the ramble

This year I came in with a total of 71 books read and 33 books partially read. Respectable.

If you read all these books along with me, you might have learned that…

A) America is one of the least populated countries on earth. (I’m a Stranger Here Myself)

B) The Bible has a law in it prohibiting people from wearing mixed fibers. (Year of Living Biblically)

C) When someone is happy to see you, often their eyebrows will pop up when you first make eye contact. (What Every BODY is Saying)

D) You’re not supposed to have a latte after dinner. (Cooking for Mr. Latte)

E) Many countries offer retirement visas–visas that let you live abroad as a permanent resident as long as you can prove reliable income. Win. (Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America)

Okay, so without further ado…le list.

2011 books read (favorites in bold):

Fantasy & Science Fiction

1. The Hunger Games [01/14, 07/16, 12/15 (thrice!) - Riveting]
2. Catching Fire [01/16 - Still riveting]
3. Mockingjay [01/17 - What can I say except that I totally should be sleeping, but instead I just finished this book. Also, now I cannot sleep. Wow.]
4. Redwall [02/02 - Cute.]
5. The Stolen Child [05/01]
6. The Enclave [Jan 07 - Kept me on the edge of my seat, but had a strange ending]
7. City of Bones [01/29 - The heroine is kind of a whiner.]
8. City of Ashes [02/10 - Bad things happen. Lots of bad things.]
   
9. City of Glass [02/19]
10. Alanna: The First Adventure [06/20]
11. In the Hand of the Goddess [06/22]
12. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man [06/24]
13. Lioness Rampant [06/26]
14. Darkly Dreaming Dexter [07/02]
15. Dearly Devoted Dexter [07/07]
16. Dexter in the Dark [07/09]
17. Dexter by Design [07/10]

Geekery & Non-Fiction

1. The False Prophet [02/21 - Interesting. Presumptuous.]
2. Mere Christianity [02/26]
3. What Every BODY is Saying [03/26 - Very smart. Loved it.]
4. The Year of Magical Thinking [ 03/19 - beautiful and sad, well-written and fully-felt]
5. The Year of Living Biblically [ 01/12 - interesting]
6. I Know What You’re Thinking [03/13 - Meh]
7. Cooking for Mr. Latte [04/21 - brilliant!]
8. Vagabonding [06/09]
9. The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home [06/10]
10. The Cases that Haunt Us [06/12]
11. How to Retire Overseas [06/16]
12. Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America [06/17 - best book of its kind I've seen]
13. Inside the Mind of BTK [07/01 - Yikes]
14. The Great Divorce [07/04]
15. How Did You Get this Number? [07/13]
16. The Unlikely Disciple [07/20 - delightful]
17. Geography of Bliss [07/26]
18. French Women Don’t Get Fat [07/28]
19. The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World [08/04]
20. Obsession: The FBI’s Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back [08/?]
21. What I Wore [08/20]
22. The Little Black Book of Style [08/23]
23. The One Hundred [08/23]
24. Sex Lives of Cannibals [08/24]
25. The Dark Side of the Supernatural [09/10]
26. River Town: two years on the Yangtze [09/17]
27. Style Yourself [09/30]
28. Neither Here Nor There [10/02 - charming]
29. Notes from a Small Island [10/17]
30. I’m a Stranger Here Myself [10/21 - my favorite of his books so far]
31. French Women for All Seasons [11/02]
32. A Walk in the Woods (again) [11/04]
33. Bossypants [11/08]
34. A New Kind of Christian (again) [11/10]
35. A Stolen Life [11/11 - Yikes. Heartwrenching. Fascinating. Horrible...but not the book, the thing itself.]
36. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years [11/15 - charming]
37. Without Reservations [11/19]
38. Educating Alice [November]
39. Elements of Content Strategy [November]
40. The Story We Find Ourselves In (again) [12/10]
41. The Last Word And The Word After That (again) [12/14]
42. Blue Like Jazz (again) [12/19]
43. What the Dog Saw [05/30]

Other Novels

1. The Sherlockian [04/17]
2. Something Missing [03/09 - Totally charming]
3. Till We Have Faces [Jan 02: mediocre and unlike Lewis' other books]
4. The Divine Comedy [05/04]
5. Bridget Jones’s Diary (again) [10/31]
6. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society [12/23 - delightful]

Children’s Literature

1. The Mysterious Benedict Society [04/08]
2. The Book Thief [05/18 - Haunting, sad and wonderful. I cried. And I loved.]
3. Just So Stories [11/01]
4. The Neverending Story [12/27]

Also, books I couldn’t finish

1. Speak [01/12 - couldn't finish it. One-dimensional, unrealistic.]
2. A Long Way Gone [01/03 - I am incredibly sad to report that I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this book. I'm sure it's a worthwhile read and was looking forward to it, but as you know, I'm an enormous wuss and things like "brains coming out of their noses," I cannot handle... ]
3. Content Rules [ 01/20 - basic, but interesting case studies]
4. The Weight of Glory [02/21 - Quit 3/4 though. Boring.]
5. The Great Typo Hunt [03/11 - Great idea, not a great book]
6. Selling the Invisible [03/11 - Obvious]
7. Sabriel [ 01/24 - got halfway through and couldn't finish - too graphic for me + I wasn't captured enough by the plot to put up with "clotted blood sealed her mouth shut" - uh, gross]
8. Slaughterhouse 5 [03/27 - I just don't like war books. I've tried several of the greats now and I find them utterly boring.]
9. Emotions Revealed [04/17 - skimmed for relevant information, took the test at the end, but ignored things I felt I knew]
10. Telling Lies [04/03 - Laborious and mostly things I feel I already know.]
11. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk [04/05 - his fiction just doesn't entertain the way his truth does.]
12. Hindsights [05/07]
13. The Prodigal God [05/30 - basic.]
14. Slipping into Paradise [06/21 - boring]
15. Stephen Fry in America [06/27]
16. Invisible Man [07/03 - boring. I gave up on the real book and finished the SparkNotes.]
17. A Grief Observed [07/13 - his usual books are intellectually driven. This one is emotionally driven. Not that it's a bad thing, but not what I was looking for from Lewis.]
18. High School Confidential [07/15 - I didn't make it very far on this one...he's just so long-winded.]
19. Saved by Beauty [08/05 - lost me]
20. You Say More Than You Think [08/04 - basic]
21. The Body Language Handbook [08/04 - basic]
22. A Thousand Days in Venice [08/25 - too sexy, a bit slow-moving]
23. One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo [09/18 - disappointing]
24. Wanderlust [10/04 - unexpectedly perverse]
25. Julie & Julia [10/09 - disappointing, also unexpectedly perverse]
26. The Expert Expat [10/20 - disappointing. Do we really need a whole book to tell us duh information like "learn the language?"]
27. GenXpat [10/20 - also disappointing. I want real, helpful info...not "to have a long distance relationship, you'll need to communicate." No shit, Sherlock.]
28. Clockwork Orange [03/14- I was so unprepared for the vileness of this.]
29. Straying from the Flock: Travels in New Zealand [11/05 - who knew New Zealand could sound so boring]
30. I am the Messenger [11/26 - couldn't get into it]
31. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet [12/31 - couldn't get into it]
32. Schindler’s List [12/29 - the writing style was a bit strange for me...like journalism mixed with fiction]