I finally had time to lay down and catch up on our blog. I say lay because I’ve not left my bed in 3 days thanks to the stomach flu. The only time I did leave my bed was to go to work this morning just to find out that I shouldn’t have left my bed. Don’t ask what the proper procedure is for stomach flu in a school that only possesses squatter toilets. Leave that one up to your imagination.
In better news, Aaron and I have completed our book lists from 2007. Aaron frowns that most of his were “cheap fiction.” One would have to balance geeky textbooks with something for the brain to he.
- The Problem with Physics by Lee Smolin
- One Billion Customers by James McGregor
- China’s Global Reach by George Zhibin Gu
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkein
- All 11 of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
- All 3 of the Icewind Dale series by R. Salvadore
- All 3 of the Dragonlance Chronicle by Weis and Hickman
Started, read most of, but didn’t finish:
- My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
- The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence
- The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton
My list is far different from Aaron’s. Such is the general case with our personalities.
However hard it was, I rated the books in the order that they appear.
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Wild Swans by Jung Chang
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Rivertown by Peter Hessler
- The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
- Killing Monsters by Gerard Jones
- My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
- The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byambasuren Davaa & Lisa Reisch
- When Children Grieve by John W. James & Russell Friedman
- Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
- Getting to Lamma by Jan Alexander
So did you read any good books this last year?
§Commentary
Very impressive list. Like you, I am also an avid reader, hoping to add few more books to your fine selections:
4.Empire of debt, by william bonner.
The one book I read this year which stands out head and shoulders above the rest is “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk. The book discusses the last 300 or so years in central asia or the near east. It gave me a lot of perspective about current events, which are not so current but more like a continuation of the last several hundred years.
Glad to see you’re back…we missed you!
O.K. Here’s my list for the past year:
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Rivertown and Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler
A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah
Disgrace, J.M. Coetze
Being Dead, Jim Crace
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang
The Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
The Inheritance of Loss, Kirin Desai
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Atonement, Ian McEwen
Lay of the Land, Richard Ford
and currently reading The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Enjoy one or all!
And one more that I forgot, particularly for you chino-philes (is that a word?)…
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Beth:
I just saw the movie “Atonement”. Was the book any good?
And have you seen “Kite Runner”? I’ve heard the book was much better than the film.
Do you recommend reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns?”
“Atonement” the book was very good. In fact I enjoyed it as a book more than I did as a movie. “Kite Runner” the book is excellent and the subtleties of the relationships and the moral conflict of the protagonist are depicted better in the book. The movie stands on its own too, but if you have to choose one or the other, choose the book. I was a little disappointed with “Splendid Suns,” but perhaps unfairly. Hard not to compare it to “Kite” which was so powerful. I still recommend it as marvelous insight into the life of women living under fundamentalist Muslim values. Jenny, I think you’d like “Being Dead” and “Inheritance of Loss.” And which ones in your list would you particularly recommend to me?
Beth,
If you’re still interested in Chinese culture/history, I recommend “Wild Swans”. The author follows three generations of Chinese women…particularly vivid.
My favorite read of the year was “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” It’s a short read but it really stays with you…chilling and introspective.
My last recommendation is “When Children Grieve.” Although this book has already helped me to assist Maeli with her ever evolving psyche, it has more so helped me dredge through my own grief, past and present.
Enjoy!