of Laurie Halse Anderson's historical story, I decided to look for more books written by her and came across this. Chains, was a story set in the times of the Revolutionary War in the 18th century. The story centered around a girl called Isabel and her sister, Ruth, who were sold as slaves to a rich cruel couple, the Locktons. She was often beaten and starved and her only friend was a black slave boy called Curzon who need her help to spy on the Locktons, who were loyalist to the British. At first, she was reluctant, but when her sister was sold off, she decided to fight for her freedom and to get her back by spying for the patriots (who were fighting against the British ) as they promised her freedom if she did that. My heart goes out to Isabel when she was branded with a hot iron as punishment for running away and when the Patriots turned their back on her in the end. The story gave me an insight on the horrible injustice of slavery and the importance of freedom, something which many took for granted nowadays. Overall, a thought provoking story, with a tight and intense plot which I cant stop reading once I started. Definitely one of my most faves read.

This is definitely a interesting book with lots of strange photographs. The story is about a boy called Jacob who grew up listening to wild unbelievable stories told by his grandfather about his childhood days. His grandfather, who was a Jew during WW2, was sent away by his family to live in a far but safe place in Wales. It was a home for refugee children, run by Miss Peregrine. All the children had some strange powers, like a girl who can float, an invisible boy, a girl who can control plants, etc. At first, Jacob was fascinated by his grandfather's stories but as he grew up, he began to doubt whether they were true. However, when his grandfather was suddenly killed by a monster which only he can see, he started to wonder whether all there was some truth in those stories. He decided to go to Wales, to verify for himself and this began his adventures as he stumbled onto a time loop which brought him back to the 1940s. Turned out this is actually a fantasy story, instead of mystery/murder. I find the story interesting but bit too long towards the end. 

I enjoyed a good ghost story every now and then. Wait Till Helen Comes, was the first ghost story I read by Mary Downing Hahn. Her ghost stories are always linked to some historical events, so it was more of a historical/horror stories. It was very good and scary, but not those mindless resident evil type of scary. Time For Andrew was the second book I read from MDH and it was just as good.The story is about 2 boys from 2 different times, who swapped places with each other accidentally. As a result, one of the boy from the past managed to escape death due to modern medicine. Overall, an interesting book that keeps me turning the page till the end to find out what happened in the end and a perfectly safe ghost story to read at night without getting bad dreams.

This is a sequel to Holes, one of my most fave books. If you have never read Holes, pls go and read it coz its an excellent excellent book. Anyway, in this sequel, Armpit has been released from Camp Green Lake and is adjusting gradually to the outside world when he was approached by his former cell mate, to sell some fake concert tickets to make a quick buck. The underlying message in this story was that people make mistakes and they get judged by others for that. It is possible to get back the trust from people and have a better life but in small gradual steps. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and wish there are more sequels to Holes.

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech was a heart warming story about 2 orphan siblings, Dallas and Florida who grew up in an orphanage. They had given up hope of ever finding a good foster home due to their many bad experiences with them. One day, they were adopted by an eccentric but kind couple living in beautiful countryside area called Ruby Holler. Overall, a very nice, warm story, kindda reminds me of Hansel and Greta, in this case, the evil witch was the greedy owner of the orphanage. Think I finish reading the book in 1 night, as its hard to put it down once I started.