Zandria.us » Books

Category Archives: Books

Books I Read in 2011

20thDecember2011

These are the 27 books I read in 2011. (Previous lists can be found here: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003)

The books are listed in the order I read them, oldest first, except for the 5 fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite books were #’s 1, 6, 9, 16, 19, 22, and 25.

Nonfiction:

1. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, Mary Roach

2. Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude, Neal Pollack

3. unSweetined: A Memoir, Jodie Sweetin

4. Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee, Hoda Kotb

5. Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language, Deborah Fallows

6. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, Lindsay Moran

7. Psychic: My Life in Two Worlds, Sylvia Browne

8. How Did You Get This Number, Sloane Crosley

9. The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love, Kristin Kimball

10. Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away, Jennette Fulda

11. I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway, Tracy McMillan

12. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, Peggy Orenstein

13. Grindhopping: Building a Rewarding Career Without Paying Your Dues, Laura Vanderkam

14. Committed: A Love Story, Elizabeth Gilbert

15. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie, Wendy McClure

16. Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, Gabrielle Hamilton

17. SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, Howard E. Wasdin

18. My Year with Eleanor, Noelle Hancock

19. Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India, Miranda Kennedy

20. Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, Dorothy Wickenden

21. Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family’s Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom, Yangzom Brauen

22. An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life, Mary Johnson

Fiction

23. Dancing for Degas, Kathryn Wagner

24. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

25. Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin

26. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, Jeannette Walls

27. The Help, Kathryn Stockett

By Zandria | Comments (4)

Books I Read in 2010

4thJanuary2011

These are the 47 books I read in 2010. (Previous lists can be found using these links: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003)

The books are listed in the order I read them, oldest first, except for the 3 fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite books were #’s 13, 18, 23, 34, 43, and 44.

Nonfiction:

1. The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution, David Kamp

2. Making the Corps, Thomas E. Ricks

3. Faith Under Fire: An Army Chaplain’s Memoir, Roger Benimoff

4. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment, A.J. Jacobs

5. Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, Julie Powell

6. Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House, Stacy Parker Aab

7. Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska, Miranda Weiss

8. Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army, Kayla Williams

9. Prairie Tale, Melissa Gilbert

10. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, Gretchen Rubin

11. Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, Anthony Swofford

12. Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, Ray LeMoine and Jeff Neumann

13. Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale

14. Paper Daughter: A Memoir, M. Elaine Mar

15. Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI, Candice DeLong

16. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated, Alison Arngrim

17. The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy, Mark Sisson

18. Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, Piper Kerman

19. My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time, Gesine Bullock-Prado

20. Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China, Jen Lin-Liu

21. Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, Fuchsia Dunlop

22. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, Anthony Bourdain

23. The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese, Margaret Hathaway

24. Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves, Crystal Renn

25. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, A.J. Jacobs

26. Someone Will Be with You Shortly: Notes from a Perfectly Imperfect Life, Lisa Kogan

27. No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process, Colin Beavan

28. Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, Eric Brende

29. Bound Feet and Western Dress: A Memoir, Pang-Mei Chang

30. At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery, Rebecca Otowa

31. Petite Anglaise: In Paris. In Love. In Trouble, Catherine Sanderson

32. I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage, Mary-Ann Kirkby

33. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Timothy Ferriss

34. The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist in Yemen, Jennifer Steil

35. The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove, Cathy Erway

36. Devotion: A Memoir, Dani Shapiro

37. Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness, Dominique Browning

38. Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America, Linda Furiya

39. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, Bich Minh Nguyen

40. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, Jennifer 8. Lee

41. Alternadad: The True Story of One Family’s Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America, Neal Pollack

42. Lost on Planet China: One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation, J. Maarten Troost

43. Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi

44. Whip Smart: A Memoir, Melissa Febos

Fiction:

45. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

46. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

47. Little Bee, Chris Cleave

By Zandria | Comments (12)

Books I Read in 2009

25thJanuary2010

For the seventh year in a row, here is a list of the books I read last year. (I only read 25 books in 2009, whereas I read 34 in 2008, and 31 in 2007.)

(Previous lists can be found here: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.)

These books are listed in the order I read them, oldest first, except for the three fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite books were #’s 8, 13, 15, 18, 21, and 23.

Nonfiction:

1. Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over, Cathy Alter

2. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn

3. Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Susan Shapiro

4. Thin is the New Happy, Valerie Frankel

5. Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher (Warning: this was my least-favorite of everything I read last year. I only finished it because it was a quick read.)

6. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris

7. Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume, Jennifer O’Connell (editor)

8. Lying Together: My Russian Affair, Jennifer Beth Cohen

9. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler

10. Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories, Katha Pollitt

11. Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation’s Capital, Christopher Buckley

12. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, David Oliver Relin

13. Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America’s Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, William Queen

14. No Limits: The Will to Succeed, Michael Phelps

15. The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Town That Raised Them, Amy Dickinson

16. I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, Giulia Melucci

17. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Susan Jane Gilman

18. Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story, Lang Lang

19. Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain, Martha Sherrill

20. It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita, Heather Armstrong

21. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University, Kevin Roose

22. Nobody’s Mother: Life Without Kids, Lynne Van Luven

Fiction

23. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

24. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, Tiffany Baker

25. Last of the Breed, Louis L’Amour

By Zandria | Comments (10)

Books I Read in 2008

1stJanuary2009

For the sixth year in a row, here are all the books I read this year. (I read 34 books this year and 31 last year, so it seems I’m pretty consistent.)

(Previous lists can be found here: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.)

They’re listed in the order I read them, except for the two fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite nonfiction books were #’s 4, 16, 20, 25, and 32. The two fiction books by Khaled Hosseini were both excellent as well.

Nonfiction:

1. Every Second Counts, by Lance Armstrong

2. Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And
How You Can Too, by Shauna James Ahern

3. Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter, by Phoebe Damrosch

4. See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America, by Logan Ward

5. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan

6. The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria, by Marlena de Blasi

7. Not That You Asked: Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions, by Steve Almond

8. Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy, by Michael Tucker

9. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, by Aimee Liu

10. Cheer!: Three Teams on a Quest for College Cheerleading’s Ultimate Prize, by Kate Torgovnick

11. Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster

12. The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, by Chandler Burr

13. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, by Eric Weiner

14. Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir, by Jennette Fulda

15. Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny, by Jessica Queller

16. Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics’ Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams, by Jennifer Sey

17. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach

18. Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After, by Bella DePaulo

19. C’est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and–Voila!–Becomes Almost French, by Suzy Gershman

20. Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir, by Franz Wisner

21. Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism, by Thomas Kohnstamm

22. I Was Told There’d Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley

23. Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me, by Ben Karlin

24. Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer, by Jen Lancaster

25. The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom, by Deborah Rodriguez

26. Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, by Debra Ginsberg

27. Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp, by Stephanie Klein

28. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

29. Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone, by Beth Lisick

30. Don’t Let The Lipstick Fool You: The Making of a Champion, by Lisa Leslie

31. The Woman Who Can’t Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science, by Jill Price

32. Madness: A Bipolar Life, by Marya Hornbacher

Fiction:

33. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

34. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

By Zandria | Comments (13)

Books I Read In 2007

28thDecember2007

Compared to the 110 books I read in 2006, the list for this year is pretty small. (The reason for all the extra reading last year? Commuting for six months to a job that took at least an hour and a half on public transportation each way.) Previous reading lists can be found here: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.

The books that I liked best have a double-asterisk after the author’s name (**).

Nonfiction:

1) Lucky Man (AUDIOBOOK), by Michael J. Fox **

2) One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School (AUDIOBOOK), by Scott Turow **

3) Ivy Briefs: True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student, by Martha Kimes

4) Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter, by Adeline Yen Mah

5) Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir, by Janice Erlbaum

6) Let Me Go (AUDIOBOOK), by Helga Schneider

7) The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (AUDIOBOOK), by Bill Bryson **

8 ) My Invented Country (AUDIOBOOK), by Isabel Allende

9) The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones, by Anthony Bourdain **

10) The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen, by Michael Ruhlman