To Be Read: 2016

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I am working through my To Be Read shelf and tracking the books I read in an effort to be more mindful. I separated the books in the living room by categories: decoration, interviews, music, etc, and pulled out 33 books that I haven’t yet read. These are paper copies only- we are not counting the 80 something unread books on my Kindle or the unread books upstairs, in the nonfiction category or in the kids’ rooms! The goal here is threefold: to be more mindful about my reading by tracking and recapping the books I read, to clear out some more space on my shelves as I am not sure that all these will be books to keep and to get back in the habit of reading “real” books, instead of spending so much time mindlessly on my phone.

As I went through the books, arranged on the shelves in alphabetical order by author, I noticed a few themes: Jane Austen, pretty covers, stories about women. I’m not sure in what order I am going to tackle them: maybe by theme, probably by length and ease of reading (especially during those crazy crunch times). As I finish each book, my goal is to write a short post that captures my impressions or feelings about it, then link to the post here so that I have an a somewhat complete record of the year.

I say “somewhat complete” because these probably won’t be all the books I read this year. I have a bunch of unread books on my Kindle, quite a few preorders that will be coming, a whole slew of holds at the Library, not to mention reading club. What a difficult problem to have!

• The Truth About Mr Darcy by Susan Adriani
• 52 Loaves by William Alexander
• Mr Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston
• I Love You More than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
• The Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
• The Weed the Strings The Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
• Exiles in America by Christopher Bram
• The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
• Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch
• The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
• Under Wildwood by Meloy Ellis
• The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
• Keep Calm and Carry a Big Drink by Kim Gruenenfelder
• Mrs Kimble by Jennifer Heigh
• Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
• Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell
• Land Girls by Angela Huth
• The Jane Austen Marriage Manual by Kim Izzo
• Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James
• The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James
• The One I left Behind by Jennifer McMahon
• The Ladies Auxilliary by Tova Mirvis
• Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
• The Frog Prince by Jane Porter
• Mrs Perfect by Jane Porter
• The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley
• French Lessons by Ellen Sussman
• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
• The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester