NPR's Summer Books 2008

I'm about two-thirds of the way through Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and really enjoying it. Hopefully, I'll have a full review by the weekend, but in the meantime I wanted to share a list of Summer Books for 2008 from NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90995424

Great Book Club Books

Great book club books:

Are you looking for a book for your next book club? Or just want to read something juicy that you can discuss with friends? Here's my list of great book club books and what my book club is reading next.

Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
Bel Canto, Ann Pachett
Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
The Distant Land of My Father, Bo Caldwell
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, Lisa Murphy
The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
The Known World, Edward P. Jones

What my book club is reading next:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl

2007 List of Books

2007 books (my favorites are at the top):

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
The Distant Land of My Father, Bo Caldwell
Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, Lisa Murphy
Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseni
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
Intuition, Allegra Goodman
View from Castle Rock, Alice Munro
Not on Our Watch, Don Cheadle/John Prendergast
The Keep, Jennifer Egan
Talk, Talk, TC Boyle
Passage to India, EM Forrester
A Breath of Fresh Air, Amulya Malladi
Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
Sisters Keeper, Jodi Picoult
People's Act of Love, James Meek
Little Children, Tom Perrota
Look at Me, Jennifer Egan
Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling
Love Walked In, Marisa de los Santos
Monique & the Mango rains, Kris Halloway
A Hole in the Universe, Mary McGarry Morris
Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
Amateur Marriage, Anne Tyler
Digging to America, Anne Tyler
Something Borrowed, Emily Griffin
Blue Shoes & Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold
Missing Joseph, Elizabeth George
Playing for Ashes, Elizabeth George
A Place of Hiding, Elizabeth George
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets,

2006 List of Books

Books I read in 2006

I realized I don't have my list of 2006 books on here.
I tried to start a "staring" system of my recommendations but everything was ending up with 2 or 3 stars, so I only highlighted my highly recommended books.

Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
Hotel due Lac, Anita Brooker
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
Truth and Beauty, Ann Patchett
A Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Snow, Orhan Pamuk
Rapture of Canaan, Sheri Reynolds
Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner
Dogs of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
Haunted, Chuck Palachiuk
The History of Love, Nicole Krause
Halfway House, Katherine Noel
The Sea, John Banville
Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proux
Vince & Joy, Lisa Jewell
Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
Keys to the Kingdom, AJ Cronin
The Last Days of Dogtown, Anita Diamant
Alejento Blue, Monica Ali
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Bloody Shame, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith
For the Sake of Elena, Elizabeth George
Lipstick Jungle, Candace Bushnell
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
In the Cut, Susanna Moore
The Girls Who Went Away, Ann Fessler

2005 List of Books

Full list of books I read in 2005:

Great Failure, Natalie Goldberg

All the Fishers Come Home to Roost, Rachel Brown

The Fourth Hand, John Irving

Blindness, Jose Saramgo

The Optimisist's Daughter, Eudora Welty

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg

Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd

Devil in the White City, Erik Larsen

The Bee Season, Myla Goldberg

Matilda, Roald Dahl

Writer's Life, Ellen Gilchrist

Forever, Pete Hamill

What Was She Thinking, Zoe Heller

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, JK Rowling

A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby

The Drowning Tree, Carol Goldman

Diary of Anne Frank

The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler

Crossing California, Adam Leger

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Mr Maybe, Jane Green

Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Alexander McCall Smith

Stiff, Mary Roach

A Suitable Vengence, Elizabeth George

Sleep Toward Heaven, Amanda Eyre Ward

Emperor of Scent, Chandler Burr (AWFUL)

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

How to Be Lost, Amanda Eyre Ward

The Ha-Ha, Dave King

The Reader, Bernard Schlink

Early Leaving, Judy Goldman

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier

The Mango Season, Amulya Malladi

I am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolffe

Inner Circle, TC Boyle

Favorite Books of 2005

Favorite books from 2005:

Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseni: I can't say enough about this book. It rips your heart open and touches you to the core. I read this on a plane and had to finish before we arrived because I knew I couldn't put it down.

Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon : A great story that is dramatic, mysterious and adventurous. For anyone who loves books, it is a great ride into the world of fiction.

Bee Season, Myla Goldberg: This book had been recommended to me many times and I finally had the opportunity to pick it up. Goldberg crafts an amazing story about the dysfunctional Naumann family -- Eliza's success in spelling bees, her brother Aaron's religious search and their mother's kleptomania. In the end, you get a peek inside each characters thoughts and fears.

The Ha-Ha, Dave King: The story of Howie, a Vietnam vet who can't speak, write or read and Ryan, the 9 year old son of an ex-girlfriend, who ends up in Howie's care when Ryan's mother goes into rehab. It's a touching and engrossing story, making you laugh and cry.

Sleep Toward Heaven and How to be Lost, Amanda Eyre Ward: Both of Ward's books suck you in and you don't want to put them down. Both center around 3 main characters and how their lives intersect. Ward focuses on the relationships between women and family and touches you deeply.

Inner Circle, TC Boyle: A fictional account of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey's work and world. A great example of Boyle's work, though Drop City is still my favorite.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach: Exactly what the title says, Mary Roach entertainingly follows the different routes human cadavers can take. It may seem surprising that this subject matter can be called "entertaining" but Roach provides color commentary that is laugh out loud funny.

Some of my favorite books

Some of my favorites:










The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
Lucky, Alice Sebold
Drop City, TC Boyle
In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Possession, AS Byatt
She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
Collected Stories, Ellen Gilchrist
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant