Wednesday 5 January 2011

2010 Reading list

Another year, another 46 or so books read. I've started exchanging the books I can't keep at paperbackswap.com. So far I've got a stack of 17 exchanged books for 2011 plus many other new books that have lingered from prior years.

I only listened to one audio book this year but it was a biggie! At 64 hours of recording (or 1136 pages) Atlas Shrugged was something to get through. I guess you either love or hate Ayn Rand. I fall in the latter category. I got to the end and I know who John Galt is but I have to say I did not enjoy most of the journey. [Actually there was another audio book - Around the World in 80 days which we listened to whilst driving between Texas and New Mexico]

Lucy and I read three novels together - Trumpet of the Swan, Little House in the Big Woods and Where the Mountain meets the moon. She loved them all and can't wait to do more in the Little House series.

My top three fiction for the year are: A Fine Balance, Divided Kingdom, The Man who was Thursday.

I also discovered the Diary of a Nobody which is very similar to one of my favourite books Three Men in a Boat so I will be reading the Diary again in the future.


For non-fiction I would highly recommend Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It inspired me to grow more food in our garden and it introduced us to home cheese making.


Here's the 2010 list in reverse reading order:

What Is a Family

Schaeffer, Edith

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Lin, Grace *

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment

Jacobs, A.J.

A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary

Botton, Alain de *

Praise

McGahan, Andrew

The Castle

Kafka, Franz

The Everlasting God: A Character Study of God in the Old and New Testaments

Knox, D. Broughton

The Best of Myles

O'Brien, Flann

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Twain, Mark

Atlas Shrugged

Rand, Ayn

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

Pipher, Mary Bray

Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood

Martin, Jamie C.

Nightmare Abbey & Crotchet Castle (Penguin English Library El 45)

Peacock, Thomas Love

The Fifth Mountain

Coelho, Paulo

The Blue Flower and The Bookshop

Fitzgerald, Penelope

The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels

Truss, Lynne

Let the Great World Spin

McCann, Colum

At Home in Mitford (Mitford Years, #1)

Karon, Jan

Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)

Wilder, Laura Ingalls

A Moveable Feast

Hemingway, Ernest

Frugal Luxuries by the Seasons: Celebrate the Holidays with Elegance and Simplicity--on Any Income

McBride, Tracey

The Diary of a Nobody

Grossmith, George

The Hunter

Leigh, Julia

Granta 111: Going Back

Granta

The Land of Green Plums

Müller, Herta

Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics

Reist, Melinda Tankard

Divided Kingdom

Thomson, Rupert

Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls

Reist, Melinda Tankard

Around the World in 80 Days

Plummer, Christopher

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1)

Satrapi, Marjane

The Big Sleep

Chandler, Raymond

A Fine Balance

Mistry, Rohinton

Living With the Underworld

Bolt, Peter

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

Chesterton, G.K.

Father Brown: The Essential Tales {15 Tales}

Chesterton, G.K.

It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita

Armstrong, Heather B.

The Brotherhood of the Grape

Fante, John

No Ordinary View

Reed, Naomi

My Seventh Monsoon: a Himalayan journey of faith and mission

Reed, Naomi

Jazz Notes: Improvisations on Blue Like Jazz

Miller, Donald

A Deeper Shade of Blue: A Woman's Guide to Recognizing and Treating Depression in Her Childbearing Years

Nonacs, Ruta

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Winchester, Simon

Angels: God's secret agents

Graham, Billy

Gilead

Robinson, Marilynne

The Trumpet of the Swan

White, E.B.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Kingsolver, Barbara

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World

Koeppel, Dan

Madame Bovary

Flaubert, Gustave

1 comment:

Carrie said...

Fiona you have the most amazing reading list. I appreciate the, for lack of better words, diversity and intellect you bring to my view of American Christianity. Happy New Year to you and your family.

Carrie