Noteworthy Reads from A to Z

Here are some of my favorites and some that are on my to-read list (an asterisk is next to these), categorized in alphabetical order:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (Yes, I realize it's a short story.)
Arranged by Catherine McKenzie

The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce A. Tyldesley

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Good Thief's Guide To... (series) by Chris Ewan
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Iliad by Homer

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Nefertiti by Michelle Moran 

The Odyssey by Homer

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
Pompeii by Robert Harris

Quentins by Maeve Binchy

A Rather... (series) by C.A. Belmond
Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.  by Jeremy Mercer

Under the Dome by Stephen King*

Venice by Jan Morris*
The Vesuvius Isotope by Kristin Elise

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Xibalba Murders (series) by Lyn Hamilton*

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks*

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman* 

Summer Reading List

I read a lot. Even when life gets hectic, I set aside time to read; it’s nice to decompress with a good book. Every May I compile my summer reading list. I usually scan magazines, websites, and look around the library for ideas of what to read. Undoubtedly, the list I create is far longer than what I expect it to be and there’s usually no way I’ll be able to read everything. This is even truer now that I don’t have summers free and can no longer lounge around reading on my days off. It’s really disappointing to have a “to read” list that’s in the triple digits. It makes me feel like I’m racing against time but I’m destined to fail because 1. I’ll never read all the books on my list and 2. The list keeps growing because I add to it on a daily basis! I am a very fast reader so that does help a bit. Last week I read three books, which is quite the feat considering I’m a working wife and mother who is also in graduate school. Reading three books sure put a dent in my reading list, right? Not really, since I added nine other books to the list. Oh well.

My new favorite thing is GoodReads.com. You can create reading lists, read reviews, find books similar to what you have read in the past, and interact with other readers. I’ve found it very helpful to keep my reading list on GoodReads rather than scribbled on a piece of paper in my purse, where it usually gets misplaced.

Here’s a brief portion of my current summer reading list:

·         Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

·         Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck

·         The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

·         The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

·         The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld by Christine Wiltz

·         The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin by Chris Ewan (I LOVE this series and can’t wait for this novel to be released in August!)

·         Inferno by Dan Brown

·         Man Up!: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence by Ross Matthews

·         Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women’s History of the World by Rosalind Miles

·         Rogues’ Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed and Betrayals that Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Michael Gross

·         After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank by Eva Schloss

·         Chocolat by Joanne Harris (and the other books in this series if I like Chocolat)

·         Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

I’m excited to tackle these and more this summer. Do you make a summer reading list?