Saturday, December 31, 2011

Complete List of Books I've Read in 2011

Books I’ve Read in 2011

1. The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson - 447 pages
2. Hocus Pocus – Kurt Vonnegut - 336 pages
3. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell - 960 pages
4. Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut - 336 pages
5. The Clothes on Their Backs – Linda Grant - 293 pages
6. Lady in Waiting – Susan Meissner - 352 pages*
7. Octopussy and the Living Daylights – Ian Fleming - 128 pages
8. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen - 335 pages
9. Strengths Finder 2.0 – Tom Rath - 183 pages
10. The Charlatan’s Boy – Jonathan Rogers - 320 pages*
11. A Fist in the Hornet’s Nest – Richard Engel - 272 pages
12. The Miracle of Mercy Land – River Jordan - 352 pages*
13. Skin Tight – Carl Hiaasen - 416 pages
14. Departures – Christy Miller - 208 pages*
15. God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian – Kurt Vonnegut - 96 pages
16. The Making of Hoosiers – Gayle L. Johnson - 240 pages
17. What Are You Waiting for? – Dannah Gresh - 192 pages*
18. Pretty in Ink – Karen E. Olsen - 320 pages
19. Ink Flamingos – Karen E. Olsen - 320 pages
20. The Missing Ink – Karen E. Olsen - 320 pages
21. Driven to Ink – Karen E. Olsen - 320 pages
22. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J. K. Rowling - 320 pages
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J. K. Rowling - 352 pages
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling - 448 pages
25. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J. K. Rowling - 752 pages
26. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling - 870 pages
27. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling - 652 pages
28. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling - 784 pages
29. The Stand – Stephen King - 1472 pages
30. How To Be Cool – Johanna Edwards - 368 pages
31. Sacred Cows – Karen E. Olsen - 304 pages
32. The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God – John R. Powers - 448 pages
33. Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert - 352 pages
34. Ruby – Francesca Lia Block - 224 pages
35. Guilty Pleasures – Laurell K. Hamilton - 329 pages
36. The Laughing Corpse – Laurell K. Hamilton - 304 pages
37. Circus of the Damned – Laurell K. Hamilton - 336 pages
38. The Lunatic CafĂ© – Laurell K. Hamilton - 384 pages
39. Bumped – Megan McCafferty - 336 pages
40. Divergent – Veronica Roth - 496 pages
41. The Harvest of Grace – Cindy Woodsmall - 352 pages*
42. The One-Day Way – Chantel Hobbs – 224 pages*
43. The Help – Katheryn Stockett - 464 pages
44. Secondhand Smoke – Karen E. Olsen - 272 pages
45. The Lost City of Z – David Grann - 448 pages
46. Mercy Come Morning – Lisa Tawn Bergren - 240 pages*
47. A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin - 720 pages
48. A Clash of Kings – George R. R. Martin - 784 pages
49. Raised Right – Alisa Harris - 240 pages*
50. The Halloween Tree – Ray Bradbury - 160 pages
51. Out of a Far Country - Christopher Yuan - 240 pages*
52. The Walking Dead Compendium One – Robert Kirkman - 1088 pages
53. Tamsin – Peter S. Beagle - 288 pages
54. Mine is the Night – Liz Curtis Higgs - 464 pages*
55. A Storm of Swords – George R. R. Martin - 1216 pages
56. The Christmas Singing – Cindy Woodsmall - 208 pages*
57. The Dragons of Chiril – Donita K. Paul - 416 pages*
58. A Feast for Crows – George R. R. Martin – 1104 pages
59. A Sound Among the Trees – Susan Meissner – 336 pages*
60. The Canary List – Sigmund Brouwer – 304 pages*
61. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson – 672 pages
62. Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management – Peggy Johnson – 335 pages**
63. Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction – Kay Ann
Cassell – 429 pages**
64. A Dance With Dragons – George R. R. Martin – 1040 pages
65. The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson – 752 pages
66. The Scroll - Grant R. Jeffrey and Alton L. Gansky - (still reading)

Total pages read: 28,173
Average 1 book every 5 days
Averaged 77 pages a day

Of those 15 were received for free (ones with the asterisks) and I reviewed them on amazon and my blogs:
http://barbarianlibrarian1.blogspot.com/
http://cataldisbooks.blogspot.com/

** Textbooks (and yes I really did read all the chapters)

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

If You're a fan of Dan Brown... You Won't be of this

I enjoy conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but Sigmund Brouwer's, "The Canary List," just doesn't quite do it for me. This review may start out horrible, but in all honesty, it gets a whole lot better towards the end.

"The Canary List" is the story of young 12 year old girl, Jaimie, who can feel darkness coming for her, she can literally feel the presence of evil. As a foster child, she trusts no one except her psychiatrist and her teacher and after an exceptionally hard night she turns to her teacher Mr. Grey for help and gets him in a world of trouble. A chain of events is set in motion and in order to clear his name, win back his son, and help Jaimie, Mr. Grey must get to the bottom of whatever Jaimie's "gift" is, and why the Vatican is trying to get involved.

The plot has too many twists and turns to list in such a small review, but I can guarantee you it is indeed a roller coaster ride. I started off hating the book until about page 100. After that I became hopelessly addicted, and I too, wanted to discover Jaimie's gift and figure out why the Vatican needed her help. If you can bear to have a slow start then I recommend this book. It's not nearly as complex as Dan Brown's work but it around the same ally.

Oh and one other thing, the ending is superb which alone makes up for the fact that the book starts off by being so droll and weird. Just wait til you learn what the canary list really is!

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"