- The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis
- The Maze Runner - James Dashner
- The American Heiress - Daisy Goodwin
- A Season of Gifts - Richard Peck
- The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
- Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
- The Wednesday Wars - Gary D. Schmidt
- Okay for Now - Gary D. Schmidt
- Heaven is Here - Stephanie Nielsen
- Seventeen Second Miracle - Jason Wright
- Specials - Scott Westerfeld
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua
- Killing Lincoln - Bill O'Reilly
- Joy for Beginners - Erica Bauermeister
- When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead
- Pretties - Scott Westerfeld
- The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
- Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
- Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
- Fishers of Men - Gerald Lund
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
- The Giver - Lois Lowry
- Into the Wild - Erin Hunter
Okay, I promise I am not doing this on purpose...
2012 = 23 books
Weird. Last year I even commented that I would try to deliberately end with a different total for 2012. Must have forgotten, because there it is again: 23 books. I guess it is meant to be.
I love Gary Schmidt. His two books were my favorites of the year. Fantastic writing, perfect voice, compelling stories and great characters. I had fun reading the Uglies series with Emma; perfectly good quick fluff. We read When You Reach Me together too and I liked that one even more. Ben and I read The Westing Game together...which is one I read sometime in grade school and remember liking it then, and it totally held up for reading as an adult. I might like it even better now because I get a lot of jokes that were over my head then. Killing Lincoln was fascinating, so much I never knew about the Lincoln assassination, but told in a really readable way. The Poisonwood Bible was interesting too, it got a little long, but I forgave it because I learned so much and it made me think.
I noticed I got a lot of questions last year about which ones I didn't like, so here it goes: Joy for Beginners, The American Heiress, and The Maze Runner. There are others on the list that were just okay/kind of blah, but these three in particular were real stinkers. The kind of book you finish and feel cheated...you've wasted your time and gotten dumber for having read them.
5 comments:
Adding some to my goodreads now.
I also hated The Maze Runner. I don't get why it is so popular.
Very impressive list. Each time I read your list, I tell myself that I should keep a list, too, and then I don't. :) But I love reading.
Several on your list I have read. I read the The Poisonwood Bible so long ago, I've forgotten what it's about. I enjoyed C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters - interesting.
Along with the heavy, more serious books, I like a short, light read once in a while. I look at all Jason Wright's books that way -- meaningful, but easy to read. I'm reading The 13th Day of Christmas by Jason and really enjoying the writing style for this one--light and easy reading but with some humor and seriousness.
I love to read----thanks for the report on your books. If I were to choose just one from your list, which one would you recommend? What is it about Gary Schmidt's books that you like them so well?
I guess I should have just called you. :)
I re-read the Westing Game a few years ago and agree that it totally held up; I liked it so much I gave a copy to Noe for Christmas this year, and she's already read it!
The 23 Books Your Read in Heaven...
i always appreciate these rundowns. you should talk with my DW sometime about Poisonwood Bible.
btw, maybe you should have tried 'Joy for Experts'. i mean that's where you're at, right?
ps, though you probably remember reading it in HS english class, the Yeats poem from which 'Things Fall Apart' drew its title is worth a rereading.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(Yeats)
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