Dymocks 2012 Top 101 Books List

This is what I believe is the 2012 Dymocks top 101 Book List.  I've bolded the ones I have read.  I enjoy finding these lists and use them as a guide to find new books to read.  Quite a few of these I plan to read so I won't bold them until I have read them.  :)   It's a bit embarrassing since I haven't read that many on the list.

1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
10. The Lord of the Rings (Books 1-3) by J.R.R. Tolkien
11.The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
12. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
14. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
15. The Bible
16. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
19. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
20. Atonement by Ian McEwan
21. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
22. Persuasion by Jane Austen
23. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
24. Red Dog by Louis de Bernières
25. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
26. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
27. Breath by Tim Winton
28. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
30. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
31. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
32. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
33. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
34. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
35. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
36. The Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel
37. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
38. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
39. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
40. The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
41. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
42. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
43. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
44. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
45. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
46. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
47. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
48. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
49. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
50. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
51. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
52. Marley and Me by John Grogan
53. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré
54. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
55. A Simpler Time by Peter FitzSimons
56. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
57. A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute
58. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
59. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
60. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
61. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
62. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
63. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
64. Room by Emma Donoghue
65. The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester
66. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
67. My Booky Wook by Russell Brand
68. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
69. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
70. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
71. One Day by David Nicholls
72. Bereft by Chris Womersley
73. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
74. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
75. Magician by Raymond E. Feist
76. Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan
77. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
78. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
79. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
80. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
81. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
82. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
83. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
84. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
85. Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly
86. Mawson by Peter FitzSimons
87. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
88. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
89. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
90. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
91. The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
92. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
93. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
94. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
95. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
96. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
97. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
98. Bossypants by Tina Fey
99. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
100. The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
101. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/books/dymocks-annual-list-of-the-101-best-books-as-voted-by-the-australian-public-is-out/story-fn9412vp-1226347409706#ixzz1yaeTDpFT

BSC Friends Forever

BSC Friends Forever – Ann M. Martin

Image from Goodreads.com

Like all the other books in the regular series, these books were written by hired ghost-writers who were given an outline of the stories they were to write.  The BSC Friends Forever series follows on from the regular series, the order of the books are:

Super Special #1 Everything Changes
#1 Kristy’s Big News
#2 Stacey Vs. Claudia
#3 Mary Anne’s Big Break-Up
#4 Claudia and the Friendship Feud
#5 Kristy Power
#6 Stacey and the Boyfriend Trap
#7 Claudia Gets Her Guy
#8 Mary Anne’s Revenge
#9 Kristy and the Kidnapper
#10 Stacey’s Problem
#11 Welcome Home, Mary Anne
#12 Claudia and the Disaster Date
Super Special #2 Graduation Day

I actually enjoyed BSC Friends Forever.  I hated them when I was a kid. But I do enjoy them now, they work into the series well and end the entire Baby Sitters Club Saga in the best possible way.  I got sick of the Stacey vs. Claudia thing, I never liked those two characters so it annoyed me that they had to feature so much in this series with their stupid fight. 

The club is back to the four founding members, Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey.  This series begins where the regular series finished off and continues to the end of the school year where the girls finally graduate middle school.  Super Special #2 Graduation Day is a slightly longer book than the others and features each girl as they prepare for their graduation.  The series ended in 2000, the first Baby-Sitters Club books was published about fifteen years earlier.

Malory Towers

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Malory Towers - Enid Blyton

#1 First Term at Malory Towers

#2 Second Form at Malory Towers

#3 Third Year at Malory Towers
#4 Upper Fourth at Malory Towers
#5 Into the Fifth at Malory Towers
#6 Last Term at Malory Towers

Malory Towers is my all time favourite Enid Blyton series of books. Written from 1946 through to 1951.  The original Malory Towers follows Darrell Rivers as she begins Malory Towers during the first form and we journey through Malory Towers with Darrell and her classmates until they graduate the sixth form in the final book.  At the beginning of the series Darrell is an eager young girl of about twelve years old beginning her first term at boarding school.  Her mother takes her to the train station and there she meets her form mistress and head mistress of North Tower Miss Potts.  Darrell also meets a few of her classmates, Alicia, Gwendoline and Sally.  The rest of the series chronicles their growing up as they become the leaders of their school which they are fiercely proud of.  There are liars, thieves and cheats as well as the good as gold girls who make up the students. 

 
Malory Towers is all about good honest hard work, they are a more realistic set of school stories over the St Clare’s series.  I re-read the Malory Towers series whenever I feel down and need to get lost in a world of innocence.  Each book has their own little dramas, after all what school stories through from the 1920’s to 1950’s didn’t have some little drama.  All the central characters have good development throughout the series.  Three characters who had the most remarkable development were Mary-Lou, Alicia and Gwendoline.   



Image from Goodreads.com

Malory Towers – Pamela Cox

Malory Towers got a new series written in 2009. Pamela Cox wrote a second series of Malory Towers books which occur right after the final book of the Enid Blyton series ended. Instead of following Darrell Rivers, it follows her younger sister Felicity Rivers as she continues her journey through Malory Towers.  These books have modernised Malory Towers in attitude and society.  They’re interesting books; the characters have changed from their original format during the Enid Blyton years which is a shame for anyone who read the originals all the time.  The new series are good to be read without having read the first series of books.  I’m not that fond of the Pamela Cox series of Malory Towers but there is nothing terrible about them 

#7 New Term at Malory Towers
#8 Summer Term at Malory Towers
#9 Winter Term at Malory Towers
#10 Fun and Games at Malory Towers
#11 Secrets at Malory Towers
#12 Good-Bye Malory Towers

St Clare's

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St Clare’s – Enid Blyton

#1 The Twins at St Clare’s
#2 The O’Sullivan Twins
#3 Summer Term at St Clare’s
#4 Second Form at St Clare’s
#5 Claudine at St Clare’s
#6 Fifth Formers at St Clare’s

The St Clare’s books are interesting books to read and discuss, the first three books are of the girls during the first form and it seems that three books were going to be planned for each form but after the fourth book was written which was of the girls during their second year at St Clare’s, the series suddenly jumps to Claudine at St Clare’s which is the girls in their fourth year but instead of the usual arriving to school and all the packing and pre-school chat, the girls are already at school ready to begin the term.  The series ends at the end of the final term of fifth year instead of the last term of sixth year like the Malory Towers series.  The original books were written between 1941 and 1945. 

What makes the St Clare’s books interesting from an Australian point of view is the talk of snobbery and how horrid it is for a person to be conceited and look down on anyone, yet the girls who obviously come from good families to be able to send them to a private all girls boarding school, look down on those who are “lower” class.  I never picked up on this as a child but I see it every time I re-read the books.  There is nothing technically wrong with this since a lot of it is read between the lines dialogue.  Also, as the first three books are set when the girls are in the first form there isn’t a whole lot of character development except for two girls who both arrive in Summer Term at St Clare’s. Bobby and Carlotta both turn up during the third book, Bobby is known as don’t-care-Bobby, and she’s a clever girl but would prefer to play the fool as lessons come easily to her. She later sees the error of her ways and buckles down to become an honest hard working child.  Carlotta is a wild girl who doesn’t like strict rules and boundaries. Both of these characters have the biggest character development and growth.  Mabel, a character who arrives during the fourth book has a radical change of personality by the time she’s a fifth former.  One can assume her original character traits were forgotten over the years between the books or the character had a strange development over those years and changed.

Malory Towers had one main character which was Darrell Rivers.  St Clare’s has two main characters, the twins Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan but the books don’t always centre of them. They start each book of course but the stories are often about their classmates.

Image from Goodreads.com

Pamela Cox wrote three books to add to the St Clare’s series, two were written in 2000 and a third was written in 2008.  She wrote the books to fill in the gaps that were left in the original series, unfortunately the characters which Pamela Cox introduced during these books had to disappear before Claudine at St Clare’s is set, but the characters she introduced in Sixth Formers at St Clare’s could remain as the series ended with that book. 

Third Form at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox

Kitty at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox
Sixth Formers at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox

 Third Form at St Clare’s gives Janet a storyline but Janet doesn’t seem like the proper Janet.  She’s shown as a jealous girl who is bitter towards one of her closest friends, of course this does happen in real life but the whole character just seems different to the original Janet. The same with Carlotta, but the other characters are a great portrayal.  Three new girls join the form in this book and all leave at the end. Kitty at St Clare’s was my favourite out of the Pamela Cox book.  It was more like an Enid Blyton book and I found is much more enjoyable than her other two St Clare’s books. 

Our Australian Girl

Our Australian Girl

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Our Australian Girls is the best Australian series of books for children, especially for girls.  They are brilliantly written and each girl is a well developed character for girls to read about.  They are historical fiction and similar to the American Girl series which has been popular around the world for many years. 

Each character has four books to chronicle their journey in a different time period.  Each book has some easy to understand historical contend at the back for children to learn more about Australia’s vast history.   They have the most beautiful covers I have ever seen on Australian children's books.  

I grew up reading My Story, and My Australian Story. These had female diary writers of course but they lacked something special.  Our Australian Girl is a series that I wished had been around when I was a child.  I absolutely love the series now, but I would have loved them even more growing up.  My Australian Story has some very good female characters, my favourites being Sophia (A Marathon of her Own) and Charlotte (A Different Sort of Real) but Our Australian Girl is written differently and it’s more personal and enjoyable.  I hope more of these books are written and I hope that at least one of them is a Tasmanian girl.  There was no Tasmanian story in the My Australian Story (that I am aware of). This always bothered me.

The official site for this lovely series is www.ouraustraliangirl.com.au

Poppy – Gabrielle Wang                                                                Letty – Alison Lloyd
#1 Meet Poppy                                                                                 #1 Meet Letty  
#2 Poppy at Summerhill                                                                  #2 Letty and the Strangers Lace
#3 Poppy and the Thief                                                                   #3 Letty on the Land
#4 Poppy Comes Home                                                                   #4 Letty’s Christmas

Grace – Sofie Laguna                                                                       Rose – Sheryl Clark

#1 Meet Grace                                                                                   #1 Meet Rose
#2 A Friend for Grace                                                                       #2 Rose on Wheels
#3 Grace and Glory                                                                           #3 Rose’s Challenge
#4 A Home for Grace                                                                        #4 Rose in Bloom

Nellie – Penny Matthews                                                               Alice – Davina Bell                       

#1 Meet Nellie                                                                                   #1 Meet Alice
#2 Nellie and the Secret Letter                                                       #2 Alice and the Apple Blossom Fair    
#3 Nellie’s Quest                                                                               #3 Alice of Peppermint Grove
#4 Nellie’s Greatest Wish                                                                #4 Peacetime for Alice

I am currently reading the Nellie and Alice books which haven’t all been published yet.  So far my favourite Australian Girl has been Rose.  I think this is because her story is set during Australia’s Federation.  I was just a little bit younger than Rose is when Australia celebrated 100 years since our Federation. I remember the special school assembly and every student being given a commemorative coin to mark the occasion. I still have mine.  Boys were biting on them and then hurt their teeth.  It was an exciting time but uncomfortable because it was raining and the whole school was shoved outside underneath the small shelters near the school office. 

The Kids in Ms Colman's Class



From My Collection

The Kids in Ms Colman’s Class

First Published: 1995-1998

These books belong with the Baby Sitters Little Sister series; they’re a spin-off off that series which is of course a spin-off series of The Baby Sitters Club.  They’re very much a kids book, easy to read chapters and easy to understand stories.  They were published between 1995 and 1998.

The series start at the beginning of the school year, we have Nancy Dawes beginning second grade without her best friend from first grade.  Nancy’s friend Karen Brewer is at the same school but Karen is in first grade.  Karen is skipped ahead into second grade and these books show over a few books how Hannie Papadakis and Nancy Dawes became friends. They don’t only follow Karen, Hannie and Nancy. We have a different book for a different student. The books also have nice covers. I have always loved children’s book cover art from the 1980’s through to the 1990’s.   

#1 Teacher’s Pet

#2 Author Day
#3 Class Play
#4 Second Grade Baby
#5 Snow War
#6 Twin Trouble
#7 Science Fair
#8 Summer School
#9 Halloween Parade
#10 Holiday Time
#11 Spelling Bee
#12 Baby Animal Zoo

When The Siren Wailed




Image from Goodreads.com

When The Siren Wailed – Noel Streatfeild

First Published: 1974

Suddenly there were no secrets anymore.  Everyone knew there was going to be a war, which meant that all children in danger areas like London were to be sent to the country.  There on Friday 1^st September 1939, it happened.  As war was about to be declared, Laura, Andy and Tim Clark with their name and address pinned to them, joined the straggling procession of evacuees to the station.  Operation Pied Piper was under way.

This is a great World War 2 book for children.  I can’t remember when I first read this book but I believe I was about ten or eleven years old. It was a book that seemed to be at my house for a long time.  It’s one of my all time favourite Noel Streatfeild books.   The story follows Laura, Andy and Tim as they are sent to the country, and then as they run away from a home they are not satisfied with and what happens when they reach London again.  This is a book I have read countless of times and a book I hope never becomes forgotten.