Reading List 2013
Well, it's been two months. I've just been too lazy to post this, honestly. That and I haven't been consuming as much as before. It's amazing how the numbers shift when you aren't listening to audiobooks at work everyday.
I have been applying for publishing and editing jobs outside of the state. No hits so far. But CareerLinks can't yell at me about not trying. Unemployment gave me a few scares but that started to smooth out... until I got copies of an appeal and a notice of a hearing. Get to do that next week... And it's all about mistakes in UC's system and typos on a determination. I don't see why we need to do a hearing about this, but my former boss wants to go through with it.
Ah well... We'll see what happens.
January:
1. Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation
2. Matthew Cody - The Dead Gentleman
3. Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth
4. Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
5. C.N. Edwards - Love Poems
6. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
7. Flannery O'Connor - Everything That Rises Must Converge
8. Jessica Gregson - The Angel Makers
9. Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
10. Veronica Roth - Divergent
11. Eoin Colfer - The Atlantis Complex
12. James Joyce - Dubliners
13. Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
14. Mira Bartok - The Memory Palace
15. Shel Silverstein - Every Thing On It
16. John Lithgow - Poet's Corner
February
17. Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
18. Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
19. Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
20. Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
21. Paulo Coelho - Brida
22. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - Beautiful Creatures
23. Lisa Malvarose - Psychic
24. Bruno Bettelheim - The Uses of Enchantment
25. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
26. Sherman Alexie - The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
March
27. Patrinella Cooper - Gypsy Magic: A Romany Book of Spells, Charms, and Fortune-Telling
28. Marilyn Donnelly - Coda
29. Deborah Slicer - The White Calf Kicks
30. Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
31. Elizabeth Kirschner - My Life as a Doll
32. Brian Brodeur - Natural Causes
33. Orson Scott Card - The Lost Gate
34. Albert Camus - The Stranger
35. Anne Marie Macari - She Heads into the Wilderness
36. Leonard Gontarek - The Deja Vu Diner
37. Free State Review - Issue 1
38. Gene Luen Yang, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Dave Marshall, and Gurihiru - Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
39. George Eliot - Middlemarch
40. Geraldine Brooks - People of the Book
41. Kate Chopin - The Awakening
42. Alice Walker - The Color Purple
43. Geraldine Brooks - Foreign Correspondence
April:
44. Alexandre Dumas - Man in the Iron Mask
45. Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: Space Odyssey
46. Marsha Mehran - Pomegranate Soup
47. Koushun Takami - Battle Royale
48. Jules Verne - Around the World in 80 Days
49. Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
50. Flannery O'Connor - The Violent Bear It Away
51. Margot Berwin - The Scent of Darkness
52. Annie Dillard - The Writing Life
53. Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady
54. Patrick Suskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
55. Jim Crace - Being Dead
56. Robert James Waller - The Bridges of Madison County
57. Jorie Graham - This
May:
58. Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles
59. Isaac Asimov - The End of Eternity
60. Sue Ellen Thompson - The Golden Hour
61. Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
62. Nancy Pagh - No Sweeter Fat
63. James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room
64. Andrea Hollander Budy - Woman in the Painting
65. Richard Adams - Watership Down
66. L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
67. John Updike - Witches of Eastwick
68. John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
69. Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club
70. Robert Gibb - What the Heart Can Bear
71. Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
72. Ann Hood - The Obituary Writer
73. Maya Angelou - The Complete Collected Poems
74. Rick Riordan - Sea of Monsters
75. Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
76. Cassandra Clare - City of Bones - The Mortal Instruments Book 1
77. Katie MacAlister - You Slay Me
June:
78. Matthew Cody - Super
This was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't as good as Powerless. Matt kept us guessing about who the bad guy actually was, and reiterated the point that you shouldn't judge someone until you know all the facts about them. The story held my attention and it was nice to revisit the setting/world. The ending opens up so many possibilities, and I'll anticipate the third installment.
79. Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
This one... It was odd to read this one because even though it's fiction, it's also partially an autobiographical story. I identified with some of the introverted tendencies, but of course the main character took them a few steps further. I couldn't understand her willingness to die so readily. It seemed more like she was bored and apathetic, instead of locked in an internal darkness. It was interesting, and a bit bittersweet because I knew the real ending past the last page.
80. Raymond Buckland - Buckland's Book of Gypsy Magic: Travelers' Stories, Spells, & Healings
Read for research for my thesis novel. Lots of information. I underlined so much in this book. So many traditions and cultural aspects that may or may not still be around, but certainly were during the setting of my story. I marked off spells and charms that might be used in the story, too. It'll be a good reference when I get to that part of the novel.
81. Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni
Review located here: http://www.coalhillreview.com/?p=21130
82. Sharma Shields - Favorite Monster
This was peculiar. I liked her approach to the term "monster." She used many mythological creatures, but also just... people in general, and children. The book is just a collection of short stories from Autumn House Press that contain one monster in some aspect, be it a different perspective on the mythological creatures (as if they were real and still around) and a different angle on what makes a monster.
83. Kathryn Stockett - The Help
Finally got to this. I forget what made me read it. I enjoyed it. Most of it was read during the trip out to California for Angela's wedding. Long plane rides followed by a 5-hour layover in Denver. I think when I returned home, over half the book was finished. I kept imagining the movie as I read. It's well cast and rather faithful. There are marked differences, sure, but much of the dialogue is almost verbatim.
84. Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I loved this book. Someone called it a eulogy for childhood, and I almost agree. There were sections where the main character is pulled across great distances of land, and they have to hide from certain dangerous creatures. The moment when they duck and hide under a bush from a bat-like creature above them, I flashbacked to my own childhood and tried to imagine when and if I would play similar games (though in the book it's real). Usually, it was in tandem with someone else. They would duck, I would follow, and felt the fear and emotions of something being there rather than visually imagining. And of course the story explores how adults don't listen to children, even and especially when the child is trying to tell them that another adult is evil. This might be on a list of books to re-read.
85. Sarah Gerkensmeyer - What You Are Now Enjoying
This is another Autumn House Press book, but harder to read. The first title story kept my attention because it was so bizarre and I couldn't quite work out the science or timing or natural consequences from it--basically, how it all works. But I had to trudge through the other stories and barely remember them. It took so long to read such a slim book. I've mailed them out to one of my reviewers for Weave Magazine, so we'll see what she says about it.
July:
86. John Green - An Abundance of Katherines
The first John Green book I read was The Fault in Our Stars. Perhaps it spoiled me. An Abundance of Katherines is such a juvenile book compared to TFiOS. They're both YA, but I'd actually classify TFiOS as New Adult. You can tell that AoK was written much earlier in John's career. It's an enjoyable story, sure, and I'll still read his other works. It's your typical post-high school journey and self-discovery book, with a lot of musings about relationships and breakups. It's also rather predictable.
87. Wendy Pini - Shards
I'd been reading this graphic novel for a while. It's actually an off-shoot from New Blood, so when the storylines overlapped at the end, Shards just had a few pictures and a lot of isolated and summarizing paragraphs. Readers had to say goodbye to beloved characters, and it explored the concept of family and children while battling evil. It also greatly explored sacrifice and humbling actions made for the betterment of others.
88. Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Forthcoming review.
89. Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay
So, this is the last of the series. Most people don't like it. Probably because Katniss's character changes so drastically, and the story is kinda slow... Nothing really happens until the characters reach the capital, which is created to be another version of the Games. Beloved characters die in this one, too, of course. I liked how Collins delved into insanity and grief with Katniss, and the concept of love. I'm okay with how it ended, too. I didn't ship that pairing, but it made the most sense due to the other romantic partner's growth (he became a dick). Collins probably could've toned down on the monotonous days, but they were necessary for pacing. I haven't had a chance to sit down and discuss this book with other people, though, so it'll be interesting to see what comes of that.
90. Rick Riordan - The Titan's Curse
These books are still so fast. This one touched on love, which I already knew was going to blossom thanks to fanart. Readers were introduced to new characters, people actually died in this one. But the overhanging threat seems to be subdued in each book, despite growing strength and gathering an army in the background. It's so much like Harry Potter, but I still can't pinpoint the difference between the two (except that one's British and the other is Greek). They both contain adventures, magic, powers, crappy teachers, mentors, challenges, consequences, etc. The trio of friends is not as strong but will be. Both main characters are equally dense and rely on their smarter female friend. ... It's hard to pinpoint. Still, I enjoy the series and will probably move on to the next Olympian Hero one.
I have been applying for publishing and editing jobs outside of the state. No hits so far. But CareerLinks can't yell at me about not trying. Unemployment gave me a few scares but that started to smooth out... until I got copies of an appeal and a notice of a hearing. Get to do that next week... And it's all about mistakes in UC's system and typos on a determination. I don't see why we need to do a hearing about this, but my former boss wants to go through with it.
Ah well... We'll see what happens.
January:
1. Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation
2. Matthew Cody - The Dead Gentleman
3. Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth
4. Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
5. C.N. Edwards - Love Poems
6. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
7. Flannery O'Connor - Everything That Rises Must Converge
8. Jessica Gregson - The Angel Makers
9. Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
10. Veronica Roth - Divergent
11. Eoin Colfer - The Atlantis Complex
12. James Joyce - Dubliners
13. Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
14. Mira Bartok - The Memory Palace
15. Shel Silverstein - Every Thing On It
16. John Lithgow - Poet's Corner
February
17. Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
18. Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
19. Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
20. Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
21. Paulo Coelho - Brida
22. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - Beautiful Creatures
23. Lisa Malvarose - Psychic
24. Bruno Bettelheim - The Uses of Enchantment
25. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
26. Sherman Alexie - The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
March
27. Patrinella Cooper - Gypsy Magic: A Romany Book of Spells, Charms, and Fortune-Telling
28. Marilyn Donnelly - Coda
29. Deborah Slicer - The White Calf Kicks
30. Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
31. Elizabeth Kirschner - My Life as a Doll
32. Brian Brodeur - Natural Causes
33. Orson Scott Card - The Lost Gate
34. Albert Camus - The Stranger
35. Anne Marie Macari - She Heads into the Wilderness
36. Leonard Gontarek - The Deja Vu Diner
37. Free State Review - Issue 1
38. Gene Luen Yang, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Dave Marshall, and Gurihiru - Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
39. George Eliot - Middlemarch
40. Geraldine Brooks - People of the Book
41. Kate Chopin - The Awakening
42. Alice Walker - The Color Purple
43. Geraldine Brooks - Foreign Correspondence
April:
44. Alexandre Dumas - Man in the Iron Mask
45. Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: Space Odyssey
46. Marsha Mehran - Pomegranate Soup
47. Koushun Takami - Battle Royale
48. Jules Verne - Around the World in 80 Days
49. Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
50. Flannery O'Connor - The Violent Bear It Away
51. Margot Berwin - The Scent of Darkness
52. Annie Dillard - The Writing Life
53. Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady
54. Patrick Suskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
55. Jim Crace - Being Dead
56. Robert James Waller - The Bridges of Madison County
57. Jorie Graham - This
May:
58. Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles
59. Isaac Asimov - The End of Eternity
60. Sue Ellen Thompson - The Golden Hour
61. Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
62. Nancy Pagh - No Sweeter Fat
63. James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room
64. Andrea Hollander Budy - Woman in the Painting
65. Richard Adams - Watership Down
66. L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
67. John Updike - Witches of Eastwick
68. John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
69. Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club
70. Robert Gibb - What the Heart Can Bear
71. Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
72. Ann Hood - The Obituary Writer
73. Maya Angelou - The Complete Collected Poems
74. Rick Riordan - Sea of Monsters
75. Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
76. Cassandra Clare - City of Bones - The Mortal Instruments Book 1
77. Katie MacAlister - You Slay Me
June:
78. Matthew Cody - Super
This was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't as good as Powerless. Matt kept us guessing about who the bad guy actually was, and reiterated the point that you shouldn't judge someone until you know all the facts about them. The story held my attention and it was nice to revisit the setting/world. The ending opens up so many possibilities, and I'll anticipate the third installment.
79. Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
This one... It was odd to read this one because even though it's fiction, it's also partially an autobiographical story. I identified with some of the introverted tendencies, but of course the main character took them a few steps further. I couldn't understand her willingness to die so readily. It seemed more like she was bored and apathetic, instead of locked in an internal darkness. It was interesting, and a bit bittersweet because I knew the real ending past the last page.
80. Raymond Buckland - Buckland's Book of Gypsy Magic: Travelers' Stories, Spells, & Healings
Read for research for my thesis novel. Lots of information. I underlined so much in this book. So many traditions and cultural aspects that may or may not still be around, but certainly were during the setting of my story. I marked off spells and charms that might be used in the story, too. It'll be a good reference when I get to that part of the novel.
81. Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni
Review located here: http://www.coalhillreview.com/?p=21130
82. Sharma Shields - Favorite Monster
This was peculiar. I liked her approach to the term "monster." She used many mythological creatures, but also just... people in general, and children. The book is just a collection of short stories from Autumn House Press that contain one monster in some aspect, be it a different perspective on the mythological creatures (as if they were real and still around) and a different angle on what makes a monster.
83. Kathryn Stockett - The Help
Finally got to this. I forget what made me read it. I enjoyed it. Most of it was read during the trip out to California for Angela's wedding. Long plane rides followed by a 5-hour layover in Denver. I think when I returned home, over half the book was finished. I kept imagining the movie as I read. It's well cast and rather faithful. There are marked differences, sure, but much of the dialogue is almost verbatim.
84. Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I loved this book. Someone called it a eulogy for childhood, and I almost agree. There were sections where the main character is pulled across great distances of land, and they have to hide from certain dangerous creatures. The moment when they duck and hide under a bush from a bat-like creature above them, I flashbacked to my own childhood and tried to imagine when and if I would play similar games (though in the book it's real). Usually, it was in tandem with someone else. They would duck, I would follow, and felt the fear and emotions of something being there rather than visually imagining. And of course the story explores how adults don't listen to children, even and especially when the child is trying to tell them that another adult is evil. This might be on a list of books to re-read.
85. Sarah Gerkensmeyer - What You Are Now Enjoying
This is another Autumn House Press book, but harder to read. The first title story kept my attention because it was so bizarre and I couldn't quite work out the science or timing or natural consequences from it--basically, how it all works. But I had to trudge through the other stories and barely remember them. It took so long to read such a slim book. I've mailed them out to one of my reviewers for Weave Magazine, so we'll see what she says about it.
July:
86. John Green - An Abundance of Katherines
The first John Green book I read was The Fault in Our Stars. Perhaps it spoiled me. An Abundance of Katherines is such a juvenile book compared to TFiOS. They're both YA, but I'd actually classify TFiOS as New Adult. You can tell that AoK was written much earlier in John's career. It's an enjoyable story, sure, and I'll still read his other works. It's your typical post-high school journey and self-discovery book, with a lot of musings about relationships and breakups. It's also rather predictable.
87. Wendy Pini - Shards
I'd been reading this graphic novel for a while. It's actually an off-shoot from New Blood, so when the storylines overlapped at the end, Shards just had a few pictures and a lot of isolated and summarizing paragraphs. Readers had to say goodbye to beloved characters, and it explored the concept of family and children while battling evil. It also greatly explored sacrifice and humbling actions made for the betterment of others.
88. Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Forthcoming review.
89. Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay
So, this is the last of the series. Most people don't like it. Probably because Katniss's character changes so drastically, and the story is kinda slow... Nothing really happens until the characters reach the capital, which is created to be another version of the Games. Beloved characters die in this one, too, of course. I liked how Collins delved into insanity and grief with Katniss, and the concept of love. I'm okay with how it ended, too. I didn't ship that pairing, but it made the most sense due to the other romantic partner's growth (he became a dick). Collins probably could've toned down on the monotonous days, but they were necessary for pacing. I haven't had a chance to sit down and discuss this book with other people, though, so it'll be interesting to see what comes of that.
90. Rick Riordan - The Titan's Curse
These books are still so fast. This one touched on love, which I already knew was going to blossom thanks to fanart. Readers were introduced to new characters, people actually died in this one. But the overhanging threat seems to be subdued in each book, despite growing strength and gathering an army in the background. It's so much like Harry Potter, but I still can't pinpoint the difference between the two (except that one's British and the other is Greek). They both contain adventures, magic, powers, crappy teachers, mentors, challenges, consequences, etc. The trio of friends is not as strong but will be. Both main characters are equally dense and rely on their smarter female friend. ... It's hard to pinpoint. Still, I enjoy the series and will probably move on to the next Olympian Hero one.