Book List 2010 etc

Reading is great. Fiction is better than non-fiction. You should read almost any of these books. Thirty-six books in a year is probably more than usual for me - being home alone unemployed for three months helped.

1. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery - A little boy in a spaceship, prince of his planet. I read this one out loud to my sisters over winter break. I didn't know what to expect but I liked it. I probably missed a lot of the meaning.
2. A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken - A wonderful love story, followed by death and grief. I read this one in one sitting, which I don't often do. On the train from Russia to Kiev in January. This book is heart-wrenchingly beautiful and sad. I cried a lot.
3. Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry - observations and stories of a small-town barber in Kentucky. Wendell Berry intrigues me. I want more.
4. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy - see this post. Tolstoy at his finest. I loved it. I would read it again. I would watch any film adaptation. Life and death, war and peace, love and hate, and so much more. It is epic.
5. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - not quite as good as W&P, but it is shorter. Anna is an annoying adulteress, but she is troubled so you feel for her. Tolstoy is great.
6. The Art of War, Sun Tzu - ugh.
7. The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other Stories, Leo Tolstoy - short stories are a good way to go if you can't read a long novel. Ivan Ilyich slowly dies of an internal illness, and it is painful and fascinating.
8. Peace Like a River, Leif Enger - set in the 1960s Midwest. Ruben's brother murders two boys then escapes from jail. The characters are interesting and the story is beautiful in its own way.
9. Stalking the Vietcong, Stuart Herrington - I had to read this for class. I usually hate the Vietnam War and anything associated with it, but this was pretty compelling. It's basically just a memoir from an intelligence advisor. It's an easy read, so it's worth it if you're interested in that war.
10. The Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz - A Polish prisoner escapes from a Soviet gulag and walks to freedom from Siberia to India. Amazing. What probably intrigues me the most is that after arriving in India, he never sees his walking companions again. Ever.
11. Harry Potter, #1-7, J. K. Rowling - well, I wrote about these already. Really good, of course. Not as good as LOTR. I still haven't seen the seventh movie (!) Of course you should read them.
12. Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer - great short book on Christian community. I had never read anything Bonhoeffer. I didn't like every part of it, but I am interested to read more.
13. A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis - Lewis's wife dies and he grieves. The book is his personal journals. Raw. Tragic. Excellent.
14. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien - My thoughts on this book. It's a lot more for kids than LOTR, but it was so great. I cried when Thorin Oakenshield died. Gollum is creepy and pathetic. Bilbo is grumpy and awesome.
15. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - another post. I can easily say that LOTR is some of the best fiction ever written. These books are long but so worth it. I love the writing. And the characters. And the story. And the maps. And everything.
16. Beer and Circus, Murray Sperber - eh. Drinking and sports. I guess they're ruining America or something. That's probably not what Sperber was saying, but I didn't finish the book. He makes some good points.
17. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart - great kids book. Four kids save the world from an evil man infiltrating people's minds. I'd like to read the sequels.
18. Ministries of Mercy, Tim Keller - I was reading this for a year and finally finished. Keller is good of course. The church needs more mercy, and more mercy ministry.
19. Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis - The Space Trilogy part 1. This may have convinced me that aliens exist, and I'm not kidding. I read these 8 or 10 years ago, but they are worth a re-read.
20. Perelandra, C.S. Lewis - Space Trilogy 2. Weston is so creepy. A sort of re-writing of the creation story, with a lot of twists.
21. That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis - Space Trilogy 3. The first time I read the series I thought this one was boring. Now I think it's my favorite of the three. It has Merlin!
22. Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov - stream-of-consciousness autobiography of the author of Lolita (which I need to read). He has an incredibly beautiful writing style. Nabokov fascinates me because he grew up in Russia then emigrated to Europe and the US. He wrote some in Russian, some in English, tried to translate his own books, couldn't, and so re-wrote them in the other language. His relationship to language is very interesting.
23. Emma, Jane Austen - a re-read. Austen is always great, and I think this is one of her better ones. Emma is so annoying but likable of course.
24. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov - I read this my freshman year, then listened to it on audio at work. Then I got it for Christmas in Russian. The devil comes to Moscow and wreaks havoc. Absurd. Great 20th-century piece of Russian lit.
25. Jesus Land, Julia Scheeres - oh my gosh her family is crazy. A memoir of a journalist's life in a fundamentalist Christian family who adopted two African-American boys. Racism, abuse, fundamentalism, tragedy. I cried for her.
26. Leading with a Limp, Dan Allender - Leaders should lead out of their weakness. It was good overall but I think I'd like his other books better.
27. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton - Wharton writes simply and beautifully. A short New England tragedy. I hate how the book makes me feel.
28. The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk - The British and Russian Empires struggle for control of India, Persia and Central Asia in the 19th century. I know you're supposed to root for Britain but I wanted Russia to win. But seriously, a surprisingly-readable history book. Lots of explorers and spies and deceitful murderous rulers and stuff like that.