akowen's First Fifty

I am into the second week of a mandated 6-week recuperation period after surgery. Friends and family worry that I'll be bored. I'm trying not to let on how truly excited I am to be on this forced sabbatical when the most energy I should expend is to read and then put all the books into LibraryThing! Now that I have time to actually look at the Groups and their postings, I found this group and want to see how many books I actually read over the next weeks--and beyond, of course. So here is what I've read so far:

#1 Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders ~ William R. Drennan
#2 A Fine Balance ~ Rohinton Mistry
#3 The Third Angel ~ Alice Hoffman
#4 The Year of Magical Thinking ~ Joan Didion

I hope that your recuperation goes well! Happy reading!
--BJ

Several more in the last few days:

#5 Rose's Garden ~ Carrie Brown
#6 Armchair Mystic: Easing into Contemplative Prayer ~ Mark E. Thibodeaux
#7 Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family ~ Stephen J. Dubner

#8 Clinging: The Experience of Prayer ~ Emilie Griffin

#9 More Than It Hurts You ~ Darin Strauss
I can't remember how this book ended up on my "To Read" list, but it was worth it. Written so well; involved my emotions from the beginning.

Another good one, newly published~

#10 Goldengrove ~ Francine Prose

And a kid book that was recommended to me:
#11 The River Between Us ~ Richard Peck

#12 Finding Grace at the Center ~ Thomas Keating

#13 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures ~ Anne Fadiman
An amazing book that I have heard about for a long time but never took the time to read. There are many Hmong in Milwaukee; now I am better informed as to who they are as people and a culture.

#14 The Book Thief ~ Markus Zusak
Amazing book. Worth the overdue library fines.

Back to work on October 9. End of the reading extravaganza...

#15 The Time of Our Singing ~ Richard Powers
#16 The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music ~ Steve Lopez

#17 Indignation ~ Philip Roth

#18 After Long Silence: a Memoir ~ Helen Fremont
Fascinating. Did I enter this in my To Read list at the same time as "Turbulent Souls" above?

#19 I See You Everywhere ~ Julia Glass
Threw me for a loop at the end...

#20 Dreaming Water ~ Gail Tsukiyama
Werner syndrome--premature aging. Lovely writing to tell the story.

#21 Pharmakon ~ Dirk Wittenborn

#22 Cost ~ Roxanna Robinson
Heroin overdose. My first book by Robinson; have to read more.

#23 The Abstinence Teacher ~ Tom Perrotta

Books finishied while traveling 1000 miles over Thanksgiving:

#24 The Dante Club ~ Matthew Pearl
#25 Mudbound ~ Hillary Jordan
#26 The Vacation ~ Polly Horvath
#27 My One Hundred Adventures ~ Polly Horvath

#28 The Shack ~ William P. Young

#29 The Last Gifts: Creative Ways to Be with the Dying ~ Jillian Brasch
An Early Reviewer book for me, but very relevant to my hospice care experience.

#30 Tender Grace ~ Jackina Stark
Another Early Reviewer book. Religious premise.