A friend of mine from high school, Sunni Scroggins Roppolo, was kind enough to give me a reading list to broaden my horizons. Reading is the most essential gift you can give yourself. Reading allows you to build context and know how to deal with situations. You can go on an adventure, solve a mystery, love someone…the possibilities are endless. Sunni also gave quick reviews for each book she’s read. She also adds an “X” for those she’s read, “+” for the ones she LOVEs, and “*” for the ones she plans to read. I hope you make it a resolution to read each and every one of these books. I will read them with you, if you like, and will likely read a few to you over the next few years.
1.
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen x aka the book that spawned chick lit, grudgingly like it
2.
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien x+
3.
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte x+ if you like this, read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
4.
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling x+ Loved em
5.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee x+
6.
The Bible x+
7.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte x+
8.
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwelll x+
9.
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman x+ (read the whole series, very humanist, not my personal ideology, but a good story, interesting premise, well written)
10.
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens x boooooorrriiinnnggg
11.
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott x+ love me some Louisa May Alcott
12.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy no thanks this guy is depressing
13.
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14.
Complete Works of Shakespeare- what do they mean by complete? I've read most, at one time or another, I would say
15.
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier x+ enjoyed, it's kinda racy for its time
16.
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien x+
17.
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ? need to look this up, haven't even heard of it
18.
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger x+ the prostitute's name is Sunny fyi
19.
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger x+ good but weird
20.
Middlemarch - George Eliot *
21.
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell x+ I have also read Scarlett, I am ashamed to admit- drew the line at The Wind Done Gone
22.
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald x, OK, I'm not a Fitz junkie
23.
Bleak House - Charles Dickens could you possibly come up with a more boring titile?
24.
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy x+ very good actually
25.
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - is this good, anyone?
26.
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh * I like books about scandalous Brits back in the day
27.
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28.
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck x+ (steinbeck is my fave)
29.
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30.
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame x
31.
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy * ashamed to say I haven't read
32.
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens x Oy! this man could churn out the boring literature
33.
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis x+ (I'm a fan of anything this man wrote)
34.
Emma - Jane Austen x+
35.
Persuasion - Jane Austen x
36.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis x+ I'm a chronicles fan
37.
The Kite Runner - Khalid Hosseini x+ good but I had nightmares after
38.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres made into a movie starring Nic Cage...um, no thanks
39.
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden x+
40.
Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne x
41.
Animal Farm - George Orwelll x+ "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"
42.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown x +entertaining, a good fun read
43.
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (this is my famous "tried several times, just can't finish" I've discussed before)
44.
A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving x+ (Love this book, they butchered it for the screenplay)
45.
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins x+ (love this book and the Moonstone by the same author)
46.
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery x+ (LOVE LM Montgomery, love her books and the miniseries starring Megan Follows, very faithful to the books)
47.
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy I'm out on this guy
48.
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood x++++++ (she is my other fave. I have lots of faves)
49.
Lord of the Flies - William Golding x (meh)
50.
Atonement - Ian McEwan x+ very sad
51.
Life of Pi - Yann Martel x++++ (great book, very challenging thinking)
52.
Dune - Frank Herbert x+ (I have read all the Dune books- sucker for sci fi series, but the whole huge worm, blue eyes, water cannula thing got a bit old after a while)
53.
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons never heard of it, will have to look it up
54.
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen x+ possibly my fave JA
55.
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth never heard of, will look up
56.
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon x+++ GREAT
57.
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens x (I am very meh about Dickens in general)
58.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley x scary
59.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon heard good things but never buy it at half price for some reason
60.
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez can't read this guy...he loses me, maybe b/c I can't read it in the orig Spanish- maybe there is something lost in translation
61.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck x+++ love Steinbeck
62.
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov x not a fan, squicky
63.
The Secret History - Donna Tartt I feel like I should have heard of this?
64.
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold x+ (loved)
65.
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas x+ good
66.
On The Road - Jack Kerouac x gets old
67.
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy made it about 1/4 way thru- too depressing, no thanks.
68.
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding x laugh out loud funny the first time but IMHO has not held up- good memories of reading aloud to Danita whilst laughing uncontrollably though
69.
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie * I want to read the Satanic Verses CALM DOWN, fundies/literalists, the title is (probably purposefully) misleading
70.
Moby Dick - Herman Melville * (ashamed I haven't yet read this)
71.
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens x zzzzzz...oh, I'm sorry, I dropped off for a minute
72.
Dracula - Bram Stoker x scary
73.
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett x+++++ LOVE "is it wick?"
74.
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (read the one about walking the App Trail- it was good)
75.
Ulysses - James Joyce* more shame for not having read
76.
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath too depressing, no thanks, don't even like her poetry
77.
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78.
Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray x just ok, kind of a letdown
80.
Possession - AS Byatt x+ Loved AS Byatt rocks
81.
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens x
82.
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83.
The Color Purple - Alice Walker x good but sad
84.
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro x+ Love KI
85.
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert *
86.
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87.
Charlotte’s Web - EB White x+++ love EB White even though he writes heartbreakers
88.
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom x meh
89.
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle x+ I actually really like Sherlock Holmes stories
90.
The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91.
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad someone please convince me to read this otherwise I might not
92.
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Expuery x+ sweet, will read to my boys
93.
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94.
Watership Down - Richard Adams x+ good but sad, man's inhumanity to man as told by rabbits
95.
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole x+ CRAZY
96.
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute *
97.
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas x+ very funny
98.
Hamlet - William Shakespeare x+ but depressing
99.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl x+ love the movie with Gene Wilder NOT J Depp
100.
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo x+ Love the musical, but the book is good too
Well you may not know this, but I’m not that creative or crafty. I know, please contain your surprise. I preparation for our Easter dinner, I need some eggs decorated. I also need cookies to give to your teachers to go in their gift bags. I bought an egg decorating kit at William-Sonoma (on recommendation by Julia Vandergrift)
and hoped to make some gorgeous eggs to serve as the name cards for my seating arrangements. I had already created my miniature baskets and was amazed at what a glue gun can create.
I quickly decided to only use the egg dye and not the rest of the kit ideas. Having never colored eggs before, I realized it may not be prudent to have higher ambitions on the first go. You girls had a great time, but did not fully grasp the whole concept and with both fighting for the same step ladder, we needed to get it done quickly. They turned out great, though. We gave you letter stickers after they were dyed and you all went to town. So all in all, they turned out well – with a few minor tweaks. I ended up going to the store to get pre-made cookie dough and after only 12 cookies decided I hate decorating them. The eggs went into the spare fridge, where they promptly froze and cracked. Oh well, you only improve by making mistakes and learning from them, right!?! Can’t wait until the next holiday!
