books

Here’s what I completed in November. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, Steven Millhauser
• Amnesia Moon, Jonathan Lethem

Here’s what I completed in October. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• Dark at the Roots: A Memoir, Sarah Thyre
• Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
• The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, Tess Uriza Holthe
• The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, Jonathan Lethem

Here’s what I completed in September. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• The Children of Húrin, J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, Lisa See
• Him Her Him Again The End of Him, Patricia Marx
• Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America?, Robert Kaplow
• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Mary Roach
• Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Lacy Crochet: Lacy Crochet, Shufu-To-Seikatsu Sha
• As She Climbed Across the Table, Jonathan Lethem
• Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler
• In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Here’s what I completed in August (better late than never, right?). Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold, Terry Brooks
• Evening Is the Whole Day: A Novel, Preeta Samarasan
• Jane Austen: A Life, Claire Tomalin

Here’s what I completed in July. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• The Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman
• Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers, Jane Robinson
• Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping, Paco Underhill
• McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers, Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey

Is that really all? Huh. I suppose I did spend a week or so ignoring the stack I got out of the library after vacation.

Here’s what I completed in June. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• The Host: A Novel, Stephenie Meyer
• How We Are Hungry, Dave Eggers
• The Secret Between Us, Barbara Delinsky
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
• American Pastoral, Philip Roth
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

June was a month of re-reading — of the six, three are ones I’ve read at least once before (Huxley & Eggers). And I enjoyed “The Host” enough to encourage you to at least consider reading it. And by consider, I mean go to a library or bookstore, get it off the shelf, and do whatever it is you do to determine if you want to read a random book or not. (I dip into different spots in the book and read a few paragraphs. If I want to keep going I know I’m leaving with it.)

Here’s what I completed in May. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• The Secret of Lost Things: A Novel by Sheridan Hay
• Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Rules of Gentility by Janet Mullany
• The Greyston Bakery Cookbook: More Than 80 Recipes to Inspire the Way You Cook and Live by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan
• Best New American Voices 2008 by Natalie Danford
• Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy
• Lady Macbeth: A Novel by Susan Fraser King

First Arun posted this, then Ellen. Now I am feeling the (nonexistent) pressure.

Below is a list of 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing users. They sit on their shelf, perhaps to make their owner feel smart or well-rounded. The meme comes with these instructions: Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish. (I couldn’t help but add comments in parens.)

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This weekend in Boston was full of fun stuff — a big party at a Cambridge pub on Friday when I got in, Commencement hijinks on Saturday, and a delicious brunch on that patio at Cambridge Brewing Company on Sunday (followed by some quality stitch n bitch time). Click through for more!

Also check out photos from Dave (Simmons Commencement set) and Candy ( Graduation, May 2008 set).

Here’s what I completed in April. My take on each of these can be found on Goodreads.com (I can’t link directly to my review for a given book, so I haven’t bothered to link at all. But if you’re on Goodreads, friend me and you can see them.)

• Cathy’s Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233, Sean Stewart
• Beginner’s Greek, James Collins
• The End of Poverty, Jeffrey D. Sachs
• Austenland, Shannon Hale
• Book Lust, Nancy Pearl
• The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall
• Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen
• Burning Bright, Tracy Chevalier
• D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Ellen Lupton
• Ines of My Soul, Isabel Allende