2014 Book List

So I've seen a bunch of people make book lists for 2014.  My favorite lists, though,  have been the ones that are broken up into months, because otherwise I'd just save all the books on my list for October-December and read other random books throughout the year... which means I'd be mad at myself at the end of the year.  I still think I'll end up reading more books that aren't on the list, but at least I'll have some sort of structure.  Yay. 

I've chosen to be super ambitious with this list, because I want to write my book this year and if I'm going to be good at writing I need to read more.  That and because why not be ambitious?

Here goes.

January

1. Finish The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. O Albany by William Kennedy

3. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafazi

4. Why Me? by Sarah Burleton

5. Why Them? by Sarah Burleton

February

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green

7. Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

8. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
9. Finish Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

10. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

March

11. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente

12. Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornell West

13. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark

14. Beloved by Toni Morrison

15. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

April

16. Finish The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell

17. Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

18. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

19. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

May

20. Teachers United: The Rise of New York State United Teachers by Dennis Gaffney

21. The Marriage Plot: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

22. At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks

23. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

24. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

June

25. Finish Red China Blues by Jan Wong

26. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning (British Library Writers' Lives Series) by Martin Garrett

27. Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth

28. The Tain: Translated from the Irish Epic Tain Bo Cuailnge by Thomas Kinsella

July

29. The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay

30. The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin

31. The Charm School by Nelson DeMille

32. Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

August

33. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

34. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

35. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

36. Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World’s Largest Animal by Dan Bortolotti

September

37. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

38. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

39. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

40. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

October

41. Finish Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

42. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance by James C. Scott

43. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

44. The Lost Daughter: A Memoir by Mary Williams

November

45. Adam in Eden by Carlos Fuentes

46. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

47. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

48. Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang

December

49. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

50. The Confessions of St Augustine

51. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

52. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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Charlotte

100 Little Things in 2014

    100 Little Things in 2014

1. Pay off my Discover Card.

2. Pay off my Kohls Card.

3. Pay off my LB Card.

4. (See a pattern here?) Pay towards my student loans every month.

5. Make a table out of old hard cover books.

6. Go to at least ten bars/restaurants I haven’t been to before.

7. Get all of my teeth fixed.

8. Get really good at doing my hair…without getting it thinned first.

9. Make a reading list. (And, you know, complete it.)

10. Get this artwork.

11. Watch 10 documentaries.

12. Make Risotto.

13. Plant an urban garden. (Think something like this, this, or this. )

14. Have an Indiana Jones marathon.

15. Blog at least once a week.

16. Make pillows.

17. Go to church every week.

18. Get back to my ideal weight.

19. Read more poetry.

20. Listen to a lot of music.  Not just what’s on the radio.

21. See a play.

22. Make a pie from scratch once a month.

23. Stop avoiding being photographed.

24. Play more basketball.

25. Go to the farmer’s market more often.

26. Finish my book.

27. Cut back on drinking Coke.

28. Stop saying “no” to going out.

29. Get a long term plus one.  (For Kayce & Alison ;)

30. Make a quilt.  Or at least try.  Or pick out patterns.  Or something.

31. Go on a boat.

32. Go to a baseball game.

33. Go to the doctors that I’ve been avoiding for years.

34. Read the Bible.

35. Make onion rings.

36. Make cool tile coasters for the apartment.

37. Hike more.

38. Have a Disney movie marathon.

39. Come up with more really awful, corny jokes.

40. Go rock climbing.

41. Go to a zoo.

42. Grow herbs in mason jars.

43. Build something out of old stuff and material from Habitat.

44. Do this for someone.

45. Find a really cool cookie jar.  Fill it.

46. Get better at praying.

47. Get a pet.  (No pets allowed in this apartment, so it’s got to be a fish or a frog…)

48. Go on more dates.

49. Up my fake jewelry collection.

50. Watch movies.  I mean “classics” that everyone has seen except me.

51. Find little bookstores.

52. Buy a nice dress.

53. Paint our coffee table.

54. Make those cool cakes and pies in a jar!

55. Write kids stories.

56. Get more involved with the Prisoner Justice Network.

57. Do more work for Citizen Action.

58. Figure out how to copy Panera’s breakfast soufflés.

59. Stop taking ibuprofen.

60. Go whale watching.

61. Search for the best cheeseburger in the region.

62. Write to Martin Sheen.

63. Save money.  Even if it’s $400… better than zero.

64. Paint.

65. Build a small bookcase.

66. Learn about saints.  Like at least six.

67. Learn about space.

68. Learn about whales.

69. Read news sources from other countries.

70. Go sledding.

71. Play tennis.

72. Visit a museum.

73. Watch a ton of musicals.

74. Sing the songs from those musicals. 

75. Make curtains for my brother’s and sisters’ rooms. 

76. Learn how to make soft pretzels.

77. Host game day/game night.

78. Take the LSATs, but just for fun and to try to beat my last score.

79. Eat less fast food.

80. Make Indian food.

81. Get stationary and send letters to people.  Mail that isn’t bills makes people happy.

82. Eat a snow cone.

83. Make a lamp.

84. Watch more Yankees games.

85. Watch this documentary about NASA.

86. Make homemade chicken noodle soup.

87. Get oxfords.

88. Pick flowers and throw those bad boys in a mason jar.

89. Perfect my chocolate chip cookies recipe.

90. Go to New Hampshire.

91. Get my make up done in Macys or Sephora.

92. Paint my nails more.

93. Have my friends over and kick their asses at some board game or another.

94. Set aside a day to just jam to Destiny’s Child.  All day.

95. Exercise more.

96. Go bike riding.

97. Put lotion on every day. 

98. Tell people I love them more.  I suck at this. 

99. Go see a drive in movie.

100. Sleep eight hours  a night for one whole week.

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Charlotte