read 20 books in 2006

Going for 30 in ‘07.

I’m not finished with the 20th book, but I’ll note that this goal doesn’t say “finish 20 books.” I’m like 2/3 of the way finished. I’ll round up.
Anyway, here’s the list:

Sula – Toni Morrison
The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
A Mango-Shaped Space – Wendy Mass
The Alienist – Caleb Carr
Smack – Melvin Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
1984 – George Orwell
In Our Time – Ernest Hemingway
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
Lon Day’s Journey Into Night – Eugene O’Neill
My Secret – ed. Frank Warren
The Cancer Vixen – Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Taming of the Shrew – William Shakespeare
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens – Sean Covey
The Class Castle – Jeanette Walls
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes
Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
Hyperspace – Michio Kakau (unfinished)

They’re pretty much all good books. A lot of them weren’t books I’d normally read, but people recommended some of them, and some of them were for a class… I discovered this year that I love Ernest Hemingway. I also absolutely loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [for a class] and Slaughterhouse Five [recommended by a friend]. Nickel and Dimed was really neat, it was non-fiction about how a woman decided to try to live in America on minimum wage jobs. The Invisible Man started out a little lackluster for having been written by one of the great science fiction writers. Don Quixote was way too long.

Hmm, I usually say I don’t really read or like non-fiction very much, but 6 of those books are non-fiction.

Alright, I’ll admit that I only read this book because I wanted to finish this goal. But it turned out to be really really good. Ondaatje writes like a poet, which he is, so it’s beautiful and spare. I loved the characters and the plot. It was amazing. I’m also reading “The Road to Serfdom” but it is soooo dry that I thought I would read this book just in case I don’t finish “The Road…”

I was really beginning to think that I wouldn’t be able to finish this goal in time, but I did it and I’m happy about that. I just kept on reading my book even though it seemed like I had far to many pages left to read, just kept with it and what do you know, I finished! Whoo hoo. I’m not a very fast reader so that’s why I was worried, but silly me. Will definately be adding a similar goal for next year. :)

This book was pretty weird. I really wanted to be able to understand why those girls would all end up doing that, but it really didn’t give answers, but I suppose no one has the answer to that. Still I found it pretty weird and it was a bizarre book, but I did read it all and I’m glad I did. I’m interested in seeing the movie though I hear the movies pretty weird too.

Heart of a wife, the diary of a Southern Jewish Women by Helen Jocobus Apte..currently I am reading this book. hopefully can finish it before new year. This book is bought last week at wharehouse sale..
This book is about Helen Jacobus Apte, a Southern Jewish woman living in post-Victorian era Florida and Georgia.

This book reflects Apte’s unorthodox, complex, and independent spirit during a very conservative time

Both of these books are oddly similar in that they are about a person who grows up in a culture different than the one they were born into and in the end both cultures abandon them. I liked both of them very much.

Pretty good book. The only thing about these books is that it kind of seems hard for me to keep everything straight that’s going on. For the most part, I understand the main events that are going on so that’s good. Good book, but it kind of seemed like the last chapter ended it too fast.

Well, just one more book to read by the end of the year and I’m done!

This is the third book I’ve read of this series (A-List) and I’m really getting into it. This book had a pretty big twist that I found interesting. Can’t wait to read the 4th one, but it could be awhile. I’m 7 out of 8 on the waiting list for it on paperbackswap.com. Bummer. Oh well. I suppose I should read some other books and not just this series. And I’m only two books away from completing this goal. I think I’ll be able to do it. I’m excited.

This was a very strange book. It had a lot of characters and I kept getting them mixed up or couldn’t remember who they were when they showed up again half way through the book. But the end kind of brought everything together and it all made sense, thank goodness. Very well written, of course, but not as easy to follow as say, the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Well played, Mr Richler, well played.