Citizenjoyce 75 in 2012 thread

The new year is starting off with some great books.
January reading:
1. World and Town - Gish Jen - Audiobook - 4.5
2. The All of It - Jeanette Haien - 4
3. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes - 4.5
4. The Leftovers - Tom Perrotta - Audiobook - 2
5. Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel - 4
6. Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley - 3.5
7. Shanghai Girls - Lisa See - 4.5
8. Letter From the Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King Jr. - 5
9- Dreams of Joy - Lisa See - 4
10- Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China - Leslie T. Chang - audiobook - 5
11- Zheng He - Michael Yamashita - 5
12- Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story - Paula Yoo - 3.5
13- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making - Catherynne Valente - Nook -4.5
14- The Chinese in America - Iris Chang - 5
15- Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China - Philip P. Pan - Audiobook - 5
16- A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - Xiaolu Guo - 4.5
17- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie - 4

Glad to see you back with us again, Joyce! Your reading choices are always interesting and they challenge me to think outside the box.

Hi Joyce - I usually follow your reading over on the Girlybooks group, when I get over there that is. Starred so I can follow your reading here now!

I have that Gish Jen sitting here tbr, Joyce. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all. I'm always happy to find a new author, both Gish Jen and Jeanette Haien are welcome additions to my library. Both so full of meaning while being gracefully subtle. My mind keeps wandering back to their stories and kind of snuggling in to different aspects.

Welcome back!

I didn't go anywhere. I just don't post much. Mostly I use the space just to list the books I've read.

Joyce - One of my reading goals for this year is to read some new-to-me authors. I'm going to put Gish Jen on my list. She sounds like someone I would like.

Do it, porch-reader, if you like subtle. Then, if you like the opposite of subtle try Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending. Wow.

Hi, Joyce ~ Just dropping by to say hi and Happy New Year! (And to mark your thread so I can find it easier in future.) It's a great feeling to find a new author, isn't it!?

Edited to correct typo.

I was just mentioning elsewhere that LT has lead to my reading many, many authors I'd never even heard of before.

Favorite January reads:

fiction: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See Not what I would normally think of as great writing, but See effortlessly manages to impart so much history by manipulating her characters through the Chinese horoscope
non fiction: Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang

February reads:

18- Four Feet Tall and Rising - Shorty Rossi - 4
19- The Modern Scholar: Waking Dragon: The Emerging Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the World - Professor Peter Navarro - Audiobook - 5
20- Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President - Candice Millard - 4
21- Chasing Goldman Sachs: How the Masters of the Universe Melted Wall Street Down . . . And Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again - Suzanne McGee Nook - 5
22- The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley - Bookclub - 4
23- In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin - Erik Larson - Audiobook - 5
24- Property - Valerie Martin - 5
25- The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir by Patricia Harman - 4
26- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis-Audiobook - 4.5
27- -The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy McKee Charnas - 4.5

Wow, Joyce! Your reading list is impressive.

I concur with what you said about Shanghai Girls. It was a push to get through that book because the story seemed contrived, but I learned a lot from it.

What did you think of Dreams of Joy? Should I read that book as well?

Are you still reading Chinese-themed books, or was that a January project?

Madeline, I do think Dreams of Joy is worth reading. It has the same sort of contrived story line but uses it to demonstrate the next step in Chinese-American history. We know that millions of people died during the Great Leap Forward, but Lisa See shows us just what that means and how it came about. She also shows the difference between rural and urban life in China at that time and shows us how policies affected peasants, urban citizens and upper party members differently. She makes history easier to understand. I wish she'd carry through with personalizing developments in China up to the present, but I don't think that's in the cards.

Other Joyce, I'm almost finished listening to a series of lectures from the Modern Scholar series Waking Dragon: the Emerging Chinese Economy and its Impact on the World, which I am very sad to say because it's so good. I wish I could listen to it for a few more weeks. Again Peter Navarro makes things very clear and understandable. That will be it for me for a while, but I'm sure I won't stop. At some point I want to read Lisa See's On Gold Mountain and see how she goes about explaining history without the contrived story line. I also want to read the book by the husband of Leslie T. Chang who wrote Factory Girls - Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler. What must their dinner table conversation be like? And I haven't yet got to Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China's Other Billion by Michael Levy. Did you have something else you wanted to recommend? It seems there's so much out there to read, how will I ever fit in even the most minimally essential parts?

I was just curious as to why you're concentrating on China.

My mom had a thing for reading books set in China--she just loved them. One that she gave me that I also really enjoyed was Red China Blues, by Jan Wong. She's a reporter who grew up in Canada, but when she was a young adult she thought she'd move to China and join the communist party. It was a very interesting book.

but when she was a young adult she thought she'd move to China and join the communist party

Ha, shades of Shanghai Girls. I'll put Red China Blues on my wish list. It looks good. I hope she came to her senses.

ETA oops, it's already there. I'll have to see if my library system has it.

> 16

Thanks for your detailed evaluation of Dreams of Joy. I think I will look for that book precisely because I learned so much from Shanghai Girls. I like reading books about China (although I prefer those that are more contemporary) so I most likely will get something good out of getting a copy of Dreams of Joy.

Hmm? I wonder what Lisa See has in the cards for her next book. I'd like to see her cover a bit less history, go deeper into what she does cover historically, and make her characters more believable. I saw that she did much research before beginning to write Shanghai Girls. I'm sure she did the same with Dreams of Joy.

Reading The Chinese in America by Iris Chang reinforced for me the amount of research Lisa See must have put into her books. Iris Chang was an intense researcher, (well, an intense everything), and they talked about the same historical situations, See just made it a little easier to read. Also, in the acknowledgements of Dreams of Joy she credits Amy Tan with taking her to China for her research. I would like to have been along on that trip.

Have you read any of Amy Tan's books, Joyce? If so, which ones?

I've read The Kitchen God's Wife, A Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter's Daughter. I found great pleasure in reading those books, especially the first two of these.

I'm pretty sure I've read all of them except The Opposite of Fate. There's a teaser story that came out recently on e books as a preparation, I guess, for her new novel. The story is Rules for Virgins, which I haven't yet read. I'm not sure what the new novel will be, but I know I'll have to read it.

I'm reading World and Town now, Joyce. It's my kitchen table read. Glad to see you rated it so highly...I'm liking it too.

Gish Jen is a new author to me. She says big things with a delicate style, and I love the fact that her protagonist is an older woman.

Joyce and Madeline, My favorite Amy Tan book is The Joy Luck Club. . . Wild Swans by Jung Chang and The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang are also all-time favorites.

I don't know if I'm ever going to have the guts to read The Rape of Nanking. It's sitting here on my bookshelf looking at me, but I enjoy being able to sleep at night, so I don't seem to be able to do it.

The pictures (alone) are certainly gruesome enough to scare anyone away from reading the book. The Japanese were especially cruel in their methods of killing.

I don't usually read biographies, but Anna May Wong has always fascinated me. I will have to look for Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story

Jadebird, it's a little ya book that just gives you the basics. Anna May Wong seems to have a pretty big fan base right now. After a few minutes with this book you might want to go onto something more comprehensive.

I watched a nice documentary about her once. I didn't realize Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story was ya. Thanks for the tip!

Favorite February books:
Non-fiction: The Modern Scholar: Waking Dragon: The Emerging Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the World - Professor Peter Navarro
Fiction: Property - Valerie Martin

March reading:

28- Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama - Audiobook - 5
29- Aftershock: the Next Economy and America's Future - Robert Reich - 4.5
30- Intuition - Allegra Goodman - Nook - 5
31- Death Comes to Pemberley - P. D. James - 4
32- Wit's End - Karen Joy Fowler - Audiobook 3.5
33- Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout - Lauren Redniss - 4.5
34- The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht - 5
35- Twenty Years at Hull House - Jane Addams - Nook - 5
36- Wild Dogs - Helen Humphreys - 5
37- The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women -Jessica Valenti -Nook- 5
38- Lord of Misrule - Jaimy Gordon - Audiobook - 3
39- Friendly Fallout 1953 - Ann Ronald - 4
40- The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law - Deborah L. Rhode - Nook - 4
41- Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York - Marge Piercy - 4
42- Feminism and Future of Women - Estelle B. Freedman - Audiobook - 4.5
43- Venus Envy - Rita Mae Brown - Nook - 2.5
44- Egalia's Daughters - Gerd Brantenberg - 4.5
45- Letters of a Woman Homesteader - Elinore Pruitt Stewart - Nook - 5

Following along, Joyce. Not a thing to say but just sending up a flare so you know I'm here.

I read The Cookbook Collector and liked it; maybe I should venture on into fresh Allegra Goodman territory. (Not least because I really like her first name!)

Intuition is my first book by Allegra Goodman, and I must read more. What an eye she has for the many sides of an issue. (and I agree, love the name.)

I'm here too, tiffin. I just don't say much.

Oh, Tiffin, I see you rated The Tiger's Wife as a favorite read. I loved it when I read it a few of months ago. I'll be re reading it next week for my RL book club, I fear everyone else will hate it.

Favorite reads for March - so many:
Memoir: Twenty Years at Hull House - Jane Addams
Letters of a Woman Homesteader - Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Non fiction: The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women -Jessica Valenti
Fiction: Wild Dogs - Helen Humphreys

April Reads

46- Venus Envy - Rita Mae Brown - Nook 3
47- Dave Barry in Cyberspace - Dave Barry - Audiobook - 2.5
48- Rock Bottom - Erin Brockovich - Audiobook - 3
49- The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim - Nook - 5
50- The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman - 4.5
51- Golem: The Story of a Legend - Elie Wiesel - 4
52- Soldier Dogs - Maria Goodavage - 4
53- Dog Boy - Eva Hornung - Nook - 5
54- American Chick in Saudi Arabia - Jean Sasson - Nook - 3.5
55- The Sealed Letter - Emma Donoghue - 3.75
56- Flight - Sherman Alexie - Reread - 4.5
57- The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling - Nook - 4
58- 11/22/63 - Stephen King - Audiobook - 4
59- Lady Audley's Secret - M. E. Braddon - Nook -4.5
60- The Translation of the Bones - Francesca Kay - 3
61- The Sisters Brothers - Patrick dewitt - Audiobook - 4.5
62- True Story: A Novel - Bill Maher - Audiobook - 2.5
63- The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller - 4.5
64- The Kitchen Man - Ira Wood - 3

Joyce, I read Dave Barry's book, Dave Barry in Cyberspace, when computers were relatively new and thought that book was absolutely hilarious.

That book was published in 1996 (16 years ago!). I wonder if I'd feel the same way about it now after having read that book so long ago and worked with computers for so many years.

I'm thinking it was probably much funnier at the time. Now it's just kind of over the top ridiculous, except for the cyber romance. Some things never change.

Did you like "Wild Dogs"?

I loved Wild Dogs. It was good on the surface and even better metaphorically. I like the idea of people who work in order to make enough to live and then proceed to live simply, day to day as they see fit. I like people who aren't bounded by the usual constrictions but decide as they go along whom they'll love, with whom they'll associate, where they'll live and what they'll do.

Yes, me too!

Favorite reads for April:
Non Fiction: American Chick in Saudi Arabia - Jean Sasson (it was the only non fiction book I read in April)
Fiction: The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
and Dog Boy Eva Hornung

Reads for May:
65. Fade, Sag, Crumble: Ten Las Vegas Writers Confront Decay - Deborah Coonts - 3.5
66. Foreign Bodies - Cynthia Ozick - Audiobook - 3.5
67- The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England - Susan Higginbotham - Nook 3.5
68- O Pioneers! - Willa Cather - Reread - Nook 5
69- Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward - 5
70- Crash Into Me: A Survivor's Search for Justice - Liz Seccuro - ER
71- Unshelved Volume 3: Library Mascot Cage Match - Gene Ambaum
- graphic - 4
72- Three (Flashpoint Press) - Annemarie Monahan - Nook 4.5
73- We - Yevgeny Zamyatin - 4.5
74- The Emerald Atlas - John Stephens - Audiobook 3.5
75- A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris - Nook -
76- Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Deborah Feldman -4
77- Packing for Mars - Mary Roach - Audiobook - 4.5
78- The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Short Stories Inspired by Iconic Las Vegas Photographs by Megan Edwards - 3.5
79- Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas - Matthew O'Brien - Nook - 3.5
80- Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel - Audiobook - 5
81- War Horse - Michael Morpurgo - Audiobook - 3.5
82- Confessions of a Pagan Nun - Kate Horsley - 3.5
83- The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright - Audiobook - 5

Favorite May reads:
Fiction: Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward
Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantell
The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright

Non-Fiction: Packing for Mars - Mary Roach

June reads:

84- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon - Audiobook - 4
85- Deadlocked - Charlaine Harris - 3.5
86- The Known World - Edward P. Jones - Audiobook - 4.5
87- Drift - Rachel Maddow - Nook - 5
88- Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley - Audiobook - 2.75
89- She Nailed a Stake Through His Head - Catherynne Valente - Nook - 2.75
90- Cleopatra: A Life - Stacy Schiff - Book Club - 5
91- The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - Audiobook - 4.5
92- Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories - Edith Pearlman - 4.5
93- Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel - 4.5
94- Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult - 3.75
95- Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan - 4.5
96- Hypatia - Charles Kingsley - Nook - 2.75
97- Old Testament: The Teaching Company (Great Courses) - Amy-Jill Levine - 4.5

I am SO glad that you liked We!

Did you mean May reads in >46 Citizenjoyce:? Had me wondering what "Mary" reads were for a sec. I'm on the last few pages of BUtB and just loved it.

Thanks, tiffin for being my spell checker. I really don't know which books were Mary's favorites, but those were my May favorites. Mantel made Bring up the Bodies so much more accessible than Wolf Hall. I hope that won't work against her come time to hand out the accolades.
Does that mean you also liked We? I think it's timeless.

I did a big undergrad paper on it for a Utopia/Dystopia course--own 3 different translations of it! Yes, I like it very much indeed.

It's a little book for a big paper, but I can sure see how it would work. So many great ideas by such a perceptive, and brave, author.

Favorite reads for June:

Fiction:
Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
The Known World - Edward P. Jones audiobook
Non-Fiction
Cleopatra: A LIfe - Stacy Schiff Book club
Drift - Rachel Maddow - Nook
Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel

Both Half-Blood Blues and Cleopatra: A Life are on my TBR list. Glad to know that you enjoyed them!

Amy, both books were revelations to me. I haven't yet reviewed Half-Blood Blues but the way Edugyan is able to characterize both Sid and Chip is excellent, reminiscent of Gillespie and I. And I was amazed to read the complete picture of Cleopatra's life. Most of us know her only as a femme fatale not as the powerful, intelligent woman that she was.

A British podcast that I listen to occasionally called The Readers is doing a summer reading group, and Half Blood Blues is one of the selections. I haven't listened to the podcast about that one yet, but I think it has some conversation about the book by various readers and then an interview with the author. I'm waiting until I get a chance to read the book before I listen. I love books with strong characterization.

See how we Americans miss out - I can't get the BBC radio programs. Wonder if the same is true for podcasts. I bet that would be a great program.

98- Finding George Orwell in Burma - Emma Larkin
99- The Lace Reader: A Novel - Brunonia Barry - Audiobook
100- Another World - Pat Barker - Audiobook
101- The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker - Audiobook
102- The Ghost Road by Pat Barker - Audiobook
103- Regeneration - Pat Barker - Audiobook
104- Home - Marilynne Robinson
105 Yes, Chef: A Memoir - Marcus Samuelsson
106- Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury Audiobook
107- The Wednesday Sisters - Meg Waite Clayton
108- The Yellow Wall-Paper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Nook
109- Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie
110- One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus - Book Club
111- Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry - Nook - 5
112- Territory by Emma Bull
113- The Whip by Karen Kondazian - Nook
114- Girl Walks into a Bar . . .: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle - Rachel Dratch
115- Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury - Audiobook

August reads:

116- Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte Audiobook
117- Blow Your House Down - Pat Barker
118- Loitering With Intent - Muriel Spark
119- Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier Audiobook
120- The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West Nook
121- Seventh Heaven - Alice Hoffman Audiobook
122- Sights Unseen - Kaye Gibbons Audiobook
123- The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence
124- Union Street - Pat Barker
125- The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns
126- A Virtuous Woman - Kaye Gibbons Audiobook
127- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce Audiobook - 5
129- Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - 130- Bill Wasik/Monica Murphy
131- Animal Farm - George Orwell - Audiobook - 5
132- Ghost Warrior - Lucia St. Clair Robson
133- Heart of the Matter - Emily Giffin - Audiobook - 3
134- Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh - Audiobook - 5
135- State of Wonder - Ann Patchett (Book Club) - 4
136- Night Train - Martin Amis - Audiobook - 3.5
137- Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - 4
138- Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy - 3

September reads:
139. The Anatomist's Apprentice - Tessa Harris - Audiobook (3.25)
140. Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession - Chuck Thompson (4)
141. An Unsocial Socialist - George Bernard Shaw - Nook (3)
142. Jana Bibi's Excellent Fortunes - Betsy Woodman (4)
143. The Virgin Blue - Tracy Chevalier (3.75)
144. Tooth and Claw - T. C. Boyle (3.8)
145. Lark and Termite - Jayne Anne Phillips (3.75)
146. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (3.75)
147. Blockade Billy by Stephen King Nook (3.5)
148. Indian Summer: The Tragic Story of Louis Francis Sockalexis, the First Native American in Major League Baseball by Brian McDonald (4)
149. Take Me Out to the Ballgame: A History of Baseball in America (The Modern Scholar series) - Professor Timothy B. Shutt (3.5)
150. The Awakening - Kate Chopin - Nook (3.8)
151. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Audiobook (5)
152. The Woman's Bible - Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Nook (5)
153. My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family - Zach Wahls (5)
154. Radio Iris - Anne-Marie Kinney (2.75)
155. Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake - Audiobook (4.5)

Who read the Mervyn Peake, Joyce?

Robert Whitfield, and he did a great job. My problem is that the next in the trilogy, Gormengast is available only in print, and I have to wait until the 3rd to hear it read again. The story is great as an audiobook, and I haven't yet worked up the energy to read the next one to myself.

I did my thesis on this trilogy, which is why I was interested.

Wow! Well you had plenty of material. Can you toss me a few tid bits?

Oh crumb, Joyce, that was almost 4 decades ago! I was looking at Peake's representation of evil in the character of mainly Steerpike. It was very Miltonic, I remember thinking. I also sneaked in some Jung with Titus's process of individuation. Gack, eh? hahahaha

I just thought of Steerpike as Machiavellian, didn't get to Jung at all. I love that.

October reads:
156. The Baby Thief by L.J. Sellers - Nook (3.5)
157. The Basics of Genetics (The Modern Scholar) - Betsey Dexter Dyer (5)
158. Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien - Nook (4)
159. Building Blocks of Human Life: Understanding Mature Cells and Stem Cells - John K Young (5)
160. Call the midwife : a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times - Jennifer Worth - (5)
161. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
162. Creating humans: ethical questions where reproduction and science collide - Alexander McCall Smith - Audiobook 5
163. The Midwife of Hope River - Patricia Harman (5)
164. The Midwife's Apprentice -Karen Cushman - Audiobook
165. My Mom's Having a Baby! - Dori Hillestad Butler (4)
166. My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira - Book Club (4)
167. Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire - Eric Berkowitz (4)
168. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (4.5)
169. Bitten - Kelley Armstrong (2.5)
170. Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers - Mary Roach (5)
171. The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
172. The People and the Ballot: A History of American Party Politics (The Modern Scholar) - Professor Joshua Kaplan (5)

November reads:
173. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (4.5)
174. Pomegranate Soup - Marsha Mehran (3.75)
175. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson Nook (4)
176. Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck Audiobook (3)
177. Lillian's Story, One Womans Journey through the 20th Century- Sally Patricia Gardner - Nook (4)
178. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck Audiobook (4)
179. The Masters of Enterprise : American business history and the people who made it - H.W. Brands (4.5)
180. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon Book Club - Reread (4.5)
181. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins Audiobook (4)
182. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin (5)
183. We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan - Elizabeth M. Norman (4.5)
184. The Last Dragonslayer - Jasper Fforde
185. The Orchardist - Amanda Coplin Audiobook (4)
186. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out - Mo Yan (4)

I can't believe how many books you read! Jealous!

Being an obsessive type person it's either eat or read. I think I'm doing better with the reading.

I eat and read at the same time. Now that you mention it, I think I'd do better to quit eating and just read.

ooh you read The Garden of Evening Mists and liked it! It's on the Christmas wishlist.

>71 tiffin: That's funny, I was just thinking of The Garden of Evening Mists today while I was feeding the birds. It's a book that stays with you.

December reads:
187- Dodger Terry Pratchett (4.5)
188- Merry Christmas from . . .: 150 Christmas Cards You Wish You'd Received - Karen Robert (4)
189- The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (5)
190- Brothers in Arms - Lois McMaster Bujold (4)
191- Charming Quirks of Others - Alexander McCall Smith audiobook (2.5)
192- A Discovery of Witches (witches, vampires) - Deborah Harkness (1.5)
193- The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection - Alexander McCall Smith Audiobook (3)
194- The Warrior's Apprentice - Lois McMaster Bujold - Audioobook (4.5)
195- Wonder Boys (literary protege) - Michael Chabon (3.75)
196- American Gods - Neil Gaiman Audiobook (4)
197- Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice Audiobook (2.75)
198- How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Seuss - (5)
199- Down the Rabbit Hole - Juan Pablo Villalobos (4)
200- The Fault In Our Stars - John Green - Audiobook (5)
201- The Round House - Louise Erdrich (5)
202- Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail) by Cheryl Strayed (4)