Books I Want to Read
I have a tendency to scribble notes to myself when I hear or read about books that sound interesting, and today I decided that it was silly that I was keeping track of this stuff on random little scraps of paper, instead of having them all in one place I could consult when I'm wondering what to get next from the library. So, without further ado, I give you my "Books I Want to Read" master list. (This list doesn't include any of the gazillion books that I already own but have not yet read. It's more of a reminder list.)
Comments on any of these books and/or additional recommendations are more than welcome!
Mostly Mainstream Lit (some with a bit of sci-fi or fantasy mixed in)
Adamson, The Outlander
Atkinson, One Good Turn **
Baricco, Silk
Borges, Labyrinths
Calvino, Invisible Cities
Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies
Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
Carriger, Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Cech, A Rush of Dreamers **
Chabon, Yiddish Policeman's Union
Crowley, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines
Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods
Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Ephron, A Cup of Tea
Farmer, The Metaphor Maker
Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
Ford, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban
Gaskell, Mary Barton
Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Hattemer-Higgins, The History of History
Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain
Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills
Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
Jaivin, Eat Me
Kertesz, Fatelessness **
Kundera, The Art of the Novel
Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude
Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary ***
McDonald, Fall on Your Knees
McGrath, Asylum **
Meier, The Season of Second Chances
Mieville, The City and the City
Miller, Flash ***
Mistry, A Fine Balance
Morrison, Paradise
Murphy, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival
Narayan, The Guide
Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry
Ondaatje, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
Patterson, Money Child: A Romantic Comedy Set in Orange County California
Phillips, The Nature of Blood **
Reynolds, The Rapture of Canaan
Smiley, A Thousand Acres
Smith, 44 Scotland Street
Smith, Portuguese Irregular Verbs
Smith, White Teeth
Stockett, The Help **
Swift, Waterland
Tyler, Celestial Navigation
Ward, How to Be Lost
Wiesel, A Mad Desire to Dance
Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Winterson, The Passion
Wolitzer, Surrender, Dorothy
Zusak, I Am the Messenger **
Non-Fiction
Balcombe, Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals
Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Beck, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons
Blount, Alphabet Juice **
Brittingham, Read My Hips: How I Learned to Love My Body, Ditch Dieting, and Live Large
Carolino, English as She Is Spoke ***
Carroll, The Rise of Amphibians: 365 Million Years of Evolution
Cheek, Living With Reform: China Since 1989
Clarke, Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes
Clements, Vampire Defanged, The: How the Embodiment of Evil Became a Romantic Hero
Copeland, Spring Winds of Beijing ***
David, Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching ****
Davidson, The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly
de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
Dill, How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing Through Media Influence
Douglas, Mindhunter
Dowrick, Intimacy and Solitude: Balance, Closeness, and Independence
Fisher, Celebrating Time Alone: Stories Of Splendid Solitude
France, Hermits; The Insights of Solitude
French, Tibet, Tibet
Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference **
Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America
Goodall, In the Shadow of Man
Green, Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet
Hanh, Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life
Hazelwood, Dark Dreams
Hecht, Do the Windows Open?
Helgoe, Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength
Johnson, Tragedy in Crimson: How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China
Kanfer, Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism
Kerns, Who Will Shout If Not Us?: Student Activists and the Tiananmen Square Protest, China, 1989
Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama
Lixiong and Shakya, The Struggle for Tibet
Marsh, I'm No Monster
Montserrat, Ms. Rubinstein's Beauty (children's book)
Moon, Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos
Osterud, The Tattooed Lady: A History
Pelzer, A Child Called "It"
Perlich and Whitt, Sith, Slayers, Stargates, + Cyborgs: Modern Mythology in the New Millennium
Porter, Written on the Skin
Pozner, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV ***
Prince, American Cinema of the 1980s
Riley, Acculturated: 23 Savvy Writers Find Hidden Virtue in Reality TV, Chick Lit, Video Games, and Other Pillars of Pop Culture
Rinpoche, Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule
Roberts, Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope
Sapolsky, The Trouble with Testosterone
Schechter, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers
Schechter, The Devil's Gentleman
Schwartz, Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley
Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Shaw, Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story
Sheffield, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut ***
Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything ****
Sonn, Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word
Sue, Cornbread and Dim Sum: A Memoir of a Heart Glow Romance **
Sylvester, Magritte
Tholenaar, Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles
Thomas and Stanish, Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them
Vronsky, Serial Killers
Wagele, The Happy Introvert: A Wild and Crazy Guide for Celebrating Your True Self
Yoors, The Gypsies
Zhao, The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement
Mystery/Thriller/Horror
Alphin, Counterfeit Son **
Bradley, the Flavia de Luce series **
Cannell, The Prostitute's Ball **
Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
Collins, Woman in White
Cook, Acceptable Risk
Farmer, Sympathy for the Devil (Madeline Bean Catering Mysteries #1) ****
Grisham, The Innocent Man
James, The Murder Room
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Marcum, White Out
Martinez, The Oxford Murders
May, Where the River Splits
Mazer, The Missing Girl
Muller, the Sharon McCone series
Perez-Reverte, The Club Dumas
Sherwood, Hardwater **
Young, Buying Time
Full-On Science Fiction or Fantasy
Banks, Transition
Bester, The Demolished Man
Bester, The Stars My Destination
Condie, Matched (trilogy)
Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
Cooper, The Grey King
Craig, In A Dark Wood
Dick, The Man in the High Castle
Fforde, Shades of Grey
Hughart, Bridge of Birds
Jones, Fire and Hemlock
McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head
McKinley, The Blue Sword
Powers, Last Call
Powers, The Anubis Gates
Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Valente, The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
Yovanoff, The Replacement
Vampires/Werewolves/Angels/Ghosts/Time Travel/Etc. (mostly YA)
Allen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Briggs, Moon Called
Caine, Morganville Vampires
Cashore, Graceling
Flinn, Beastly
Gabaldon, Outlander
Gray, Evernight
Kate, Torment
Klause, Blood and Chocolate
Klause, The Silver Kiss
Levine, Ella Enchanted
Lindqvist, Let the Right One In
MacAlister, You Slay Me
Mead, Vampire Academy
Nowak, Fatal Infatuation
Setterfield, Thirteenth Tale
Weeks, The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy)
Young Adult (mostly romantic comedy)
Burnham, Do-Over
Burnham, Royally Jacked
Burnham, Spin Control
Cassidy, Scarlett
Dokey, How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
Downing, Drive Me Crazy
Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Hapka, At First Sight
Hapka, Love on Cue
Hapka, Something Borrowed **
Hapka, The Twelve Dates of Christmas
Katcher, Playing with Matches
Krulik, Ripped at the Seams
Lyles, Party Games
Oliver, Before I Fall
Ostow, Crush du Jour
Pearson, Scribbler of Dreams
Ponti, Sea of Love
Rigaud, Perfect Shot
Scott, Bloom
Toliver, Miss Match
Verne, Hard to Get
Walton, Among Others
Weyn and Gonzalez, South Beach Sizzle
Whew! Those should keep me busy for a while!
Comments on any of these books and/or additional recommendations are more than welcome!
Mostly Mainstream Lit (some with a bit of sci-fi or fantasy mixed in)
Adamson, The Outlander
Atkinson, One Good Turn **
Baricco, Silk
Borges, Labyrinths
Calvino, Invisible Cities
Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies
Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
Carriger, Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Cech, A Rush of Dreamers **
Chabon, Yiddish Policeman's Union
Crowley, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines
Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods
Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Ephron, A Cup of Tea
Farmer, The Metaphor Maker
Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
Ford, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban
Gaskell, Mary Barton
Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Hattemer-Higgins, The History of History
Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain
Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills
Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
Jaivin, Eat Me
Kertesz, Fatelessness **
Kundera, The Art of the Novel
Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude
Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary ***
McDonald, Fall on Your Knees
McGrath, Asylum **
Meier, The Season of Second Chances
Mieville, The City and the City
Miller, Flash ***
Mistry, A Fine Balance
Morrison, Paradise
Murphy, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival
Narayan, The Guide
Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry
Ondaatje, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
Patterson, Money Child: A Romantic Comedy Set in Orange County California
Phillips, The Nature of Blood **
Reynolds, The Rapture of Canaan
Smiley, A Thousand Acres
Smith, 44 Scotland Street
Smith, Portuguese Irregular Verbs
Smith, White Teeth
Stockett, The Help **
Swift, Waterland
Tyler, Celestial Navigation
Ward, How to Be Lost
Wiesel, A Mad Desire to Dance
Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Winterson, The Passion
Wolitzer, Surrender, Dorothy
Zusak, I Am the Messenger **
Non-Fiction
Balcombe, Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals
Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Beck, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons
Blount, Alphabet Juice **
Brittingham, Read My Hips: How I Learned to Love My Body, Ditch Dieting, and Live Large
Carolino, English as She Is Spoke ***
Carroll, The Rise of Amphibians: 365 Million Years of Evolution
Cheek, Living With Reform: China Since 1989
Clarke, Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes
Clements, Vampire Defanged, The: How the Embodiment of Evil Became a Romantic Hero
Copeland, Spring Winds of Beijing ***
David, Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching ****
Davidson, The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly
de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
Dill, How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing Through Media Influence
Douglas, Mindhunter
Dowrick, Intimacy and Solitude: Balance, Closeness, and Independence
Fisher, Celebrating Time Alone: Stories Of Splendid Solitude
France, Hermits; The Insights of Solitude
French, Tibet, Tibet
Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference **
Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America
Goodall, In the Shadow of Man
Green, Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet
Hanh, Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life
Hazelwood, Dark Dreams
Hecht, Do the Windows Open?
Helgoe, Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength
Johnson, Tragedy in Crimson: How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China
Kanfer, Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism
Kerns, Who Will Shout If Not Us?: Student Activists and the Tiananmen Square Protest, China, 1989
Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama
Lixiong and Shakya, The Struggle for Tibet
Marsh, I'm No Monster
Montserrat, Ms. Rubinstein's Beauty (children's book)
Moon, Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos
Osterud, The Tattooed Lady: A History
Pelzer, A Child Called "It"
Perlich and Whitt, Sith, Slayers, Stargates, + Cyborgs: Modern Mythology in the New Millennium
Porter, Written on the Skin
Pozner, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV ***
Prince, American Cinema of the 1980s
Riley, Acculturated: 23 Savvy Writers Find Hidden Virtue in Reality TV, Chick Lit, Video Games, and Other Pillars of Pop Culture
Rinpoche, Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule
Roberts, Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope
Sapolsky, The Trouble with Testosterone
Schechter, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers
Schechter, The Devil's Gentleman
Schwartz, Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley
Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Shaw, Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story
Sheffield, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut ***
Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything ****
Sonn, Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word
Sue, Cornbread and Dim Sum: A Memoir of a Heart Glow Romance **
Sylvester, Magritte
Tholenaar, Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles
Thomas and Stanish, Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them
Vronsky, Serial Killers
Wagele, The Happy Introvert: A Wild and Crazy Guide for Celebrating Your True Self
Yoors, The Gypsies
Zhao, The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement
Mystery/Thriller/Horror
Alphin, Counterfeit Son **
Bradley, the Flavia de Luce series **
Cannell, The Prostitute's Ball **
Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
Collins, Woman in White
Cook, Acceptable Risk
Farmer, Sympathy for the Devil (Madeline Bean Catering Mysteries #1) ****
Grisham, The Innocent Man
James, The Murder Room
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Marcum, White Out
Martinez, The Oxford Murders
May, Where the River Splits
Mazer, The Missing Girl
Muller, the Sharon McCone series
Perez-Reverte, The Club Dumas
Sherwood, Hardwater **
Young, Buying Time
Full-On Science Fiction or Fantasy
Banks, Transition
Bester, The Demolished Man
Bester, The Stars My Destination
Condie, Matched (trilogy)
Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
Cooper, The Grey King
Craig, In A Dark Wood
Dick, The Man in the High Castle
Fforde, Shades of Grey
Hughart, Bridge of Birds
Jones, Fire and Hemlock
McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head
McKinley, The Blue Sword
Powers, Last Call
Powers, The Anubis Gates
Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Valente, The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
Yovanoff, The Replacement
Vampires/Werewolves/Angels/Ghosts/Time Travel/Etc. (mostly YA)
Allen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Briggs, Moon Called
Caine, Morganville Vampires
Cashore, Graceling
Flinn, Beastly
Gabaldon, Outlander
Gray, Evernight
Kate, Torment
Klause, Blood and Chocolate
Klause, The Silver Kiss
Levine, Ella Enchanted
Lindqvist, Let the Right One In
MacAlister, You Slay Me
Mead, Vampire Academy
Nowak, Fatal Infatuation
Setterfield, Thirteenth Tale
Weeks, The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy)
Young Adult (mostly romantic comedy)
Burnham, Do-Over
Burnham, Royally Jacked
Burnham, Spin Control
Cassidy, Scarlett
Dokey, How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
Downing, Drive Me Crazy
Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Hapka, At First Sight
Hapka, Love on Cue
Hapka, Something Borrowed **
Hapka, The Twelve Dates of Christmas
Katcher, Playing with Matches
Krulik, Ripped at the Seams
Lyles, Party Games
Oliver, Before I Fall
Ostow, Crush du Jour
Pearson, Scribbler of Dreams
Ponti, Sea of Love
Rigaud, Perfect Shot
Scott, Bloom
Toliver, Miss Match
Verne, Hard to Get
Walton, Among Others
Weyn and Gonzalez, South Beach Sizzle
Whew! Those should keep me busy for a while!