Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Books Read in 2011


Just as in the past couple of years, I will keep adding to this list of books that I have read. Last year, I finished 92 books, so I have quite a job ahead of me if I plan to keep up the pace. However, at the moment I have 299 books on my "to read" list (click on my Shelfari shelf at the side of the blog to see the books I have read and that I plan to read), so I'm not likely to run out of ideas for reading material.

Later note: For my favorite books from 2010, see the comments, below.

*****

Abbey: Desert solitaire

Agatston: The South Beach Diet

Alexie: Ten little Indians

Amador: Southwest flavor; Adela Amador's Tales from the kitchen

Andrews: The fixer upper

Barr: Borderline

Beaton: Death of a celebrity

Beaton: Death of a charming man

Beaton: Death of a gentle lady

Beaton: Death of a macho man

Beaton: Death of a maid

Beaton: Death of a prankster

Beaton: Death of a traveling man

Benjamin: Alice I have been

Binchy: Heart and soul

Binchy: Return journey

Binchy: Whitethorn Woods

Bradley: A red herring without mustard

Bradley: The sweetness at the bottom of the pie

Bradley: The weed that strings the hangman's bag

Byrne: The new adobe home

Cannell: The trouble with Harriet

Carr: Mexican country style

Carr: Mexican details

Chan: Mill River recluse

Childs: Finders keepers; a tale of archaeological plunder and obsession

Childs: House of Rain

Conroy: Prince of tides

Conroy: South of Broad

Crombie: All shall be well

Crombie: And justice there is none

Crombie: Dreaming of the bones

Crombie: A finer end

Crombie: In a dark house

Crombie: Kissed a sad goodbye

Crombie: Leave the grave green

Crombie: Mourn not your dead

Crombie: Now may you weep

Crombie: A share in death

Crombie: Water like a stone

Crombie: Where memories lie

Drabanski: Artists at home; inspired ideas from the homes of New Mexico artists

Ebershoff: The 19th wife

Edgerton: Lunch at the Piccadilly

Evanovich: Plum lovin'

Fairstein: Final jeopardy

Fairstein: Lethal legacy

Fuller: Cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness

Fuller: Don't let's go to the dogs tonight

George: This body of death

Goldhammer: Still life with chickens; starting over in a house by the sea

Grimes: Fadeaway girl


Harrison: My lady judge

Harrison: A secret and unlawful killing

Harrison: Sting of justice

Hawkinson: The desert home

Hensperger: Breads of the Southwest

Hertzberg: Artisan bread in five minutes a day; the discovery that revolutionizes home baking

Holland: Valley of the Kings

Hyams: Mexicasa

Jance: Injustice for all

Jance: Until proven guilty

Karon: Home to Holly Springs

Karon: In the company of others

Kerr: Burning desires; salsa, smoke, & sizzle from down by the Rio Grande

Kincaid: Eat, drink, and be from Mississippi

King: Mile 81

Larsson: The girl with the dragon tattoo

Levick: Mexicasa; the enchanting inns and haciendas of Mexico

McCall Smith: The Double Comfort Safari Club

McGonigal: Reality is broken; why games make us better and how they can change the world

Miller: The Lake Shore Limited

Picoult: House rules

Picoult: Songs of the humpback whale

Read: Summer at Fairacre

Russo: They're your parents, too! How siblings can survive their parents' aging without driving each other crazy

Seth: Adobe! Homes and interiors of Taos, Santa Fe, and the Southwest

Shaffer: The ladies of Garrison Gardens

Shaffer: The three Miss Margarets

Sibley: Antojitos; festive and flavorful Mexican appetizers

Siddons: Fox's Earth

Siddons: Outer Banks

Slesin: Caribbean style

Stockett: The help

Street-Porter: Casa mexicana style

A taste of enchantment; treasured recipes from the Junior League of Albuquerque


Taylor: An Irish country girl

Thurlo: Changing woman

Thurlo: Plant them deep

Thurlo: Red Mesa

Thurlo: Shooting chant

Tolbert: A bowl of red

Walls: The glass castle

Walls: Half broke horses

Webb: Desert cut

Webb: Desert lost

Webb: Desert noir

Webb: Desert run

Webb: Desert shadows

Webb: Desert wives

Weinstein: Pizza; grill it, bake it, love it!

Wells: The crowning glory of Calla Lily Ponder

Wells: Ya-Yas in bloom

Wickenden: Nothing daunted; The unexpected education of two society girls in the west

Winspear: Among the mad

Wise: The well-filled tortilla cookbook

Witynski: Hacienda courtyards

Zweig: Hot kitchen and home collectibles (2nd ed.)

*****

4 comments:

becky said...

Holy Smokes, that's a lot of reading!!!
What were your top 3 favorites?

clairz said...

Such a good question, Becky. This was my year for nonfiction reading, since those were the books I enjoyed the most (unusual for me). I really liked The Secret Knowledge of Water, by Craig Childs, about water in the desert ("there are two easy ways to die in the desert: Thirst and drowning"). His writing had me on the edge of my chair.

Second choice--another desert book--Barren, Wild, and Worthless; Living in the Chihuahuan Desert by Susan Tweit. The author lives in Las Cruces and was writing about places all around us, places I have grown to know. She was taken aback by the desert at first, just as I was.

Since the LC library got rid of the New Mexico room that I loved when we lived here years ago, I decided to start with the "A" authors in the fiction section and read all the books marked with the little New Mexico sticker. That brought me to Edward Abbey, and the first book of his that I ever read, Fire on the Mountain. It's based on an actual incident and is about a rancher in the Tularosa Basin whose land is being taken over for the White Sands Missile Range. I'm reading Abbey's classic Desert Solitaire now, and the writing is absolutely gorgeous.

One more book, a novel, that I really liked was The Sisters From Hardscrabble Bay, by Beverly Jensen, about two sisters brought up on a farm in New Brunswick. She really got it right. My mom is from a big farming family on the Maine/New Brunswick border, and I kept picturing them as I read the book. I love reading "people" history (as opposed to "dates and battles" history) and kept thinking that, although I wished they talked more like Little House on the Prairie-type folk, Jensen avoided that sort of pretending about the past and gave them authentic rough and earthy voices, just like the people I know from New Brunswick. Interesting note--the book was the first and only by this author and was published after her death from cancer.

becky said...

Clair, thanks! When I have the time again, I shall check into these. I've heard Craig Childs was a good author, but I haven't read any of his work. Years ago, I had read some Ed Abbey for a rec class @ SDSU... but it has been soooo long ago, it would be new to me now. I am not much of a fiction person... I enjoy real life stories.
Oh, a book, something warm to drink & a fire sounds good right now... but shoot- off to work!!
Soon, though :)

Sandy ~~~ said...

Thanks for reminding me of the "Secret Knowledge of Water"! I need another book to add to my Amazon order to push it over $25 so I get free shipping and I think this book will be required reading for me...who plans on becoming a "rookie" New Mexican this year.