My Yearly Reading Lists

The following lists are by no means recommendations--they're simply lists of books that I've read by year.  Some of the books I hated, some were so-so, and some changed my life.  If you would like me to go back and write reviews on any of the books listed below, please email your request to kiersten(dot)lit(at)gmail(dot)com


2009

January 2009
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #1), Ann Brashares
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #2), Ann Brashares
Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of "Sleeping Beauty", Cameron Dokey
Girls in Pants (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #3), Ann Brashares
The Painted Veil, Somerset W. Maugham
The Fifth Mountain, Paulo Coelho
The Storyteller's Daughter, Cameron Dokey
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

February 2009
A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray
The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling*
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling*

March 2009
From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Becoming a Parent, Rebecca Odes
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling*
Perelandra (Space Trilogy #2), C.S. Lewis*

April 2009
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
The Magic of Ordinary Days, Ann Howard Creel
The Solace of Leaving Early, Haven Kimmel
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne
The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and Other Labor Companions, Penny Simkin

May 2009
The Wednesday Wars,  Gary D. Schmidt
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
The Holy Secret, James L. Ferrell
Iodine: A Novel, Haven Kimmell
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen*

June 2009
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen*
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas*

July 2009
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert
The Nursing Mother's Companion, Kathleen Huggins
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Chocolat, Joanne Harris
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer

August 2009
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott*
The Chosen, Chaim Potok*
March, Geraldine Brooks
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
Rocket Boys, Homer H. Hickam
My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Undaunted Courage, Stephen E. Ambrose
1776, David McCullough
The Wish Maker, Sethi Ali
Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution, Melissa Lukeman Bohrer
Into the Beautiful North, Luis Alberto Urrea

September 2009
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See
America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation, Kenneth C. Davis
Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, Gordon S. Wood
The Duchess,  Amanda Foreman

October 2009
Penelope, Marilyn Kaye
A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar
Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2), Suzanne Collins
The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
The Actor and the Housewife, Shannon Hale
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone*
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery*

November 2009
The Undaunted,  Gerald N. Lund
Anne of the Island, L.M. Montgomery*
Anne's House of Dreams, L.M. Montgomery*
The Story Girl, L.M. Montgomery*
Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far), Dave Barry
The Golden Road, L.M. Montgomery*
Kilmeny of the Orchard, L.M. Montgomery*
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, Diane Ackerman
Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories, Elizabeth Strout
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1), Rick Riordan
City of Bones (Mortal Instruments #1), Cassandra Clare

December 2009
The Pelican Brief, John Grisham
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2),  Rick Riordan
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,  Marc Weissbluth
The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3), Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4), Rick Riordan
The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5), Rick Riordan
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven D. Levitt
The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl,  Timothy Egan
These is My Words, Nancy Turner
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara*



2008

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Finishing School, Murlel Sparks
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh*
A Woman of Independent Means, Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
The Right Attitude to Rain, Alexander McCall Smith
The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton*
Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Alexander McCall Smith
Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard
Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door, Rick Steves
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier*
The Glass Blowers, Daphne Du Maurier
Princess Academy, Shannon Hale
Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale
The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman
Homeless Bird, Gloria Whelan
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café, Fannie Flagg
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling*
Beauty, Robin McKinley*
What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Heidi Eisenberg Murkoff
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee*
Great Tales from English History (Book 2): Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, and More, Robert Lacey
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen*
Marley and Me, John Grogan
The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim
Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speares*
Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
Fairest, Gail Carson Levine
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Can You Keep a Secret, Sophie Kinsella
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
U2 and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series), Mark A. Wrathall
Lorna Doone, R.D. Blackmore
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver*
Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
Daughters of God: Scriptural Portraits, S. Michael Wilcox
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte*
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
Pope Joan, Donna Woolfolk Cross
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston*
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens*
Austenland, Shannon Hale
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier
This is What I Did, Ann Dee Ellis
Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte*
A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss
Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson
Rick Steves’ Italy 2008, Rick Steves
Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama
Rick Steves’ Paris 2008, Rick Steves
The Host, Stephenie Meyer
A Curse as Dark as Gold, Elizabeth C. Bunce
The Storyteller's Daughter: One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland, Saira Shah
Hiroshima Dreams, Kelly Easton
The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillipa Gregory
Sunshine, Robin McKinley
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
The Club Dumas, Arturo Pérez-Reverte
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling

*Indicates a second, third, or fourteenth reading