Your Reading Heart

Somewhat out of order, I think. I was bad at record keeping!

1. The Lost Book of Adana Moreau

By Micheal Zapata

2. Hard Choices

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

3. The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Chupacabras of the Rio Grande
By Adam Gidwitz

4. Postcards from the Edge

By Carrie Fisher

5. My Beloved World

By Sonia Sotomayor

6. The Joy of Movement

By Kelly McGonigal

7. Turn Coat

By Jim Butcher

8. Life After Suicide
By Jennifer Ashton, MD

9. Death by Dumpling

By Vivien Chien

10. The Data Detective

By Tim Harford

Twenty-two skidoo

Late in posting as usual. Book ten was finished in March! More to come this year... I hope!

1. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

by Michelle McNamara

2. Broken Horses

by Brandi Carlile

3. Becoming

By Michelle Obama 

4. White Magic

By Elissa Washuta

5. Thursday Night Murder Club

By Robert Osman

6. Giant

By Edna Ferber

7. Chasing Hillary

By Amy Chozick

8. What Happened

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

9. How Y’all Doing?

By Leslie Jordan

10. From Cradle to Stage

By Virginia Hanlon Grohl

Maybe Someday

Likely not a complete list but at least I posted something this year! 

1. Untamed

  Glennon Doyle

2. The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot

  Adam Gidwitz and Joseph Bruchac

3. The Power of Myth

  Joseph Campbell

4. On the Shoulders of Giants

  Kareen Abdul-Jabbar

5. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

  Suzanne Collins

6. Small Favor

  Jim Butcher

7. The Martian

  Andy Weir

8. Scarred

 Sarah Edmondson

9. Never Caught

  Erica Armstrong Dunbar

10. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

by Sarah Vowell

A Good Read

1: Call Me Anna
  Patty Duke

2: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  Betty Smith

3: A Brilliant Madness
  Patty Duke

4. My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish
  Mo O'Hara

5. The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Creature of the Pines
  Adam Gidwitz and Jesse Casey

6. The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Basque Dragon
  Adam Gidwitz and Jesse Casey

7. Swamplandia

  Karen Russell

8. Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

  Stella Gibbons

9. Mrs. Bridge

  Evan Connell

10. The Gift of Forgiveness

  Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt

Reading the Room

My last list of the year was a long time coming. Two(!) of these books I read on my Kindle as opposed to listening to the audiobook. I dropped my book club and listened to a lot more podcasts, which accounts for only reading 20 or so books this year. I'll try to do better in 2019.


1. Kiss Me Like a Stranger
  Gene Wilder

2. It's Always Something (abridged)
  Gilda Radner 

3. The Witch of Lime Street
  David Jaher

4.  Becoming Kareem
  Kareem Abdul-Jabar

5.  Leviathan Wakes
  James S. A. Corey

6: Salvage the Bones
  Jesmyn Ward

7: The Boy Kings of Texas
  Domingo Martinez

8: The Man in the High Castle
  Philip K. Dick

9.  We Fed an Island
  Jose Andres

10. The Black List (abridged)
  Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Throw the Book at 'em!

These might be slightly out of order since I used two different platforms to listen (Hoopla and Overdrive). 

1: Proven Guilty
  Jim Butcher

2: The Holy or the Broken
  Alan Light

3: White Night
  Jim Butcher

4: Pieces of My Heart (abridged)
  Robert Wagner 

5: The Righteous Mind
  Johnathan Haidt

6: Looking for Calvin and Hobbes
  Nevin Martell

7. Catching the Big Fish
  David Lynch


8. Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America
  Wil Haygood

9. Bored and Briliant
  Manoush Zomorodi

10. Wishful Drinking
  Carrie Fisher

To be continued

Have some more books!

1: My Own Words
  Ruth Bader Ginsburg


2: Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Hugette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
  Bill Dedman

3: Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life
  Deepak Chopra

4: Sons of Wichita
  Daniel Schulman

5: Unsinkable
  Debbie Reynolds

6: Make 'Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends
  Debbie Reynolds

7: Hillbilly Elegy
  J.D. Vance

8: The Audacity of Hope
  Barack Obama

9:  Three Cups of Tea
  Greg Mortenson

10: I Loved Her in the Movies
  Robert Wagner

Reading is Fundamental

This is a pretty varied list. I guess I don't have a strong preference of book genres? It looks like fiction loses this round though.

1: Sisters in Law
  Linda Hirshman

2: The Lost Hero 
  Rick Riordan

3: The Dinner
  Herman Koch

4: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
  Douglas Adams

5: Around the Way Girl
  Taraji P. Henson

6: Neuromancer
  William Gibson

7: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
  Ayana Mathis

8: 10% Happier
  Dan Harris

9: Lit
  Mary Karr

10: The Lion in the Living Room
  Abigail Tucker

Read, Rest and Recover

Being stuck at home is more conducive to watching TV shows and movies than listening to books. And taking a few months off of book club didn't help my pace. But there should be more frequent updates in the near future.

1: United 
  Cory Booker

2: Still Midnight 
  Denise Mina

3: Blood Rites
  Jim Butcher 

4: Save Room for Pie
  Roy Blout, Jr.

5: The Other Wes Moore
  Wes Moore

6: The Invention of Wings
  Sue Monk Kidd

7: Dead Beat
  Jim Butcher

8: Invisible Man
  Ralph Ellison

9: Bones of Paris 
  Laurie R. King

10: The Sleep Revolution
  Arianna Huffington

Starter Books

I'm off to a slow start this year. Maybe because I've been listening to more podcasts or trying to get through my backlog of magazines. Maybe I'm not baking enough.

1: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Story of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free 
  Tobar Hector

2: Fool Moon
  Jim Butcher

3: Grave Peril
  Jim Butcher

4:  Study in Scarlet
  Arthur Conan Doyle

5: Summer Knight
  Jim Butcher

6: A Wrinkle in Time
  Madeleine L'engle

7: The Big Short
  Michael Lewis

8: Emma
  Jane Austen 

9: All the Single Ladies 
  Rebecca Traister

10: The Omnivore's Dilemna (Young Reader's Edition)
  Michael Pollan

All Ears

Here's the last list of the year, which is why it goes to 11. I just finished that last one today! By my count (which may be off by one or two,) I listened to 42 never-read and never-heard audiobooks this year. I didn't have a goal set in mind, but I think that's a decent amount.

For 2016, I hope to listen to 52. One a week seems like a reasonable goal.

1: The Power of Habit
  Charles Duhigg

2: The Girl on the Train
  Paula Hawkins

3: Oliver Twist
  Charles Dickens

4:  The Sea of Monsters
  Rick Riordan

5: As You Wish
  Cary Elwes

6: The Titan's Curse
  Rick Riordan

7: Storm Front
  Jim Butcher

8: The Hundred Foot Journey
  Richard C. Morais

9: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
  Marie Kondo

10: The Battle of the Labyrinth
  Rick Riordan

11. Eating on the Wild Side
  Jo Robinson

Required Reading

Two of these were on my eldest nephew's summer reading list... two of these I really did not like.Three are from book clubs and the rest were just my picks. 

1: The Road
  Cormac McCarthy

2: The Sandcastle Girls
  Chris Bohjalian

3: Station Eleven
  Emily St. John Mandel

4:  Ready Player One
  Ernest Cline

5: Go Set a Watchman
  Harper Lee

6: To Have and Have Not
  Ernest Hemingway

7: The Bishop's Wife
  Mette Ivie Harrison

8: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
  Susanna Clarke

9: Neverwhere
  Neil Gaiman

10: The Lightning Thief
  Rick Riordan

Books and Books and Books...

More audiobooks! A few of these audiobooks are ones where I attempted to read the hard or softcover version but never got the whole way through. You guess which ones! I'm a much better listener than reader.

1: Good Omens
  Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

2: Ender's Game
  Orson Scott Card

3: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) (The Audiobook)
  Jon Stewart

4:  The Hobbit
  J.R.R. Tolkien

5: Rosewater
  Maziar Bahari

6: Little Princes
  Conor Grennan

7: Coraline
  Neil Gaiman

8: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
  Sherman Alexie

9: The Beekeeper's Apprentice
  Laurie R. King

10: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
  Jeff Hobbs

Maybe 11

Here is another batch of audiobooks! This is a very important post since it's being posted from my phone! Hello future! I'm here!

1: The Secret History of Wonder Woman
  Jill Lepore

2: I Must Say 
My Life as Humble Comedy Legend
  Martin Short

3: The Work
My Search for a Life That Matters
  Wes Moore

4: The Good Lord Bird: A Novel
  James McBride  

5: The Professor and the Madman
  Simon Winchester

6: Loving Someone...
  Julie Fast

7: Yes Please
  Amy Poehler

8: American Lion
  Jon Meacham

9: Shotgun Lovesongs
  Nicholas Butler

10: Everything I Never Told You
  Celeste Ng

Don't Let's Start

I thought I would have to hold off on posting the latest list of audiobooks, but I just finished book #10 earlier in the week for my book club. Even though it's been a while, only two of these books are from the monthly club - I skipped November (too depressing of a book) and December was a paper book with no audio counterpart. And of course, I listened to Serial (and other podcasts) which kept me away from my books.

1: How to Talk So Teens Will Listen & Listen So Teens Will Talk
  Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlich

2: The Circle
  David Eggers

3: Think Like a Freak
  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

4: God Save the Sweet Potato Queens
  Jill Conner Browne

5: Creativity, Inc.
  Ed Catmull

6: The Round House
  Louise Erdrich

7: Unwind
  Neal Shusterman

8: Oryx and Crake
  Margaret Atwood

9: The Magicians
  Lev Grossman

10: Cold Mountain
  Charles Frazier

Easy Reader (Listener)

I got through another 10 pretty quickly since the Narnia books are a quick listen. Doing a lot of baking and mindless work helped too. I promise to post the baking updates before I listen to another 10 audiobooks!

1: The Magician's Nephew
  C.S. Lewis

2: The Horse and His Boy
  C.S. Lewis

3: The Light Between Oceans
  M.L. Stedman

4: Mastering the Art of French Eating
  Ann Mah

5: The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love
  Jill Conner Browne

6: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
  Neil Gaiman

7: The Maze Runner
  James Dashner

8: Supreme Commander
  Seymour Morris

9: The Last Battle
  C.S. Lewis

10: The Master
  Colm Toibin

Bookies

I have lots of baking updates to make, but a new list of 10 audio-books is easier to post. Most of these are available on either Overdrive or Hoopla, the new free digital service from the library. 

1: The Tilted World
  Tom Franklin and Mary Ann Fennelly

2: Eleanor & Park
  Rainbow Rowell

3: Born on a Blue Day
  Daniel Tammet

4: The Yellow Birds
  Kevin Powers

5: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  Mary Ann Shaffer

6: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  C.S. Lewis

7: Prince Caspian
  C.S. Lewis

8: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  C.S. Lewis

9: The Silver Chair
  C.S. Lewis

10: The Red Badge of Courage
  Stephen Crane

... with Books!

Another list of 10. Three of these audio-books were for a book club. Shh... don't tell the other members I didn't READ the books.

1: The Wind in the Willows
  Kenneth Grahame

2: The Dead and the Gone
  Susan Beth Pfeffer

3: The Hound of the Baskervilles
  Arthur Conan Doyle

4: The Age of Miracles
  Karen Thompson Walker

5: How to Retire the Cheapskate Way.
  Jeff Yeager

6. How to Be a Pirate
  Cressida Cowell

7: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  Rebecca Skloot

8: Perfect Health Diet
  Paul Jaminet

9: The Book of Air and Shadows
  Michael Gruber

10: Princesses Behaving Badly
  Linda Rodriguez McRobbie