Amy's Books

I'm something of an avid reader (or listener as lately I have been checking out loads of audiobooks from the library to listen to while I'm driving around running errands or commuting to work).  Here are the books I have read by year.  A few of them I loved (denoted by asterisks) and a few of them I loathed.  Every now and then I post about books that really get me thinking.

2015
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - such a wonderful read.  This is a modern classic and it made me think about life and beauty and pain and loss and surviving.
  • Wool by Hugh Howey.  Pretty good post-apocalyptic novel about people living in underground silos with a view of the world above only through a few surface camera lenses.  Its been hundreds of years since humanity went underground and they don't know anymore how they ended up in the silos other than they can't survive in the world above.  Some deaths occur that set things in motion and then there is a lot of discovery and mystery solving.  Its a decent read so I give it a "B".
  • The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.  Interesting collection of stories about men and women who lived during WWII.  Their short recollections are categorized in groupings about things like love during the war or racism during the war, etc.  It was interesting but toward the end I started feeling like it was getting a little monotonous in its approach so I give this a "B".
  • **The Martian by Andy Weir.  Oh wow.  This is the book I am going to be recommending all year.  Its about an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars and has to survive.  Sounds hokey or weird but it is based on current science and is FASCINATING.  Loved it.  Can't recommend it enough.
  • Jacky Faber Book 10 by L.A. Meyer. I love the Bloody Jack series even if this later ones are forced and silly.  The first few are the best.
  • Cinder by Marissa Meyer.  A Cinderella spin with a cyborg as Cinderella.  Interesting but not my favorite.  I feel like the idea had some merit but then it was just pumped out to get it written and it wasn't actually done very well.  There are a few more books in the series also based around fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, etc. so I might read the rest just to see how the series goes.
  • Written in my Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon.  10th book in the Outlander series.  This is another series that I really enjoy, even though the later books aren't anywhere near as good as the early ones.  For as lengthy as her novels are, I feel like this one felt like she made her outline, flushed it out, added in her research (which she does thoroughly and is probably my favorite part about the book - learning about medicinal plants and 17th century medical practices, Scottish and American history, etc.) but for all that the book just never seemed to gel all the way. 
  • Ruins and Rising by Leigh Bardugo.  Meh - this series is okay and this was the end of it.  Better than other YA series, I think, but probably mostly because it is set in a fictional Russia-sort of setting, which was different. 
  • Scarlett by Marissa Meyer.  The second in the Lunar series.  It was so-so. 

2014
  • The Boys in the Boat - I loved this book.  Its the story of the 1936 U.S. Olympic men's rowing team. I highly recommend it.
  • A Town Like Alice - another great read, recommended to me by a couple of different people.  About a woman in Malaysia during WWII and then her story 6 years later.
  • Revolution - Jennifer Donnelly
  • Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Siege and Storm - Leigh Barduco
  • Bossypants - Tina Fey
  • East of Eden - John Steinbeck (Such an interesting read.  I will never read the story of Cain and Abel the same way again.)
  • The Ugly One
  • The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling)
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
  • The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander
  • The Black Cauldron - Lloyd Alexander

2013
  • The Alchemist (loved)
  • The Handmaid's Tale
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (re-read)
  • Peter Pan
  • The Farmer's Wife
  • Matched
  • A Northern Light (reread although I didn't realize it until halfway through the book)
  • Seraphina - Rachel Hartman
  • The Fault in our Stars
  • Shadow and Bone - Leigh Barduco
  • Code Name Verity
  • A Brief History of Montemaray

2012
I didn't keep a record this year but I read the entire "Bloody Jack" series and LOVED them.  Totally recommend those books.  Also read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, which was amazing.  Also re-read (well, listened to the audiobooks of) the first four Harry Potter books.

2011
  • The Omnivore's Dilemma
  • The Devil in the White City
  • The Help
2010
  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  • This World We Live In
  • The Dead and the Gone
  • * Life As We Knew It
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • The Swan Thieves
  • Her Fearful Symmetry
  • Foundling
  • Mockingjay*
  • Life As We Knew It
  • The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
  • Austenland
  • Tunnels
  • The Girl Who Played With Fire
  • King Lear
  • Team of Rivals
  • Dreams from my Father
  • People of the Book
  • An Echo in the Bone
  • Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
  • The Maze Runner
  • * The Graveyard Book
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society
  • Anansi Boys
  • The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
  • Lady Elizabeth
  • The Lovely Bones
  • The Five People You Meet In Heaven
  • Monsters of Templeton
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel
  • Water for Elephants

2009
  • Extras
  • Specials
  • ** Catching Fire
  • The Fire
  • Over Sea, Under Stone
  • The Book of Lies
  • Pretties
  • Hush, Hush
  • * Uglies
  • Writing Magic
  • Wings
  • * The King of Attolia
  • * The Queen of Attolia
  • * The Thief
  • ** The Hunger Games
  • The Road
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • Billy Budd
  • * A Breath of Snow and Ashes
  • Measure for Measure
  • The Fiery Cross
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • * Drums of Autumn
  • Voyager
  • What I Saw and How I Lied
  • Dragonfly in Amber
  • Innocent Traitor
  • Outlander

2008
  • The Diamond of Darkhold
  • The Prophet of Yonwood
  • The People of Sparks
  • Graceling
  • * The Hunger Games
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
  • * Ella Enchanted
  • Gone
  • The Thirteenth Tale
  • The Golden Compass
  • The Amber Spyglass
  • The Subtle Knife
  • Pride and Prejudice
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Love Walked In
  • * The Thief
  • * The Queen of Attolia
  • * The King of Attolia
  • Beauty
  • Wicked
  • A Great and Terrible Beauty
  • Rebel Angels
  • The Sweet Far Thing
  • The City of Ember
  • The World According to Garp
  • Moon Without Magic
  • Wishing Moon
  • A Little Princess
  • * A Thousand Splendid Suns
  • Life of Pi
  • East to the Dawn
  • Lost Horizons
  • Pillars of the Earth
  • * The Book Thief
  • Midwives
  • Ender's Game
  • The Host
  • * The Blue Sword
  • * The Hero and the Crown
  • Book of a Thousand Days
  • Princess Academy
  • * The Goose Girl
  • Enna Burning
  • River Secrets
  • * Twilight
  • * New Moon
  • * Eclipse
  • Breaking Dawn
  • * The House of the Scorpion
  • * The Time Traveller's Wife
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