DO I READ? YOU BET!

Most of my friends know I read a lot. I do not belong to a book club because for the most part I'm not smart enough to know what all those highly-educated eggheads are talking about. (Apologies to you who do belong to one; I envy you and wish I could too). I probably read two non-fiction book to every one fiction book, although you will not think that when you see my "list" below. My mother was a reader, my sister and I were both readers, and one of my children is a reader. I am as much impelled to read as I am to write.

Today you get to see what books I have liked the most in the eight years that I have been retired from gainful employment. These books are only my favorites, not everything that I have read. I've separated out the fiction from the non-fiction, and then in the fiction section I have put a separation down towards the bottom. The books are in that little separation are a bit lighter reading, more on the 'chick flick' side in some cases, and of course once you read Carl Hiaason, you will see that he truly does belong in a class of his own. It is impossible to read him without laughing out loud.

Anyway, here they are.

FICTION

The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
Thread of Gold - Mary Doria Russell
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Nieffenegger
Gilead – Marilynn Robinson
Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks
When the Emperor Was King – Julie Oksuka
A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest J. Gaines
The Piano Tuner – Daniel Mason
A Pigeon and a Boy – Meir Shalev
Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
The Garden of Water – Alan Drew
House of Sand and Fog – Andre Dubus III
Henry & Clara – Thomas Mallon
The Master Butcher’s Singing Club – Louise Erdrich
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse – Louise Erdrich
A Book of Matches – Nicholas Baker
Dogs of Babel – Carolyn Parkhurst
Eclipse – A Novel of Lewis & Clark – Richard S. Wheeler
Masterson – Richard S. Wheeler
Plainsong – Kenneth Haruf
The Short History of a Prince – Jane Hamilton
A Map of the World – Jane Hamilton
The Story of Ruth – Jane Hamilton
The All-True Travels & Adventures of Lidie Newton - Jane Smiley
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
The Tennis Partner – Abraham Verghese
Mendel’s Dwarf – Simon Mawer

Esperanza’s Box of Saints – Maria Amparo Escandon
Gonzalez and Daughters Trucking Co. – Maria Amparo Escandon
Eat Cake – Jeanne Ray
Basket Case – Carl Hiaason
Tourist Season – Carl Hiaason
Skin Tight – Carl Hiaason
The Worst Day of My Life So Far – M. A. Harper


NON-FICTION
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the
Battle for America’s Soul – Karen Abbott
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
Stiff – Mary Roach
Walking the Bible – Bruce Feiler
Revenge: The Story of Hope – Laura Blumenfeld
Under the Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer
Son of the Morning Star – Evan S. Connell

HAPPY READING!