Spiritual books:
Moving in His Might and Majesty (Neal Maxwell)
Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward (Neal Maxwell)
If God Loves Me, Then Why This? (Kim Nelson--his daughter was my roommate, which is why I read this book. In case you were wondering.)
With Full Purpose of Heart (Dallin H. Oaks)
Men and Women of Christ (Neal Maxwell)
Even As I Am (Neal Maxwell)
The Screwtape Letters (CS Lewis)
Lord, Increase Our Faith (Neal Maxwell)
The Smallest Part (Neal Maxwell)
Having a baby books:
Taking Charge of Your Fertility (Toni Weschler)
*After Miscarriage (Krissi Danielsson)
^Homebirth in the Hospital (Stacey Marie Kerr)
Hypnobirthing (Marie F. Mongan)
Random fiction:
The Calligrapher's Daughter (Eugenia Kim)
Desolate Angel (Chaz McGee)
Honolulu (Alan Brennet)
Hello Goodbye (Emily Chenoweth)
The Case of the Missing Servant (Tarquin Hall)
^Etta (Gerald Kolpan)
Dog on It (Spencer Quinn)
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People (Farahad Zama)
^La's Orchestra Saves the World (Alexander McCall Smith)
Something Missing (Matthew Dicks)
^Bound South (Susan Rebecca White)
Books likely to be book club reads:
*The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver)
44 Scotland Street (Alexander McCall Smith)
^These Is My Words (Nancy E. Turner)
*The Postmistress (Sarah Blake)
Little Bee (Chris Cleave)
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
^The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
Serious fiction:
*Tinkers (Paul Harding)
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
^In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Daniyal Mueenuddin)
*Little Bird of Heaven (Joyce Carol Oates)
*Main Street (Sinclair Lewis)
*The Unsurrendered (Chang-rae Lee)
^Homer and Langley (EL Doctorow)
^The March (EL Doctorow)
*A Good Fall (Ha Jin)
*Love in Infant Monkeys (Lydia Millet)
The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen)
^Freedom (Jonathan Franzen)
^Too Much Happiness (Alice Munro)
Random nonfiction:
*Crazy for the Storm (Norman Ollestad)
How Do You Tuck in a Superhero? (Rachel Balducci)
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (Allison Hoover Bartlett)
^Random Family (Adrian Nicole LeBlanc)
^7 Principles for Making Marriage Work (John Gottman)
^Heart Petals: The Personal Correspondence of David Oman McKay to Emma Rae McKay (ed. Mary Jane Woodger)
Don't Forget to Write (Pamela Hobbs)
Richard Russo:
The Whore's Child and Other Stories
Mohawk
^Straight Man
Some of the worst books I read this year (don't ask why I finished them because I don't know):
*Benny and Shrimp (so, so, so impressively bad) (truly, one of the worst books I have ever read)
*Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter (also pretty impressively bad) (Lisa Patton)
*The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (like a mediocre John Grisham in translation) (Steig Larsson, may he rest in peace)
Explanations:
- I'm slowly (so slowly it's kind of painful) making my way through Neal A. Maxwell's oeuvre. Because he's fun.
- I keep trying to like Joyce Carol Oates and I keep failing. Especially disappointing was Chang-rae Lee's newest book because of its echo of Joyce Carol Oates. (I may be the only person in the world to see this similarity, but I'm ready to defend it as I shed a little tear [Lee was one of my thesis authors so I feel a certain (entirely false) bond].)
- I love Richard Russo. Love. (But he's not an author for gentle readers.)
- I will now mark with an asterisk all the books I found disappointing (so many of them, alas).
- I will also mark the best books in each category with a karat.
- I like EL Doctorow! What a pleasant surprise! I read some of his work as an undergrad and was underwhelmed--but maybe I wasn't paying attention?
- Recommendations?
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