Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Books books books!

I feel as if my last few blog posts have been questionable in terms of their relevance to science, sewing, or sautéing, so in the interest of “crafting” (sewing’s cousin, right?) here are two things I made in pottery class this year. I call them “bird mug” and “flower bowl.”















Ah, I feel like a legitimate part of the group now. Legit enough to get to my real post: books books books! I begin with a sad fact: I lost my list of books to read some time ago. It’s hard enough trying to recreate a list of books that you came up with yourself, but it’s a whole new ballgame when you’re attempting to recall titles and authors that other people had suggested. Unfortunately, at least 83% of my list was made up of other people’s suggestions. Needless to say I gave up and started over, hence the book email I sent to you all a few months back.

Keeping in line with my first book list, I did not want to be confined by my own literary experiences—it’s more fun incorporating other people’s recommendations into the mix. I also realized that in addition to discovering what others have read and enjoyed, I was interested in knowing what folks intended to read. So here’s a little compilation of titles and authors, courtesy of you all:


The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
Bossypants Tina Fey
In the Garden of Beasts Erik Larson
A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin
Medium Raw Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
The Paris Wife Paula McLain
The Help Kathryn Stockett
Modoc Ralph Helfer
Polar Dream Helen Thayer
A Complicated Kindness Miriam Toews
Anna Pigeon series Nevada Barr
Something Fierce Carmen Aguirre
The Big Year Mark Obmascik
Pink Boots and a Machete Mireya Mayor
The Corrections Jonathan Franzen
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective's Agency Alexander McCall Smith
Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey
Merlin trilogy Mary Stewart
The Power of One Bryce Courtenay
Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
Best Laid Plans Terry Fallis
1Q84 Haruki Murakami
The Orphan Master's Son Adam Johnson
A Study in Sherlock Laurie R. King (editor)
The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern
Still Alice Lisa Genova
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
Josephine B trilogy Sandra Gulland
Trinity Leon Uris
Song of the Dodo David Quammen
A Primate's Memoir Robert Sapolsky
Why Zebra's Don't Get Ulcers Robert Sapolsky
South Ernest Shackleton
Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold
Foutainhead Ayn Rand
Three Cups of Tea Greg Mortenson
Three Day Road Joseph Boyden
The Hakawati Rabih Alameddine
the Arthurian saga Jack Whyte
The Lacuna                                       Barbara Kingsolver
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And this is the result of those emails...so far...


Almost all of these books, authors, or genres are on people’s “to read” list, and helped guide my wandering eyes while in the bookshops. Libraries are great, but there is something to be said about adding a couple new titles to the ol’ bookshelf, know what I mean? If you’ve forgotten, I suspect you’ll remember sooner rather than later. ;-)

Happy Reading!