Complete List of Books Read and Reviewed

I am going to keep adding to this list as I read and review books as a handy reference. If I have reviewed the book on my blog you should be able to click on the title to quickly retrieve it.

#-
31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

A-
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Absolute Power by David Baldacci
The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi
All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson
An American Family by Peter Lefcourt
Angel Sister by Ann Gabhart
Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Auschwitz Violin by Maria Angels Anglada

B-
Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson
Beach Trip by Cathy Holton
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Bedlam South by Mark Grisham and David Donaldson
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Black Hills by Dan Simmons
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith
BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker
Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful by Bon Jovi
The Bourne Objective by Eric Van Lustbader
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
The Brave by Nicholas Evans
The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons


C-
The Camel Club by David Baldacci
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons
The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson
The Circle of Friends Book III...James by L. Diane Wolfe
The Circle of Friends Book V...Heather by L. Diane Wolfe
Clair de Lune by Jaretta Carleton
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
Code to Zero by Ken Follett
Come a Little Closer by Dorothy Garlock
Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah
The Cost of Dreams by Gary Stelzer
Cross Country by James Patterson
Cross Currents by John Shors 
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani


D-
Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci
Denise's Daily Dozen by Denise Austin
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
The Dinner by Herman Koch
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau


E-
The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard


F-
Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos 
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans
Finny by Justin Kramon
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich


G-
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson
The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitgerald
Guernica by Dave Boling
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows




H-
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson
Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran 
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
Home in Carolina by Sherryl Woods
The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay
House Rules by Jodi Picoult
How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


I-
In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin
In the Land of Blue Burqas by Kate McCord
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt


J-


K-
Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert
The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory
The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick


L-
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen
The Light, the Dark and Ember Between by J.W. Nicklaus
The Linen Queen by Patricia Falvey
Lone Star Legend by Gwendolyn Zepeda
Lookaway, Lookaway by Wilton Barnhardt
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore
Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith

M-
Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts
The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry
Matrimony by Joshua Henkin
Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
The Missionary by William Carmichael and David Lambert
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
More Than You Know by Penny Vincenzi
My Antonia by Willa Cather


N-
Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
Never Change by Elizabeth Berg
The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinsky
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Night Road by Kristin Hannah 
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

O-
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
One For the Money by Janet Evanovich
One Summer by David Baldacci
Oogy by Larry Levin


P-
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Peony in Love by Lisa See
A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White
The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas
A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman


Q-
The Queen's Vow by C.W. Gortner
The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini



R-
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg 
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescue by Anita Shreve
Room by Emma Donaghue



S-
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
The Scarlet Lettery by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
The Sisters by Nancy Jensen
The Snow Angel by Glenn Beck 
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger
The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe 
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Summer Island by Kristin Hannah
Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson
Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie
Sweet Jiminy by Kristin Gore
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw



T-
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Tea Time for the Tradionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
Testimony by Anita Shreve
Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi
The Third Son by Julie Wu
This One is Mine by Maria Semple
This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury
A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
'Tis the Season by Lorna Landvik
To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
Too Jewish by Patty Friedmann
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent
The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson
The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Two Brothers-One North, One South by David H. Jones
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich


U-
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris


V-
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
The View From Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik
The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crime Units Mystery by Christopher Fowler


W-
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
Where Grace Abides by BJ Hoff
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Whole Truth by David Baldacci
A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans
The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker 
The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar
The World Without You by Joshua Henkin
Worst Case by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge



X-


Y-


Z-

Friday Finds-Jan. 23

Should Be Reading asks you to share what books you discovered this week that interest you!

Here is what I found:

From Amy at Passages to the Past I found Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell.

Here is a brief summary of Signora da Vinci from Penguin Group:
Caterina was fifteen years old in 1452 when she bore an illegitimate child in the tiny village of Vinci. His name was Leonardo, and he was destined to change the world forever.

Caterina suffered much cruelty as an unmarried mother and had no recourse when her boy was taken away from her. But no one knew the secrets of her own childhood, nor could ever have imagined the dangerous and heretical scheme she would devise to protect and watch over her remarkable son. This is her story.

Since I am reading Peony in Love I also stopped over at Lisa See's website because this novel is raising so many questions for me. She really is a very gifted and talented author so when I saw that she has a new novel coming out in May titled Shanghai Girls I decided that I will definitely have to read it!

Isn't this a beautiful cover? The following is a summary from her website:
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business. Though both wave off authority and traditions, they couldn’t be more different. Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life ... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.

At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends, who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection. But like sisters everywhere, they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other but they also know exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other sister the most. Along the way there are terrible sacrifices, impossible choices and one devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel by Lisa See hold fast to who they are – Shanghai girls.

Teaser Tuesday-Jan. 20

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading. TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

My teaser is from Peony in Love by Lisa See because I am still reading it this week:

Below us, New Year's Day arrived. In our ancestral hall, my parents laid out trays of meats, fruits, and vegetables, and I watched as my grandmother's flesh began to fill out.

pg 130

Current Giveaways!

There are certainly enough contests out there to go around...Here are just a few:

The following Blogs are giving away Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas:
Bermudaonion's Weblog--Contest ends 1/21.

Jenn's Bookshelf--Contest ends 1/26.

A Bookworm's World--Contest ends 1/29.

At Home With Books--Contest ends 1/29.

Booking Mama--Contest ends 1/30.

A couple other contests are:

Peeking Between the Pages is giving away a copy of The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. Contest ends 1/23.

S. Krishna's Books is giving away a copy of Fashionably Late by Nadine Dajani. Contest ends 1/25.

Passages to the Past is giving away a copy of Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell. Contest ends 1/28.

Jenn's Bookshelf is also giving away a couple of audiobooks, which include The Terror by Dan Simmons and the Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood. Contest ends 1/31.

Well good luck everyone!

My Rating System

I have decided to start rating the books that I read as I have noticed that a few others already do this. I sometimes do put a rating after my book review so I thought it would be a good idea to give an explanation of how my ratings work.

Book's Ahoy! and At Home With Books both have similar rating systems to the one that I will be using. So here is my method:

5/5= I loved this book and would definitely suggest this book for personal reading or a book club.

4/5= I really enjoyed this book and would suggest it for others to read.

3/5= I probably liked this book, I may suggest to others to read, depending upon the content.

2/5= I didn't really enjoy this book, but I did finish reading it. Probably would not suggest for others to read.

1/5= I did not like this book at all and definitely would not suggest it to others.

Lemonade Award!

I feel just so honored to have received the Lemonade Award from the Desert Rose Booklogue! I don't think that I could accept this award without thanking all of the blogs that blogged before me! Thank you all!

The Lemonade Award is for blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude. Now I'm supposed to pass it on... I know a few of you have recently received this award, but I am giving it to you again because you are so fabulous that you deserve to receive it more than once! Since no specific number of blogs was indicated I am passing this award to...

she reads and reads

TexasRed Books

Lezlie from Books 'N Border Collies

Dar from Peeking Between the Pages

Ellie from 52 Books and 52 Weeks

Kathy from Bermudaonion's Weblog

There are so many more out there that deserve this award but please check out these blogs and you will see how awesome they really are!

Teaser Tuesday-Jan. 13

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading. TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

This week my teaser is from Peony in Love by Lisa See:

I didn't know why Mama was upset.

"My daughter isn't feeling well," Mama confided to the mothers around her, "and I'm afraid she's forgotten what's proper."

pg 50