I hope everyone had a spectacular Christmas; I know I did. In addition to my kick-ass sewing machine that my parents gave me, I also received some lovely Alpaca yarn, mixing bowls, tea and a teapot, a toy dinosaur that scares the crap out of my cat, and approximately ten extra pounds on my ass.
Yesterday, I had plans to trek to the Perk and blog, but after all the food and socializing I just needed a day to bum about the house. I cleaned the kitchen, drank pot after pot of tea, watched the first half of Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre, organized embroidery floss, and played in yarn. And I had a deliciously long nap and read several chapters of The Three Musketeers.
I think The Three Musketeers might be my last read of the year; but I'm hoping to squeeze in The Tales of Beedle Bard (yet another Christmas Gift). I am anticipating 2009 reading at the moment and in preparation of the dawn of a new year I'm making book lists out the butt. I was inspired by a fellow blogger who made several "baker's dozen" book lists for next year. Of course, now I can't remember who it was. Sorry awesome reader/listmaker.
Anyhoo, this is part one of my baker's dozens reads for 2009. This list includes classics, newish books and non-fiction. Next go round I'll address the challenges I want to tackle next year and all kinds of book lists will follow.
Onward!
Classics:
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
No Name by Wilkie Collins
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Emma by Jane Austen
20 Years After by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Newish Books:
The Sister by Poppy Adams
Nightwatch by Sarah Waters
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
Man in the Picture by Susan Hill
Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque by Paul Anderson
Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
The Spiritualist by Megan Chance
The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr and Anthea Bell
Non-Fiction:
Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This? by Marion Meade
Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth
May and Amy by Josceline Dimbleby
Libraries of the Ancient World by Lionel Cassel
How to Build a Dinosaur by Jack Horner and James Gorman
Shakespeare's Kings by John Julius Norwich
Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer, and Patriot by Anna Beer
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein by Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler
Uncommon Grounds: the history of coffee and how it transformed the world by Mark Pendergrast
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam
Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise by Sally Cline
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell
2 comments:
So many fabulous lustworthy books!!! And now that you mention tea, I reallyyyyyy want some. My throat is killin' and a nice hot drink might be just the ticket.
So great to see Wilkie Collins on your list - he is overshadowed by his good friend Dickens and doesn't get half the attention he deserves.
Look out for the BBC adaptations of some of the Classics on your list. Bleak House, Middlemarch and Cranford were all stunning and, although they are not "reading" they're a lovely way to pass an evening.
Happy reading
Laura Essendine
Author – The Accidental Guru
The Accidental Guru Blog
The Books Limited Blog
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