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I haven’t been reading any books…just CPA books. My friend recommended Skinny Bitch and I finished reading it this morning. It was pretty good. I have to admit that I skimmed it a bit.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while now…a couple of years. It was highly recommended to me by a few of my friends and I was waiting until I wasn’t travelling at all for work before reading it since I am a bit afraid of the dark and being alone in hotel rooms.

SO, I appreciated so much of this book. I love Bret Easton Ellis and have enjoyed many of his books and his writing style. I thought it was hilarious at times and I definitely understood the point of the book and the relationship between being a materialistic, entitled, arrogant yuppy and being a psychopathic serial killer. The problem for me was the graphic, disturbing, almost unreadable murder scenes. I am such a sensitive viewer and reader and it was really hard for me to get through some of the chapters because they were SO nasty! I’m a vegetarian damnit!!

Anyways, I have a love/hate feeling about this book. I recommend, but don’t read it while you are eating.

I have long wondered why several of our affluent family friends have kids that can’t stay in school, abuse drugs, have eating disorders, depression, etc. I have been interested in this problem for a while and finally came upon this book that was written by a psychiatrist who lives and practices in my hometown.

I thought the book was very interesting and opened my eyes to a lot of the reasons that many children from wealthy families end up being materialistic, empty, and detached. It also gave great tips for parents on how to raise good, healthy, affluent children. I have to work on the affluent part still, but it is good information just in case. :)

I really liked this book. It was a quick read and I liked the characters. The writing style reminds me a lot of Bret Easton Ellis, who I love! I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I put it on Netflix. I am excited to see it. It will be such a cheesy 80’s movie with Michael J. Fox.

I have been really wanting to read this book for a while now. I had never read anything by Kerouac, but have heard great things.

I liked this book a lot. At times I couldn’t get into the flow, but it made me want to travel the country more. I love roadtrips and have been fortunate enough to have gone on many cross country roadtrips. Reading this book made me want to plan another one! I like his writing style and I will definitely read more of his books.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and was really funny. We recently went to the Monterey Bay aquarium which is right on Cannery Row so it was fun to see the place that the book was based on.

I love Steinbeck so far. I will definitely continue to read him.

This is a book I have wanted to read for a while. I had never read a Steinbeck book and thought it was a great, short, introduction to one of his most famous works. I really enjoyed the book. It was a quick and easy read, but the plot was very interesting and engaging.

I loved this book and am looking forward to reading more Steinbeck.

I have always wanted to read this book. I got it as a gift when I was in elementary school and never read it—probably because someone gave me the french version and I couldn’t read french!

I read the book over a couple nights before bedtime and loved it. I love the messages and the characters.

I have made an even longer book list, it is a bit unmanageable because it is so long. Since I made this goal I have read the following books off my original list:

- The Path of Minor Planets
- The Good Fairies of New York
- Middlesex
- When Elephants Weep

Here is my new monster list. I have read 7 books in 2 months. Not an amazing amount, but good considering the first month was during my busy season at work. I am not going to read these books in any specific order and I will add to them as I want to:

On The Road, Jack Karouac
Night, Elie Wiesel
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Dominion, Matthew Scully
The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz
Sailor Song, Ken Keasy
Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ignorance, Milan Kundera
Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Wicked, Gregory Maguire
The Love There That’s Sleeping, Dale Allison
Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
About a Boy, Nick Hornby
Immortality, Milan Kundera
Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukov
Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Planet, Douglas Adams
Bee Season, Myla Goldberg
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Last Jew, Yoram Kaniuk
Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Interview With a Vampire, Anne Rice
The Joke, Milan Kundera
Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Fellowship of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Pilgrimage, Paulo Cohelho
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Emma, Jane Austen
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Kinship with Animals, Various
Wanderings, Chaim Potock
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayers
Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Witch Child, Celia Reese
Reefer Madness, Eric Schlosser
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
A Million Little Pieces, James Fray
The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolfe
1984 – George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson
Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Snow Falling on Cedar, David Guterson
The Curious Incident of the Dog…, Mark Haddon
Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
Cosmos and Pornography, Witold Gombrowicz
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Book of the Dead – Douglad Preston and Lincoln Child
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Cider House Rules – John Irving
The Tristan Betrayal – Robert Lundlum
The Witching Hour – Ann Rice
On Human Bondage – Somerset Maugham
The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammet
Howl – Alan Ginsberg
The Book of Dead Birds – Gayle Brandeis
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The Glass Castle – Jeanette Wells
A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Chronicals of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Stargirl – Jerry Spinelli
The Pollysyllabic Spree – Nick Hornby
Velvet Elvis – Rob Bell
White Fang – Jack London
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
House – Frank Peretti
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
House of Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Last Unicorn – Peter Beagle
Franny and Zooey – JD Salinger
Exodus – Leon Uris
As a Driven Leaf – Milton Steinberg
Being Dead – Jim Crace
Disgrace – Ivan Coetzee
Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire Book 1) – George R. R. Martin
Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales – Brothers Grimm
The Plague Dogs – Richard Adams
Paint it Black – Janet Finch
The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield
A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Steppenwolf – Herman Hess
Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
Dandilion Wine – Ray Bradbury
The Innovation Paradox – Richard Farson
A Bird in the House – Margaret Laurence
The Promise – Chaim Potok
The Way We Eat – Why Our Food Choices Matter – Peter Singer
My Name is Asher Lev – Chaim Potok
The Beginning – Chaim Potok
Old Men at Midnight – Chaim Potok
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
Zipporah, Wife of Moses – Marek Halter
The Guy Not Taken – Jennifer Weiner
Flowers in the Attic – V.C. Andrews
Sarah – Orson Scott Card
Sybil – Flora Rheta Schreiber
The Severed Hand – Iris Murdoch
The Sea The Sea – Iris Murdoch
The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch
The Book of Intimate Grammer – David Grossman
Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman
The Butterfly House – Marcia Preston
Magical Thinking – Augusten Burroughs
Bluebeard – Kurt Vonnegut
Book of Laughter and Forgetting – Milan Kundera
Norwegian Wood – Maruki Murakami
Ishmael – Daniel Quinn
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
Stranger Things Happen – Kelly Link
Set This House in Order – Matt Ruff
White Apples – Jonathan Carroll
Chronicles of Lymond – Dorothy Dunnet
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – Gregory McGuire
How to Be Good – Nick Hornby
Harry Potter – All remaining
The Memory Keepers Daughter – Kim Edwards
A Virtuous Woman – Kaye Gibbons
The Tortilla Curtain – T.C. Boyle
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes
The Princess Bride – William Goldman
The Silent Gondoliers – William Goldman
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Comfort Me With Apples – Ruth Reichel
Songbook – Nick Hornby
Garlic and Sapphires – Ruth Reichel
Veronika Decides to Die – Paul Coelho
Walden Pond – Henry David Thoreau
King Dork – Frank Portman
New Moon – Stephanie Meyer
I’m With the Band – Pamela Des Barres
The Feminine Mystique – Betty Friedan
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
Mayfair Witch Trilogy – Anne Rice
Thornbirds – Colleen McCollough
True Story – Michael Finkel
Brick Lane – Monica Ali
The Map Thief – Heather Terrell
The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson
Sophie’s Choice – William Styron
I’d Tell You I Love You, but The I’d Have to Kill You – Ally Carter
Confessions of Nate Turner – William Styron
Repetition – Alain Robbe Grillet
Enders Game – Orson Scott Card
Dune – Frank Herbert
Foundation – Isaac Asimov
House of Night Series – PC Cast & Kristen Cast
Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Zahir – Paulo Coelho
Thirteen Reasons Why – Jane Asher
Disreputable History of Frankie Landay Banks – E. Lockhart
Blue Bloods
City of Ashes
Masquerade
Luxe & Rumors series
City of Bones
The Looking Glass Wars
Society of S
A Great & Terrible Beauty
Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card
Rebecca – Daphne DuMaurier
Ann of Green Gables series
The Glass Lake – Maeve Binchy
Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie
A Company of Swans – Eva Ibbotson
Dragonflight – Anne McCaffery
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
One for the Money – Janet Evanonich
Alabaster – Caitlin Kieman
Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast – Robin McKinley
Black-Eyed Suzie – Susan Shaw
Blue Sword – Robin McKinley
The Book of Fred – Abby Bardi
Boston Jane series – Jennifer Holan
The Cutout – Francine Matthews
Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine
Enthusiasm – Polly Shulman
Flipped – Wendelin Van Draanen
Wickedly Lovely
Poppy Z Brite books

I really loved this book. I loved the way it was written and the characters. My husband recommended the book to me and I am so glad that I read it. I love the Indian cultures and it was wonderful to read about their customs, beliefs, and family dynamics. I also have seen many of my indian friends separate from their family traditions as they become more “americanized”. This was the kind of book that I never wanted to put down. I only have time to read on the train to and from work and then a bit at night, but it still only took me a few days to read. I definitely recommend this book, can’t wait to see the movie.