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This year I made a resolution to read at least 30 books, I’m already half done and we’re only through the first quarter! I have always posted a lengthy review post at the end of the year, but I think this year my reviews are longer, a lot more in-depth, and I have a lot more books so far that I have loved.  Besides, you don’t want to wait until the end of December to get a new list of recommendations, right? Of course, right. The four and five-star books are ones I would recommend.

2-STAR READS:

Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, Ree Drummond. Um, I really disliked this book. I read Ree’s blog occasionally and have appreciated a solid recipe or ten from her repertoire. However, I find her insipid, overly descriptive, and far too obsessed with both her own looks and her husbands looks. He’s hot, he makes your knees weak, I get it. STOP TALKING ABOUT IT! I kept hoping for her to pull out of her very selfish lifestyle and give Mr. Cigarette Man (an irksome nickname if ever I’ve heard one, even if she did smoke in college) the kind of relationship he is working so hard to make every single day. She takes, takes, takes, and then takes some more, and when Ciggy (a.k.a. Marlboro Man) has to go fight a FIRE, on the PRAIRIE, in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT she gets all huffy that he didn’t handle the situation for her very best, most romantically inclined, hormonally fueled interests. She just wanted to curl up in his huge, biceped arms. But no, instead of that he just tries to save his land, the ranch that is his lifeblood. So, she gets super pissy, and THEN she starts imagining this ridiculous scenario where he has fallen into the arms and bed of another woman within 24 hours. I cannot imagine functioning with that level of insecurity all the time. Ciggy clearly loves her the way she is, high maintenance and selfish and shallow, but from her writing I never felt that she loves him that way. She thinks he’s hot and can’t stop talking about his biceps, but she avoids the things that are the most important to him as much as possible. Gaaahhh, her writing made me want to poke my eye out with a spork. Dear Ree, stick to recipes and photography tips and blogging, leave the real writing–romance or otherwise–to someone else. Anyone else. Well, anyone but Stephenie Meyer.

3-STAR READS:

Nanjing Requiem, Ha Jin. In the winter of 1937-38 the Japanese Imperial Army invaded China and wreaked havoc on the city of Nanjing (also called Nanking). For 6 weeks troops massacred, raped, pillaged, burned and destroyed this city, killing 300,000-500,000 people (depending on what stats you look at). In the late 1930′s during the Rape of Nanking, this was more than half of the city’s population. The Japanese Army and government refused to admit such torture and genocide ever happened, even after being brought to a war crimes tribunal. This book is written about Jinling College, a women’s college in the center of Nanjing and tells the true story of Minnie Vautrin and the other foreigners (mostly Americans and Germans) who remained in China during the war and tried to keep the Chinese citizens safe. Jinling college was transformed to be a temporary refugee camp and housed, fed and protected more than 10,000 women and girls during the occupation. I was drawn to the story, the horrors of the war and the international cover-up of the crimes committed both by Japanese soldiers and Chinese soldiers and citizens caught in the crossfire. However, the writing at times is stiff and stale and the characters seem a bit wooden. English is Ha Jin’s second language, and there were chunks that were pages long where that was very apparent. Some adjectives were off-putting and I had a hard time making his words fit the passionate, dramatic horror story and strong-willed characters he was describing.

 Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, Bill Bryson. Apparently, I am hit and miss with Bill Bryson. I really disliked his book about Shakespeare’s life, and I absolutely loved his book about Australia. This tale of a hop-skip-and-jump across Europe was entertaining and had a few tidbits that I scribbled in a notebook or marked with sticky notes for an upcoming European vacation, but mostly I found him put out and exasperated. I realize that is part of his humor, but after 200 pages of “this isn’t the Europe I knew 20 years ago!” whine I was pretty fed up with the whole thing. There have been wars (Bosnia) and the collapse of the Iron Curtain (former USSR) and the invention of the European Union and a mass move towards globalization. How did he think that would (not) affect the bulk of the European continent? Again, he is a great writer and concocted many hilarious paragraphs, but it hardly made up for so much complaining.

Style, Kate Spade. This handbook-style book is a quick read, I finished it in one afternoon. I enjoyed Kate Spade’s thoughts and sentiment on style and pattern mixing and color. Although, while I appreciate and respect her style and what she has done for the wider world of fashion, I don’t think I got much more from this book than a happy eyeful of pretty watercolors. I suppose I don’t identify with her style much more than lusting after her handbags and shoes, and her inspirations in art, books, movies or music were mostly things I had never seen, read, listened to, or even heard of.

The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had never read this book before, and  at nearly 400 pages I was looking forward to a week-plus of reveling in Fitzgerald prose. I quickly got distracted by this satirical look at the rich, young society in Manhattan and the two truly unlikable main characters. In fact, I didn’t find a single character I liked in the entire book. And I kept thinking about Gossip Girl, which will ruin Fitzgerald for anyone. The basic gist is that you spend money like crazy, drink like crazy, emotionally and physically cheat on your spouse like crazy, despise your spouse because, I don’t know, you can, have multiple nervous breakdowns, and then at the end you get a heft inheritance and move to Europe. I was hoping for some kind of justice for Anthony and Gloria, but no, just like Blair and Chuck and Serena they do whatever they want without any real consequences. (I tolerate today’s “Manhattan Elite” because I love their shoes…)

4-STAR READS:

Picasso’s War, Russell Martin. This is a re-read for me, but after finishing My Name is Asher Lev which talks about art during the first half of the 1900′s where Picassso was the master and king, I decided to re-read this. Picasso’s War is a semi-biographical book about Picasso as a Spanish exile living and painting in France. The bulk of the book details the Spanish Civil War in 1937-1939, which in many ways was a testing ground for Hitler and Mussolini to flex their muscles on a compliant and cowardly Franco government. (“Franco” as in Francisco, not as in French.) In April 1937 the German army bombed the Basque town of Gernika, the first time a town had been bombed simply to create terror. The point was to kill as many unarmed civilians as possible. It was the beginning of modern warfare that has included bombings in Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mylai, Vietnman and New York City and, most recently, Afghanistan. Immediately upon hearing the news of Gernika’s annihilation, Picasso started on a grand mural (11′ wide by 28′ tall) for the World’s Fair to be held in Paris that summer; the resulting painting was Guernica, one of the most important and historical paintings of the 20th century. I could only give this book 4 stars because Martin does not include a substantial bibliography, and with so much historical data and seemingly personal statements by Picasso and those who worked with and knew him, I feel a bibliography is required. Excellent book, however. Recommended.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon. This fiction account of the creation of the great superhero comics was fascinating. Did you know that Superman and many of the other superhero characters we know and love, were created by young Jewish men who used those scenarios on the pages of comic books as their own personal war against the anti-Semitic powers in Europe? Fascinating, right? Add to that the characters of Kavalier and Clay, one an escape artist/magician and the other a brilliant but tortured business man.

5-STAR READS:

A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar. This biography of John Nash was the basis for the movie starring Russel Crowe. Nasar reconstructs Nash’s life from his blue-collar hometown in West Virginia, to his interest in engineering, and then mathematics and his amazing breakthroughs in game theory, linear algebra and complex geometry. You don’t need to be a math whiz to understand the jargon, there are only a few paragraphs with actual equations in them. Did you know that while Nash was studying for his doctorate at Princeton (which he earned at age 21) he rubbed shoulders with well-known geniuses such as Einstein and John von Neumann? In his early 30′s, Nash spiraled into a 25-year battle with schizophrenia, and this book details the disease, treatments/lack of treatment, how that affected Nash, his mind, and his family. In the 1990′s Nash made a remarkable recovery and continued to produce new, creative research and valid mathematical arguments. In 1994 he won the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory and how it helped move the field of economics forward. This is, perhaps, the best biography I have ever read. Recommended.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer. I wanted to read this book before going to see the movie (and I wanted to see the movie before the Oscar’s in February). I loved it, I loved Oskar’s mind, the way he thought about things, the way he processed his own grief and the way he clung to the memory of his father. I didn’t cry, but I absolutely loved this book.

Infidel, Ayaan Ali Hirsi. This is not an easy book to read, it’s real and raw and full of things I never knew and now cannot imagine un-knowing. Hirsi grew up on the eastern horn of Africa–Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Saudia Arabia–in a very oppressive Muslim clan/family, and her transformation from girl to woman to refugee in the Netherlands and then to a member of Parliament is poignant and will wrench on every emotional string in your heart. Her story is incredible, her drive inspirational, and her story is completely life changing. Read it. If it doesn’t profoundly move you I don’t know if we can be friends.

Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri. This Pulitzer-prize winning collection of short stories was a quick but wonderful read. I loved having little glimpses into Indian culture as I devoured story after story from multiple continents, backgrounds and experiences. Some of the stories were heartbreaking, some were more artistic, many implemented bits of Indian culture and history and I loved being able to pluck out new facts about the Civil War between Pakistan and what is now Bangladesh.

My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok. I absolutely loved this book. It’s about art and religion and the bravery and courage and heartbreak that comes from breaking away from tradition to be your own person. Asher Lev is a young artist in a strict Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. His parents–especially his father–do not support his art and painting, his father wants Asher to dedicate his life to the church and the cause (helping Jews escape Russia during and after the Cold War) while Asher sees his life work as creating art that may or may not directly align with his strict, Talmud-based upbringing. This was the first book for my Book Club and I wish I had recorded the 90 minute conversation we had about it, just thinking about how many people who loved and were touched by this book makes my heart happy.

The Gift of Asher Lev, Chaim Potok. This is the follow-up book to My Name is Asher Lev and focuses on Asher’s adult life as an artist. He and his family live in France and return to Brooklyn for a family obligation, and they stay. I don’t like the writing style as much as the Asher Lev, it seems Potok has a lot of really choppy sentences. However I love the character arc and the fleshing out of Asher’s adult life including the relationships he has with his parents, his wife, his children, and the Rebbe. This book deals a lot more with the conflict Asher has when God and religion bump up against each other in his Hasidic Brooklyn community.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read this in high school, but hardly remembered a thing about it except for Gatsby’s great house and how much I thought Daisy was the perfect woman. Um, she’s not. Well, not to anyone but Gatsby. I raced through this, gobbling up Fitzgerald’s descriptions and language and characters. I love his imagery and his metaphors. But most of all, I love his writing. I was mesmerized by his writing. Adding several more Fitzgerald books to my towering “Most Important To Read” pile. (As opposed to my “Read These Next” and “Read These Later”, which are subsequent steps down from “Most Important.”)

Zeitoun, Dave Eggers. This non-fiction novel details one man’s experience in New Orleans in the days following Katrina. Zeitoun (zay-toon) own a successful home renovation and painting business, when the storm threatens New Orleans he sends his wife and four children away from New Orleans while he stays to make sure his properties are looked after. He ends up paddling his canoe around the submerged city, rescuing several elderly people and checking on both his business ventures and that of his friends. Things take a terrible turn when Zeitoun, a Syrian Muslim, is arrested without warrant, cause, or due process and ends up spending weeks in a maximum security prison without any kind of information as to why he is being held, and no phone call to let his family know where he is. He compares his treatment to that of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, only he was in Louisiana. I started this book at about 11:30 one night, expecting to read a few pages…and I finished at 3:30 that morning. Read it, this reads part-adventure novel and part-criminal injustice/political statement.

One of my New Year Resolutions this year was to start a book club. I did some research (Google), talked to a book club expert (RA) and got some much needed advice from another book club attender (Janet). Without their input I would still be floundering on this whole idea. I looked over my notes and sent out a query email to 20 friends, crossing my fingers for a favorable response. I was surprised when every single one of those friends responded with “Book club! Yes! I’m in!”

So, now we have a Book Club. We meet once a month, have a mix of men and women, single’s and married couples. There are many hard core readers and some more recreational readers. And, to be honest, there is at least one who I think is just relishing in the thought of socializing with individuals who have big brains, lots of ideas, and enjoy a good debate. Regardless, it’s a great mix of personalities and points of view.

After one very successful book discussion under my belt, I decided to detail out my process for starting my own book club for both my own historical/journaling purposes as well a nicely numbered list of informational items for anyone thinking about starting their own book club.

How To Start A Book Club

1. Send out an email to a handful (or a triple handful) of friends to gauge interest. Be clear that this is a book club, not a monthly dinner party or cocktail hour. The expectation is to read the book and attend the meeting prepared to discuss. Be clear about whether or not members can bring friends or invite others who may be interested. If you are still looking for members, consider putting up a flyer at the bookstore or library, putting up a Craig’s List notice, or putting it out there on Facebook or Twitter to find more interested parties. My book club has over 20 people, if we average 12 attending every month I will be happy.

2. Decide where, and how often you want to meet. I have a large apartment perfectly suited to throwing parties, so I will be hosting Book Club. I also wanted to meet monthly with the knowledge that every person may not be able to come every single month. Our group opted to have Book Club the second Thursday of every month. Other options including alternating the hosting location among member’s homes, or even using a room at the library, church or bookstore to have your discussion.

3. Decide what mix of books you will read. Some book clubs do all their readings from one genre–sci fi, romance novel, biography, memoir–and others have rules on content or length. Because we have a good mix of personalities, I wanted a good mix of book titles as well. I think a page limit is a good idea, so we are shooting for books always under 400 pages and trying to alternate heavier subjects with lighter, easier reads.

4. Decide if you want to choose books that no one has read before or books that a couple of members have previewed and recommend for reading. We decided that we could go either way. Our first book came very highly recommended from a fellow bookophile, and our second book is a very popular memoir at the moment (though I can’t remember if anyone has read it yet).

5. Decide if you want to be the moderator/discussion leader for all titles, or if the person who suggested the book is the discussion leader, or if you want to hire someone to lead your book club. Our group picked my book choice to discuss at the first month’s book club meeting and I will be the moderator for that. Moving forward whoever suggested the title we are reading will also be the discussion moderator.

6. Decide what format you want your book club to take. After reading almost two dozen articles and blog posts on how to start a book club, I decided to have a two-to-two-and-a-half hour meeting in the evening on a week night. The first 30 minutes will be for socialization, chit-chat, and a few light appetizers. The following 60-90 minutes will be a formal discussion on the book. If you don’t want to chit-chat before hand, you can come only for the discussion. If you haven’t read the book and don’t want to hear all the spoilers, you can come before or after the discussion. The discussion is followed by 10 minutes of administrative/house keeping items including reminders of next months’ book and moderator/discussion leader and then people are free to hang out and (hopefully) polish off the dessert platter. At our second meeting (first book discussion) I handed out reminder book marks for next month’s book with a picture of the book cover, date, time and my address.

7. At our first meeting I asked everyone to bring a couple of book suggestions they would like to see discussed. We opted to schedule out a few months ahead with books and moderators, and decide the rest at a later date. It was really helpful to have a good list of books to chose from, and it was a good exercise to have the attendees think about what they wanted to read. Our first few months cover a novel, a memoir, science fiction, and a non-fiction book.

8. Make sure you keep track of all the books that have been suggested, and by whom. You may need that list again. I made a Google doc of the books we have scheduled and others that are up for consideration. I also made a Google calendar with our book club meetings and a reminder email set for 2 weeks prior and 2 days prior, several members have subscribed. You could also use Evite or another, similar service to keep people in the loop and on top of your discussion schedule.

9. I always think food is a good idea for a get-together. At our meetings we will be having a mix of salty and sweet, healthy and not-so-healthy appetizers and snacks. That is in part because I think all parties need finger food, but also because I really like making things that people love to eat. I’m kind of selfish that way I guess. If possible, I would love to include food that somehow relates to the book. For example: if we read The Help I would serve (poop free) chocolate cream pie. RA pointed me towards this book and I can’t wait to dig in to it for some ideas.

10. At some point during your first meeting (and at any subsequent meetings), someone needs to quote Fight Club. “The first rule of Book Club is: You don’t talk about Book Club. The second rule of Book Club is: You don’t talk about Book Club.”Clearly, I talk about my book club and post it all over the internet. I think this would be more accurate: “The first rule about Book Club is: You show up at Book Club. The second rule about Book Club is: You read the book for Book Club.” Sadly, it just doesn’t have the same rhythm or gravitas.

Our first book club discussion was on My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. We talked non-stop for over an hour discussing religion, art, history, talent, and family relations. The book was universally loved and I have already ordered the follow-up book The Gift of Asher Lev. Also, I should note, that I have awesome friends. Of the 22 or so who were invited to Book Club, 20 showed up at our first book discussion. The mix of personalities, backgrounds, and points of view is what made this evening so awesome. Thank you, my friends, for helping me keep my resolution with such class.

Several months ago I read a book more disturbing than anything I have ever read before. Ever. It was scarier than any movie I have ever seen and made my stomach contract into a tiny, terrified little blob. I lost sleep for weeks. What horror author could cause such a reaction? That’s the kicker, he’s not a horror author. Jon Krakauer is usually an extreme adventure writer, but in this case it was a historical non-fiction/crime drama that kept me up nights. I’m sure you’ve heard of Under the Banner of Heaven, yes? Krakauer’s book delves into radical religious zealots, polygamy (both historic and contemporary), extreme fundamentalism, and particularly, a set of ex-Mormon brothers who went on a killing spree in the early 1980′s. Is this book ringing a bell?

Krakauer weaves several different stories together throughout his novel. There are historic chapters about the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1800′s, the beliefs of the Mormons, their leaders, and their migration west across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. The second component of Krakauer’s book revolves around the beliefs and practices of past and current polygamist sects in North America. The third part tells the story of Ron and Dan Lafferty, two brothers who formed their own church so they could practice religion as they wished which included receiving direct revelations from God and resurrecting polygamy and Zionist activities. All of which was fine until they started killing people who opposed them.

You’re probably asking yourself how a true-crime-drama novel where I already knew the ending, justice has taken her course and the bad guys are rotting in jail, would keep me up at night? Those convicted murderers, the Lafferty brothers, lived—and killed—just a few miles from my childhood home. It is extremely disconcerting to read about such gruesome murders taking place on the quiet streets of your hometown. This story is personal to me. Even though the killings, trial and eventual incarceration of the Lafferty’s was almost 30 years ago, it is still stop-your-heart chilling to see the details printed in black and white.

I have started this post a dozen times, and have edited large chunks of ranty-ness out on at least that many occasions. This is a difficult topic to discuss without getting too political, too religious, or too defensive. There are many aspects of Krakauer’s book that paint a people and organization that I respect in a very unflattering light. Krakauer is a self-proclaimed atheist, he does not just think Mormons–mainstream or fundamental–are radical and unjustified in their doctrine and beliefs, he thinks any kind of organized religion is a crock. In my opinion his writing on religious faith is biased, his coverage of LDS church doctrine and principles is not complete, has errors, and is terribly one-sided for non-fiction or investigative journalism. If you are looking for a serious or complete work on LDS church history, this is not it. If you are looking for information on the beliefs of the Mormons, this is not it. However, I am not here to talk about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am not here to discuss historical or modern-day polygamy practices (although, you should remember that the LDS church banned polygamy in 1890 and—and this is important—anyone found practicing polygamy is excommunicated from the church, despite the impression HBO or TLC shows would lead you to believe.). I certainly will not be discussing the current presidential political debate or the definition of marriage. Alright, so if I’m not talking about the Mormons, and if I’m not talking about the polygamist clans of Colorado City (or Salt Lake City, for that matter), or politics, what on earth would garner such a lengthy post? That’s right, the Lafferty brothers.

Ron and Dan Lafferty, along with their three brothers, decided to break away from the LDS Church to found their own fundamentalist sect. One of the basic tenets of their new faith, along with Zionist activities and “end of the world” propaganda, was that polygamy was ordained of God. They all wanted more women to sleep with and they wanted their current wives to play along. Except for their youngest sister-in-law, Brenda, the wives agreed to the new arrangement. Brenda was a college student in her early twenties, and she vehemently opposed the Lafferty’s new lifestyle and refused to support it or their new-found faith. Time went by and the brothers became more entrenched in their fundamentalist sect, recruiting more followers, breeding strange ideas and spouting off stranger doctrine and prophesy. Ron’s wife left him, and with the help and support of a friend, Chloe Low, she moved with their children to Florida. They continued on. A local LDS Church authority, Richard Stowe, agreed to meet with Ron and Dan multiple times to discuss their views and ideas. Eventually, acting according to church policy, he recommended that the Lafferty brothers be excommunicated due to their apostate activities. The brothers continued on in their radical practices, getting more extreme in their doctrine. In 1983, it was “revealed” to them that those who had opposed their burgeoning, polygamist faith were to be eliminated. Ron Lafferty believed that God had given him a license to kill, Dan was in complete agreement on this divine instruction:

It is my will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that My work might go forward…First thy brother’s wife Brenda and her baby, then Chloe Low, then Richard Stowe. And it is My will that they be removed in rapid succession. (pg. 190)

This is where I was stopped dead in my tracks. You see, Richard Stowe is my great-uncle, he lived less than 3 miles from us and I remember going to family parties at his house. This man is my family. And here I am, reading a best-selling, true story, buy-it-in-any-bookstore novel with his name on a death list. Do you know how terrifying it is to read a family name on a death list? Even typing it out gives me the shakes again. I know how this ends, I know that the Lafferty’s got lost trying to find my uncle’s house (which baffles and amazes me as he lived at the intersection of the two busiest roads in town). I know that my uncle and his family were physically unharmed; I know that the Lafferty’s ended up in jail. I KNOW all of that. But still, seeing his name in black and white made my heart catch in my throat and my stomach turn. Thinking about it now still gives me a queasy feeling in my gut.

I wish that was the end of my horror. It wasn’t. When Krakauer was interviewing Lafferty for the book, he also had quite a few chats with Lafferty’s cell mate, Mark Hoffman. It seems that Krakauer included Hoffman’s story as a tangential anecdote about how the Lafferty’s were not the only fundamentalist radicals to ravage Utah County in the 1980’s. However, to me, it made the book even more personal.

Mark Hoffman was a forger and a con-artist. He would go to the rare book and archive rooms of libraries and remove the blank pages out of the front and back of old volumes. He had developed a type of ink that could withstand carbon dating, so when he forged letters on these old pages any testing of the document would yield the exact results he was looking for. Brilliant, really (in a sick, twisted, fraudulent way). In 1985 his plot began to unravel and he was desperate not to be outed as a fraud. One of Hoffman’s clients, a wealthy collector of old documents named Steven Christensen, was becoming particularly suspicious of Hoffman’s claims and the content of these papers. Hoffman decided that this man must be eliminated, so he pieced together a bomb and used it to kill Christensen. To make this murder seem like a business deal gone bad instead of somehow connected to his collecting hobby, Hoffman also disguised a pipe bomb in a delivery box and placed it on the driveway of Christensen’s former employer. When the employer’s wife, Kathy Sheets, picked up the box it exploded and killed her instantly. The third business partner Hoffman planned to murder was Tom Moore. Now, Tom was my two-doors down neighbor, he and his family are one of the kindest, most wonderful I’ve ever met. Did you catch that? A cold-blooded murderer’s next target lived on my street! I played with his kids! As soon as the news broke that in addition to Steve Christensen, Kathy Sheets was also dead, a concerned neighbor handed Tom the keys to his motor home and told him to disappear. The Moore family packed up and left immediately. The very next morning Hoffman was on his way to my neighborhood to plant a bomb at the Moore’s home when the thing accidentally exploded in his car, severely injuring him and alerting the police. Hoffman was arrested, tried and is spending the rest of his life in prison.

Okay, so let’s recap:

• Ron and Dan Lafferty had my great-uncle on the short list of people to kill in July 1983. After brutally murdering their sister-in-law Brenda and her 15-month old daughter Erica, the Lafferty’s got lost on the way to the Stowe home and decided to flee to Nevada instead of continuing their killing spree.
• Two years later Mark Hoffman had already killed two people and was on his way to my street to kill my next-door neighbor when his homemade bomb prematurely exploded.
• In the early 1980’s my very small hometown had a population of maybe 2,000. What was supposed to be a safe-haven for family and community and God-fearing people was the scene for two major murder-sprees within a few years of each other.
• Today, Mark Hoffman and Dan Lafferty share a prison cell 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.

And now you know why I lost so much sleep, even writing this post gives me the heebie-jeebies. I expect nightmares tonight.

Last year I made a very ambitious goal to read 60 books; S-I-X-T-Y.  Now, when I made this decision my life was completely different than it is now.  I thought that I’d finish 60 books by July and this year-end post would begin with my being all smug and obnoxious. Ha ha ha! I’m having a celebratory cupcake because I read 738 books this year!! Um, That’s a lot of books.  Oh, I know there are bookish darlings around the Interwebs who can consume hundreds of books per year.  Uh, I’m not that kind of person.  I wish I was that kind of reader, but I’m not.  If you are that kind of person I am totally jealous of you.  And I think you’re pretty.

A few months after I set my lofty bookish objective (secretly thinking I’d read closer to 75 books, easy peasy) my entire life turned upside down and inside out.  In the last six months I have gone back to school full time, returned to an 8-5 office job, and found my spare reading hours diminish to next to nothing. Coincidentally, with all these changes most of my other resolutions became irrelevant or next-to-impossible.  However, I was determined to complete this one 2010 resolution.  Sixty books.

I did it.  Granted, it was by the skin of my chiny-chin-chin and only possible by a week-long stint on a cruise boat, but I did it.  And my celebratory cupcake was delicious.

Last year I had a lot of internal turmoil trying to decide how to organize my list of books.  This year I opted to put my favorites first and go from there.

Warning: There are approximately 60 mini book reviews filling up the rest of this post.  I’m happy to report that starting with my favorite’s was a wise choice, those reviews are the most coherent.  After writing 45 tidbits of books I’ve read anywhere from a week ago to 12 months ago I’m afraid I kind of copped out and took the easy, less descriptive route for the last ones.  Don’t be mad.

5-STAR READS

All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque. Both heartbreaking and beautiful, this is the account of how war changes men, how their experiences lodge in their hearts and minds and forever change them.  I sobbed.  And then I called my Grandpa and thanked him for serving in WWII.

Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank. I forgot how hopeful Anne was in her attic prison, how young and wise, all at the same time.  The pages of her diary are so real, so terrifying and “business as usual”, all at the same time.

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card. This was my first foray into science fiction in a long time, I was expecting Martians, aliens and lots of Nickelodeon-esque green goo, and was both surprised and fascinated by a psychological study in war, economics, politics, the capabilities of children and the strength of men.

First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung. Loung was captured by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and spent her formative years in work-camp conditions, desperate to survive.  You must read this book, it will break your heart and open your eyes to the real brutality most of us know so little about.

(Note from the Editor: Not sure why I read so many war books, but they are excellent.  You need to know about this stuff and it’s a lot easier to read it here than in a stuffy old history book.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling. I bought this the day it came out and never got to it, it has been sitting on my shelf, unread, ever since.  Don’t judge me.  As soon as I started I couldn’t help but finish, I stayed up until 6:00am completely engrossed in the story. Love.

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. I picked this up on recommendation from one of my lovely bloggy friends (and I don’t remember which one, at this point, but thank you!) and fell in-love with the quirky, coming-of-age story, the characters, the family drama, I loved it all.

In A Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson. Last year I read a Bill Bryson book and absolutely hated it (Shakespeare: The World as a Stage), I was really weary to try another.  But, many of you assured me that Bryson was, in fact, hilarious and wonderful and I should give it a second shot.  You were right.  I LOVED Bryson’s tales of Australia, his writing style, everything.  Aussie-land has moved up on my List Of Places To Visit.

Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou. I feel like this is all the wonderful, motherly advice I always needed and could never really track down; beautifully written and absolutely wonderful.

Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis. This had been recommended so many different times, I read it slowly, underlining passages and thinking about ideas.  I loved it, but I’m afraid not as much as I hoped to.  Classic case of great expectations that are impossible to be met.  Still five stars, however.

Nudge, Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein. Brilliant, insightful, and all that jazz.  If “Freakanomics” explains how the world works, “Nudge” explains how people work and how they make decisions big and small.  Fascinating.

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.  This isn’t a “how to be successful” book, but it gives dozens of small and awesome details of circumstances and lucky breaks that helped nudge some brilliant, awesome people to stardom and wild success.

Paranormalcy, Kiersten White.  This is YA Fiction at it’s most amazing, creepy (not handsome) vampires, faeries, trolls, shape shifters, and any other paranormal creature you can think of.  This is YA at it’s best, and not that I’m biased or anything, but I’ll just let you know that I called this book out as awesome before it hit the New York Time’s best seller list, which happened approximately 6 days after it was released.  Yeah, Kiersten White is THAT Kiersten White.  I have cool friends.)

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak. Death narrates this story of WWII, the Jews who are displaced and the Germans who hide them.  Zusak paints his story, literally, giving emotions and feelings colors, relating experiences and heartbreak to different shades.  I am actually getting all teary again just thinking about Zusak’s characters, story, and skill as an author.

The Female Brain, Louann Brizendine.  This book taught me more about why I am the way that I am than any other book I’ve ever read.  I devoured it, I underlined it, I re-read passages a half-dozen times.  Brizendine discusses traumatic events and how they can affect a female at a variety of ages…it explains so much about me.  About how I think and what I’m afraid of and how I react to certain persons or situations. Love.

The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner.  Weiner travels around the world to the happiest places, from Bhutan to Iceland, and delves into how and why these cultures are the most content.  Not only will you want to move to Bhutan or Iceland, but you will want to rearrange your life to maximize your happiness.

The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls. I love the story of a girl escaping a life she doesn’t want, one where she is unhappy and following her dreams.  This story brought me to tears, made me cheer, and made me want to do something amazing.  Read it.  I know you’ll love it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  By this point you must have heard of this book, it’s the story of the villagers who lived on a small island in the middle of the English Channel during World War II.

The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom.  I had heard about this book from several people before I actually picked it up.  I wish I’d done so earlier, this was one of the most moving books I’ve ever read.  Corrie Ten Boom lived during WWII and organized a massive underground movement to hide Jews and rescue them from the Nazi’s.  Her writing is so honest and her stories are incredible.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.  One of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time with all these one-liners and witticisms that made me laugh out loud, surprising wait staff and fellow travelers.

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair.  I always thought The Jungle was about the horrible conditions of the meat packing district in Chicago, and yes, it covers the unsanitary conditions and all the crap that went into the meat there, but more than that it is about the immigrant experience.  It it beautiful and sweeping and epic about a family’s struggles in a new place with new customs and no access to social programs.  Sinclair writes about the poor and downtrodden in Chicago the way Steinbeck wrote about the immigrant farmers in Oklahoma and California. 

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway. I can’t believe I’d never read this short story, it’s beautiful and wonderful, a fable really about perseverance for perseverance’s sake.  (I’m so glad I read this before I went to La Paz, Mexico.)

What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell.  Do I need to continue to praise Mr. Gladwell?  He doesn’t ever return my fan mail or anything.  Eh, I’ll still talk him up.  What the Dog Saw is a collection of essays, they are brilliant.

4-STAR READS

A Maze of Grace, Trish Ryan.  I love Trish, her first book struck a chord with me in ways I didn’t think I could feel anymore.  This one was just as fantastic, about her struggles with marriage and God and infertility; it is beautiful and approachable.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini.  This study of women and their right (or lack of) in Afghanistan and Pakistan is simultaneously a story of struggle and discrimination as well as love and triumph.  It is difficult to read at times, but important in understanding this area of the world.

Devil in the White City, Erik Larson.  A historical thriller that is full of facts and tidbits about the World Fair in Chicago as well as a serial killer.  It is nerdy and scary and all-together a fantastic story.

Lost on Planet China, J. Maarten Troost.  Troost is one of my favorite travel writers, and his hilarious jaunt through the Middle Kingdom is no exception.

Naked Economics, Charles Wheelan.  An easy introduction to economics that you can understand without needing to reference graphs and lines and equations.  (Yes, I read Econ books for fun, don’t judge.)  If you’ll let me justify my nerdy habits for a moment: econ is the study of how the world works, and it is something you should know about.  Read it.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. I love Steinbeck, and this novella is no exception.  The characters are developed, the story is simple but powerful.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Top Stoppard.  This play is a spin off two small-time characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and is absolutely hilarious.  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play off each other and you will be laughing at their plots and foibles.  (Not written in iambic pentameter, you don’t need to be fluent in Shakespearean prose to understand every line.)

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman. I had never read or even heard of Klosterman when I saw this book and read a few pages.  He’s hilarious and deals with economic principles and theories in ways that anyone can understand and find a way to get their inner geek on.  I’ve since ordered 3 more books by Klosterman.

Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card.  This is the follow-up book to Ender’s Game and it is a little more fantastical, but still a fascinating study in humanity.

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, John Steinbeck.  Steinbeck has written down the stories of King Arthur and all the knights of the Round Table that you’ve either never heard of or forgotten because their stories were not made into a movie.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson. Excellent mystery-thriller, but the writing is kind of “meh.”  You can’t put it down, it’s something you’ll stay up all night reading just to discover the ending.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, Steig Larsson.  Same characters as Dragon Tattoo, but a new scenario.  Thrilling and gripping.

The Great Brain, John D. Fitzgerald.  I read The Great Brain books as a kid, it’s the story of a brilliant con-artist who lived in a small town in Southern Utah.  The catch?  The con-artist in question is twelve years old.  Charming and hilarious, check it out.

The Great Brain #2 (More Adventures of the Great Brain), John D. Fitzgerald. Again, love.

The Great Brain #3 (Me and My Little Brain), John D. Fitzgerald. And some more Great Brain love.

The Great Brain #4 (The Great Brain at the Academy), John D. Fitzgerald. Quite possibly my favorite in the Great Brain series.

The House on Mango Street, Sanda Cisneros.  Last year at the Booksale this book was thrown at my head with the command to read it.  It is a beautiful novella, a coming of age story about a young Latina in Chicago.  Imagine me virtually throwing this thin volume at your heard.  Now read it.

The Twenty-One Balloons, William Pene du Bois.  A fantastical, possibly-fictional  story about the infamous island of Krakatoa before it was blown to pieces by a massive volcanic explosion.  I absolutely adore this book, a quick read.

3-STAR READS

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf. I loved the premise of this book, but I felt it could have used a bit of editing.  I love the idea, but got bogged down a bit in the language.

A Room with a View, E.M. Forster.  I read this for a book club and while I really enjoyed most of it, I just couldn’t get into some of the language and old Victorian dating customs.

Bel Canto, Ann Patchet. Janet sent this to me and I devoured it in about 2 days–it was a gripping story about terrorism, hostages, and kidnapping and the psychology that goes along with all of that.

Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut.  Vonnegut’s satirical views on society are not immediately apparent in his writings, but if you pay attention you will find his verbal whip-lashing of war, politics, and a half-dozen other traditional views.

Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (#2 in Series), Louise Rennison. Oh. My. Gaash.  If you haven’t read any of the Georgia Nicolson series you absolutely must get your hands on one.  Thy are a quick read, but absolutely hilarious.

Dogs of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst. Everyone deals with grief in different ways, when his wife dies, Paul must learn to process her death.

Excellent Women, Barbara Pym. I appreciate the style of this book, it’s just not my cup of tea.  Neither is Pride and Prejudice.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl.  If you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you read the book first (as always).  This is brilliant and awesome and will make your inner child chuckle.

Sold, Patricia McCormick.  A look at prostitution in India, heart breaking but with a ray of hope.

The African Queen, C.S. Forster.  I still need to rent the Katherine Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart version of this story, but I loved the premise.  She’s a missionary in Africa,  he’s a mostly drunk riverboat captain, they have a fantastic adventure and end up saving, well, you know, things.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz.  I liked the story and the cultural references and information, but I had a hard time getting past all the language.

The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky.  I loved this…for about 400 pages; and then I really wanted an good editor.  Dostoevsky wrote this in installments, without any editing or re-writing, and published it in a Russian newspaper. I need a little more editing than that.

The Last Empress, Anchee Min. The story of the last Chinese empress before the dynasty’s fell to communism.  Fascinating, historical fiction with a lot of Asian culture thrown in for good measure.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman. Geeky, nerdtastic, and philosophical.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen. I was disappointed when I heard this was being made into a movie, I enjoyed the book and I’m afraid the film won’t get it right (and by “right” I mean, how it was in my head).  A wonderful mix of fiction and history about circuses and elephants and trainings, love and jealousy, people and animals.

2-STAR READS

Dancing Girls of Lahore, Louise Brown. Too much conjecture, not enough story. I wish Louise Brown had a better, more personal way or writing, her research on brothels in Pakistan.  The stories are gripping, but it was hard to follow them.

Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer. I know this is supposed to be amazing and  blah blah blah, I just couldn’t get into it.  I’m sorry, I wanted to, but couldn’t.

For One More Day, Mitch Albom. I like Albom’s other books, Tuesday’s with Morrie is one of my favorites.  But this is all about life-long regrets, and I don’t love the idea of living for the past.  Shrug.

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins.  I loved Hunger Games and enjoyed Catching Fire, but I hated the final installment.  I didn’t like Katniss, I didn’t like the “conspiracy”, and I despised the ending in many different ways.

The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler.  I should just accept that I am not an Austen fan, which means I probably won’t like other books written in the same style, and I won’t like books about Austen’s books.  Lesson learned.