Recent Book Activity

I take a commuter train to work every day, which allows me extra reading time. When not working as a legal assistant I spend my time with friends, at art galleries, roaming beautiful San Diego, at the theater, at movies, traveling, and reading (not necessarily in that order). I'm so obsessed by reading that I have more than 500 unread books available at all times (just in case the Big One hits California and I have to while away days, weeks, months waiting for power, water, etc. to be restored).

Because I'm a big fan of wild releasing and buy many books strictly for that purpose (frequently as a result of a release challenge), my bookshelf does not necessarily reflect my personal reading tastes. A better indicator is my TBR books and those listed below as recommendations.

"The good writers touch life often.
The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her.
The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Release Challenges hosted in 2006/2007/2008/2009/2010/2011/2012:

2006 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2006 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2007 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2007 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2008 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2008 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2009 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2009 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2010 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2010 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2011 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge
2011 You're Such an Animal Release Challenge
2012 Oh, the Places We Can Go Release Challenge

Yearly on-going challenge: 2012 Never Judge a Book By Its Cover Release Challenge, 2nd Quarter

Currently reading:

• Peony
  
• Gillespie & I
  
• Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them
  

Reading Recommendations [Rated 8 or more]:

2012
The Red House by Haddon
The Beginner's Goodbye by Tyler
My Most Excellent Year by Kluger
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Gourevitch
Running With the Kenyans by Finn
Logavina Street by Demick
The Book of Jonas by Dau
The Fault in Our Stars by Green
Out of the Dust by Hesse
Honeymoon With My Brother by Wisner
The Underneath by Appelt
Chomp by Hiaasen
An Invisible Thread by Schroff
Iron and Silk by Salzman
Brave New World by Huxley
The Magician's Elephant by DiCamillo
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Demick
At Canaan's Edge by Branch
Sounder by Armstrong
The Johnstown Flood by McCullough
When You Reach Me by Stead
1Q84 by Murakami
Water for Elephants by Gruen
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Chandrasekaran
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Kamkwamba
Son of Neptune by Riordan
Train Go Sorry by Cohen
Lost in Shangri-La by Zuckerman
Great Expectations by Dickens (10)


2011
Blue Nights by Didion
I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Bradley
The Big Burn by Egan
We Bought a Zoo by Mee
The Night Circus by Morgenstern (10)
In the Garden of the Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Larson
A Christmas Carol by Dickens
Pride and Prejudice by Austen (10)
Riding the Bus With My Sister by Simon
If Today Be Sweet by Umrigar
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by O'Brien
Faith of My Fathers by McCain
Catfish and Mandala by Pham
The North China Lover by Duras
The Memory of Love by Forna (10)
Monkey Bridge by Cao
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury
The Suprise Party by Alpert
Regards by Dunne
Dog On It by Quinn
D-Day: June 6, 1944 by Ambrose
Caleb's Crossing by Brooks
City of Falling Angels by Berendt
Surprise Party, a Memoir of Survival by Alpert
Please Look After Mom by Shin
Hidden by Glass
Across Many Mountains by Bauren
Blue Latitudes by Horwitz
Grant & Twain by Perry
This World We Live In by Pfeffer
The Dead and the Gone by Pfeffer
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Edwards
There Is No Me Without You by Greene
Life As We Knew It by Pfeffer
At Dawn We Slept by Prange
The Nine Tailors by Saylors
The Worst Hard Time by Egan
Making Toast by Rosenblatt
Nation by Terry Pratchett
It Happened on the Way to War by Barcott
The Good Daughter by Darznik
War Horse by Morpurgo
Incendiary by Cleve
Shadow by Morpurgo
The Little Princes by Grennan
At the Devil's Table by Rempel
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Carhart
The Long Goodbye by O'Rourke
The March by Doctorow
Kensutke's Kingdom by Morpurgo
My Life in France by Julia Child
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: the Letters of Richard P. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman
Waiting for Anya by Morpurgo
Making Rounds with Oscar by Dosa
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Bradley
Outcasts United by St. John
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Hillenbrand
Lying Awake by Salzman
The Color Purple by Walker
Columbine by Cullen (10)
The Translator: A Tribeman's Memoir of Dafur by Hari
Speak by Anderson (10)
An Hour Before Daylight by Carter
Twilight Children by Hayden
Manhunt, the 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by Swanson
Turn Left at the Trojan Horse by Herzog
Those Who Save Us by Blum
The Giver by Lowry
Room by Donoghue


2010
Every Breath You Take by Rule
Bliss by Livaneli
My Reading Life by Conroy
The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Logue
The Unfinished Presidency by Brinkley
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Skloot
I Still Dream About You by Flagg
The Places In Between by Stewart
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by Forester
Secret Daughter by Gowda
The Photograph by Lively
A New Kind of Country by Gilman
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Bender
Rebecca by DuMaurier
Year of Wonders by Brooks
My Name is Mary Sutter by Oliveira
The Yellow-Lighted Book Shop by Buzbee
Mockingjay by Collins
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote
Little Bee by Cleaves
City Gates
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag
The Blue Notebook by Levine
Q's Legacy by Hanff
The Girl Who Played Go by Sa
Caramelo by Cisneros
39 Clues by Riordan
Lost City Radio by Alarcon
Strength in What Remains by Kidder
Nine Parts of Desire by Brooks
The Red Pyramid by Riordan
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Larsson (10)
Anne of Avonlea by Montgomery
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Bradley
Olive Kitteridge by Strout
An Unfinished Life by Spragg
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Murakami
Peter and the Sword of Mercy by Barry and Pearson
Travels With Charley by Steinbeck
Catching Fire by Collins (10)
The Hunger Games by Collins
The Septembers of Shiraz by Sofer
Stones Into Schools by Mortenson
Monkey Hunting by Garcia
Mark Twain, a Life by Powers
In the Fall by Lent
The Awakening by Chopin
Red Glass by Resau
Foreign Correspondence by Brooks
Around the World in 80 Days
A Suitable Boy by Seth
Small Wonder by Kingsolver
The Most They Ever Had by Bragg
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Larsson (10)
Up Country by DeMille
Someone Knows My Name (a/k/a The Book of Negroes) by Hill (10)

2009
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Kingsolver and Hopp
Landing It: My Life On and Off the Ice by Hamilton
If I Stay by Forman
Flag of Our Fathers by Bradley and Powers
Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery
Sixpence House, Lost in a Town of Books by Collins
The War of the Worlds by Wells
Still Waters by Lauck
A Boy at War by Mazer
The Perfect Ride by Stevens
Downhill Lie by Hiaasen
The Hiding Place by Ten Boom
The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Poe
Blackbird, a Childhood Lost and Found by Lauck
The Woman in White by Collins
The Graveyard Book by Gaiman
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Ogawa
Wuthering Heights by E. Bronte
Six Months in Sudan by Maskalyk
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Beer and Dworkin
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Larson
Weekends at Bellvue by Holland
Peter Pan by Barrie
Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Dorris
The Lost City of Z by Grann
Cutting for Stone by Verghese
You Can Cope With Peripheral Neuropathy by Cushing and Latov
The Seal Wife by Harrison
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Barry & Pearson
Krik? Krak! by Danticat
The Blood of Flowers by Amirrezvani
John Adams by McCullough (10)
Idyll Banter by Bohjalian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie (10)
Prayers for Sale by Dallas
Treasure Island by Stevenson
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Chevalier
Annie's Ghosts by Luxenberg
Confederates in the Attic by Horwitz
Coal Black Horse by Olmstead
Ptolemy's Gate by Stroud
A Crime So Monstrous by Skinner
A Spot of Bother by Haddon
Shane by Schaeffer
The Last Olympian by Riordan
Lark & Termite by Phillips (10)
Funny in Farsi by Dumas
Sweetsmoke by Fuller
New York Trilogy by Auster
Voices From Silence by Unger
In My Own Country, a Doctor's Story by Verghese
The Optimist's Daughter by Welty
The Burnt House by Kellerman
The Angel of Grozny by Seierstad
Kindred by Butler
Having Our Say by Delany
The Caliph's House by Shah
Ancestor Stones by Forna
Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Myron
Cry, the Beloved Country by Paton (10)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain (10)
A Hundred and One Days by Seierstad
Shiloh by Naylor
Scat by Hiaasen
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens (10)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami

2008
Death Be Not Proud by Gunther
Survival in Auschwitz by Levi
Tried by War by McPherson
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Riordan
The Alienist by Carr
The Riders by Winton
A Piece of My Heart, the Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam by Walker
Flyboys, a True Story of Courage by Bradley
The Flamboya Tree by Kelly
A Town Like Alice by Shute
The Things They Carried by O'Brien
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Schaffer & Barrows
Wesley the Owl by O'Brien
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Jacobs
Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle
In the Heart of the Sea by Philbrick
Anne Frank Remembered by Gies
Musicophilia by Sacks
The Lace Reader by Barry
Lighthousekeeping by Winterson
The Titan's Curse by Riordan
The Geography of Bliss by Weiner
Sea of Monsters by Riordan
The Fish Can Sing by Laxness
Northanger Abbey by Austen
The Lightning Thief by Riordan
84 Charing Cross Road by Hanff
Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Barry and Pearson
No Country for Old Men by McCarthy
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Summerscale
The 23rd Psalm, a Holocaust Memoir by Salton
Autography of a Geisha by Masado
Girl in Hycinth Blue by Vreeland
Sounds of the River by Chen
Cures for Heartbreak by Rabb
Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin
Loving Frank by Horan
Made in the U.S.A. by Letts
Things Fall Apart by Achebe
Small Island by Levy
People of the Book by Brooks
Skeletons at the Feast by Bohjalian
The Zookeeper's Wife by Ackerman
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants by Castaneda
Enrique's Journey by Nazario
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Galloway
Pretty Birds by Simon
My Bridges of Hope by Britton-Jackson
The Piano Tuner by Mason
Zlata's Diary
Princess Sultana's Circle by Sasson
Infidel by Ali
The Golem's Eye by Stroud
Ex Libris by Fadiman
March by Brooks
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Danticat
Ender's Game by Card
A Gift of Wings by Bach
Lolita by Nabakov
Wild Swans by Chang
Love in the Driest Season by Tucker
Hiroshima Diary by Hachiya
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Bitton-Jackson
A Complicated Kindness by Toews
Dreams From My Father by Obama
In the Country of Men by Matar
The Road by McCarthy
Eat, Pray, Love by Gilbert
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Hamid
Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie
Here If You Need Me by Braestrup
Three Cups of Tea by Mortensen and Relin

2007
Mister Pip by Jones
Team of Rivals by Goodwin
Blood Done Sign My Name by Tyson
The Uncommon Reader by Bennett
Dispatches From the Edge by Cooper
Behind the Mountains by Danticat
Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean
Things We Couldn't Say by Eman and Schaap
Q&A by Swarup
A Man Without a Country by Vonnegut
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
The Kitchen Boy by Alexander
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Thunderstruck by Larson
Colors of the Mountain by Chen
Women of the Silk by Tsuikiyama
The Lemon Tree by Tolan
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
Peter and the Starcatchers by Barry and Pearson
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by DiCamillo
Dear Sentator, a Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond by Washington-Williams
Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel by Morgan
The Thirteenth Tale by Setterfield
The Glass Castle by Walls
O Pioneers! by Cather
Willow and Twig by Little
Saturday by McEwan
Runny Babbit by Silverstein
The Secret Garden by Burnett
An Alphabetical Life by Werris
AIDS in America by Hunter
Trumpet of the Swan by White

2006
Beyond the Narrow Gate by Chang
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Deng, et al.
In My Hands, Memoir of a Holocaust Rescuer by Opdyke
The Pianist by Szpilman
Digging to America by Tyler
Wait Till Next Year by Goodwin
Telegraph Days by McMurtry
They Cage the Animals at Night by Burch
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Ephron
Under the Banner of Heaven by Krakauer
I Am the Messenger by Zusak
Wrong About Japan by Carey
First They Killed My Father by Ung
Night, by Wiesel
How Reading Changed My Life by Quindlen
The Wild Girl by Fergus
Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Gaines
Slaughter House-Five by Vonnegut
The Tiger Rising by DiCamillo
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by See
Flush by Hiaasen
The Book Thief by Zakus
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Huntley
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
The Year of Magical Thinking by Didion
The Children's Blizzard by Laskin

2005
And the Band Played On by Shilts
Lindbergh by Berg
Sky Burial, An Epic Love Story of Tibet by Xiran
The Bee Season by Goldberg
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by Rowling
Because of Winn-Dixie by DiCamillo
The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon
Star of the Sea by O'Connor
The Ha-Ha by King
So Many Books, So Little Time by Nelson
Brick Lane by Ali
The Tale of Despereaux by DiCamillo
The Things They Carried by O'Brien
Schindler's List by Keneally
Naked in Bagdad by Garrels
Good Grief by Winston
Gift From the Sea by Lindbergh

I've Hosted/Am Hosting the Following Bookrings:

One Thousand White Women
Divining Women
Still Missing
The Things They Carried
The New Girls
A Redbird Christmas
The Blood of Flowers
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
My Name Is Mary Sutter