The Library

On The Nightstand (Adult):

• Help, Thanks, Wow, Anne Lamott (a quick read, which is great, because then you can read it again)
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple
• The Breakout Novelist, Donald Maass
• The Death Of Bees, Lisa O’Donnell
• The Red Queen and Molokai because of Christmas.
• The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson (any nightstand’s ultimate staple)
• Building Your Child’s Self-Esteem, Dorothy Corkille Briggs
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (for book club and for the millionth time–can never get enough of JANE JANE JANE JANE)
• The Way By Swann’s (In Search Of Lost Time, Vol. I), Marcel Proust, Tr. Lydia Davis (will be reading in perpetuity)
• The Ocean World, Jacques Cousteau (will be reading in perpetuity—and, in truth, not on nightstand but living room bookshelf as is huge, unwieldy book requiring own personal nightstand with cover-enhancing nightlight/spotlight and I just don’t have enough room, yet, for that)…

On The Nightstand (Children’s/YA–see also “read/children’s/YA” below)

• Goblin Secrets, William Alexander (2012 NBA Winner)
• Through The Ever Night, Veronica Rossi (excellent 2nd book!)
• The Knife Of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
• Across The Universe, Beth Revis (yes am only person on planet who has not read this yet—and now it’s 2013)
• The Secret Zoo, Bryan Chick
• Going Bovine, Libba Bray

Read And Filed To The Livingroom Bookshelves–Or Not… (Adult):

• Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro Katsuo (beautiful storytelling by a master–haunting characters–you must read it!)
• The Descendants, Kaui Hart Hemmings (lovely, so much more rewarding than the film)
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obrecht (stellar, beautiful, amazing)
• Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand (an important book I will always recommend)
• The Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet, Jamie Ford (book club–great title, easy read, interesting, sparse, troublesome dialogue)
• Let The Great World Spin, Colum McCann (book club–a beautiful read)
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett
• Shanghai Girls, Lisa See (book club)
• The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows (book club–totally sucked me in)
• White Noise, Don Delillo (all hail)
• The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin (bless her)
• Stieg Larsson’s trilogy (I can’t believe he died!!!)
• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards (was relieved when I finished it, tough subject)
• Little Bee, Chris Cleave (Gah!)
• The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (book club)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini (book club)
• The Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann (yes, that’s right)
• Peace Like A River, Lief Enger (book club)
• The Informers, Juan Gabriel Vasquez (book club—arrrrrgh, rip off my fingernails, tear my hair, knock out my teeth, etc…Much meandering down named streets and eating of local food, but not in somehow thrilling Stieg/Micke manner of meandering named streets and eating sandwiches and drinking coffee in countless cafes and on trains…)
• Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin (lived in Oxford when I was a child—perception of Lewis Carroll now changed forever…sigh…)

Read And Filed To The Living Room Bookshelves–Or Not… (Children’s/YA):

• The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart (I love this book–right away the author makes it clear he is going to treat his young readers like the smarties they are)
• Gilt, Katherine Longshore (another YA Muse has her triumphant debut)
• Under The Never Sky, Veronica Rossi (wonderful debut)
• Divergent,Veronica Ross (am now officially burned out on kids killing kids)
• Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (So clever, imaginative, intelligent with gripping action scenes. A must read!)
• Liesl & Po, Lauren Oliver
• The Book Of Three, Lloyd Alexander (all the books are must-reads)
• The Phantom Tolbooth, Norton Juster (I was due for a re-read)
• The Changeling, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (no, not every chapter ends with a page turner—why? Because the author is extremely busy TELLING A STORY, the way authors used to before being told that if a first page doesn’t grab the reader, the manuscript goes in the trash. ZKS is one to learn from. There’s a reason she’s still popular, won so many awards and written a book a year for the past 42 or so years—a book a year).
• The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (not only does she get right down to business, but she is uber-sensitive to her own storytelling–details, mindful explanations, descriptions both simple and complex. Look: She gets down to business in a manner that doesn’t gyp her readers. No, I don’t need a cup of coffee! Or a tranquilizer! Kauai? Oh. Well, Yes, I could use Kauai, like, now…
• The City Of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau (if I was 11, I’d be writing her fan letters…Hm…)
• Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a character passing out so many times in one novel)
• Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson (FINALLY I read it, loved it, spooky, creepy dystopian drama so well presented, believable characters, intelligent writing)
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (my favorite of the trilogy–et tu?)
• The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (the only book of his I’ve read and it’s fast-paced, interesting, clever)
• The Land Of The Silver Apples, Nancy Farmer
• The Cuckoo Tree, Joan Aiken
• The Tail Of Emily Windsnap, Liz Kessler (our stories are NOT NOT NOT alike)
• A Wind In The Door, Madeleine L’Engle (have you read it—again—lately?)

Poetry:

• Above All Else, The Trembling Resembles A Forest, Louise Mathias (look–if you love poetry, you must read Louise’s chapbook–case closed)
• Twin Cities, Carol Muske-Dukes (a generous mentor)
• Black Hope, Marsha de la O
• Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open, Dianne Seuss (a hard read as so many gut-wrenching stanzas)
• The Sleep Hotel, Amy Newlove Schroeder (a luminous debut)
• Dearest Creature, Amy Gerstler (I hope I meet her some day)
• glottal stop, 101 poems, Paul Celan (Trs. Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh)
• Glass Town, Lisa Russ Spaar (always return to it)
• Always returning to Sarah Hannah’s books. They haunt me.

Music

• Fleet Foxes (ahhhhhhh…………)
• Florence And The Machine (what took me so long???)
• Courtyard Hounds (so beautiful I cry—but then, I cry at Curious George…)
• God Willin’ And The Creek Don’t Rise, Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
• Jesca Hoop

Feel free to recommend a read in the comments section of this page. Thank you!