What Have You Read?

Look at the list of books below: *Bold the ones you’ve read* Italicize the ones you want to read* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18 The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44.The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58.The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96.The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Series Challenge

Kathrin at Crazy Cozy Murders is hosting a series challenge. Click here for the Mr. Linky.

She says:

"Well, I've been thinking about all those series I've started, but not finished at various points in my life. Be it series with the same characters, the same topic, by the same author... There are just so many of which I read maybe the first few books and then left off because of other series I wanted to give a try. And by no means did I "leave" those series because I didn't like what I read!"

The basic rules would be:

1. There is no set number of books you have to read, you just have to read the books in order to be all up-to-date with the series.
2. Post your review of the books on your blog, no matter how long.
3. Post a comment here when you have finished a series and when you have finished all the series you wanted to finish for the challenge.
4. Always remember this is for fun!

Time Frame: December 1 2007 - May 31 2008 (possible/probable 6 month extension)

MY POSSIBLE SERIES:
Harry Potter
Tales of the Alvin Maker--Orson Scott Card (crossover with cardathon challenge)

Book Review: SISTER INDIA

Sister India

Author: Peggy Payne

Pages: 275

Personal Rating: 3/5

From the inside cover:

The lonely Planet guidebook recommends the Saraswati Guest House in Varanasi and meeting its proprietor Madame Natraja, ' a one-woman blend of East and West', as a worthwhile side trip for the adventurous traveler in India. Over the course of one weekend, several guests turn up at the Saraswati, shocked to encounter a nearly four-hundred-pound surly white woman in a sari. Jill Thornton, thirtyish and single, has come only to rest and see the sights before home from a business trip to New Delhi. T J Clayton, a swaggering southern bureaucrat, has arrived in India on a grant to study the pollution-plagued River Ganges. And Marie Jasper, nearly eighty years old, has ventured to Varanasi alone, after the death of her husband, to find peace by the holy river.

But as happens so often in India, Natraja's guests find more than what they came for. When a series of Hindu-Muslim murders rocks the peace of this sacred place, the entire city is placed under curfew indefinitely - no one may leave his home. Natraja's guests unwittingly become her captives, and the guardians of her secrets. So begins a period of days blending into nights, as Natraja and her Indian cook become entangled in the web of religious violence. And their guests each fall slowly under the spell of Varanasi - both enthralled and repelled by its wandering holy men, public funeral pyres, and pilgrims bathing in the Ganges at dawn. They feel the rumble of their own inner revolutions as they are drawn further and further into the folds of their captive city.

I decided to read this book based on my travel to China a few years ago. Since then I’ve been interested in reading books set in different countries, especially those in Asia. I’m hoping to travel again someday soon hoping to “experience” the different cultures like I did in China. I’ve been enjoying books where the experience of being there is as important as the story. I felt like I was in Varanasi when I read Sister India. It made we want to travel there.

Trying to “pick out” the plotline is difficult because the story wanders back and forth between the past and present and the various people in the guest house. Yes, they are all under curfew but there is no one “goal” everyone is working towards or a unifying idea happening. It’s more each person’s individual experience tied together by the curfew. I think this is fine but it isn’t for everyone.

I gave Sister India 3/5 stars because even though it gave you the experience of being in India it had the potential to be one of those books that LOTS of people would read and enjoy. If it had focused on fewer events in more detail and had better character development I think it could have been a fantastic book. As is it is a “good” book.

Book Around the World Challenge

I'm addicted to challenges. Since this one did not have an end date I figured I would add it to the list. As I've been reading through blogs and reviews I've found myself becoming interested in books set in different countries. This challenge seems perfect since I already have a few of these books around and I was planning on buying a few in in the future.

AFGHANISTAN
The Bookseller of Kabul

ANTARCTICA
AUSTRALIA
BOLIVIA
BRAZIL
CANADA

CHINA
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Women of the Silk*

CUBA
EGYPT
ENGLAND
FRANCE

GERMANY
The Book Thief
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas*

HONG KONG

INDIA
Sister India*

IRELAND
ISRAEL
ITALY

JAPAN
Memiors of a Geisha *

KOREA
Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood *

MOROCCO
NEW ZEALAND
NIGERIA
PORTUGAL

RUSSIA
The Madonnas of Leningrad

RWANDA
SCOTLAND
SPAIN
SRI LANKA
SUDAN
TURKEY

Books I have but haven't read yet...
The Alchemist (Spain)
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris (France)
Anil's Ghost (Sri Lanka)
Astrid and Veronika (Sweden)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (China)
Bel Canto (South America)
Beneath a Marble Sky (India)
The Birth of Venus (Italy)
The Blind Assassin (Canada)
The Blood of Flowers (Iran)
The Bonesetter's Daughter (China)
Borderliners (Denmark)
Breath, Eyes, Memory (Haiti)
Brick Lane (Bangladesh)
The Brief History of the Dead (Antarctica)
The Burning Times (France)
Chocolat (France)
The Crimson Petal and the White (Great Britain)
Crocodile on the Sandbank (Egypt)
Damascus Gate (Israel)
The Devil's Arithmetic (Poland)
Dreams of My Russian Summer (Russia)
The Dress Lodger (England)
The Egyptologist (Egypt)
Exodus (Palestine)
Fall on Your Knees (Nova Scotia)
Fieldwork (Thailand)
The Fig Eater (Hungary)
From Baghdad with Love (Iraq)
The God of Small Things (India)
Harem (Iran)
Holder of the World (India)
The House of the Spirits (Chile)
I, Mona Lisa (Italy)
The Intelligencer (Great Britain)
Kabul Beauty School (Afghanistan)
The Kite Runner (Afghanistan)
Koko (Vietnam)
Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico)
A Long Way Gone: Memiors of a Boy Soldier: (Sierra Leone)
The Looking Glass (France)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Colombia)
Madame Bovary (France)
Map of Bones (Germany)
The Map of Love (Egypt)
The Masque of the Black Tulip (England)
Napoleon's Pyramids (Egypt)
Peony in Love (China)
Pig Island (Scotland)
The Poisonwood Bible (Belgian Congo)
Pompeii (Italy)
The Reader (Germany)
River God (Egypt)
The Robber Bride (Canada)
The Samurai's Garden (China)
The Shadow of the Wind (Spain)
Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China
The Shipping News (Newfoundland)
The Sixteen Pleasures (Italy)
Slammerkin (London)
Soul Mountain (China)
Star of the Sea (Ireland)
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Afghanistan)
The Twentieth Wife (India)
Waiting (China)
Wide Sargasso Sea (West Indies)


Book Around the World

* = didn't make "the list" but I'm still including it anyway

Cardathon Challenge

Challenge starts January 1st 2008 (but can really begin anytime)

To qualify for the Cardathon Challenge a book needs to meet one of the following criteria:

1) a book written by Orson Scott Card
2) a book edited/compiled by Orson Scott Card
3) a book with an introduction by Orson Scott Card
4) a book reviewed by Orson Scott Card on his official website.

No requirement on the number of books. Six to twelve are recommended.

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has set up the challenge. The blog is Cardathon Challenge

MY TENTATIVE BOOK LIST TO CHOOSE FROM

Magic Mirror
Invasive Procedures
Seventh Son (Alvin Maker)
Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 2)
Rachel & Leah
Rebekah
Lovelock
Cruel Miracles
Enchantment
The Folk of the Fringe
Homecoming: Harmony
Saints
Songmaster
The Worthing Saga

I needed to linked them because I kept forgetting what each one was about.

Themed Reading Challenge

January 1st 2008 - June 30 2008

Choose at least 4 books that share a theme. Write a review about each book you complete and a final wrap up at the end of the challenge.

POSSIBLE THEMES:

* Set in Asian countries

* Cozy (never read before)

* Softball or baseball

* Involve genetics

I ended up going with none of the above! My theme is...
Books by Lois Lowry

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry (completed 1.27.08)
2. Gathering Blue
3. The Messenger
4. Number the Stars

Link to the blog here: themed reading challenge hosted by caribousmom

Just4thehelluvit Reading Challenge

No time limit, no lists. The only rule is your books cannot cross over to any other challenges. You read a book or books just for the helluvit.

Here is the link to the blog: just4thehelluvit

Books I've Read for the Challenge:

In Their Shoes Reading Challenge

This challenge is being hosted by Vasilly over at 1330V

The rules are real simple: you pick the number of books that you want to read. You also pick the books you read. They just have to be either a memoir, autobiography, or biography. It runs from Jan. 1 2008 - Dec. 31 2008.

Here is the blog In Their Shoes.

I finally decided on a list.

1. The Burn Journals (Brent Runyon) 3.12.08
2. The $64 Tomato (William Alexander) 6.12.08
3. Lucky (Alice Seibold)
4. A Million Little Pieces (James Frey)
5. Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood. (Julie Gregory)
6. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah) 7.22.08

The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) completed 2.3.08
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Deborah Rodriquez) completed 4.5.08
A Piece of Cake (Cupcake Brown) completed 6.28.08

Book Review: The Ruins

Author: Scott Smith

Pages: 336

Personal Rating: 3.5/5

From the back cover:

The Ruins follows two American couples, just out of college, enjoying a pleasant, lazy beach holiday together in Mexico as, on an impulse, they go off with newfound friends in search of one of their group—the young German, who, in pursuit of a girl, has headed for the remote Mayan ruins, site of a fabled archeological dig. This is what happens from the moment the searchers—moving into the wild interior—begin to suspect that there is an insidious, horrific “other” among them . . .

I picked up this book by chance from Goodwill when I saw it was published in 2006. I thought I could get a credit for it on paperback swap. I wasn’t expecting much. At home I saw that Stephen King called it “the best suspense novel of the year” and I decided to give it a try.

Four annoying, recently graduated college students follow a newly met friend into the jungle. They are looking for the new friend’s brother, who has been missing for a week. They are searching for Mayan ruins, the last place the brother said he was going. They end up being trapped on top of a hill by vines and group of native villagers. Most of the story revolves around what happens as they are trapped on the hill.

I hated three of the four main characters. I wanted to strangle them. I almost stopped reading the book I found the girls to be so stupid and irritating. The third male character was almost as aggravating. I think Scott did a nice of job of showing how a stressful situation can bring out the worst flaws in some people. The book also has no chapters. It goes on and on, just like their ordeal.

Would I call this book the best suspense novel of the year? No. I would call it good suspense/horror novel that had some interesting aspects and ideas. I think Smith could come up with some real horrifying stories in the future, I see potential.

Book Awards Reading Challenge

Yes, another challenge. I’m still narrowing down my list. The books I’ve put in italics are still tentative.

8 / 12

Booker Prize
1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Gold Dagger Award
1993 Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell

National Book Award
1990 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
2003 Three Junes by Julia Glass completed 8.5.07
2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Pulitzer Prize
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

PEN/Faulkner Award
2002 Bel Canto by Patchett

PEN/Hemingway
1988 The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

Newbery Award
1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry

Bram Stoker Award
1992 The Blood of the Lamb by Thomas F. Monteleone

World Fantasy Award
1989 Koko by Peter Straub

British Children's Book of the Year
2007 The Boy in the Striped Pajams (John Boyne) completed 3.20.08

• 3 Irish Book Awards: the Novel of the Year, the People's Choice Book of the Year, and the Children's Book of the Year. It won 2 awards

Nebula Award
1966 Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) completed 3.8.08

Panorama Literario Award: Chile
1983 The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)

• Best Novel of the Year, Chile 1983

Alternates on my Bookshelf

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lamb

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Holes by Louis Sachar

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Throat by Peter Straub

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

BOOK AWARDS READING CHALLENGE

Book Review: Women of the Silk

Author—Gail Tsukiyama

Pages: 278

Personal Rating: 5/5

From the back cover:

In Women of the Silk, a West Coast bestseller in its hardcover publication, Gail Tsukiyama takes her readers back to rural China in 1926, where a group of women forge a sisterhood amidst the reeling machines that reverberate and clamor in a vast silk factory from dawn until dusk. Leading the first strike the village has ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams, and friendship to achieve the freedom they could never have hoped for on their own. Tsukiyama's graceful prose weaves the details of "the silk work" and Chinese village life into a story of miraculous courage and strength.

I decided to read Women of the Silk with the hope that I would like it as much as Snow Flower & the Secret Fan and Memoirs of a Geisha. Although distinctly different from them, it still gave me a glimpse into the Chinese culture that I have begun to enjoy.

Women of the Silk revolves around a young girl Pei, who is sent to work in the silk factory to earn money for her family. Her father tells her they are taking a trip and then leaves her as she is taking a “tour” of the building that will become her home. The story follows Pei through the next 20 years of her life. As the events in Pei’s life unfold, it becomes harder and harder to put the book down.

Book Review: Stiff--The Curious Life of Human Cadvers

Author—Mary Roach

Pages: 303

Personal Rating: 4/5

From the back cover:

Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

The first three quarters of this book were much more interesting than the last quarter which I ended up skimming. Roach examines the many ways cadavers are used today. Each chapter is devoted to a different use. Some examples; Chapter 1—A Head Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, Chapter 4—Dead Man Driving, Chapter 5—Beyond The Black Box. She has a dry sense of humor that is present throughout the book. You will alternate between laughing and being grossed out. Roach also addresses how much resistance the people who work with cadavers encounter from the public and government.

Even though I did not enjoy the last few chapters of this book I’m rating it a 4 out of 5 for its original idea, sense of humor and disgusting descriptions.

Book Review: The Virgin Suicides

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

Pages: 249

Personal Rating: 4/5

From the back cover:

Juxtaposing the most common and most gothic, the humorous and the tragic, Eugenides creates a vivid and compelling portrait of youth and lost innocence. He takes us back to the elm-lined streets of suburbia in the seventies, and introduces us to the men whose lives have forever been changed by their fierce, awkward obsession with five doomed sisters: brainy Therese, fastidious Mary, ascetic Bonnie, libertine Lux, and pale, saintly Cecilia, whose spectacular
demise inaugurates 'the year of the suicides.'This is the debut novel that caused a sensation and won immediate acclaim from the critics-a tender, wickedly funny take of love and terror, sex and suicide, memory and imagination.

Virgin Suicides left me with an unsettled feeling in my stomach but I did enjoy it. However much you can enjoy a novel about five teenage girls committing suicide. Eugenide’s descriptions during the novel were compared to the strangest objects and events. The smell of their house was like drilled teeth. The imagery he created was outstanding.

The story is narrated by a man/men. I was never able to determine exactly who it was. I don’t think you were supposed to. It also goes back and forth between the present and the past, sometimes being difficult to tell when it is. Once again, I don’t think you’re supposed to. I did a lot of wondering while I read this book. How could anyone endure as much suffering as those girls? How did their father look the other way? What in the hell was wrong with their mother? It also reminded me of being an teenager and the obsessions and love we so easily develop.

Even though the topic is unpleasant it was a fascinating read.

* I never saw the movie so I have no idea how the two compare.

Saturday Review of Books Reading Challenge

I’m going to try another challenge. For me this will make three. Not a lot for others, but a start for me. I’ve never done a challenge before! For this challenge you need to read six of the books that have been linked to reviews at the Saturday Review of Books in the past year. Review them in your blog. Ending date is December 31, 2007.

CHALLENGE COMPLETED 11.26.07

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Dai Silje

Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert (completed 10.9.07)

The Echomaker
Richard Powers (completed 11.26.07)

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak (completed 7. 28.07)

Ella Minnow Pea: a Novel in Letters
Mark Dunn

The Madonna’s of Leningrad
Debra Dean (completed 8.6.07)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan (shelved 8.25.07--finished half)

Three Junes
Julia Glass (completed 8.5.07)


Hosted by Sherry at Saturday Review of Books Reading Challenge

Something About Me Reading Challenge

I came across this challenge while browsing book blogs and thought it would be great to try. You are asked to list five books that say something about you. Starting August 1st you will pick books that other people have posted to learn something about them. This is such an intriguing idea.

It was difficult choosing the five books. There are so many possibilities and ways to represent yourself. I also don’t remember a lot of what I’ve read. I finally decided to list these five books to say something about me.

Island of the Blue Dolphin—Scott O’Dell. When I would play alone outside I would always pretend that I was alone on an island surviving with what skills I had. I would act out scenes from the book over and over. I also checked this book out from the library over and over.

The Talisman—Steven King & Peter Straub. I dreamed about this book several times. The idea of having parallel worlds and being able to “flip” between the two fascinated me. His journey fascinated me. I’ve never dreamed about a books before or since.

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters—Matt Ridley. As a biology teacher I obviously love science. This book is organized into 23 chapters just like our chromosome are organized in 23 pairs. It puts science into your life in a way a person without a science background can understand. This is something I strive to do everyday with my students.

Snow Flower & the Secret Fan—Lisa See. In 2004 I traveled to China for several weeks. My husband & I tried to spend a lot of our time off the beaten trail. Here we were able to interact with people in ways most vacationers never will. I learned to appreciate the Chinese culture with all its differences and was surprised to learn how curious they were about foreigners (especially Americans). Snow Flower gave me another glimpse into their culture.

A Wrinkle In Time—Madeleine L’Engle. Who wouldn’t want to travel through time & space as child? This book sparked my curiosity at a young age. Were tesseracts real? Could this happen? This book reminds me of enjoying “science” at an early age. It also brings back memories like my dad waking me up to watch lunar eclipses.

I’ve decided to read the following books.

• The Gallery of Regrettable Food—James Lileks
  
• Place Last Seen—Charlotte McGuinn Freeman
  
• A Walk in the Woods—Bill Bryson
  
• The Echo Maker—Richard Powers
  
• So Many Books, So Little Time—Sara Nelson

Hosted by Lisa at Something About Me Reading Challenge (Breaking the Fourth Wall)