Like most book reviewers who aren’t paid by a newspaper or a magazine to read 24/7, finding the time to read a book and then say something helpful about it is difficult. I could use an extra hour or two ever day just for reading. I don’t review all of the books I read. I currently have three books in the queue:

1. Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin – I read and enjoyed this book and will post the review this year.
2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Next on my reading list.
3. The Devil’s Elixer by Raymond Khoury – Book on the way to my house.

Nonetheless, it was a good year for reviews. Here’s a look back at the books I reviewed or noted in 2011 for those you might have missed:

Malcolm’s Round Table

• My 2011 Favorite: ‘The Night Circus’ edges out ‘The Tiger’s Wife’
• Briefly Noted: ‘My Yehidah: A Journal into the Story of You’
• Review: ‘The Uncertain Places’ by Lisa Goldstein
• Briefly Noted: Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
• Review: ‘Divorcing a Dead Man’ by Beth Sorensen
• Briefly Noted: Cor Blok’s LOTR paintings collected in ‘A Tolkien Tapestry’
• Fantasy briefly noted: Redemption in Indigo
• Commentary: ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett
• Briefly Noted: Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays.
• Review: ‘Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
• Review: ‘Six Weeks to Yehidah’
• Briefly Noted: ‘Border to Border: Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana’
• Review: ‘Telling the Difference’ by Paul Watsky
• Review: ‘The Witch of Babylon’
• Review: ‘The Butterfly’s Kingdom’
• Review: ‘When the de la Cruz Family Danced’
• Western Books, Briefly Noted
• The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life
• Book Review: ‘Adagio & Lamentation’
• Book Review: ‘In a Flash’
• Review: ‘The Swan Thieves’
• Review: ‘After the Jug Was Broken’
• Handy Guidebook for Glacier Park’s Wildflowers
• Review: ‘The Seas’ by Samantha Hunt
• Review: ‘The Tiger’s Wife’ by Téa Obreht
• Review: ‘Equinox’ by Robert Hays
• Review: ‘Good-Bye, Emily Dickinson’
• Review: ‘The Other Life’ by Ellen Meister
• The Call of the Mountains: The Artists of Glacier National Park
• A powerful story of motherhood, seasons and snakes
• Review: ‘kiDNApped’ by Rick Chesler
• Review: ‘The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy’
• Review: ‘Snare’ by Deborah J. Ledford
• Book Note: ‘Montana Moments: History on the Go’
• Review: ‘Razor’s Revenge’ by Paul Chandler
• Review: ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’
• Review: ‘The Templar Salvation’
• Review: ‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse

Literary Aficionado

• Exploring the Deep Soul of Man – Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey, by Mark Winborn
• The Magic of an Irish Story – Bogmeadow’s Wish by Terry Kay
• Beautiful, Deeply Moving Worlds – Soul Stories: Safari to Mara & Aria of the Horned Toad, by Elizabeth Clark-Stern

 Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of novels filled with fantasy and magic.

For a glimpse into the flavor of “Sarabande” (Vanilla Heart, August 2011) see his post: an assault where willow creek carries water away from the mountains