Another list of the top 100 books

Posted on October 5, 2011 by pagesofjulia

We all love a good list, don’t we? I think what I love most is how they’re all different. This latest comes from World Book Night in the UK, and is compiled from a list that we – you and I – have all contributed of our top ten books that we’d like to share with others. Weighted for frequency, the list they’ve received is available at the link above – and, I’ve reproduced it here, with my usual indications as to whether I’ve read them or not. Feel free to weigh in.

I’m amused to note that my have-read-it stats fall off sharply as the list goes on; I’ve read 7 of the top 10, 10 of the top 20, and only 3 of the bottom 20.

How many have you read? Do you agree or strongly disagree with any of these? I certainly see a lot of my favorites (see my list of 100) on there, and also some I strongly disliked (ahem Cormac McCarthy).

Bold = I’ve read it (or if it’s linked to my review… I’ve read it)
Italicized = I’ve started the book, but never finished
neither = I haven’t picked it up.
New indicator: **for those that are definitely on my list (even before this list).

1    To Kill a Mockingbird    Harper Lee
2    Pride and Prejudice    Jane Austen
3    The Book Thief    Markus Zusak
4    Jane Eyre    Charlotte Bronte
5    The Time Traveler’s Wife    Audrey Niffenegger
6    The Lord of the Rings    J. R. R. Tolkien
7    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy    Douglas Adams
8    Wuthering Heights    Emily Bronte
9    Rebecca    Daphne Du Maurier
10    The Kite Runner    Khaled Hosseini
11    American Gods    Neil Gaiman
12    A Thousand Splendid Suns    Khaled Hosseini
13    Harry Potter Adult Hardback Boxed Set    J. K. Rowling
14    **The Shadow of the Wind    Carlos Ruiz Zafon
15    The Hobbit    J. R. R. Tolkien
16    One Day    David Nicholls
17    Birdsong    Sebastian Faulks
18    The Help    Kathryn Stockett
19    Nineteen Eighty-Four    George Orwell
20    Good Omens    Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
21    The Notebook    Nicholas Sparks
22    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo    Stieg Larsson
23    The Handmaid’s Tale    Margaret Atwood
24    The Great Gatsby    F. Scott Fitzgerald
25    Little Women    Louisa M. Alcott
26    Memoirs of a Geisha    Arthur Golden
27    The Lovely Bones    Alice Sebold
28    Atonement    Ian McEwan
29    Room    Emma Donoghue
30    Catch-22    Joseph Heller
31    We Need to Talk About Kevin    Lionel Shriver
32    His Dark Materials    Philip Pullman
33    Captain Corelli’s Mandolin    Louis De Bernieres
34    The Island    Victoria Hislop
35    Neverwhere    Neil Gaiman
36    The Poisonwood Bible    Barbara Kingsolver
37    The Catcher in the Rye    J. D. Salinger
38    Chocolat    Joanne Harris
39    Never Let Me Go    Kazuo Ishiguro
40    The Five People You Meet in Heaven    Mitch Albom
41    One Hundred Years of Solitude    Gabriel Garcia Marquez
42    Animal Farm    George Orwell
43    The Pillars of the Earth    Ken Follett
44    The Eyre Affair    Jasper Fforde
45    Tess of the D’Urbervilles    Thomas Hardy
46    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory    Roald Dahl
47    **I Capture the Castle    Dodie Smith
48    The Wasp Factory    Iain Banks
49    Life of Pi    Yann Martel
50    The Road    Cormac McCarthy
51    Great Expectations    Charles Dickens
52    Dracula    Bram Stoker
53    The Secret History    Donna Tartt
54    Small Island    Andrea Levy
55    The Secret Garden    Frances Hodgson Burnett
56    Lord of the Flies    William Golding
57    Persuasion    Jane Austen
58    A Prayer for Owen Meany    John Irving
59    Notes from a Small Island    Bill Bryson
60    **Watership Down    Richard Adams
61    Night Watch    Terry Pratchett
62    Brave New World    Aldous Huxley
63    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time    Mark Haddon
64    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell    Susanna Clarke
65    The Color Purple    Alice Walker
66    My Sister’s Keeper    Jodi Picoult
67    The Stand    Stephen King
68    Cloud Atlas    David Mitchell
69    The Master and Margarita    Mikhail Bulgakov
70    Anna Karenina    Leo Tolstoy
71    Cold Comfort Farm    Stella Gibbons
72    Frankenstein    Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
73    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society    Mary Ann Shaffer
74    The Picture of Dorian Gray    Oscar Wilde
75    Gone with the Wind    Margaret Mitchell
76    The Graveyard Book    Neil Gaiman
77    The Woman in White    Wilkie Collins
78    The Princess Bride    William Goldman
79    A Suitable Boy    Vikram Seth
80    Perfume    Patrick Suskind
81    The Count of Monte Cristo    Alexandre Dumas
82    The God of Small Things    Arundhati Roy
83    Middlemarch    George Eliot
84    Dune    Frank Herbert
85    Wolf Hall    Hilary Mantel
86    Stardust    Neil Gaiman
87    Lolita    Vladimir Nabokov
88    Midnight’s Children    Salman Rushdie
89    Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone    J. K. Rowling
90    Shantaram    Gregory David Roberts
91    The Remains of the Day    Kazuo Ishiguro
92    Possession: A Romance    A. S. Byatt
93    Tales of the City    Armistead Maupin
94    Kafka on the Shore    Haruki Murakami
95    The Magus    John Fowles
96    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas    John Boyne
97    A Fine Balance    Rohinton Mistry
98    Alias Grace    Margaret Atwood
99    Norwegian Wood    Haruki Murakami
100   The Wind-up Bird Chronicle    Haruki Murakami

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Challenge Update: Where Are You Reading?

Posted on October 1, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Well, you might recall from my last challenge update that I COMPLETED (yay!) two of the three challenges I took on for 2011, and with months to spare, too. Now that the year is drawing nearer to its close, it’s time to concentrate on the last and most difficult one: Where Are You Reading? Sheila at One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books has assigned this one. My job is to read a book set in each of the 50 states, plus bonus points for foreign locations. (Take a look at my map to see where I’ve been.)

So. At this point I’ve completed 24 of the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia!), and it’s time to start picking and choosing those remaining. They are:

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maryland
  • Mississippi
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • Tennessee
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin

Here we are, kids: I need your help! Please to recommend me some books! Do you have a book (or an author of several books) who writes in one of these states that you can recommend to me? I would greatly appreciate it. For example, if you were looking for Louisiana I would GUSH over James Lee Burke to you. But Virginia? Beats me. Help a girl out!

Do you think I’m going to make it?

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Banned and Challenged Classics

Posted on September 29, 2011 by pagesofjulia


I love lists of books. I especially love to note which books I’ve read, and which I want to read, on other people’s lists of best books, classic books, Books Everyone Should Read, and suchlike. This book is both timely (hello, Banned Books Week) and fun because it combines two concepts that make me interested in a book: that somebody is calling it a Classic, and that somebody thought it was too racy or thoughtful for people (especially little kids) to read. (This usually recommends a book to me, or at least piques my interest. I’m not weird, am I?)

So here are Banned and Challenged Classics according to the American Library Association. Again, my notations are:

Bold = I’ve read it
Italicized = I’ve started the book, but never finished
Neither = I haven’t picked it up.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

See, this is interesting: I think I have my highest percentage-read on this book, than of any of the lists I’ve reviewed here so far. (That, and a number of them make My List.) My personal reaction to this list is… wow, these are really excellent books. What a shame that anyone has tried to limit access to them. (And then there’s The Satanic Verses, which I really couldn’t get into. And Faulkner? Ugh, I couldn’t make any headway; although I was trying The Sound and the Fury, which I’ve since heard is not the best first-read.) That, and who the heck challenged The Call of the Wild??

Which books have you read off this list? Which ones are you itching to read? Any you aren’t attracted to?

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working my way through Reacher.

Posted on September 25, 2011 by pagesofjulia

(Presumably you saw my Die Trying post yesterday.)

I am working my way through the entire Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, slowly but very surely. And I’m having to start taking notes on which one included which action, because there are so many and I was out of order. Here they are in the order Child recommends:

  1. Killing Floor: our introduction to ex-military cop Jack Reacher, on the roam, who is arrested in Margraves, Georgia for a murder he didn’t commit. When he finally finds out who the victim was, it becomes his case to solve.
  2. Die Trying: Reacher stops to help a woman struggling with her dry-cleaning on a Chicago sidewalk, and gets kidnapped along with her. She turns out to be a well-connected FBI agent, and they have to work together to escape a truly bizarre criminal scheme.
  3. Tripwire, which I’m listening to now. Begins in Key West but quickly moves to New York City, where Reacher reconnects with an old friend and works to solve a mystery that stretches back to the jungles of the Vietnam War.
  4. Running Blind (yes, in two posts): A series of career women with the U.S. Army are dying, and the authorities are sure Reacher is their killer. This makes it his case to solve.
  5. Echo Burning, my very first Reacher book! I fell in love, not only with Reacher himself, but with the setting: far West Texas, where the desert of my home state meets Mexico and lawlessness reigns. An attractive housewife in a horrible predicament needs Reacher’s help, professional killers are on their way, and the final showdown remains one of my favorites.
  6. Without Fail, up next
  7. Persuader: A ghost from Reacher’s past reappears on a busy city sidewalk. He’s supposed to be dead. Reacher undertakes to fix the problem.
  8. The Enemy
  9. One Shot: A sniper is killing wantonly in Indiana. With all the evidence pointing to one man, it’s an easy arrest. But he wants Reacher there, and won’t say why. The police can’t find him, but don’t have to, because he shows up on his own. He knows the sniper from his army days, and may have something to add to the case.
  10. The Hard Way: Reacher is drafted into a private security company to find the boss’s kidnapped wife and child. He’s back in the detective business suddenly, not sure who he can trust. The solution might surprise us all, Reacher included.
  11. Bad Luck and Trouble
  12. Nothing to Lose: Hope and Despair are two towns in Colorado that deserve their names. What’s going on in Despair, and why don’t they want Reacher around? Telling him to leave is a good way to get him to return, repeatedly, until he understands. Luckily there’s a cute cop in Hope who might be willing to help.
  13. Gone Tomorrow: Reacher spots a subway bomber with his expert eyes in the first pages, but it will take the whole book to find out what she really had in mind and why.
  14. 61 Hours: Winter in South Dakota would be nasty enough without a threatened prison riot and gosh-knows-what headed our way. Keep your eyes peeled for a heroic local librarian. 🙂
  15. Worth Dying For: A frightened town in Nebraska that wants Reacher to leave immediately obviously really needs him to stay and fight the bullies.
  16. The Affair comes out the day after tomorrow!! Hie thee to a bookstore! My library has it on order (hardback & on audio), but I’m going to wait til I’ve worked my way through them all before I get to the latest.

Also, The Second Son, a recent Reacher short story.

If you have been clicking these links, you may have noticed a few things. One: I didn’t read them in order. Or rather, I read a bunch of them out of order and then realized what a fan I had become, and went back and worked in order through the ones I’d missed, which may be a little silly but has been working for me. Two: I have polished my bloggingness: Some of those older posts exhibit qualities I have learned to avoid, like covering two books in one post (I only do this now in the rare digest-version post, like after a vacation), or NOT titling the post after the book. Sorry. I just have too many other interesting things to do, than go back and fix those old posts. From now on, polish.

Anybody else reading – or have you already read – all the Lee Child series of Jack Reacher novels? Any other fans out there? I know there are; he’s a popular guy… also know we’re not all fans. My Pops, for one, didn’t dig the 61 Hours audiobook I lent him. It sounds like it was the short-and-choppy writing style that did it for him (or, didn’t do it for him) as well as the significant suspension of disbelief required to get down with Reacher’s superheroness. He didn’t hate it, though. More so, Raych at books i done read appears to have hated Die Trying. Reading her review made me cringe (just a little) because I LOVE and she DIDN’T, but they can’t all please us all. How long the lines would be, if we all liked the same stuff! It’s okay, Raych, I forgive you. Everything she said of Reacher (or Child) was true; no arguments; just a different appeal to this different girl.

Have you read any? What’s your call?

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Challenge Update

Posted on September 1, 2011 by pagesofjulia

My last update was at the beginning of June. Time to check in again.

Where Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books. The idea is to read one book from each of the 50 states within the 2011 year. (Bonus points are awarded for foreign locations.) Take a look at my map to see where I’ve been. So far, I’ve read in 25 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Washington DC, Wyoming) and 17 foreign locations (Canada: Toronto and BC, Wales, Mexico, Dresden, Dublin, Kenya, London, Nepal, Paris, St. Mark’s, Stockholm, Switzerland, Jerusalem, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Okinawa).

This has been a fun challenge because, so far, I’ve yet to start hunting down locations at all. It’s interesting to see where I’m reading. But soon… the pressure builds, and I think I’m going to have to start searching for some of these locations. It’s funny to see what’s been easy and what’s been difficult; I’m not surprised that Texas (home state), Louisiana (neighbor), New York, and California (big, important states) were easy to take care of. But I was surprised to see places like Nebraska and Connecticut get ticked off so easily. It will certainly be an interesting game to pull it all together in the final weeks of December!

The Classics Challenge is hosted by Courtney at Stiletto Storytime, and I signed up for the bachelor’s degree level, meaning 10 classics in 2011. It’s been a great motivator for me this year. I’ve read:

  1. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
  2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  3. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  4. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  5. Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein
  6. Don Quixote by Cervantes (just part one for now, but the rest is to come, I promise)
  7. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  8. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
  9. Othello by William Shakespeare
  10. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (just parts one and two so far, the rest to come by mid-October)

HEY look at me! I finished this one with months to spare! Yay classics! I did, of course, read a number of very short classics – the two Shakespeare plays, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Tender Buttons (short, but not quick!!), and Main Street of moderate length. But I think Gone With the Wind and Don Quixote should more than compensate. I think there will be more to come, too. Why stop here? (I did do some post-bacc English coursework after my BA and before my MLS. I guess I won’t stop at the bachelor’s level of this challenge, either. :)) I’ve got Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood going on audio as we speak!

What’s In a Name? is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. The goal is to read books with certain title attributes.

Wow! Another one! I tell you, when I started drafting this “challenge update” post I had no idea I’ve have 2 out of 3 completed this early. Very exciting.

So now it’s just down to the Where Are You Reading? challenge. I knew that one would be a doozy. Soon, it might be time to start seeking books out by state, sigh.

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Musing Mondays: the last book

Posted on August 29, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I don’t often participate in Musing Mondays (hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, and thank you ma’am) but today’s topic was too tempting to pass up. So here, briefly, are some recent books in my life.

What was the last book you…
• borrowed from the library? The library where I work? Lee Child’s Tripwire on audio. (I’m almost through with Die Trying so it’s up next.) The library where I do not work? Hm, that’s hard… it’s been a while… would have been The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear, according to my library account online. (I turned on the history-recording feature. It doesn’t do that automatically, of course. USA PATRIOT Act and rights to privacy and all.)
• bought? Gone With the Wind. For the readalong.
• cried over? Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson. I’m waiting for Shelf Awareness to publish my review so I can post it here, but to say it briefly, I loved.
• disliked and couldn’t finish? Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King.
• read & loved? The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar (review to come at Shelf Awareness). recommend.
• got for review? (or: got in the mail?) I guess the last one to arrive was Masscult and Midcult, a collection of essays by Dwight Macdonald which I did not make it very far into at all before giving up. (failed to be the last book I disliked and couldn’t finish because I was more BLAH or MEH than EW about it.)
• gave to someone else? The Barbarian Nurseries, again, along with On Bicycles, both handed off to buddy Fil. (I want Barbarian back though, because my mother is next in line for it.)
• stayed up too late reading? Hm, you know, I’ve been pretty good lately! So good in fact that I can’t even name one for you! Or maybe I’ve just been that tired? I was certainly out too late last night, coming home with Lee Child’s Die Trying audiobook in the car, does that count? (We went to a Katrina Memorial event headlined by the New Orleans Hustlers Jazz Band. Most of the acts were questionable but the Hustlers were great fun.)

And what are YOU up to these days, bookishly?

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miscellany: literary links

Posted on August 11, 2011 by pagesofjulia

A few fun items for you today!

  • The Best 100 Opening Lines From Books
  • followed intuitively by The Best 100 Closing Lines From Books
    (I am proud of Papa Hemingway for making several appearances!)
    Do you think they chose well? I took issue with only one of the closing lines – the one about diarrhea didn’t strike me as especially profound or clever. It sounded like a middle or filler line to me.
  • and, 10 Real-Life Places That Inspired Literary Classics. This really got me excited, mostly about the farmhouse that supposedly inspired Wuthering Heights. I would love to see that! We have just nixed the idea of the UK as a travel option (vacation fast approaching here) in favor of another literary destination, the Florida Keys, for the Hemingway House (along with lots of other features, including Husband-friendly ones).

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10 books you should have read in high school: a fresh list

Posted on August 10, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Recently several of you commented on 10 books you should have read in high school. They’re back. Here is an alternate list of 10 books, leaning towards more recent, “experimental” choices. Do you like these any better? Unsurprisingly, my readership level is much lower here: only 2 of 10, as opposed to 8 of 10 in the first round.

  • Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace: No.
  • Maus, Art Spiegelman: No, but I’m interested.
  • Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy: Haven’t read. Interested, but also intimidated. Tolstoy intimidates me.
  • Swamplandia!, Karen Russell: No. But I did buy it for the library!
  • Reality Hunger, David Shields: huh?
  • The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy: No, but it was recently discussed here… I took it off the shelf :-/
  • Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag: No, but I think I’m in favor all the same!
  • Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card: I read this one! Just recently, for a reader’s advisory class. Very much enjoyed it, recommend it, and see an application for high schoolers. Think it would be well received, too.
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein: No, but I did read Stranger in a Strange Land as self-education while I was in high school. That recommendation came from my parents and fit into the same period, for me, as 1984 (loved) and Brave New World (didn’t really work for me but maybe I should try again?).
  • Beloved, Toni Morrison: I read this for school. Must have been high school. Enjoyed and could recommend for this purpose.

Please share your thoughts? We all like a good list, yes? (Or a list we can argue the goodness of…)

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I don’t regret the books I’ve read, but those I did not read

Posted on August 10, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I work in a library that focuses mostly on fiction, mostly on bestsellers, and mostly on recent releases. Recently released bestselling fiction is the big hit, although we certainly carry exceptions to each category, too. I get asked a lot about books. I get asked for advice on what a patron should read – this is the most common and the most natural and appropriate; I’ve taken courses and read books about “reader’s advisory” service, which means advising what books a person might enjoy, based on what they’ve enjoyed (or not) in the past. (I still consider myself woefully inadequate, mostly because we can’t read them all! But I try – and I’m familiar with what’s expected, with what reader’s advisory entails, even when I can’t perform.) Almost as frequently, I get asked about what I am reading, what I like to read, what I’ve read recently. This can be a tricky one. It should be easy – I should be able to answer honestly, and that should often lead to a fun, stimulating conversation, even if our reading tastes differ. (Which is fine! I like to say, how boring would it be if we all liked the same things? And how long the lines would be, too!) But sometimes I get some strange questions or strange responses. Today, when asked what the last book I read was, I answered truthfully: The Taming of the Shrew. I was rewarded with deep, uncontrollable belly laughter as the patron stumbled out wiping his eyes. I don’t entirely understand. Carry on, sir.

I also get asked difficult questions, like, “which Christian fiction author do you like to read?” The truthful answer is none; the diplomatic answer is “Jan Karon and Karen Kingsbury are very popular. What are you looking for? Who have you enjoyed in the past?” It always makes me smile bemusedly when people ask me, “do you read?” (I’m sure there is a librarian out there who doesn’t, but really.) Or another favorite, when a big batch of hot-off-the-presses, brand-new books arrive: “have you read all of these?” To which I reply, “no. I put them out for you all, first.” But sometimes I can’t resist grabbing a brand new one, I confess. The Reversal and The Paris Wife both came straight home with me, for example. And sometimes I get to read a gally before publication, as I did with Chevy Stevens’ Never Knowing (review yet to come, via Shelf Awareness). But mostly, my access to our library’s new books is limited in the same way my patrons’ access is: by availability. Also, I’m very busy, have lots of reading to do, and try to prioritize their access more highly than my own.

I do get excited about a lot of the books that I buy for the library. And I do get to read a lot of them, but I miss more than I hit. By how many? Well, I got curious. Out of 2011 book orders to date, I have read (in no particular order):

**Some of these were among the best I’ve read this year, too.

But on the other hand, I wanted to read:

  • Turn of Mind, Alice LaPlante
  • Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell
  • County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital, David Ansell
  • Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading, Nina Sankovitch
  • The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, Daniel J. Sharfstein
  • The Clamorgans: One Family’s History of Race in America, Julie Winch
  • The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon
  • The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, Alice Ozma
  • Ruby Red, Kerstin Gier
  • The Butterfly’s Daughter, Mary Alice Monroe
  • Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Sara Gran
  • I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, Steve Earle
  • Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America, David S. Reynolds
  • Georgia Bottoms, Mark Childress
  • One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde
  • Mr. Chartwell, Rebecca Hunt
  • Oracle of Stamboul, Michael David Lukas
  • Cleaning Nabokov’s House, Leslie Daniels
  • Crime: Stories, Ferdinand von Schirach

…that’s a lot of books. I may still make it to several of these – I have my heart set on County, for example. (I want to continue my reading of history and historical fiction in Chicago and the northeast, as in The Devil in the White City, Newspaper Titan, Around the World on Two Wheels and Clara and Mr. Tiffany.) But others will just fall off my wish list gradually for lack of attention – or move up it, if someone else raves. This is the joyful problem of the avid reader and professional librarian: so many options, so little time.

I know I’m not alone! What has passed you by this year that you’re still hoping to find time for? Or, what DID you find time for that turned out really, really well? Best of 2011? (We’re talking published in 2011 here for now. My best of 2011 [published in] are those asterisked, above.) Anything really terrible? (I found Gone with a Handsomer Man very disappointing.) Please do share. Tell me I’m not alone. 🙂

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10 books you really should have read in high school

Posted on August 3, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’m a sucker for a list like this.

MSN gives us a list of 10 books you really should have read in high school.

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Nawthorne
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

My stats on this list are pretty good: 8 out of 10. Here’s your list again with my comments.

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I found this moving and interesting; I think I read it twice in high school, and only once was required. Thumbs up.
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Nawthorne: I’m pretty sure I didn’t read this book until I was back in college after my BA, taking post-bacc courses. It was required reading, then. I did find it to address some important concepts, and I think it would do well in high school, too. Thumbs up.
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: I did read this in high school, although I feel fairly sure it wasn’t for school. Although there is no end of discussion of and raving about this book, it didn’t grab me. Perhaps there’s something specifically male about the perspective. I found it dull. Because I know it’s spoken of as being important, I’ll generously give it a meh.
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Wonderful book. Was required reading for me in high school and I think it should be. Thumbs decidedly up.
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Nobody made me read this in high school, but it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Funny, and relevant in any age, witty, clever, and important. Thumbs up!
  • Siddhartha by Herman Hesse: Have never read. You tell me, what am I missing?
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding: Loved it. Read for school in high school. I think this is an important book. Thumbs up, absolutely.
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: If I had to choose just one that every high school kid should read, this would be it.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Another no-brainer in my book.
  • The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand: And here’s the other I’ve never read. I have heard that Ayn Rand is a) difficult and b) not, politically, for everyone. What are your thoughts? This is certainly the first I’ve heard of her as a high school required reading selection.

Please share, what are your reactions? How many have you read?

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