Tag: lists

Obsession In the Eighth Year

gr4c5Leave a comment

So. Here we are. Year Eight of the Book Lust Challenge. I haven’t even read 1,000 books yet. Sometimes I ask myself why I even bother (because I’ll probably be dead before I ever finish this thing), but then I think about all the great books I have picked up simply because of the challenge; books that would have remained a mystery. So. Drum roll…here are the books of Year Eight:

  1. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
  2. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin*
  3. Andorra by Peter Cameron
  4. Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen
  5. Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
  6. Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser
  7. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
  8. Beaufort by Ron Leshem*
  9. Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh
  10. Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson
  11. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks*
  12. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West
  13. Bluebird Canyon by Dan McCall
  14. Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  15. Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley
  16. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
  17. Captain Sir Richard Burton by Edward Rice
  18. Careless Love by Peter Gurlink
  19. Caroline’s Daughters by Alice Adams
  20. Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney
  21. Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter
  22. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall
  23. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes
  24. Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
  25. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler
  26. Eye of the World by Robert Jordan*
  27. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam*
  28. Feast of Love by Charles Baxter*
  29. First Man by Albert Camus
  30. Fordlandia by Greg Gandin
  31. Georges’ Wife by Elizabeth Jolley
  32. Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
  33. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  34. Grass Dancer by Susan Power
  35. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
  36. History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
  37. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  38. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  39. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
  40. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  41. Inside Passage by Michael Modselewski
  42. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg by H.R.F. Keating
  43. It Looked Like Forever by Mark Harris
  44. Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott*
  45. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
  46. Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralink
  47. Long Way From Home by Frederick Busch
  48. My Father’s Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
  49. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  50. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  51. Palladian Days by Sally Gable*
  52. Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
  53. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy
  54. Raw Silk by Janet Burroway
  55. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro*
  56. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  57. Rose of Martinique by Andrea Stuart
  58. Thousand Ways to Please a Husband by Weaver/LeCron
  59. Wheels Within Wheels by Dervla Murphy
  60. Winners and Losers by Martin Quigley
  61. You Get What You Pay For by Larry Beinhart

*Planned as Audio books

Here are the three books that are on the list for this December:

  1. Eighth Day, the by Thornton Wilder
  2. Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
  3. Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

Poetry:

  1. “Romance” from the Anthology of Modern Verse edited by W.J. Turner
  2. “War” from the Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon

Of course, I will read more than 60+ books and two poems and. And! And, I haven’t included the short stories. I am keeping the list modest for now. Five books a month sounds about right…we shall see, won’t we?

Year Seven Recap

gr4c5Leave a comment

Another year over.

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis
  8. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  9. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  10. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  11. Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris
  12. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  13. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  14. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  15. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  16. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  17. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  18. Billy by Albert French
  19. Bit of Wit, A World of Wisdom by Yehoshua Kurland (Early Review book from LibraryThing)
  20. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  21. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  22. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  23. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  24. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  25. Burma Chronicles by Guy DeLisle
  26. Burning the Days by James Salter
  27. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  28. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  29. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  30. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  31. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  32. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  33. City in the Sky by James Glanz
  34. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  35. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  36. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  37. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  38. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  39. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  40. Diary of a Mad Housewife by Sue Kaufman
  41. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  42. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  43. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  44. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  45. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  46. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  47. Fanny by Edmund White
  48. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  49. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  50. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  51. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  52. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  53. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  54. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  55. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  56. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  57. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  58. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  59. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  60. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  61. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  62. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  63. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  64. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  65. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  66. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  67. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  68. Her by Christa Parravani
  69. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  70. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  71. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  72. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  73. Iliad by Homer
  74. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  75. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  76. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark
  77. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  78. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  79. Keeping it Civil by Margaret Klaw (Early review book)
  80. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  81. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  82. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  83. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  84. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  85. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  86. Naked to the Waist by ALice Dark Elliott
  87. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  88. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  89. Now Read This I by Nancy Pearl
  90. Now Read This II by Nancy Pearl
  91. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  92. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  93. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  94. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  95. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  96. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  97. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  98. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  99. Pick-Up by Charles Willeford (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  100. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  101. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  102. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  103. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  104. Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  105. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  106. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  107. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  108. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  109. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  110. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  111. Star Trap by Simon Brett
  112. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  113. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  114. Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (Part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  115. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  116. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  117. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  118. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  119. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  120. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  121. Ticket for a Seamstitch by Mark Harris
  122. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  123. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  124. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  125. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  126. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  127. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  128. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  129. White Devil by John Webster
  130. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  131. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  132. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  133. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  134. Working Poor by David Shipler
  135. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

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

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

SHELVED UNTIL NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  3. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin

Thanks for November List

gr4c5Leave a comment

Here it is. The last six books to read for Year Seven! I have every confidence that I will be adding to this list just a little. As a matter of fact, at the time that I started this blog I only had four books on my November list. I don’t remember the last time I read only four books in a month. So, true to form I added two more.

  1. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  2. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  3. Now Read This by Nancy Pearl
  4. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  5. ADDED: Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris (to continue the Southpaw series)
  6. ADDED: Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis (Early Review book for LibraryThing)

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  8. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  9. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. Billy by Albert French
  17. Bit of Wit, A World of Wisdom by Yehoshua Kurland (Early Review book from LibraryThing)
  18. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  19. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  20. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  21. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  22. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  23. Burning the Days by James Salter
  24. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  25. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  26. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  27. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  28. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  29. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  30. City in the Sky by James Glanz
  31. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  32. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  33. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  34. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  35. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  36. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  37. Diary of a Mad Housewife by Sue Kaufman
  38. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  39. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  40. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  41. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  42. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  43. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  44. Fanny by Edmund White
  45. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  46. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  47. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  48. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  49. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  50. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  51. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  52. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  53. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  54. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  55. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  56. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  57. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  58. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  59. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  60. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  61. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  62. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  63. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  64. Her by Christa Parravani
  65. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  66. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  67. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  68. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  69. Iliad by Homer
  70. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  71. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  72. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  73. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  74. ADDED: Keeping it Civil by Margaret Klaw (Early review book)
  75. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  76. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  77. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  78. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  79. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  80. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  81. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  82. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  83. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  84. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  85. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  86. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  87. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  88. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  89. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  90. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  91. Pick-Up by Charles Willeford (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  92. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  93. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  94. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  95. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  96. Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  97. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  98. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  99. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  100. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  101. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  102. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  103. Star Trap by Simon Brett
  104. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  105. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  106. Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (Part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  107. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  108. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  109. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  110. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  111. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  112. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  113. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  114. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  115. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  116. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  117. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  118. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  119. White Devil by John Webster
  120. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  121. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  122. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  123. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  124. Working Poor by David Shipler
  125. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

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

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  3. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin (as previously mentioned)

Spooky October List

gr4c5Leave a comment

The list is now down to one month! The reading year is nearly over. Here are the remaining books for November, the last month:

  1. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  2. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  3. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner

ON DECK FOR OCTOBER:

  1. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  2. Deafening by Frances Itani
  3. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  4. One By One in the Darkness by Frances Itani
  5. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  6. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell (in audio)

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  8. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  9. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. Billy by Albert French
  17. ADDED: Bit of Wit, A World of Wisdom by Yehoshua Kurland (Early Review book from LibraryThing)
  18. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  19. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  20. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  21. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  22. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  23. Burning the Days by James Salter
  24. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  25. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  26. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  27. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  28. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  29. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  30. ADDED: City in the Sky by James Glanz
  31. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  32. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  33. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  34. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  35. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  36. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  37. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  38. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  39. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  40. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  41. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  42. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  43. Fanny by Edmund White
  44. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  45. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  46. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  47. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  48. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  49. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  50. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  51. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  52. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  53. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  54. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  55. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  56. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  57. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  58. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  59. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  60. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  61. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  62. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  63. Her by Christa Parravani
  64. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  65. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  66. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  67. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  68. Iliad by Homer
  69. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  70. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  71. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  72. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  73. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  74. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  75. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  76. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  77. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  78. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  79. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  80. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  81. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  82. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  83. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  84. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  85. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  86. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  87. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  88. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  89. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  90. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  91. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  92. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  93. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  94. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  95. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  96. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  97. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  98. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  99. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  100. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  101. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  102. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  103. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  104. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  105. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  106. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  107. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  108. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  109. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  110. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  111. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  112. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  113. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  114. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  115. Working Poor by David Shipler
  116. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

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

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell (as previously mentioned)
  3. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – I just realized this was supposed to be read way back in February in honor of Ha Jin’s birth month. How I missed it is beyond me. Ugh

September Back To School List

gr4c5Leave a comment

I’m a day late with this…

The list is now really getting shorter! Summer is over just like that. And so is Year Seven. Here are the remaining books for October and November. Just two short months to go.

  1. Deafening by Frances Itani – October
  2. Going Wild by Robert Winkler – October
  3. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice – November
  4. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – October
  5. Panther Soup by John Grimlette – November
  6. Southpaw by Mark Harris – October
  7. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner – November
  8. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell – November

ON DECK FOR SEPTEMBER:

  1. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  2. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  3. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  4. ADDED: City in the Sky by James Glanz
  5. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  6. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  7. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  8. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  9. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  10. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  11. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  12. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  13. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  14. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  15. Billy by Albert French
  16. ADDED: Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  21. Burning the Days by James Salter
  22. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  23. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  24. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  25. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  26. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  27. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  28. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  29. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  30. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  31. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  32. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  33. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  34. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  35. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  36. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  37. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  38. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  39. Fanny by Edmund White
  40. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  41. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  42. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  43. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  44. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  45. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  46. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  47. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  48. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  49. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  50. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  51. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  52. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  53. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  54. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  55. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  56. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  57. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  58. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  59. Her by Christa Parravani
  60. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  61. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  62. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  63. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  64. Iliad by Homer
  65. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  66. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  67. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  68. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  69. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  70. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  71. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  72. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  73. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  74. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  75. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  76. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  77. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  78. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  79. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  80. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  81. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  82. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  83. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  84. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  85. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  86. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  87. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  88. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  89. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  90. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  91. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  92. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  93. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  94. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  95. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  96. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  97. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  98. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  99. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  100. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  101. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  102. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  103. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  104. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  105. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  106. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  107. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  108. Working Poor by David Shipler
  109. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

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

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell

The August August List

gr4c5Leave a comment

The list is getting shorter and shorter. Hard to believe the year is almost over. Year seven is now three quarters over. Here are the remaining books for September, October and November. Just three short months. I’m sure I will add to this list because it seems entirely too short.

  1. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien – September
  2. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise – September
  3. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford – September
  4. Deafening by Frances Itani – October
  5. Going Wild by Robert Winkler – October
  6. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice – November
  7. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso – September
  8. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – October
  9. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder – September
  10. Panther Soup by John Grimlette – November
  11. Southpaw by Mark Harris – October
  12. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner – November
  13. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell – November
  14. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken – September

ON DECK FOR AUGUST:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  3. Burning the Days by James Salter
  4. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  5. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  6. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  3. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  4. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  5. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton
  6. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  7. Author, Author by David Lodge
  8. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  9. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  10. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  11. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  12. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  13. Billy by Albert French
  14. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  15. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  16. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  17. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  18. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  19. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  20. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  21. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  22. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  23. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  24. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  25. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  26. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  27. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  28. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  29. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  30. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  31. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  32. Fanny by Edmund White
  33. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  34. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  35. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  36. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  37. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  38. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  39. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  40. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  41. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  42. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  43. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  44. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  45. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  46. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  47. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  48. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  49. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  50. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  51. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  52. Her by Christa Parravani
  53. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  54. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  55. ADDED: Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  56. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  57. Iliad by Homer
  58. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  59. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  60. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  61. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  62. Liar’s Poker:  Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  63. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  64. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  65. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  66. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  67. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  68. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  69. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  70. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  71. ADDED: Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  72. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  73. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  74. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  75. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  76. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  77. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  78. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  79. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  80. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  81. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  82. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  83. ADDED: Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  84. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  85. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  86. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  87. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  88. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  89. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  90. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  91. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  92. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  93. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  94. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  95. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  96. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  97. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  98. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  99. Working Poor by David Shipler
  100. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

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

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell

April Foolish List

gr4c5Leave a comment

I kinda like the pulse check I took last month. I have decided I like watching one list shrink while another grows.
As a result I decided to keep the lists separated for this month as well. Starting with the books that haven’t been read.

STILL TO GO:

  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. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  5. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  6. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  7. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  8. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  9. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  10. Burning the Days by James Salter
  11. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  12. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  13. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  14. Deafening by Frances Itani
  15. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  16. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  17. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  18. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  19. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  20. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  21. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  22. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  23. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  24. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  25. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  26. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  27. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  28. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  29. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  30. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  31. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  32. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  33. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  34. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  35. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  36. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  37. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  38. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  39. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  40. Working Poor by David Shipler

ON DECK FOR APRIL:

  1. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  2. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  4. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  5. Added: Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  6. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  7. Added: Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  8. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  9. Lots of poetry

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. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  6. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  7. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  8. Billy by Albert French
  9. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  10. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  11. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  12. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  13. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  14. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  15. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  16. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  17. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  18. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  19. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  20. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  21. Fanny by Edmund White
  22. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  23. ADDED: Flamboya Tree  by Clara Olink Kelly
  24. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  25. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  26. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  27. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  28. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  29. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  30. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  31. Her by Christa Parravani
  32. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  33. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  34. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  35. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  36. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  37. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  38. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  39. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  40. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  41. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  42. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  43. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  44. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  45. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  46. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  47. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  48. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  49. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  50. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  51. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  52. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  53. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  54. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

Luck of the Irish List

gr4c5Leave a comment

A pulse check of a different kind. A first of the month kind of thing.

I decided to break up the list for this month, just for something different to look at. Starting with the books that haven’t been read:

STILL TO GO:

  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. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  5. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  6. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  7. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  8. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  9. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  10. Burning the Days by James Salter
  11. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  12. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  13. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  14. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  15. Deafening by Frances Itani
  16. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  17. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  18. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  19. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  20. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  21. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  22. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  23. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  24. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  25. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  26. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  27. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  28. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  29. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  30. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  31. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  32. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  33. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  34. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  35. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  36. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  37. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  38. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  39. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  40. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  41. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  42. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  43. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  44. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  45. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  46. Working Poor by David Shipler

THIS MONTH’S LIST (MARCH):

  1. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  2. Fanny by Edmund White
  3. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  4. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  5. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  6. Widow for One Year by John Irving

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. ADDED: After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  5. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. no, sorry – two years ago)
  6. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  7. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  8. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  9. Billy by Albert French
  10. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  11. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  12. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  13. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  14. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  15. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  16. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  17. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  18. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  19. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  20. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  21. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  22. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  23. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  24. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  25. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  26. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  27. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  28. Her by Christa Parravani
  29. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  30. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  31. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  32. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  33. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  34. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  35. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  36. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  37. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  38. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  39. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  40. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  41. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  42. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  43. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  44. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  45. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  46. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  47. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  48. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

Hearts and Pulse Checks

gr4c5Leave a comment

I titled this blog in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Here are the books read so far and still go to. With love.

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. ADDED: Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  3. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  4. ADDED: Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  5. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  6. ADDED: Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  7. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
  8. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  9. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. ADDED: Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. ADDED: Billy by Albert French
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. ADDED: Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  21. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  22. Burning the Days by James Salter
  23. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  24. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  25. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  26. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  27. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  28. ADDED: City of Thieves by David Benioff
  29. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  30. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  31. Deafening by Frances Itani
  32. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  33. ADDED: Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  34. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  35. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  36. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  37. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  38. ADDED: The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  39. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  40. Fanny by Edmund White
  41. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  42. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  43. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  44. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  45. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  46. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  47. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  48. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  49. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  50. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  51. ADDED via LibraryThing’s Early Review: Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  52. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  53. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  54. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  55. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  56. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  57. ADDED via LibraryThing Early Review: Her by Christa P
  58. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  59. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  60. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  61. ADDED: Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  62. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  63. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  64. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  65. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  66. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  67. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  68. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  69. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  70. ADDED: Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  71. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  72. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  73. ADDED: Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam (only because someone gave it to me as a gift and it’s on my list)
  74. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  75. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  76. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  77. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  78. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  79. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  80. ADDED: Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy ~ only because it was on my list last February and I didn’t get to it!
  81. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  82. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  83. ADDED: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  84. ADDED: Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  85. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  86. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  87. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  88. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  89. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  90. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  91. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  92. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  93. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  94. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  95. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  96. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  97. ADDED: Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  98. Working Poor by David Shipler

Every time I post one of these lists I seem to add more titles. The sad truth is some books seem to pop up easier than others. If I were to not add another book I think 98 would be a good number for an annual total. Don’t you think?

Resolutions and Pulse Checks

gr4c5Leave a comment

So. January is over. Another month gone by. Another dozen or so books read. I’m frustrating myself because I keep adding books to the list. Like I mentioned earlier these additions come from another list created before this one. *Sigh* I am up to 95 titles (from the 81 I originally started with) and “down” (meaning read) 35. Such an odd exchange, but there it is. Tomorrow I will post the month of January in detail.

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. ADDED: Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  3. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  4. ADDED: Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  5. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  6. ADDED: Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  7. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
  8. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  9. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. ADDED: Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. ADDED: Billy by Albert French
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  21. Burning the Days by James Salter
  22. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  23. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  24. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  25. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  26. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  27. ADDED: City of Thieves by David Benioff
  28. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  29. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  30. Deafening by Frances Itani
  31. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  32. ADDED: Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  33. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  34. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  35. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  36. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  37. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  38. Fanny by Edmund White
  39. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  40. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  41. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  42. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  43. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  44. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  45. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  46. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  47. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  48. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  49. ADDED via LibraryThing’s Early Review: Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  50. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  51. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  52. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  53. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  54. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  55. ADDED via LibraryThing Early Review: Her by Christa P
  56. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  57. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  58. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  59. ADDED: Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  60. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  61. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  62. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  63. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  64. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  65. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  66. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  67. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  68. ADDED: Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  69. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  70. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  71. ADDED: Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam (only because someone gave it to me as a gift and it’s on my list)
  72. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  73. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  74. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  75. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  76. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  77. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  78. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  79. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  80. ADDED: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  81. ADDED: Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  82. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  83. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  84. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  85. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  86. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  87. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  88. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  89. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  90. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  91. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  92. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  93. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  94. ADDED: Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  95. Working Poor by David Shipler

Anniversary of Crazy

gr4c52 Comments

November marks the seventh anniversary of the crazy idea I would read everything indexed in Book Lust by Nancy Pearl. Subsequently that idea mushroomed into reading everything indexed in More Book Lust and most recently, Book Lust To Go as well. Let’s do a little math, shall we? In six years I have read 583 books. That is approximately 97 books a year. If I continue at that rate I will finish the Lust Challenge when I am 93 years old, give or take a year or two…..

I had this conversation with someone a few days ago and without warning the thought that I might not finish this challenge depressed me. Not because of my own mortality but because of all the interesting books I will miss. I had a horrible thought – what if I spent a considerable time slogging through something I found only mildly interesting while I missed out on something completely riveting? What a not nice thought. I shared this ugly-ugly and my companion stridently changed the subject. What if you were to consider November a “new” year and you list out the books you are planning to read? This, of course, would not include LibraryThing and the Early Review program. It would not include the “strays” (as I’ve taken to calling them). Those are the books picked up for no other reason than a good suggestion or an intriguing cover. Accountability. I like it. It gives me structure. So, without further ado, here is the conservative list for Year Seven 11/2012 – 11/2013 in alphabetical order, of course:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  3. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
  6. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  7. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  8. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  9. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  10. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  11. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  12. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  13. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  14. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  15. Burning the Days by James Salter
  16. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  17. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  18. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  19. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  20. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  21. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  22. Deafening by Frances Itani
  23. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  24. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  25. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  26. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  27. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  28. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  29. Fanny by Edmund White
  30. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  31. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  32. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  33. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  34. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  35. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  36. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  37. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  38. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  39. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  40. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  41. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  42. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  43. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  44. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  45. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  46. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  47. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  48. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  49. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  50. Lives of the Painters (vol 2, 3 & 4) by Giorgio Vasari
  51. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  52. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  53. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  54. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  55. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  56. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  57. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  58. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  59. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  60. Rosalind Franklin by Brenda Maddox
  61. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  62. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  63. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  64. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  65. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  66. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  67. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  68. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  69. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  70. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  71. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  72. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  73. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  74. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  75. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  76. Working Poor by David Shipler

I’ll update this list May 1st, at the halfway mark. I haven’t spelled out which books I will listen to on CD. This also doesn’t reflect when I’ll read them either. All I know is that I will continue to read whenever and wherever I can. Standing in line at the grocery store, trapped in the backseat of a moving vehicle, before bed, in the bath, while my kisa watches hours of football, with a glass of wine, during storms, by candlelight and sunlight, on vacation, while I’m sick, or waiting for the pasta water to boil. I will skip the books that bore me to tears. I will start books early and finish them late. This is my new year’s resolution.