2012 books

the year is 2012 ... these are the books i've read ...

january

these first books of the year are travel/memoir/diary type books ... first person true stories .... all kindle books that were super inexpensive ....

1. mermaid:our family in paradise by philip rink .... a family takes off from jobs and school and hops on a sailbook .... travel journal writing/memoir ...

2. facing the lion: growing up maasai on the african savanna by joseph lemasolai lelukuton ... i was an anthropology minor in college ... i just love this sort of book .. memoir/culture shoick... it is extraordinary in this age of global culture where it feels like there is a starbucks on every corner, that there are still such isolated cultures as the maasai ... makes me want to have someone give me a cow because they love me ...

3. up the down volcano by sloane crosley .... odd book/memoir/journal about a woman's poorly planned travel adventure as a writer ....

4. i'm gonna live my life like a jimmy buffet song by anthony bjorkland ... memoir/travel adventure ... anthony realizes he is unhappy in his job, quits, sells or gives away all his stuff, then goes searching for happiness and margaritas ...

5. late to the wedding by laura briggs .... love lost .... or ... was lost, now taking a taxi hundreds of miles to see if it can be found again .... 99cents on kindle ....

6. chasing rainbows by kathleen long .... laugh and cry book ... well .. i don't really cry at books, but if i did, i would have .... learning through death and the life that comes after .... i loved the cryptograms from the father .... very touching book ...

february ... so i'm on track now to read 60-75 books this year ....

7, 8, 9.....
feint of art: an annie kincaid mystery
shooting gallery: an art lover's mystery
brush with death: an art lover's mystery
... all three by hailey lind (who i believe is a psuedonym for two sister writers) .... clearly i read all three books ... because i loved them ... but they are exactly the perfect book for me .... annie kincaid is an artist (like me) and loves a mystery (like me) and used to be a forger (oh, not me) and gets into sticky situations with famous paintings and dashing men (nope, not me at all) .... but i loved them .... they are a little like the stephanie plum/janet e. books .... but a bit more high brow with museums and fine art and no hookers ....

10. those who save us .... by jenna blum  ... GREAT book ... heart wrenching ... but compelling and very well written .... it is a multi generational holocaust story that moves between eras ... modern day times with a grown woman professor of the holocaust who is a daughter of a german woman .... and the war era with the mother as the primary focus .... and secrets ... lots and lots of secrets .... if you follow my reading, this is a high quality, fabulous book ... well worth the full price on kindle .... it is stuck here in the middle of my lighter reads and my kindle bargain books .... but mark this one down as one you should read .... although, it is not a light and airy summer beach read ... it is tumultuous and heavy and frequently hard to read ...

11. first love, last dance .... by nancy rossman .... i got this because i saw a news clip abou this couple ... it is a daughter's memoir of a great love .... sweet read ... i think it is probably self published ... it is fairly simply written and could have used more editing .... but the underlying story is dear ...

12.  becoming odyssa by jennifer pharr davis ... AWESOME ... i believe i am not ready to hike the appalachian trail ... ok ... or not ... but, this memoir of a new college grad hiking from georgia to maine on the AT (that's what those of us in the know call it) was excellent ... just excellent ... she chose odyssa as her trail name in homage to odysseus ... and it was quite appropriate .. like odysseus, she had an epic journey .... i bought this in sale week (do you get those emails, rah!) without doing any research ... it just sounded good ... and it was GREAT ...

13. a modern witch (modern witch series book 1) by debora geary .... not  serious! not.serious.at.all. .... started it this morning because it was just the next book on the kindle and i was on the eliptical machine at the gym .... i don't recall buying it .... but so far it is goofy and amusing .... (feb.28)

MARCH

14. organized simplicity by tsh oxenreider .... i love that tsh has no vowels in her first name ... or is that a kindle typo? i love it anyways ... this book is like a giant peptalk on having a happy home ... i liked it ... didn't read it one sitting ... read a chapter hear and there betwixt and between other books ...

15. falling for you (book one of pearl island trilogy) by julie ortolon .... i bought this off a kindle sale list ... not knowing it was very much in the romance genre ... i tried to outgrow romance novels when i left high school, but it is fun to read one here and there .... this one was happy ...

16.  growing up amish ... by ira wagler ... wow ... tell it like it is ... ira wagler had a hard, hard, hard, hard time growing up amish .... and he wrote about it eloquently ... this was not like all the other amish books i've read that glorify the hard life the amish choose .... very interesting ...brave man ...

17.  seasons: a real story of an amish girl by elizabeth byler younts ... another off a kindle list ... also not glossing over the amish lifestyle or idealizing it .... this account has the family near starving some of the time ... a hard life ...

18. a secret kept by tatiana de rosnay ....GREAT book ... set in paris .. well .. in france .... secrets and stories and memories and a mortician and multi generational problems .... the best part to me is that i now want to go to the coast of france to the gois passage ... a road that is submerged at every high tide ... so you must be careful to cross at the right time! ... lest you not make it to ile de noirmoutier ...

19. a hidden witch (book 2) by debora geary ... fun and light and easy about witches ... the second i've read ... i don't think the stories are that compelling ... but the characters are fun and lovely ....

20.the kitchen house by kathleen grissom ... my guess is that this will be the best book i read this year .. just fantastic ... compelling historical fiction ... great, multi dimensional characters... heart wrenching plot and sub plots .... just extraordinary ... three thumbs up even though i only have two thumbs.

21. the hunger games by suzanne collins .... (first read it in 2009, i think) ... i told my littlest that she was not allowed to go to this movie ... she said she had friends reading the book, could she? not being one to deny anyone a book, i said she could try ... she read all three in the series ... we talked about them ALL the time .... she was aghast at parts and said she just read the scary parts fast ... so, i let her go to the movie ... with mr.e.beck.artist on standby to leave the movie with her if it was too much ... they went out for about five minutes ... (trying here to be not a spoiler) and they came back in to the theater just as katniss laid out the flowers and was singing ... she knew which part would be hardest to watch so she just didn't .... i will reread the other two, i think...  as soon as the rest of the family is done rereading them ...

april

22. sophie kinsella writes fun romcom chick lit sorta books ... i've read bunches ... so, when" i've got your number"  showed up on my kindle sale list, i knew i'd like it ... and i did .... it was rom and com and a fun, easy read ...

23. catching fire ... the second book in the hunger game series ... a re read for me ... i read it years ago ... but all three kids have read/reread it in the last couple weeks ... so i did too .... love it....

24. mockingjay ... the third book .... a re read .... my least favorite of the three ... but you have to read it to know the rest of the story ....

25. the beginner's goodbye by anne tyler. so, anne tyler is my favorite author, i think. well, usually she is.  she's a subtle story teller ... usually poignant ... or heart breaking .... a widower is visited by his dead wife .... her "presence", i don't think they ever say ghost, helps him to cope with his loss ... it sounds hokey like that, but it was totally believable in its ambiguity ... as he rebuilds his house, he also rebuilds his life .... yay ... i loved this book.

26  human blend by lori pescatore ... young adult fiction .... my daughter read it first ... a girl who doesn't quite understand how she is different runs away from captors and tries to start a life in a new town ... she wants to work at a hospital because she can heal..... others who are like her find her .... bad things happen ... good things happen .... it ends with the clear indication that there will be more books ....

27  daughter's of the north by sarah hall ..... oh! this book was so interesting to me ... dystopian future seems to be a trendy genre these days ... this one seemed a bit handmaid's tale to me .... the government runs a strict society ... a woman escapes and finds a utopian society .... sorta .... it has its own burdens .... the story arc was interesting ..... lots to think about ....

28, 29, 30 ....
shakespeare's landlord... 1
shakespeare's companion... 2
shakespeare's christmas ... 3
these are the lily bard series by charlaine harris ... do you remember her? last summer i read all of her sookie stackhouse books ...i think she is a great author .. quirky, light, smart, funny, unusual .... lily has a horrific past, moves to small town shakespeare, and finds herself in trouble and needing to sleuth .. luckily she's buff and beats people up ...... i really enjoyed these .... happy, easy reads ....

MAY

31   grave sight ... a harper connelly mystery ... yay, the first in a series by charlaine harris ... i like the characters ... the premise is weird ... weird good .. i like weird ... the main character can feel dead people and know how they died ... needless to say, she's only good at murder mysteries, not missing person mysteries ... if they aren't dead, she's no use ....

32  grave surprise ... a harper connelly mystery ... number two ... by charlaine harris ... really good ... i just love this author .... am about to pick up number three ... yay

33. an ice cold grave ... harper connelly by charlaine harris .... i love charlaine harris ....

34 before, after and somebody in between by jeannine garsee ... wow ... this book was so much more than i expected it to be .... it was a YA book that came across in a kindle sale email ... sounded good ... and it was amazing ... though i'm reluctant to pass it on to the YA readers in this house ... it was VERY intense ... heartbreaking .... a 14 year old girl growing up in horrid circumstances ... drug and alcohol dependent parents, bad foster home, all sorts of turmoil .... with a bit of redemption at the end ...

35. easily amused by karen mcquestion .... good light read ... nearly 30 year old inherits a house from an old aunt .... nosey neighbors, good friends, mysterious boyfriend ... easy, charming .... so, i'm reading another mcquestion book too:

36. the long way home by karen mcquestion ....oh! jazzy is a GREAT main character .... a whole carful of quirky interesting characters ... i love the name mcquestion ... is that a pen name? have you ever heard of that name before?


a little may and then JUNE ... i didn't keep good track of dates ...

37.deadlocked: a sookie stackhouse .. by charlaine harris ... i read a dozen of these LAST summer ... and this is the newest, just released .... being sorta removed from the whole thing now, i liked it, but it didn't have the big hold on me that the rest of the series did ... i'm sure i'd have loved it if i'd read it during vampire summer ...

38. shakespeare's trollop .... by charlaine harris ... i especially like this charlaine harris series ... lily bard is awesome ... the trollop is murdered .... lily saves the day while imperiling her own life ... of course ...

39.grave secret ... charlaine harris ... the 4th harper connelly book ... yes, i just really enjoy this author ... quirky series .. not my fave but still well worth reading ...

40 the marriage bargain by jennifer probst ... chick lit ... romance ... reading light ... read it fast ...

41. On the Island by tracey garvis graves ... i bought this for my kindle cheap ... with low expectations and i LOVED it .... really thought it was great .... plane wreck and sharks and deserted islands and life boats and sunburns .... all good... i'm an island girl at heart.

42. the inheritance ... by irina shapiro ... a romance novel ... let's dash of to the scottish highlands, shall we? an inexpensive book on my kindle ... quick, light, happy read ...

43. matched by ally condie ... oh! great book ... i love post apocalyptic distopian societies ... i like seeing what glorious oddness an author can think up ... and this one was SUPER ... love, love, loved it ... life is all organized and whitewashed and predetermined based on what you are statistically predicted to do ... including who you are going to be matched with when you are 17 .... and of course ... everything goes bad ... i loved it so much i finished the last page and within a minute was reading the first page of:

44: crossed (of the matched trilogy) by ally condie .... was the second book ... i really like the characters and the events .... the society they were part of was well thought out and constructed by the author ... so when i finished it, i was SUPER excited to read the third ... and, much to my dismay, it isn't out yet! darn. ... can't wait!

45. the year the music changed by diane thomas ... i love books that are letters ... diary of anne frank and daddy long legs are the two i remember first reading as a little kid .... this book is letters between pen pals ascha and elvis ... yes, elvis presley .... i really enjoyed it ... think i would have loved it even if i didn't love elvis .. but i do ... so i loved it extra maybe ...

46. finding my happy pace by heather wardell .... i have never in my life had any desire to run a marathon ... even though i have marathoning friends and family .... but this book made me think there are reasons to pursue it ... i'm not going to ... but i at least let it flit across my brain as a possibility ...
i read this in one day ... sunday morning, started it at the gym on the elliptical (only 20 minutes ellip cause i first jogged three miles) .... read a bit right after lunch .... read some more while dinner cooked (salmon, artichokes, asparagus, berries) ... and then read straight into the night ... finishing it at 12.45 when i should have been sound asleep ....

47. Blank slate kate ... by heather wardell .... new morning, back to the gym, 45 minutes on the elliptical and a good start on this book .... heather wardell has good chick lit ... not quite as flakey as romance novels but fun and easy and happy reading ....

48. lucy wagner gets in shape by claire matthews ... romatic comedy ... chick lit ... lite ... airy .... boy cheats on girl, girl dumps boy, girl does a triathlon, girl finds a new boy ....

49. live out loud by heather wardell .... pink haired pop star looking for her true self .... light ... fun ...


july
50. shakespeare's counselor by charlaine harris .... i LOVE LOVE LOVE charlaine harris ... and this is my favorite of her series .... lily bard is broken and strong ... i love her.

51. the scourge by a.g.henley ... yay ... great story!!! young adult fiction is all about post apocolyptic mayhem and this fits the bill ... with zombies ... and a blind girl .... ok, fine, i'm making it sound goofy but it is GREAT ... way great ... loved it .... gonna get all my kids to read it ... yay for YA books for grownups

52. open minds by susan kaye quinn .... i liked kira quinn ... she starts out as an awkward teen ... a late bloomer ... a zero in a world of mind readers .... and then she gets mad mind skills that she doesn't understand .... far reaching story with family and high school and the fbi and corporate espionage and internment camps and first kisses ... enjoyed it a lot ...

53. obernewtyn by isobelle carmody .... this is one of the obernewtyn chronicles .... working its way into YA post apocolyptic fiction in a series genre .... the genre that i enjoy reading so much .... this one has more mind tricks like open minds ... but this one is darker ... more mysterious .... looking forward to the continuation of the story ....

54, 55, 56, 56
WOW WOW WOW ...
tomorrow when the war began by john marsden .... set in australia ... teens went to camp in outback, headed home to no one ... australia had been invaded and all the townspeople were locked up ... war.... very exciting stuff ... great characters ... intense story line ... really loved it ... so i read the second one ... the dead of night ... and then the third one wasn't on kindle ... i think because it had a different u.s. title than its originally published aussie title ... and maybe they don't put them on kindle unless they've sold a certain number? so ... i had to buy the book .... well worth the wait ... (but i do love the instant gratification of buying a book and it being instantly on my kindle) .... so i read
a killing frost
the third in the series ...
oh my, such a sad ending and such a happy ending ... bitter, bittersweet.....and
darkness be my friend ..
the fourth in the series ...

during 56, not a kindle book, i needed a kindle book to read at the gym, because i just couldn't manage to read a book book and not a kindle book on the elliptical .... so i read:
57. the do over ... by kathy dunnehoff .... seattle woman runs away to canada during her summer vacay ... she works for the school system, her son is at granny's .... and she's not actually being very irresponsible ... but her husband is ticked off about it as she works on finding herself .....


58, 59, 60 ...
the last three books of the seven book tomorrow series by australian john marsden about a war in australia ... AWESOME .. i couldn't put them down .... loved this series and am so sad to be done with them ... loved the characters, the story, the suspense, the mayhem ....
burning for revenge
the night is for hunting
the other side of dawn
..... that's book 5,6,7 of the series ... quick ... go read them ....

61. fablehaven by brandon mull ... not on my kindle.... i sorted ALL the books in my whole house ... and julia said this one was fab ... we have the whole series ... i enjoyed it... fantasy, fairies, clever storyline, grandma turned into a chicken .... but not sure if i loved it enough to read the whole series ...

AUGUST ... 

and september and october because i did a weak job of updating and i didn't put in months again until november ... what's up with that?

62. fifty shades of gray. good grief. this book has been all the rage to talk about this year ... lots of my friends have read all three ... and i said i had NO interest ... but, my book club decided to read and discuss so i read it ... and honestly and truly: i just found it sad ... sad that she thinks that's love .. sad that he is so broken that he seems incapable of real love ... sad that it was not better written ... i do get people who say "i read two and three cause i want to see how the story ends ... i like the story ... " but, ya know ... i didn't .... total bummer of a book ... skip it ... and the next two ... even though i haven't read them, i'm sure you don't need to either ...

63. a year by the sea by joan anderson .... ah ... nice book ... about a woman who can't figure out who she should be or where she should be .. and when her husband moves says she's not going .... so she spends time without him finding herself ... i liked it ....

64.my boyfriend merlin by priya ardis ... yay! fun book ... modern day fantasy ... king arthur's merlin shows up in modern times and needs assistance .....

65. favorite by karen mcquestion .....yes! i loved this book ... angie favorite is a girl who lost her mother ... lives with her brother and grandmother ... things don't go her way ... and the book sorts things out ... you should read this one so i don't want to give anything away ....

66. a reckless witch ... book 3 in the modern witch series .... very dear ... i cried when the baby witch was finally born ....

67. a witch central wedding ... is an in between novella between book 3 above ... and book 4 which i shall read soon ... maybe right away ....

68. swim by jennifer weiner ... short story ... a prequel to the next best thing ... liked it ... not love.

69. a nomadic witch ... modern witch series book 4 .. by jennifer geary .... i do love this series ... they are sweet and happy and soothing ...

70. on the beach by nevil shute ... OH MY GOODNESS ....my son has to do "parallel reading" in his english class ... basically and english lit class and he has to do outside reading by a brit, aussie, or canadian writer .... i suggested the (oh my gosh i loved them) tomorrow when the war began series ... he asked his teacher who said yes, IF ..... if he read this book (australian) he could then read those books .... the class is a year long after all ... plenty of time to read them all .... so ... the books he wanted to read are listed above ....54-60 with an interloper in the middle ... about a fictitious present time war in australia .... this one is from the 1950s, set in australia, and the northern hemisphere has had a MAJOR nuclear war .... and the repercussions from that ...... it was so intriguing and heartbreaking and interesting .... and depressing and did i say heartbreaking ... but such a worthwhile read ...

71. witches on parole, debora geary .... a new witch series, witchlight ... not as much witchy fun as the others by geary, but excellent character development and general good feelings .... which i needed after that last book ...

72. witches under way, debora geary, witchlight 2 ...
73. witches in flight, debora geary, witchlight 3 ... i really love this series .. kind of a guilty pleasure because it is not very literary .... it is just a very nice story ...

74. delirium ....by lauren oliver .... the delirium is LOVE ... har .... when you turn 18 you get cured of the delirium ... society gotten bland with no deep emotions .... great story .... of course 17 year olds are the stars of the book ....

75. pandemonium by lauren oliver .... book two to delirium .... the first book was exciting and interesting as you learned about what this future world is ... the second book was all action and adventure ... very exciting ... and i was SOO SOOOOO SOOOO disappointed that book three isn't out yet ... darn.

76. marked by kim richardson ... first one of the soul guardians series ... i have all of these on my kindle ... my oldest read them and loved them .... i am a bit surprised that i've never read a book about heaven like this.... heaven is called horizon ... but it's where the angels hang out ... archangels and cherubs and oracles and guardian angels .... it was a scary exciting adventure book .... i don't feel compelled to read the rest  of the series immediately like i do when i read some series, but i'm sure i will read them soon ....

77. the secret keeper by brea brown ... i think the magic that is my kindle account knows that i like series ... or is that a trend in publishing? but this one appeared on my kindle bargain book list and was too inexpensive to pass up ... but it ended up being a rom com ... which i'm not that inclined toward .... but ... i liked it ... i liked the female and the male .... i actually think my book club would like it .. there are some interesting discussion points .... light reading ...

78. wild (from lost to found on the pacific crest trail ... by cheryl strayed .... an oprah book ... i haven't read an oprah rec in a long time ... for so long i thought she only recommended the saddest hardest books ... but this one struck me as being similar to my 12th book this year, becoming odyssa, which i quite enjoyed ... i might not ever hike the appalachian trail or the pacific crest trail, but i like the idea of it .. a lot.... wild is much more about a woman finding herself ... who in fact needed a do over to find herself again .... much more heart breaking than odyssa ....

79....i am on  a reading spreeeeee ... because i was sick for two weeks ... and now? right when i'm better? i got to go to the pediatrician and read MORE than 100 pages while waiting .... stomach ache and sore throat .... strep test negative .... diagnosis: lower gi bug .... worry: appendicitis with an allergy season sore throat ... ugh ... BUT ... i love, love, loved jeannette walls book half broke horses .... the characters were rich and full ... actually they were very poor .... but characters full of character and a grand story .... set at the beginning of the 20th century and full of history and wars and dust bowls and the depression and horses .... it's been likened to the shabby version of little house on the prairie ... for adults ... great read ... book club book ....

80... next book club book: battle hymn of the tiger mother by amy chua .... do you know this one? about chinese parenting? i would never pick it to read but it is next month's book club book ...

and 80 still ... i read it and quite enjoyed it ... tiger mother was skewered in the press, notable the wsj, but i found the book kind of anthropological ... a case study of cultural differences by a self deprecating chinese american woman ... and, GREAT conversations about it at my book club.

81. my big fake irish life by caitlin mckenna ... easy lite reading about an actress who can't get a job til she pretends to be irish ... and then struggles to be irish all the time .. not exactly literature, but fun fiction.

82. dark revelation by s.e. myers .... mysterious death, mysterious aunt getting custody, revelations that you aren't exactly human .... murder and mayhem and saving the world from the evil doers ....

83.the causal vacancy by j.k. rowling .... i really loved this book ... mostly i was stunned that rowling can write this sort of novel when i'm used to her kid lit harry potter (i've read them all multiple times, i love them) .... so for her to write about small town england and the intricacies of class warfare, drug addicts,  and just ordinary mean people was interesting to me ... very multi dimensional characters ... i don't think any were all good or all bad ....


NOVEMBER


84.the rise of nine (lorien legacy) by pittacus lore (a pseudonym)  .... this is part of the i am number four series .... i like the characters so i just want to keep going .... i'm not even sure how it compares to the others so much as i was just happy to meet a few more of the numbered folks, learn about their powers, and watch them on their quest to save earth AND return to their home planet ... which hasn't happened yet ... so there have to be more books ... or at least one, thanks.

85. when it happens to you by molly ringwald ... i read this because in my teens i ADORED molly ringwald ... and she is a good writer ... i like this book, the characters, the story, but ... i didn't love it because i wanted a story arc ... and instead it was sort of a series of short stories about the same characters and their interactions ... and their paths crossing .... i guess the story wasn't tight enough for me ... or compelling ... it was easy to put down because i never was invested in anyone ....

86. renewal by jf perkins ... this showed up on my kindle deals email from amazon ... couldn't beat the price ... post apocolyptic so there was an excellent chance i'd like it .... and it was AWESOME.... end of the world as we know it ... called the breakdown in this book .... and human nature showed its rough side ... lots of people were not very nice (the cannibalism bits FREAKED me out totally) ... but there was one awesome family that we get to see right as the breakdown happens and is being figured out ... and 40 years later while the world is still trying to resort itself out .... this guy, jf perkins is a great storyteller ... i just adored his characters ... and wanted more ... they were flawed and fun and good and bad and trying hard and not trying at all ... all sorts ... and the story was great ... lots of backing and forthing between years, but it was awesome ... you know how sometimes you read a story and only like one of the strings? i LOVED both story lines .... so much ... this one was written as a novella .. a shorter story .. not a short story, but not a full length novel ... and perkins released more as a series ... luckily for me he'd already put out ten by the time i found him! so... 87 is more of this series ....

87. renewal 2: echoes of the breakdown
88. renewal 3: your basic swiss family
89. renewal 4: down on the river
90. renewal 5: an untimely fall
91. renewal 6: cold .... this one was particularly interesting to me ... nuclear winter! brrrrrr
92. renewal 7: when the student is ready
93. renewal 8: war council
94. renewal 9: delay tactic
95. renewal 10: blind force .... and the story that was building and building is resolved ... but there are still LOADS of unanswered questions and characters that you want to know more about ... so hopefully there will be more!! a girl can wish, right?

96. sarah's valley by sharon mierke .... an 1800s period piece ... go west, young man ... kind of a long round about rolling story ... someone spinning a yarn .... nice ... certainly not my best of the year, and way different than the last 10, but soothing and nice ... and now i am editing this ... i was about half way done when i wrote that ....
i LOVED LOVED LOVED sarah's valley ..... it was a rambling story of a go west adventure but i loved the characters and the story telling .... the characters were flawed and awesome ... grand epic tale that i hope to get my book club to read ... loved.

97. the christmas box by richard paul evans....super short ... super sweet .... a little sad ... a little uplifting ... perfect for our book club selection for the christmas meeting that is way more party than meeting!

98. notorious nineteen by janet evanovich. yay! i loved it! i've read all of j.evanovich's books and this one had me laughing out loud by page nine ... happy, fun read ....

99. all the dancing birds by auburn mccanta ... so sad! so hard to read! so well done! the main character knows she is afflicted with alzheimers ... the book is from her perspective ..... very touching ....

100. what child is this .... by caroline cooney ... this is what a "christmas book" should be ... sweet and heart warming ... it was a bit predictable but lovely how it turned out with a bit of suspense ... i just love the characters in books who are so meant to be wrong ... oh, that's who we are supposed to dislike! ....

101. the christmas letters by lee smith .... liked ... didn't love .... generations of christmas letters ... some of which weren't christmasy at all ... bogged down in the last generation ....

102. the pecan man by cassie dandridge selleck ... OH!!! read this!!!! might be my favorite book this year!!! loved it .. shout out to stacie for telling me to read it ... southern story of a woman and her housekeeper, who is actually her best friend .... the raising of children ... a homeless man ... the sad state of race relations in the 70s ...

103. waking up married by mira lynn kelly ... romance ... light, fluffy, easy, fun ... just what the title says.... las vegas ...