Birt's Paige: Remedy for Drought

I think our drought in this area may be over - or very much lessened anyway. I just wanted to let you all know that you have me to thank. On Monday I had our sprinklers repaired - to the tune of $500.00! It has rained every day since!

Books I've Read in 2011

The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown - Kinda slow for me but worth while.

Testimony - Anita Shreve - a little crazy at first but turned out to be very thought provoking about how 1 second can change a whole life.

Night Road - Kristin Hannah - I loved this book - very noble main character that impressed me the most.

Don Quixote - Cervantes - this put me in the mind of Monte Python and the Holy Grail - Don Quixote is ridiculous!

Songs Without Words -Ann Packer - really good, interesting relationships between mother and daughter and friends.

Divergent - Veronica Roth - see review

The Builders - Maeve Binchy - kind of a short story but a book (very short). I can read anything she writes and appreciate it!

Where She Went - Gayle Foreman - sequel to If I Stay - excellent and super entertaining!

Swim Back to Me - I don't so much go for short stories - I actually wished that she had expounded on the first story in the book and just made it into a whole book.

Once Upon a Time There Was You - Elizabeth Berg - interesting when two people divorce and then realize years later that they do and can still care about one another.

Two Part Invention: the story of a marriage - Madeleine L'Engle - realistic, wonderful and romantic in the way that long term relationships really are.

Bright Young Things - Anna Godberson - there is definitely something about her writing style that suits me!

Seventeenth Summer - Maureen Daly - this book was really good - and it had such a feeling of anticipation. Although nothing monumental happened I guess that feeling of anticipation explains just about everyone's "seventeenth summer" just waiting for life to start.

Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy - another book with lots of same cast of characters in many of her books - like visiting family for me.

Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers - very religious but I saw only the good in that - I very much enjoyed it!

Deep Down True - Juliet Fay - pretty excellent in my opinion.

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen - very long but fairly good book about a regular old dysfunctional family.

Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead - keep thinking this is the last one but they keep coming - entertaining though.

The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson - I enjoyed the historical part of this book relating to the city of Chicago and the World's Fair - but the parallel story of the serial killer was too disgusting for me.

Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart - LOVED THIS BOOK! Where has it been all my life - it's old and I've never heard of it before. MUST READ!

Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult - some more hot buttom issues to think about - what to do with frozen embryos when a couple gets a divorce??? Excellent!

I Think I Love You - Allison Pearson - named for the David Cassidy song of long ago, character finds she won a contest that her mom hid from her - and she finally gets to go meet her teen idol in Las Vegas. It definitely had it's moments.

Awakened - P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast - another in a long line of books that interest me less and less (hopefully the last!). A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini - if you have conflicting feelings about events in the middle east - this book has a lot of information that might help. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it will be a top ten for sure.

Linger - Maggie Stiefvater - the seguel to Shiver which I enjoyed - and this was good as well. It ended so that I am anticipating the next installment.

The Call of the Wild - Jack London - excellent! I don't know why I haven't ever read this before. If you love dogs, you can't help but love it.

Delirium - Lauren Oliver - see review

Things I Want My Daughters to Know - Elizabeth Noble - excellent, funny, sad and heartfelt. The basic message is that "love is simple".

The Lakeshore Limited - Sue Miller - one of my favorite authors who did not disappoint.

Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah - I enjoyed this book about two friends over the course of a lifetime and what each one brings to the relationship.

Room - Emma Donoghue - see review

The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan - great spiritual insights but kind of slow

Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead - and still more!

Split - Avasthti Swati - see review

Blood Promise - Richelle Mead - and still more

Shadow Kiss - Richelle Mead - more of the teen vampire saga - still pretty good.

The Fiction Class - Susan Breen - I learned a lot in this book, about difficult relationships between mothers and daughters and writing.

The Man of My Dreams - hideous title and not really anything to do with what actually takes place in this book. It was okay.

Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver - excellent! Wish I could figure out the ending though.

Night - Elie Wiesel - uncomfortable to read but so necessary for everyone! Cam read in HS - so I had the book and decided to be uncomfortable for a day or two.

Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt - Beth Hoffman - see review

The Death of Ivan Ilych - Leo Tolstoy - a master of putting real people thoughts and perseptions on paper.

Frostbite - Richelle Mead - even better, I think I will continue the series.

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead - pretty good and I like this genre apparently.

Of Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - crude and ridiculous!

Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos - a sweet find - just browsing in the library.

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan - excellent!

A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick - pretty good, it was obvious it was written by a man to me though.

The Scorch Trials - James Dashner - I only read it because I read the first and wanted to see what happened but I didn't enjoy it so much - very "teenage boy" kind of gross.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - strange, a fine line between crazy and gifted it seems.

Austenland - Shannon Hale - kind of witty but also kind of silly.

Long May She Reign - Ellen Emerson White - these are very smart books - I am really enjoying them - REALLY!

Long Live the Queen - Ellen Emerson White - absolutely riveting I read it on a flight back to Houston from Utah.

Birt's Paige

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Remedy for Drought

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