books
I’m one of those people who reads a lot. One of those people who gets far too excited when entering a bookstore. Who chooses to spend money on hardcovers rather than hard drugs- and probably gets the same high doing it. However, I have a horrible memory. I can never remember book titles or author names, so when I try to describe a book I love to a friend I always turn slack jawed like a 17 year old boy the first time he’s at the strippers and draw a blank. Which? Is incredibly annoying. So to stop the madness, I’m going to be listing the books I read each month.
Feel free to give suggestions or let me know of books you loved, I’m always looking for new reads. Books that have a link, will send you to Book Me In, a book review site I’m a member of.
Annnnnd then I forgot to update this for five months. Eep!
November 2008 – April 2009
Love the one you’re with – Emily Giffin
The End of Oil – Paul Roberts
Good To Great- Jim Collins
When You are engulfed in Flames- David Sedaris*
How Barack Obama Won- Chuck Todd & Sheldon Gawiser
The Ten Year Map – Meg Wolitzer
For My Daughters- Barbara Delinsky
Twilight- Stephenie Meyer
New Moon- Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse- Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn- Stephenie Meyer
Supercapitalism- Robert Reich
The Rules of Life- Richard Templar
The Inaugural Address- Barack Obama
It Sucked and then I cried- Heather Armstrong
#$@&ing Read Me!- Peter DeWolf*
January 2008
Anybody out there?- Marian Keyes
Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Know It All- A.J. Jacobs *
Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire- Rafe Esquith
A Great and Terrible Beauty- Libba Bray
Picture Perfect- Jodi Picoult
The Best American Non-Required Reading 2006- Edited by Dave Eggers
February
As You Like It- William Shakespeare
Digging To America- Anne Tyler
Flat Stanley- Jeff Brown
March
Mercy- Jodi Picoult
The Post- Birthday World- Lionel Shriver
Stephanie’s Ponytail- Robert Munsch
The Paper Bag Princess- Robert Munsch
The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing- Melissa Bank*
The Wonder Spot- Melissa Bank
April
Mortimer- Robert Munsch
May
Nineteen Minutes- Jodi Picoult*
Belong to Me- Marisa de los Santos
There are no shortcuts- Rafe Esquith
Further Under the Duvet- Marian Keyes
The Friday Night Knitting Club- Kate Jacobs*
June
What Happened- Scott McClellan
Moose- Stephanie Klein*
No one belongs here more than you- Miranda July
The Frog Prince- Jane Porter
Shoe Addicts Anonymous- Beth Harbison
July
Love Walked In- Marisa de Los Santos
Change of Heart- Jodi Picoult
Such a Pretty Fat- Jen Lancaster
The Year of Fog- Michelle Richmond*
Then We Came To The End- Joshua Ferris*
Barefoot- Elin Hilderbrand*
The She Found Me- Elinor Lipman
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything- Janelle Brown
The Alchemist- Paul Coelho
Hubris- Michael Isikoff and David Corn*
August
The Kissing Hand- Audrey Penn
The Daily Candy Lexicon
Things I want my daughter to know- Elizabeth Noble
The last lecture-Randy Pausch*
The Way of the World- Ron Suskind
September
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbra Kingsolver*
The Rest of Her Life- Laura Moriarty
The Orange Girl- Jostein Gaarrder
The Ringmasters Daughter-Jostein Gaarder
October
American Wife- Curtis Sittenfeld
Girls In Trucks- Katie Crouch
The Year of Living Biblically- A.J Jacobs
The Alexandria Link- Steve Barry
*= Favorites!
I *love* Jodi Picoult! Her books are amazingly written! I haven’t read them all yet. Picture Perfect is one of those books on my “to be read” shelf. Let me know how its!
I’ve been meaning to read the Best American Non-Required Reading. And A.J. Jacobs cracks me up. I love how I forget half the factoids in the book, and then come back and laugh as hard as I did the first time. Though one I won’t forget – we experience orgasms as infants? That kinda takes all the fun out of sex.
Paullina Simons. She has an epic love story crossing several decades. It’s 3 books. You could stop with the first one, but why would you want to?
The Bronze Horseman
The Bridge to Holy Cross
The Summer Garden
“White Oleander” and “Paint it Black” by Janet Fitch… specifically the latter, as it has not been made into a Michelle Pfeiffer movie. PIB was a burn-the-midnight-oil read for me the first time… and the second…
I just read Twilight and I absolutely loved it!! It is a series and the movie is coming out in December. You should try it!!
Have you read the Time Traveler’s Wife?
How about The Secret Life of Bees or the Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd?
All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland is also excellent.
Big Stone Gap
Any of the Idiot Girl’s books are piss your pants funny.
Water for Elephants was a really good book. You should try it. :]
Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. I haven’t read Picture Perfect, but I have read Mercy. If you liked Mercy, you should read The Pact – basically the same topic, I guess, but completely different.
Woo for Libba Bray :] you should read the rest of the trilogy. They are, honestly, much better than A Great And Terrible Beauty. Especially The Sweet Far Thing, the last book.
You should read Angels And Demons by Dan Brown, I think. The Da Vinci Code is way overrated, but this one isn’t. :]
check out melissa bank’s other, newer book — the wonder spot — also a very good read.
Amber- It was okay but not nearly as great as My Sister’s Keeper or 19 minutes- those are my two favorites I think.
distracted spunk- Ha! I remember that part too. I think he’s a genius… although I have a friend who read his ‘year of living biblically’ and didn’t love it as much.
zakstar- Definetly sounds interesting! I’m not really a huge love story reader, but I like the idea of a series of books that span generations..
Rebekah- Ohhh I love books that do that!
krambo- I’m scared to read it. I’m scared I will be addicted, because the people I know who read those books, LOVE THEM MORE THAN ANYTHING.
Jennifer- Yep, I’ve read those, except the Mermaid Chair. I will definitely be checking that out. I really liked the secret life of bees. Also, isn’t Coupland awesome?!
Michelle- I’ve read Big Stone Gap but will have to check out the other one. I love funny books!
swaziprincess- I read it and loved it!
Farah- I will check out The Pact! I’ve read Angels and Demons, I liked it but I liked the other one he wrote… the one that takes place in the artic (I forget the name!) even better.
the almost right word- I read it and didn’t really like it as much as the first one.
[...] Inspired by a post I just found over at It’s like I’m… mmmagic!, I have decided to start keeping track of the books I read as well, starting with July. I think [...]
I love Love in the Time of Cholera. But I have to say (shamefully) I haven’t read mostof the books in your list. I think that’s just because I like to dig up books from the far east as they always open my eyes to a different world. Last week I finished Little Hut of Leaping Fishes and found it really captivating. I still have the images vividly in my head!
I want to read Moose! What did you think of it?? Love your list
I think you might have seen mine…i’ve been keeping track on a page of my own since hte beginning of the year. i’m not so smart to do it by month though <3
I’m totally on a Chick Lit reading spree right now. . . although totally missing Harry Potter, I might have to re-read the series (already – HA!). I was literally sobbing at the end of the last book, half because I didn’t want it to be over (I so want more) and half because it ended just as it should have.
You’ve read a lot so far in July! Lucky you! I’m going to have check out your favs.
wow ~ you read a lot!
LOVE Marian Keyes… you’ve gotta check out Sophie Kinsella’s “Remember Me?” and Diana Kizis “Finishing Touches”
I’ve been on the chick-lit reading wagon for a while now… it’s become more intense this year over others though. Hooray!
another book lover- I may try the other book you mention, Love in the time… just didn’t do it for me!
Heidi- I loved Moose!
Amber- Harry Potter… oh how I miss him. And I was right there with you sobbing at then end of it all friend.
Jennifer- I do. This may explain why I don’t shower frequently.
chicksta- Ohhh thanks for the recommendations!!
I must say, it took me a while to pick up Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. But if you haven’t read her, and you enjoyed Harry Potter…. definitely check out the first book. I was hooked in 20 minutes!
oops.. didn’t see krambo’s post!
I also LOVED The Time Traveler’s Wife [bawled for the last 1/4 of it], and the movie is coming out in December. I’ve really gotten into chick-lit lately, and I really liked Marian Keyes’ Watermelon, and Emily Giffin’s novels – Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, and her latest – Love The One You’re With.
And last – I read Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth. It took awhile to get into, and it’s rather thick, but it was definitely worth it. More of a historical fiction novel, but definitely a great read.
If you love Jodi Picoult, I recommend My Sister’s Keeper. It’s one of my favorites.
Hey! I’m reading American Wife this month, too!
Others…
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life by Kerry Reichs
Hey, Brandy. You should try a trilogy by Philip Pullman, called His Dark Materials. It’s written for kids, and it’s brilliant, especially the first two volumes.
Loved A J Jacobs. I must recommend one of my favourite books – The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Milan Kundera. Another good one of his is The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. Excellent head trip.
I loved the Friday Night Knitting Club. So good!
I absolutely love reading as well and if I had more time I would read a lot more. I love the Peter Pan books by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson…they’re really quite good. I actually read the second one first – Peter and the Shadow Thieves – but all three that are out right now are really good. And, although several people have mentioned it, the Twilight series is actually better than you’d expect it to be. I refused to read them until about 4 months ago and got hooked. Plus they are a super quick read. I read all 4 books in under a week. Also, I would recommend Twelfth Night by Shakespeare…such a funny comedy, and my personal favorite!
I loved Love Walked In. I’ll defff have to use this list to find some other books to read.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Poisonwood Bible!!! Have you read any of her other books??? Prodigal Summer is AWESOME.
oh my goodness, we have very similar book tastes! I’ll have to steal your book list and read them!! thanks!
I’m literally printing out your book list …since I’ve read a bunch of them, I’m guessing I might like more of the others! And I know what you mean about getting excited walking into the bookstore! I can get lost in there!
Brandy
Saw your comment on another site which mentioned holly’s inbox.
Wondered if you’d had a chance/time to read it yet?
Holly/Bill
Ps let me know if you have any questions about it – love to give you gossip!