2010 Books

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Girl in the Orange Dress by Margot Starbuck
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Varghese
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory - 5
The Map by David Murrow - 6
Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas -
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - 6
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz - 5
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks -
Extras by Scott Westerfeld - 7
Specials by Scott Westerfeld - 7
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - 8
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld - 7
A Perfect Love by Lenora Worth - 4
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - 7
Persuasion by Jane Austen - 6
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall -
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 6
The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose - 7

2009 Books

Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag - 6
Peony in Love by Lisa See - 7
To the Nines by Janet Evanovich - 6
Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich - 6
3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke - 8
2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke - 8
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke - 8
The Art Thief by Noah Charney - 7
Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan - 6
The Host by Stephenie Meyer -
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke - 8
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann - 7
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - 6
Seven Up by Janet Evanovich - 5
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - 8
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - 9
Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren - 7
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - 9
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - 6
The Help by Kathryn Stockett - 8
Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors - 8
Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring - 7
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume - 8
The Amber Room by Steve Berry - 7
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - 7
Mutant Message Down Under - 8
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - 7
Hot Six by Janet Evanovich - 6
Middlemarch by George Eliot - 6
Eragon by Christopher Paolini - 6
Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne - 8
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - 7
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers - 9
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer - 8
High Five by Janet Evanovich - 7
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - 8
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich - 7
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer - 9
Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke - 7
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore - 9
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - 9
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - 7
Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich - 7
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser - 7
The Appeal by John Grisham - 7
Double Take by Catherine Coulter - 6

Reading for the Masses

I'm reading a book right now that is by a big, mainstream author. I've never read one of her books before, so I might have the right take on her writing. Especially since I'm not even half-way through this book yet. But the more I read it, the more I am struck by the feeling that it is just not written very well. Or is it just that she feels she needs to dumb things down for the "average" reader? This really drives me nuts. I know that if I wrote a book, it would probably sound a whole lot like that...but that is why I don't write books. It would drive me crazy that it didn't sound as good as I wanted it to.

Hopefully the book will get better. And I'll probably have to read more of the author's books in order to get a better impression. But right now, I'm not really impressed.

2008 Books

Rating System 1 (Lowest) - 10 (Highest)

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - 7
Alice in Wonderland - 6
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich - 6
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - 5
My Hitch in Hell by Lester Tenney - 7
Bronte by Glyn Hughes - 2
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards - 8
The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus - 6
The Shack by William Young - 9
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - 7
Hide by Lisa Gardner - 8
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl - 6
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - 9
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - 8
Two For the Dough by Janet Evanovich - 7
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - 8
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - 5
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell - 8
One For the Money by Janet Evanovich - 7
The 5th Horseman by James Patterson - 7
Desparate Passage by Ethan Rarick -
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 6
Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel - 7
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory - 9
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason - 8
The Shadow of the Wind by Carols Ruiz Zafon - 8
Atonement by Ian McEwan - 7
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez - 8
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - 8
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar - 8
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - 7
A Light in the Window by Jan Karon - 6
Joshua: A Parable for Today by Joseph F. Girzone - 5
The Ministry of Information Services by David W. McKay - 5
At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon - 6
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck - 7
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - 7

2007 Books

Ok, I am copying Rachel too. I had a list going on the blog where no one else could see it, but I would like to have a link to my books, so I decided to make a post for it. I'll add more as I think of the others I have read.

Rating System 1 (Lowest) -10 (Highest)

Books I have read in 2007:
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - 7
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 9
Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer - 8
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez - 8
The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright - 6
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith - 7
His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt - 9
Looking for a Miracle by Wanda Brunstetter - 7
Beloved by Toni Morrison - 7
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - 9
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - 8
Blessings by Anna Quindlen - 8
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 10
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout - 8
The Awakening by Kate Chopin - 8
Life of Pi by Yann Martel - 7
The Englisher by Beverly Lewis - 6
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - 10
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - 7
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls - 8
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - 9
For Better For Worse by Carole Matthews - 7
Next by Michael Crichton - 8
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller - 7
The Warrior by Francine Rivers - 8
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina - 9
The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez - 9
Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza - 9
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue - 9