2011 Books Read

Under the weather today, always seems to occur on the weekends, why can't I get sick mid-week?

This year I didn't read many books, too tired at the end of the day to get through many chapters.  Only 19 books this year counting the one I currently am reading. Listed in starting order.

1. Gideon's Month, J.J. Marric. Gideon is a Scotland yard Detective. Read it in one day while at UMASS at Amherst with the younger child.
2. Gideon's wrath, J.J. Marric. J.J. Marric is actually John Creasey.
3. Death of a Chimney Sweep, M.C. Beaton. A Hamish Macbeth murder mystery series, Hamish is a Scottish Highlands Police officier who tries hard not to get promoted and moved from his lovely village.
4. Life, Keith Richards. I found it hard to understand at times. I did not find it great.
5. Growing a Farmer, Kurt Timmermeister. Very Good. Each chapter was about a different aspect of the author becoming a farmer. Somethings worked out and somethings did not, though Kurt always kept going. The saddest point of the book was the story of a little lamb out in a field. The events of the book took place over 20 years, but it doesn't read that way.
6. Half Empty, David Rakoff. (DNF) Too many books out there that I want to read to force myself to finish one I just didn't enjoy.
7. The Book Stops Here, Ian Samson. (DNF) 2 Guys, a Bookmobile and a trip to London. Made 2 attempts, I won't be making another.
8. Wycliff and the Gilt Edged Alibi, W.J. Burley. English Detective, Enjoyable.
9. Dragon, Clive Cusler. These are good reads, very formulaic, but enjoyable and usually include some outlandish technology that actually exists.
10. 3 Bags Full, A Sheep Detective Story, original in German by Leonie Swann. Told from the point of view of the sheep, whose shepherd has been murdered. Excellent.
11. Steppenwolf Herman Hesse. Read it in High School, still over my head.
12. Death in a Salubrious Place, W.J. Burley. Enjoyable.
13. Churchill, Paul Johnson. Interesting, not the thickest of the Churchill biographies.
14. The Tao of Pooh. Benjamin Hoff. 
15. Travels with My Aunt, Graham Greene. My Traditional Summer read, as good as ever.
16. Aunt Dimity Slays a Dragon, Nancy Atherton. American lady living in a little village in the Cotswolds of England solves crimes with the help of a dead fake Aunt with whom she communicates by writing in a book and reading what the old lady writes back. Actually enjoyable.
17. Blood Rain, Michal Dibden. A Aurelio Zen Mystery story. We saw 3 of Dibden's adaptations on PBS's Mystery. The stories take place in modern day Italy where Zen works as a Detective. Very good.
18. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco. Read it before after seeing the movie (Starred Sean Connery).

Still have piles of books to read.