Chicks On Lit discussion

My "to-read" list is shrinking! Here are my Top 15 must-reads for 2009...

The Memory Keeper's Daughter- Kim Edwards
Atonement- Ian McEwan
The Last Time They Met- Anita Shreve
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
Midwives- Chris Bohjalian
The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
The Book Theif- Markus Zusak
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Miles From Nowhere- Nami Mun

Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts, Keeping Faith, Mercy, Song of the Humpback Whale, and Handle with Care

Considering I have read 45 books in the last 5 months alone, it shouldn't be a problem. :) But these 15 are calling to me... a few are already in my possession.

What are your Top 10/15/20 for 2009?

My Top 15 for 2009:

The Thirteenth Tale: Diane Setterfield
The Choice: Nicholas Sparks
True Believer: Nicholas Sparks
Stolen Innocence: Elissa Wall
The Myth of You and Me: Leah Stewart
Shoe Addicts Series (2): Beth Harbison
The Book Theif: Markus Zusak
Nineteen Minutes: Jody Picoult
Escape: Carolyn Jessup
Here's the Story: Maureen McCormick
The Last Lecture: Randy Pausch
From The Heart: 8 Rules to Live By: Robin Roberts
Out of The Fog: Cindy Lou Young
Isabel's Daughter: Judith Hendricks

Very Random, but on my list to read next. Even though I've got a ton more on my To Read List!

Nice lists ladies!

Brittany, I just ordered To Kill a Mockingbird this morning...how cool. I've never read it either.

Holli- both of the JP books on your list are excellent.

Are they? I'm excited to get to them!!

My top ten:

1) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
3) The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
4) Crank by Ellen Hopkins
5) Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield
6)Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir by Nick Flynn
7) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
8) Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
9) Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
10) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Holli- two of my top 3 of hers.

Wonderful.....I really can't wait then!!

My Top 15:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch
Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Pieces of My Sister's Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Swapping Lives by Jane Green

I'm glad you have Conversations With God on there Cyndi...woohoo!!

You're going to LOVE Guernsey or your money back!

:)

To Kill A Mickingbird should be on everyone's to read list if they haven't read it already!

Holli, I may have Edge of Winter around here some place, if I do, would you like me to send it to you & when you're done you can return it to me?

Jaime, Eat Pray Love is on my "All Time Fav's List" - as you finish each section come on over to the Eat Pray Love discussion thread I started in the general threads folder!

Cyndi, The Friday Night Knitting Club is also on my "All Time Fav's List" (which you can see here on my profile too). I've read the Jane Austen Book Club as well. I have Dreams of my Father, have started it & not finished (for no particular reason).

I've got to give this some thought, I don't know off hand what my top 15 would be.

If I could just read the books that I have bought that are sitting around my house I will be happy.

Right now I have about 30 books that I have bought but haven't read yet! Make that 31... I just bought Infidel today!

Jo--I will be sure to come on over to that thread. i'd love to discuss it. i've been dying to read it.

Whoa. Jamie, you linked all your books! Cool. Damn that must've been a lot of work.

Jo, I agree wholeheartedly. To Kill a Mockingbird should be on EVERYONE'S to read list. It's one of those that even if you don't like it (as if!), you still gotta read it just to appreciate the social impact.

Kat, I wanted to know how many books I own but haven't read, so one day I pulled them all off my shelves and lined them up. They took over my ENTIRE mantlepiece. That's like, 7 feet worth of books I own but haven't read. Cripes.

Jo...I have that book already. That list of books I posted is the stack of books I own but haven't read yet. Its definitely not my top 15 to read but its what I'm stuck with until I finish them. LOL

Thanks though!!

Holli! If you can make it through, you're a stronger woman than I. Read fast so you're not stuck so long. :)

LOL....do you think my books on the closet floor all suck Amanda?? ;)

Here are some books I plan to read in '09:

The Thirteenth Tale (duh)
City of Ember
What is the What
The Tenderness of Wolves
The Phantom Toll Booth

Whatever else I can fit in... :)

Noooooo! hahaha, Holli, good grief of course I don't think they suck. Wait, lemme look again...

Ok, no, I've never read ANY of them! You're stronger than I am if you have the willpower to NOT shop for more books. You know my 7' of books--well, I went into the used bookstore the other day with the EXPRESS purpose of purchasing Alias Season 3 on DVD. But what did I walk out with? The DVDs, 2 humor books, and one Charles de Lint. I have zero willpower!

Oh ok....now I get it. Maybe. Anyways, what were we talking about? Oh yeah-books-buying books. LOL

Oh I can't buy anymore. I just can't. I have got to read those books. its getting ridiculous! But now I have to buy Eat Pray Love so I don't say stuff in that discussion without the book to back up what I'm sayin'. Otherwise, I feel like I'm just making things up!! ;)

I love how a lot of people have The Book Thief on their to-read list - I finally just got to it and I loved it!! So you all have something awesome to look forward to!

Holli, I'm like you too - I just keep buying and buying and it needs to stop! Eat Pray Love was awesome, I recommend owning that because I've already gone back to re-read certain sections and I only finished it a few months ago!

Yeah...I gotta buy it. I'm gonna do that this weekend!! LOL

My 09 read list: just as much as I can be it old books or new releases.

I don't know if these are my top 15 but they came to mind first...
-The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
-The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
-Persuasion by Jane Austen
-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
-The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
-The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy
-Blindness by Jose Saramago
-Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
-Out of the Fog by Cindy Lou Young
-Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate by Karey Shane
-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-Night by Elie Wiesel
-The Shack by William P. Young

These are 15 books off my TBR list(mountain) that I'm really looking forward to reading:

Shantaram- Gregory David Roberts
Before I Die- Jenny Downham
The Last Chinese Chef- Nicole Mones
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamaticos- Yann
Martel
Reading Lolita in Tehran- Azar Nafil
Take the Cannoli- Sarah Vowell
The Language of Baklava- Diana Abu-Jabar
A Dirty Job- Christopher Moore
The Candy Shop War- Brandon Mull
The Art of Racing in the Rain- Garth Stein
Living Dead Girl- Elizabeth Scott
First Darling of the Morning- Thrity Umrigar
Songs for the Missing- Stewart O'Nan
Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers- Mary
Roach
Knucklehead- Jon Scieszka

Beth, you'll love The Art of Racing in the Rain. That was one of my faves this year.

I can't wait to read it. I loved Marley and Me so I'm sure I'm going to love this book. I've also asked for Dewey The Library Cat for Christmas. I have 2 cats and a dog so I just love to read good animal books.

Oh and Hannah, The Book Thief is awesome. I read it in 2007 and it's one of my all-time favorites. My husband is reading it right now and he can't put it down.

Yay! Book Thief!!!

BOOK THIEF!!! My mom is reading it right now and she looooves it. Definitely one of the best I've read.

hmmm....

Book Thief
The Historian
Books 2-4 of Twilight Series
12,13, and 14 of Stephanie Plum
Three Cups of Tea
Loving Frank
Water for Elephants
Atonement

I think that this year I am going to continue my project of reading sequels of Jane Austen stories...it has served me well this past summer and beyond. I keep finding more & more being published all the time....BUT I am also taking the advice of the book "The Jane Austen Book Club" & I am reading the Patrick O'Brian navy series they dubbed as Jane's Navy. I have heard somewhere its the Jane Austen for men. Plus here are some of my top picks for next Winter/Spring reads to get me relaxed (not mentioned above that I will read & not in any so called order)...

1. The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive--- Binney, Marcus

2. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate --- Chapman, Gary

3.The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice --- Collins, Wilkie

4.Passion,Betrayal & Killer Highlights--Davis, Kyra

5.Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939 --- Flanner,Janet

6.Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria ---Gelardi,Julia P

7. The Friday Night Knitting Club ---Jacobs, Kate

8. The Turn of the Screw ---- James, Henry

9.The Monk --- Lewis, Matthew Gregory

10.Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong---Loewen, James

11. Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England --- Olson, Lynne

12. The Mysteries of Udolpho --- Radcliffe, Ann

13. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society---Shaffer, Mary Ann (still backlisted)

14. The Twilight Series ---Meyer, Stephanie

15. The Monarch of the Glen --- Mackenzie, Compton

Beth, can't wait to read The Book Thief! I want to read the Dewey story too.

Wow Leslie, your list contains a lot of books I've never heard of. Must got look them up now...

I can't wait to read the Dewey story! I hope my mother-in-law got it for me. It was on my list and she's always telling me I'm hard to buy for. My husband is always telling her to buy me Borders gift certificates but she hates buying gift certificates!

OK, OK stay focused Karey. I have a list but now after reading everyone else's it's growing. Help meh! Next year I'm going to actually try to read some fantasy fiction, something I've read little of.

The Book Thief
(Got it in Scotland last March and I'm halfway through...)
Eat Pray Love
Love in the Time of Cholera
Anything by Neil Gaiman. I've always wanted to read his books, but haven't. YET.
The Biography of Manuel by James Branch Cabell
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirrlees
book: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa] by Jan Potock
Viriconium by M John Harrison
A Humument by Tom Phillips
Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty
The Complete Newgate Calenda

I know I have a bit of what some may call a weird taste in books. But lately I have been on a British authors kick. But many are also the odd ducks of classic literature. I belong to a bookgroup that only reads British Authors (well the whole British Isles at any rate and preferrably classic authors)Once you get on track with one you can always find another. Then the current English/Scotish or Irish authors you find one and then it just goes crazy from there. I picked up one author while at the airport in the UK and it just grew from reading her reviews and picking up names of other similar authors. The rest all came from glancing around on Goodreads. I think that is how I found most of them.

Leslie, have you read any Jane Green?

My list keeps growing (such great fun!) - but here's what I plan so far:

Thirteenth Tale
Fahrenheit 451
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Water for Elephants
The Jungle
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
Guernsey
The Book Thief
Dewey

Has anyone read Dewey? I'd like to give it to my mom as a Christmas gift - but she's not at all a strong reader. Would this hold her interest - outside of the fact that we all live in Iowa?

Leslie, Jane Green is great! Her books are really funny and light.

Yay Leslie! I too love to read british / british isle authors including the classics!
A modern favorite of mine is Penelope Fitztgerald....who listen to this chicks....
didn't start writing until her 50's and her books won literary prizes across the pond. All of her books are short reads but perfectly written.

Holli - move Judge & Jury by Patterson up on your list...that's a good book, I totally recommend!

I have no idea what The Book Thief is but I'm going out now to add it because it sounds like a good one according to everyone who has it on their list!

My list is totally out of control.

Thanks Brandie..will do. Its on my closet floor waiting for its turn. :)

I think I should read some books I bought a while ago but haven't read yet

- My Life by Bill Clinton
- Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close by JS Foer
- A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Love In The Time Of Cholera by GG Marquez
- The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett
- Lincoln by Gore Vidal
- anything by James Rollins
- anything by Agatha Christie
- anything by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Brandie, you're going to LOVE The Book Thief - I couldn't put it down and now my mom is saying the same thing!

Stef, I'm in the middle of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close right now, I really like it so far!

1.Atonement: A Novel, McEwan, Ian
2.His Dark Materials Trilogy - Guess this technically counts as 3 but oh well.
3.The Russian Concubine, Furnivall, Kate
4.Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel; Maguire, Gregory
5.A Lion Among Men; Maguire, Gregory
6.The Glass Castle: A Memoir; Walls, Jeannette
7.Love in the Time of Cholera; Márquez, Gabriel García
8.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; Shaffer, Mary Ann
9.Swim against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow; Hightower, Jim
10.Life of Pi; Martel, Yann
11.In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto; Pollan, Michael
12.When Will There Be Good News?; Atkinson, Kate
13.The Heretic's Daughter; Kent, Kathleen
14.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Bauby, Jean-Dominique
15.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Diaz, Junot

I have read Jane Green I do like her a lot. But lately I have been leaning towards Carole Matthews.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter- Kim Edwards
Atonement- Ian McEwan
The Last Time They Met- Anita Shreve
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
Midwives- Chris Bohjalian
The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
The Book Thief- Markus Zusak reading now
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Miles From Nowhere- Nami Mun

Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts, Keeping Faith, Mercy, Song of the Humpback Whale, and Handle with Care


AND it's not even 2009 yet!!!