Every year since 2003 I’ve had a goal to read a certain number of books in the year and write about them here on this blog. When I started, and until 2007, that goal was 100 books a year. Then having a one year old, and then a two year old and a baby cut into my reading time, and the goal went down to 50. And that’s where it still is this year, and I just hit that goal, so I thought I’d do an end of the year book round up, though I’ll probably finish at least one or two more before the year is actually over.
So, here’s what I read, my top 5 in bold. Rereads (with an R after them) aren’t eligible to be bolded, but assume that if I reread them it’s because I love them.:
Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education – Sonya Schafer
Work Suspended by Evelyn Waugh
Heidi- Johanna Spyri
Momfulness: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace by Denise Roy
Time Out for Parents by Cheri Huber and Melinda Guyol
There is nothing wrong with you- Cheri Huber (R)
Family Math for Young Children
A Charlotte Mason Companion- Karen Andreola (R)
The Continuous Atonement- Brad Wilcox
A Moveable Feast- Ernest Hemingway (R)
Bossypants- Tiny Fey
To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson- Heidi S. Swinton
Deadwind Sea-Joshua Wagner
Sum: Forty tales from the Afterlives – David Eagleman (R)
I was Someone Dead- Jamie S. Rich (R)
Soft Spoken Parenting: 50 Ways Not to Lose your Temper with your Kids. – H. Wallace Goddard
James and the Giant Peach- Roald Dahl (R)
TumTum and Nutmeg: Adventures outside of Nutmouse Hall
The Life of Pi – Yann Martel (R)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making- Cat Valente
TumTum and Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Adventures
Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders- Gyles Brandreth
Charlotte Mason Education- Catherine Levinson (R)
Book Crush- Nancy Pearl
Books Children Love-
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
More Charlotte Mason Education- Catherine Levinson
Heathers – John Bowie
An Ideal Husband- Oscar Wilde (R)
The Imperfectionists- Tom Rachman
Book of Mormon (R)
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie- Alan Bradley
Othello- Shakespeare (R)
The Weed that Strings the Hangmans bag- Alan Bradley
A Red Herring without Mustard- Alan Bradley
The Sweet Life in Paris – David Lebovitz
Macbeth- Shakespeare
Two Gentlemen of Verona- Shakespeare (R)
The Year of Magical Thinking- Joan Didion
Playful Learning- Mariah Bruehl
Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh (R)
The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern
Thief- Megan Whalen Turner
I am Half sick of Shadows- Alan Bradley
The Lover’s Dictionary- David Levithan
Break the Glass- Jean Valentine
The Girl Who ruled Fairyland for a Short Time- Cat Valente
Voltaire’s Calligrapher- Pablo de Santis
Dizzy in Your Eyes- Pat Mora
Lots of parenting/education books, a decent showing of murder mysteries, an equally fair showing for gorgeous fantastical novels. More non-fiction than last year, but under my average.
Over all the year was a great one for reading, there really wasn’t much I read that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. The absolute finds of the year though were The Night Circus and Cat Valente’s books. I honestly don’t have words for how much I love those books. Simply and completely magical, and the writing- the words- oh, I just want to curl up in those words and live there forever. Oh, and the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley; they’re like delicious, addicting candy. I just want to eat and eat and eat until it makes me sick.
Now we’ll see if I finish The Orphan’s Tales:In the Night Garden by Cat Valente, and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, and Blue Nights by Joan Didion before the end of the year.
What was the best book you read this year?
