2006 Favorite Reads List

(Remember, the criteria includes that I must have read the book for the first time during that year - rereads of favorites don't count! Also, they don't have to be new books. . . just new to me. Year of publication is included. The list is in alphabetical order by title.)

- Cell: A Novel by Stephen King (2006)
- A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (2006)

- Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman (2003)

- Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas (2003)

- Garlic and Sapphire: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl (2005)
- The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther by Rebecca Kohn (2004)

- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: Celebrating Interethnic, Interfaith, and Interracial Relationships by Brenda Lane Richardson (2000)
- The Joy of Doing Things Badly: A Girl's Guide to Love, Life and Foolish Bravery by Veronica Chambers (2006)

- Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006)

- Ludie's Life by Cynthia Rylant (2006)
- Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (2003)

- Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (2006)

- Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman (2006)

- Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent by Anthony Rapp (2006)

That year, I read more than 100 titles, so to pare it down to this list was difficult. Tomorrow, I'll post the list from 2007.

2011

So . . . it is actually the middle of December, and I haven't really had the time to update this blog in months.

What I intend to do in the next week is post my 2011 Favorite Reads list. If I do so, it will be the tenth year that I will have compiled my annual Favorite Reads list . . . but the first year, in 2002, I just sent it to a few people because I was nervous about it.

I am not sure if I still have a copy of the 2002 list (although it might be on a floppy disk somewhere), but we'll see. I would like to at least list all of the titles so far that have made my lists to this point, here on this blog, and see if I would revise those lists today. Most of my lists contained 12 to 15 titles and the reasons why I liked each title.

Usually I have printed my list with my holiday letter to family and friends, but alas, I have been too busy lately! In addition, I am still reading some books that I could consider for the list. I just finished one last night that I could not put down!

So . . . stay tuned for my 2011 list!

Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell by Crickett Rumley

I picked up this book at the library from a display shelf. . . I loved the title, first of all! Secondly, I have always wondered what it would be like to wear a hoopskirt ever since I read the Little House books. Thirdly, I loved Jane's voice just from reading the blurb on the back cover.

It was a fun read, and I must admit that I was sorry when it ended. It gets emotional when recounting her mother's life and death, and as other moments from the past come to Jane's mind. Parts of this were very well done. Also, I, as the reader, appreciate the friendships that eventually form amongst the girls (the Magnolia Maids), and how they all come to help each other out, despite the rocky beginnings.

I just wonder if this is going to be part of a series, because it feels like we didn't get enough of Jane with Luke, and then there is the issue of Jane and her father (who never did make it to visit her by the end of this book.) It feels like these parts of the story are unfinished.

Dying to Tell Me by Sherryl Clark

Once I started reading this book, I had trouble putting it down. I received this book (in .pdf format) for LT's Early Reviewers. This story, which would be perfect for tweens/young teens, starts off rather cliched in a way. . . a family whose dynamics and circumstances have changed are moving to a new town to start a new life. However, there is more at play here, particularly for the main character Sasha. She has a lot more going on than is on the surface, and one of her issues is that she doesn't want to be the embodiment of one of those "weird" shows on tv where the main characters can see dead people. Oh, and she finds out she can mentally speak with her dog. (That's my favorite part.) I love the mysteries in this book, and how they are resolved.

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde

This sixth book in the series is told from the perspective of the "written" Thursday Next. Personally, I highly enjoyed this new point of view. It showed even more fully how BookWorld works, and I found the technical descriptions fascinating. Written-Thursday started to come into her own as a person, which was also fun to watch. It is one of the best books I've read so far this year.

Cinderella, Ninja Warrior by Maureen McGowan

First, I have to say that overall, I loved this book. The reader can pick differing paths to reach the same end, but I ultimately read them all. Cinderella finds the magic the she has always possessed (literally) inside and also studies the way of the ninja on the insistence of her cat, Max. This all come in very handy when it comes to escaping her miserable life trapped (by her stepmother's magic) inside her home, made to do an incredible amount of work.

There is another book in this series: Sleeping Beauty, Vampire-Slayer. Try as I might, I could not get into this book. I am rather disappointed, after thoroughly enjoying Cinderella. It just seems very off-putting in tone.

Look At Flower by Robert Dunn

I just read this for LT's Early Reviewers. . . and I wanted to keep reading. I feel it ended rather abruptly in a sense, perhaps. As another reviewer has said, it also annoyed me that the story never returned to the "present", to get the main character's childrens' reactions to the story they never really knew about their mother and the year she ran away from home to join the "hippie world" in the mid to late 1960s. At first the story seems rather disjointed, perhaps because the point of view keeps changing (third vs first person, and past vs present), although I did get used to it fairly quickly. I liked, also, that Flower/Cynda also feels no need to get high like those around her, that she is confident enough to stick to it, too. Overall, it was a quick, interesting read.