Currently off the Shelf...

Just in case you miss it buried in another blog, I thought I'd post separately what I am currently reading.

"Rumors" by Anna Godbersen

This is book 2 of a teen historical fiction series.

Luxe

"Luxe" by Anna Godbersen.

This novel is classified as "Teen Historical Fiction." I came across it while doing some Christmas shopping at Barnes & Noble and thought it looked pretty good. My daughter insisted that she already had it and so loaned me her copy. Book #2 appeared in my Christmas stocking and is now next in line to read.

Now before you go getting all puffed up about being exposed to reading a teen novel, let me remind you that Stephenie Meyers' "Twilight" series are all teen novels. I guarantee you there are as many if not more "mamas" out there reading those than teen vampirettes. And of course there are the Harry Potter books that are found on the young reader shelves. There is a lot of good reading to be found in the youth section!

"Luxe" takes place in New York City in 1899. The characters are wealthy young socialites all very impressed with themselves. Elizabeth Holland is an attractive young lady who is known to be very virtuous. Through circumstances neither reveals to the other, she becomes engaged to society's playboy, Henry Schoonmaker, creating the event which the drama revolves around.

From the lowliest servant to the highest aristocrat, most of the characters were not very likable in this story, with the exception of Elizabeth herself. That is not to say that the book isn't full of characters you love to hate. And despite some early misgivings some of the characters do manage to redeem themselves.

My daughter hasn't finished book #2, "Rumors" yet, but I plan to steal it away from her and begin it tonight.

100 "Must Reads"

This list is from a note that travels around Facebook stating that the BBC believes most people have read only 6 of the following 100 books. I am not sure how or why these particular books have been selected but I have decided to make it a project to increase my number, which is 18, and work my way through the list.

There are some that I am sure I will not be reading in their entirety. I see no reason to read something just so I can say I have read it if I am not enjoying it. There are already a couple on this list that fall into that category. I'll try to organize my list to show read, not read, or tried to read & gave up.

I haven't read these:

1. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series, JK Rowling (I've read several but not the complete series)
5. The Bible (Again, I cannot claim I have read it completely)
6. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
7. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (3 book series)
8. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
9. Little Women, Louisa M. Alcott
10. Complete Works of Shakespeare
11. Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
12. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulk
14. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
15. Middlemarch, George Eliot
16. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
17. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
19. War & Peace, Leo Tolstoy
20. Crime & Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
22. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
23. Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis (7 books)
24. Emma, Jane Austin
25. Persuasion, Jane Austin
26. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (1 of the 7 Narnia books)
27. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
28. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
29. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
30. 100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
31. A Prayer for Owen Meaney, John Irving
32. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
33. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
34. Far from the Maddening Crowd, Thomas Hardy
35. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
36. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
37. Dune, Frank Herbert
38. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
39. Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen
40. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
41. The Shadow of the Wind, Carolos Ruiz Zafron
42. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
43. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
44. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
46. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
48. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
49. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
50. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
51. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
52. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
53. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
54. Dracula, Bram Stoker
55. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
56. Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson
57. Ulysses, James Joyce
58. The Inferno, Dante
59. Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
60. Germinal, Emile Zola
61. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thaceray
62. Possession, AS Byatt
63. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
64. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
65. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
66. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
67. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
68. The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Mitch Albom
69. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
70. The Faraway Tree Collection, Enid Blyton
71. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
72. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
73. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
74. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
75. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
76. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
77. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
78. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
79. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

I have read these:

1. To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee
2. 1984, George Orwell
3. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
4. The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
6. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
7. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
8. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
9. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (I have my Mom's copy given to her in 1927!)
10. Animal Farm, George Orwell
11. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
12. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
13. Atonement, Ian McEwan
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mark Haddon
15. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
16. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
17. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
18. Charlotte's Web, EB White
19. Watership Down, Richard Adams

These I couldn't/wouldn't finish:

1. Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy

I think I'd like to research a little more exactly where this list came from and if it's updated annually or what. If I do read some of these I I'll move them on this blog and date the entry for when I read it (or gave up), rather than repost the entire blog again. I think I have actually read more than I take credit for - I know some of these were read in my school years, but that is far too long ago to remember!

In the beginning....

I am starting a new blog for the book-lover in me. I've tried being in a book club and although I love talking about books, it just didn't work out for me. So this is my blog to track my reads, my opinions of what I've read and hopefully a few friends will join in the conversation, fulfilling my "bookclub needs."

My intention is to start with the book I just finished and go forward from there. If anyone suggests a book I have already read and reviewed in another forum I may backtrack and post about it.

A little about my love of books... I've always enjoyed reading and probably stuck pretty much to fiction novels. In more recent years I worked for Barnes & Noble for about 18 months and found that was a great inspiration to broaden my interests as pertains to reading. I really enjoy a good biography. History has enticed me into it's arms. I love picture books aka coffee table books. Travel, geography, science, crafts... You can lead me almost anywhere to read as long as the book is well written and the subject appealing.

Thank you for checking my new blog out! Please come back for more!

p.s. I probably won't be talking too much about caffeine. It's just that good coffee and a good book really go together!