A New Library to Discover

Ro and I went out to explore the other day, for the first time, just as this heat wave was starting. I had discovered by way of Google maps that the local library is only two-thirds of a mile north, so we decided to wander up there. What a remarkably gorgeous building. Built in the late 1800's, the whole place is a maze of delicate original tile, marble, iron, woodwork and stained glass (including an original Tiffany piece), a feast for the eyes to say the least.

A dumbwaiter! Amazing!

All throughout the stacks, the floors are made of a translucent material to allow light to filter through.
Here, you can see light coming up from underneath, and a beam below casting the shadow on the
underside of the floor.

Original floors, original shelves...

The entire building is "fireproof", using unique and modern construction techniques for the time.

To the left, the original Tiffany piece, which I totally did not get a very good photo of.
The mix of the antique and the modern in this photo is as dreadful as it is funny.

A New Library to Discover

Ro and I went out to explore the other day, for the first time, just as this heat wave was starting. I had discovered by way of Google maps that the local library is only two-thirds of a mile north, so we decided to wander up there. What a remarkably gorgeous building. Built in the late 1800's, the whole place is a maze of delicate original tile, marble, iron, woodwork and stained glass (including an original Tiffany piece), a feast for the eyes to say the least.

A dumbwaiter! Amazing!

All throughout the stacks, the floors are made of a translucent material to allow light to filter through.
Here, you can see light coming up from underneath, and a beam below casting the shadow on the
underside of the floor.

Original floors, original shelves...

The entire building is "fireproof", using unique and modern construction techniques for the time.

To the left, the original Tiffany piece, which I totally did not get a very good photo of.
The mix of the antique and the modern in this photo is as dreadful as it is funny.

Reading: Update

I bought this book in Arizona in 2008 when a good friend of mine insisted, (after I made him read Sharon Shinn's Mystic & Rider) that I needed to read it. I tried to read it. Twice. I never got past the second chapter, either time. Slow to start, maybe- or probably more to the point- slow to introduce female characters, which I am ridiculous about. I know, shame on me. But this time, I got through it, and as soon as Catelyn and Daenerys and Arya and Sansa were introduced, I was feeling much more into it. My copy has the "old cover" with Jon Snow and Ghost on it, and I fear now I'm going to have to go looking at used book stores when I go to buy A Clash of Kings because I have this thing about all my books matching. It's a true disease.

I'll probably go looking tomorrow. Or Saturday. Because I have to know what happens next. And that? Is a sign of a great book. (But I don't think HBO would have picked it up if it wasn't one. =D)

• May 26th, A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
• April 13th,  Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire
• February 8th, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood. 
• January 26th, Plot, Ansen Dibell.
• January 24th, The Knot's Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions, Carley Roney.
• January 22nd, Of Bees and Mist, Erick Setaiwan.
• January 19th, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (read twice, back to back.)

Reading: Update

I bought this book in Arizona in 2008 when a good friend of mine insisted, (after I made him read Sharon Shinn's Mystic & Rider) that I needed to read it. I tried to read it. Twice. I never got past the second chapter, either time. Slow to start, maybe- or probably more to the point- slow to introduce female characters, which I am ridiculous about. I know, shame on me. But this time, I got through it, and as soon as Catelyn and Daenerys and Arya and Sansa were introduced, I was feeling much more into it. My copy has the "old cover" with Jon Snow and Ghost on it, and I fear now I'm going to have to go looking at used book stores when I go to buy A Clash of Kings because I have this thing about all my books matching. It's a true disease.

I'll probably go looking tomorrow. Or Saturday. Because I have to know what happens next. And that? Is a sign of a great book. (But I don't think HBO would have picked it up if it wasn't one. =D)

• May 26th, A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
• April 13th,  Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire
• February 8th, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood. 
• January 26th, Plot, Ansen Dibell.
• January 24th, The Knot's Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions, Carley Roney.
• January 22nd, Of Bees and Mist, Erick Setaiwan.
• January 19th, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (read twice, back to back.)

Omnivore, Herbivore, Locavore

There was a long time where I had heard the term locavore, but truly had no measure of what it meant. Of course I fully grasped the concept, but to be immersed in that lifestyle was not something I saw myself experiencing any time soon. My husband's really not one for the outdoors, definitely  doesn't like to get his hands dirty. I like to garden, really I do, but my entire harvest, summer of '09, was wiped out by late blight.

I had the opportunity about a year ago to visit some friends of mine in Vermont who are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greenest folks I know. Really good, old fashioned, salt of the earth kind of people. They live right in the heart of Montpelier, shop at the local co-op, can and brew and have pantries stocked with pickles, jams and mead for the winter.

I was there among ten other friends, all of us taking up space in their old Victorian townhouse, cooking and sharing meals together. One particular afternoon I was invited to come along and ride over to their community garden plot to dig up some things for dinner.

I know what you're thinking, in what modern world are we living that we have to dig up our own dinner? The answer is this one. In the still coolness of the setting sun we trudged through the tangle of rented plots, tomato vines commingling with the blackberries from the next plot over, zucchini canoodling someone else's prized acorn squash. In the seemingly vast field of plants we finally tracked down their plot, and three of us on our hands and knees turned up fistfuls of soil, hunting for the prizes underneath.

I laughed as they handed me potato after potato, which I stacked in my arms (see photo) like newborn babies needing loving warmth. I mean- yes, I hear you, they were only potatoes, but they were our potatoes. Our friends had grown them, tended them lovingly, and now they were unearthing them to share with us. There was such honesty in this work, there was joy as we scrubbed off a single, fat, new carrot under the community tap and then each had a bite. The sweetness on our tongues was the same in our hearts.

Locavorism is a growing trend, as farmer's markets and co-ops gain popularity, becoming trendier and hotter with every passing moment. But it's a trend I can stand to live with, if it turns people's attentions inward and keeps us looking closer to home. Supporting local growers, even being local growers ourselves, enriches our communities and our ties to the land we live on. It's an important lesson for children to learn, too. Where does our food come from?

With any luck, your answer will be 'Here'.

To read more about living life as a Locavore,
check out Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 10/14/2010. Yes, I own my content.

Omnivore, Herbivore, Locavore

There was a long time where I had heard the term locavore, but truly had no measure of what it meant. Of course I fully grasped the concept, but to be immersed in that lifestyle was not something I saw myself experiencing any time soon. My husband's really not one for the outdoors, definitely  doesn't like to get his hands dirty. I like to garden, really I do, but my entire harvest, summer of '09, was wiped out by late blight.

I had the opportunity about a year ago to visit some friends of mine in Vermont who are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greenest folks I know. Really good, old fashioned, salt of the earth kind of people. They live right in the heart of Montpelier, shop at the local co-op, can and brew and have pantries stocked with pickles, jams and mead for the winter.

I was there among ten other friends, all of us taking up space in their old Victorian townhouse, cooking and sharing meals together. One particular afternoon I was invited to come along and ride over to their community garden plot to dig up some things for dinner.

I know what you're thinking, in what modern world are we living that we have to dig up our own dinner? The answer is this one. In the still coolness of the setting sun we trudged through the tangle of rented plots, tomato vines commingling with the blackberries from the next plot over, zucchini canoodling someone else's prized acorn squash. In the seemingly vast field of plants we finally tracked down their plot, and three of us on our hands and knees turned up fistfuls of soil, hunting for the prizes underneath.

I laughed as they handed me potato after potato, which I stacked in my arms (see photo) like newborn babies needing loving warmth. I mean- yes, I hear you, they were only potatoes, but they were our potatoes. Our friends had grown them, tended them lovingly, and now they were unearthing them to share with us. There was such honesty in this work, there was joy as we scrubbed off a single, fat, new carrot under the community tap and then each had a bite. The sweetness on our tongues was the same in our hearts.

Locavorism is a growing trend, as farmer's markets and co-ops gain popularity, becoming trendier and hotter with every passing moment. But it's a trend I can stand to live with, if it turns people's attentions inward and keeps us looking closer to home. Supporting local growers, even being local growers ourselves, enriches our communities and our ties to the land we live on. It's an important lesson for children to learn, too. Where does our food come from?

With any luck, your answer will be 'Here'.

To read more about living life as a Locavore,
check out Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 10/14/2010. Yes, I own my content.

Intellectual...ness....

At the beginning of March, I joined my family in attending the Mid-South Home School Conference in Memphis, TN.  I mostly ended up in sessions dealing with Christian Classical Education (CCE), and I must admit I was...enthralled.  This is the education I wish I'd had growing up!  This is the education I want my kids to have!  The Great Books!  Latin and logic!  Greek and grammar!  Rhetoric!  Virtue!  The Christian Intellectual!



"But I didn't have that education, so is it too late?"  That was the question I posed to several speakers, and they all agreed that no, it's not too late.  (Yey!)

The first speaker suggested that I look up the Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World and start reading through them.  Great idea, until I realized how expansive and expensive (almost $1000!) that set actually is!  And while I can't say any of the works are necessarily obscure, many of them--especially the earlier ones--are dense and overwhelming.  I could totally see myself getting discouraged early on and quitting the project without looking back.

A second presenter told me to brush up on my Latin skills, more or less.  I took Latin for a year(ish) in high school, but laid it aside in favor of French in college.  I don't regret taking French, but I do regret ceasing my Latin studies.  So I'm picking it up again!  I bought Wheelock's Latin:  The Classic Introductory Latin Course yesterday at Books-A-Million and spent a while this afternoon downloading other resources from the website.  I'm starting from the ground up--it's been nine years since I've touched it!

Another speaker gave me a more reasonable--though still large--goal than Great Books.  This speaker was Susan Wise Bauer, and after the first lecture I texted this to Trevvor:  "I think I've found a new academic hero."  (She actually reminded me in a softened, Christian way of one of the professors I admired from my liberal arts program in college.)  She has written two books about educating classically in a Christian home.  The first is directed at parents teaching their children (The Well-Trained Mind) and the second is directed at adults who, like me, wish they'd had a classical education but haven't.  It's called The Well-Educated Mind, and I'm kind of in love with it.



The first part deals with how to read--whether you need to work on mechanics and/or vocabulary (I'm ordering Vocabulary from Classical Roots just for fun), how to keep a reading journal, and what questions you need to ask yourself as you go along.  It suggests approaching a book in three stages that mirror the stages of the trivium (grammar, logic, & rhetoric):  first you try to understand a book's basic structure and argument, then you evaluate the book's assertions, and last you form an opinion about the book's ideas (p. 41).



The second part is five lists of selected books that have a lot of overlap with Great Books of the Western World.  The five categories are the novel, autobiography/memoir, history, drama, and poetry.  Each list is meant to be read in chronologically so that you can build upon ideas in the same order as the people who wrote them.  (In case you're wondering, the first book on the novel list is Don Quixote.)





So that's my plan!  I don't intend on becoming the next Augustine or anything, but I do feel I could improve and develop my God-given ability to think--to taste, swallow, and either digest or reject ideas as I cross paths with them according to whether or not they are in accordance with God's Truth.

Intellectual...ness....

At the beginning of March, I joined my family in attending the Mid-South Home School Conference in Memphis, TN.  I mostly ended up in sessions dealing with Christian Classical Education (CCE), and I must admit I was...enthralled.  This is the education I wish I'd had growing up!  This is the education I want my kids to have!  The Great Books!  Latin and logic!  Greek and grammar!  Rhetoric!  Virtue!  The Christian Intellectual!



"But I didn't have that education, so is it too late?"  That was the question I posed to several speakers, and they all agreed that no, it's not too late.  (Yey!)

The first speaker suggested that I look up the Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World and start reading through them.  Great idea, until I realized how expansive and expensive (almost $1000!) that set actually is!  And while I can't say any of the works are necessarily obscure, many of them--especially the earlier ones--are dense and overwhelming.  I could totally see myself getting discouraged early on and quitting the project without looking back.

A second presenter told me to brush up on my Latin skills, more or less.  I took Latin for a year(ish) in high school, but laid it aside in favor of French in college.  I don't regret taking French, but I do regret ceasing my Latin studies.  So I'm picking it up again!  I bought Wheelock's Latin:  The Classic Introductory Latin Course yesterday at Books-A-Million and spent a while this afternoon downloading other resources from the website.  I'm starting from the ground up--it's been nine years since I've touched it!

Another speaker gave me a more reasonable--though still large--goal than Great Books.  This speaker was Susan Wise Bauer, and after the first lecture I texted this to Trevvor:  "I think I've found a new academic hero."  (She actually reminded me in a softened, Christian way of one of the professors I admired from my liberal arts program in college.)  She has written two books about educating classically in a Christian home.  The first is directed at parents teaching their children (The Well-Trained Mind) and the second is directed at adults who, like me, wish they'd had a classical education but haven't.  It's called The Well-Educated Mind, and I'm kind of in love with it.



The first part deals with how to read--whether you need to work on mechanics and/or vocabulary (I'm ordering Vocabulary from Classical Roots just for fun), how to keep a reading journal, and what questions you need to ask yourself as you go along.  It suggests approaching a book in three stages that mirror the stages of the trivium (grammar, logic, & rhetoric):  first you try to understand a book's basic structure and argument, then you evaluate the book's assertions, and last you form an opinion about the book's ideas (p. 41).



The second part is five lists of selected books that have a lot of overlap with Great Books of the Western World.  The five categories are the novel, autobiography/memoir, history, drama, and poetry.  Each list is meant to be read in chronologically so that you can build upon ideas in the same order as the people who wrote them.  (In case you're wondering, the first book on the novel list is Don Quixote.)





So that's my plan!  I don't intend on becoming the next Augustine or anything, but I do feel I could improve and develop my God-given ability to think--to taste, swallow, and either digest or reject ideas as I cross paths with them according to whether or not they are in accordance with God's Truth.

100 Books I have to read ...

Revisiting my 100 books list. I have been making progress. I have read far more books than the list implies, because this list is merely a guideline. I am inclined to make another, which shows all the other books that have caught my interest since making this list two years ago. It has been a great way to find some new favourites. Wally Lamb and Margaret Atwood spring to mind as two authors I had not really broached, but now read avidly. The Bookfest is coming up soon, and that always is a great spree!

For my 100th post celebration I have decided to branch out a little from the traditional '100 things about me' posts. Instead I have been working on a list of books I really want to read. This is not a finite list, obviously, and there are other books that I will be reading simply because I have them! The list is composed of books that I have always wanted to read, and books that have been recommended to me from various sources. Some of them are already sitting on my shelves (lucky me!), and I will mark them with an *.


1. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

2. Candide - Voltaire

3. White Oleander - Janet Fitch

4. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb*

5. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood*

6. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*

7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John LeCarre

8. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

9. The Inferno - Dante

10. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

11. Paradise Lost - John Milton

12. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery

13. Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

14. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James*

15. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

16. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald*

17. Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence *

18. The Power and the Glory - Grahame Greene

19. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

20. Scoop - Evelyn Waugh

21. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*

22. The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

23. Madame Bovary - Gustaye Flaubert *

24. The Plague - Albert Camus

25. Middlemarch - George Elliot*

26. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

27. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *

28. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

29. Beloved - Toni Morrison*

30. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

31. Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

32. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher

33. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery*

34. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

35. Swallows And Amazons - Arthur Ransome

36. Ulysses - James Joyce

37. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

38. A Passage to India - E. M. Forster

39. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemmingway

40. The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett

41. The Epic of Gilgamesh - Maureen Gallery Kovacs

42. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf*

43. Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcenar

44. The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve*

45. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini *

46. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

47. Walden - Henry David Thoreau*

48. Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

49. Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde*

50. Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Dafoe *

51. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

52. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

53. Hornblower - C. S. Forester*

54. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy *

55. The Warden - Anthony Trollope

56. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope

57. Like Water For Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

58. The Tale of Genji - Lady Murasaki

59. Feast - Nigella Lawson

60. How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson*

61. Cook With Jamie - Jamie Oliver*

62. The Writer's Book of Hope: Getting from Frustration to Publication - Ralph Keyes

63. The Secret River - Kate Grenville*

64. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

65. Everyday - Bill Granger

66. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

67. The Sixth Wife - Suzannah Dunn

68. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver*

69. A Perfect Day - Richard Evans

70. The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings - Amy Tan

71. The Sacrifice - Beverly Lewis

72. The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud

73. Birdsong - Sebastion Faulks

74. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

75. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham (read years ago, but want to reread)

76. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

77. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

78. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

79. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

80. The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus - Margaret Atwood*

81. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

82. I, Claudius - Robert Graves

83. In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

84. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling - Henry Fielding*

85. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

86. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

87. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

89. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

90. Aspects of the Novel - E. M. Forster

91. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People who love Books and for those who want to write them - Francine Prose*

92. On Becoming a Novelist - John Gardiner

93. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

94. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

95. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome

96. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

97. The Quiet American - Graham Greene

98. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

99. Lanark - Alasdair Gray

100. Oscar and Lucinde - Peter Carey

Here I am, a whole day after I started this post. I have read more book reviews than I thought possible and perused more top 100 lists than I dreamed of. I love books with a passion, but found this list a struggle, because I was avoiding books that I have already read, and trying not to list books that I just wasn't interested in.

If you're one of those people who is obligated to buy me a gift from time to time this would be a brilliant place to start ;)

100 Books I have to read ...

Revisiting my 100 books list. I have been making progress. I have read far more books than the list implies, because this list is merely a guideline. I am inclined to make another, which shows all the other books that have caught my interest since making this list two years ago. It has been a great way to find some new favourites. Wally Lamb and Margaret Atwood spring to mind as two authors I had not really broached, but now read avidly. The Bookfest is coming up soon, and that always is a great spree!

For my 100th post celebration I have decided to branch out a little from the traditional '100 things about me' posts. Instead I have been working on a list of books I really want to read. This is not a finite list, obviously, and there are other books that I will be reading simply because I have them! The list is composed of books that I have always wanted to read, and books that have been recommended to me from various sources. Some of them are already sitting on my shelves (lucky me!), and I will mark them with an *.


1. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

2. Candide - Voltaire

3. White Oleander - Janet Fitch

4. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb*

5. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood*

6. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*

7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John LeCarre

8. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

9. The Inferno - Dante

10. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

11. Paradise Lost - John Milton

12. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery

13. Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

14. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James*

15. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

16. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald*

17. Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence *

18. The Power and the Glory - Grahame Greene

19. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

20. Scoop - Evelyn Waugh

21. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*

22. The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

23. Madame Bovary - Gustaye Flaubert *

24. The Plague - Albert Camus

25. Middlemarch - George Elliot*

26. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

27. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *

28. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

29. Beloved - Toni Morrison*

30. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

31. Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

32. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher

33. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery*

34. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

35. Swallows And Amazons - Arthur Ransome

36. Ulysses - James Joyce

37. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

38. A Passage to India - E. M. Forster

39. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemmingway

40. The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett

41. The Epic of Gilgamesh - Maureen Gallery Kovacs

42. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf*

43. Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcenar

44. The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve*

45. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini *

46. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

47. Walden - Henry David Thoreau*

48. Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

49. Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde*

50. Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Dafoe *

51. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

52. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

53. Hornblower - C. S. Forester*

54. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy *

55. The Warden - Anthony Trollope

56. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope

57. Like Water For Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

58. The Tale of Genji - Lady Murasaki

59. Feast - Nigella Lawson

60. How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson*

61. Cook With Jamie - Jamie Oliver*

62. The Writer's Book of Hope: Getting from Frustration to Publication - Ralph Keyes

63. The Secret River - Kate Grenville*

64. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

65. Everyday - Bill Granger

66. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

67. The Sixth Wife - Suzannah Dunn

68. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver*

69. A Perfect Day - Richard Evans

70. The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings - Amy Tan

71. The Sacrifice - Beverly Lewis

72. The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud

73. Birdsong - Sebastion Faulks

74. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

75. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham (read years ago, but want to reread)

76. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

77. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

78. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

79. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

80. The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus - Margaret Atwood*

81. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

82. I, Claudius - Robert Graves

83. In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

84. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling - Henry Fielding*

85. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

86. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

87. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

89. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

90. Aspects of the Novel - E. M. Forster

91. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People who love Books and for those who want to write them - Francine Prose*

92. On Becoming a Novelist - John Gardiner

93. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

94. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

95. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome

96. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

97. The Quiet American - Graham Greene

98. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

99. Lanark - Alasdair Gray

100. Oscar and Lucinde - Peter Carey

Here I am, a whole day after I started this post. I have read more book reviews than I thought possible and perused more top 100 lists than I dreamed of. I love books with a passion, but found this list a struggle, because I was avoiding books that I have already read, and trying not to list books that I just wasn't interested in.

If you're one of those people who is obligated to buy me a gift from time to time this would be a brilliant place to start ;)

Jermaine Dupri Memoir Released Today

Young, Rich and Dangerous: the Making of a Music Mogul hits the shelves today. The 309-page book chronicles JD's journey in the music industry and the establishment of his record label, So So Def Recordings. The book also gives readers a glimpse into the author’s personal life, and his relationship with longtime love Janet Jackson.

I wonder if he comments on how it feels when Dr. Dre calls you a midget and even writes a song about it?

Jermaine Dupri Memoir Released Today

Young, Rich and Dangerous: the Making of a Music Mogul hits the shelves today. The 309-page book chronicles JD's journey in the music industry and the establishment of his record label, So So Def Recordings. The book also gives readers a glimpse into the author’s personal life, and his relationship with longtime love Janet Jackson.

I wonder if he comments on how it feels when Dr. Dre calls you a midget and even writes a song about it?