To Read List

A few months ago I decided I wanted to use my to read list on Goodreads differently. Instead of using it as a junk drawer for every book that ever remotely caught my interest or was liked and recommended by a friend, I wanted to try to get closer to limiting it to books I actually do intend to track down and read. At that time it had something like 277 books on it, and when I went through and deleted all of the ones that, let’s face it, I am probably not actually going to read, it was down to 75, give or take a few.  I thought it might be a fun challenge to take whatever books remained on January 1 and make that my reading list for the coming year. I have since remembered, though, that that is completely unrealistic for my spontaneous nature and ever-changing interests and attention span. Still, I do intend to make a serious effort to knock most, if not all, of them out (or remove them from the list). As of this morning, my list holds 57 books (and my currently reading list has 7 more titles today). I figure I will read about 60 books this year, but obviously many will be ones I come across throughout the year. I’m a sucker for a beautiful cover at the library, a recommend from a trusted reader friend or a podcast, a book club selection, a random find at the bookstore or garage sale, a nostalgic grab from my parents’ basement, the next book in a series, a book one of my kids wants to read together. You get the idea.

So, with all those disclaimers, here is my ridiculously long and deliberately unrealistic current to read list for 2017 in no particular order:

• The remaining books in Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series (I’m ready to start number 8 10)
• The remaining books in Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time Quintet (I’ve only read A Wrinkle in Time, the first one)
• Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

(the rest of this list is my Goodreads to-read list as of today)

• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul, by Hannah Anderson
• Columbine, by Dave Cullen
• You Are What You Love, The Spiritual Power of Habit, by James K. A. Smith
• Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism, by Drew G. I. Hart
• The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football, by Jeff Benedict
• Brave Companions, by David McCullough
• Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
• The Spirit of Food: Thirty-four Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God, by Leslie Leyland Fields
• The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, by Rachel Corbett (lost interest, at least for now)
• The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
• Prophetic Lament, A Challenge to the Western Church, by Soong-Chan-Rah
• Swing Time, by Zadie Smith
• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
• The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
• When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
• The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
• Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from  Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith, by D. L. Mayfield
• Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
• Shtum, by Jem Lester
• This Is Only a Test, by B. J. Hollars
• Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
• A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power, by Paul Fischer (started audio book but realized I’m just not as interested as when I first heard about it)
• The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm
• The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt
• Morningside Heights, by Cheryl Mendelson
• Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein
• Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
• My Life in France, by Julia Child
• On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, by Andrew Peterson
• A Girl from Yamhill, by Beverly Cleary
• Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty
• The Company She Keeps, by Mary McCarthy
• Time and Again, by Jack Finney
• The Power of One, by Bruce Courtenay
• Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More–Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist, by Karen Swallow Prior
• The Cranes Dance, by Meg Howrey
• The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, by Nadia Hashimi
• Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto (read Moshi Moshi by same author)
  
• Mosquitoland, by David Arnold (abandoned after first chapter)
• Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer, by Micha Boyett
• My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, by Christian Wiman
• Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry
• A Lantern in Her Hand, by Bess Streeter Aldrich
• Everything You Ever Wanted: A Memoir, by Jillian Lauren
• Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World, by N. D. Wilson
• Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
• Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace, by Walter Wangerin Jr.
• Night, by Elie Wiesel
• Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks, by Andrea Lankford
• Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian, by Wesley Hill
• Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech
• The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection, by Robert Farrar Capon
• The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
• The Seven Good Years, by Etgar Keret