Welcome to Smugglivus 2011! Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2011, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2012. Who: Jodie, one of our favourite book critics, running the excellent UK-based blog Book Gazing as well as Lady Business (co-edited by Things Mean a Lot’s Ana and Subverting the Text’s Renay). Please give it up for Jodie! It’s Smuggliiiiiivvvuuuuuusssss! I’m so happy that Ana and Thea decided to ask me to celebrate the holiday all book lovers look forward to each year. In the true sci-fi spirit of The Book Smugglers I’ll first take you back in time to look at five books I really enjoyed reading in the last 11 months: Loved in 2011 The Night Watch – Sarah Waters: This is the second Sarah Waters novel I’ve read and I loved it so much. So many of things I like to read about are included: GLBTQ lives during the World Wars, male prisons, women beginning to work, romance – all that is topped with a twisty literary structure. I am assured that Fingersmith is the best of Waters work, but I […]