Friday Favourites - Your Favourite Book from 2011?

Friday Favourites - a chance to rave about a favourite reading/book related topic each week.

Sometimes you just want a chance to rave about some favourite aspect of reading that doesn't really come up during regular blogging posts - that's what this is about. I'm willing to bet that at least some of those will come up one week or another.

This week I'm wondering what your favourite book from 2011 was, and why you'd pick it as a favourite.

Please leave either a link to your response or your response itself in the comments.

Trying to figure out my response leaves me with a bit of a dilemma: I can't narrow down my favourite book beyond two.

The first was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, an opinion which was only reinforced when I saw the movie (which I've watched a second time since Christmas). There's just something about the book where I can read it and re-read it.

Lisa See has a knack for description that's vivid but not overdone. Snow Flower and The Secret Fan is a shorter book, but not lacking in anything for all that, and the characters feel real.

What made it one of my favourites is the way that Lisa See has illuminated aspects of Chinese culture and made it something I'd rather like to learn more about. I understand that the book is very carefully researched.

The other book is one that I read back in February of 2011: Little Princes: One Man's Promise To Bring Home The Lost Children Of Nepal by Conor Grennan.

For all that it's been a year since I read this book, it really stuck in my head. I think it was the idea that an ordinary person could do so much to help without being some kind of celebrity or millionaire first. Honestly, the cover was what caught my attention first, with that vivid blue colour.

Even now, a year later, I'm still raving about Little Princes. In fact, I'd rather like to re-read the book and refresh my memory as to the details. Not to mention buying my own copy of it, especially given that part of the proceeds from the book go to help fund the children's home that Conor Grennan opened.