Reading List for 2013. Its a big’n.
What a magnificent result. 
Listed in the order received and copied and pasted over – straight from the Lounge of Comments. In your own words. I love hearing all your voices one after the other. I am going to print mine and pop it in the back of my satchel with my dog-eared copy of the 2012 list, so I am never without them. So many books! So much winter! I have highlighted the names of the books for ease of skimming. If I have made any mistakes make sure to let me know so I can correct them for you.
It seems this may be a yearly event each Thanksgiving, so I had better take notes for the next year.
Here we go. Happy Reading.
‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel
Ken Follett: ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ and ‘World Without End’ – gripping history.; Dick Francis – who always comes with me to hospital – I must have about 30 books of his, probably read at least 5 times each.
‘The Roundhouse’ by Louise Erdrich.
“My Life in France” by Julia Child.
‘Ignorance’ by Michele Roberts.
‘The Book Thief’, by Markus Zusak, is really really good, and ‘The Big Burn’ by Timothy Egan. this is nonfiction, about the birth of the Forest Service and the huge area that burned an area the size of Connecticut in the Northwest: Idaho, Washington, Montana and BC in the early 1900s. Talk about political intrigue today…It was no different back then!
“You’ve Gone Too Far This Time, Sir” by Danny Bent and now I’m reading “One Summer: America, 1927″ by Bill Bryson. Both wonderful…
In The Fall, and Lost Nation, by Jeffrey Lent. Anything by him, he’s a wonderful writer.
The Pern Series by Anne McCaffery or David Eddings Belgariad & Malloreon series these are a very intense funny adventure that will be hard to stop reading!
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
Terry Pratchett’s latest novel is currently sitting at the top of the pile beside my bed. Under it, there are two books on tropical gardening, under that is Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
Let’s see. Octavia E Butler – Xenogenesis for a sci-fi read. Joan D. Vinge – Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall – a trilogy. Frank Herbert Dune series. We like books that go on and on and on! And hate when the story ends.
My favourite reads were probably the historical novel “The Bolyen Inheritance” by Philippa Gregory (which is the sequel to “The Other Boleyn Girl”), the literary crime novel “Afterwards” by Rosamund Lupton, the ethical dilemma novel “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult, and the autobiographical account of writer, William Horwood’s childhood “The Boy with No Shoes”.
A.S. Byatt’s Possession- as a bit of a treat.
‘Ignorance’ by Michele Roberts.
Clay’s Quilt by Silas House. It’s about an Eastern KY man and his personal journey to learn about his deceased mother.
The Kingsolver novel is the Poisonwood Bible. It’s narrated in first person in the voices of 4 daughters and wife of a Baptist missionary to the Congo in the early 60s. It’s brilliant. Also, I’m a huge fan of Atwood’s Cat’s Eye and Handmaid’s Tale.
I am FINALLY reading Moby Dick for the FIRST time ever, after a lifetime of avoiding it because I didn’t like the title. And, I am happy and humbled to say: It is great. And when I say “great,” I don’t mean it in that bland, throw-it-around-without-really-meaning-it-way. I mean: It. Is. A. Great. Book.
Really into Margaret Atwood right now. “The Blind Assassin” was great.
I’m in the middle of “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain. Let’s just say he doesn’t hold back on his views.
“The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese” – by Michael Paterniti. Non-fiction, and not the book you think it will be. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. And to lighten it up, if you can find any Elizabeth Goudge through your library or online – “Green Dolphin Country” is set in Guernsey and then New Zealand during colonization. It’s quite dated as there are some racial issues that betray her time period (Maoris as cannibals/savages type of thing), but it’s still a wonderful read. If you can’t find Green Dolphin Country, try almost anything else by her – the “Little White Horse” was made into the movie Moonacre – and is TONS better than the movie. And since it’s winter, and since others have recommended Rosamunde Pilcher, for a gentle, doze by the fire sort of read, try Pilcher’s “Winter Solstice”.
If you like Irish family stories, Alice McDermott. Charming Billy favorite.
Also: After This. Somebody. That night. All terrific.
For screamingly funny–Bill Bryson a Walk in the Woods.
Old Filth. The Man in the Wooden Hat . Both by Jane Gardam
Darwin’s Ghosts by Rebecca Stott – sounds dry as, but a truly fascinating look at the men and ideas that might have beat Darwin to his theory …
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain – fictionalisation of Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemmingway in Paris between the wars – everyone was there …
Just Kids, Patti Smith – Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe were just kids, but were determined to be Artists … eking out a living, creating their lives in New York in the late 60s – everyone was there …
Books: Where Did You Go, Bernadette (a nice antidote to our current OCD culture); an old sic-fi book making a well-deserved comeback: Ender’s Game; pure but enjoyable escapism: The Silent Wife; the book I would have read 40 years ago if I’d known it was as great as it turned out to be: The Good Earth.
Mother Said: Poems” by Hal Sirowitz which is deliciously funny.
Just finished We Are Water by Wally Lamb. No clue what genre it falls under, but it’s a book about why his characters do strange things. A great people study!
I’ve just read The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. And a trilogy of the fantasy kind but a very good story The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. And Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series are a good easy mystery/action read.
Janet Evanovich – Any of the Stephanie Plum novels… the newest is Takedown Twenty . All of this series are named by number, but each is a stand alone story with the same main characters and ongoing plot lines. Such fun to read and hard to put down.
Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling).
The book Teardown…Memoir of a Vanishing City is about the rise and fall of a once great city, (Flint, Michigan), General Motors and middle class America. It was especially meaningful to us having grown up in Flint in the 50′s and 60′s but also represents the plight of many other American cities today!
Brother of the More Famous Jack by Babara Trapido
I just read How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, a sort of rollicking feminist memoir that made me laugh and also had a few a-ha moments in it. I’ve just gotten my copy of The Goldfinch. Donna Tartt writes a good, suspenseful novel. Her book The Secret History was a real stunner.
My current books are The Bones of Paris by Laurie King (an excellent detective novel) and One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
My newest favorite book is Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.
You’d love the first ‘Changing Gears’ by Greg Foyster ~ autobiographical story of a young advertising executive opting for a sustainable lifestyle: the book is of his cycling trip from Tasmania right up to Cairns with his partner. The second is ‘Prisoner of Tehran’: again an autobio by Marina Nemat of the story of her survival in an Iranian prison. Harrowing, but well written . .
The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester. I read this before Wikipedia, but think it would have been better to have read it after.
For Scandinavian style escaping the pressures of materialism I enjoyed The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna and Doppler by Erland Loe. Both quirky.
Game of Thrones !!! Start with book one and you will be finding a way to a book store to find the next one and so on til you finish them all
The Wishing Thread (knitting themed) and #2 The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe by Mary Simses.
Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese, is not yet on the list. Oh! It’s so powerful and amazing. Riveting. And The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball — maybe this is too close to home for you right now.
Favorites are Rosamunde Pilcher (and her son Robin), Maeve Binchy, The Irish Country Doctor books by Patrick Taylor, I think there are eight of them now and anything by Cathy Lamb. Now understand, these aren’t deep philosophical reads, just good entertainment.
Forgot, (since I turned 60 I do that a lot). Right now am reading ‘The Captain’s Daughter’ by Leah Fleming. Pretty good.
Oh, do read Random Harvest by James Hilton….it is a marvelous, twisting love story (it’s also a movie with Greer Garson…wonderful)……right now I’m reading The Witching Hour by Anne Rice….it’s the history of the Mayfair Witches…
My current read is the third in the series “The Hunger Games.” The whole series is an enjoyable read, in my opinion.
My book club’s book of 2013 was Blood & Beauty by Sarah Dunant (a fiction novel based on the Borgia’s), and it was very good 
As if you didn’t have enough choices: The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) and The Book Thief (Markus Zusak).
I recommend my own book, ‘Touching Snow: a Taranaki Memoir’. It will bring back NZ memories for you and tell you of a girl’s determination to get to the mountain, even though the family had no car and there was no transport of other kinds.
Two books I am reading and enjoying right now are: Jackdaws by Ken Follett which is set in Normandy during the last days of May 1945 so seems very appropriate to read while living here in Normandy
God of Love – a Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Mirabai Starr.
I’m currently reading “Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King. Of the books I read this year, my two favorites are “Flight Behavior” by Barbara Kingsolver and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” by Rebecca Solnit was an interesting non-fiction read.
I have just finished re-reading Sheila Weller’s Girls Like Us, a combined biography of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. It is jam-packed with information about the singers and session musicians, husbands, lovers and children, obscure records, etc.
Probably my fave books have been Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Rod by Rod Stewart, The Light Between Oceans by May Stedman , the Aviators Wife by Melanie Benjamin and The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.
Greg Isles writes suspense and so far the books I’ve read are based in Natchez and I am familiar with the areas he is referring to which makes the book even more intriguing to me.
Mark Billingham (Thriller, Mystery genre) Sleepyhead and Lazy Bones .
My two best book recommends so far this year are Sara Houghteling’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a novel about the lost art looted by the Nazis in Paris during World War II, and “Citizens of London” by Lynne Olson, another true but very lively history the brilliant Americans who stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour.
Truman Capote’s Immortal “A Christmas Memory.”
The Rebus novels, John Rankin – the Resnick novels, Kathy Reichs – Temperance Brennan novels.
Did you ever read inspector jury by martha grimes? or lynley by elisabeth george?
The Orphan Master’s Son, The Suicide Index (a memoir by Joan Wickersham)
You might add the The Ghost Bride: A Novel
Yangsze Choo, to your collection,
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline,
The Last Runaway: A Novel
Chevalier, Tracy
A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)
Harkness, Deborah
Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole. At least I think I got her name right. Also Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green by Kirsten Gier
Tess Gerritson writes crime – she is really good; and Erika Burmeister has written just three books so far and they are beautiful. I think you would really like her..
Charles Todd mysteries (post WW1 England) and all of Allen Furst’s books (pre-WWII Europe).
Susan Hill has been short listed for The Booker, so you know her books are wonderful reads Her Simon Serrailler series is about a family whose members are all doctors except Simon. Lots of twists and turns. Definitely not your ordinary mystery novel. There are eight books in this series. The first one .The Various Haunts of Men.
I’m reading Twice Born, by Margaret Mazzantini right now and really like it so far. The following books I have read and really enjoyed every one of them!!! Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss (a memoir); City of Thieves by David Benioff; Don’t Let Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller; Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey by Geraldine Brooks; Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls; Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks; Two Old Women by Velma Wallace; Unbroken: A World War II story of survival, resilience & redemption by Laura Hillenbrand; White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse; Wild: From Lost to Found On The Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.
A load of old bones by Suzette Hill there are five of them in all and they are funny, also the hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson another light hearted fun read, to cheer us up on grey days!
White Sky Black Ice, by Stan Jones, a detective story set in Inuit Alaska.
If you like historical fiction of Scotland (Mary Queen of Scots), England, France – even as far as Russia, try one of Dorothy Dunnett’s series. Great characters. The Lymond Chronicle is an outstanding series Book 1 is “Game of Kings”, then”Queen’s Play”, “Disorderly Knights”, “Pawn in Frankincense”, “Ringed Castle”, finally “Checkmate”
Do you ever read Robin Hobb? She writes assorted science fiction/fantasy that could be historical fiction in a strange foreign land. Start with Assassin’s Apprentice.
The Sacred Power of the Sun by Beinsa Douno and Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller.
(sniff) My book, “The Covert Chamber” wants to be on your list. (sob
“Prairy Erth” (a deep map), William Least Heat Moon. A survey of land and time and people on the Kansas Plains, with regard to Chase County.
A set of “Dance to the Music of Time” by Anthony Powell should be in every house….I think.
And for light speedy relaxing re really enjoyed Bird of Passage by Catherine Czerkawska. In fact I have read several of her books and enjoyed them all. I also recommend The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon.ads, The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier (of Girl with the Pearl Earring fame)…a Quaker girl from England finds herself heading to the Western United States to make a new life….just delightful…not supersubstantial, but not schlock.
Really enjoyed Bird of Passage by Catherine Czerkawska. In fact I have read several of her books and enjoyed them all. I also recommend The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon.
Well, that should be enough for going on with. Certainly will keep me entertained for the winter.
You all have a lovely day and thank you again for helping write the Fellowship of the Kitchen’s Garden Farmy Book List.
Your friend,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
38 responses to “The Fellowship of The Kitchen’s Garden Farmy Book List”
“Prairy Erth” (a deep map), William Least Heat Moon. A survey of land and time and people on the Kansas Plains, with regard to Chase County.
(sniff) My book, “The Covert Chamber” wasn’t on your list. (sob)
Thank you, Celi! It’s cold here…rather nasty! But Christmas is on its way. The reading list is a wonderful idea…I now have it copy and ready to print!.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Too many books…not enough time…or something like that. 🙂 thank-you C. for making this wonderful list for us!
It knits the Fellowship even closer together reading one another’s favorite books!
This is not a mistake but if you wanted to highlight Teardown, which is actually the main part of the title that might make it easier to find. No biggie though.
BTW you didn’t tell us what you’re reading right now to add to the list. After all you are the Queen of the Fellowship! 🙂
What a fab list! There are quite a few golden oldies on the list. Given my lengthy reading age I can safely say I have enjoyed at least 60 percent of the books. Eleven years ago our local library created a new computerized system. It keeps track of the books you take out of the library. My record today is 2,074 books. 90 percent of them I have read. I am ALWAYS looking for new authors. Hurrah for the book list. V.
Wonderful list, thank you Celi. I always do some good solid reading over the summer.
PS Juliet Batten is the author of Touching Snow: A Taranaki Memoir.
Great to have all of these recommendations in the one list ~ I’m a voracious reader but there are many I did not know about. Have ordered ‘Year of the Hare’ and ‘Doppler’ ~ want to see whether Finnish quirkyness somehwhat resembles the Estonian one – our two mindsets do vary from ‘the rest of the world’ 🙂 ! Beautiful photos as bookends and am signing off hoping your pains a tad better and not worse!!
Fantastic list, I’m always looking for a good author. Looks cold there. It was 12* here this morning. Got everyone fed, watered and set for the day and Mac & I took off for our daily two mile. What a treat in store! Everything, the standing corn, the grass, the trees was dressed in a heavy frost, it sparkled in the sun like fairy lights. The river had built it’s own dam of ice over the rocks and was singing its way over it downstream. The sky was ice blue with a fan of high thin clouds spread out like a white turkey’s tail. There was no wind (finally) and the sun was warm on our backs. These are some of the things I’m thankful for along with the health & well being to be out there enjoying them Sorry for the purple prose but being on my own here this week (a deer hunter widow) I had to share this with someone!
Oh what a treat that must have been, and strangely when there is only you and dog it is more poignant, even more beautiful, because it belongs just to you.. I loved your description… beautiful.. i love those moments of the sublime.. thank you for sharing it with me too.. c
Cecilia, thanks for the great list! I’m really glad I discovered your blog. And glad you liked my book, “Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City.” I just finished “The Goldfinch” after a three-day reading marathon. It’s an amazing book.
I am very much looking forward to reading these two.. esp Goldfinch.. c
You forgot Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy! Though, you probably know that one by heart.
What a fantastic book list! And several that I’d seen out and about but hadn’t heard if anyone enjoyed reading. This is great and I’m bookmarking for reference. Thanks for compiling and sharing!
Great suggestions- just added a bunch to my goodreads page- lest I forget! Can you stand one more… I can’t read a lot of Jodi Picoult’s novels but I think she’s a marvelous writer and I loved ‘Keeping Faith’.
Wow, what a list! I read about 3 books/week so will have to check some of these out. So glad to see Janet Evanovitch on there – certainly not heavy reading but for tears down your cheeks laughs they are perfect (especially when you’re hurting). I’m just catching up on everyone’s blogs over the past couple of weeks & missed this treasure of a post but I’m surprised no one listed any or all books by Nelson DeMille… oh and John Sanford…and John Lescroat, and….okay I’ll stop now.