More suggestions

I added to the list

7. _Are You There, Vodka, it's Me Chelsea_ by Chelsea Handler get the audio - it is a bit raunchy here and there but laugh out loud funny


8. _Kite Runner_ & _A Thousand Splended Suns_ by Khaled Hosseini

9. _Cutting for Stone_ by Abraham Verghese ** <3 This one I loved - checked it out from the library - but may have to buy it for my collection.


10. _The Art of Racing in the Rain_

All good reads.

Books Read in 2010!

At the beginning of 2010 I set the resolution of reading a book a week for the entire year to renew my passion of reading. While I did not completely attain this goal - I did read more books than weeks in the year so I feel overall it was a success. I have had many people ask if I had kept a list of what I read and if it was going to be posted. I had not but decided it was a worthwhile endeavor so instead of a book this last week, I complied the list. The order is loosely based from last to first but not completely. I am posting originally in facebook than copy/paste in a couple different formats, so if it looks weird in other formats than I apologize. (FYI a _ at the beginning and end of a title counts as underline in FB.) I don't recommend every book I read and some I LOVED! The following symbols will denote a very loose recommendation system: * good read **very good read <3 I loved it -READ IT! #audioversion. At the end a few books I love that I read prior to the beginning of the year. So here goes......



Non-Fiction

1. _Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know_ by Robert Paarlberg

2. _A Big Little Life: A Memior of a Joyful Dog_ by Dean Koontz *

3. _Beyond the Rat Race_ by Arthur Gish *

4. _The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything_ By Ken Robinson, Ph.D w/ Lau Aronica **

5. _The Geography of Bliss_ by Eric Weiner

6. _Beyond the Board_ by Doug Brown #

7. _Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating_ by Jane Goodall w/ Gary McAvoy & Gail Hudson **

8. _Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking_ by Malcolm Gladwell **

9. _The 50 Best Ways to Simplify Your Life_ by Pattric Fannanig(can't read my writing here - not certain about this spelling) & Heather arras Mitchner

10. _The Story of Stuff_ by Annie Leonard **

11. _Life on the Mississippi_ by Mark Twain * #

12. _Leavings: Poems_ by Wendell Berry <3 (Not sure where poetry fits category wise but WB's poems seem non-fiction like.)

13. _Shift Your Habits: Save Money, Save the Planet_ by Elizabeth Rogers

14. _Possom Living: How to Live Well w/o a job & with (almost) no Money_ by Dolley Freed

15. _Everthing I Need to Know I Learned from Children's Books: Life Lessons from Notable People in All Walks of Life_ by Anita Silvey <3

16. _Loot: The Battle over Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World_ by Sharon Waxman **

17. _The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closet, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, & Generally Have More Fun_ by Gretchen Rubin <3

18. _I Am America (and So Can You!)_ by Stephan Colbert **

19. _Animals Make Us Human_ by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson ** #

20. _How Starbucks Saved my Life: A Son of Privelage Learns to Live Like Everyone Else_ by Michael Gates Gill **

21. _Mennonite in a Little Black Dress_ by Rhoda Janzen

22. _Give a Little: How Your Small Donations can Transform our World_ by Wendy Smith <3

23. _Have a Little Faith_ by Mitch Albom **

24. _Eating Animals_ by Jonathan Safron Foer **

25. _Making Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art_ by Thomas Hoving

26. _A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders & Their Quest to See it All_ by Luke Dempsey <3

27. _See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers_ by Roxanna Elden *



Now to my perfered reading style, FICTION



1. _Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close_ by Jonathan Safron Foer * #

2. _Gourmet Rhapsody_ by Muriel Barberry

3. _ The Knitting Circle_ by Ann Hood *

4. _Faithful Place_ by Tana French ** #

5. _Bad Blood_ by John Sandford

6. _Her Fearful Symmetry_ by Audrey Niffenegger #

7. _Ape House_ by Sara Gruen

8. _ Wicked Appetite_ by Janet Evanovich <3

9. _Jane Slayre_ by Charlotte Bronte & Sherri Browning Erwin

10. _Prayers for Sale_ by Sandra Dallas **

11. _The Bonesetter's Daughter_ by Amy Tan * #

12. _The Help_ by Kathryn Stockett *

13. _The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner_ Stephanie Meyer <3

14. _The Elegance of the Hedgehog_ by Muriel Barberry <3

15. _An Unaccustomed Earth_ by Jhumpa Lahiri ** #

16. _The Lost Recipe of Happiness_ by Barbara O'Neal *

17. _Marker_ by Robin Cook *

18-38. The entire Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich <3 (Great guilty pleasure reads!)

39. _Dead Watch_ by John Sandford **

40. _Every Last One_ by Anne Quindlen <3

41. _Oh My Stars_ by Lorna Landrik <3

42. _The Puzzle Lady vs. Sudoku Lady_ by Parnell Hall

43. _The Shadow of you Smile_ by Mary Higgins Clark *

44. _ish_ by Peter Reynolds <3, _Oh, the Places You Go_ by Dr. Suess <3, _Where ther Once There Was a Woods_ by Denise Flemming <3

45. _Beatrice & Virgil_ by Yann Martel *

46. _Run_ by Ann Patchett <3

47. _Oolong Dead_ by Laura Childs

48. _The Woods_ by Harlan Coben <3

49. _ Jane Eyre_ by Charlotte Bronte <3

50 _Rough Country_ by John Sandford *

51. _The House of Sand & Fog_ by Andre Dubas III

52. _Heat Lightning_ by John Sandford <3

53. _Loving Frank_ by Nancy Horan

54. _Take My Heart_ by Mary Higgins Clark *

I also read a lot of Amanda Quick/Jayne Krentz - guilty pleasures that I didn't count in the list because so simple of reads.



Whew - obviously I love a lot more fiction!



Other Selections to Consider



1. Some of my guilty pleasures are of course Mary Higgins Clark - can't go wrong there

2. I have enjoyed the Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford - all are listed above except for the first _Dark of the Mood_ which I listened to the audio version - very good

3. _Water for Elephants_ by Sara Gruen - I love this book

4. _Angry Housewives Eating BonBons_ by Lorna Lardvik enjoyable lighter read

5. Classics to revisit (on the female side) _My Antonia_ by Willa Cather, _Pride & Prejudice_ by Jane Austen, _Gone with the Wind_ by Margaret Mitchell (and of course _Jane Eyre_)

6. _The Life of Pi_ by Yann Martel



Over 81 books in one year! Yeah! I hope you enjoyed this list and go get reading

A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See it All by Luke Dempsey

Oh, I loved this book. To me it is a love story. Not your traditional boy meets girl love story (and no boy meets boy or girl meets girl). This is a story of a man and his love of several things, birding, friendship, America, and his daughters. All of this is told through anecdotes of birding. Dempsey has a witty and comical way of tying all these threads together. He stumbled into the habit of birding through the encouragement of his friends Don and Donna Graffati. The three of them make several bird specific trips through the country. Throughout the story, Dempsey gives examples of how human pursuits are jeopardizing bird species. However, this is not one of those bang you in the head ecobooks, it is more subtly told. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I know it is not the type of book everyone would enjoy (I have some friends who won't touch non-fiction at all!) but if you can handle fiction, don't let the topic of birding scare you from reading this touching (and downright funny) tale. I laughed out loud on numerous occasions...oh what a read. I am inspired to give birding a go....though not right now...frigid temps keep me inside..brr. I have included a link to Better World Books, a great place to buy book with a conscious!

www.betterworldbooks.com

I Resolve to .....

You got it, I am a big fan of the New Year's resolution! Do I always follow through? Well, I spent years resolving to lose weight and not procrastinate, let's just say, ummmm - still a struggle. Still, I am a firm believer in goals. Okay, so in general, I am an extremely goal oriented person. The only times I truly struggle with depression like issues is when I have no goals. So I am always trying to set up goals for my life. I look at the NY's Res as short term goals and sometimes jump start goals. I actually started my vegetarianism as a New Year's resolution. (Just hit the three year anniversary of that decision, yip yip!) So I have three resolutions this year. One health and consumer related and two are purposeful pursuits of favorite hobbies, that I often let slide by the wayside.

1st one, I have given up soda of any kind for the year. This means no more vanilla Coke habit. Granted, I have never been one of those, I have pop everyday at every meal and for daytime pick-me-ups, but I have been drinking more and more of it. For the longest time I wouldn't drink any soda at all, but it had crept back into habit. Soda has no real value and is wasted funds at this time, so out it goes (for at least a year, then I will re-assess.)

Goal number two: Read one book a week. Reading has been a passion of mine since before I could read myself. I have always loved the written word and the various places it can take you. I have often said, if I could find a job that all I had to do is read, I would do it in a heartbeat. (Now no comments on becoming a book editor, or critic - I said all I had to do was read, not anything else!) The problem is I am often unintentional about my reading time and then I have no time or energy. I recently realized for someone who proclaims a love of reading, I was not reading enough, I couldn't even be trusted to read the monthly book club selection (luckily that is not a requirement for the book club, I love my book club!) So a book a week, granted if I don't complete the book of the week, I may substitute with a reading of Green Eggs and Ham, hey, it's a book!

Goal number three: Letter writing - I love getting them, I love sending them, and I want to have that personal connection with my friends, so I plan on sending out a card or a letter to a friend or family member once a week. In the past, I have selected a person to send a letter a week - a friend doing a year of voluntary service in Africa, a friend doing a year vs in Seattle, a friend going through a year of chemotherapy. I even connected with an older woman at my church after a chance encounter where she talked with me about her continual struggle with grief of the lose of her husband. I made a continual effort over many months to send her thinking of you cards. Now, I am not giving this examples as a way of patting my own back, but as examples of a simple action that can have an impact. Everyone of these people appreciated the letters and I was able to forge bonds by this purposeful act. Emails and Facebook (while I LOVE LOVE LOVE them) don't have the same power as receiving a card or letter handwritten. There is a certain magic in that.

So there you go, a much longer post then I intended on my goals for the year. I plan on posted about the books, so perhaps my posting will increase. FYI, for the first week (being all of two days) I read a guilty pleasure book - Mary Higgins Clark Take my Heart. Watch for my next post about Luke Dempsey's book on birding - a subtle Eco lover book.

Seasonal Cooking

This is a great cookbook that encourages seasonal cooking all year. It is separated into the four seasons allowing you to see what is available at the market. If you don't have a garden, you can find local foods at your farmers' market. Also, you can help by buying foods that are season at your local store. Seasonal food requires less transport to arrive to your table. You can find this cookbook at Amazon.com or at http://store.mpn.net/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=9 Give it a try it is a wonderful cookbook.

Tony Campolo

I just finished reading the book How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshipping Nature by Tony Campolo. (A Christian's Call to Save Creation.) Wow, good book. It was written in 1992 before the whole Eco movement was "in." It is a very timely read, I felt like it was written yesterday. It talks about how Christians should definitely be on the forefront of the movement as it is our God's charge to us. I definitely recommend it. Another book a read a while ago that was good. I forget the Author's name but it was written by an MD and called Serve God, Save the Earth or something like that. I will double check it and edit this later.