In addition to the wonderful blogs that I read on a regular basis, I read books. Make no mistake about it, I also watch TV and laze about at times. But I do read, usually a bit each day.
I have read and recommend:
- The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
- Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women edited by Candace Walsh
- The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup
- The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life by Rod Dreher
- Lost Edens by Jamie Patterson
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell
Some of my all-time favorites include:
- The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball
- Good to Great by David Brooks
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Paula by Isabel Allende
- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafon
I always am looking for book recommendations. If you have one, please contact me.
It Started With Coeur d'Alene 
Greetings, Taline, Sister of the travelling big girl pants. May I comment on your reading list? I just compiled a dozen of my last year’s reads to send as a New Year card. Maybe I’ll get it out by Valentine’s Day.
Unfortunately, anything I read more than 10 minutes ago registers as thumbs up or down, but I can’t really remember to comment on specifics. Shadow of the Wind is one of my favorites, too, also Another Bullshit Night…. This year I enjoyed two books each by two writers, three of them historical fiction. Geraldine Brooks Year of Wonder (a young woman coming of age in a plague-quarantined town) and Caleb’s Crossing (based on the relations between English and Wampanoag on Martha’s Vineyard and the first native american to attend Harvard. Her descriptions of place and the details of the times are beautiful. Leonard Pitts Jr’s Freeman may be familiar to you–a freed slave from the north journeying to find his lost wife in the south (and more)–but fewer people are familiar with Before I Go a father-son road trip under trying circumstances as the father sorts through his identity in light of a new Alzheimer’s diagnosis. If you want the rest of the list, email me! Meanwhile, I’ll get started on reading from your list.