I didn’t add it to the list on my previous post here because I wasn’t finished with 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I finished it over New Year’s weekend and I’d like to add it to that list. Perhaps to the top of it.

It is that good.  -Quinn

I keep a list of what books I read each year. Some years I read an insane amount of books, others my list is a bit shorter. This was a year where I didn’t get through as many as years past. I just looked at my reading list for 2011. I have several books I just loved. Here is a list of those titles.

1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (See Pat’s blog here)

2.Room by Emma Donoghue (See Kelly’s blog here)

3. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (See Nan’s blog here)

4. The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma (See my blog here)

5. A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano (See Nan’s blog here)

-Quinn

I sold The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin to one of my customers (who is actually a friend’s mom) and a week later she walked in the bookstore with the book in her hand.  Oh no!!!  She didn’t like it was racing through my thoughts and I immediately started to apologize.  She stopped me and said “I loved it and have brought it for you to read next!”  So that evening I went home book in hand.   I started it over the weekend and by Wednesday and I was finished!

Cora Cash is a New York Debutante and probably the richest heiress in the country.  Cora has been groomed for this moment since she was a young girl and her mother has very big plans for her.  The morning after Cora’s ‘coming out’ the Cash’s yacht will be steaming through across the Atlantic to introduce Miss Cora Cash to the society of England and hopefully be married within the year.  Mrs. Cash realizes that being wealthy is fine but as an American a “title” is out of the question but her daughter could marry into one.  Cora though wants to marry for love and has plans of her own.  Cora meets a Duke and they quickly fall in love and are married but she soon learns that these old world aristocrats are a tight circle and she has much to learn if she wants to be accepted and survive in their world.

If you are a fan of Edith Wharton and Jane Austen novels or Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Theater then you will certainly enjoy The American Heiress.

When I moved in our house after we got married, my husband was anxious to know if every box that was labeled “books” was really such. I tried to move the conversation elsewhere because they really were all books! As I looked around, it was a little overwhelming as to where I was going to put each and every one of them.

My parents helped put my mind at ease. For Christmas they gave me a book titled Books Do Furnish a Room by Leslie Geddes-Brown. The title is my exact thought in any situation. The pictures are dreamy and encourage you to build your own little library in your house. Makes a room look cozy, doesn’t it?

With all those books you received for Christmas, you can add a certain warmth in a room. Come get Books Do Furnish a Room for ideas or for the perfect coffee table book!  -Quinn

Knopf thought this was their kind of tree. We do, too.