April 2010- March 2011 reading list

My yearly reading goal is 50 books, and this year I read 50 exactly (down from 56 last year).

I definitely gave in to my secret love of mysteries this year... I'm a total sucker for an engaging plot and well-written detective/psychological mystery series. We read one of Louise Penny's mysteries for one of my bookclubs, and when I discovered that there were several more that include the same quaint small Quebec town and its inhabitants and the protagonist detective that I loved, I read them all. I also loved Tana French's previous books, so I got my hands on the newest (Faithful Place) as soon as I could and liked it even more.

Joining two bookclubs expanded my book choices a bit - some of my favorites for that were Half the Sky (excellent nonfiction discussing injustice against women around the world and an agenda for improving it), East of Eden (was dreading it a little as it's so thick, but I really enjoyed it; great book to discuss), and Half Broke Horses (true-life novel about a fiery, independent woman in the sort of wild west of Arizona at the turn of the century).

Some other favorite fiction: All Other Nights (about Jewish spies during the Civil War), Cutting for Stone (a mission hospital in Ethiopia and the story of the twins born to a British surgeon and Indian nun/nurse), The History of Love (so lovely; cannot describe in one sentence! See here), Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell and England during Henry VIII trying to divorce/remarry).

Read on for the full list of books I read!

Reading list, April 2010-March 2011
1. Going Bovine, Libba Bray, 496 pages
2. The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner, 329 pages
3. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, 384 pages
4. The Dream Life of Sukhanov, Olga Grushin, 368 pages
5. A Champion's Mind, Pete Sampras, 320 pages
6. All Other Nights, Dara Horn, 384 pages
7. Summer Blowout, Claire Cook, 288 pages
8. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese, 688 pages
9. The Middle Place, Kelly Corrigan, 288 pages
10. Disco for the Departed, Colin Cotteril, 248 pages
11. Backseat Saints, Joshilyn Jackson, 352 pages
12. The Welsh Girl, Peter Ho Davies, 352 pages
13. Imperfect Birds, Anne Lamott, 288 pages
14. Finding Nouf,  Zoe Ferraris, 320 pages
15. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley, 352 pages
16. Jane Austen Ruined My Life, Beth Pattillo, 288 pages
17. Faithful Place, Tana French, 416 pages
18. The Line, Olga Grushin, 336 pages
19. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 630 pages
20. City of Veils, Zoe Ferraris, 400 pages
21. The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff, 384 pages
22. While I'm Falling, Laura Moriarty, 320 pages
23. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, 240 pages
24. My Life as an Experiment, AJ Jacobs, 272 pages
25. Open, Andre Agassi, 400 pages
26. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie, 184 pages*
27. Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, 320 pages*
28. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult, 448 pages
29. Little Bee, Chris Cleave, 304 pages
30. Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, 384 pages
31. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson, 576 pages
32. Keeper of the House, Rebecca T. Godwin, 288 pages*
33. A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny, 320 pages
34. The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny, 384 pages*
35. Netherland, Joseph O'Neill, 272 pages*
36. Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck, 208 pages
37. Still Life, Louise Penny, 320 pages
38. East of Eden, John Steinbeck, 640 pages*
39. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss, 252 pages
40. The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver, 544 pages
41. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer, 368 pages
42. Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer, 432 pages*
43. The Blessings of the Animals, Katrina Kittle, 464 pages*
44. Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny, 384 pages
45. Still Alice, Lisa Genova, 337 pages
46. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 320 pages*
47. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel, 604 pages*
48. The Girl in the Green Raincoat, Laura Lippman, 176 pages
49. Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon, 336 pages
50. Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls, 288 pages*


18,296 pages total
* = bookclub
Black = fiction
Orange = non-fiction
Pink = memoir
Green = mystery/detective story
Blue = young adult