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Friday, April 30, 2010

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You (Part II)

Here's a running list of books we've read. We'll endeavor to keep it updated in order, but initially it will be what we remember having read. The ones we've found to be exceptional in some way get an asterisk. Ones we didn't finish get a minus.

Living More with Less: the 30th Anniversary Edition by Doris Janzen Longacre finished 2/10/12 -- An inspiration and record of ideas toward simple living. I wish they had a version that didn't so highly praise the original book. This one can stand on its own merits without constantly citing the reputation of the first edition.
Unbowed, by Wangari Maathai finished 11/23/11 -- As the narrative evolved past the first chapter it became more and more incredible to think she managed to get anything accomplished. And if it had been biography instead of autobiography I would have wondered at what point she would be "disappeared". Peris substantiated this sense by commenting that she was the only one who stood up to President Moi, and everyone expected she would be killed. Read this book to see what is possible in impossible circumstances. We learned the sad news two days after dropping Peris and Mary off at the airport, that on that Sunday, September 25th, she passed on.
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë finished 3/15/11 -- Like The Sixth Sense, it has a plot twist plot twist that everyone who's read it will give away inadvertently when you tell them you are reading it. But we enjoyed it anyway.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo finished 11/20/10 -- Dan was disgusted with it. Especially all of the really boring parts, which he would have skipped but Margo said were "part of the experience". It is, however, great writing, and he strings you along to the very end, just like Melville's Moby Dick.
*Shogun, by James Clavell
Tai Pan, by James Clavell
Middlemarch, by George Eliot (actually Mary Anne Evans)
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
The Continuum Concept, by Jean Liedloff
*Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
- Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe -- Margo loved it, Dan didn't.
- Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley -- Dan loved it, Margo didn't.
Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein
Harry Potter, 1-3, by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter, 4-7, by J.K. Rowling -- Margo didn't read these.
Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Don Juan, by Lord Byron
Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
Le Père Goriot, by Honoré de Balzac
Dune, by Frank Herbert
Dragons in the Water, by Madeleine L'Engle
An Acceptable Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
Many Waters, by Madeleine L'Engle
Arm of the Starfish, by Madeleine L'Engle
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Golden Compass Trilogy, by Philip Pullman
The Mary Russell books, by Laurie R. King
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand
Mister God, This is Anna, by Flynn (actually Sydney Hopkins)
Artemis Fowl; The Lost Colony, by Eoin Colfer
The Call to Shakabaz, by Amy Wachspress
Kidnapped! , by Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling

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