Here are my favorite fictional books from 2011, as part of my series, “The Year of Books.”

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

I loved pretty much everything about this book, even the thread of sadness running through it. I especially loved the very last thing that happened in the book. Make sure to read Bean Trees first. (I didn’t know they were a series so luckily I read them in the correct order!)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer

I really enjoyed just about everything about this book – but particularly the setting (post-WWII England) and the immensely entertaining characters.

Light from Heaven by Jan Karon

This is the ninth and final book in the Mitford Series.  I reread these books every few years.  I reread all nine books in 2011 and this one is by far my favorite.  It “preached me a sermon” – a pretty good one.

In addition, I enjoyed the following fiction in 2011:

Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

many books (15-20?) by Alexander McCall Smith: I read most of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and the entire Sunday Philosophy Club series.  I particularly love the philosophical discussions in the Sunday Philosophy books.

Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott (a reread)

Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White (a reread)

A Good Year by Peter Mayle

a few by Maeve Binchy, including my two favorites: Evening Class and Minding Frankie

Animals Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (a reread)

The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill (this was the 20th millionth time (or so!) that I had read this book and I still love it)