2013: Year in reading

Every year I like to share what I read. In 2013 I read 60 books, below my recent highs of around 80 per year, but much more than I expected to read with an infant. It turns out that you can easily read (especially on a phone -- it's the perfect size) while breastfeeding and rocking a baby to sleep. :) Here's my Goodreads profile and the final list for 2013, with favorites in bold.

January 2013
A Good American by Alex George
Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman (book group)
Arcadia by Lauren Groff (book group)
Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein
Lucky Break by Esther Freud

February 2013
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives by Annie Murphy Paul
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (book group)
How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (book group)
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year by Anne Lamott
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

March 2013
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (book group)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5) by Alan Bradley (book group)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

April 2013
Take Me Home by Brian Leung (book group)
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

May 2013
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin (book group)

June 2013 
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (book group)

July 2013 
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (book group)
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (book group)
The Days are Gods by Liz Stephens
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Crashed by Timothy Hallinan
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) (book group)

August 2013 
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Girl Walks into a Bar by Rachel Dratch
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Elsewhere by Richard Russo

September 2013
May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes (book group)
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Solar by Ian McEwan

October 2013 

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

November 2013 
NW by Zadie Smith
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
The Future of Us by Jay Asher
The Circle by Dave Eggers
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

December 2013 
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (book group)
Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

2012: Year in Reading

My reading goal for 2012 was 80 books and I barely made it (you may even consider me a cheater, because in December I counted several children's books that Mike and I read together). I keep track of my reading on Goodreads, and for the coming year (2013) I've cut my goal in half. Let's see if, given my new role as a mom, I can manage approximately 3 books per month.

Here's the final list for 2012, with favorites in bold.


January 2012
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (book group)
I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
I Am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith by Joanna Brooks
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

February 2012
Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (book group)
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (book group)
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan
The Good Body by Eve Ensler

March 2012
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The New Republic by Lionel Shriver
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller (book group)

April 2012
Hello, Stranger by Virginia Swift
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (book group)
The Likeness by Tana French
Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan
The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen

May 2012
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by the Countess of Carnarvon
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell
Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

June 2012
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (book group)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (book group)
Faithful Place by Tana French
Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park
Taft 2012 by Jason Heller
The Time Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky

July 2012
Untold Story by Monica Ali
Look at Me by Jennifer Egan
Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White Collar-Dreams by Alfred Lubrano
Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams (book group)
Moo by Jane Smiley
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (book group)
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

August 2012
Broken Harbor by Tana French (book group)
The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D’Agostino
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (book group)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

September 2012
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How we lie to everyone -- especially ourselves by Dan Ariely (book group)

October 2012
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (book group)
Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill (book group)
Mormon Diaries by Sophia L. Stone
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

November 2012
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (book group)
Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton 

December 2012
Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkeley Breathed
Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
We the Animals by Justin Torres
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett
The Hat by Jan Brett
Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Why Moms are Weird by Pamela Ribon
The Privileges by Jonathan Dee

80 Books in 2011

Here's the complete list of the books I read in 2011 (there are two days left, but I don't think I'm going to finish Daniel Deronda or The Remains of the Day in that time). I set two reading goals this year: 1) to read a total of 80 books and 2) to read at least one nonfiction book per month. Mission accomplished! This is a mix of classics, stuff read for work, young adult lit, literary fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of plays. Leave a comment if you want a review or a recommendation.

Note: These are listed in the order in which I read them. Favorites are in bold.

1. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
2. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
3. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
4. "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
6. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
7. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
8. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
9. Such a Pretty Face: Being Fat in America by Marcia Millman
10. Great House by Nicole Krauss
11. Intuition by Allegra Goodman
12. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa
13. An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
14. Cheerful Money by Tad Friend
15. I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
16. Thanks for the Memories by Cecilia Ahern
17. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
18. The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern
19. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
20. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
21. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
22. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
23. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
24. My Life in France by Julia Child
25. Jane by April Lindner
26. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
27. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
28. Juliet by Anne Fortier
29. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
30. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
31. O, Pioneers by Willa Cather
32. Bossypants by Tina Fey
33. Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger
34. The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard
35. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
36. Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan
37. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan C. Bradley
38. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
39. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
40. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
41. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
42. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
43. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
44. Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
45. Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal
46. Riding the White Horse Home by Teresa Jordan
47. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
48. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
49. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
50. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
51. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
52. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
53. The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
54. “Clouds” by Aristophanes
55. The Lais of Marie de France translated by Burgess & Busby
56. “Germania” by Tacitus
57. The Exile by Diana Gabaldon
58. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
59. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
60. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
61. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
62. The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure
63. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
64. Bonk by Mary Roach
65. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
66. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim
67. Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way by Jon Krakauer
68. The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
69. What Would Buffy Do: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide by Jana Riess
70. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
71. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
72. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan C. Bradley
73. The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer
74. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
75. The Magician King by Lev Grossman
76. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

77. This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

78. Flunking Sainthood by Jana Riess

79. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
80. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

2010: The Year in Review

The past year was a great one for us. As we've reflected on 2010, we came up with a few highlights:

We took some awesome trips: Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, and the Badlands; Alaska; Yellowstone National Park; St. George for Thanksgiving; and Cache Valley for all kinds of family fun.

Our families grew: Justin & Annie got married, and we have two new nephews -- Dean in Albuquerque, NM and Gavin in England.

The wedding
Dean
Gavin

Melissa had lots of opportunities for professional development: ALA Midwinter in Boston, ALA Annual in Washington D.C., Immersion in Vermont, Library Assessment Conference in Baltimore, Wyoming Library Association presentations, two articles (article 1 and article 2) published and another accepted. She is loving the job at UW after a year and a half.

Mike has developed professionally, too: continuing to take Master's of Public Administration (MPA) classes, and getting a great new job in Student Success Services as an advisor for at-risk students.

Other good stuff: we have made great friends, spent time hiking and camping, read lots of good books and watched some good movies, and became addicted to a few TV shows (Buffy, Angel, and Bones).

We have big plans and high hopes for 2011, and we wish all of our readers a very happy New Year!