2017 by the books

1. Linda Sue Park - A Long Walk to Water *****
2. Ken Ilgunas - Walden on Wheels *****
3. Alan Bradley - Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd *****
4. Gary Taubes - The Case Against Sugar *****
5. Gretchen Ruben - Better than Before *****
6. Tom Foreman - My Year of Running Dangerously *****
7. Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ***
8. Chris Cleave - Everyone Brave is Forgiven *****
9. Joshua Fields Millburn - Everything That Remains *****
10. Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette *****
11. Xavier Amador - I'm not sick I don't need help ****
12. Sylvia Boorstein - Happiness is an inside job ****

13. Kazuo Ishiguro - The buried giant **

14. Brene Brown - Daring greatly *
15. Malcom Gladwell - Outliers ****
16. Elan Mastai - All Our Wrong Todays ***
17. Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way ***

18. Mark Manson - the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck *****
19. Helen Russell - The Year of Living Danishly *****
20. Dallas Hartwig - It Starts with Food *****
21. Melissa Hartwig - Food Freedom Forever *****

22. JD Vance - Hillbilly Elegy *****
23. Garth Stein - The Art of Racing in the Rain *****
24. Andie Mitchell - It was Me All Along *****
25. Lodro Rinzler - The Buddha Walks Into a Bar ****
26. Rob Bell - How to Be Here *****
27. Kim Payne - Simplicity Parenting ****
28. Joshua Becker - The More of Less *****
29. Larry Olmsted - Real Food, Fake Food *****
30. Andy Andrews - The Traveler's Gift *****
31. Angie Thomas - The Hate U Give *****
32. Ann Brashares - The Whole Thing Together *****
33. Charlotte Cho - The Little Book Of Skin Care *****
34.  Joan Chittister - Following the Path *****
35. Joe Biden - Promises to Keep *****
36. Hillary Clinton - What Happened *****
37. Cheryl Strayed - Brave Enough *****
38. Liz Wolfe - Eat the Yolks *****

2016 By the Book

2016's list of books.  This is probably the least number of books I've accomplished in a year, but to be fair I did read my way through all of the Game of Thrones books which is no small feat.  I also fell in love with quite a few podcasts over the year.  Some of my favorites are Spartan Up, The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, Stuff Mom Never Told You, and Human Race.



1. Bryan Stevenson - Just Mercy *****

2. Adriana Trigiani - All the Stars in the Heavens *****
3. Paula Hawkins - The Girl on the Train *****
4. George RR Martin - A Game of Thrones *****
5. Pope Francis - The Name of God is Mercy ****

6. Ben Goldacre - Bad Science ***
7. Suzie Favor Hamilton - Fast Girl *****

8. Augusten Burroughs - Possible Side Effects *

9. Yann Martel - The High Mountains of Portugal ***
10. George RR Martin - A Clash of Kings *****
11. George RR Martin - A Storm of Swords *****
12. Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air *****

13. Bill Bryson - the Road to Little Dribbling ****

14. Marie Kondo - Spark Joy *****

15. Anita Renfroe - Don't Say I didn't warn you **

16. Diana Abu-Jaber - life without a recipe **
17. Christopher McDougall- Natural Born Heroes ****
18. George RR Martin - A Feast for Crows *****
19. Drema Hall Berkheimer - Running on Red Dog Road *****
20. Erik Larson - The Devil in the White City **

21. Phil Knight - Shoe dog *****

22. Annie Proulx - Brokeback Mountain ****
23. Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way *****
24. John Parker - Racing the Rain ***
25. Brigid Pasulka - A long, long time ago and essentially true *****
25. Jojo Moyes - Me Before You *****

26. Ron Fournier - Love That Boy *****
27. George RR Martin - A Dance With Dragons *****
28. Shauna Niequist - Present Over Perfect *****
29. Mary Mann Hamilton - Trials of the Earth ***
30.Hope Jahren - Lab Girl ****
31. Rich Roll - Finding Ultra *****
32. Amy Robach - Better *****
33. Jojo Moyes - After You *****
34. Anna Kendrick - Scrappy Little Nobody *****

So what have you been enjoying lately?

Last year's list: here

2014 By the Books

Currently there are 8 library books sitting on my bedside table.  I just need a free weekend to catch up on my stack.

This year, a lot of non-fiction cycled through my hands.  The Remedy, The Meat Racket, Adrift, Dethroning the King, Everybody's Got Something....all come with my highest recommendations.

The star rankings are my own, I didn't get much book reviewing done this year but you can tell from the 1-5 scale how I felt about each book.

Which leads me to the natural question....Have you read any good books lately?


1. Pittacus Lore - The Rise of Nine *****
2. Cassandra Clare - City of Fallen Angels *****
3. Cassandra Clare - City of Lost Souls *****
4. Jeannette Walls - Silver Star *****
5. Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea***
6. Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Angel ****
7. Veronica Roth - Divergent *****
8. Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Prince ****
9. Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Princess ****
10. Ron Rash - Serena *****
11. Orson Scott Card - Rebekah *****
12. JRR Tolkien - The Silmarillion Vol 1 ***
13. Diane Setterfield - The Thirteenth Tale *****
14. Robert Hicks - A Separate Country ****
15. Veronica Roth - Insurgent ***
16. Veronica Roth - Allegiant ***
17. Jeff Olson - The Slight Edge *****
18. Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers ****
19. Kirby Larson - Hattie Big Sky *****
20. JRR Tolkien - The Silmarillion Vol 2 ***
21. Ernest Hemingway - To Have and Have Not **
22. Daniel James Brown - The Boys in the Boat ***
23. Brunonia Barry - The Lace Reader *****
24. Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls *
25. Matthew Quick - The Good Luck of Right Now **
26. Julie Macintosh - Dethroning the King *****
27. Daniel Gilbert - Stumbling on  Happiness ***
28. Robert Edsel - The Monuments Men ****
29. Robin Roberts - From the Heart *****
30. Alan Bradley - The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches *****
31. Ali Wentworth - Ali in Wonderland ***
32. Christopher Moore - The Stupidest Angel *
33. B. J. Novak - One More Thing *
34. Jim Gaffigan - Dad is Fat *****
35. Paulo Coelho - Manuscript found in Accra ****
36. Ruth Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being *
37. Ransom Riggs - Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ****
38. Mary Karr - The Liars' Club **
39. Rob Lowe - Stories I only Tell My Friends **
40. Juliet Schor - The Overspent American ***
41. Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich ***
42. Dave Bruno - The 100 Thing Challenge *****
43. Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry *****
44. Shawn Achor - The Happiness Advantage *****
45. Elizabeth Smart - My Story *****
46. Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni ***
47. Michael Morpurgo - War Horse ****
48. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera ***
49. Leif Enger - Peace Like a River ****
50. Lauren Graham - Someday, Someday, Maybe ****
51. Ridley Pearson - Kingdom Keepers ***
52. Ben Haas - Look Away, Look Away ***
53. Maggie Stiefvater - Sinner *****
54. Justin Halpern - I Suck at Girls ****
55. Joe de Sena - Spartan Up *****
56. Tom Ryan - Following Atticus *****
57. Terry McMillan - Who Asked You? *****
58. Brian Jacques - Redwall ****
59. Solomon Northup - Twelve Years a Slave ****
60. Thomas Goetz - The Remedy *****
61. Thomas Stanley - The Millionaire Next Door *****
62. David Roberts - Alone on the Ice **
63. Lev Grossman - The Magicians ***
64. Tara Conklin - The House Girl ****
65. Cassandra Clare - City of Heavenly Fire ****
66. Amy Bloom - Lucky Us *****
67. E. Lockhart - We Were Liars *****
68. Steven Callahan - Adrift *****
69. Robin Roberts - Everybody's Got Something *****
70. Jacqueline Winspear - The Care and Management of Lies *****
71. Paulo Coelho - Adultery **
72. Robert Kurson - Shadow Divers *****
72. Adam Corolla - Not Taco Bell Material **
73. Lucinda Vardey - Mother Teresa A Simple Path *****
74. Nancy Horan - Under the Wide and Starry Sky *****
75. Jordan Belfort - Wolf of Wall Street **
76. Sue Monk Kidd - The Invention of Wings *****
77. Ben Sherwood - The Survivor's Club *****
78. Christopher Leonard - The Meat Racket *****
79. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale ****
80. Beth Macy - Factory Man ****
81. Amy Poehler - Yes Please *****
82. Bill Nye - Undeniable **
83. James Herriot - Favorite Dog Stories *****
84. Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast **

Last year's reading list

2013 - By the Books

Figures, the year I decide not to care whether I make it to 100 books is the year I very nearly do.

In Short:
I really enjoy Alexandra Fuller's writing style.  I read three of her books this year and have more waiting on my to read list.  Anyone who enjoyed Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle would enjoy Alexandra Fuller's books. 

I am not really a big Steve Jobs fan but Walter Isaacson's biography was an enjoyable, easy read.  Einstein's biography however was a different story.  I think I might be less of an Einstein fan after having read it.

I read The Spectacular Now simply so I could see the movie.  And then I didn't love the book ending and now I'm afraid to watch the movie.

Anyone who is a Downton Abbey follower would enjoy Kate Morton's The House at Riverton.

I'm nearly caught up on the Orsen Scott Card Books.  I think I might have enjoyed the Shadow series a lot more than the Ender series on that one.

I'm surprised that the interwebs claim Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises as his best literary works.  I just didn't get it. (Typical of me and "classics" I think).  But I did love Farewell to Arms.

Nora Ephron it turns out is my kind of funny.  I Feel Bad About my Neck would be a good gag gift for any over 30 girl in your life.

1. Mitch Albom - The Timekeeper****
2. John Case - The Genesis Code****
3. Justin Cronin - The Passage****
4. Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders*****
5. Alexandra Fuller - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight*****
6. Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs Biography*****
7. Jaycee Dugard - A Stolen Life****
8. Anne Tyler - The Beginner's Goodbye***
9. Scott Turow - Reversible Errors***
10. Helen Simonson- Major Pettigrew's Last Stand ***
11. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow of the Hegemon *****
12. Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson****
13. Alan Bradley - Speaking from Among the Bones****
14. Paula Deen - It Ain't All About the Cookin****
15. Ann Patchett - State of Wonder*****
16. Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution*****
17. Cecelia Ahern - The Book of Tomorrow***
18. Nancy Turner - These is My Words*****
19. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow Puppets*****
20. Cassandra Clare - City of Bones****
21. Gabrielle Hamilton - Blood, Bones, and Butter*****
22. Nicholas Sparks - Safe Haven*****
23. Heather Gudenkauf - These Things Hidden**
24. Loren Cordain - The Paleo Diet****
25. Ken Jennings - Because I Said So*****
26. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow of the Giant****
27. Orsen Scott Card - A War of Gifts***
28. Betsy Carter - The Orange Blossom Special***
29. Orsen Scott Card - Ender in Exile***
30. Robin Sloan - Mr. Penembra's 24-hour Library*****
31. Barbara Kingsolver - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle****
32. Orsen Scott Card - Shadows in flight***
33. Justin Cronin - The Twelve****
34. Walter Isaacson - Einstein**
35. Jim Bishop - The Day Lincoln was Shot**
36. Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson - Spousonomics****
37. Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid***
38. John Green - Looking for Alaska****
39. Joseph Marshall III - The Journey of Crazy Horse**
40. Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending**

41. Alexandra Fuller - Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness*****

42. Sarah Dunn - The Secrets of Happiness*

43. Marian Keyes - This Charming Man*
44. Barbara Kingsolver - Flight Behavior****
45. Orsen Scott Card - Earth Unaware***
46. Mark Haddon - The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time****
47. Ann Patchett - What now?*****
48. Alice Kuipers - Life on the Refrigerator Door****
49. Janet Chadwick - Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food***

50. Sarah Blake - The Postmistress ***

51. Emily Giffin - Love the One You're With**
52. Vanessa Diffenbaugh - The Language of Flowers***
53. Khaled Hosseini - And the Mountains Echoed***
54. Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running**

55. Daniel Charles - Lords of the Harvest*****
56. Bill Lambercht - Dinner at the New Gene Cafe****
57. Jen Lancaster - If You Were Here**
58. Dan Brown - Inferno**
59. Betty Smith - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*****

60. Tim Tharp - The Spectacular Now****
61. Pam Reed - The Extra Mile****
62. Kim Edwards - The Memory Keeper's Daughter****
63. Jhumpa Lahiri - Unaccustomed Earth***
64. Will Schwalbe - The End of Your Life Book Club****
65. Blake Mycoskie - Start Something That Matters*****
66. Kenneth Davis - Don't know much about the Civil War***
67. Nora Ephron - I Feel Bad about my Neck*****
68. L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz****
69. Joshua Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein**
70. Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements***
71. David McCullough - 1776**
72. Sarah Vowell - Unfamiliar Fishes**
73. Nora Ephron - I Remember Nothing*****
74. Lucy M Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables***
75. Cheryl Strayed - Wild****
76. William Kamkwamba- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind****
77. Kate Morton - The House at Riverton*****
78. Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl*****
79. Pittacus Lore - I am number four****
80. Mardi Jo Link - Bootstrapper***
81. Alexandra Fuller - Scribbling the Cat*****
82. Elizabeth von Arnim - The Enchanted April**
83. Cassandra Clare - City of Ashes****
84. David Denedictus - Return to the Hundred Acre Woods**
85. Kenneth Davis - America's Hidden History**
86. Erin Bried - How to Sew a Button**
87. Jeff Quinn - The last Gunfight***
88. Cassandra Clare - City of Glass****
89. Jim Fergus - One Thousand White Women****
90. Karen Thompson Walker - The Age of Miracles**
91. Paula McClain - The Paris Wife****
92. Pittacus Lore - The Power of Nine***
93. Mitch Albom - The First Phone Call from Heaven****
94. Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises**

Last Year's list of Books

 

2012 By the Books

So, I thought I had slacked off a little on my reading, but I went back and looked at 2011's list and I only got to 67 books...final count this year is 68. 

I think I loved The Poisonwood Bible the most out of all the books I read this year.  Kevin Smith's Tough Sh*t should be a must read for any Silent Bob fan.  If you haven't read Ender's Game yet you should, but immediately after that you should read Ender's Shadow.  When the movie comes out you can thank me for the advice.  If you haven't read of any of Alan Bradley's books you should, the newest Flavia De Luce novel, will be out at the end of January.  I really did not enjoy the Chelsea Handler books, which is probably the same reason I don't watch her show. 

Have any good book suggestions for me for 2013?

1. Ann Brashares - Sisterhood Everlasting
2. Sandra Brown - Rainwater
3. Alice Walker - The Color Purple
4. Abraham Verghese - Cutting for Stone
5. Greg Iles - Third Degree
6. Wendy McClure - The Wilder Life
7. John Milton - Paradise Lost
8. Markus Zukas - The Book Thief
9. Jeannette Walls - The Glass Castle
10. Christopher Moore - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
11. Alex Flinn - Cloaked
12. Paulo Coehlo - Veronica decides to die
13. Jeannette Walls - Half-Broke Horses
14. Alan Bradley - I am Half-Sick of Shadows
15. Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible
16. Alex Flinn - Beastly
17. Kate Dicamillo - The Magician's Elephant
18. Laurie Schloff & Marcia Yudkin - Smart Speaking
19. Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
20. Beth Hoffman - Saving Ceecee Honeycutt
21. Jenna Blum - Those That Save Us
22. Erick Setiawan - Of Bees and Mist
23. Fannie Flagg - A Redbird Christmas
24. Fannie Flagg - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
25. Kevin Smith - Tough Sh*t
26 Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
27. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
28. Consuelo S. Baehr - Daughters
29. Sue Miller - The Lake Shore Limited
30. Yann Martel - Life of Pi
31. Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend this Never Happened
32. Mindy Kaling - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
33. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
34. Squire Rushnell - When God Winks on New Beginnings
35. Raymond Khoury - The Sanctuary
36. Pamela Druckerman - Bringing up bebe
37. Maggie Stiefvater - The Scorpio Races
38. Chelsea Handler - Are You there Vodka, it's me Chelsea
39. Chelsea Handler - My Horizontal Life
40. Lois Lowry - Messenger
41. Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
42. Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
43. Markus Zukas - I am the Messenger
44. Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Call Me Irresistible
45. Doreen Virtue - Messages from Your Angels
46. Jeffery Deaver - The Empty Chair
47. Orson Scott Card - Speaker for the Dead
48. Deborah Moggach - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
49. Maggie Shipstead - Seating Arrangements
50. Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
51. Richard Nelson Bolles - What Color Is Your Parachute?
52. Ben Mezrich - Sex on the Moon
53. Alexander McCall Smith - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
54. David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
55. John Green - The Fault in Our Stars
56. Benjamin Hoff - The Tao of Pooh
57. John Updike - The Witches of Eastwick
58. Tatiana de Rosnay - Sarah's Key
59. Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
60. David Liss - The Whiskey Rebels
61. Orsen Scott Card - Xenocide
62. Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
63. Ruta Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray
64. Orsen Scott Card - Children of the Mind
65. Paulo Coehlo - Aleph
66. JK Rowling - the Casual Vacancy
67. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Shadow
68. Eion Colfer - The Last Guardian

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

One more check mark for my bucket list this year.
In an unusual-for-me lucky streak, I won two tickets to Katy Perry from a local radio station.  Free!  And the second best part is that I didn't have to compete in anything on-air or embarrassing.

It took a little planning and a lot of driving (thanks Hubster!)  but we pulled it off in an already packed weekend.  Left work early, got to drive down with some of our favorite friends, oogled the Dutch Brothers coffee shops along the way. 

We sat behind a couple of teenage girls...it was entertaining.  Homemade outfits, ring pops, light up bracelets, dancing.  I told the boy to take good notes because soon those sorts of activities would be happening in our own house. 

The Finale...

As the husband observed while we were waiting for the show to start, it was overwhelming attended by women.  Hardly a man in sight.  Mostly Moms with daughter and friends in tow.  Someday that will be me with my girlchild....probably at Taylor Swift.  Or, maybe I'll let the Dad take her.

After the concert was over we high-tailed it back to Sacramento for the 2nd annual best-time-in-your-life-ever weekend rafting trip.

My Top Ten

Relyn has the best lists ever. I have serious list envy here. So I am stealing her top ten college classes list and making it my own. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Chemistry 101 - Technically, I learned absolutely nothing new in this class. I tested out of it on the high school AP test but not the lab portion. I was a little too little fish in a big pond to figure out how to just sign up for the lab and not the lecture. Which turned out fine. I never opened the book, barely took notes, sat in the back of the class....and loved every minute of it. Dr. Lemay was an amazing teacher. Also, it was the first time I'd ever have a random guy point-blank tell me three weeks into class that A.) I was radiating smartness, and B.) I was cute - which translates to: he was going to sit by me whether I liked it or not the whole semester. Imagine my surprise, four years later, when I walked into my very own dining room to find that exact same guy and Jacko studying biology together. Whatev - we all know I'm smarter than Jacko and he met me first.

2. Calculus II - There's some kind of comfort level knowing you are going to have ten math problems every night for homework. It's even more rewarding when you can figure most of them out on your own, when the professor grades on effort not answer, and that it all means you don't have to take the final. Damn those Dam problems.

3. Organic Chemistry Lab - Lets see: consistently having to stay in lab until 10pm without dinner, having to wear those freakishly, geeky lab glasses, TA from Hell. Why is this one on the favorites list? It was good old, fashioned Chemistry bench work....I like that. It was taught by Dr. Rose who still whole-heartily believes in only assigning two As for the whole class....I worked my ass off and got one of them. I shared a lab bench with a train-wreck of a girl.....and we got along famously. I did all the chemistry so she wouldn't mess up the experiments and she entertained me with stories about how she actually showed up and completed an ENTIRE physics lab in a class that she wasn't even in. True story, Hilarious, and the best part is she was all kinds of cranky because her lab partner wasn't there so she had to do the whole thing by herself. hahaha

4. Museology - 100%, undeniably a filler class. I should have graduated a semester early but I didn't have good advising and I needed something to take. Should anyone ever need a museum curator or a taxidermist - I'm your girl. (I think I mangled preserved for life something like 15 kangaroo rats.)

5. Organic Spectroscopy - Hands on learning of mass spec techniques. A nice way to sum up years of book learning into something actually useful.

6. Anthropology 201 - the HARDEST freaking non-science class I've ever taken in my life. All in the name of core curriculum. Pre-requisites be damned. Apparently. I decided I didn't need to take them. I put in so much extra effort into this class, but in the end I actually found myself enjoying it. Something about studying the people you came from so you can see where you are headed in life. Very Earth Children series meets Three Cups of Tea.

7. Western Traditions - Not so much the content but the professor. Bernie Schopen. No need to say more. He was entertaining in every single class and I don't think he was trying to be. I loved him enough that I took the first two classes my freshman year and then refused to take the last required class until I could fit it into my schedule. I had to wait until senior year but it was worth it.

8. The Social History of Medicine - Black Death, Small Pox, STDs, influenza, you know - all the good stuff.

9. Biochemistry 400 - The class in which I gained all sorts of seemingly random facts. Like how Viagra was discovered. Do you know?? I do! Or the difference between NSAIDS and COX II inhibitors - think pain pills here. Or best fact ever.....did you know that if you have something sugary with your caffeine you will actually get a better caffeine buzz. True fact. Something about the glucose in your blood stream making the caffeine harder to absorb so it stays in your system longer. This would also NOT be class in which the professor asked me a completely easy, everyone should know the answer to this question-question in front of the whole class. Want to know what it was?

Dr. Schooley: Rebekah, how many volts are in a AA battery?


Me: Eh...Umm....(shrug)...."What is - I don't Know for $1,000, Alex?"

Not. Even. Joking. Do you know? Just off the top of your head like that? Am I the only one who doesn't just know these things? I do now, of course.


10. Intro to Biochemistry Lab - The class that weeds out the biology majors from the biochemistry ones. No joke. Wimpy biology students run for the hills when they get to this class. It was hard. The only Lab I had a practical in (Translation - in ADDITION to the cumulative final we were at random required to perform a biochemical lab technique and prove we know how to do it, no notes, no lab partner. Get it right you pass, get it wrong a big, fat ZERO on the final.) No joke. But really I learned everything I needed to know to be a good lab rat from this class.