What I've read and will be reading

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Here is a quick summary of what I've read so far in 2010. I keep updating my 2010 books post (see below), so this is really a bit of a repeat.

What I've read:
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Mark of the Lion series (3 books)
The Hidden Art of Homemaking (Jan. book club selection)
Her Fearful Symmetry
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
True Colors
The Baker Street Letters

What I'm reading (or about to):
365 Nights
The Painted Veil (Feb. book club selection)
A Perfect Mess (for Bible study)
La's Orchestra Saves the World

The rest of the pile:
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families
Sweethearts (YA)
Twenties Girl
The Cruelest Month
The Whole Life Adoption Book

Of my lists, I really enjoyed Francine River's "Mark of the Lion" series. Wow. It's very well done Christian fiction. The best part is that my church is currently offering a class on Sunday afternoons over Ancient Church History. It adds so much to my understanding of that time period.

"The Hidden Art of Homemaking" was not a hit with my book club, though the discussion was great, and I think we all left with some good ideas. The book itself is not particularly well written.
I had too high of expectations of "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". And I had no idea what to expect with "The Baker Street Letters", a mystery in the style of Sherlock Holmes (or so it says). "True Colors" by Kristin Hannah was okay, a love story requiring plenty of tissue.

And, in the interest of not making this post too terribly long, I'll stop there.

The minimum

I can't seem to walk out of the library with just the book I went in to pick up. Today, I stopped at the library to get two books I had on hold. (After my last trip, I'm sure you're wondering why I would have put more books on hold. Good question).

So, the two books I intended to leave the library with were:
1. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective FAMILIES
2. Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr (YA)

But, as soon as I walked in I felt the pull of the new release shelves and off I went. I did better than last time. Just two books in my pile are 14-day loans and one of those is a cookbook.

So, the extras that have been added to my rather large pile:

3. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
4. Martha Stewart Dinner at Home
5. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penney (the third in a series I've been enjoying)

The thing is, I also ordered two books from Amazon today. It's starting to sound like I have a problem. They're both non-fiction, though. And one is for my small group.

So, the other two books added to that crazy pile:

6. The Whole Life Adoption Book
7. A Perfect Mess by Lisa Harper

Whew.

One other note - I returned "How to Buy a Love of Reading" today without reading it. I read a few chapters this morning and decided I wasn't interested and didn't want to invest the time to become interested. So, I just have two more 14-day loans to finish before next Friday. (And 2 more for the following Friday.)

14-Day Loans Are A Problem

So, on our snow day, CJ and I made a trip to the library. We went often this past summer, but now that school has started, I usually just run in and pick up the books I have on hold. And, CJ gets his books at the school library.

So, after he found 10 books he wanted to bring home, I ventured over to the new arrivals shelf to see what was there. (I also needed to pick up my book club book for the month, "The Painted Veil").

I quickly amassed 5 books...unfortunately, they are all 14-day loans. How will I ever read them all in 14 days?!?! I brought them all home anyway.

Here's what I've got:
How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
La's Orchestra Saves teh World by Alexander McCall Smith
The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

And I still need to finish "As Sure as the Dawn" (Mark of the Lion #3).

There are not enough hours in the day for 14-day loans. :)

Falling Behind Fast

So, I must have composed a few posts in my head, because I sure thought I was more up to date than this.

I added "Her Fearful Symmetry" to my list when my mom showed up with a copy loaned to her from a friend. I read it quickly so that I could return it to her. A rather bizarre book, I must say, but so was "The Time Traveler's Wife" (same author). I definitely preferred "The Time Traveler's Wife".

I'm certain I've added another book or two in my head but am, of course, drawing a blank now.

Also finished "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (Jan. 8th?) and "The Hidden Art of Homemaking" (Jan. 18th). That book club was interesting...it didn't rate very well among anyone.

Next month's book club pick - "The Painted Veil".

I've also started the "Mark of the Lion" series by Francine Rivers. It took me a few chapters to get into the first book, but I'm loving it now. I finished "A Voice in the Wind" and am reading "An Echo in the Darkness". In the midst of reading this, I've also been reading a lot of the Old Testament. The series references many of the events I am reading about...the timing has been great.

Phil is finished "The Long Walk" as I type. I might need to add that to my pile.

And, last but not least, I need to decide on a non-fiction book for February. Any suggestions?

A list for 2010

Well, I've been working on a list for 2010. It's far from complete, but here's a few of the titles I'm considering.

The Girl who Played with Fire - finished 1/3/10
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - finished 1/8/10
The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers: Book #1 - finished 1/23/10 , Book #2 - finished 1/25/10, Book #3 - finished 1/30/10
The Hole in our Gospel
The Hidden Art of Homemaking (January book club pick) - finished 1/18/10
Boundaries
The Strong-Willed Wife
The Grapes of Wrath
The Catcher in the Rye
The Book Thief
The Pillars of the Earth - finished 5/16/10
The Art of Racing in the Rain
- Added to the original list -
Her Fearful Symmetry - finished 1/10/10
The Painted Veil (Feb. book club) - finished 2/19/10
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - finished 2/3/10
True Colors by Kristin Hannah - finished 2/4/10
The Baker Street Letters - finished 2/7/10
365 Nights - finished 2/2010
Sweethearts (YA) - finished 2/23/10
The Cruelest Month - finished 2/28/10
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families - finished 4/2010
Getting Things Done - finished finally 4/23/2010
Down to the Wire - finished 3/2010
Cloud Atlas (Apr. book club) - finished 4/15/2010
Breathing Lessons (May book club) - finished 4/24/2010
Take One by Karen Kingsbury (free on Kindle) - finished 4/19/2010
Take Two - finished 4/21/2010
Rainwater - finished 4/25/2010 (do not judge this book by its author...it's like nothing else that she has written)
Take Three - can't quite remember when I finished this one...4/2010 or 5/2010
All God's Creatures - 5/2010
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (June book club) - finished 6/13/10
The Girl who Played with Fire (re-read) - finished 6/27/10
The Girl who kicked the Hornet's nest - finished 7/1/10
The Housekeeper and the Professor - finished 5/31/10
The Yellow Lighted Bookshop
Mockingjay (on pre-order from Amazon)
The Whole Life Adoption Book
World without End
Unveiled by Francine Rivers - finished 6/4/10
U is for Undertow - finished 6/8/10
Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book #1 - finished 6/10/10
Beatrice & Virgil - finished 6/10/10
The Recipe Club - finished 6/11/10
The Other Wes Moore - finished 6/??/10
The Lost Art of Happiness - finished 6/??/10
The Postmistress - finished 7/2010
The Poisonwood Bible - finished 7/2010 - our July book club pick. Because of baseball I had to miss the discussion. So sad. To miss the discussion that is.
If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits? - finished 7/17/10


Plenty will be added, I'm sure. And probably a few will be taken away.










Visit Life as Mom for her Booking It challenge this year. It will be fun to follow along as others tackle their reading lists, whatever the size or challenge.

In My Book Box

This year's book box was a little lighter than usual. Its contents included: "Half-Broke Horses", "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", "Kneadlessly Simple" (a book on bread-baking), a local cookbook and a couple movies. But, and it's a big but, the next box held an Amazon Kindle. Now, I have most books at my fingertips for a mere $9.99.

So far, I've been exploring the free books available for the Kindle. I've added "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Mossy Tree", and "All God's Creatures". I also purchased (with a Christmas gift card) "The Host" and "The Girl Who Played with Fire". So, I have plenty of reading.

Still working on my 2010 list...

A Recap of Reading

Wow. Is fall really over? It just flew by.

I really enjoyed the "Fall into Reading" challenge and feel like I made good progress on my list. I finished 12 of 18, read a few other books in the meantime, and obviously neglected most of the non-fiction on my list. Next time, I think I need to read the non-fiction first. Or at least alternate. And, maybe, just maybe, 18 books is a few too many for two months.

I learned that just as I often want to be inspired to make a certain recipe, I feel the same about books. Certain ones on my list just didn't "sound good" when it was time to read them. I also will try to not save the most depressing books on the list for December next year. And I learned the reading others' Fall into Reading lists was a dangerous pasttime.

My favorites - "The Hunger Games" and "The Time Traveler's Wife" but I honestly enjoyed most all of them. (And "The Hunger Games" was one that I added to my list after seeing it on several others'. Thanks for the recommendation!)

Thanks to Callapidder Days for hosting the challenge. I can't wait to partipate again next time.

Last night after I finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (I spent most of the afternoon reading because it was due back at the library 3 days ago), my husband asked me what I'm going to read next. And, I just don't know. I feel like I need to work on another list.

Some possibilities...
January's book club pick, "The Hidden Art of Homemaking"
A few library books waiting to be read, "America, America" or "A Fatal Grace"
Any of the non-fiction books I didn't read or haven't finished, "The Strong-Willed Wife", "Boundaries", "The Emotionally Healthy Church"

Or...

Whatever is in my Christmas box of books...my all-time favorite gift to open. Stay tuned...