2012 Book of Books

A while back my sister recommended I start a Book of Books (BOB) to keep track of everything I read. This year I have been recording the books I read in a leather journal. I love my BOB. I feel like it's more personal than a journal, what I read is a large part of who I am. I wanted to share my list, hopefully you will find something to read.

Here is my criteria for rating books:
5 Stars: This book changed my life and I will never be the same. I want to read this book again.
4 Stars: A book that is both incredibly well written and an amazing story.
3 Stars: A good/great book that I would recommend to others. It is well written or has a great story.
2 Stars: The book was just ok, I would not recommend it.
1 Star: This book was terrible and not worth the paper it was printed on.

I did not read any 1 or 2 star books this year, mainly because almost all the books I read were excellent recommendations from my sis. I grouped the books by rating and listed them in alphabetical order .

Five Stars

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Girls by Lori Lansens

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Mudbound by Hiliary Jordan

Room by Emma Donoghue

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Four Stars

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez 

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett

3 Stars 

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan

 Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Peony in Love by Lisa See

Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens

Meet my BOB

The Ham Thief

There is something I have done that has been weighing on my mind and I must confess. When I was down in San Antonio visiting my family before Christmas, my mom was terribly sick with the stomach flu. She had signed up to make the ham for her church's Christmas party so I told her I would take care of it while she rested. The church had purchased the ham and someone brought it over to the house. I made a delicious glaze, cooked the ham and delivered it to the Christmas party. I felt great about the good deed I had done until two days later when I went to put some groceries away and discovered a whole fridge full of ham. I had cooked one package of ham but there was more than 30 pounds of ham was still sitting in our fridge. I accidentally stole the Christmas ham...and from a church! I am Mr. Scrooge and the Grinch who stole Christmas combined. Honestly, I was somewhat horrified and also could not stop laughing. But the least I could do was make sure it didn't go to waste. Over the break, I made holiday ham, ham casseroles, ham and eggs, we gave away some ham. I'm still not sure how I didn't notice all that ham the first night but I was relieved when I found out that there was plenty of food at the Christmas party, if not an abundance of ham.

Who would have thought this little angel would grow up to be a ham thief?