Petals in the Dirt: February 2010

2012 Reading List

Blink, Malcom Gladwell
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
The Savage Detectives, Roberto Bolano
NW, Zadie Smith
Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson
Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories, Aimee Bender
Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, Etgar Keret
We Wanted to Be Writers, Eric Olsen
What Happened to Sophie Wilder, Christopher Beha
1984, Orwell, George
Cutting for Stone, Verghese, Abraham
The Knitting Circle, Ann Hood
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami
The Friend Who Got Away, Elissa Schappell
Brightside, Mark Tullius
The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides
Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

2011 Reading List

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender

Neuromancer, William Gibson

The Story of My Father, Sue Miller

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein

Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman

Endgame, Samuel Beckett

The Ultimate Loss, Joan Bordow

American Gods, Neil Gaiman

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin

The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

The Wave, A tragedy in Mexico, Francisco Goldman

Where Great Writers are Made, Edward J. Delaney

A Boot Camp for Creative Writing, Charles Johnson

Wabi Sabi, Wikipedia

The Hot Spotters, Atul Gawande

2010 Reading List

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

Rework, David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Augustus, Anthony Everitt

The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan
The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

2009 Reading List

Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

Villette, Charlotte Bronte

The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks

Voyager, Diana Gabaldon
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel, Diane Setterfield
Nation, Terry Pratchett
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, A. N. Roquelaure/Anne Rice
Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris
Inés of My Soul, Isabel Allende
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Hunted, P.C. and Kristin Cast
The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud
The Girl Who Could Fly, Victoria Forester
Carry On, Jeeves (A Jeeves and Bertie Novel), P.G. Wodehouse
The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, with Jeffrey Zaslow
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris
Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

2008 Reading List

A Wrinkle in Time (re-read), Madeleine L'Engle
The Secret Garden (re-read), Frances Hodgson Burnett
I Wanted to Write, Kenneth Roberts
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, Donna Andrews
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
Old Man's War, John Scalzi
Murder Melts in Your Mouth, Nancy Martin
The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
The Ghost Brigade, John Scalzi
The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice
Xenocide, Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind, Orson Scott Card
The Last Colony, John Scalzi
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
Middlemarch, George Eliot
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, Lauren Willig
Twilight (x3), Stephenie Meyer
Marked (re-read), Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Betrayed (re-read), Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Chosen (re-read), Kristin Cast and PC Cast
New Moon (x2), Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse (x2), Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn (x2), Stephenie Meyer
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three, Stephen King
The Host: A Novel, Stephenie Meyer
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Battle Royale, Koushun Takami
Untamed, Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
Specials, Scott Westerfeld
Extras, Scott Westerfeld
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
On Writing, Stephen King

Bird and the Bees makes me weak in the knees for the queen who wants tea at ten to ten men ran through the street their feet went up and down like a merry go round and round they go when they'll stop nobody knows what passed the gas its price goes up and up to the market down to the beach bums on the sand beer bottle in hand preaching the end of days is nigh oh the 7-11 its on the righ- to! said the captain to the queen who still waits for tea and cucumber sandwiches on a tray with the crusts cut off of course was the satellite to mars and the day when it crashed bush said oops! Theres a billion dollar boo boo more troops to iraq don't look back we need the pipeline from the sea to the shore it sure is risky feeling frisky those birds and those bees still tease me cause I'm in love is a battlefield and 28,000 alone have died in Iraq for the love of their country man oh man could I use a steak said the queen when she nibbled her sandwiches but it was not time for a change could we try peace? Just a piece just a little piece thought the corgi on her lap as the crumbs fell from her old and feeble mouth is wide open hes begging shes biting they're fighting I'm inditing which is writing if you didn't know but for now you should know what is right for you to know which is a knowledge of nothing which is all that I know.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Song of the Day: Masterswarm by Andrew Bird