Below is a list of the books I have read during my service. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
71. Monday Mornings, Sanjay Gupta.
70. Defending Jacob, William Landay.
69. Ken Follet, World Without End.
68. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson.
67. The Round House, Louise Erdrich.
66. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand.
65. Perfect Match, Jodi Picoult.
64. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
63. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katerine Boo.
62. An Unexpected Twist, Andy Borowitz.
61. The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield.
60. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn.
59. The Mill River Recluse, Darcie Chan. A fast read following several characters in a very small town.
58. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut. A very interesting book. A fictional story about the creator of the atomic bomb. It's short, and I found it more accessible than Slaughter House Five. I actually could follow what was going on without feeling like I needed to be in an English class.
57. How to Pee Standing Up, Anna Skinner. It's an entertaining book to help women get ahead in life without very much money, etc. I'm not sure I'll follow any of the advice though!
56. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand. This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. It follows architects in the 20s and 30s building in New York City. The characters are amazingly developed and even though this book is considered a classic, it's a classic you can actually read and understand! I would recommend this book to anyone.
55. The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum. Even though the premise is similar to the movie, there is so much more to this book! I've seen the movie a bunch of times, but I still really enjoyed reading the book.
54. An Invisible Thread, Alex Tresniowski and Laura Schroff. A true story about a friendship between a busy saleswoman and a young panhandler in New York. A quick read that gives the truth of New York in the 1980s.
53. The Silence of Trees, Valya Dudycz Lupescu. An amazing book about WWII and Ukraine. It's a beautiful story that is told in a very interesting way. I would recommend this book to everyone.
52. The Concubine's Secret, Kate Furnivall. This is a sequel to a book a read about five years ago, The Russian Concubine. Both are really great, fast read, historical fiction books.
51. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult. All of Jodi Picoult books pretty much have the same premise, but I still like reading them. If you saw the movie, I still recommend reading the book because a lot more happens in the book than they could put in the movie.
50. Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston Women's Health Book Collective. This is a huge women's health reference book. I've read most of it on Kindle, although I wish I had the book to flip through and skim. I started reading it so I had a better background to answer my teachers' questions about pregnancy, birth control and the menstrual cycle, but I ended up just being amazed by everything in the book. It's honestly a great resource for any woman.
49. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri. A book of short stories, all with some kind of Indian influence. Although the book had a very depressive tone, I really enjoyed it. They felt like real stories, without the fairytale happy ending.
48. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy. It's a long book! It also has a lot of story lines to follow, and some of the topics can be pretty heavy in economics. In the end, it was a good book, but took me a long time to finally tackle it.
47. The Red Tent, Anita Diament. The famous biblical story about Jacob and his son Joseph told from the point of view of the daughter, Dinah.
46. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot. Non-fiction book about the cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, which have been used in research for the last 60 years.
45. The Hangman's Daughter, Oliver Potzch. A super fast read about a hangman's family in the 1600's. It's a mystery that involves witch hunting.
44. Sophie's Choice, William Styron. I haven't seen the movie, but I hear it's great. The book is interesting, but very long with over the top diction. It focuses a lot on character development, and not very much action. Sophie is a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, moves to America and falls in love with a young Jewish man. The narrator befriends the couple, despite his immediate crush on Sophie.
43. Dream Girls, Lisa See. The following book to Shanghai Girls. It's a very insightful book about communism in China and the Great Famine. I learned so much!
42. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See. A great historical fiction book about Shanghai in the 1930s and immigration to the US at this time.
41. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, Chelsea Handler. Chelsea Handler is a comedian, and this is her third book. It's a super quick, brainless read. The quality of her books are going downhill, as far as I can tell.
40. The Reader, Bernhard Schlink. I haven't seen the movie, but the book was a quick and insightful read into post-WWII Germany.
39. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes. A really interesting book about a man with a low IQ who undergoes an operation to increase his intelligence. The author does an amazing job of exploring the differences between IQ and social intelligence.
38. Anges Grey, Anne Bronte. A classic that's mostly character portraits from the point of view of a young woman who strives to be moral, honest and make a future for herself.
37. Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. A great book that's got mystery, magic, romance, etc. Very beautifully written too.
36. The Best of Me, Nicholas Sparks. Don't judge me, but I've read everything he's written. Fast read, love story, etc.
35. Room, Emma Donoghue. Fascinating book about a little boy who's only world is one room. Made me think a lot about how kid's develop their sense of world, security and self. Would be great for a psych class actually.
34. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein. A book from a dog's point of view, which is really fun and new. A good book, but head's up, it's a little sad!
33. House Rules, Jodi Picoult. Most of her books are a quick, interesting read, although they usually follow the same plot line. This one isn't an exception, but still entertaining.
32. The Help, Kathyrn Stockett. A great book about race relations in the South during the 50s. Read the book before going to see the movie!
31. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabethe Strout. In the beginning, it was hard to get into this book but once you do, you can't wait to see what she writes next. It's 13 vignettes that all tie into the character of Olive. The book puts a lot of focus on family, getting older and loneliness.
30. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See. A wonderful book about China during the 1800s. It a tale of two friends that grow up together. A fast read that's super interesting.
29. The Year of Living Bibically, A.J. Jacobs. I had forgotten that I had read his first book about reading the entire encyclopedia collection in a year. If I had remembered, I probably wouldn't have picked up this book. It's kind of interesting, but also kind of annoying.
17. Catch Fire, Suzanne Collins.
16. Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. The whole trilogy was amazing, except relatively terrifying. I read all three books in three days, mostly because I just had to know what happened next. It is supposed to took at the effect war has on children coming of age. It also has some commentary on government. Please note that these books are intense, although targeted for a teenage audience.
15. Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labour in the American Black Market, Eric Schlosser. A great non-fiction book about, well, the title says all.
14. The Worst Date Ever, Jane Bussman. A bizarre account of a celebrity journalist that chases after a world activist and finds herself in Northern Uganda with her first real story. It was ok, but maybe not the best book if you're looking for information about Uganda.
13. High Fidelity, Nick Horby. A 35 year old single man who owns a record shop trying to figure where he went wrong in all his relationships. Hilarious. Watch the movie if you can't get your hands on the book.
12. Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively. Interesting writing style. A story about a novelist writing a "history of the world" which really ends up being a history of her world.
11. The Price of Stones, Twesigye Jackson Kaguri. If you want to know more about the Ugandan school systems and the challenges they face, I recommend the book. He attempts to do what he can by starting a completely free school for HIV/AIDs orphans. Sounds like a great program, but I always warn people to really think about the organizations they give to, and is their money really making a sustainable difference.
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. Classic British novel about vanity.
9. Theft, Peter Carey. Another Australian novel about art and crime. He uses a very unique narrative technique, which kept it interesting, but it was a little hard to relate to some of the characters at times. Fast read though.
8. Torn Birds, Colleen McCullough. An epic romantic tale that takes place in the Australian outback. An amazing book! I didn't want it to end. Honestly, I would recommend it to anyone.
7. Snow, Orhan Pamuk. Originally written in Turkish, it is a fictional book touching on very real political issues in Turkey in the 1990s. Of course, there's a romance story too. It won a Nobel Prize in Literature at some point.
6. Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keiller. Mostly a coming of age story taking place in the Midwest in the 1950s. A funny read.
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. Short, light read. Very heavy on the science fiction bit, which isn't really my scene, but entertaining nonetheless.
4. The Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. A history of science. Although I definitely learned a lot from the book, it was about 200 pages too long with a general the world could end at any point. For hypochondriacs, avoid please.
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow. A story about the German occupation of the English Channel Islands in WWII. It's all written in letters, and it's a light, fun read.
2. Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures), Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait & Andrew Thomson. Memoirs of three authors in the UN Peacekeeping efforts of the 90's. Very interesting and gives a harsh critique of the organization, but sometimes it seems like the writing is over the top (at least in the beginning).
1. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder. Very intellectual and needs to be read carefully! Philosophy meets Alice in Wonderland. Great if you want a crash course to philosophy.
71. Monday Mornings, Sanjay Gupta.
70. Defending Jacob, William Landay.
69. Ken Follet, World Without End.
68. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson.
67. The Round House, Louise Erdrich.
66. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand.
65. Perfect Match, Jodi Picoult.
64. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
63. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katerine Boo.
62. An Unexpected Twist, Andy Borowitz.
61. The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield.
60. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn.
59. The Mill River Recluse, Darcie Chan. A fast read following several characters in a very small town.
58. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut. A very interesting book. A fictional story about the creator of the atomic bomb. It's short, and I found it more accessible than Slaughter House Five. I actually could follow what was going on without feeling like I needed to be in an English class.
57. How to Pee Standing Up, Anna Skinner. It's an entertaining book to help women get ahead in life without very much money, etc. I'm not sure I'll follow any of the advice though!
56. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand. This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. It follows architects in the 20s and 30s building in New York City. The characters are amazingly developed and even though this book is considered a classic, it's a classic you can actually read and understand! I would recommend this book to anyone.
55. The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum. Even though the premise is similar to the movie, there is so much more to this book! I've seen the movie a bunch of times, but I still really enjoyed reading the book.
54. An Invisible Thread, Alex Tresniowski and Laura Schroff. A true story about a friendship between a busy saleswoman and a young panhandler in New York. A quick read that gives the truth of New York in the 1980s.
53. The Silence of Trees, Valya Dudycz Lupescu. An amazing book about WWII and Ukraine. It's a beautiful story that is told in a very interesting way. I would recommend this book to everyone.
52. The Concubine's Secret, Kate Furnivall. This is a sequel to a book a read about five years ago, The Russian Concubine. Both are really great, fast read, historical fiction books.
51. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult. All of Jodi Picoult books pretty much have the same premise, but I still like reading them. If you saw the movie, I still recommend reading the book because a lot more happens in the book than they could put in the movie.
50. Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston Women's Health Book Collective. This is a huge women's health reference book. I've read most of it on Kindle, although I wish I had the book to flip through and skim. I started reading it so I had a better background to answer my teachers' questions about pregnancy, birth control and the menstrual cycle, but I ended up just being amazed by everything in the book. It's honestly a great resource for any woman.
49. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri. A book of short stories, all with some kind of Indian influence. Although the book had a very depressive tone, I really enjoyed it. They felt like real stories, without the fairytale happy ending.
48. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy. It's a long book! It also has a lot of story lines to follow, and some of the topics can be pretty heavy in economics. In the end, it was a good book, but took me a long time to finally tackle it.
47. The Red Tent, Anita Diament. The famous biblical story about Jacob and his son Joseph told from the point of view of the daughter, Dinah.
46. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot. Non-fiction book about the cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, which have been used in research for the last 60 years.
45. The Hangman's Daughter, Oliver Potzch. A super fast read about a hangman's family in the 1600's. It's a mystery that involves witch hunting.
44. Sophie's Choice, William Styron. I haven't seen the movie, but I hear it's great. The book is interesting, but very long with over the top diction. It focuses a lot on character development, and not very much action. Sophie is a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, moves to America and falls in love with a young Jewish man. The narrator befriends the couple, despite his immediate crush on Sophie.
43. Dream Girls, Lisa See. The following book to Shanghai Girls. It's a very insightful book about communism in China and the Great Famine. I learned so much!
42. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See. A great historical fiction book about Shanghai in the 1930s and immigration to the US at this time.
41. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, Chelsea Handler. Chelsea Handler is a comedian, and this is her third book. It's a super quick, brainless read. The quality of her books are going downhill, as far as I can tell.
40. The Reader, Bernhard Schlink. I haven't seen the movie, but the book was a quick and insightful read into post-WWII Germany.
39. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes. A really interesting book about a man with a low IQ who undergoes an operation to increase his intelligence. The author does an amazing job of exploring the differences between IQ and social intelligence.
38. Anges Grey, Anne Bronte. A classic that's mostly character portraits from the point of view of a young woman who strives to be moral, honest and make a future for herself.
37. Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. A great book that's got mystery, magic, romance, etc. Very beautifully written too.
36. The Best of Me, Nicholas Sparks. Don't judge me, but I've read everything he's written. Fast read, love story, etc.
35. Room, Emma Donoghue. Fascinating book about a little boy who's only world is one room. Made me think a lot about how kid's develop their sense of world, security and self. Would be great for a psych class actually.
34. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein. A book from a dog's point of view, which is really fun and new. A good book, but head's up, it's a little sad!
33. House Rules, Jodi Picoult. Most of her books are a quick, interesting read, although they usually follow the same plot line. This one isn't an exception, but still entertaining.
32. The Help, Kathyrn Stockett. A great book about race relations in the South during the 50s. Read the book before going to see the movie!
31. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabethe Strout. In the beginning, it was hard to get into this book but once you do, you can't wait to see what she writes next. It's 13 vignettes that all tie into the character of Olive. The book puts a lot of focus on family, getting older and loneliness.
30. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See. A wonderful book about China during the 1800s. It a tale of two friends that grow up together. A fast read that's super interesting.
29. The Year of Living Bibically, A.J. Jacobs. I had forgotten that I had read his first book about reading the entire encyclopedia collection in a year. If I had remembered, I probably wouldn't have picked up this book. It's kind of interesting, but also kind of annoying.
28. Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell. The ideas that the author has are somehow shocking to how we view certain things, like success and geniuses, but I am always wary of psychological research that does not involve experiments. There could always be variables that are not accounted for. I appreciated his other book, The Tipping Point, much more.
27. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis and Pauline Baynes.
26. The Magician's Nephew, C.S. Lewis and Pauline Baynes. I didn't read this series as a kid, but my brother was obsessed for a while. I think because I knew that it was an underhanded attempt to describe the bible's origins, I just sat there looking for those hints and details. I also was annoyed that I found the book to be somehow sexist, but maybe that's just me being sensitive.
25. Lord of the Flies, William Golding and E. Epstein. I actually never read this book as a kid, and I'm kind of surprised that middle school kids read about youth killing youth. It's like Hunger Games all over again. Although, the authors seemed a little superfluous on the description part. I get it. They're on an island. I want to know what happens!
24. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett. This book is huge, but amazing. It's about life in the 1100s in England, and the way that the author weaves the relationships and stories together is amazing. At least I couldn't put it down because I need to know what happened next.
23. In Fifty Years We'll All be Chicks: And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy, Adam Carolla. Although the book is incredibly offensive and politically incorrect, it did have some witty things to say. I'll admit that I laughed out loud a number of times.
22. The Elegence of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery. Originally written in French, the story is funny and has some interesting insights in life, art and social hierarchy. It does seem like the author is trying pretty hard because the vocabulary is out of control. It could have just been the work of the translator though.
21. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou. A very powerful story told in a unique manner about growing up as an African American girl during the Depression in the south.
20. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett. It's an interesting story, but way too much description for me. I wanted some action! Plus, I don't really think I like operas.
19. Son of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef. An amazing account of the creation of Hamas.
18. MockingJay, Suzanne Collins.17. Catch Fire, Suzanne Collins.
16. Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. The whole trilogy was amazing, except relatively terrifying. I read all three books in three days, mostly because I just had to know what happened next. It is supposed to took at the effect war has on children coming of age. It also has some commentary on government. Please note that these books are intense, although targeted for a teenage audience.
15. Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labour in the American Black Market, Eric Schlosser. A great non-fiction book about, well, the title says all.
14. The Worst Date Ever, Jane Bussman. A bizarre account of a celebrity journalist that chases after a world activist and finds herself in Northern Uganda with her first real story. It was ok, but maybe not the best book if you're looking for information about Uganda.
13. High Fidelity, Nick Horby. A 35 year old single man who owns a record shop trying to figure where he went wrong in all his relationships. Hilarious. Watch the movie if you can't get your hands on the book.
12. Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively. Interesting writing style. A story about a novelist writing a "history of the world" which really ends up being a history of her world.
11. The Price of Stones, Twesigye Jackson Kaguri. If you want to know more about the Ugandan school systems and the challenges they face, I recommend the book. He attempts to do what he can by starting a completely free school for HIV/AIDs orphans. Sounds like a great program, but I always warn people to really think about the organizations they give to, and is their money really making a sustainable difference.
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. Classic British novel about vanity.
9. Theft, Peter Carey. Another Australian novel about art and crime. He uses a very unique narrative technique, which kept it interesting, but it was a little hard to relate to some of the characters at times. Fast read though.
8. Torn Birds, Colleen McCullough. An epic romantic tale that takes place in the Australian outback. An amazing book! I didn't want it to end. Honestly, I would recommend it to anyone.
7. Snow, Orhan Pamuk. Originally written in Turkish, it is a fictional book touching on very real political issues in Turkey in the 1990s. Of course, there's a romance story too. It won a Nobel Prize in Literature at some point.
6. Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keiller. Mostly a coming of age story taking place in the Midwest in the 1950s. A funny read.
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. Short, light read. Very heavy on the science fiction bit, which isn't really my scene, but entertaining nonetheless.
4. The Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. A history of science. Although I definitely learned a lot from the book, it was about 200 pages too long with a general the world could end at any point. For hypochondriacs, avoid please.
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow. A story about the German occupation of the English Channel Islands in WWII. It's all written in letters, and it's a light, fun read.
2. Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures), Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait & Andrew Thomson. Memoirs of three authors in the UN Peacekeeping efforts of the 90's. Very interesting and gives a harsh critique of the organization, but sometimes it seems like the writing is over the top (at least in the beginning).
1. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder. Very intellectual and needs to be read carefully! Philosophy meets Alice in Wonderland. Great if you want a crash course to philosophy.
