ÀÏ»¢»úÎÈÓ®·½·¨

I haven't been able to settle on a goal this year so for now my plan is to read as many books as I already own.

January:
1/2 Mockingjay
1/3 So Wild A Heart
1/10 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
1/11 Blindness
1/12 The Comfort of Strangers
1/15 Exposed
1/19 Worth Dying For
1/23 The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities
1/29 Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

Total Books: 9

February:
2/4 Uglies
2/16 The Angel's Game
2/19 Blackout
2/19 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
2/21 One Day

Total February Books: 5
YTD Total: 14

What did you think of "One Day"?

I loved "One Day" but the end bothered me enough that I thought about it for days. Even had to pull my husband into a conversation about it (and he's never read the book!) Have you read it?

February was a little slow due to work and school commitments but I feel like I'm back on track for March. So far in the year I've only read two books that I didn't already own. Thank goodness I'm winnowing down the pile - I knew I needed to reduce it when I could no longer remember what I owned and brought home three different books that I already owned!

3/2 Breaking Night: A Memoir byLiz Murray
3/9 The Winner by David Baldacci
3/9 Eventide by Kent Haruf
3/13 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
3/18 Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh
3/20 Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
3/28 Fatal Error by J.A. Jance
3/28 The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
3/31 The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

March Total: 9
Year Total: 23

April:

4/3 Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg
4/10 Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
4/12 The Reversal by Michael Connelly
4/17 The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell
4/17 The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

April Continued:

4/24 Hellhound On His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
4/25 Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford
4/28 A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

I loved Hellhound on His Trail - excellent edge of your seat book even though you know the outcome.

April Total: 8
Year Total: 31

I'm almost finished with school and hopefully will be able to devote more time for reading. I may find myself in the unfortunate situation of having to take one last course over the summer. even though my degree requirements are completed, in order to comply with the University rules on graduation.

May

5/1 My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
5/5 Blind Your Ponies by Stanley G. West
5/7 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
5/13 Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
5/16 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
5/16 The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

More May

5/22 To Kill a Mockingbird - I read this 20+ years ago and it was still as good as I remembered.
5/29 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
5/30 The Sweet Life in Paris: A Recipe for Living in the World's Most Delicious City - Makes me want to drop everything, hop on a plane and go straight to Paris :)

May Total: 9
YTD Total: 40

June

6/9/11 The Invisible Bridge - I loved this book. It takes place leading up to and through WWII in Hungary and France and through fiction kind of explains how people living through the war just kep adjusting to the new, horrible, normal. It speaks a lot about the strength of human beings.

6/13/11 Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder - This book was the opposite of "The Invisible Bridge" and I'll leave it at that!

Slow month so far but I have a few books in progress.

6/17 Beauty Queens

June continues to be a slow month - lots going on at work and in school. Final post for the month:

6/23 The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
I'm really surprised at the press this book got - I didn't mind it was no where near as good as it was billed.

6/25 The Last Lie

6/26 All Clear - This book is a continuation of Blackout and really can't be read without reading the first. That being said, Connie Willis should have cut out about half of the fretting and searching that seems to have been added to actually make a full book and tie the rest into Blackout making one complete and good book rather than one and one-half good book and half filler.

June Total: 6
YTD Total: 46

July
7/3 Clara and Mr. Tiffany
This was a good historical fiction book. The pacing was a little slow but kind of went with the era. I learned quite a bit about the production of Tiffany lamps and working women in the era.

7/4 The Sentry
7/7 The Postmistress
Started slow but ended up being a very good book.
7/13 Consent To Kill
7/22 The Redbreast
Ready to dig right into the next book in this series but I know how my reading habits are and I'm sure ten other books will come up in the meantime!

July To Date: 5
YTD: 51

July Continued:

7/23 Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
7/24 Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut
7/29 Dry Heat: A David Mapstone Mystery
7/31 No Way Down: Life and Death on K2
7/31 Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography

Apparently this half of the month was a little about reminiscing for me - Talking to Girls About Duran Duran was all about the 80's and brought back a lot of memories. Stories I Only Tell my Friends made me feel like I was 14 again and crushing on Rob Lowe. Listening to him narrate his book really made me feel like my friend Rob was sharing stories with me and I'm sure he'd find me just as interesting (Ha Ha). If you like Rob Lowe, this books will only make you like him even more.

July Total: 10
YTD: 56

August

I'm done with school and hopefully will be able to read a little more!

8/4 Ice Cold
8/7 Live Wire
8/12 The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady
8/13 Burn
8/17 The Bells - I heard about this one on the Books on the Nightstand podcast. Great recommendation for fans of historical fiction.
Month to Date: 5
YTD: 61

August cont.

8/15 - Inherit the Wind
8/22 - Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
8/25 - Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
8/30 - This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

Total August: 9
YTD: 70

September:

9/2 The Curse of the Pharaohs
9/5 Birdman

September continued:

9/13 - The Dry Grass of August
9/14 - Winter's Bone
9/16 - Cutting for Stone
9/16 - Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
9/18 - Betrayal of Trust
9/23 - Act of Treason
9/26 - The Neon Rain

September again:

9/28 - Betrayal
9/30 - Jar City
9/30 - Tales of the City

I had to sneak in a couple of books that take place in San Francisco before I visited there for a few days!

Total September: 12
YTD: 82

October:

10/2 Smokin' Seventeen - This book was disappointing. It just seemed like filler in the middle of the series. I wonder if she was tying up the last book on her contract with her old publisher.

10/4 State Fair
10/15 Magic Time: A Novel I liked this book. I think he could have had a good literary career and it's sad it was cut short with a car accident.
10/18 Dreams of Joy - Started slow but in the end I was very happy with it.
10/20 The Bird Sisters
10/27 The Killer Is Dying: A Novel Didn't quite get this one.
10/28 Going Wrong This is my first Ruth Rendell. I know she is well thought of but I was not impressed - I will try another by her though, everyone can have a bad book.
10/29 Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
10/30 Before I Go to Sleep

October Total: 9
YTD: 91

November:

11/5 - Fool Moon
11/7 Ready Player One This book lived up to the hype. If you enjoy or lived through the 80s and enjoy dystopian fiction, this one is for you.
11/9 - Before I Fall
11/10 - This Is Where I Leave You
11/11 - Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance - I did not love this book. Rather than being about patients and medicine directly, it was about how to improve on the practice of medicine. If I was a doctor or nurse I probably would have liked it more but it read like a manual to me.
11/14 - Little Bee
11/20 - Mr. Peanut
11/22 - State of Wonder
11/22 - 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944
11/24 - Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home
11/26 - Explosive Eighteen
11/29 - I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother

November Total: 12
YTD: 103

Final Month of 2011:
12/5 - South of Broad by Pat Conroy
12/10 - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
12/12 - Pitch Dark by Steven SidorSteven Sidor
12/16 - Still Life by Louise Penny
12/18 - Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke
12/19 - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - I'm in the minority on this one but this was one of my least favorite books of the year. That was disappointing since I had high expectations.
12/24 - The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
12/26 - The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler
12/31 - The Affair by Lee Child - The only bad thing about finishing a Jack Reacher book is that there are no new ones to read!

December Total: 9
Final 2011 Total: 112

I'm with you Erin. I read might Circus and wondered what all the fuss was about. It just never went anywhere and I hated the ending, if that's what you call it.