I’m trying to read 52 books in 2012. I’m falling behind, but here’s the list (some of them are incredibly embarrassing – deal with it!). I’ve included a parenthetical with book genre/type so you can get a hint before clicking, and I’ve marked in bold the ones I liked the best. And, at the bottom, I share some book recommendations.
Goal: 52 books in 2012
- Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (health/nutrition)
- The Getaway Car by Ann Patchett (micro-memoir about writing)
- The Baby Chase by Holly Finn (micro-memoir about fertility)
- Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson (web content strategy)
- Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redish (web content strategy)
- History of a Suicide by Jill Bialosky (memoir about her sister’s suicide)
- Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett (fiction)
- How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston (satirical memoir)
- Epilogue by Anne Roiphe (memoir about life after her husband’s death)
- Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (fiction)
- Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (fiction)
- Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott (memoir)
- The Accidental Buddhist by Dinty Moore (memoir)
- Chi Marathon by Danny and Katherine Dreyer (running form)
- Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden (nonfiction, on escape from an internment camp in North Korea)
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed (memoir on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail)
- Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman (fiction)
- No Cheating No Dying by Elizabeth Weil (memoir)
- Torch by Cheryl Strayed (fiction)
- The Pages by Murray Bail (fiction)
- Most Talkative by Andy Cohen (memoir)
- Wanderlust and Lipstick by Beth Whitman (travel guide)
- Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson (nonfiction)
- Project Happily Ever After by Alisa Bowman (memoir)
- Running with the Mind of Meditation by Sakyong Mipham (instruction/memoir)
- Where I Was From by Joan Didion (memoir/history of California)
- Pill Head by Joshua Lyon (drug memoir)
- Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan (fiction/beach read)
- Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith (memoir)
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (fiction)
- Love and Other Infectious Diseases by Molly Haskell (memoir)
- Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
- Fifty Shades Darker by EL James
- Delicacy by David Foenkinos (fiction)
- It Chooses You by Miranda July (interviews/narrative)
- Fifty Shades Freed by EL James
- Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott
- Just After Sunset by Steven King
Recommended books
This is gonna look to some like the good little reader’s guide to writers, but what can I say? I did get my MFA and I did fall in love with the required reading lists.
Short stories
- Like Life by Lorrie Moore
- Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
- The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
- Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
Memoirs
- Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
- Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
On writing
- The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter
- On Writing by Stephen King
see molly run (away) 
Hey Molly. I’m a bit of a bookworm, albeit academic the last couple years. But while traveling the world in wanderlust, I got lost in quite a few. So I’ll recommend some…because I like memoirs, semi-autobiographical, or ones that are so damn good they seem like true life. The first two I still have and would give to you: 1) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress; 2) The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls has a new one out that I’m dying to read; 3) Cupcake Brown; 4) Life of Pi; 5) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; 6) Into Thin Air; 7) A Walk in the Woods; 8) The Comedy Writer. #1 and #4 are novels. #8 is semi-autobiographical. Good luck, and great blog! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Mark! I love these recs. I’ve read #2, 6 and 7. We have the same taste, I see. I’ll check out the others! :)
I have a similar reading goal this year, and here are the few books I’ve loved most in 2012:
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Just Kids by Patti Smith (I can tell you love a good memoir, and this is a great one.)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith (Another memoir, and a heartbreaking one at that.)
Thanks for your recs! I have had Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight on my to-read list for years. It’s time.
Ooh, I haven’t read any of those. Adding #2 to my list for sure. I also need to actually, you know, find some time to read again. I’ve been kinda slacking.
One of the best books I ever read (and one of the few I read more than once) was when I had just graduated college and I was still trying to figure out life. I’m STILL trying to figure out life, of course, and I still love this book. :-) It’s called Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller.
Thanks, Gina! I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.
Along with the books I suggested on the train from Aguas Calientes to Costco, I think you would like my book! Pill Pushers! It’s on Amazon and you can download it to your Kindle.
Thank you, Ces! I still have your list of recommendations and just need to carve out some reading time here soon!