Total Pages Read: 6,746
Shortest Book: 176 pages
Longest Book: 688 pages
Fiction: 14
Non-Fiction: 2
Cookbook: 6
Poetry: 0
Last Book Read:
22. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. A thirties-ish painter is left by his wife and leaves his past life behind in the aftermath. Eventually moving into the house of his friends father (a famous painter in his own right), he discovers a never seen painting as well as his own desire for painting again. What happens afterwards is pure Murakami. 688 pages. (Finished 29 Dec 2018).
Past Lists:
2017 List
2016 List
2015 List
2014 List
2013 List
2012 List
2011 List
2010 List
2009 List
2008 List
2007 List
- Will It Skillet?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Cast-Iron Skillet by Daniel Shumski. I like this guy’s cookbooks. 216 pages. (Finished 8 Jan 2018).
- The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things by Courtney Elizabeth Mauk. Their eldest daughter disappeared from a nightclub with a man over a year ago. Husband and wife have grown apart, not knowing how to deal with their grief and each other. The youngest son is preparing to escape the confines of home to the world his older sister lived in. All the while they search for thing missing most (or news of her body being found). 223 pages. (Finished 12 Jan 2018)
- The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk. A young boy who’s father has left decides to take a job as an apprentice with a well digger. He forms a bond with the master well digger that is as close as a father. However, when an accident befalls the well digger, he returns to Istanbul without knowing his masters fate. 272 pages. (Finished 30 Jan 2018).
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. The story of a family in Mississippi and its journey through the past and present. The power and limitations of the bonds of family. This is a book that you really just need to read. I can’t do it justice in a snippet of a few lines. 305 pages. (Finished 12 Feb 2018).
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. In a small town in Mississippi, a family prepares for the arrival of a hurricane. All the while, each member of the family deals with the various pressures of their life. This is a book that you really just need to read. I can’t do it justice in a snippet of a few lines. 272 pages. (Finished 20 Mar 2018).
- You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck to Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want by Jesse Mecham. I started using YNAB in August of last year, but I wasn’t really doing it the right way. I got this book around Christmas and it (along with the accounting class I started in Jan) made it click on how to more effectively use the YNAB system. 224 pages. (Finished 21 Mar 18).
- Hey There, Dumpling!: 100 recipes for dumplings, buns, noodles, and more for festive occasions by Kenny Lao. I’ve had a bit of a dumpling obsession of late. Last week I was cruising the aisles of the greatest bookstore on earth and ran across this book. I put a hold on it at the library straight away. Recipes are clear and there are plenty of pictures and illustrations to help you on the way. I can’t say yet how easy they are, as I haven’t made anything yet (planning on soon though). 208 pages. (Finished 26 Mar 2018).
- Idaho by Emily Ruskovich. The story of a family in rural Idaho and a shocking event that shapes all of them in different ways. Told from many different perspectives, slowly peeling away the layers to what actually happened and why. 322 pages. (Finished 17 Apr 2018).
- Macbeth by Jo Nesbø. Drop Shakespeare’s Macbeth into a Nesbø crime novel and this novel is what you end up with. Instead of Prince of Denmark, we have Macbeth, head of SWAT for a city that has seen better days from its industrial past. He’s the best cop in the city, but he’s also a former drug addict. Beyond that, you should know the plot. 512 pages. (Finished 5 May 2018).
- Chinese Soul Food: A Friendly Guide for Homemade Dumplings, Stir-Fries, Soups, and More by Hsiao-Ching Chou. I came for the chapter on dumplings, but will perhaps try more from the chapter on stir-fry or guilty pleasures. I nice book with home cooked Chinese food, both more traditional and the Americanized stuff we grew up with. 256 pages. (Finished 10 May 2018).
- Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami. A collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. 240 pages. (Finished 25 May 2018).
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Two young people meet just as their city is on the brink of a civil war. When they join the wave of migration that has flooded the globe by stepping through a door to another place, it will change everything. 226 pages. (Finished 3 Jun 2018).
- Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes by Alison Roman. This cookbook was beautiful and the recipies looked good, I just didn’t think I’d end up making very many of them in my current meal planning mode. I was glad I just checked it out from the library instead of buying outright. 304 pages. (Finished 25 Jun 2018).
- Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. I love a good East meets West story. This is set in West London, where the daughter of Indian immigrants wants to find her own identity beyond the confines of her parents culture. When she takes a job teaching writing to a bunch of widows at a community center at the heart of London’s Punjabi community, she is surprised where it all takes her. 301 pages. (Finished 11 Jul 2018).
- Adjustment Day By Chuck Palahniuk. Another dark comedy from Palahniuk that seems a little to real in the current political climate. Some fun stuff here, but far from his best works. 336 pages. (Finished 24 Aug 2018).
- Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. Set during WW2 in New York City, a young woman stuggles to make sense of where her father disappeared to and also find an identity of her own. 352 pages. (Finished 8 Oct 2018).
- Päntsdrunk (Kalsarikänni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation (Drinking at Home, Alone, in Your Underwear) by Miska Rantanen. You’ve no doubt heard of the Danish principle of hygge or the Swedish lagom, both of which may not be obtainable for folks from all classes. From the Fins we have a life philosophy that is obtainable by anyone, rich or poor. 176 pages. (Finished 22 Oct 2018).
- Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi. The story of a young boy’s life in the far north of Sweden (bordering Finland). A place rural enough to be a different world while discovering the modern world. 237 pages. (Finished 17 Nov 18).
- Us Against You by Fredrick Backman. We return to Beartown a few months after the events in the first novel. The hockey club is in danger of being shut down and the rivalry with Hed is only getting more violent. An ambitious politician and a new stranger aim to save both hockey club and town. 436 pages. (Finished 26 Nov 18).
- Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More by Andrea Nguyen. A nice book that covers a large amount of dumpling recipes from East and Southeast Asian cuisines. 240 pages. (Finished 27 Nov 18).
- Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking by Bonnie Frumkin Morales. I came here for the pelmeni and vareniki recipes. The rest was interesting as well. Still a restaurant cookbook and probably something I wouldn’t cook out of often. 400 pages. (Finished 17 Dec 2018).
- Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. A thirties-ish painter is left by his wife and leaves his past life behind in the aftermath. Eventually moving into the house of his friends father (a famous painter in his own right), he discovers a never seen painting as well as his own desire for painting again. What happens afterwards is pure Murakami. 688 pages. (Finished 29 Dec 2018).
