Bonniebook's Best of Your Best 2010 Challenge, Chapter 5

Thanks for waiting for me to set up my new thread. If we haven't talked before, here are the links to Bonniebook's Best of Your Best 2010 Challenges: chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4

This is not as fun without all of you, so I hope you'll keep visiting and commenting.

...in 2010:

December:
103. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (12/19/10)
102. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (12/11/10)
101. Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson (12/05/10)

November:
100. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese (11/27/10)
99-c Persuasion - Jane Austen (reread, 11/21/10)
99-b The Moonflower Vine - Jetta Carleton (11/19/10
**. A Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill (unfinished, 11/05/10)
**. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson (a book group reread, 11/05/10)
99. Reading in the Brain - Stanislas Dehaene (11/03/10)

October:
98. She Got Up Off the Couch - Haven Kimmel (10/31/10)
97. The Blue Notebook - James Levine, M.D. (10/30/10)
96: Graceland - Chris Abani (10/27/10)
95. The Lexicographer's Dilemma - Jack Lynch (10/25/10)
94. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas (10/23/10)
93. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson (10/18/10)
92. Eliot Allagash Simon Rich (10/17/10)
**. Lost in a Book - Jasper Fforde (audiobook, unfinished)
**. Hardball - Sara Paretsky (audiobook, unfinished)
91. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver (10/5/10)
90. Look at Me - Jennifer Eagan (10/2/10)

September:
89. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (9/29/10)
88. Goat, A Memoir - Brad Land (9/27/10)
87. Labor Day - Joyce Maynard (9/26/10)
86. The Post-Office Girl - Stephen Zweig (9/--/10)
**. Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design - Faith Levine
85. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson (9/11/10)
**. Shanghai Girls - Lisa See (book group, audiobook, 9/10/10)
**. Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright (audiobook, unfinished)
84. A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny (9/04/10)
83. Still Life - Louise Penny (9/02/10)
82. Montana 1948 - Larry Watson (9/01/10)

August:
81. The Way Men Act - Elinor Lipman (8/28/10)
80. Notes From the Underwire - Quinn Cummings (8/27/10)
79. Flood - Andrew Vachs (8/26/10)
78. Emigrants - Vilhelm Moberg (8/23/10)
77. Free For All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library - Don Borchert (8/21/10)
76. The Help - Kathryn Stockett (bookgroup re-read, 8/21/10)
75. Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. - Jeremy Mercer (8/20/10)
74. Hidden Brain - Shankar Vedantam (8/19/10)
73. Mrs. Bridge - Evan S. Connell (8/18/10)
72. Math Doesn't Suck - Danica McKellar (8/17/10)
71. Open House - Elizabeth Berg (8/16/10)
70. Molly Fox's Birthday - Deirdre Madden (8/15/10)
**. Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson (Unfinished, due back at the library)
**. The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein (audiobook, 8/15/10)
69. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life - Amy Krouse Rosenthal (8/14/10)
68. Await Your Reply - Dan Chaon (8/13/10)
67. Letters to a Young Teacher - Jonathan Kozol (8/11/10)
66. Old Filth - Jane Gardam (8/10/10)
65. Blackwater Rising - Anne B. Jones (8/09/20)
64. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan (8/08/08)
**. The Invention of Everything Else - Samantha Hunt (Unfinished/due back at library)
63. Admission - Jean Hanff Orelitz (8/06/10)
62. Columbine - Dave Cullen (8/05/10)
61. The Wilderness - Samantha Harvey (8/04/10)
**. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien (audiobook, 8/01/10)

July:
60. Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons (a re-read, 7/30/10)
59. Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie (7/26/10)
**. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination - Elizabeth McCracken (audiobook, 7/24/10))
58. At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays - Anne Fadiman (7/23/10)
57. Home - Marilyn Robinson (7/17/10)
56. The Air We Breath - Andrea Barrett (7/--/10)
**. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt (Stopped reading)
55. The Three-Day Road - Joseph Boyden (7/10/10
54. The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa (7/--/10)

June:
53. Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte (6/--/10)
52. Dead Aid - Dambisa Moyo (6/28/10)
51. Family Album - Penelope Lively (6/19/10)
50. The Bird Artist - Howard Norman (6/17/10) for book group
**. School of Essential Ingredients - Erica Bauermeister (audiobook, 6/14/10))
49. Girl in Translation - Jean Kwok (6/13/10)
48. My Detachment - Tracy Kidder (6/11/10)
47. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin (6/09/10)
46. Brookland - Emily Barton (6/7/10)
45. Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry (6/05/10)
44. The Wild Things - David Eggers (6/04/10)

May:
43. Sweet Dates in Basra - Jessica Jiji (5/30/10)
42. Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos (5/22/10)
41. Half the Sky - Nicolas Kristof (5/16/10)
40. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (5/16/10) A reread
39. Wild Swans - Jung Chang (5/14/10)
38. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (5/12/10) Mark's May Group Read
37. In the Woods - Tana French (5/09/10)
36. Cost of Living - Mavis Gallant (5/07/10)

April:
35. Little Rock: Crisis at Central High - Karen Anderson (4/25/10)
34. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England - Brock Clarke (4/--/10)
33. House at Sugar Beach - Helene Cooper (4/20/10)
32. Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer (4/16/10)
31. Blankets - Craig Thompson (4/08/10)
30. Blindness - Jose Saramago (4/03/10)
29. Strength in What Remains - Tracy Kidder (4/01/10)

March:
28. Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay (3/30/10)
27. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (3/29/10 & reread on 4/26/10)
26. Scottsboro - Ellen Feldman (3/26/10)
25. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows (reread, 3/22/10)
24. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel (3/16/10)
23. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English - John McWhorter (3/15/10)
22. Netherland - Joseph O'Neill (3/14/10)
**. Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner (audiobook)
21. A Room for Learning - Tal Birdsey (3/11/10)
20. Crazy Like a Fox - Ben Chavez (3/06/10)

February:
19. Gifted - Nikita Lalwani (2/28/10)
18. Thirteen Moons - Charles Frasier (2/26/10)
17. The Devil's Highway - Louis Alberto Urrea (2/22/10)
16. The Ministry of Special Cases - Nathan Englander (2/20/10)
15. Game Change - John Heilemann & Mark Halperin (2/19/10)
14. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann (2/18/10)
13. Little Bee - Chris Cleave (2/16/10)
12. Zeitoun - David Eggers (2/15/10)
**. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe (audiobook)
11. The Good Mayor - Andrew Nicoll (2/05/10)

January:
10. The Twin - Gerbrand Bakker (1/25/10)
09. The Hunger Games - Susan Collins (1/23/10)
08. A Homemade Life - Molly Wizenberg (1/17/10)
07. The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville (1/15/10)
06. You Remind Me of Me - Dan Chaon (1/10/10)
05. Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story - Jerry Newport (1/09/10)
04. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - Atul Gawande (1/08/10)
03. Cancer Made me a Shallower Person by Miriam Engelberg (1/04/2010)
02. Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (started in 2009, finished 1/04/2010)
01. Michelle, a biography by Liza Mundy (started in 2009, 1/02/2010)

...Seattle Public Library books checked out this week:

(No books from the library this week)


Currently reading:

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver for my RL book group
The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by Andre Comte-Sponville
War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

For new and old friends I come bearing gifts: My alphabetized list of books created from the "Ten Favorites of 2009" lists proffered by many of your LT friends on my bonniebook's Best of Your Best, 2009 challenge. I plan on choosing most of my books for 2010 from this list, but will also pick from my ever growing wish list--and, of course, I'll continue to make "bonnieruns" to my favorite independent bookstores. Note: I'm going to strike through the books I've already read, so if you want the "clean" version, go to message #177 in my bonniebook's 2009 challenge here. It's also fun to look at the individual lists to see who recommended what.

An Alphabetized List of Your Top Tens for 2009

Abani, Chris: GraceLand
Ackerley, J. R.: Hindoo Holiday
Adamson, Gil: The Outlander
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Purple Hibiscus; The Thing Around Your Neck
Adiga, Aravind: The White Tiger
Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart
Alexie, Sherman: Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian
Ali, Ayaan Hirsi: Infidel
Allen, Sarah Addison: Garden Spells
Anderson, Laurie Halse: Wintergirls
Anderson, M.T.: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1
Antunes, Antonio Lobo: The Fat Man and Infinity
Armstrong, Kelley: The Summoning
Atwood, Margaret: Alias Grace; The Handmaid's Tale; The Penelopiad; The Robber Bride
Auster, Paul: The New York Trilogy*
Azzopardi, Trezza: The Hiding Place
Bahr, Howard: The Black Flower
Baker, Russ: Family of Secrets
Bakker, Gerbrand: The Twin
Balzac, Honore: Old Goriot
Banks, Ian: The Player of Games
Barbery, Muriel: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Barlow, Tony: Sharp Teeth
Barry, Brunonia: The Lace Reader
Batataille, Marion: ABC3D
Bauermeister, Erica: The School of Essential Ingredients
Bazell, Josh: Beat the Reaper
Beals, Melba Pattillo: Warriors Don't Cry
Bemrose, John: The Island Walkers
Benson, E.F.: Mrs. Ames
Benson, Mary: At the Still Point
Bhutto, Benazir: Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West
Bishop, Holley: Robbing the Bees
Bolano, Roberto: 2666
Boyle, Kay: Thirty Stories
Boyne, John: Mutiny on the Bounty
Bourdain, Anthony: Kitchen Confidential
Bradbury, Ray: Dandelion Wine
Bruen, Ken: The Guards
Bryson, Bill: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid; Notes From a Big Country
Bulgakov, Mikhail: The Master and Margarita
Butcher, Jim: Princeps' Fury; Turn Coat
Canfield, Dorothy: The Deepening Stream
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Cather, Willa: My Antonia; The Song of the Lark
Chabon, Michael: Yiddish Policeman's Union
Chace, James: Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World
Chang, Jung: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Chaon, Dan: Await Your Reply
Chaplin, Charlie: My Autobiography
Childe, Julia: My Life in France
Clarke, Gerald: Capote: A Biography
Coelho, Paulo: The Alchemist
Collins, Susan: The Hunger Games
Collins, Wilkie: The Woman in White*
Conroy, Pat: The Water is Wide
Cooper, Gwen: Homer's Odyssey
Cooper, Helene: The House at Sugar Beach
Courtenay, Bryce: The Power of One
Cullen, David: Columbine
Cummings, Quinn: Notes From the Underwire
de la Parra, Teresa: Iphigenia
Dallas, S.: Tall Grass
Diamond, Jared: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution of the Human Animal; Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Dickens, Charles: Hard Times; Little Dorrit
di Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi: The Leopard
Dinesen, Isak: Out of Africa
Dittmer, John: The Good Doctors
Djebar, Assia: So Vast the Prison
Doctorow, Cory: Little Brother
Donoso, Jose: The Obscene Bird of Night
Dunn, Mark: Ella Minnow Pea
Du Marier, Daphne: Rebecca
DuPrau, Jeanne: The City of Ember, The People of the Sparks
Earley, Tony: Jim the Boy
Easterly, William: The White Man's Burden
Elliot, George: Silas Marner
Emecheta, Buchi: The Joys of Motherhood*
Enger, Leif: Peace Like a River
Erdrich, Louise: The Plague of Doves; The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Eugenides, Jeffrey: The Virgin Suicides
Evans, Pollly: On a Hoof and a Prayer: Exploring Argentina at a Gallop
Fallada, Hans: Every Man Dies Alone*
Farmer, Paul: Pathologies of Power
Ferris, Joshua: Then We came to the End
Fforde, Jasper: The Big Over Easy; The Fourh Bear
Figes, Orlando: The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia
Follett, Ken: Pillars of the Earth
Ford, Jamie: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Francis, Brian: Fruit
Frank, Anne: Diary of a Young Girl
Frank, Thomas: What's the Matter With Kansas?
Fraser, Antonia: The Pleasure of Reading
Frazier, Charles: Thirteen Moons
Frost, Jeaniene: Halfway to the Grave
Fuller, Alexandra: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight:
Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart
Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book
Galloway, Janice: Clara
Galloway, Stephen: The Cellist of Sarajevo
Garton-Ash, Timothy: The File
Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South; Wives and Daughters
Genova, Lisa: Still Alice
Goldsworthy, Peter: Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam
Goodwin, Doris Kearns: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Grace, Patricia: At the Still Point; Waiariki
Grandin, Temple: Animals Make Us Human
Grann, David: The Lost City of Z (unfinished)
Graves, Robert: I, Claudius
Greene, Graham: The Ministry of Fear
Grenville, Kate: Secret River; The Idea of Perfection
Groff, Lauren: The Monsters of Templeton
Grossman, Vasili: Life and Fate
Gruen, Sara: Water for Elephants
Gurnah, Abdulrazak: Desertion
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hage, Rawi: De Niro's Game
Hakamura, Ishio: The Remains of the Day
Hajdu, David: The Ten-Cent Plague
Hale, Shannon: Rapunzel's Revenge
Hammett, Dashiell: Red Harvest
Hanff, Helene: 84 Charing Cross Road
Harding, Paul: Tinkers*
Harvey, Samantha: The Wilderness
Helm, Sarah: A Life in secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII
Hollinghurst, Alan: The Line of Beauty
Hoesseini, Khaled: A Thousand Splendid Suns*
Hoffman, Alice: Blackbird House; The Ice Queen
Hornby, Nick: The Complete Polysyllabic Spree; Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
Houellebecq, Michel: Atomized/The Elementary Particles
Hustvedt, Siri: What I Loved
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
Jamison, Kay Redfield: Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illnes and the Artistic Temperament
Jansson, Tove: The True Deceiver
Jelloun, Tahar: This Blinding Absence of Light
Jones, Gail: Sorry
Jones, Lloyd: Mister Pip
Johnston, Wayne: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams*
Jordan, Hillary: Mudbound
Kamkwamba, William: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Kapuscinski, Ryszard: The Shadow of the Sun
Kawabata, Yasunari: The Master of Go
Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana
Kent, Kathleen: The Heretic's Daughter
Kirn, Walter: Up in the Air? (unfinished)
Kluger, Steve: Last Days of Summer
Knisley, Lucy: French Milk
Koestler, Arthur: Darkness at Noon
Kopelman, Jay: From Baghdad, with Love: A Marine, A War and a Dog
Krakauer, Jon: Into the Wild
Kramer, Clara: Clara's War, One Girl's Story of Survival
Krasikov, Sana: One More Year
Kristof, Nikolas: Half the Sky
Lahari, Jumpha: Interpreter of Maladies
Lamb, Wally: The Hour I First Believed
Land, Brad: Goat: A Memoir
Lansens, Lori: The Girls
Larson, Kate Clifford: Bound for the Promised Land
Larson, Stieg: The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire
Lawson, Mary: Crow Lake
Le Carre, John: Smiley's People; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Lehane, Dennis: The Given Day*
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Levy, Ariel: Female Chauvinist Pigs
Lewis, C.S.: Till We have Faces
Lipman, Elinor: Inn at Lake Devine
Lively, Penelope: Family Album
Llosa, Mario Vargas: Conversation in the Cathedral
London, Joan: Gilgamesh
Longfellow, Ki: The Secret Magdalene
Lovell, Mary: The Biography of Jane Digby, A Scandalous Life
Ludum, Robert: The Bourne Trilogy
Lychack, William: The Wasp Eater
Lynch, Jim: Border Songs
MacDonald, George: The Highlander's Last Song
MacMillan, Margaret: Paris 1919
McCann, Colum: Let the Great World Spin
McCarthy, Cormac: All the Pretty Horses; Blood Meridian; The Road
Macintyre, Ben: Agent Zigzag
Mackinnon, Amy: Tethered
Maguire, Gregory: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Mandel, Emily St. John: Last Night in Montreal
Mann, Charles: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall
Maraini, Dacia: The Silent Duchess
Marchetta, Melina: Jellioe Road
Mahjoub, Jamal: Traveling with Djinns
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Matin, P.D.: Body Count
Matthieseen, Peter: Shadow Country
Maugham, Somerset: Of Human Bondage
Mawer, Simon: The Glass Room
Maynard, Joyce: Labor Day
Mee, Benjamin: We Bought a Zoo
Melling, O.R.: The Hunter's Moon
Mercer, Jeremy: Time Was Soft Here; Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs
Mistry, Rohinton: A Fine Balance
Mitchell, David: Cloud Atlas; Black Swan Green
Montgomery, Lucy Maud: Anne of Green Gables
Monroe, Alice: The View From Castle Rock
Moore, Christopher: Lamb
Morrison, Toni: Beloved; A Mercy
Mortensen, Greg: Three Cups of Tea
Morton, Kate: The Forgotten Garden, The House at Riverton
Murakami, Haruki: Norwegian Wood; The Wild Sheep Chase
Murphy, Lynda and Julie Rugg: A Book Addict's Treasury
Myron, Vicki: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat
Nemirovsky, Irene: Suite Francaise
Newport, Jerry and Mary: Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story
Niffenegger, Audrey: The Time Traveler's Wife
Nicoll, Andrew: The Good Mayor
Nolen, Stephanie: 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
Novogratz, Jacqueline: The Blue Sweater
Obmascik, Mark: The Big Year
O'Brien, Tim: The Things They Carried
O'Connor, Flannery: Wise Blood
Ogawa, Yoko: The Housekeeper and the Professor
Olmstead, Robert: Far Bright Star
O'Reilly, Tim: The Twitter book
Otsuka, Julie: When The Emperor Was Divine
Palahniuk, Chuck: Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
Parker, Dorothy: Complete Stories
Patchett, Ann: Bel Canto
Pausch, Randy: The Last Lecture
Pears, Iain: An Instance of the Fingerpost
Peck, M. Scott: In Search of Stones
Pennell, Joseph Stanley: The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters
Petterson, Per: Out Stealing Horses
Phillips, Jayne Anne: Lark & Termite
Plotz, David: The Genius Factory
Pollan, Michael: The Omnivore's Dilemma
Proulx, E. Annie: The Shipping News
Raabe, Tom: Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction
Remarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet of the Western Front
Reynolds, Sheri: The Rapture of Canaan
Rhodes, Dan: Gold
Rhodes, Jewel Parker: Douglas's Women
Roberts, Richard Samuel: A True Likeness
Robertson, Don: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Robinson, Marilynne: Gilead; Housekeeping
Rosenthal, Amy Krouse: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
Roth, Joseph: The Radetzky March
Ruesch, Hans: Top of the World
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children (unfinished)
Russell, Mary Doria: A Thread of Grace
Sabato, Haim: The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale
Sandoz, Mari: Crazy Horse
Safran Foer, Jonathan: Everything is Illuminated
Saramago, Jose: Death with Interruptions
Satrapi, Marjane: Persepolis
Savage, Sam: Firmin
Scheeres, Julia: Jesus Land
See, Lisa: Shanghai Girls
Setterfield, Diane: Thirteenth Tale
Shaara, Michael: The Killer Angel
Shaffer, Mary Ann & Ann Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shamsie, Kamila: Burnt Shadows
Sheff, David: Beautiful Boy
Shields, Carol: The Stone Diaries
Shlink, Bernhard: Flights of Love
Sigman, Dr. Aric: Remotely Controlled: How Televison is Damaging...
Silvey, Craig: Jasper Jones
Singh, Khushwant: Train to Pakistan
Small, David: Stitches
Smith, Helen: Not So Quiet
Smith, Tom Rob: Child 44
Spiegelman, Art: Maus I; Maus II
Stanisic, Sasa: How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone*
Stein, Garth: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Steinbeck, John: East of Eden; The Moon is Down; Of Mice and Men
Stewart, Amy: Flower Confidential
Stockett, Kathryn: The Help
Strout, Elizabeth: Amy and Isabelle; Olive Kitteridge
Suskind, Patrick: Perfume: Story of a Murderer
Tartt, Donna: The Secret History
Thackery, William Makepeace: Vanity Fair
Thiong'o, Ngugi wa: Wizard of the Crow
Tinti, Hannah: The Good Thief
Toews, Miriam: The Flying Troutmans
Tobin, Betsy: Ice Land
Toibin, Colm: Brooklyn
Tremain, Rose: The Road Home
Triolet, Elsa: A Fine of Two Hundred Francs
Tsiolkas, Christos: The Slap
Tye, Larry: Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend
Unsworth, Barry: Land of Marvels
Urgresic, Dubravka: Thank You for Not Reading
Urrea, Luis Alberta: The Hummingbird's Daughter
Valenti, Jessica: The Purity Myth
Verghese, Abraham: Cutting For Stone; The Tennis Partner
Vincent, Norah: Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Looney Bin
Waugh, Evelyn: Vile Bodies
Waters, Sarah: Affinity; Nightwatch
West, Rebecca: Return of the Soldier
White, Antonia: The Lost Traveller
Wiesel, Elie: A Mad Desire to Dance; Night
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Winterson, Jeanette: Oranges are not the Only Fruit
Wood, Charlotte: The Submerged Cathedral
Woolf, Virginia: Jacob's Room; A Room of One's Own
Wouk, Herman: The Glory; The Hope
Wroblewski, David: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle*
Wyndham, John: The Day of the Triffids
Yglesias, Rafael: Happy Marriage
Young, Emily Hilda: Miss Mole
Young, Fellicity: Harum Scarum
Young, William: The Shack
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind
Zakaria, Fareed: The Post-American World
Zaniewski, Andrzej: Rat
Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

*Books I own but haven't read yet

It's October November, so I've got to get serious about my New Year's Resolution: By the end of the year 2010, there will be no more than 10 50+ books in this list. Oops! Lol! I've succumbed to the "LT Fever addiction." (It's now December, and I keep adding books, so this list will serve as my base for next year. There are some great books on here that I'm really looking forward to reading.)

Found this in A Book Addict's Treasury:

It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the acquisition of their contents. Arthur Schopenhauer, 'On Books and Writing' (1851).


List of Books To Be Read in 2010 sometime soon in 2011:

Angier, Natalie: The Best American Science Writing, 2009
Auster, Paul: The New York Trilogy, Tinkers (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Baker, Nicholson: The Anthologist (LT wish list, Third Place Books)
Bennett, Alan: The Uncommon Reader (bonnierun, Thingaversary)
Blackmon, Douglas: Slavery by Another Name (LT wishlist, Third Place Books, 12/22/09)
Carleton, Jetta: The Moon Flower Vine (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Chaon, Dan: You Remind Me of Me (bonnierun, Third Place Books, 12/22/09)
Chalmers, Robert: Fortune's Bastard * (Ryan's book)
Chang, Jung: Wild Swans (rec by arubabookwoman)
Clark, Brock: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (bonnierun, Powell's Books, 12/31/09)
Coelho, Paula: The Alchemist
Comte-Sponville, Andre: The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality (bargain book, Ravenna TPB, Dec. 2010)
Dangor, Achmat: Bitter Fruit (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Dehaene, Stanislas: Reading in the Brain (bonnierun, Third Place Books)
Dietsch, Deborah: Live/Work: Working at Home, Living at Work (bonnierun, Thingaversary)
Dunmore, Helen: The Siege (LT wishlist, Powell's, December 2010)
Egan, Jennifer: Look at Me (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Eggers, David (edit.): The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2010 (Christmas gift from Ryan)
Ehrenreich, Barbara: Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream *
Emecheta, Buchi: The Joys of Motherhood (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Enright, Anne: The Gathering
Erdrich, Louise: The Bingo Palace
Ferber, Edna: So Big (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Frazier, Charles: Thirteen Moons
French, Tana: In the Woods (bonnierun/discounted, Third Place Books, 4/10)
Gallant, Mavis: The Cost of Living (Christmas gift/Ryan, 2009)
Galvin, James: The Meadow (LT wishlist, Thingaversary)
Ghosh, Amitav: Sea of Poppies (Tad?) (bonnierun/discounted, Third Place Books, 11/09)
Hamid, Mohsin: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Harding, Paul: Tinkers (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Hedges, Chris: War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (bonnierun, Ravenna Third Place Books, December 2010)
Hodgson, Barbara: Hippolyte's Island (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Hosseini, Khaled: A Thousand Splendid Suns (bonnierun, Ravenna Third Place Books, January 2010?)
Jacobson, Howard: The Howard Finkler Question (LT wishlist, Powell's, 11/30/10)
Johnson, Sue: Hold Me Tight (bonnierun, Powell's, 11/30/10)
Johnston, Wayne: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (LT wishlist, Powell's 10/17/10)
Kimmel, Haven: She Got Up Off the Couch (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Kingsolver, Barbara: The Lacuna (Ravenna TPB for RL bookgroup, Jan. 2011)
Kinzer, Stephen: Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq *
Kramnick, Isaac: The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of a Secular State *
Kristof, Nicholas & Sheryl WuDunn: Half the Sky (Christmas gift/Ryan, 2009)
Land, Brad: Goat, A Memoir (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Levine, James: The Blue Notebook (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Mahfouz, Naguib: Palace of Desire (Third Place Books, a TBR w/ arubabookwoman)
Maynard, Joyce: Labor Day (bonnierun, Thingaversary)
Milne, A. A.: Pu der Baer (Powell's, 11/30/10)
Mistry, Rohinton: Family Matters
Mitchell, David: Cloud Atlas (bonnierun/best of your best 2009, Powell's Books, 12/31/09)
Morrison, Toni: A Mercy
Mueenuddin, Daniyal: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Murakami, Haruki: Norwegian Wood (bonnierun/best of your best 2009, Third Place Books, 12/22/09)
Murakami, Haruki: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle * (Porua?)
Naipaul, V.S.: A House for Mr. Biswas (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
O'Brien, Tim: In the Lake of the Woods (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Pears, Tim: In the Place of Fallen Leaves (gift from Bonnie/brenzi)
Perstein, Rick: Nixonland *
Ramsland, Morten: Doghead (bonnierun to Powell's, December 2010)
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children (LT group read-unfinished)
Rich, Simon: Elliot Allagash (Guardian/Ant Farm, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Russo, Richard (guest edit.): The Best American Short Stories, 2010 (Christmas gift from Erik)
Safire: Push (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Saramego, Jose: Blindness (LT wishlist, Powell's Books, 12/31/09)
Seth, Vickram: Suitable Boy (LT wishlist, Powell's, December 2010)
Shriver, Lionel: We Need to Talk About Kevin (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Sittenfield, Curtis: American Wife (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Smith, Zadie: White Teeth *
Straight, Susan: I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked out all the Pots (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Thaler, Richard: Nudge *
Thiong'o, Ngugi Wa: Wizard of the Crow (best of your best 2009/Alcottacre, Third Place Books, 12/22/09)
Toibin, Colm: Mothers and Sons (LT wishlist, Powell's, 11/30/10)
Toltz, Steve: A Fraction of the Whole * (rec by Ryan)
Tyler, Anne: If the Morning Ever Comes (Friends of SPLibrary, Fall sale)
Undset, Sigrid: Kristin Lavransdatter * (gift from LT/Maggie?)
Vowell, Sarah: The Wordy Shipmates * (bonnierun, Third Place Books, 1/09)
Walt, Kate: A Short History of Women (LT wishlist, Powell's, 11/30/10)
Warren, Robert Penn: All the King's Men (LT wishlist, Powell's, 10/17/10)
Weiland, Matt (edit.): State by State * (Christmas gift/Ryan, 2009)
Wroblewski, David: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle * (Costco/discounted, 1/09)

*Books started and unfinished, or parts skimmed over and want to reread

I'm going to keep posting my "Top Ten Favorites of 2009" for those of you who want to know whether we might have similar reading interests. I was surprised that 2 mysteries/crime detective novels made it onto my list along with Lush Life--not my normal genres at all, but some of you LT-ers *coughMarkcough* convinced me that they were great stories and you were right! I read a total of 140 books last year, not including a few re-reads or the dozens of children's books I read as part of my work. Don't know if I'll read as many books this year, given my new resolution to get out more, but if I give up even half of my TV time, I might read even more. Either way, I know that your recommendations will greatly add to my reading enjoyment.

I'm know I'm cheating a bit by recommending two books-about-books here: Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman and Housekeeping vs. Dirt by Nick Hornby. But I loved them both and I wouldn't have gone looking for A Complicated Kindness if not for Hornby's quote about Toews which I think could be used to describe all of my favorites:

"You may think you don't want to read about the problems of growing up Mennonite, but the great thing about books is that you'll read anything a good writer wants you to read."


My Top Ten favorite books in 2009:
1. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
2. The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
3. Mudbound - Hillary Jordan
4. A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
5. The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill
6. The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
7. The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
8. What is the What - David Eggers
9. Still Alice - Lisa Genova
10. Lush Life - Richard Price

Other books in contention for the #10 spot:
A Case of Exploding Mangoes - Mohammed Hanif
Gardens of Water - Alan Drew
Property - Valerie Martin
Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow - because it surprised me how much I enjoyed a book about werewolves--and I just loved that cover!
Gold - Dan Rhodes
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

My favorite re-reads in 2009:
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Special Topics in Calamity Physics- Marisha Pessl
During the Reign of the Queen of Persia - Joan Chase
Isabel's Bed and Inn at Lake Devine - Elinor Lipman
Water for Elephants - Sarah Gruen

A list of some of my favorites of 2010 coming soon:

I still want to use book covers to more easily find my comments about books I've read, so I'm going to ask all you graphic-loving LT-ers to please not post any graphics on my thread--just because I kept messing up my lists last year, either skipping over books, misnumbering a book, or posting a book twice. I'm thinking the covers will stand out a lot better if they're the only graphics, though I'll probably still mess up, knowing me. Hope you all will still join me in talking about books and our lives--I love all your comments! :-)

95. The Blue Notebook by James Levine, M.D.

My name is Batuk. I am a fifteen-year-old girl nested in the Common Street in Mumbai. I have been here six years and I have been blessed with beauty and a pencil. My beauty comes from within. The pencil came from the ear of Mamaki Briila, who is my boss...
Puneet's scream killed the night silence of the street and the smile dropped from Mamaki's face like a coin falling to the ground She turned her street-wide rear in my face and fled from my nest. I was impressed that an object set on earth as she is can move with such speed, when it has to. As she flew from my nest, the tails of her sari caught the breeze and reminded me of the sheets used to protect the crops from the summer sun. That is when the pencil slipped from behind Mamaki's ear, lubricated by her unique brand of body oil.
In Mamaki's wake, the pencil dropped to the floor of my nest, bounced a couple of times, and then stopped moving. I sprang from my bed and threw myself upon it. The pencil was mine by divine decree.

And with that first pencil, Batuk begins to write in a little blue notebook about her life as a sexual slave. A beautiful little book that represents a terrible and huge problem all over the world, including here in the U.S.

97. She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel

This makes me want to go back to read A Girl Named Zippy, because Kimmel's stories are both funny and feel real, but there are significant gaps, and I don't quite understand what was happening between her mom and her dad, or her brother and her dad. She's definitely protecting both her mom and her dad, but I still loved the stories she was willing to share about her town, her friends, and her family.

I was reading parts of the New Yorker Magazine online and saw this great group of portraits of 20 authors under 40. You can click on their pics and read a short interview with each.

There were some familiar names, including authors whose books I've read:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Joshua Ferris
Jonathan Safran Foer
Yinyu Li
Philipp Meyer
Nicole Krauss
Dinaw Mengestu

But many names I've never heard before:
Daniel Alarcon
Nell Freudenberger
Rivka Galchen
C.E. Morgan
Tea Ohbret
ZZ Packer
Karen Russell
Salvatore Scibona
Gary Shteyngart
Wells Tower

I want to check out these names. I can't believe I've heard of so few of them, but maybe they're short story writers--or write genres I don't normally read? Anybody have books by any of the authors in the second group?

Stopping by to say hi!! Just got home form work so I don't have anything intelligent to say.

Hi, Bonnie!

I've read The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger which started off great but I lost interest towards the end so I wouldn't strongly recommend it. I liked her writing.

I also read Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart which was one of the NYT best books of 2006 (I think) which is the only reason I finished it. I definitely would NOT recommend it.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive.

I did notice that you took The Tennis Partner out of the library. That book was a little slow in the beginning but so worth it to stick with. It packs a powerful punch. Hope you enjoy it.

>13 bonniebooks:: No, Pat, that's just the kind of information I want. I'm finding that my LT friends are much more reliable than professional reviews or the blurbs on the backs of books.

I'm feeling wishy-washy about Tennis Partner simply because it's got to go back to the library and I want my 100th book to be a great one. Is it too much about one man struggling with drug or alcohol abuse, because I am not the best audience for those kinds of stories. Right now, I'm trying to decide between Cutting For Stone or Every Man Dies Alone, both on my tbr pile.

Got you starred Sis. I have a book by Salvatore Scibone that I haven't gotten to yet called The End.

Hi Bonnie, I would love to hear more about your impressions of The Blue Notebook. I found it disturbing, poetic, gut-wrenching, and infuriating (in the sense of wanting to seriously hurt those who perpetuate these crimes).

>10 bonniebooks: bonnie
ZZ Packer writes short stories about African Americans. I've only read "Brownies" (as in Scouts), but it's kept her name and her collection (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere) in my mind since.

Bonnie, The Tennis Partner in some ways is mostly about Verghese. When it starts, his first marriage is falling apart and he's starting a new job in El Paso, TX and feeling at loose ends. He befriends another doctor, David Smith, who shares his passion for tennis. It takes awhile before he realizes that Smith had (and, in fact, still has) a problem with drugs.

So the first half of the book doesn't really have much to do with drugs at all--it's more about the importance of male friendships. He also talks alot about El Paso which I found interesting and about tennis which sometimes went over my head.

The second half is mostly about his feelings about Smith's addiction, which are often quite harsh, and his frustration at not knowing what to do to help him. You know ahead of time that Smith dies so that is the big climax of the book towards the end. It's probably 60% Verghese's memoir and 40% about drug addiction's impact on the family and friends of the addict.

I've never read Cutting for Stone but have only heard great things about it. I took Every Man Dies Alone out the library recently and couldn't get into it and had to take it back before I had a chance to give it another go.

Looking forward to what you decide to read for your 100th (!!!) book.

Lisa, that's a great description of how I felt about the book as well. Here's something else I was thinking: For those people who would never read books like Half the Sky or other non-fictional accounts about all the girls who are sold into sexual slavery every year, this book is a much more palatable way to get people caring about the subject, because the writing is so good and the focus is just on one human being.

>10 bonniebooks:: I read a short story by Rivka Galchen earlier this year ("Wild Berry Blue" from Best American Non-Required Reading 2009), and I quite liked her writing. I hadn't heard of any of the others on the 2nd list either!

Glad to have The Blue Notebook brought to my attention. Will be looking for that.

I read Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen just recently. Strange little book. I liked and disliked it at the same time. I think it would be a great discussion book.

Stopping in to say 'Hi, Bonnie!'

Hi, Bonnie! Nice new thread!

Hi, Tammy, Lisa, Pat, Bonnie, MJ, Shauna, Kim, Stasia, and Porua. Did I miss anybody? So glad to see old friends on my new thread.

Well, I zapped my wish list that I had lovingly created over the whole year. I love the wish list feature, because it keeps me from having to go rush out and buy a book that sounds interesting to me, but I decided that I was going to start fresh every new year. Yeah, I know it's only November, but I decided I wanted to do everything I could to stay focused on my tbr pile which has been growing instead of diminishing. My list of books to choose from is in message #5 above. Anybody reading one of these books sometime soon?

Wow! Zapping your wish list! That's brave. Do you do that every year? There are several books on your TBR list that I want to read, but I don't have copies yet, and, although not as drastic as Darryl, I am trying not to beg, borrow, buy any more for a while. (Not counting the TPB book sale of course :-) Have fun crossing titles off your list!

>23 bonniebooks:: I agree, that's brave. I prune my Wish List heavily in February (after Christmas and birthday) but to delete it all? Yikes!

I have both Sea of Poppies and Cloud Atlas on the stack for after Christmas (too many other committed things in the next month) if you wanted to read either at the same time, Bonnie.

L & T, it's probably not as brave as it sounds since remember how that nice Powell's employee copied off my whole wish list for me? (Not sure he knew it was going to be 30 pages long! Tee he!) What will be difficult is not creating a newwish list before the New Year. My clicking finger keeps twitching. ;-)

Tad, both those books will probably still be there, come the New Year--for sure Cloud Atlas. I just can't make myself start that one in spite of the good reviews.

I have scrapped my wish list. I'm furiously working towards diminishing my TBR list. Let's see how long this lasts.

Our reading tastes are not very similar but from message #5 I'm interested in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Ok, I'm going to start putting your names next to each book because I'm going to need a support group for both those books.

I'm so impressed by your lists!!! Four of your top 10 of 2009 are also books I loved, so I should simply use your soon-to-be posted Top 10 of 2010 as my TBR guide!

>29 L-Anne:: Or vice versa! :-) Want to help me get some of my tbr's read? Just sign up to be part of my support group, please. ;-)

Bonnie, you can add my name to your support group next to Cloud Atlas. January or February would work out well for me.

I don't keep my wish list on LT -- or even my TBR list anymore. All the books in my online library are books that I've read. It was just too confusing having books that I own but haven't read yet listed there. My wish list is in a small spiral notebook, but I need to upgrade to a bigger one! I like being able to slip it in my purse when I'm heading to a used book store.

You have a lot of great possibilities in your TBR sometime soon list. Question: what is the Bonnierun? Is that when the Bonnie sandwich (Bonnie-Deborah-BonnieR.) went on a bookstore tour of Seattle? If so, you certainly made good use of your tour!

Donna, I'm glad you asked that, because the term "bonnierun" was coined by MJ (detailmuse) last year to describe my visit to a favorite bookstore during which I found some books to buy without any wish list in hand. Technically speaking, my last visits to the bookstore haven't been "bonnieruns" at all, because most of the time, I was closely following my wish list. Hmmm... Maybe I need to go back and relabel. And, thinking about this, that's one of the reasons I dumped my wish list--as good as all those recommendations were from all of you. I wanted get back to that feeling of going into the bookstore and just wandering around, picking up the books that had interesting titles and/or covers to see what's inside.

Found you again! I'm also impressed that you had the courage to delete your Wish List...although I did "prune" mine as well recently...

# 32 Just like my reading, my book buying is also pretty random. I almost always go to the bookstores and wander around. I do have some vague ideas about what genres I prefer and look for familiar names but that’s about it most of the time. A wish list doesn’t work for me half of the time. That is one of the reasons why I scrapped it.

Hi, Bonnie. Please add my name to the Cloud Atlas support group. It's just a little too long and, as a result, I've been scared off starting it. But so many people on LT have loved it that I want to read it sooner rather than later. Early next year sounds good.

Bonnie- How about a Group Read of Cloud Atlas? I have a spanking new (unread) copy of it too! Maybe mid-January?

List, lists, I used to write lists on scrap paper and had them stashed all over the house. I would even save the book rec pamphlets from the book stores and libraries and I would even write on those. Just before joining LT I consolidated all the scraps of paper into a notebook that fit into my purse. I think I have a list of about 300 books and 20 authors. After joining LT I have my wish list here, still have the notebook, which I haven't looked at in months,and now I have also started a list in my library account of all the new arrivals I see on the bulletin board at the library and I still have impulse picks. At least they're not impulse buys. :->

Bonnie I have The Meadow and All The King's Men on my wish list and I'm open to reading them with you, whenever you get to them.

I have read Cloud Atlas already, but would certainly not mind a re-read!

Our book club was talking tonite about finding a Sci=Fi to read. Most of us are not very positive about the genre, but feel we should expand a little. Do you think Cloud Atlas would be a good start? How long is it?

Donna, Porua, and Tammy, I loved being able to easily add books to a wish list here on TV, and like you, Tammy, I prided myself on listing rather than impulse buying, but it still got out of control.

35, 36, & 38: Looks like we've got a group read, folks! I'll add you to the list.

37: I'm actually thinking about reading All the Kings Men fairly soon, Tammy.

39: Tina, your group should read To Say Nothing of The Dog. I bet a Sci-Fi fanatic that he couldn't find a book in that genre that I would like and that's what he picked out.

Bonnie....your suggestion looks terrific. even if the book club doesn't choose it, I think I may take the plunge. Stay tuned.

>41 tututhefirst:: You'll love it, Tina--Guaranteed!

I've read Atmospheric Disturbances and agree with Berly's evaluation of it. I also thought it fell apart a little at the end.

tutu--a science fiction book I recommended to my non-scifi book club that they all loved is Replay by Ken Grimwood.

Bonnie--I'm back next Tuesday. I miss home so much. Maybe a trip to TPB next week or the following week?? I'll show you a picture of Boden.

Hi Bonnie- So does that mean we are going to do a G.R. of Cloud Atlas? Who's going to lead the show, you or me?

#39/43 Tina, I would also highly recommend Replay as a science fiction book to people who don't usually read the genre. I read it earlier this year for a book club and loved it. It lends itself to lots of conversation topics.

43: I can hardly wait for you to get back, Deborah. it's been way too long! Can't wait to see the pics of your baby! :-). How's the quilt show--jealous about that as well. Lots of pictures please!

44: Yes, and I vote you! Everybody, raise your hand if you're in favor of Mark leading a group-read of Cloud Atlas. The "ayes" have it! Done deal, no "take-backs.". ;-)

So when are we starting Cloud Atlas? I will have to get a copy.

I was just posting to your thread, Stasia. Next year!

edited to fix a spelling

Good. I am on Darryl's book buying ban right now :)

Wait,wait..this sounds like a rigged deal here! Where's the voting ticker? The balloons, the talking heads? Okay, I'll do it...shuffles away.

>23 bonniebooks: bonnie
I'd like to read Tinkers soon ... it's a book you'll read in a few hours but give me a few days notice!

**The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Not included in my book count because it was an audiobook and I didn't listen to the middle of the book.)

Well, some people might call this a non-stop thriller. I was screaming alright--screaming in frustration and BOREDOM. I don't believe in demons, ghosts, or any kind of supernatural creatures, so I was just bored, bored, bored listening to the main characters dealing with one supposedly terrifying/horrifying/gruesome event after another. Maybe if the main character didn't start out as so disgusting, I might have cared. This was a guy who treated women abominably and kept a snuff film as part of his occult/death-related memorabilia without a care. I could care less that he had a pissed off ghost out to get him or why. Yes, there are some more serious underlying issues addressed in this story (physical abuse, molestation), but they were handled in such a melodramatic way that I just felt turned off.

Keep in mind that I'm not fond of this genre. Descriptions of "action-packed" thrillers usually just send me packing! So, I can believe that most people will like this book better than I did.

eta: a disclaimer

#52: That one did not do much for me either when I read it a couple of years ago.

I hope you enjoy your next read more, Bonnie!

Sounds icky, Bonnie. Better luck next time!

52: Yeah, it's my 100th book, so I want to pick a good one, Stasia. I've been holding onto Cutting for Stone for just this moment, but I'm going to check out a few more tbrs before I decide.

#55: I am reading Cutting for Stone right now. It is very good thus far (180+ pages in).

Bonnie- I have The Heart-Shaped Box waiting on the shelf. I listened to and enjoyed Horns earlier in the year. There is no question, he is not for everyone.
I also loved Cutting For Stone. One of my top reads from last year!

Cutting for Stone would be a great 100th, Sis.

I too have Cutting for Stone on the top of my TBR pile. Is it depressing? I don't think I want depressing right now. Too rainy! Any Seattlites going to the LFP book sale today?

Lisa- I don't think Cutting For Stone is depressing at all. There are dark moments, sure, but it's not a downer!

Lisa, I went to Third Place Books--both stores--last weekend, so I won't be going, darn it! I don't have a car right now, or I'd come up and meet you. Have fun!

#60 Thanks, Mark (I don't feel we know each well enough for me to say Marky-Mark :-), maybe I should read Cutting for Stone next. We could have a group read. Thanks.

#61 Urgh. I didn't get going this morning, so I'm afraid the LFP book sale will be all picked over. It is pretty small. Oh well, I have enough to read anyway...

OMG! I was talking about the Lake Forest Park book sale. I totally forgot this weekend is the Third Place Books sale! I have to run, talk to you later!

Lisa- Yes, you may call me Marky-Mark or Major Book Geek or whatever else you're comfortable with! Good luck at that sale!

Forty percent off all used books--have fun, Lisa! Okay, I've done my dishes and a week's worth of laundry, and now I'm going to go read...drumroll, please...Cutting for Stone. Talk to you all tomorrow.

For what it's worth, Cutting for Stone was my No. 1 read for last year. I don't think you could have made a better choice. I am on Book 99 so I will be looking for the perfect "fit" for the big 1-0-0 soon.

Halfway through Cutting for Stone and really enjoying it.

Wow, Bonnie, did I fall behind! I have Cutting for Stone on my wishlist. Hope you enjoy it!

I think Cutting for Stone will be the perfect 100th book. Can't wait for your review!

Hi, Bonnie. Just realized I hadn't seen you posting and thought I'd stop by. Hope you're enjoying Cutting for Stone.

Hi Bonnie

I'm not a fan of The Heart Shaped Box. I tried to read it, but just could not get into it.

Hi Bonnie! Hope you enjoy your 100th book!

99. Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene.

This isn't a practical "how-to" book for teachers and/or parents who have children who are struggling with learning to read and want a more general overview of the causes as well as lots of concrete examples of the decoding/spelling patterns their children need to learn to become fluent and competent readers. Overcoming Dyslexia might be a better introduction for that, followed by books like Words Their Way or Word Journeys that explicitly lay out developmentally appropriate instruction. But this book has very thorough--and very fascinating--explanations, for example, of how exactly the neurons in our brains process and transmit information related to reading, what parts of our brains we have co-opted to be able to read, and how that has impacted/limited the kinds of reading systems we humans have created.

One slight quibble: Even though Dehaene clearly states that the underlying problem for the majority of children who have difficulty with decoding and spelling is in phonological processing; he primarily talks about the visual aspects of reading. This may lead some parents and teachers to think that the difficulties in reading and writing are primarily visual--that people with dyslexia, for example, don't "see" words the same way that normal readers do, leading to the misconception that the problem can be corrected by expensive visual training, or colored overlays, for example, but that would be a mistake.

I just noticed a double posting. I'll try to think of some way to use this space later.

I hope you have a dandy picked out for book 100, Bonnie!

>74 bonniebooks: looks like a good one, Bonnie. What an interesting issue. I'd love to learn more, and I'll have to add the book to my wishlist. Thanks for the recommendation!

Reading in the Brain sounds very interesting! During my son's speech therapy sessions I learned a great deal about the physical aspects of speech/sound and language. I found it fascinating. ie: the subtle difference between how we make the sound of a g ("guh") and a k ("kuh"). Your book similarly explains the physical/visual aspect of how we actually read what we see, yes? I'll have to look that one up.

77: That's right. i first read sections of it in the bookstore, Louanne, to see if it had enough in there that was new for me to want to buy it. You might want to try that.

99-b. The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton*

I enjoyed this book, because I love reading about other people's family dynamics. This book reminds me a bit of Home in terms of time and place (set in the midwest, and lovingly described) but also because it describes a time when people seem as much concerned with doing the thing that looks right, as they are in doing the right thing.

It's the 1950's, three grown daughters have come home during the summer to spend a couple of weeks with their parents on their small family farm in West Missouri. They start reminiscing and you think you know all about this family, especially the parents, before the author takes you back to the beginning. Carleton devotes a chunk of the book to each person in the family; and though they don't get their own voice, you do sometimes get a chance to revisit a scene through the eyes and actions of different family members. According to Jane Smiley, this book is about romantic love, but it doesn't feel very romantic. Instead, it feels more like real love--with all the disappointments, confusions, and determination to stand by/stand with the ones you love in the face of adversity. By the time the author brings you back to the original scene at the end of the book, you have the same bittersweet, nostalgic feelings for this family that the daughters do as they get ready to say goodbye for another year.

Supposedly quite bold for its time, this book felt slightly old-fashioned and melodramatic at times (I could totally see this as the Reader's Digest book club selection that it was) and it was a tad bit too religious for me in the middle; but it was a really good afternoon's read. Here's a quote from my first folded down page that so aptly describes their mother:

Every morning of our vacation she greeted us with shining face. "Now today we're not going to work--we're going to do just what we want to do!" And every day it turned out that we just wanted to wash all the quilts, or scrub woodwork, or make another batch of preserves.

*About my numbering: I had planned to make Cutting for Stone my 100th book, but was only half way through it when I decided I was in the mood for some easy reading. I also read Persuasion on my iPad, but because it was a reread, I'm calling it 99-c.

Great review of The Moonflower Vine! I've had that one on the WL for quite some time. Hope you can get back to Cutting For Stone.

I'm so glad you liked The Moonflower Vine, Bonnie. I liked your assessment of it. Old fashioned, bittersweet, and nostalgic are excellent descriptors. I also got a kick out of your numbering system. Very creative.

Hopefully you'll have lots of time for reading tonight and tomorrow while trying to stay warm and keeping your head above snow level. Pretty amazing, is it no?

The snow looks so pretty, doesn't it, Lisa? I had RL book group tonight at my house, so I didn't have to go out in the cold. Fortunately everyone, except one, lives at most a couple of blocks away. The one woman who lives about a mile away walks miles all the time, so no problem. I'm going to have to walk to the bank and the store tomorrow as I live on a very steep hill, but I need the exercise, so it's all good. Can you stay at home with your kids if they're off tomorrow. Snow days really hurt me financially, but I've learned to just follow the school schedule, as the moms who initially say they want to come end up canceling at the last minute, because their kids are having too much fun being out in the snow. I'm sure glad that Seattle usually only has snow about once a year. It's pretty but wouldn't want to live with it for weeks and months. As it is, I may not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with my son and mom down in Vancouver as planned.

81: I did enjoy it, Donna. Thanks for recommending it to me. I sure didn't like the father all that much. What did you think of him? I was listening to a This American Life episode called "Unconditional Love" in which it was being explained how during that time period parents were being told not to hug their children too much (which was being defined as more than once a year!).

Looking forward to your review of Cutting for Stone. I loved it.

I already have The Moonflower Vine in the BlackHole and imagine I will get to it eventually. Nice review, Bonnie!

#83: Too bad about not being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones. I hope it works out and that you can visit Vancouver.

Hi, Bonnie!

I like your clever numbering so that #100 can be a real winner! Look forward to that review.

What a beautiful morning! We have about three inches now, and the sun is making the snow glitter. This reminds me of home. Be careful on the hill, some Seattle drivers are clueless when it comes to driving on snow, and I wouldn't put it past them to end up on the sidewalk. I'm glad a snow day for the kids means a snow day for you! Although inconsiderate for the moms to cancel at the last minute because their kids are having fun. Sheesh.

Just stopping by to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, Bonnie. Stay warm!

Hi Bonnie. You know I'm laughing at your dusting of snow right? We're supposed to get some this weekend too. Hope you manage to have a Happy Thanksgiving in spite of the weather:)

Have a great Thanksgiving, Bonnie!

Happy Thanksgiving, Bonnie!

Hope you had a good reading weekend!

Just thinking about ya, had to stop and see what you've been reading!

Just saying Hi!

100. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Wah Lah! I finally finished my 100th book! (Actually, in November--where have I been all this time?!) Verghese's book has been reviewed by so many others, so I'm just going to say that I waited for over a year to read it and I think (?) it was worth the wait... I very much enjoyed it, but I wish I hadn't put it down for so long at the halfway point. Minor quibble to those of you who have read it: I didn't like the scene in the closet between Marion and Genet--it just didn't feel right or quite make sense to me and one sentence in particular sort of creeped me out which made me not like the narrator (and Verghese) as much for a while. But I love coming-of-age stories, especially ones that are set in different cultures and/or countries. This story primarily took place in Ethiopia in the 1970's, leading up to, and including, the attempt to overthrow their ruler, Haile Salasse (which I remember following on the news, including the civil wars and years of famine that followed). Plus, I used to work for doctors, including assisting one surgeon doing minor surgeries in the office (e.g., vasectomies), so was interested in all the descriptions of diseases and medical procedures.

I added a few more books to my TBR pile over the Thanksgiving holidays. (Who can visit the magnificent Powells Bookstore without buying books, I wonder?) All but one were used-books, so felt good about it at the time, but probably won't read most of them until after the new year, so "Why, Bonnie, Why?" My new acquisitions: The Finkler Question, Pu der Baer (Winnie the Pooh in German), A Short History of Women, Hold me Tight by Sue Johnson (already finished), and Toibin's Mothers and Sons.

Edited to try to fix Touchstones

Congratulations on reading 100 books this year! I've heard alot of good things about Cutting for Stone but have not gotten to read it yet. I liked his non-fiction book The Tennis Partner alot--it's about his friendship with another doctor who is addicted to drugs.

Congrats, Bonnie! 100 books is something to celebrate - perhaps (another) trip to a bookstore for a "reward"?!?

I LIKE your thinking, Laura! :-)

Who needs a reason to buy a book? No one in this group :)

Congrats on hitting the century mark! And what a fantastic book to do it with!

Woo-hoo! We can meet at TPB and celebrate--I reached 75 last night! I've had Cutting for Stone on my read-next list forever. Then something new creeps in. I just need to jump in. Right after I read A Novel Bookstore!

Great idea, Lisa! Any excuse to combine a slice of Black Forest Cake with a new book. ;-)

Oh my! 100 books! Congratulations Bonnie!

I loved Cutting for Stone and what a great way to hit 100! Congratulations, Bonnie!

Found you. Very handy having the link on your profile :)

Bonnie, I bought Cutting for Stone at the secondhand book fair last year and it is on my list for next year. Congratulations on reading 100 books!

Which books by Toibin have you read already? I've read and loved 2 books by him this year (The Heather Blazing and Brooklyn), so am keen to see what Mothers and Sons is like.

Congratulations, Bonnie. What a stellar book to mark your milestone.

The only book by Toibin I've read was The Master. I loved it! That reminds me of two things: I want to read more by Henry James and I've got Brooklyn on one of my Triple Towers to look forward to.

Congrats on reaching 100 books, Bonnie!

I'm, of course, still sadly behind at 69. :-(

Congrats on making to 100!!

Wow, 100!!

Now I'm curious about that passage in the closet that rankled you -- can you remind me with a chapter # (I'll look it up) or type a spoiler warning and post some of it?

100!!
Woohoo! Congratulations. :)

I should probably quit reading threads and start reading a book if I want to make it to 75 ...

Congratulations on reaching 100!

Congrats!!!

Going all the way back to the book about reading -- whenever anyone asks about why I read (and write) I go back to that idea of words being very visual. I remember when I was v. young, certainly before I could read for myself, and my mother was scolding me, telling me that if I didn't behave, "there is going to be a war!" I certainly didn't have a clear idea of what a war was, but I could literally see block letters chiseled into a block of granite, all caps... Eerie! And words STILL affect me that way. For instance, the double ee in the word that I just typed gives it a certain "feel". I have heard of people whose brains connect music/sound with sensation; for me, it's words and images. Which is why misspellings and bad grammar can feel downright painful.

Hey sis, 100 books. Wow! Maybe I could get closer to that if I'd get off this computer and pick up a book. Geesh.

Congratulations Bonnie! Hope your holidays are good.

I know what you mean, Bonnie. I could have read a couple of books with the time I've spent playing Hearts on my iPad in just this last week and a half.

Thanks, everybody! Before I joined LT, I identified myself as a reader, but read more like 50-60 books a year. I look back on my list with great satisfaction. And since it's almost the end of the year, let me tell you some of my favorites--and by favorites, I don't necessarily mean the best writing. I picked these (in no particular order) because they are the 12 books that I enjoyed all the way through and would recommend to my friends. Well, I can't say that I enjoyed Half the Sky but it's one I want my friends to read.

Twelve Favorites for 2010:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Ministry of Special Cases
Labor Day
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
The HouseKeeper and the Professor
The Twin
The Things They Carried
Await Your Reply
Old Filth
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa
Cutting for Stone
Half the Sky

Edited to fix Touchstones

I've only read about half that list, Bonnie, so I'll check the other six out. Looks like a nice variety. I bought A Guide to the Birds of East Africa in Joplin at the meet up (4.00 for a nice hardcover). I'm intrigued by that colorful cover.

I think I have six 5-star books this year. I have no idea which of the way too many 4.5 star books will fill out my Top Ten for 2010.

Wow, I've only read two of those--Await Your Reply and The Things They Carried--so I've got alot to look forward to. I'm especially glad The Ministry of Special Cases made your Top 12 list. It's a book club read for me in April next year.

#117: Great list there, Bonnie! I will have to check out the ones I have not read yet.

Bonnie- Great list! I also have read Await Your Reply,The Things They Carried and Cutting For Stone. The good thing is I have 3 others in the stacks.

Great list, Bonnie. Congratulations on reaching 100!

I haven't read a single book on your list, but I have 4 of them sitting on my shelves. I'll be keeping an eye out for the others.

I haven't read a single book on your list, but I have 4 of them sitting on my shelves. I'll be keeping an eye out for the others.

I've only read three from that list but I have six others on my shelf. That bodes well for me for next year's reading:)

Thanks for the congrats, everyone who has come by to visit. So, Mark, Shauna, and Bonnie, which of my recommended books do you have waiting in your stacks? I had a hard time choosing. I read lots of really good books. I chose ones which grabbed me for very particular reasons which may not have the same impact on you. I also chose not to include nonfiction in my Top Twelve (other than Half the Sky) because most were read for work.

Other 2010 books I wouldn't have wanted to miss: The Uncommon Reader, Zeitoun, The Post-Office Girl, The Emmigrants, and Blindness

My favorite YA book of 2010: The Hunger Games

My least favorite books of 2010:
Sweet Dates in Basra (Some of the events in the book were so implausible. The most annoying book of the year--so YA in the worst way! If I was wanting to read a YA book, I would have given it a much higher rating as the history in it was interesting.)
My Detachment (I didn't realize Tracy Kidder was so darn self-involved.)
A Heart-Shaped Box (I don't like this genre much, so not commenting on the writing, but screamingly boring to me. Didn't finish.)
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (The main character was such a loser, I couldn't tolerate him, but not bad writing.)
Lost in a Book (Wrong genre for me, couldn't even listen to it.)
Flood (Brought the wrong title home from the library. The main character, as well as the events,in this thriller got more and more unreal.)
The Little Friend (Writing was good enough, but just wasn't in the mood for this book and some of the characters. Skipped parts.)
Look at me (Mediocre at best.)
In the Woods (I'm not that fond of mysteries. Liked the first half well enough, but the murderer was obvious early on, and the resolution was so disappointing--especially that the original mystery was left unsolved.)
Hard Ball (Again, not my genre--wasn't interested in it enough to even listen to it in the car.)
Molly Fox's Birthday (Just didn't care enough about her life, her relationships, or her special day.)

eta: I don't know why the Touchstones don't work.

#126: I still need to read The Post-Office Girl and The Emigrants from your list of best reads of the year. Hopefully, next year!

Edited trying to get Touchstones to work

101. Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson

I haven't read a self-help type book like this for awhile, but while a Psych. undergraduate I was involved (in a very minimal way) in research comparing the efficacy of different kinds of couples' counseling, so found this book very interesting, but will probably only appeal to couples who are looking for help in repairing their relationships.

102. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I discovered fairly quickly that I had already read this book (darn those publishers for changing covers multiple times, and all the different "castle" titles recommended by my LT friends that I keep confusing with this one), but enjoyed the light humor and story so much that I kept reading anyway.

If I Capture the Castle warranted a re-read, I'll definitely have to dig it off my shelf and move it up the pile!

Ohhh I have that exact copy of I Capture the Castle Bonnie. I hope to get to it next year especially since they have a movie coming out shortly. As far as what is on your Best of list that's also on my shelves:

The Ministry of Special Cases
The Twin
Major Pettigrew's last Stand
The Things They Carried
Await Your Reply
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

Bonnie- These are the books I have on the shelf, from your Favorite List:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand I will be reading this very soon!
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

Books I've read:
The Things They Carried
Await Your Reply
Cutting for Stone

On my WL: The Twin

Overall, I think that's pretty good.

Bonnie - I'm going to have to send your list of favorites straight to my tbr list. I've read Major Pattigrew's Last Stand and Cutting for Stone, and loved them both. So I have high hopes for the other 12!

Bonnie and Amy, I'm most concerned about having put Await Your Reply on the list. I wouldn't put it in any "Top Ten" list; I just liked the first paragraph so much that I wanted to keep reading to the end. What did you think of it, Mark?

I think a lot of people won't like The Ministry of Special Cases as much as I did either. I wish I had had someone to discuss that book with while I was reading it way back in January. Tell me when you start it, Bonnie. Maybe I'll read it again. I'm still thinking about that story, as well as the characters in that book.

A friend lent I Capture the Castle to me back in the summer, but I haven't read it yet... it just looks so serious and literary-ish that I haven't bothered. But you mention humor, albeit light, so I really should relent and just give it a go. Especially since my friend is coming back from Oxford for Christmas, and will probably want her book back. Haha.

It's not serious at all. It's a bit of a romance too, you know. The narrator is funny in that laughing at yourself and everyday life kind of way. It's a totally charming book--read it! :-)

It seems like they just made a movie of I Capture the Castle. Though thinking about it, it was probably at least 5 years ago. I wanted to see it but thought I should read my book (same as yours as well :) first. Of course it's still sitting on my shelf.

Bonnie, I have Extremely Loud..., The Things They Carried, Await Your Reply and Half the Sky.

Bonnie, I bought The Housekeeper and the Professor at the weekend and loved it - one of my favourites this year too. Thanks! And I have Cutting for Stone still here on the shelf.

Ha! Ha! I saw on your thread that I may have had an impact on your unconscious desire to buy that book. The power...(evil grin)...how should I next use my powers to influence?

I loved your comments about the book. I thought maybe I had been unduly influenced by reading The Housekeeper and the Professor on a beautiful sunny day on which I had nothing to do, but enjoy that book--the story feels like such a simple one. But it does seem to be universally admired, doesn't it?

Stopping in to say hi. I too loved Housekeeper and the Professor. Most of your other favs are on my wishlist. Liked Sweet Dates in Basra which you emphatically did not. Did you like Gardens of Water? It seems as though people liked either one of the other, but not both.

Lisa, I did very much like Gardens of Water. It was a "runner-up" for my Top Ten of 2009. One of the reasons I liked it so much was because I went back and forth in my sympathies with the daughter vs. her father in that book. I don't know whether it's me or how most authors create a story, but I tend to align myself with the narrator or main character even in the face of evidence that I shouldn't. I'm assuming you didn't like Gardens of Water?

103. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This is a reread for all of us in a small RL group (the fourth time for me). Bonnie just wrote an excellent review of this book, so will just say that this 19th century gothic romance never fails to engage me. I was a bit sick, so spent all day on the couch with Miss Eyre. I have to admit that I am still very much drawn to her personality, especially her tendency to speak honestly and to speak up for herself at times when many girls/young women in her situation wouldn't. Meanwhile, I look at Mr. Rochester (both his personality and his actions) with a much more cynical/jaundiced eye.

This was the first book I've read on my iPad. I had fun highlighting (and verifying the definition of) antiquated words that I only know the meaning of because I do read books like this. I'm a bit disappointed that I can't see a list of my highlighted words and bookmarked pages. Not as easy/fast to find as going back to the folded-down corners in my RL books.

eta: a book cover

No, I was one of the few that preferred Sweet Dates to Gardens of Water. My problem was one of authenticity. I think you were involved at least in the beginning of our discussion: here.

I'm very curious to hear how you like the iPad. My dad just bought one for his wife. I did the research for him. Since she was mostly interested in reading, I first thought a Kindle. But Kindle's have an extremely limited magazine list (like 15 titles) AND you can't download any of the free books from the library or google books. So, I recommended the iPad. I hope she likes it! How long have you had yours?

Merry Christmas Bonnie!!!

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas Bonnie!

Bonnie--Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas, Bonnie!

Merry Christmas, Bonnie! Hope you have a great day.

Happy Holidays, Bonnie! Hope Santa was good to you!

Hi, Bonnie! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Bonnie! You definitely have me interested in getting an iPad. :)

Ho, ho, holly!

Merry Christmas Bonnie

Merry Christmas, Bonnie!

Merry Christmas Sis!!

Whee! Christmas greetings from friends on my thread. What a nice surprise--thanks, y'all! :-) I was sick the whole week before Christmas, but my fever finally broke Christmas Eve morning, so I was able to finish my shopping and drive to Portland to spend the weekend with my sons and my mom. Got all my favorite presents: books, books, and books (plus scarves, soap, candles, and chocolate--lots of chocolate!) It's a tradition now whenever my boys are visiting for all of us to help my mom get started on a new puzzle (which we keep buying for her). I love that my sons are so good to their grandma (and me, of course!) and that they really enjoy each other's company so much too.

This is a happy/sad time for me as I look back at my threads here in the 75-Book group. Most all my favorite people are here in this group. Next year, I'm going to try some smaller groups, but I'm still going to follow all my friends, so I hope you'll follow me too. For sure, I'm going to have a 11-11 Challenge thread, then I'll be in either the 50-Book Group, the 100-Book Group, and/or Club Read--whoever will have me! :-) I'll put up links when I've got my 2011 threads set up. There will probably be some redundancy, so if you just pick one thread to follow, I'll be satisfied.

#156: Bonnie, I will try and follow you, but I generally have my hands full keeping up with everyone here :)

I am glad you recovered from your illness in time to have a good Christmas!

>157 alcottacre:: You get a waiver, Stasia--but nobody else! ;-) I'll still follow you, but probably won't post unless I have something specific to say about a book we've both read. :-)

#158: Thank you for the dispensation! I am sorry we are losing you though.

You're not really losing me, as I will still be following, and commenting on, many dozens of threads. :-)

#160: Then I do not feel as bad!

Bonnie- You know I've been following you a long time and I'll continue doing so, my friend!

Hi Bonnie!

What I have read from your list:

Labor Day - Thought it was ok
The HouseKeeper and the Professor - loved it!
Await Your Reply - loved it!
Half the Sky - felt the same as you: a difficult but necessary read.

Ok - here are my thoughts on my reads of 2010, in no particular order:

Fiction
A Good Fall
Molly Fox's Birthday - I know you didn't care for this one...
One Day
Girl in Translation
The Four Ms. Bradwells - to be pub in March 2011
Seedfolks - YA
My American Unhappiness - to be pub in June 2011

Nonfiction:
Game Change
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Must You Go?
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother - to be pub in March 2011, similar to Half the Sky - difficult but necessary
Agenda for a New Economy

Are you doing a similar challenge / thread for 2011?

I know I am need to tell you why you should add Stoner to your TBR list for 2011, but all I can say is trust me on this one... Any other reader of this thread care to back me up?

Happy New Year!
Nancy

>136 bonniebooks:: Just popping in to say I started reading I Capture the Castle last night, and it's absolutely adorable. I love the narrator's voice!

Hi, Bonnie. Glad you were well in time for Christmas. Sounds like a great celebration. I'll be starring all your 2011 threads so I won't lose you!

Bonnie, you can run but you can't hide. I'll be sure to star you wherever you appear on the LT horizon. I follow a few people outside the realm of 75ers so it shouldn't be a problem keeping up. Sometimes I feel lost in the crowd around here, but guess I'll stick around for another year. Old habits and all.

Hi Bonnie, Glad you were able to enjoy Christmas with your family!! Sending you Best Wishes for the New Year!!! I'll find you where ever you go!!

Hi Bonnie, well I'll still be following you wherever you decide to land; some interesting choices there. Happy New Year my friend.

Hi Bonnie - I seemed to have lost you for a few weeks. Sorry! There are a couple of books on your list of 12 favorites that I haven't read yet - I should probably check them out!

Thanks for the reminder that I have I Capture the Castle waiting to be read. I'll have a lot of books to choose from for my 2011 Book Off the Shelf Challenge.

eta - I hit submit before adding that I'm glad you're feeling better and were able to enjoy Christmas with your family. What good boys you raised!

I got I Capture the Castle for Christmas from a secret Santa - someone knows its been on my wish list for a while :)

Hi Bonnie - Club Read sounds like a good fit for you, I already follow a few LTers that have threads there. I loved I capture the castle, so pleased that everyone is reading it.
All the best for the New Year and please make sure you let us know where your new threads are so we can visit.

Hmmm... still trying to figure out the "flavor" of these different threads. 50-Book seems huge, 100-Book small, and Club Read... less off-topic? It's confusing to me because some people post the same reviews, etc on different threads. I don't know where to go to try and follow someone, so make sure to leave big signposts for me okay? With flashing neon. In large letters, in case I run over my reading glasses again...

Happy New Year Bonnie

Ha! I forgot to do some name-dropping. I was in my favorite neighborhood bookstore on Christmas Eve morning and guess who walked in? Nancy Pearl!

The salesperson had picked up a book recommended by Pearl, and in response I had just literally finished saying: "I love listening to Nancy Pearl, but we don't agree very much on favorite books. Even if she likes the same authors, she tends to pick different titles as her favorites. I mean, how can you not pick Ellen Foster as your favorite book by Kaye Gibbons?!"

As I'm talking, the salesperson looks over my shoulder at Nancy Pearl walking into the store and calls out, "We were just talking about you!"
To which Pearl replies, "I hope it was good?!" What do you think I said? Come on, those of you who know me well, know I blurted out what I had just said.
Pearl mumbles, "Well, I would hope that I would have said Ellen Foster was a favorite too!" with a puzzled frown on her face. Later, we were in line together (no line, it was just us) and I tried to kiss up to her by saying that she was quoted all the time on Library Thing. Hmmm...by then she was just treating me like a potential stalker, so I shut up. Aren't you all jealous though? ;-)

OK, my LT friends, I'm all settled into Club Read (I hope that will be the right flavor for me, Kerry and Lisa) so I hope you all will come chat with me over there. I'm going to be concentrating on my TBR pile (she says positively) which has some great titles that I'm really looking forward to reading. Come check out my list--maybe we can read a book together?

Here's the LINK to my 2011 thread in Club Read. I also have a thread on "books off the shelf," so don't be confused if you see me there.

#174: I love your name dropping story, Bonnie!

That's a great story, Bonnie. Does Pearl live in Seattle?

Oh good... found your new 2011 link, Bonnie.

I've been lurking in your thread for the most part this year but I'm going to try and make sure I keep up better next year.

Here's wishing you a Happy New Year!

Yes, Pat, she lives close by. She actually came to my book group one time (there were only five of us) to recommend books to us. (She had donated her time in an auction to support a school my son went to.) Nancy Pearl was a Seattle librarian and started the, "If All of (put your city's name here) Read..." craze right here in Seattle first. I used to listen to her on NPR locally here all the time. Don't seem to catch her anymore, since she's usually on when I'm working.

Caroline, I really enjoy and will continue following your thread too--though you and Richard get me so hungry with all your delicious recipes. And, hey, did you think my link was big enough? ;-)

Hi there Bonnie. How very cool that you got to get up close and personal with Nancy Pearl but I guess my likes are closer to yours because I seldom click with her choices. Off to star your Club Read thread. Happy New Year Sis!

Just stopped by to wish you a Happy New Year!

Wow--why wasn't I with you when you ran into Nancy Pearl? Although I also disagree with some of her choices, I would probably have been too awestruck to say so. :)

See you over on club read and bots. Looking forward to reviewing your wish list.

Happy New Year!! Best wishes for 2011 and I hope you find an LT home that makes you happy. I'll find you wherever!

One of the things I do like about Pearl's choices is that she gives such a wide variety someone is bound to like something she has proposed :)

Happy New Year, Bonnie!