Monday, December 30, 2013

Our Books for 2014

Believe it or not, this is our fourth year of committing to reading books from our To Be Read (TBR) piles and reporting on them on this here blog! (Our lists from 2011-2013 can be found over in the sidebar for anyone interested in delving deeper.)

Without further ado, here are our planned books to read in 2014...

 Jenny's Books
Here is a screen cap of the books Jenny has chosen:
(click to see that bigger)

In alphabetical order, they are:
  1. All the Names by Jose Saramago (12.25.14)
  2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (6.23.14)
  3. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (6.8.14)
  4. How Fiction Works by James Wood (5.4.14)
  5. Life with my Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone (8.29.14)
  6. Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin (11.1)
  7. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (8.22.14)
  8. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 by Tony Judt
  9. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power (3.15.14)
  10. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1.25.14)
  11. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
  12. Solar by Ian McEwan (9.20.14)
  13. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (12.20.14)
  14. The Widow's War by Sally Gunning (8.5.14)
Kelly's Books
Here is a screen cap of the books Kelly has chosen:
(click to see that bigger)

In alphabetical order, they are:
  1. Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle (12.01.14)
  2. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (05.15.14)
  3. Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis by Mark Binellimk (06.13.14)
  4. Digressions on Some Poems By Frank O'Hara: A Memoir by Joe LeSueur (08.12.14)
  5. Don't Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis 
  6. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (08.21.14)
  7. On Being Brown: What It Means to Be a Cleveland Browns Fan by Scott Huler (08.15.14)
  8. On Writing by Stephen King (01.20.14)
  9. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (09.22.14)
  10. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (04.16.14)
  11. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (11.21.14)
  12. The Size of Thoughts by Nicholson Baker (12.29.14)
  13. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi 
  14. Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet by Tim Gunn (1.03.15 <-- Yes. Three days late.)
We each have 14 books on our lists -- 12 for 12 months, plus two alternates, just in case we cannot stand a couple of them. We will then write about them on this blog (Be forewarned: we are full of spoilers) and then we will cross 'em off on this list by linking to our reviews/reports.

This is part of the 2014 TBR Pile Challenge at Roof Beam Reader -- the site that originally lit the fires under our butts to get us working on our TBR piles in 2011. (Once again, thank you, Adam!) And now? We're clearly hooked.


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    7 comments:

    1. JennyDecember 30, 2013 at 11:02 PM

      K,

      I was totally wondering if you were going to put Don't Know Much About History on your shelf for the third year in a row! My only repeater is Purple Hibiscus, which I *meant* to read in December, but I forgot it at work! So I guess I'll just get to it in January.

      I think the biggest thing for me is that I intentionally dialed back some of the huge, long non-fiction books and tried to stock it with more novels. I'm afraid that since I'm starting graduate school, I won't have time for 800 pages about xyz war, etc.

      Excited!
      Jenny

      ReplyDelete
    2. kellyDecember 31, 2013 at 12:07 PM

      I'm going to read it as my FIRST book this year and finally get that thing over with! (Alternatively, I will read one chapter per month and finish the year with it...) (Already I am waffling, which does not bode well for the completion of that book.)

      One of the books on my list has got to be my longest possessed never-read book: Presumed Innocent. I was given that book in *college* by someone who said I reminded them of one of the main characters. 20 years later, I'm finally going to read it!

      I have committed to dumping books in 2014 if I do not like them so this might finally be the year I pick up one of the alternates. (Hunchback of Notre Dame, I am looking at you -- I am skeptical as to whether you will keep my interest... we shall see.)

      ReplyDelete
    3. JennyDecember 31, 2013 at 10:34 PM

      Do you go into a year knowing which 2 are your alternates? I just pick any 14 I want to read, and the alternates are the 2 I don't get to...

      J

      ReplyDelete
    4. kellyJanuary 1, 2014 at 9:19 AM

      I'm the same way. I just start plowing through them and the final 2 have become the "alternates."

      ReplyDelete
    5. JennyDecember 25, 2014 at 6:50 PM

      And with that, I move on to the pleasant task of picking out the rest of my 2015 books. Of course, that's sort of hard to do when I'm away from my bookshelves--but still! A new year, a new TBR pile!

      ReplyDelete
    6. JennyDecember 30, 2014 at 3:12 PM

      I'll say this. I think it's time to give up forever on Don't Know Much About History...

      It's been on the list for how many years now? Time to donate it!

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. kellyDecember 30, 2014 at 3:29 PM

        Oh, it's already gone. It went in the donation box a couple of months ago.

        (I've been abandoning with abandon this year!!)

        Delete

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