Birt's Paige: SNOW!

It is snowing in Houston today! It was 80 yesterday and today we have snow! No, it isn't sticking (I know all you snow veterans are asking) but that doesn't mean it isn't snowing right now!

Books I've Read in 2011

The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown - Kinda slow for me but worth while.

Testimony - Anita Shreve - a little crazy at first but turned out to be very thought provoking about how 1 second can change a whole life.

Night Road - Kristin Hannah - I loved this book - very noble main character that impressed me the most.

Don Quixote - Cervantes - this put me in the mind of Monte Python and the Holy Grail - Don Quixote is ridiculous!

Songs Without Words -Ann Packer - really good, interesting relationships between mother and daughter and friends.

Divergent - Veronica Roth - see review

The Builders - Maeve Binchy - kind of a short story but a book (very short). I can read anything she writes and appreciate it!

Where She Went - Gayle Foreman - sequel to If I Stay - excellent and super entertaining!

Swim Back to Me - I don't so much go for short stories - I actually wished that she had expounded on the first story in the book and just made it into a whole book.

Once Upon a Time There Was You - Elizabeth Berg - interesting when two people divorce and then realize years later that they do and can still care about one another.

Two Part Invention: the story of a marriage - Madeleine L'Engle - realistic, wonderful and romantic in the way that long term relationships really are.

Bright Young Things - Anna Godberson - there is definitely something about her writing style that suits me!

Seventeenth Summer - Maureen Daly - this book was really good - and it had such a feeling of anticipation. Although nothing monumental happened I guess that feeling of anticipation explains just about everyone's "seventeenth summer" just waiting for life to start.

Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy - another book with lots of same cast of characters in many of her books - like visiting family for me.

Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers - very religious but I saw only the good in that - I very much enjoyed it!

Deep Down True - Juliet Fay - pretty excellent in my opinion.

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen - very long but fairly good book about a regular old dysfunctional family.

Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead - keep thinking this is the last one but they keep coming - entertaining though.

The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson - I enjoyed the historical part of this book relating to the city of Chicago and the World's Fair - but the parallel story of the serial killer was too disgusting for me.

Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart - LOVED THIS BOOK! Where has it been all my life - it's old and I've never heard of it before. MUST READ!

Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult - some more hot buttom issues to think about - what to do with frozen embryos when a couple gets a divorce??? Excellent!

I Think I Love You - Allison Pearson - named for the David Cassidy song of long ago, character finds she won a contest that her mom hid from her - and she finally gets to go meet her teen idol in Las Vegas. It definitely had it's moments.

Awakened - P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast - another in a long line of books that interest me less and less (hopefully the last!). A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini - if you have conflicting feelings about events in the middle east - this book has a lot of information that might help. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it will be a top ten for sure.

Linger - Maggie Stiefvater - the seguel to Shiver which I enjoyed - and this was good as well. It ended so that I am anticipating the next installment.

The Call of the Wild - Jack London - excellent! I don't know why I haven't ever read this before. If you love dogs, you can't help but love it.

Delirium - Lauren Oliver - see review

Things I Want My Daughters to Know - Elizabeth Noble - excellent, funny, sad and heartfelt. The basic message is that "love is simple".

The Lakeshore Limited - Sue Miller - one of my favorite authors who did not disappoint.

Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah - I enjoyed this book about two friends over the course of a lifetime and what each one brings to the relationship.

Room - Emma Donoghue - see review

The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan - great spiritual insights but kind of slow

Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead - and still more!

Split - Avasthti Swati - see review

Blood Promise - Richelle Mead - and still more

Shadow Kiss - Richelle Mead - more of the teen vampire saga - still pretty good.

The Fiction Class - Susan Breen - I learned a lot in this book, about difficult relationships between mothers and daughters and writing.

The Man of My Dreams - hideous title and not really anything to do with what actually takes place in this book. It was okay.

Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver - excellent! Wish I could figure out the ending though.

Night - Elie Wiesel - uncomfortable to read but so necessary for everyone! Cam read in HS - so I had the book and decided to be uncomfortable for a day or two.

Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt - Beth Hoffman - see review

The Death of Ivan Ilych - Leo Tolstoy - a master of putting real people thoughts and perseptions on paper.

Frostbite - Richelle Mead - even better, I think I will continue the series.

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead - pretty good and I like this genre apparently.

Of Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - crude and ridiculous!

Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos - a sweet find - just browsing in the library.

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan - excellent!

A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick - pretty good, it was obvious it was written by a man to me though.

The Scorch Trials - James Dashner - I only read it because I read the first and wanted to see what happened but I didn't enjoy it so much - very "teenage boy" kind of gross.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - strange, a fine line between crazy and gifted it seems.

Austenland - Shannon Hale - kind of witty but also kind of silly.

Long May She Reign - Ellen Emerson White - these are very smart books - I am really enjoying them - REALLY!

Long Live the Queen - Ellen Emerson White - absolutely riveting I read it on a flight back to Houston from Utah.

Birt's Paige

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

SNOW!

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