Books I've Read Since January 1, 2011
Ratings
Ratings are personal. They serve me, like the list itself, as a sort of memory aid. So I hope I don't steer anyone into a read which doesn't suit them. Also, I not only reserve the right to change ratings, I sometimes do.
- David L'Hoste
***** = the best, everyone needs to read this book
**** = great book, must read
*** = good book, worth reading
** = usually entertaining but nothing special
* = too many books, too little time to spend on this book
Wishlist (A few of the titles I hope to get to before it's too late.)
The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
—Mark Twain
A complete list by year appears below these annual Best Dozen Reads compilations:
Best Dozen Reads of 2023:
Best Dozen Reads of 2022:
Best Dozen Reads of 2021:
Best Dozen Reads of 2020:
Best Dozen Reads of 2019:
Best Dozen Reads of 2018:
Best Dozen Reads of 2017:
= = = = = = =
Complete list of books read since January 1, 2011:
2024 books
Dress Her in Indigo by John D. MacDonald ***
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez ****
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid ****
The Truth About the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline ***
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke ****
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead ****
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra ****
Bewilderment by Richard Powers *****
Blackouts by Justin Torres ***
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke ***
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr ***
Coraline by Neil Gaiman ***
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ****
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott ****
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng *****
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky ****
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch ****
Neuromancer by William Gibson ***
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver *****
The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker ***
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri *****
Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry *****
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang ****
The Troop by Craig Davidson writing as Nick Cutter ***
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward ****
This Other Eden by Paul Harding *****
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann ****
The Fraud by Zadie Smith ****
The March by E.L. Doctorow ***
= = = = = = = 292023 books
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris ****
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson ****
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy ***
Flush by Carl Hiaasen ***
The Sea by John Banville ****
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan ***
We the Animals by Justin Torres *****
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger *****
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka ***
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano ****
Salem's Lot by Stephen King ***
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee *****
The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald ****
The Promise by Damon Galgut ****
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride ****
The Long Silver Rain by John D. MacDonald ****
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride ****
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden ****
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson ****
Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald ****
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri ****
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies ***
A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald ****
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen ***
The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald ***
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros ***
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien ****
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead ****
One Fearful Yellow Eye by John D. MacDonald ****
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes **
Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy ****
Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore ***
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk ***
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese *****
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes *****
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout ****
There There by Tommy Orange *****
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson ****
What I Saw and How I Lived by Judy Blundell ****
Matrix by Lauren Groff ****
White Noise dy Don DeLillo *****
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell *****
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami ****
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ****
Die Trying by Lee Child ***
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins ***
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li ***
Trust by Hernan Diaz *****
Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett ***
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty ****
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel ****
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu ****
This TIme Tomorrow by Emma Straub ****
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides ****
= = = = = = = 542022 books
Racing the Light by Robert Crais ****
Home by Toni Morrison ***
The Stranger by Albert Camus ****
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen *****
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien ****
The Push by Asley Audrain ****
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes ***
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox ***
The Guncle by Stephen Rowley ***
Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine ****
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout ****
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy ***
Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo *****
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave ****
Purity by Jonathan Franzen *****
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa ***
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee ***
Mrs. Dolloway by Virginia Woolf ***
On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry ****
Laidlaw by William McIlvanney ***
Rabbit Redux by John Updike ***
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy ****
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini ****
Home by Marilynne Robinson ****
Defining the Wind by Scott Huler ***
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles ****
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday ****
The Chain by Adrian McKinty ***
The All of It by Jeannette Haien ****
Ice by Linda Howard **
Moonglow by Michael Chabon *****
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr ****
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett ****
The Known World by Edward P. Jones ****
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood ***
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich ****
= = = = = = = 362021 books
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote ****
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown ***
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen ***
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton ***
The Vegetarian by Han Kang ***
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson ****
Sula by Toni Morrison ****
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ***
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett ***
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart ****
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong ***
All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg ***
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell ****
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman ****
Chemistry by Weike Wang ****
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ****
Studs Lonigan - Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell ***
The Outlaw Album by Daniek Woodrell ****
The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey ***
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell ****
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ****
Rabbit, Run by John Updike ****
The Witch Hunter by Max Seeck ***
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain ***
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ***
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles ****
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosely ****
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain ****
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ****
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles ***
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich *****
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline ***
The Riptide Ultra-Glide by Tim Dorsey **
Outline by Rachel Cusk ***
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir ****
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel ***
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ****
Cuyahoga by Pete Beatty ****
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano ****
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn ****
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ***
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry *****
Days Without End by Sabastian Barry *****
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin ***
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins ****
Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald ***
Hamnet by by Maggie O'Farrell ****
A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald ***
The Guest List by Lucy Foley ***
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz ****
Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen ****
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman ****
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman ****
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn ****
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson ***
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley ***
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow ***
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig ***
Waiting by Ha Jin ***
Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen ****
Ironweed by William Kennedy *****
Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge ****
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi ****
= = = = = = = 632020 books
Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore ****
Real Life by Brandon Taylor ****
The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey ****
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet ****
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner ***
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott ***
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ***
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie ***
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley ***
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst ****
The Second Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith **
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy *****
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey ****
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling ***
King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard ***
The Haywire Heart by Chris Case, Dr. John Mandrola, and Lennard Zinn ****
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley ****
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein ****
We were Liars by E. Lockhart ***
The Idiot by Elif Batuman ****
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel *****
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie ***
The Likeness by Tana French ****
The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie ***
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee ****
The Sliver Pigs by Lindsey Davis ***
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler ****
Postcards by Annie Proulx ***
Improvement by Joan Silber ***
Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow *****
Harvest by Jim Crace *****
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern ****
Girl at War by Sara Nović ****
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah ***
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt *****
Killing Floor by Lee Child ***
Good as Gone by Amy Gentry ****
The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz ***
The Body by Bill Bryson ***
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez ***
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho ***
The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi ***
Circe by Madeline Miller *****
Ghost by Jason Reynolds ***
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett ****
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi ***
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson ***
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry ****
Inland by Téa Obreht ****
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews *****
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton ****
The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami ****
A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais ***
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall ***
Normal People by Sally Rooney ***
= = = = = = = 552019 books
Being Dead by Jim Crace ****
Squirm by Carl Hiaasen ***
Wonder by R.J. Palacio ****
Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee ***
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson *****
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ****
The Wanted by Robert Crais ***
Milkman by Anna Burns ****
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay ****
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones ***
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell ****
The Promise by Robert Crais ***
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn *****
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty *****
Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt ****
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple ***
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes ***
Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley ***
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ****
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler ***
The Last Pirate of New York by Rich Cohen ***
The Girls by Emma Cline ***
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga ****
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens ****
Artemis by Andy Weir ***
Reservoir 13 by James McGregor ***
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz ****
Swing Time by Zadie Smith ****
The Tresspasser by Tana French ****
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra ****
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane ***
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey ****
Beloved by Toni Morrison *****
The Sea Wolf by Jack London ****
Noir by Christopher Moore ***
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng ****
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris ***
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler ***
Eventide by Kent Haruf ****
Less by Andrew Sean Greer *****
Taken by Robert Crais ***
Suitcase City by Sterling Watson ****
Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen ****
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan ****
The Bat by Jo Nesbø ***
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain ***
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler ****
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler ****
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini ****
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett ****
The Big Short by Michael Lewis ***
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra *****
The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle ***
Flash Boys by Michael Lewis ***
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver ****
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin ***
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney ****
Some Luck by Jane Smiley ****
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller ****
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie *****
= = = = = = = 602018 books
Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen ****
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett ****
The Lifters by Dave Eggers ***
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle ***
The Pope of Palm Beach by Tim Dorsey ***
The Sentry by Robert Crais ***
Sweetland by Michael Crummey ****
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ****
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevrin ****
The First Rule by Robert Crais ***
In the Woods by Tana French ****
Think of a Number by John Verdon ***
The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt ***
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel ****
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler ***
Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum ***
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett ****
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ***
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais ***
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte *****
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck ****
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy *****
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley ***
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari ****
Kim by Rudyard Kipling ****
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen *****
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman ***
Open City by Teju Cole ****
The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais ***
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan ****
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott ***
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore ****
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton ****
Ubik by Phillip K. Dick ***
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer ***
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway ***
The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais ***
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert ***
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara *****
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson ***
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen ****
The Last Detective by Robert Crais ***
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng ***
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ****
Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mewed by Alan Bradley ***
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens ****
The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve ***
The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith ***
Testimony by Scott Turow ***
The Giver by Lois Lowry ***
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward ****
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers ****
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles *****
= = = = = = = 532017 books
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen ***
News of the World by Paulette Jiles ****
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell ****
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett ***
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett ***
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf ***
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez *****
Electric Barracuda by Tim Dorsey ***
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson ***
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty ****
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan *****
L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais ***
Blessings by Anna Quindlen ****
Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey ***
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley ****
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen *****
Voodoo River by Robert Crais ***
Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon *****
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware ***
How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry ***
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon *****
Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey ***
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara ****
LaRose by Louise Erdrich ***
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr *****
Free Fall by Robert Crais ***
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarity ****
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena ***
The Big Bamboo by Tim Dorsey ***
The Trial by Franz Kafka ***
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead ****
Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais ***
Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore ***
The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda ****
Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen ****
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie ***
Cadillac Beach by Tim Dorsey ***
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell ****
Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon ****
Genuinely Dangerous by Mike McCrary ****
The Snowman by Jo Nesbø ***
The Stingray Shuffle by Tim Dorsey ***
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward *****
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais ***
Triggerfish Twist by Tim Dorsey ***
The Redeemer by Jo Nesbø ****
The Man From St. Petersburg by Ken Follet ***
= = = = = = = 472016 books
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ****
Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman ***
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ****
The Infinite by Nicholas Mainieri ***
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny ***
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer ****
Cyclops by Clive Cussler ***
Lullaby Town by Robert Crais ***
Orange Crush by Tim Dorsey ***
Sunset Express by Robert Crais ***
The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais ***
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu ****
The Lighthouse by P. D. James ***
Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children and Other Streets of New Orleans by John Churchill Chase ***
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George ***
Three Junes by Julia Glass *****
Hammerhead Ranch Motel by Tim Dorsey ***
Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey ***
Still Life by Louise Penny ***
Torpedo Juice by Tim Dorsey ***
The Sellout by Paul Beatty ****
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler ****
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay bi Michael Chabon *****
Galore by Michael Crummey *****
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith ****
Kisser by Stuart Woods ***
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown ***
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petersen ****
The Panther by Nelson Demille ***
Little Bee by Chris Cleave ***
H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian ***
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht ***
House Rules by Jodi Picoult ***
The Partner by John Grisham ***
Post Captian by Patrick O'Brian ***
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah ****
= = = = = = = 362015 books
Zer0es by Chuck Wendig **
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews ****
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie ****
Euphoria by Lily King ****
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain *****
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell ***
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez ****
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins ***
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides ****
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt *****
The Mother Tongue: English And How I Got That Way by Bill Bryson ****
Plainsong by Kent Haruf *****
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ****
Waxed Exceeding Mighty by Joshua Humphreys **
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ***
Plum Island by Nelson Demille ***
A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay ****
No Dominion by Charlie Huston ***
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley *****
Fool by Christopher Moore ****
The Martian by Andy Weir ****
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante ****
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington ****
The Hours by Michael Cunningham *****
Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes by Denise Grover Swank **
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbarnd ****
The Lion by Nelson Demille ***
Watchers by Dean R. Koontz ***
Big Trouble by Dave Barry ***
Already Dead by Charlie Huston ****
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ****
Rescue by Anita Shreve ***
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey ****
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed ***
= = = = = = = 342014 books
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie *****
The Midnight House by Alex Berenson ***
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson ****
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett ****
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford ****
Tinkers by Paul Harding *****
John Dies at the End by David Wong ****
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle ***
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly ***
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger *****
Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore ****
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens *****
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón *****
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood ***
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman ***
Wench: A Novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez ***
NW by Zadie Smith ****
What Is The What: A Novel by Dave Eggers ***
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman ***
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen ****
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker ****
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green ****
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace *****
= = = = = = = 232013 books
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel *****
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut ****
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton ***
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern ***
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson **
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell *****
Room by Emma Donoghue ***
Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen ****
The Forgotten by David Baldacci **
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel *****
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver ****
The Racketeer by John Grisham ***
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald *****
The Shack by Willaim P. Young ***
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly **
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain ***
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diáz *****
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson *****
The Plagiarist by Hugh Howey ***
The Last Child by John Hart ***
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ****
The Round House by Louise Erdrich ****
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay *****
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diáz *****
Spies of the Balkans: A Novel by Alan Furst ****
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak *****
Replay by Ken Grimwood ****
= = = = = = = 272012 books
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens *****
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson ****
The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass ****
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobsen ***
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut ****
The Confession: A Novel by John Grisham ****
Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins ****
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez *****
The Silent Sea: The Oregon Files by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul **
Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy *****
Catching Fire (Book 2 in Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins ****
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ***
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns *****
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley ****
The Tennis partner by Abraham Verghese ****
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens *****
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ****
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ****
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø ****
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke ***
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov *****
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ****
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving *****
Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag **
= = = = = = = 242011 books
The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden **
The Girl Who Kicked ther Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson ****
Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker ***
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy *****
Noah's Compass by Anne Taylor ****
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis ****
The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore ***
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton ***
Hogdoggin' by Anthony Neil Smith **
The Bayou Trilogy (Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, The Ones You Do) by Daniel Woodrell ****
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini *****
The Athena Project by Brad Thor *
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore ****
The Help by Kathryn Stockett *****
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese *****
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins ****
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy *****
Fluke, or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore ****
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton ***
The Road by Cormac McCarthy *****
Edge by Jeffrey Deaver **
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley ***
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston ***
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen ***
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens *****
American Gods by Neil Gaiman **
The Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy *****
Caught by Harlan Coben **
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson ****
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson ****
Like Warm Sun on Nekkid Bottoms br Chuck Austen ****
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson ****
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo *****
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore ****
Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore ****
Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites by Syl Arena ****
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore ****
You Suck by Christopher Moore ****
American Savior: A Novel of Divine Politics by Roland Merullo *****
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers ****
Saving Rachel (a Donovan Creed Novel) by John Locke **
A Grave in Gaza by Matt Beynon Rees ***
Wicked by Gregory MacGuire ****
= = = = = = = 44Wish List
Human Acts by Han KangThe Passion by Jeanette Winterson
The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Kindred by Butler
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (2012)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (2013)
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (2014)
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall
Insane City by Dave Barry
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
Stringer by Anjan Sundaram
The Eyes Were Watching God by Zora N. Hurston
Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies
Valeria Luiselli, The Story of My Teeth
Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen
Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea
Marilynne Robinson, Lila
Alice McDermott, Someone (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Javier Marías, The Infatuations, translated by Margaret Jull Costa (Knopf)
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (Viking)
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child
David Grossman, To The End of the Land (Knopf)
Hans Keilson, Comedy in a Minor Key (Farrar, Straus And Giroux)
Paul Murray, Skippy Dies (Faber & Faber)
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Marlon James, The Book of Night Women (Riverhead)
Michelle Huneven, Blame (Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Knopf)
Roberto Bolaño, 2666. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project, (Riverhead)
M. Glenn Taylor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, (West Virginia University Press)
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games (HarperCollins)
Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men (Dial Press)
Joyce Carol Oates, The Gravedigger's Daughter (Ecco)
Let Me Be Frank With You, by Richard Ford (Ecco)
Lovely, Dark, Deep, by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
= = = = = = =
Quotes
= = = = = = = "[You, Mr. Bumble] are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law;
for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction."
"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically
in both hands, "the law is a ass -- a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law
is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened
by experience -- by experience."
CHARLES DICKENS, Oliver Twist, chapter 51, p. 489 (1970). First published serially 1837–1839.
“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base.”
-- Dave Barry
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“Colds and babies were both caused by germs which loved nothing so much as a mucous membrane."
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Galápagos
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection,
they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with
food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.
-- Christopher Hitchens
"Imagine, with John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian Partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as 'Christ-killers', no Northern Ireland 'troubles', no 'honour killings', no shiny-suited bouffant-haired televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money ('God wants you to give till it hurts'). Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheading of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it." -- Richard Dawkins
= = = = = = =Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.
-- Christopher Hitchens
OCTOBER: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The other are
July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar by Mark Twain
There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it and when he can.
- Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar by Mark Twain
Knowing nature, Lorimer would often say, means learning how to be. And to achieve this we must listen to the constant sermon of
things. Our highest task is to make out the words to better partake in the ecstasy of existence.
— Hernan Diaz, In the Distance
“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.”
- Edgar Allan Poe
“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer, until I prayed with my legs.”
- Frederick Douglass
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
-- Teddy Rossevelt
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
— from Macbeth by Wm. Shakespeare
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
= = = = = = = = =
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".