May Day or I Need Help

This list started as the Mini List of books I wanted to read between November 1st, 2012 and October 31st, 2013. I compiled this list of the 95-100 books I expected to read within a twelve month span of time. I should have known such a prediction would be setting myself up for failure. Lots of things got in the way of me strictly sticking to the list. For starters, there was (and still is) the inability to predict which (if any) Early Review books I would win from LibraryThing. Then, there is my never-ending habit of “filling in” with a shorter book at the end of the month. This is the scenario: Let’s say there are eight days left in the month of January and I have nothing left to read from the mini list for the month of January… so I scan the Big January list, looking for something 175 pages or less. I read that short(er) book and voila! I have read a filler that wasn’t on the Mini List.
Now, there are two new “things.” First, the decision to bypass a book simply because I’m not in the mood for it. Ugh! For the first time ever I skipped over a book simply because I wasn’t ready to read it. The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow fell victim to my whim. I won’t get to read the book about banking until NEXT April. Second, a big mistake – I forgot to include other books in the Martin Boyd series. There are three others that didn’t make the original list. Duh!

So, having said all that, here is the list of books STILL TO GO from the mini list:

1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
2. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
3. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
4. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
5. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
6. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
7. Burning the Days by James Salter
8. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
9. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
10. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
11. Deafening by Frances Itani
12. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
13. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
14. Fixer by Joe Sacco
15. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
16. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
17. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
18. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
19. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
20. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
21. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
22. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
23. ADDED: Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
24. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
25. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
26. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
27. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
28. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
29. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
30. Southpaw by Mark Harris
31. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
32. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
33. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
34. ADDED: When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
35. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
36. Working Poor by David Shipler

ON DECK FOR MAY:

1. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope (audio)
2. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
3. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
4. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
5. ADDED: Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
6. ADDED (because I am an idiot – I forgot to add the next books in the Martin Boyd series): A Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
7. ADDED: The long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

FINISHED:

1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
2. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
3. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
4. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
5. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
6. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
7. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
8. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
9. Bellwether by Connie Willis
10. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
11. Billy by Albert French
12. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
13. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
14. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
15. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
16. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
17. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
18. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
19. City of Thieves by David Benioff
20. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
21. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
22. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
23. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
24. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
25. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
26. Fanny by Edmund White
27. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
28. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
29. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
30. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
31. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
32. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
33. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
34. ADDED (in lieu of House of Morgan): God: a biography by Jack Miles
35. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
36. ADDED: Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
37. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
38. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
39. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
40. Her by Christa Parravani
41. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
42. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
43. ADDED: Iliad by Homer
44. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
45. ADDED: Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
46. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
47. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
48. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
49. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
50. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
51. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
52. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
53. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
54. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
55. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
56. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
57. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
58. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
59. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
60. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
61. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
62. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
63. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
64. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
65. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
66. Widow for One Year by John Irving
67. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

POETRY COMPLETED:

1. “Golden Angel Pancake House” by Campbell McGrath
2. “Lepanto” by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
3. “Listeners” by Walter De La Mare
4. “Mandalay” by Rudard Kipling
5. “Road and the End” by Carl Sandburg
6. “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
7. “Winter” by Marie Ponsot
8. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
9. The Long Hill” by Sarah Teasdale
10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

NEXT YEAR:

1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)