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Jessi's Reading List - 2013


Jessi

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2009: Read 48 books
2010: Read 79 books
2011: Read 74 books
2012: Read 92 books

Reading Goals -
The TBR pile should be 176 or less on 1st January 2014 - I say it every year, but I must try and get it down.
Unless I am going to begin reading it that minute, make a list of kindle books I want. Don't just download - the only exceptions to this rule is books I want from the Daily Deal.
100 books has been my goal for three years running and it is staying for a fourth year. I came so close in 2012.
Make an effort to get half my 2009 books read - 21 throughout the year is doable.
Keep up with reviews! I tailed off in March/April last year... opps.

Books Read 2013:
1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
3. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K Massie
4. Debutantes by Cora Harrison
5. A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust by George RR Martin

6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles
7. A Dance With Dragons: After the Feast by George RR Martin

8. One Pair Of Hands by Monica Dickens
9. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

10. Modern Family

11. The Hobbit Offical Movie Guide by Brian Sibley

12. The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle

13. Sherlock: Casebook by Guy Adams

14. Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge by Lind Woodhead

15. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

16. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory 

17. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

18. The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell

19. Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

20. Downton Abbey: Script Book by Julian Fellowes

21. Elizabeth by Kathryn Lasky

22. Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards

23. Twelve Babies on a Bike by Dot May Dunn 

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To Be Read -


1 – 42: gained 2009 or before
43 - 91: gained 2010
92 – 119: gained 2011

120 - 177: gained 2012

1. Campbell, Christy: Band of Brigands
2. Foreman, Amanda: The Duchess
3. Fraser, Antonia: Marie Antoinette
4. Garfield, Simon: Our Hidden Lives
5. Gristwood, Sarah: Elizabeth and Leicester
6. Guy, John: My Heart Is My Own
7. Massie, Robert: Nicholas and Alexandra
8. Rees, Laurence: Behind Closed Doors
9. Williams, Stephanie: Olga’s Story
10. Weir, Alison: Henry VIII
11. Anderson, Hans Christian: Anderson’s Fairy Tales
12. Austen, Jane: Emma
13. Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
14. Boyne, John: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

15. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
16. Dunant, Sarah: In the Company of the Courtesan
17. Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair
18. Furnivall, Kate: The Russian Concubine
19. Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South
20. George, Margaret: Helen of Troy
21. Gee, Sophie: The Scandal of the Season

22. Gregory, Philippa: The Other Queen
23. Gregory, Philippa: The Queens Fool
24. Gregory, Philippa: The Favoured Child
25. Gilbert, Henry: Robin Hood
26. Grahame: The Wind in the Willows
27. Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
28. Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mocking Bird
29. Lewis, Hilda: I, Jacqueline
30. McIntosh, Fiona: Royal Exile
31. Montefiore, Santa: The Swallow and the Hummingbird
32. Montefiore, Santa: The Butterfly Box
33. Montgomery, L.M : Anne of Green Gables
34. Nesbit, E: The Railway Children
35. Ryan, Robert: Early One Morning
36. Sheers, Owen: Resistance
37. Sittenfeld, Curtis: American Wife
38. Steel, Danielle: Silent Honour
49. Thomes, Rosie: Isis and Ruby
40. Tolkien, J.R.R: The Silmarillion
41. Tolkien, J.R.R: Unfinished Tales

42. Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief
43. Adams: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
44. Brands: Traitor to his Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
45. Byatt, AS: The Children's Book
46. Burstein, Andrew: Jefferson’s Secrets
47. Campion, Emma: The King's Mistress
48. Cast, PC: Divine by Blood
49. Cheek, Mavis: Amenable Women
50. Clark, Mary Higgins: The Christmas collection
51. Deighton, Len: SS – GB
52. Didion, Joan: The Year of Magical Thinking
53. Duff, David: Alexandra: Princess and Queen
54. Dunant, Sarah: Sacred Hearts
55. Erikson, Carolly: Great Catherine
56. Erickson, Carolly: The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
57. Figes, Orlando: Natasha’s Dance
58. Follett, Ken: The Pillars of the Earth
59. Furnivall, Kate: Under A Blood Red Sky
60. Gill, Gillian: We Two
61. Gregory, Philippa: The Red Queen
62. Gordon Reed, Annette: The Hemingses of Montecello
63. Harrods-Eagles, Cynitha: Anna
64. Hibbert, Christopher: Victoria – a Personal History
65. Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner
66. Kerr, Judith: Out of Hitler Time
67. Lieven, Dominic: Russia Against Napoleon
68. Lovell, Mary S: The Mitford Girls
69. Lukyanenko, Sergei: The Day Watch
70. Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall
71. McCullough, David: Mornings On Horseback
72. Mitchell, Margaret: Gone With The Wind
73. Morrow, James: The Last Witchfinder
74. Motley, Annette: Men on White Horses
75. Norton, Elizabeth: Jane Seymour
76. O’Brien, Stacey: Wesley
77. O’ Grady, Paul: At My Mothers Knee
78. O’Toole, Patricia: When Trumpets Call
79. Pakula, Hannah: An Uncommon Woman
80. Plaidy, Jean: Madame Du Barry
81. Plaidy, Jean: Plantagenet Prelude
82. Quinn, Kate: Mistress of Rome
83: Smith, L.J: The Night World
84. Snyder, Maria V: Storm Glass

85. Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
86. Van Der Kiste, John: Queen Victoria’s children
87. Weir, Alison: Katherine Sywnford
88. Weir, Alison: The Captive Queen
89. Weir, Alison: The Lady in the Tower
90. Withey, Lynne: Dearest Friend
91. Adornetto , Alexandra: Halo
92. Atkins, Dixie: Humble and Loyal
93. Atkinson, Kate: Case Histories
94. Chamberlin, E. R: Everyday Life In Renaissance Times

95. Dickens, Monica: One Pair of Hands
96. Fraser, Antonia: Love and Louis XVI
97. Graham, Laurie: The Importance of Being Kennedy
98. Gilbert, Elizabeth: Eat, Pray, Love
99. Greene, Graham: Brighton Rock
100. Harris, Charlaine: The Sookie Stackhouse Guide
101. Lewis, CS: Mere Christianity
102. Lovell, Mary S: The Churchill’s
103. Montefiore, Santa: The French Gardener

104. Morpurgo, Michael: War Horse
105. Morpurgo, Michael: Peaceful Private
106. Newman, Janis Cooke: Mrs Lincoln
107. Nicholas, Katie: William and Harry
108. Obama, Barack: Dreams of My Father
109. O’Connell, Tyne: A Royal Match
110. Orzel, Chad: How To Teach Quantum Physics To Your Dog
111. Patch, Harry: The Last Fighting Tommy
112. Parsons, Tony: Starting Over
113. Pasternak, Boris: Doctor Zhivago
114. Perry, Tasmina: Kiss Heaven Goodbye
115. Richman, Alyson: The Lost Wife
116. Sanderson, Jane: Netherwood
117. Sebba, Anne: That Women
118. Tremlett, Giles: Catherine of Aragon
119. Trotter, Janet MacLeod: Never Stand Alone
120. Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
121. Angelini, Josephine: Starcrossed
122. Bach, Richard: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

123. Bagwell Gillian: The Darling Strumpet
124. Brown, Kate Lord: The Beauty Chorus
125. Cast, PC and Kristen: Hidden
126. Carnarvon, Countess of: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
127. Carter, Aimee: The Goddess Test

128. Chbosky, Stephen: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
129. Clare, Cassandra: City of Bones
130. Clare, Cassandra: Clockwork Angel
131. Collins, Suzanne: The Hunger Games
132. Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
133. Doyle, Arthur Canon: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection
134. Douglas, Donna: The Nightingale Girls

135. Dunn, Dot May: Twelve Babies on a Bike
136. Edward. Anne: Matriarch
137. Harvey, Greg: The Origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth
138. Follett, Ken: Winter of the Worlds
139. Foster, RF: Randolph Churchill
140. Goldman, Lisa: The No Rules Handbook for Writers
141. Haeger, Diane: I, Jane
142. Hardy, Thomas: The Mayor of Casterbridge

143. Harrison, Cora: Debuntantes
144. Haworth, Eileen: Faded Dreams
145. Holt, Maggie: A Nurse at War
146. Huth, Angela: Land Girls
147. Jackson, Nancy: The Cook's Tale
148. Jones, Nigel: Tower
149. King, Stephen: 11.22.63
150. Kerr, John: A Dangerous Method
151. Magorian, Michelle: A Little Love Song
152. Magorian, Michelle: A Spoonful of Jam
153. Magorian, Michelle: Cuckoo in the Nest

154. Martin, George. R. R: A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust
155. Martin, George. R. R: A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast
156. Massie, Robert K: Catherine The Great
157. Massie, Robert K: Peter The Great
158. McInerney, Monica: Those Faraday Girls
159. McKay, Sinclair: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park
160. McKissack, Patricia C: Slave Girl
161. Moyes, Jojo: The Girl You Left Behind
162. Newman, Michael: Socialism
163. Plaidy, Jean: The Merry Monarchs Wife
164. Plummer, Rosemary: The Maids Tale
165. Powell, Margaret: Below Stairs
166. Prentis, Evelyn: A Nurse and Mother
167. Prentis, Evelyn: A Nurse in Time
168. Purcell, Jennifer: Domestic Soldiers
169. Rice, Anne: Interview with the Vampire

170. Richards, Susan: Chosen by a Horse
171. Sibley, Brian: Offical Movie Guide
172. Stachniak, Eva: The Winter Palace
173. Stockett, Kathryn: The Help
174.Townsend, Sue: The Secret Diary of Afrian Mole Aged 13 3/4
175. Tsaraidze, Alexandre: Wife Before God
176. Wilcock, Penelope: The Hawk and the Dove
177. Wolff, Jurgen: Your Writing Coach

Edited by Jessi
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Gained 2013 -

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles
Adams, Guy: Sherlock Casebook

Barker, Pat: Union Street
Fellowes, Julian: Downton Abbey: Series 1 
George, Margaret: Elizabeth I 
Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret: Bea
utiful Creatures

Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret: Beautiful Darkness

Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret: Beautiful Chaos

Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret: Beautiful Redemption

Graham, John: Lucrezia 

Green, Graham: Writing for Dummies
Harman, Patricia: The Midwife of Hope River

Irwin, Margaret: Young Bess
Ives, Eric: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn

Lanchaster, John: Capital

Lasky, Kathryn: Elizabeth

O'Neill, Glenda: Our Street

Rogers, Hannah: The Art of Deduction 
Salisbury, Harriet: The War on our Doorstep
Shakespeare, William: Richard III
Sparks, Nicholas: Safe Haven

Sparks, Nicholas: The Lucky One 

Spence, Jon: Becoming Jane

Wilson, Derek: The Uncrowned Kings of England 
Woodhead, Lind: Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge

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I too was also inactive with my reading, here is to a better year ahead.

 

Happy reading in 2013!

Edited by Devi
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Good luck with your reading goals for next year, Jessi. :)

 

Unless I am going to beginning reading it that minute, make a list of kindle books I want. Don't just download - the only exceptions to this rule is books I want from the Daily Deal.

 

I don't know if this will help you, but I've done something similar, and I have wish lists set up on Amazon for Kindle books (of course, I'm a bit OCD and have them all categorised by genre :roll:) so that when I get a recommendation, I can add it to the wish list on the site, and that way have direct links to the books when I do decided I want to buy them. Amazon are also good at highlighting the books on your wishlist that have come down in price since you added them to the wishlist, so if you're looking at it, you can immediately see if there are bargains to be had, not necessarily on the Daily Deal page.

 

Happy reading in 2013! :smile2:

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Best of luck! I know the feeling, I was very inactive last year and am determined to do a lot better this year!

 

Good luck to you too Nollaig!

 

I too was also inactive with my reading, here is to a better year ahead.

 

Happy reading in 2013!

 

2013 will hopefully be a lucky year for us all!

 

Good luck with your reading goals for next year, Jessi. :)

 

 

 

I don't know if this will help you, but I've done something similar, and I have wish lists set up on Amazon for Kindle books (of course, I'm a bit OCD and have them all categorised by genre :roll:) so that when I get a recommendation, I can add it to the wish list on the site, and that way have direct links to the books when I do decided I want to buy them. Amazon are also good at highlighting the books on your wishlist that have come down in price since you added them to the wishlist, so if you're looking at it, you can immediately see if there are bargains to be had, not necessarily on the Daily Deal page.

 

Happy reading in 2013! :smile2:

 

That does definately help, thanks so much for the heads up (I'll be doing the categorising thing too!). Hope you have a good year too!

 

 

Admirable goals, Jessi! I reckon you will easily make 100 this year, especially with so many great books on your TBR pile! :)

 

I look forward to reading your reviews throughout the year.

 

Thank you - I so hope I can get there - fourth times a charm???

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Thank you :)

 

And off we go -

 

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (3.5/5)

 

Ok so the first book of the year is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. If I am honest, I kinda feel that this was a book I thought I was going to enjoy more than I actually did. I begun it in the last week of December thinking it was going to bump up my read pile one more, but I found it a chore to get through the first half of the book.

 

That said, it did get a lot more interesting in the second half, after the protagonist Charlie embarks unwittingly on a relationship. The issues raised (mental health) and the diary form of the book were interesting though, especially the way they were portrayed. By the end of the story, I came to appreciate the detail in the book, Charlie’s quirks, what was important to him and his attempts to ‘fit in’ (when all his friends wanted him to be was himself).

 

Once it got going, I enjoyed The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Just took me a while to get into. I kind of feel as if it was different to what I normally read, and its always good to branch out a little!

Edited by Jessi
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I read Wallflower only a couple of weeks ago, and I had much the same feeling as you about it. I should actually write my thoughts down somewhere, as I had an unusual issue with the book.

 

I found myself not really understanding any of the conflict that I think people are supposed to feel, as I'm in fact exactly like Charlie, and in the situations he was in, I would have acted exactly the same way. So when someone (Sam, I think) turned around at the end and basically said, 'you shouldn't have let x do y to you' and so on, I was thinking, 'oh. Well. Okay then. I would have done the same as Charlie.' So in that regard, I think I kind of missed the point of the book, until Sam spelt it out for me.

 

Aside from that though, I really enjoyed it, but as you said, it's a book I thought I was going to enjoy more than I actually did.

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Yeah, I kind of think I missed it too - because thinking about it now, even though he kept a lot inside, Charlie was one of the only honest characters in the book - he followed his own morals throughout unless he was asked not to by a friend. I don't know if I agreed with Sam looking back, even in regards to the kiss at the end of the park night. It was a thought provoking read, but I feel like I expected more of it.

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That's actually exactly what I was thinking of, the kiss. I mean, Charlie later said he didn't want Patrick to do it, but he didn't seem to mind at the time because he felt like he was being a friend by doing it. And maybe that wasn't what Patrick needed or really wanted, but at the end of the day there's something to be said for just outright telling people what they can do for you, rather than later accusing them of not somehow intuitively knowing that they should have done the opposite. Did that make ANY sense? Lol! :P

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Had to laugh when i read the bit about keeping up with your book reviews that's so like me i always intend to keep up with them but inevitably fall behind & then the back log starts to feel like unfinished homework. I do love reading other peoples reviews though so this year i am going to try harder to keep on top of things & keep a tidy book log :smile:

 

You've got some great books on your list Jessi. Happy reading :D

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Thanks! You too!

 

Thats exactly what it feels like when you get behind - in fact last week, looking at the list, I tried to think of what I'd say about books I read 6 months prior and drew a complete blank! :/ whoops!

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That's actually exactly what I was thinking of, the kiss. I mean, Charlie later said he didn't want Patrick to do it, but he didn't seem to mind at the time because he felt like he was being a friend by doing it. And maybe that wasn't what Patrick needed or really wanted, but at the end of the day there's something to be said for just outright telling people what they can do for you, rather than later accusing them of not somehow intuitively knowing that they should have done the opposite. Did that make ANY sense? Lol! :P

 

Complete sense! Totally agree!

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The Book Thief - Markus Zukas (5/5)

 

Read the Book Thief, they said. It’s a great book, they said. You’ll enjoy it, they said. (What they left out was that it will emotionally destroy you in the process...)

 

I got to the end of The Book Thief today during lunch, in the cafeteria on lunch. If I had been on my own then I would have simply sobbed. As it was, I couldn’t. But as I closed the book, I was left a little dazed. I haven’t read such a good book for months.

 

I feel in love with the ideas of the book as much as the characters. How you could build something evil or loving on words, and how they could make or break you. How they could save lives and kill at the same time. The language, the music and the colours. The community. This was what brought it to life for me.

 

But maybe I did fall in love with the characters a little more, especially spapa. As soon as he sat up with Liesel for the first time and played to her, I loved him. When he taught her to read, struggling to do so himself, I loved him more - and when he helped anyone for practically nothing, and gave bread to the Jews, and saved Max - he just stole my heart.

 

As did mama in a very different way. No one can really resist a real battleaxe character, least of all me. Even when she was at her cruellest and crudest, there was always a sense there was something softer underneath and as the tale unfolded, and this was found to be absolutely true. That heart aching image of her holding the accordion in the middle of the night will stay with me.

 

Along with Max and Rudy, the three of them made this an incredibly memorable novel and the ending killed me - especially the part about Rosa being beautiful. But it was Roberts final act that first brought tears to my eyes. The fact Liesel got to live a long and happy life was the real pay off and I suppose as soon as I read the words Nazi Germany, I knew it was not going to happily ever after - but part of me was still surprised by just how devastating the ending was.

 

Death as the narrator - wow. I suppose I just did not expect him to be so human, though, I found myself think ‘you’re lying’ when he tried to give me warnings about what was coming - I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to - just like in my own life. But that wide perspective, seeing nothing and unable to influence events except too be at the end was... wow. My heart actually ached a little bit for death too.

 

I thoroughly recommend and am ashamed I left it languishing on my shelf for three years. It’s a great book. You’ll enjoy it...

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