Books!

I have loved reading for a long, long time. I even majored in English in college (my minor was History, which explains a little about my taste in books). While I was working and riding a commuter bus every day, I read like crazy - mostly so the other commuters wouldn't talk to me. After we adopted our boys, I went for months without reading a single book. Magazine articles and the scriptures, but that was it. My goal at the beginning of 2012 was to read three books every month. Just like anything, it's getting easier to fit in all those books now that I've had some practice. I feel smarter and more interesting, too. Here are the books I've read and reported on since January 2012. (The link to the report is in the month, not the name of the book.)

January 2012:

Food Rules by Michael Pollan
The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson, and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery by Greg King and Penny Wilson
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey 

February 2012:

Brave Companions by David McCullough
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilber

March 2012

The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

April 2012

A Country Doctor by Sarah Orna Jewett
The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry 
The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters

May 2012

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
The Trees by Conrad Richter
The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

June 2012

Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Bridal Wreath by Sigrid Undset
The Fields by Conrad Richter
Ali in Wonderland: And Other Tall Tales by Ali Wentworth

July 2012

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson

August 2012

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Then Again by Diane Keaton
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly 

September 2012

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith 
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner

October 2012

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel by Kathleen Kent 
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Laveen

November 2012

Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
The White Forest by Adam McOmber
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

December 2012

Unbreakable: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin 
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 

January 2013

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen 
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 
My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle by Marcel Pagnol

February 2013

Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes 

March 2013

The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Watership Down by Richard Adams

April 2013

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple 
The Mothers by Jennifer Gilmore  
Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family by Shelley Emling 

May 2013

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Hyer
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple

June 2013

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Fever: A Novel by Mary Beth Keane

July 2013

Instant Mom by Nia Vardalos
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini 

August 2013

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham
What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen

September 2013

The Sword and the Stone by T.H. White
FDR by Jean Edward Smith

October 2013

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple 
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale 
Home by Marilynne Robinson 

November 2013

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Migraine Brain: Your Breakthrough Guide to Fewer Headaches, Better Health by Carolyn Bernstein, M.D., and Elaine McArdle  
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry 

December 2013

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. by Ron Chernow 
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens 
The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

January 2014

The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill Alone 1932-1940 by William Raymond Manchester  
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker 

February 2014

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee 

March 2014

Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

April 2014

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez 
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo  

May 2014

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Greatest Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
The Heaven Tree by Edith Pargeter
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

June 2014

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling

July 2014

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
The Martian by Andy Weir
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary  

August 2014

The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy 
Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying by Barbara Park

September 2014

Glimpses Into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley edited by Virginia H. Pearce
Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth, narrated by Nicola Barber
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

October 2014

 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini 

November & December 2014

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

January 2015

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

February 2015

Battle of the Books Titles
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Bleak House by Charles Dickens

March 2015

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Real Moms: Making it Up as We Go by Lisa Valentine Clark
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

April/May 2015

The Brother Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

June 2015

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

July 2015

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Locomotive by Brian Floca

August 2015

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers by Mike Sacks

September and October 2015

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems About Our Presidents by Marlyn Singer / Illustrated by John Hendrix

November and December 2015

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Closed Door and Other Stories by Dorothy Whipple
Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

2016 Mini Book Reports

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Cenote by Chelsea Dyreng
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, and J.K. Rowling
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4) by Agatha Christie
Talking As Fast As I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

January 2017

Scandinavian Gatherings: From Afternoon Fika to Midsummer Feast: 70 Simple Recipes and Crafts for Everyday Celebrations by Melissa Bahen
Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton by Meghan McCarthy
The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army's Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97 by Kay Moore
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough

February 2017

Old MacDonald Had a Truck by Steve Goetz, illustrated by Eda Kaban
Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast by Josh Funk, illustrated by Brendan Kearney
Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith and Idiocy by Rainn Wilson

March and April 2017

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Camping Trip That Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir and Our National Parks by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mordecai Gerstein
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Anatole by Eve Titus, illustrated by Paul Galdone


Summer (May, June, July, August) 2017

A Quiet Life in the Country (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #1) by T. E. Kinsey
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Moonshot by Brian Floca
Hero of the Empire: The Boar War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard
The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Ed Young
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
What She Ate by Laura Shapiro
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Raul Colon
The Prestige by Christopher Priest

September 2017

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A. Prince and William Robert Wright
Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
Elbert's Bad Word by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood

October, November, and December 2017

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga #1) by Mary Stewart
Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

January - March 2018

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems by Marily Singer, Illustrated by Josee Masse
American Fire: Love Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse
The National Cookbook by Sheila Hibben
The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African Culinary History in the Old South by Michael Twitty
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

April - June 2018

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh