Book List 2011
(+) for books I like/recommend
1. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker (+)
2. Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
3. Impossible by Nancy Werlin
4. I’m with Fatty: Losing 50 Pounds in 50 Miserable Weeks by Edward Ugel (+)
5. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
6. Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller (+)
7. Ambulance Girl: How I Saved Myself by becoming an EMT by Jane Stern (+)
8. Room by Emma Donoghue (+)
9. Fire Lover by Joseph Wambaugh
10. Shadow Fever by Karen Marie Moning (+)
11. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue (+)
12. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehanne
13. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (+)
14. History of a Suicide: my sister’s unfinished life by Jill Bialosky (+)
15. Marry Him: the case for settling for Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb
16. Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl by Tracy Quan
17. Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb
18. Cinderella Ate my Daughter: Dispatches from the front-lines of the new girlie-girl culture by Peggy Orenstein
19. Little Bee by Chris Cleave (+)
20. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (+)
21. Suck Your Stomach in and Put Some Color On: What Southern mothers tell their daughters that the rest of y’all should know too by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
22. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (+)
23. The Science of Kissing by Sheril Kirshenbaum
24. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
25. Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
26. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White (+)
27. A Secret Gift: How one man’s kindness-and a trove of letters-revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup (+)
28. How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal
29. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie war by Max Brooks (+)
30. And the Rest is History: the famous and infamous meetings of the world’s most passionate couples by Marlene Wagman-Gellar
31. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (+)
32. The Happiness Project: Or, why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle and generally have more fun by Gretchen Rubin (+)
33. You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
34. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn (+)
35. Due South: Dispatches from Down Home by R. Scott Brunner
36. The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (+)
37. Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 by Damon DiMarco (+)
38. Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer
39. Accidentally on Purpose: A one-night stand, my unplanned parenthood and loving the best mistake I ever made by Mary Pols
40. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (+)
41. Embers by Sandor Marai
42. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
43. The Psychopath Test: A journey through the madness industry by Jon Ronson
44. A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life by Steven Kettler
45. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (+)
46. Without Conscience: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us by Robert Hare
47. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk theory and why outsiders thrive after high school by Alexandra Robbins (+)
48. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
49. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (+)
50. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (+)
51. One Day by David Nichols (+)
52. The Shack by W.M. Paul Young (+)
53. Half a Life by Darin Strauss
54. Faithful Place by Tana French (+)
55. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: tales from an allergic life by Sandra Beasley
56. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (+)
57. God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant
58. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
59. Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly
60. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (+)
61. 365 Thank Yous: the Year a Simple Act of Gratitude Changed my Life by John Kralik
62. The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
63. Towelhead by Alicia Erian
64. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (+)
65. Blood, Butter and Bones: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (+)
66. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: A memoir of finding faith, hope, and happily ever after by Trish Ryan (+)
67. Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner (+)
68. Blue Nights by Joan Didion
69. 101 Ways to Help People in Need by Steve and Janie Sjogren
70. Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell (+)
71. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (+)
72. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (+)
73. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (+)
74. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (+)
75. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (+)
76. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler
77. The Killer of Little Shepherds: A true crime story and the birth of modern forensic science by Douglas Starr
78. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (+)
79. When Bad Christians Happen to Good People by Dave Burchett (+)
80. Readings for Meditation and Reflection by C.S. Lewis
1. A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin: This actually encompasses A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. If you were ever in a writing workshop with me at Hollins, you know that this is a very unusual choice because I used to preface every critique of anything remotely science fiction/fantasy with “You all know that I don’t like this genre…” The fantasy genre is definitely not normally my cup of tea but this series has grabbed me by the throat and won’t let go. Even though my overall book total for the year is lower because of how long these books are, I don’t care. There is an epic battle for power going on in the fictionalized medieval world of the Seven Kingdoms. Martin juggles multiple points of view and tons of characters with great skill. Clocking in at almost a thousand pages for each book, this series has everything-adventure, romance, multi-faceted characters, intrigue, violence, etc. I kind of ruined the excellent Game of Thrones by watching the television series first, A Clash of Kings is good but feels like mostly set-up for the next book, A Storm of Swords is awesome and I enjoyed A Feast of Crows even without my favorite characters, Daenerys and Tyrion Lannister, being in the book.
2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I almost feel like this is unfair to the other books, because To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most perfect books in the English language. I have read this before, in the eighth grade, but I had forgotten how wonderful it is. Lee perfectly captures the small town South and the trials and tribulations of childhood, the way children live in a world of their own making. Scout is the best child narrator ever written. Who doesn’t want to be Atticus Finch or at least wish that he could be your father?
3. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: This book is told as a letter from an elderly, dying preacher, John Ames, to his young son. Ames looks back over his life, which was both ordinary and extraordinary, from the love he feels for his wife and son to his grandfather’s role in the struggle for abolition to the conflicted feelings he has for his best friend’s prodigal son. It is a spiritual book in a way, but I don’t think one would necessarily need to be religious to appreciate it. The story could have easily been sentimental, but instead in Robinson’s masterful hands, it is starkly beautiful and genuinely moving.
4. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White: After some creative accounting in his magazine business, Neil White lands himself in a minimum security prison in Carville, Louisiana for a year. In a Southern gothic twist that is hard to believe is real, the prison is also home to the last leper colony in the United States. White struggles to come to grips with his failures and develops close relationships with the leprosy patients. White’s search for salvation is interesting, but it’s the tragic and triumphant stories of the lepers that make this memoir.
5. Room by Emma Donoghue: For five-year-old Jack, Room (actually an 11x11 foot shed) is the whole world. For his Ma, it’s the prison where she has been held captive since she was kidnapped at age nineteen. Usually, these ripped from the headlines fictional novels don’t work for me, but there is more to this book than the shock value. It’s a story of the love between a mother and her child. Ma goes through extraordinary lengths to make a happy life for Jack in Room. I’ve encountered some people who didn’t like this book, but I found it thrilling, touching and heartbreaking all at the same time.
6. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell: I haven’t seen the Oscar-nominated movie that was based on this book yet, but I can vouch that the book is great. Woodrell is an amazing writer in the style of Cormac McCarthy. In the dirt-poor Ozarks, sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly is struggling to keep her family together. She is barely managing to care for her younger brother and mentally ill mother when she learns that her father has put their house up for bond on crystal meth charges and disappeared. Ree embarks on a journey through the terrifying local crank culture to find him. It’s a beautiful written book and Ree is an amazing character, but I didn’t rank it higher because it’s so short that it’s really more of a novella. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more.
7. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson: In 1970, Tyson was a ten-year-old boy in Oxford, North Carolina when several white men shot and killed Henry Marrow, who was black, in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The town boils over with racial tension and violent riots. I found this book interesting because I think that history has whitewashed and sanitized the Civil Rights Movement and Tyson is telling the riveting and ugly truth. This is the story of a crime but it’s also the story of Tyson’s father, a Methodist preacher, and his fight to do the right thing and still tend his flock and keep his job.
8. Blood, Butter and Bones: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton: It seems patently unfair that Gabrielle Hamilton is a brilliant chef and a great writer, but she is. This is one of the best food memoirs that I’ve ever read, but you don’t need to be into cooking to enjoy this memoir. Hamilton is a neglected wild child who eventually builds a home for herself in the restaurant world. There were parts of the book that I wished had more exposition or resolution-there isn’t a satisfying explanation of her issues with her mother and even odder, she is involved in relationships with women through most of the memoir, then all of the sudden, she’s married to an Italian man and having kids, with very little discussion on the matter. Her descriptions of life in Italy did make me want to marry an Italian tomorrow.
9. A Secret Gift: How one man’s kindness-and a trove of letters-revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup: Gup discovers a trunk of puzzling letters amongst his late grandfather’s possessions and learns that before the Christmas of 1933, his grandfather placed an anonymous newspaper ad promising $10 to 75 needy families. The letters are from the people his grandfather helped. Gup tracks down their descendants and writes illuminating portraits of the suffering they experienced and how his grandfather’s gift impacted their lives. A must-read for anyone interested in the Great Depression.
10. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker: A surprisingly funny and quirky memoir from a young Mormon woman trying to balance her conservative religion with her search for love and happiness in the modern secular world.
1. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker (+)
2. Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
3. Impossible by Nancy Werlin
4. I’m with Fatty: Losing 50 Pounds in 50 Miserable Weeks by Edward Ugel (+)
5. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
6. Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller (+)
7. Ambulance Girl: How I Saved Myself by becoming an EMT by Jane Stern (+)
8. Room by Emma Donoghue (+)
9. Fire Lover by Joseph Wambaugh
10. Shadow Fever by Karen Marie Moning (+)
11. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue (+)
12. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehanne
13. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (+)
14. History of a Suicide: my sister’s unfinished life by Jill Bialosky (+)
15. Marry Him: the case for settling for Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb
16. Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl by Tracy Quan
17. Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb
18. Cinderella Ate my Daughter: Dispatches from the front-lines of the new girlie-girl culture by Peggy Orenstein
19. Little Bee by Chris Cleave (+)
20. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (+)
21. Suck Your Stomach in and Put Some Color On: What Southern mothers tell their daughters that the rest of y’all should know too by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
22. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (+)
23. The Science of Kissing by Sheril Kirshenbaum
24. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
25. Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
26. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White (+)
27. A Secret Gift: How one man’s kindness-and a trove of letters-revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup (+)
28. How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal
29. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie war by Max Brooks (+)
30. And the Rest is History: the famous and infamous meetings of the world’s most passionate couples by Marlene Wagman-Gellar
31. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (+)
32. The Happiness Project: Or, why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle and generally have more fun by Gretchen Rubin (+)
33. You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
34. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn (+)
35. Due South: Dispatches from Down Home by R. Scott Brunner
36. The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (+)
37. Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 by Damon DiMarco (+)
38. Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer
39. Accidentally on Purpose: A one-night stand, my unplanned parenthood and loving the best mistake I ever made by Mary Pols
40. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (+)
41. Embers by Sandor Marai
42. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
43. The Psychopath Test: A journey through the madness industry by Jon Ronson
44. A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life by Steven Kettler
45. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (+)
46. Without Conscience: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us by Robert Hare
47. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk theory and why outsiders thrive after high school by Alexandra Robbins (+)
48. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
49. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (+)
50. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (+)
51. One Day by David Nichols (+)
52. The Shack by W.M. Paul Young (+)
53. Half a Life by Darin Strauss
54. Faithful Place by Tana French (+)
55. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: tales from an allergic life by Sandra Beasley
56. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (+)
57. God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant
58. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
59. Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly
60. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (+)
61. 365 Thank Yous: the Year a Simple Act of Gratitude Changed my Life by John Kralik
62. The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
63. Towelhead by Alicia Erian
64. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (+)
65. Blood, Butter and Bones: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (+)
66. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: A memoir of finding faith, hope, and happily ever after by Trish Ryan (+)
67. Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner (+)
68. Blue Nights by Joan Didion
69. 101 Ways to Help People in Need by Steve and Janie Sjogren
70. Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell (+)
71. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (+)
72. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (+)
73. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (+)
74. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (+)
75. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (+)
76. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler
77. The Killer of Little Shepherds: A true crime story and the birth of modern forensic science by Douglas Starr
78. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (+)
79. When Bad Christians Happen to Good People by Dave Burchett (+)
80. Readings for Meditation and Reflection by C.S. Lewis
1. A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin: This actually encompasses A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. If you were ever in a writing workshop with me at Hollins, you know that this is a very unusual choice because I used to preface every critique of anything remotely science fiction/fantasy with “You all know that I don’t like this genre…” The fantasy genre is definitely not normally my cup of tea but this series has grabbed me by the throat and won’t let go. Even though my overall book total for the year is lower because of how long these books are, I don’t care. There is an epic battle for power going on in the fictionalized medieval world of the Seven Kingdoms. Martin juggles multiple points of view and tons of characters with great skill. Clocking in at almost a thousand pages for each book, this series has everything-adventure, romance, multi-faceted characters, intrigue, violence, etc. I kind of ruined the excellent Game of Thrones by watching the television series first, A Clash of Kings is good but feels like mostly set-up for the next book, A Storm of Swords is awesome and I enjoyed A Feast of Crows even without my favorite characters, Daenerys and Tyrion Lannister, being in the book.
2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I almost feel like this is unfair to the other books, because To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most perfect books in the English language. I have read this before, in the eighth grade, but I had forgotten how wonderful it is. Lee perfectly captures the small town South and the trials and tribulations of childhood, the way children live in a world of their own making. Scout is the best child narrator ever written. Who doesn’t want to be Atticus Finch or at least wish that he could be your father?
3. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: This book is told as a letter from an elderly, dying preacher, John Ames, to his young son. Ames looks back over his life, which was both ordinary and extraordinary, from the love he feels for his wife and son to his grandfather’s role in the struggle for abolition to the conflicted feelings he has for his best friend’s prodigal son. It is a spiritual book in a way, but I don’t think one would necessarily need to be religious to appreciate it. The story could have easily been sentimental, but instead in Robinson’s masterful hands, it is starkly beautiful and genuinely moving.
4. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White: After some creative accounting in his magazine business, Neil White lands himself in a minimum security prison in Carville, Louisiana for a year. In a Southern gothic twist that is hard to believe is real, the prison is also home to the last leper colony in the United States. White struggles to come to grips with his failures and develops close relationships with the leprosy patients. White’s search for salvation is interesting, but it’s the tragic and triumphant stories of the lepers that make this memoir.
5. Room by Emma Donoghue: For five-year-old Jack, Room (actually an 11x11 foot shed) is the whole world. For his Ma, it’s the prison where she has been held captive since she was kidnapped at age nineteen. Usually, these ripped from the headlines fictional novels don’t work for me, but there is more to this book than the shock value. It’s a story of the love between a mother and her child. Ma goes through extraordinary lengths to make a happy life for Jack in Room. I’ve encountered some people who didn’t like this book, but I found it thrilling, touching and heartbreaking all at the same time.
6. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell: I haven’t seen the Oscar-nominated movie that was based on this book yet, but I can vouch that the book is great. Woodrell is an amazing writer in the style of Cormac McCarthy. In the dirt-poor Ozarks, sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly is struggling to keep her family together. She is barely managing to care for her younger brother and mentally ill mother when she learns that her father has put their house up for bond on crystal meth charges and disappeared. Ree embarks on a journey through the terrifying local crank culture to find him. It’s a beautiful written book and Ree is an amazing character, but I didn’t rank it higher because it’s so short that it’s really more of a novella. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more.
7. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson: In 1970, Tyson was a ten-year-old boy in Oxford, North Carolina when several white men shot and killed Henry Marrow, who was black, in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The town boils over with racial tension and violent riots. I found this book interesting because I think that history has whitewashed and sanitized the Civil Rights Movement and Tyson is telling the riveting and ugly truth. This is the story of a crime but it’s also the story of Tyson’s father, a Methodist preacher, and his fight to do the right thing and still tend his flock and keep his job.
8. Blood, Butter and Bones: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton: It seems patently unfair that Gabrielle Hamilton is a brilliant chef and a great writer, but she is. This is one of the best food memoirs that I’ve ever read, but you don’t need to be into cooking to enjoy this memoir. Hamilton is a neglected wild child who eventually builds a home for herself in the restaurant world. There were parts of the book that I wished had more exposition or resolution-there isn’t a satisfying explanation of her issues with her mother and even odder, she is involved in relationships with women through most of the memoir, then all of the sudden, she’s married to an Italian man and having kids, with very little discussion on the matter. Her descriptions of life in Italy did make me want to marry an Italian tomorrow.
9. A Secret Gift: How one man’s kindness-and a trove of letters-revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup: Gup discovers a trunk of puzzling letters amongst his late grandfather’s possessions and learns that before the Christmas of 1933, his grandfather placed an anonymous newspaper ad promising $10 to 75 needy families. The letters are from the people his grandfather helped. Gup tracks down their descendants and writes illuminating portraits of the suffering they experienced and how his grandfather’s gift impacted their lives. A must-read for anyone interested in the Great Depression.
10. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker: A surprisingly funny and quirky memoir from a young Mormon woman trying to balance her conservative religion with her search for love and happiness in the modern secular world.