Milda-TX: Fresh off the shelf in 2012

Hi everybody. I've tried for 3 years in the 75-book challenge but I'm just not getting it done. An important thing that I do need to get done: get stacks of books out of my house. So, this looks like a good spot to list my accomplishments and get some encouragement, too.

2011 books read:
1. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
2. The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
3. Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esmé Raji Codell
4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
5. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
6. The Girls by Lori Lansens
7. The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
9. The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
10. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
11. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
12. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
13. Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich (audio)
14. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
15. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
16. Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin
17. Room by Emma Donoghue
18. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
19. From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden by Amy Stewart
20. My Ántonia by Willa Cather
21. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (SantaThing)
22. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
23. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
24. Acadia: The Complete Guide: Mt. Desert Island & Acadia National Park by James Kaiser
25. It's All About the Bike The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels (LTER)
26. She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy
27. Frommer's Day by Day: Maine Coast by Paul Karr
28. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
29. 26a: A Novel by Diana Evans
30. The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell (LTER)
31. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (re-read)
32. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
33. Hull Creek: A Novel of the Maine Coast by Jim Nichols
34. The Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout by Jill Abramson (LTER)
35. Bossypants by Tina Fey (audio)
36. Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School by Katherine Darling
37. Birding Babylon: A Soldier's Journal from Iraq by Jonathan Trouern-Trend
38. Doc by Mary Doria Russell (read 150+ pages but couldn’t finish)
39. The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton

2012 books read:
1. To Siberia by Per Petterson
2. The Hunger Games
3. Wonderstruck
4. The Bean Trees
5. The Secret Life of Compost
6. Super Sad True Love Story - tried, didn't finish.
7. The Student Athlete's Guide to Getting Recruited
8. Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
9. State of Wonder
10. The Tiger's Wife
11. Lost
12 The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections (LTER)
13. Wonder
14. The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.: The Tweets of Steve Martin
15. The Expats
16. Starter for Ten
17. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (partial only)
18. East of Denver (LTER)
19. The Wife's Tale
20. The Siege
21. Green Smoothie Miracle
22. City of Thieves
23. The Sandcastle Girls (LTER)
24. Incendiary
25. The Gap Year
26. Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008

Welcome Milda-TX, by the look of your reading list you should feel right at home here.

Thanks for the welcome! I'm so happy, had time to read a book today - yay 2012 so far! I enjoyed To Siberia.


Here is my review. (I try to keep them very short so they show up on Facebook.)

Looks like 2011 was a great year of reading for you.

I loved Checklist Manifesto, which I read early last year. As well as Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - big Tom Franklin fan. I also thought BOSSYPANTS was fun. Those are the books we shared reading last year. You agree with my assessment?

As you know, read The Girls years ago. The same with Nickel and Dimmed and Educating Esme.

Now going to check out your library to see what unread books we share, as you know I am not buying new books anytime soon...

Yes, I adored the Checklist Manifesto and Bossypants! Crooked Letter was not my favorite of the year, but it was good. I'm not sure, can you see all the books that I've marked as "to read"? That should be a list of all the books I already own and need to read this year before I'm allowed to buy more. Tired of dusting around them.

Yes - I can read see the 171 books you have in the To Read collection.

If you care for my opinion:

I highly recommend Latehomecomer - I would move that one up toward the top! And Mudbound.

I see you liked Kate Braestrup's first book, as did I. The second one wasn't as powerful for me, but still good.

Also loved Inheritance of Loss and Unaccustomed Earth (I saw you gave her previous collection 5 stars too.)

Finally, I read Stone Diaries when it first came out - I loved it, but I am a big Carol Shields reader. And Reading Lolita had a big effect on me when I read it.

So there you go...

I can also see the 138 books we share in our collections - is it fair to assume that if you haven't given something a rating, you haven't read it? (I don't rate - or review - most of the books I read...)

Happy reading in 2012.

Oooh, thanks for the recommendations! I actually received Latehomecomer via LTER. It's an audio book, and I just haven't gotten around to plugging it into the CD player yet. I need a road trip!

I wonder if "books we share" includes those I've got in my collections called "wish list" or "to read"?

Welcome Milda1 I see several books on you list that I've read. I'll look forward to following your reading year.

Re-read Hunger Games this week to get ready for the movie... can't wait!.... and finished Wonderstruck in one sitting today. Now I suppose I should get back to something suitable for a person of my advanced age. ;)

Love long weekends - had a chance to spend a few hours reading! Finished The Bean Trees. It's easy-to-read, PG-rated so I don't have to be embarrassed to pass it on to my high-school-aged daughter, and best of all, had me smiling and laughing. Charming. Loved the way the little girl speaks in vegetables.

I enjoy Malcolm Beck's stories in person - they're so funny and inspirational, and make me want to be a better steward of our planet. (I came home from hearing him speak once and warned my husband I was in love with Malcolm Beck. And earthworms too.) Unfortunately, his book called The Secret Life of Compost fell short for me. I was hoping for more how-to's on composting for someone like me, with just a small suburban plot to play in.

Read about 100 pages of Super Sad True Love Story, got bored, gave up.
My daughter is a high school sophomore volleyball player and has decided she'd like to play in college. Student Athlete's Guide to Getting Recruited makes me feel much more confident about helping her get there.

It took me a long time but I finally finished Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The medicine and history were fascinating and I wished for more; I was so excited when one chapter finally started touching on the "why" of these cells, but that chapter was much too short. On the other hand, there was a little too much of the family story in this book, and I find the question of ethics regarding their lack of health insurance (on the cover) a little absurd and disconnected.

Also yay for plane rides, finally got to read State of Wonder. Just suspend your disbelief and go with it, I say.

Interesting comment on The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. It struck me as a flawed novel as well. A very interesting subject but I think Skloot's journalist background was to the detriment of the novel, as she was too keen to look for the human angle.

Another book to get swept away in: The Tiger's Wife. Wasn't sure whether I would like it, from the description - but the "magic" and "fable" pieces were enjoyable. Loved the descriptions of the grandfather/granddaughter relationship.

Lost: Cop gets fished out of the Thames with a bullet hole in his leg, but can't remember how he got there. Tries to resume the case of the girl who was kidnapped 3 years earlier. Lots of twists, easy read, but a little slow in parts.

The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections - LTER book - it was okay but just not written as well as The Checklist Manifesto, which I really enjoyed. THis book is written for patients, to help us all understand how to stand up for ourselves. But it seems to me it could've been a lot shorter while accomplishing that same goal.

Wonder. Oh my gosh. Such a good book. So touching, so sweet, so heartwarming, so sad, so silly at times. Read it, and then buy a copy for all the kids you love.

I am reading Wonder now. It is really good.

I hope you enjoy it, Nancy!

Last night I read The Ten, Make That Nine, - silly book of tweets from Steve Martin. Includes even sillier responses from his followers. I was in a bad mood, then I read this book I had recently checked out from the library and I laughed out loud. Laughed until I had tears in my eyes. What more could I ask?

Yay for vaca, had time to read a couple of books: The Expats and Starter for Ten. Both were fun and recommended for airplane rides.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is beautifully written, but geez, I don't know what possessed me to pick it up. When I ran out of time on this library book, I was happy to return it.

East of Denver was a great LTER get! Liked it a lot - so sweet, so funny...

Wow, what a slump I've been in - can't believe it has taken me since July to finish a book. I've picked up a few of them, but just couldn't seem to push my way through any.

Finally did finish The Wife's Tale. I loved Lori Lansens' book "The Girls", and was looking forward to reading her other novels. It was so cute, my daughter noticed that I said so in my review of The Girls and bought me The Wife's Tale!

Unfortunately, this one didn't pull me in. I even felt badly as I read it, when I found myself rolling my eyes at a particular turn of phrase or choice of words. The story is about an obese, isolated woman whose husband leaves her on their 25th anniversary, and her journey to find him (and herself). She's a sweet character, but the book dragged on, and was just too unbelievable.

Shoot. I need to find me a good book!

Read The Siege in one sitting. So excellent.

>26 Milda-TX:

Apparently a very interesting author, hadn't heard of: Helen Dunmore.

>27 edwinbcn: - yes! one of those great LT recommendations!

Need to improve my eating habits, but green leafy vegetables aren't my favorite. Ordered myself a Vitamix blender so I can try to disguise greens inside fruit smoothies. The Vitamix lady recommended Green for Life as a reference, but the bookstore only had Green Smoothie Miracle, so I picked it up instead. It's a disaster. It's lovely to look at, but not very professionally written. Maybe there will be a recipe or two I can use, but I'll probably find just as many recipes online, for free.

City of Thieves - picked it up in an airport - perfectly took my mind off of being uncomfortable on the plane.

Oops, I forgot to list The Sandcastle Girls, which I received via LTER. It was good.

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008 - loved the piece on Bill Clinton, as I've always admired his seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm; enjoyed the story "Y" so much that the author's novel "Y" is now on my wishlist. Will be looking for more editions of BANR.