Bethany’s 2012-13 Book List

The goal for this year is 135 books. In the past each year’s challenge began and ended with my school’s graduation. As someone who has been either a student or a teacher for her whole life, the school year calendar has always seemed a more legitimate way to measure time than the Gregorian. But now I’m about to begin my first year as neither a student nor a teacher. For consistency’s sake, though, each year’s challenge will still run from graduation to graduation, meaning that my deadline to meet this year’s goal is Sunday, June 2, 2013.

1. William Styron – The Long March and In the Clap Shack
2. A.S. Byatt – The Game
3. Harvey Sachs – The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 (my review)
4. Edmund White – Skinned Alive: Stories
5. Hilary Mantel – Bring Up the Bodies (my review)
6. Chaim Potok – The Chosen (my thoughts)
7. Marilynne Robinson – When I Was a Child I Read Books (my partial review)
8. Chaim Potok – The Promise (my thoughts)
9. Carolyn Cook, Daughters of the Revolution (my partial review)
10. Gregory Maguire – The Next Queen of Heaven
11. Claire Tomalin – Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
12. Isabel Allende – The House of the Spirits (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (Jill’s notes on chapters 1-4) (my notes on chapter 1) (my notes on chapters 2-7)  (my review) (Jill’s review)
13. Diana Gabaldon – Drums of Autumn (my review)
14. James Miller, S.J. – A Jesuit Off Broadway: Behind the Scenes with Faith, Doubt, Forgiveness, and More (my review)
15. Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle (my partial review)
16. Danielle Trussoni, Angelology (my review)
17. Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
18. Alan Bennett, The History Boys
19. Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (my partial review)
20. Georges Simenon, The Rules of the Game (my thoughts)
21. Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World (my review)
22. Leila Meacham, Roses (my review)
23. Richard Ford, Canada (my review)
24. Anouk Markovits, I Am Forbidden (my review)
25. James Gleick, Isaac Newton
26. Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (my review)
27. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (my pre-reading notes) (my thoughts on Act I) (Jill’s review) (my final thoughts)
28. Deborah Harkness, Shadow of Night (my review) (Jill’s review)
29. David Leavitt, The Indian Clerk (my review)
30. Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (my review)
31. Thad Ziolkowski, Wichita (my review)
32. Toni Morrison, Home (my review)
33. Laurence Cossé, An Accident in August (my review)
34. Yasmina Khadra, Wolf Dreams
35. Nina Revoyr, Wingshooters (my partial review)
36. Chris Cleave, Gold (my partial review)
37. Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Secret Daughter (my review)
38. William Faulkner, Light in August (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (my thoughts on chapters 1-7) (Jill’s thoughts on chapters 1-12) (my final thoughts) (Jill’s final thoughts)
39. Barbara Ehrenreich and Dierdre English, For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women
40. Pat Conroy with Suzanne Williamson Pollak, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes and Stories of My Life (my review)
41. Geoff Dyer, Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It (my review)
42. Neil Gaiman, American Gods
43. Pat Conroy, The Water is Wide (my review) (Jill’s review)
44. Lisa Rohleder, L.Ac, The Remedy: Integrating Acupuncture into American Health Care
45. Pat Conroy, My Losing Season (my review) (Jill’s review)
46. Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip (my review)
47. Charlotte Rogan, The Lifeboat (my review)
48. Justin Torres, We the Animals (my review)
49. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (my thoughts on chapters 1-8) (Jill’s review) (my review)
50. Pat Conroy, Beach Music (my review)
51. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (my review)
52. Glendon Swarthout, Bless the Beasts and Children
53. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera (my partial review)
54. Caleb Carr, The Alienist (my review)
55. Jon Krakauer, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (my review)
56. Simon Lelic, A Thousand Cuts (my partial review)
57. J.M. Coetzee, Foe (my review)
58. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (Jill’s thoughts on Part I) (my thoughts on Part I) (my final thoughts) (Jill’s final thoughts)
59. Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton: A Memoir (my review)
60. James Bond Stockdale, Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’ Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior
61. Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (my review)
62. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (my thoughts on Part I) (my final thoughts) (Jill’s final thoughts)
63. Michael Ondaatje, The Cat’s Table (my review)
64. Lorrie Moore, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? (my review)
65. Salman Rushdie, Shame (my review)
66. Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap (my partial review)
67. Nancy Sherman, Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind
68. William Harrison, In a Wild Sanctuary
69. Héctor Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries (my review)
70. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
71. Henrik Ibsen, Four Major Plays: Volume I (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (my pre-reading notes) (my thoughts on A Doll House) (my thoughts on The Wild Duck) (my thoughts on Hedda Gabler) (my thoughts on The Master Builder) (Jill’s thoughts on A Doll House) (Jill’s thoughts on Hedda Gabler)
72. Henning Mankell, Faceless Killers (my review)
73. George Eliot, Middlemarch (my thoughts on the first half) (my final thoughts)
74. Caleb Carr, The Angel of Darkness (my partial review)
75. Richard Yates, Cold Spring Harbor (my review)
76. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (our 100th review!)
77. Charlaine Harris, Shakespeare’s Landlord (my review)
78. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
79. David Fromkin, The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh, Secret Partners
80. Diana Gabaldon, The Custom of the Army
81. John Crowley, The Translator (my partial review)
82. Steven Kotler, West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief
83. Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation
84. David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
85. Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (my review)
86. Hanna Pylväinen, We Sinners (my review)
87. Eduardo Halfon, The Polish Boxer
88. Edmund White, Forgetting Elena
89. Jesse Browner, Everything Happens Today (my review)
90. Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
91. Don Lee, The Collective (my partial review)
92. Diana Gabaldon, A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
93. Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (Jill’s thoughts on Part I) (my thoughts on Part I) (Jill’s final thoughts) (my final thoughts)
94. Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (my review)
95. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
96. Amor Towles, Rules of Civility
97. William Shakespeare, King Lear (Jill’s pre-reading notes) (my pre-reading notes) (Jill’s final thoughts)
98. John Updike, The Centaur (my review)
99. Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
100. Norman F. Cantor, The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era
101. Herman Koch, The Dinner
102. August Wilson, Gem of the Ocean
103. Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
104. Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
105. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (Jill’s final thoughts)
106. Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Shadow
107. Scott Jurek with Steve Friedman, Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness
108. Marco Roth, The Scientists: A Family Romance
109. Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Hegemon
110. Benjamin Lytal, A Map of Tulsa (my review)
111. David Sedaris, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
112. Orson Scott Card, Shadow Puppets
113. Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War
114. John Green, Looking for Alaska
115. Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
116. Orson Scott Card, Shadows in Flight
117. Orson Scott Card, A War of Gifts
118. Orson Scott Card, First Meetings in the Enderverse
119. Hilary Mantel, Fludd
120. August Wilson, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
121. August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
122. Orson Scott Card, Ender in Exile