Coffee Break!

Hello LoveBirds!

I'm taking a social media coffee break for a bit. I'll be back in January 2019!

127. "The Naturals" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Barnes, Jennifer Lynn. The Naturals. New York, NY: Hyperion, 2013. Print.

308 pages

Reviewed by Jess d'Artagnan Love

My YouTube Review

The FBI has set up a program for gifted teenagers called the "Naturals." Cassie, the protagonist, has the gift of reading people. She is recruited into the program and learns that every other teenager in the program has secrets. Dean, another expert people reader, is the child of a serial killer. They work closely together in their training and eventually Dean learns Cassie's secret--her mother was murdered and the case was still unsolved. When Dean and Cassie learn about the FBI's current case, one that seems eerily connected to her mothers' murder, the "Naturals" come together to keep Cassie safe.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes works as a professor of psychology. She has degrees in both psychology and psychiatry and has a degree from Yale. This shows in her writing. A lot of this read almost like a textbook on forensic psychology. The prose often felt clinical and the content was heavy on expository about how to profile an UNSUB. This is the first book in the series, so it might be that Barnes was setting up the rest of the series by focusing on how Cassie learned to profile and perhaps things will pick up in the subsequent books. I will give the second book a fair shot before I decide to stop reading the series entirely.

Aside from the clinical prose, the characters were moderately developed and the plot did pick up pace toward the end. The resolution of the case was interesting, though not entirely surprising. It may be that I'm so accustomed to reading adult mysteries that adjusting to the tamer YA mystery was difficult. I just wasn't drawn in to the tension or excitement, but I might have if I was reading this at 15 years old. I think this is a great book for its target audience. 

Would I read it again? 

No, but I will give the next book in the series a shot.

Recommended for

Teenagers who want a good mystery/thriller

Not Recommended for

Readers who are used to adult mysteries--this will be too tame for you.

Word Bank

• phenomenological (p. 78)

3 stars out of 5

Jennifer Lynn Barnes' website: http://www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com/bio.html

Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/164187.Jennifer_Lynn_Barnes

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

126. "The One World Schoolhouse" by Salman Khan

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Khan, Salman. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined. New York, NY: Twelve, 2012.

256 pages.

Reviewed by Jess d'Artagnan Love

My Youtube Review

Salman Khan is most well known as the creator and leader of the Khan Academy, a tool used frequently across education facilities. I think he prefers to go by Sal so he isn't confused with the famous Bollywood actor, Salman Khan (rawr). The One World Schoolhouse documents the process Khan went through in creating Khan Academy. It all started when Sal started tutoring his niece long distance and needed tools to make their work together more effective. This resulted in a set of videos that taught basic math and a fledgling Youtube channel that made the videos easily accessible.

Khan attempts to provide a broad history of the American education system and why the system functions the way it does. This section was highly problematic. Khan cherry picked his research, failing to show the entire story and leaving out seminal, groundbreaking work by scholars like Jean Piaget and Benjamin Bloom. It was almost unethical the way the information was presented. He made it seem like he was giving readers the full story but he wasn't. I couldn't help but feel like he could benefit from taking a few more courses in research and writing. He bias towards math and sciences over art and humanities was painfully obvious. The arts and humanities were always mentioned as secondary to STEM rather than being a critical part of education. 

Another problem with Khan's assessment of the educational system is that he functions under the assumption that the only way students' learning is being assessed is through standardized tests (think bubble sheets and scantrons). This is far from what educators are actually doing to assess student learning. Educators are using tests, yes, but they aren't idiots. They understand that a test isn't necessarily the best was to assess learning. That is why there are other assignments (the dreaded HOMEWORK that Khan bagged on in one of his chapters) such as papers, multimedia projects, and group assignments which Khan fails to mention in any way except negatively. 

The rest of the book can be summed up by the last part of the title: reIMAGINED. Imagined. Imaginary. The rest of the book where he discusses the future of higher education was a rambled fantasy. It had no basis in reality or in current research or academic trends. I wish I could meet him so that I could say, "Hey Sal, my university has been doing the things you describe in your book for almost a decade before you published your ideas." Truly, the ideas he had that were solid weren't entirely new (and not ENTIRELY HIS. He tap danced on plagiarism through the whole book!) and the ideas that were new had no basis in research or educational theory, or even economics. 

Bottom line: the best part of this book was learning about how the Khan academy was developed and that would honestly be better told in a magazine article rather than in a book. 

Recommended for: readers who like Khan academy and what to learn about how it was create BUT who can also read with a critical eye toward the lack of research in the rest of his writing.

Not Recommended for: readers who want an ACCURATE depiction of the educational system.

Word Bank

• balkanizing (p. 49)
• bedeviling (p. 216)
• idyll (p. 113)
• remunerative (p. 93)
• simulacrum (p. 108)

2 stars out of 5. 

Sal's Twitter: https://twitter.com/salkhanacademy

The Khan academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

125. "In the Woods" by Tana French

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French, Tana. In the Woods. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2007. Print. 

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

429 pages.

Told from detective Rob Ryan's point of view, In the Woods follows two homicide cases. The first case is that of young Katy Devlin and the second case is one in which Ryan was actually a victim--the case of two missing children in Knocknaree, Ireland back in 1984. With Devlin's murder also taking place in the same Knocknaree woods as the the 1984 cold case, Ryan is thrown back into a past that he can't clearly remember because he suffers from acute retrograde amnesia. 

I am usually pretty good about predicting the ending of mysteries and thrillers. While reading In the Woods, I made predictions on page 60, page 160, and page 246. All of my predictions were wrong. I'm not trying to sound arrogant here, but I am almost always right about the outcome of a mystery. This mostly because I've read so many mysteries that I can easily deduce patterns in mystery novels that indicate who dunnit. That Tana French was able to stump me speaks to the genius of her writing.

In the Woods is a mystery but Tana French's prose is so masterful that it reads more like a piece of literary fiction. I would compare her to Gillian Flynn in the way she explores morality and big life questions, though they have quite different writing voices.  

SPOILER ALERT. One thing was not very clearly wrapped up, but there is also a good chance that I just missed it in my first read of the novel: on page 298, Ryan notes that he had lost touch with reality to a degree that he wasn't sure if the following events were real or part of a dream. This isn't mentioned again as the book comes to a conclusion, so readers have to assume the events were real but I can't help but question it. I wonder if this is something that French will refer back to in later books as this was the first book in a series of the Dublin Murder Squad mysteries. END SPOILER. 

Without giving away any further spoilers, this book left some cases unsolved. It really created this raw, unhealed feeling of festering longing and grief that I imagine is only a small slice of what families who have actually experienced this kind of crime must feel.

Tana French is truly talented and I'm excited to continue reading this series. 

Would I read it again?
Yes. This is a book I'd like to read again and slowly so I can really absorb some of the ideas and character portraits. 

Recommend for
I think readers who like Gillian Flynn would also appreciate Tana French despite there being differences in tone and style. 

Not Recommend for
Readers who are triggered by violence and graphic descriptions. 

Word Bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• bolshie (p. 11)
• apoplectic (p. 274)
• banjaxed (p. 248)
• bedsit (p. 12)
• bowsie (p. 110)
• Brylcreemed (p. 386)
• crenellations (p. 251)
• crosshatching (p. 3)
• curlews (p. 156)
• eejit (p. 128)
• gurriers (p. 217)
• kibbutzniks (p.35)
• inchoate (p. 178)
• jettons (p. 35)
• langered (p. 250)
• mattock (p. 39)
• mica (p. 23)
• midges (p. 21)
• Portacabins (p. 21)
• redolent (p. 285)
• restive (p. 248)
• satsuma (p. 105)
• slagged (p. 185)
• soupcons (p. 10)
• spate (p. 246)
• stoat (p. 187)
• tensile (p. 18)
• unprepossessing (p. 106)
• vestal (p. 81)
• votary (p. 82)

3 stars out of 5

Tana French's website: http://tanafrench.com/

Tana French on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/138825.Tana_French

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

124. "The Burning Bridge" by John Flanagan

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Flanagan, John. The Burning Bridge. New York, NY: Puffin Books,  2005. Print.

262 pages.

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

The Burning Bridge picks up right where the Ruins of Gorlan left off. Morgarath is planning for a war with the kingdom and Will and Halt are following the trail. Spoiler alert, as the title suggests, Morgarath built a bridge and Will burns it down. The end. 

I want so badly to like this series. People in my life cherish it, but I just did not enjoy this book. The descriptions of battle practice were long and monotonous and there was an obvious subtle misogyny underscoring the entire story. 

The portrayal of women and girls in this series just infuriates me. If there was a woman ranger, I'd be all about it, but the women in this series all have soft roles--negotiator and cook (barf). Women in leadership roles in the kingdom are spoken to rudely and treated as if incompetent. Don't forget a nice dose of mansplaining as the cherry on top. Here's an example:

"I'll speak of her, all right! I'll tell you this. She's a woman meddling in a man's world, where she has no place. She should have found a husband years ago and raised a brood of squalling babies. Surely there's a deaf and half-blind man somewhere who would have ten her" (93). 

The worst part of this dialogue? Nowhere does anyone defend Pauline, the woman being spoken of and nowhere is this attitude refuted as despicable or even questionable. 

This book's target audience is boys age 10-12. If I had a son who wanted to read this series, I would let him because I'm anti-book banning BUT we would have a SERIOUS conversation about the toxic masculinity represented in these stories. 

Would I read it again?

NOPE

Recommended for: 

Maybe someone in gender studies looking for a series that overtly teaches young boys toxic masculinity.

Not Recommended for: 

Pretty much most decent human beings.

Word Bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• cowl (p. 59)
• fenlands (p. 11)
• nocked (p. 82)
• recurve (p. 82)
• saxe (p. 41)
• sintered (p. 51)
• spurious (p. 93)
• tarpaulin (p. 68)
• triumvirate (p. 16)

1 star out of 5. 

John Flanagan's website: http://www.worldofjohnflanagan.com/

Previous Ranger's Apprentice books reviewed

The Ruins of Gorlan: http://thewritereader.blogspot.com/2017/08/108-rangers-apprentice-ruins-if-golan.html

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

123. "Who in this Room" by Kathrine Malmo

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Malmo, Katherine. Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition. Corvallis, OR: Calyx Books, 2011. Print.

134 pages

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

Who in the Room contains stories originally published in literary journals. These stories are seamlessly weaved together into a memoir of cancer and coping with its realities, as suggested by the subtitle. At age 32, Kate is diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer  and undergoes treatment. She develops a set of coping skills that takes her through her treatment. 

This book is a short, quick read but don't let that fool you. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in depth. Each chapter is a story within a story. The first story is the literal story of Kate's treatment process. The second story is usually a description of a coping method that also acts as a beautiful symbol or allegory for a different part of the many facets of being diagnosed with breast cancer. 

To me, reading Who in This Room felt like looking at a well cut diamond. There are lots of different surfaces and angles, all reflecting the light in unique and beautiful ways. I laughed, I cried, I was pissed off. I felt like a lived a lifetime in just 134 pages. 

Malmo experiments with point of view in this memoir, and while I don't think she quite pulled it off, I really admire writers who make a strong effort to try something new and add to their craft. 

Would I read it again?

Yes, yes and yes! This is going on my re-read shelf because it is one of the books where you get something different out of it each time you read it. 

Recommend for: Readers who have survived breast cancer or have a loved one going through the process. Readers who appreciate a memoir that will grab you by the feelings and hold on through the end.

Not recommended for: Reader who may be triggered by medical descriptions or readers who want something with a linear narrative. 

Word bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• algal (p. 103)
• anadranous (p. 77)
• caddisfly (p. 88)
• icthyologist (p. 77)
• fluorocarbon (p. 79)
• gunite (p. 80)
• tippet (p. 84)

Kathrine Malmo's website: http://www.katherinemalmo.com/

Calyx Books: https://www.calyxpress.org/product-category/books/

My Youtube Review

Connect with me!

Instagram: @jdartagnanlove

Twitter: @jdartagnanlove

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8035862-j-d-artagnan

122. "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

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Forman, Gayle. If I Stay. New York: Speak, 2014. Print.
(Originally published in 2009)

Mia, a teenage cellist, is in a deadly car accident with her parents. She ends up in a coma and finds herself outside of her body, watching everything that goes on around her. She learns that it is up to her whether she stays alive or chooses to let go. 

I can't say much more than that without giving away some serious spoilers. Gayle Forman does an amazing job with pacing in this novel. The story is told in two timelines. The first timeline is Mia's current experience of being in the coma and existing outside her body watching everything doctor's do to keep her alive, and seeing all the loved ones who visit her. This is interwoven with well-timed flashbacks that allow the reader to learn about Mia's life, family, and dreams for her future. The timing between present reality and the flashbacks is perfect. There is just enough time spent in both to maintain tension but also create character depth and move the story forward. Well done, Gayle!

I do think that this book, especially the first third of the book, will be very triggering for anyone who has been in a severe car accident and/or lost loved ones in a severe car accident. There is a scene where Mia is walking around the crash site and describes some of the gore in such detail it made me queasy. I myself have lost loved ones in vehicle accidents and it was quite triggering and upsetting. I had to put the book down and take a break. Once I got past that first third of the book, I didn't feel triggered.

At the end of the novel, I felt like there was an opportunity missed. Forman had an opportunity to make a profound statement of some kind about life, death, love, or loss and she didn't take the leap. She mentioned embracing possibilities briefly, but it was a let down not to have some kind of final message or "moral of the story" to sit with and chew on. 

Would I read it again?
Maybe...probably not. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I will probably try to watch the film. I don't know that I enjoyed it enough to read any of Gayle Forman's other novels, though. 

Recommended for: Readers who enjoy an emotional drama that is well-paced with simple language.

Not recommended for: Readers who have been in severe vehicle accidents or who have lost loved ones in vehicle accidents.

Word Bank (New-to-me vocabulary)

• churlish (p. 94)
• foundling (p. 26)
• gauche (p. 26)
• hock (p. 47)
• trawl (p. 95)
• verve (p. 25)

Gayle Forman's Website: http://gayleforman.com/

The Film: If I Stay.
My Youtube Review

121. "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor

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Taylor, Laini. Daughter of Smoke and Bone. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print.

418 pages.

Reviewed by Jess d'Artagnan Love

Karou lives in Prague and where she leads a double life: in one life she is a young art student, and in the other, she works with her chimera family collecting teeth from around the world. The teeth are used by the mysterious Brimstone, essentially her father figure, and Karou is tasked with trying to figure out what really happens in Brimstone's shop. A monkey wrench is thrown in her plans when she meets Akiva, a Seraphim, and her portals to Brimstone's world are destroyed, leaving her stranded in the human realm. 

As I read the book, I found it a bit challenging to keep up with what the chimera look like. Chimera are half human and half animal and each chimera character is a different combination of the two. What I found most helpful, was leaving a post-it flag bookmark on pages of chimera descriptions that I could flip back to for reference. 

That being said, Laini Taylor is a true wordsmith and masterfully describes characters and settings. The way she painted Prague and the Poison Kitchen made me want to hop on a plane and head there to purchase some property--it is the exact kind of place I would love to be to sit and write. 

While Prague was expertly crafted, I definitely related to Karou's sense of spiritual "homelessness." She lives with a sense of not really having a "true" home where things just feel right and whole. I experienced this quite a bit throughout my life and have come to accept that "home" for me is in multiple places across the globe in the same way it is multiple realms for Karou. 

My biggest problem with Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the exceptionally long flashback toward the end of the book. The plot is a typical nonlinear plot that moves from past to present fairly seamlessly until the last third of the novel. In the last third of the novel there is a 75 page flashback. This was exhausting because through that entire 75 pages, I was still trying to maintain the tension created by the present-tense story line. While I understand why Taylor may have chosen to organize the flashback this way (which I will refrain from discussing due to spoilers), I also know there are better ways to handle this. This was my biggest issue with the novel and what kept me from giving 4 stars instead of 3. 

Aside from that, I really loved Taylor's prose. She used some wonderfully cozy animal metaphors and I particularly liked the metaphors she used with butterflies and cats. It created a little bit of hygge in the story that was warming and sweet. 

Would I read this book again? Yes. I am also planning on reading the next book in the series. 

Recommended for: Fans of YA urban fantasy. 

Not recommend for: Readers who don't enjoy fantasy.

3 darts/stars out of 5

Word Bank (new-to-me vocabulary)

• accretes (p. 410)
• atavism (p. 316)
• caracal (p. 362)
• chivvied (p. 81)
• concrescence (p. 391)
• demurral (p. 80)
• djellaba (p. 86)
• effulgent (p. 362)
• eidolon (p. 274)
• enfeeble (p. 199)
• fricative (p. 53)
• gnawa (p. 82)
• hummock (p. 267)
• ineffable (p. 196)
• ineluctable (p. 382)
• limned (p. 77)
• lintel (p. 196)
• medina (p. 78)
• menhirs (p. 112)
• moiling (p. 93)
• nacre (p. 410)
• rickrack (p. 109)
• rill (p. 381)
• sallies (p. 235)
• shrive (p. 172)
• spinnaker (p. 367)
• souks (p. 81)
• susurrous (p. 90)
• tadelakt (p. 299)
• tarboosh (p. 81)
• temerity (p. 193)
• thurible (p. 113)
• touts (p. 80)
• welter (p. 208)
• zelij (p. 299)

Laini Taylor's website: http://www.lainitaylor.com/

My Youtube review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Dns_Gxfd8

120. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

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Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Books, 2002 (originally 1813).

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

480 pages.

I am not a self-proclaimed fan of the romance genre, but I admit to really enjoying this classic romance. Jane Austen set the bar high for future romance writers. She builds tension so wonderfully that it even turned me, a nearly verifiable aromantic, into a big gurgling ball of mush. I guess she managed to get me to drop my prejudice regarding romance novels (womp, womp).

I feel like most people know the synopsis of a love story: love interests meet, a romance is kindled, something interferes with the romance to make it seem like "omigosh they will never be together now!" and then said obstacle is resolved and they can prance into the sunset smooching in the back of a carriage or something similar (ok, maybe she hasn't persuaded me to drop all of my prejudice about the genre). There are several love interests in this story which makes it extra tense: Bingley and Jane parallel Darcy and Elizabeth.There is much ado about money, and family status that cause trouble in this courtships and allows the story to follow that standard romance genre plot formula.

What I enjoyed the most reading this book was Austen's prose. She is witty and eloquent. For example, Jane Austen invented the humble brag. Well, maybe she didn't invent it but she was able to describe a humble brag with astute finesse: "'Nothing is more deceitful,' said Darcy, 'than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast'" (Austen, Loc 949). Only Austen could so eloquently and wittily describe what we commoners describe as the humble brag.

Since I read the book on my Kindle, I could easily look up language that was new to me and my vocabulary builder on the Kindle filled with new words I've never heard like: arrear, equipage, postilions, curricle, whist, and panegyric. 

While not life changing in any way, I fully understand why this book is so beloved and classified as a "classic." The story is timeless, entertaining, and thought provoking. I *may* give the romance genre another go having read this--no promises though. 

Recommended for: Pretty much anyone with a good reading proficiency. It's a classic that should be read at least once.

Not Recommend for: Readers who struggle with comprehension. If I had tried to read this in high school, I wouldn't have understood most of it as I wasn't as skilled a reader. Try it and see how it goes. If you're not there yet, just keep reading other things and challenging yourself. You'll get there eventually!

4.5 darts out of 5

119. "The Necklace" by Cheryl Jarvis

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Jarvis, Cheryl. The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experience that Transformed their Lives. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009.

222 pages.

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

I've joined a book club and this was the May 2018 pick. 

The Necklace tells the story of thirteen (mostly) white, upper middle class, middle aged women who buy a $30,000 necklace together. They each get the wear the necklace during their birthday month and have different experiences with it from sky diving, the lending it to a co-worker, to using it for a fundraiser. The group met once a month to hand off the necklace to the next wearer and discuss group business. Often these meetings turned hostile and produced in-fighting. 

That about sums it up. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the thirteen women, none of whom, with *maybe* the exception of Mrs. VanGundy, would I really want to spend time with. I didn't really like these women, and I didn't really like this book. 

I suspect many of my issues with the women stem from the way they were characterized by Jarvis. She glosses over so many problematic issues. Why did certain members leave the group? Why are the women all described as just super fantastic, pretty, slim, gorgeous, and simply THE BEST when there was so much in-fighting in the group and clear political differences? Jarvis could have done SO MUCH MORE to humanize the women to be complex, interesting people instead of making them all sound like middle aged prom queens. 

The book did get me thinking more about the concepts of consumerism and ownership. Again though, Jarvis could have gone into so much more depth with these ideas but these too are merely mentioned and not explored in any thoughtful way.

Ultimately, I thought it was an interesting idea but the writing and composition was shoddily executed. It would have worked just as well as a magazine article than a full book. 

1.5 darts out of 5.

Recommend for: mehhhhhhhh......

Not Recommend for: Readers with a good sense of plot, expository, and characterization. Really, I just don't recommend this in general.

Cedar Valley Co Op Book Club

• May 2018: The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis

118. "The Power" by Naomi Alderman

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Alderman, Naomi. The Power. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2017.

341 pages.

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

The Power is a response to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale wherein Alderman tries to answer the question: what would happen if women controlled men's bodies? Presented as a novelized work of historical nonfiction, the story starts when young girls develop the power to electrify things with their hands. This was a result of poisoned water during WWII that caused a genetic mutation passed on through generations. With this power, women are no longer controlled by men. 

The characters in the novel are interesting and believable. Alderman does a nice job of making each character's experience with the power unique and individualized. The story is nicely timed; it doesn't drag but it also doesn't move so fast your head spins. There is a nice gradual build up to the climax. Much of what Alderman speculates about what might happen in this scenario are pretty close to what I think might happen. 

There is one ugly, glaring problem with this novel that I can't move past to award a full five stars. Alderman fails to discuss race or ethnicity in any way, shape, or form. This is a big, big problem for this kind of world-changing shift in gender roles. You can't address changes in gender and power without also acknowledging the intricacies of gender, power, and race. I just will not let that slide. The only thought I had thought could potentially defend her position is that, if this is a response to The Handmaid's Tale, The Handmaid's Tale also fails to address issues of race and ethnicity. So they are at least parallel, but I just don't feel like that is a good excuse. I really don't. 

Overall, it was an interesting read and a good response to Atwood's work, but falls flat in using any third wave feminist thought. 

Recommended for: Readers who enjoy dystopian fiction, readers who enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale.

Not Recommended for: Readers sensitive to sexual violence or looking for a study on gender that includes intersectional identity. 

4 darts out of 5

Click here to read my review of The Handmaid's Tale.

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

I'm a huge fan of Gilmore Girls, especially listening to Rory talk about her adventures in reading. Thankfully, Buzzfeed compiled a complete list of all the books she read/mentioned on the show, all 339 of them! Many of my favorite book bloggers are taking up the challenge of reading the books on the list and I'm joining in! The list of books marked with what I've read is below!

Last update: 5/9/18

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Read in 2018--read my review here)

4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

6. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

9. The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James

11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

13. Atonement by Ian McEwan

14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (Read in 2000, and again in 2008)

16. Babe by Dick King-Smith

17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi

18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (Read in 2000)

21. Beloved by Toni Morrison

22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

23. The Bhagava Gita

24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy

25. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali

29. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner

30. Candide by Voltaire

31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

32. Carrie by Stephen King

33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

34. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (Read in 2001)

35. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

36. The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman

37. Christine by Stephen King

38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

41. The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty

42. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

43. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell

44. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

45. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

46. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Read in 2015. Check out my review here).

47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

48. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

50. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

51. The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Read in 2015. Check out my review here.)

52. Cujo by Stephen King

53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

55. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D

56. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

57. The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown (Read in 2005.)

58. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

59. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

60. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

61. Deenie by Judy Blume

62. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed Americaby Erik Larson

63. The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx

64. The Divine Comedy by Dante (Read in 2002.)

65. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

66. Don Quixote by Cervantes

67. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv

68. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

69. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

70. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook

71. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

72. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

73. Eloise by Kay Thompson

74. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger

75. Emma by Jane Austen

76. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Read in 2014. Check out my review here.)

77. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol

78. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Read in 2002.)

79. Ethics by Spinoza

80. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

81. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

82. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

83. Extravagance by Gary Krist

84. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

85. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

86. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

87. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser

88. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

89. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (Read in 2001.)

90. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein

91. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

92. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

93. Fletch by Gregory McDonald

94. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

95. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

96. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

97. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Read in 2016.)

98. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

99. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

100. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

101. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

102. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

103. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner

104. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (Read in 2011.)

105. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

106. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo

107. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

108. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky

109. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

110. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

111. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom

112. The Graduate by Charles Webb

113. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Read in 1999.)

114. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Read in 2002.)

115. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Read in 2015.)

116. The Group by Mary McCarthy

117. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Read in 2002.)

118. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (Read in the 2000s. Not entirely sure the year.)

119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling (Read in the 2000s. Not entirely sure the year.)

120. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

121. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

122. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

123. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare

124. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare

125. Henry V by William Shakespeare

126. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

127. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

128. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris

129. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

130. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Read in 2011. Check out my review here.)

131. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

132. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

133. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

134. How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland

135. Howl by Allen Ginsberg (Read in 2009. Check out my review here.)

136. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

137. The Iliad by Homer

138. I'm With the Band by Pamela des Barres

139. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

140. Inferno by Dante

141. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

142. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy

143. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton

144. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Read in 2007.)

145. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

146. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

147. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain

148. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

149. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

150. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander

151. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Read in 2016.)

153. Lady Chatterleys' Lover by D. H. Lawrence

154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

155. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (Read in 2009.)

156. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

157. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

158. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

159. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

160. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Read in 2009. Check out my review here.)

161. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

162. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway

163. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

164. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

165. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

166. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

167. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

168. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

169. The Love Story by Erich Segal

170. Macbeth by William Shakespeare

171. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

172. The Manticore by Robertson Davies

173. Marathon Man by William Goldman

174. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

175. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

176. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman

177. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Read in 2007.)

178. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer

179. Mencken's Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken

180. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

181. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Read in 1999.)

182. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Read in 2009. Check out my review here.)

183. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

184. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

185. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin

186. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor

187. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman

188. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

189. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars

190. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

191. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Read in 2008.)

192. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

193. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It's Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh

194. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken

195. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest

196. Myra Waldo's Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo

197. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

198. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

199. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

200. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Read in 2010. Check out my review here.)

201. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

202. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen

203. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

204. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay

205. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

206. Night by Elie Wiesel

207. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

208. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan

209. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell

210. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

211. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

212. Old School by Tobias Wolff

213. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

214. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

215. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

216. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan

217. Oracle Night by Paul Auster

218. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

219. Othello by Shakespeare

220. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

221. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

222. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson

223. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

224. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

225. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

226. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

227. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

228. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

229. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

230. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

231. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

232. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

233. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

234. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche

235. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neillby Ron Suskind

236. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Read in 2018. Read my review here.)

237. Property by Valerie Martin

238. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon

239. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

240. Quattrocento by James Mckean

241. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall

242. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers

243. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

244. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

245. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

246. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

247. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

248. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

249. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

250. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

251. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

252. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King

253. Robert's Rules of Order by Henry Robert

254. Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton

255. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

256. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

257. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

258. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

259. The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition

260. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

261. Sanctuary by William Faulkner

262. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

263. Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James

264. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum

265. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Read in 1999.)

266. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

267. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

268. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

269. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

270. Selected Hotels of Europe

271. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

272. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

273. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

274. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill

275. Sexus by Henry Miller

276. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

277. Shane by Jack Shaefer

278. The Shining by Stephen King (Read in 2017.)

279. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (Read in 2002.)

280. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton

281. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut

282. Small Island by Andrea Levy

283. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

284. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers

285. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore

286. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

287. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos

288. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

289. Songbook by Nick Hornby

290. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

291. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

292. Sophie's Choice by William Styron

293. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

294. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

295. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

296. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

297. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams

298. Stuart Little by E. B. White

299. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

300. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

301. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett

302. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

303. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

304. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

305. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

306. Time and Again by Jack Finney

307. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

308. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

309. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Read in 2002.)

310. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare

311. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

312. The Trial by Franz Kafka

313. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson

314. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

315. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

316. Ulysses by James Joyce

317. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath

318. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

319. Unless by Carol Shields

320. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

321. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers

322. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

323. Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard

324. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

325. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

326. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

327. Walt Disney's Bambi by Felix Salten

328. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

329. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker

330. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles

331. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

332. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

333. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

334. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee

335. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

336. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

337. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

338. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

339. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion