Mona's Reading List (2013)

[anisia]

Currently Reading:

"Magician" - Raymond E. Feist

I'm using the Goodreads rating system:
1/5 - didn't like it
2/5 - it was ok
3/5 - liked it
4/5 - really liked it
5/5 - it was amazing

January
1. "Shadows Return" - Lynn Flewelling, 522 pages, 5/5
2. "Jack" - A.M. Homes, Kindle edition, 3/5
3. "The Boy No One Loved" - Casey Watson, Kindle edition, 3/5

4. "Freaks Like Us" - Susan Vaught, Kindle 4/5
5. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Margaret Atwood, 324 pages 5/5

February

6. "The White Road" - Lynn Flewelling, 385 pages 5/5
7. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll, Kindle 4/5

March

8. "Cavalerii florii de cires" (Ciresarii #1) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5

9. "Castelul fetei in alb" (Ciresarii #2) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5

10. "Roata norocului" (Ciresarii #3) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 3/5

11. "Aripi de zapada" (Ciresarii #4) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5

12. "Drum bun, Ciresari!" (Ciresarii #5) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle 5/5
13. "A Dance With Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust" - George R.R. Martin 5/5

April
14. "A Dance With Dragons 2: After the Feast" - George R.R. Martin 4/5
 

May
15. "Trandafirul Alb" - Constantin Chirita, Kindle 4/5

July
16. "Supernatural. Night Terror" - John Passarella 3/5
17. "Swallows and Ice Cream" - Robert Fowler, Kindle 3/5

18. "Looking for Alaska" - John Green, 4/5

 

August

19. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll, Kindle, 4/5

20. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens, Kindle, 4/5

September

21. "The Vesuvius Club" - Mark Gatiss, 4/5

22. "Calatorie in Romania" - Sitwell Sacheverell, 4/5

23. "The Sign of Four" - Arthur Conan Doyle, 4/5

October
24. "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" - Douglas Adams, Kindle, 4/5

25. "The Wish List" - Jane Costello, 4/5

26. "The Need to Know Guide to Nutrition and Healthy Eating" - Tim Shaw, Kindle, 3/5

 

November

27. "A Note of Madness" - Tabitha Suzuma, 4/5

December

Edited November 3, 2013 by anisia

[anisia]

TBR List
January 1st: 114 books

1. "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - Adams, Douglas
2. "Thanks for the Memories" - Ahern, Cecelia
3. "Little Women" - Alcott, Louisa May
4. "Counterfeit Son" - Alphin, Elaine Marie
5. "Money" - Amis, Martin
6. "Speak" - Anderson, Laurie Halse
7. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Atwood, Margaret
8. "The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless" - Barrow, John D.
9. "The Demolished Man" - Bester, Alfred
10. "The House of Tomorrow" - Bognanni, Peter
11. "My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser" - Boyd, Helen
12. "She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband" - Boyd, Helen
13. "The Children's Book" - Byatt, A.S.
14. "The Stranger" - Camus, Albert
15. "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" - Clarke, Susanna
16. "Shōgun" - Clavell, James
17. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) - Collins, Suzanne
18. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Dickens, Charles
19. "The Paranoid's Pocket Guide to Mental Disorders You Can Just Feel Coming On" - DiClaudio, Dennis
20. "La Dame aux Camélias" - Dumas-fils, Alexandre
21. "P.S. I Hate it Here: Kids' Letters from Camp" - Falanga, Diane
22. "The Diary of a Young Girl" - Frank, Anne
23. "North and South" - Gaskell, Elizabeth
24. "The To Do List" - Gayle, Mike
25. "Rites of Passage" - Golding, William
26. "Black Like Me" - Griffin, John Howard
27. "Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog" - Grogan, John
28. "Counterpoint (Song of the Fallen, #1)" - Haimowitz, Rachel
29. "Catch-22" - Heller, Joseph
30. "The Old Man and the Sea" - Hemingway, Ernest
31. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - Hemingway, Ernest
32. "Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)" - Hobb, Robin
33. "The Odyssey" - Homer
34. "The Kite Runner" - Hosseini, Khaled
35. "Les Misérables" - Hugo, Victor
36. "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" - Hugo, Victor
37. "Point Counter Point" - Huxley, Aldous
38. "Never Let Me Go" - Ishiguro, Kazuo
39. "The Vanishing Act" - Jakobsen, Mette
40. "Ulysses" - Joyce, James
41. "Requiem for a Dream" - Jr., Hubert Selby
42. "Amerika" - Kafka, Franz
43. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" - Kahneman, Daniel
44. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - Kesey, Ken
45. "Further Under the Duvet" - Keyes, Marian
46. "Life on the Refrigerator Door" - Kuipers, Alice
47. "To Kill a Mockingbird" - Lee, Harper
48. "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" - Levitt, Steven D.
49. "Moby-Dick" - Melville, Herman
50. "The Host (The Host, #1)" - Meyer, Stephenie
51. "Obedience to Authority" - Milgram, Stanley
52. "Gone with the Wind" - Mitchell, Margaret
53. "Melusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths, #1)" - Monette, Sarah
54. "Lolita" - Nabokov, Vladimir
55. "A Monster Calls" - Ness, Patrick
56. "The Time Traveler's Wife" - Niffenegger, Audrey
57. "1984" - Orwell, George
58. "The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To" - Pierson, D.C.
59. "Atlas Shrugged" - Rand, Ayn
60. "Under the Wolf, Under the Dog" - Rapp, Adam
61. "The Winslow Boy" - Rattigan
62. "Separate Tables" - Rattigan, Terence
63. "My Life as a Man" - Roth, Philip
64. "The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story" - Rule, Ann
65. "Don Quixote" - Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes
66. "Nausea" - Sartre, Jean-Paul
67. "Light on Snow" - Shreve, Anita
68. "Testimony" - Shreve, Anita
69. "We Need to Talk About Kevin" - Shriver, Lionel
69. "Of Mice and Men" - Steinbeck, John
70. "The Grapes of Wrath" - Steinbeck, John
71. "All-of-a-Kind Family (All-of-a-Kind Family, #1)" - Taylor, Sydney
72. "Now and on Earth" - Thompson, Jim
73. "Slaughterhouse-Five" - Vonnegut, Kurt
74. "The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance" - Waal, Edmund de
75. "Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise" - Wheaton, Wil
76. "To the Lighthouse" - Woolf, Virginia
77. "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" - Zimbardo, Philip G.
78. "Romanian Journey" - Sacheverell, Sitwell
79. "Hide and Seek" - Rankin, Ian
80. "The Time of my Life" - Ahern, Cecelia
81. "This Book Will Save Your Life" - Homes, A.M.
82. "A Dance With Dragons: Dreams and Dust" - Martin, George R.R.
83. "A Dance With Dragons: After the Feast" - Martin, George R.R.
84. "Black Dawn" - Caine, Rachel
85. "The Social Animal" - Brooks, David
86. "The Woman in White" - Collins, Wilkie
87. "Thinks" - Lodge, David
88. "Strania calatorie a domnului Daldry" - Levy, Marc
89. "The Obamas" - Firstbrook, Peter
90. "It's Not About the Bike" - Armstrong, Lance
91. "The Sealed Letter" - Donoghue, Emma
92. "Scotland. The Story of a Nation" - Magnusson, Magnus
93. "The Sign of the Four" - Arthur Conan Doyle
94. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - Arthur Conan Doyle
95. "The Valley of Fear" - Arthur Conan Doyle
96. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
97. "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
98. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
99. "His Last Bow" - Arthur Conan Doyle
100. "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
101. "The Lady and the Unicorn" - Tracy Chevalier
102. "Diary of a Hapless Househusband" - Sam Holden
103. "A Perfect Match" - Sinead Moriarty
104. "The Particular Sadness of a Lemon Cake" - Aimee Bender
105. "Anna Karenina" - Leo Tolstoy
106. "The Other Queen" - Philippa Gregory
107. "The Language of Flowers" - Vanessa Diffenbaugh
108. "You Had Me at Hello" - Mhairi McFarlane
109. "Freaks Like Us" - Susan Vaught
110. "Bridget Jones's Diary" - Helen Fielding
111. "Jack" - A.M. Homes
112. "The End of Alice" - A.M. Homes
113. "Londoners: The Days and Nights of London" - Craig Taylor
114. "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" - Jonas Jonasson

Edited November 3, 2013 by anisia

[anisia]

All done I think! This year I feel very positive about reading and I hope to go through a lot of the books I have on the TBR list, as many of them have been there for a very long time.

Edited January 1, 2013 by anisia

[Raven]

I'm hoping to manage 26 books this year (or one every two weeks).

 

49. "Moby-Dick" - Melville, Herman

 

It's a whale of a story . . .

[Devi]

Good luck with your goal of 26 books. Happy reading in 2013 anisia!

Edited January 2, 2013 by Devi

[chaliepud]

Have a great 2013 Anisia!

[Brian.]

Looks like we have a fairly similar taste in books judging by your TBR list. I have read quite a few on it but if I could bump one up your reading order it would be The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it's a fantastic book.

 

Good luck for 2013.

[Jessi]

I hope you enjoy your Canon Doyle this year - I want to read some more Sherlock Holmes too!

 

Good luck

[anisia]

I'm hoping to manage 26 books this year (or one every two weeks).

 

 

It's a whale of a story . . .

 

That's around how much I read this year, but in the last couple of months I've found a pretty steady pace of one book/week. Good luck with your goal!

Haha, I've had Moby-Dick on this list forever, I even have a copy back home, which will never make it here because of it's size.

 

Good luck with your goal of 26 books. Happy reading in 2013 anisia!

 

Thank you, same to you!

 

Looks like we have a fairly similar taste in books judging by your TBR list. I have read quite a few on it but if I could bump one up your reading order it would be The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it's a fantastic book.

 

Good luck for 2013.

 

Yes, I think The Kite Runner will be read soon, I've had it recommended quite a few times!

Good luck in 2013!

 

I hope you enjoy your Canon Doyle this year - I want to read some more Sherlock Holmes too!

 

Good luck

 

I really hope to read all the Sherlock Holmes books this year...it was my last year's reading goal and I only read one novel.

Good luck to you also!

[anisia]

Title: Shadows Return (Nightrunner #4)

Author: Lynn Flewelling

 

Book Description (Goodreads)

With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies. But in a world of rivals and charmers, fate has a different plan.…

 

After their victory in Aurënen, Alec and Seregil have returned home to Rhíminee. But with most of their allies dead or exiled, it is difficult for them to settle in. Hoping for diversion, they accept an assignment that will take them back to Seregil’s homeland. En route, however, they are ambushed and separated, and both are sold into slavery. Clinging to life, Seregil is sustained only by the hope that Alec is alive.

 

But it is not Alec’s life his strange master wants—it is his blood. For his unique lineage is capable of producing a rare treasure, but only through a harrowing process that will test him body and soul and unwittingly entangle him and Seregil in the realm of alchemists and madmen—and an enigmatic creature that may hold their very destiny in its inhuman hands…. But will it prove to be savior or monster?

 

Personal Note

Another excellent book in the Nightrunner series! Such a good twist to the whole story; I'm very curious about the next book and how Seregil and Alec will be able to look after the new character Lynn Flewelling introduced. One complaint I have is that I'm not sure what happened to Ilar - is he going to be a character we'll see again, or is he just gone? He seems to just not be mentioned in the last couple of chapters, which I found very odd. Very interested to see what happens next!

Rated 5/5 (it was amazing)

Edited January 5, 2013 by anisia

[Kidsmum]

I see you have The Handmaids Tale & Gone With the Wind on your TBR both great reads especially Gone With The Wind which was so much more than i expected.

 

Good luck with your reading this year Anisia

[vodkafan]

I see 1 down 25 to go Mona !!

[Karsa Orlong]

9. "The Demolished Man" - Bester, Alfred

 

Ooh, I'll be interested to read your thoughts on that one! Happy reading in 2013

[anisia]

I see you have The Handmaids Tale & Gone With the Wind on your TBR both great reads especially Gone With The Wind which was so much more than i expected.

 

Good luck with your reading this year Anisia

I just started The Handmaid's Tale today

 

I see 1 down 25 to go Mona !!

 

Oh 26 was Raven's, I put mine to 50 this year...having a good start so far; then again, it is only the first week of the year

 

Ooh, I'll be interested to read your thoughts on that one! Happy reading in 2013

 

Hopefully it will be read this year! My goal right now is to go through the books I already own and then move to the new ones. We'll see how long that lasts if people keep recommending me books

[anisia]

Title: Jack

Author: A.M. Homes

 

Book Description (Goodreads)

 

Jack is a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal - even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack's father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son that he's gay, nothing will ever be normal again.

 

Personal Note

A good read, although I wasn't overly impressed with this book. I liked Jack and I could sympathize with him through the whole book. It's a good coming of age story and it was nice seeing how Jack changes over the course of the book. I thought the impact his dad's announcement had on him, but also on the rest of the family was treated well, but I would have liked it to be explored a bit more.

 

Rated: 3/5 (liked it)

Edited January 5, 2013 by anisia

[anisia]

Title: The Boy No One Loved

Author: Casey Watson

 

Book Description (Goodreads)

"We're hungry," his brother kept repeating. :We're hungry, Justin. Please find us some food." Justin was just five years old; his brothers two and three. Their mother, a heroin addict, had left them hungry and alone, while she went to get her next fix. Later that day, after trying to burn down the family home, Justin was taken into care. Justin was taken into care at the age of five after deliberately burning down his family home. Six years on, after 20 failed placements, Justin arrives at Casey's home. Casey and her husband Mike are specialist foster carers. They practice a new style of foster care that focuses on modifying the behavior of profoundly damaged children. They are Justin's last hope, and it quickly becomes clear that they are facing a big challenge. Try as they might to make him welcome, he seems determined to strip his life of all the comforts they bring him, violently lashing out at schoolmates and family and throwing any affection they offer him back in their faces. After a childhood filled with hurt and rejection, Justin simply doesn't want to know. But, as it soon emerges, this is only the tip of a chilling iceberg. As a visit to Justin's mother on Boxing Day reveals, there are some very dark underlying problems that Justin has never spoken about. As the full picture becomes clearer, and the horrific truth of Justin's early life is revealed, Casey and her family finally start to understand the pain he has suffered.

 

Personal Note

Although I can read pretty much anything, this is probably the genre of books I tend to stay away from the most. I saw this through the Kindle deals and read the summary and a couple of reviews; I decided to try it because it's written from the point of view of the foster carer. I'm now glad I gave it a shot because as tragic as Justin's story is, I liked the fact that the book focused a lot on how the foster family has to adapt to having a new child in the house and how they adapt and learn from everything they go through with Justin. I feel weird saying it was a good book, just because of its topic, but I felt it was well written. I don't know if I'll read any more of Casey Watson's books, but I don't regret reading this one.

 

Rated 3/5 (liked it)

Edited January 5, 2013 by anisia

[Chrissy]

Not sure I can encourage you in this 3 books already business, especially when I have managed one children's story and a quick read!

 

As always, a great selection and variety of books Mona. Looking forward to reading each review - you have a lovely way with your words.

[Ooshie]

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, look forward to hearing what you think of it

[anisia]

Not sure I can encourage you in this 3 books already business, especially when I have managed one children's story and a quick read!

 

As always, a great selection and variety of books Mona. Looking forward to reading each review - you have a lovely way with your words.

Any encouragement is always welcome!

Also, thank you and you've made me blush. There's a reason why I write very little personal notes, I'd be awful with real reviews! Although I always find it very odd that I can express myself in English and yet in my native language I wouldn't be able to write even a personal note.

 

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, look forward to hearing what you think of it

I haven't yet read too much of it (work got in the way!) but so far I like it. It reminds me a bit of Affinity by Sarah Waters...the atmosphere of the book maybe. I don't know, my mind went to that from the start,

[Kylie]

What a great reading list you have there, Anisia! The below books are all awesome, in my opinion.

 

3. "Little Women" - Alcott, Louisa May

7. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Atwood, Margaret

15. "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" - Clarke, Susanna

17. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) - Collins, Suzanne

18. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Dickens, Charles

22. "The Diary of a Young Girl" - Frank, Anne

29. "Catch-22" - Heller, Joseph

30. "The Old Man and the Sea" - Hemingway, Ernest

44. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - Kesey, Ken

47. "To Kill a Mockingbird" - Lee, Harper

48. "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" - Levitt, Steven D.

52. "Gone with the Wind" - Mitchell, Margaret

54. "Lolita" - Nabokov, Vladimir

55. "A Monster Calls" - Ness, Patrick

57. "1984" - Orwell, George

59. "Atlas Shrugged" - Rand, Ayn

69. "Of Mice and Men" - Steinbeck, John

70. "The Grapes of Wrath" - Steinbeck, John

73. "Slaughterhouse-Five" - Vonnegut, Kurt

94. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - Arthur Conan Doyle

[frankie]

Hi Mona, I hope you have a really amazing reading year in 2013!

 

Oh man, you have a great TBR pile, we have quite similar tastes in books! All of these are really great reads, I hope you shall enjoy them and I can't wait to see what you thought of them!

 

3. "Little Women" - Alcott, Louisa May

7. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Atwood, Margaret

15. "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" - Clarke, Susanna

18. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Dickens, Charles (this is one of my top 5 reads!)

22. "The Diary of a Young Girl" - Frank, Anne

27. "Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog" - Grogan, John

30. "The Old Man and the Sea" - Hemingway, Ernest

47. "To Kill a Mockingbird" - Lee, Harper

52. "Gone with the Wind" - Mitchell, Margaret

54. "Lolita" - Nabokov, Vladimir

64. "The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story" - Rule, Ann

69. "Of Mice and Men" - Steinbeck, John

73. "Slaughterhouse-Five" - Vonnegut, Kurt

86. "The Woman in White" - Collins, Wilkie

110. "Bridget Jones's Diary" - Helen Fielding

114. "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" - Jonas Jonasson

[Athena]

I recognise quite a few of those books there, they are either on my wishlist or on my TBR list. I look forward to hear what you think of them.

[vodkafan]

Hi Mona your review of the Casey Watson book was interesting. I know what you mean though I also have trouble reading anything like that.

I too look forward to your opinion of The Handmaid's Tale.

[anisia]

Thanks for all the replies! I was away from BCF for a bit (well in general not online much) and I apparently don't follow my own topic...so I only saw the replies now

 

I might have to change the order of books I want to read based on the lists people made Especially as I'm having a hard time deciding what to read all the time. Also Frankie, I've tried reading "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" twice I think, I think it's so huge it intimidates me? Although I've read very large books before, and most of the fantasy novels are huge. Don't know what it is about this one, especially as I've always enjoyed what I read.

[Athena]

Mine is split up into three different books (in a box set), so in total it's quite big but somehow I've not considered it intimidating because the books each are small.