First half of 2016

July 2016
Reviving Old Scratch (Richard Beck)
Pastrix (Nadia Wever-Bolz)

June 2016 (3/25)

The Heart of Henri Nouwen (R. Laird)
Hide (Lisa Gardner. CD)
John Barleycorn (Jack London)

May 2016 (8/22)

Stranger in Paradise (Jesse Stone #7)

Catalyst (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Prayer (Tim Keller)

Impossible Knife of Memory (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

Angels by the River (Gus Speth)

Looking For Alaska (John Green)

Make Me (Jack Reacher #20)

April 2016 (4/14)

Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)

Sleepy Hollow

Chains (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Forge (Laurie Halse Anderson)

March 2016 (2/10)

Peace Like A River (Leif Enger)

The Thing About Jellyfish (Ali Benjamin)

February 2016 (3/8)

Cemetery Dance (Pendergast #9)

Leading With a Limp (Dan Allender)

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Robert Schnase)

January 2016 (5/5)

Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand)

Persuader (Jack Reacher #7)

What’s So Amazing About Grace (Yancey)

Bad Luck and Trouble (Lee Child)

Blasphemy (Child and Preston)

2015 books

December 2015 (3/24)

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

Theodore Boone: The Activist (Grisham)

The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

November 2015 (5/21)

The Worst Hard Time (Tim Egan)

The Devil Wins (Jesse Stone #14)

October 2015 (3/19)

The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

The Call (Adam Hamilton)

Another Day (David Levithan)

September 2015 (2/16)

Watership Down (Richard Adams)

The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)

August 2015 (3/14)

Five Marks of a Methodist (Steve Harper)

Christ of the Celts (Philip Newell)

Modern Romance (Aziz Ansari)

July 2015 (2/11)

Dreamland (Sam Quinones)

Father Joe (Tony Hendra)

June 2015 (1/9)

A Dirty Job (Christopher Moore)

May 2015 (4/8)

The Cost of Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Being Mortal (Atul Gawande)

Holistic Running (Joel Henning)

How We Die (Sherwin Nuland)

April 2015 (4)

March 2015 (4)

February 2015 (3/4)

As You Wish (Cary Elwes)

The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

Blue Labyrinth (Pendergast #14)

January 2015 (1/1)

Kill Devil Hill (Harry Combs)

First half of 2014

Here's what I've read so far in 2014.

The parentheses are (# of books this month) / (# of books this year)

June 2014 (7 / 22)

Divergent (Veronica Roth)

Little Bee (CD. Chris Cleave)

Son (Lois Lowry)

Messenger (Lois Lowry)

Parallel Lies (CD. Ridley Pearson)

Gathering Blue (Lois Lowry)

Twelve Years a Slave (Solomon Northrup)

May 2014 (4 / 15)

Every Day (third reading, to Lexi. Levithan)

The Alchemist (again)

The Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger)

Every Day (second reading, to Lexi. Levithan)

April 2014 (5 / 11)

Stone Cold (Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone #4)

Death in Paradise (Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone #3)

Trouble in Paradise (Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone #2)

The Hard Way (Reacher #10)

Night Passage (Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone #1)

March 2014 (2 / 6)

One Thousand Gifts (Voskamp)

Saints and Villains (ficbio of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, by Denise Giardina)

February 2014 (1 / 4)

Wrestling With An Angel (Greg Lucas, local police officer)

January 2014 (3 / 3)

Lamb (Moore)

The Fairy Tale Detectives (Michael Buckley, Sisters Grimm #1)

Killing Jesus (O'Reilly)

2013 readings

Kerry’s books 2013

38 books

December 2013

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (Isabella Bird)

White Fire (Preston & Child, Pendergast #13)

every day (David Levithan) (loved it!)

Never Go Back (Jack Reacher #18)

Gods and Generals (Jeff Shaara)

November 2013

The Crack in the Wall (Claudia Pineiro)

The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein)

The Winner Stands Alone (Paulo Coelho)

October 2013

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)

September 2013

Killing Kennedy (Bill O'Reilly)

August 2013

The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)

July 2013

Chasing Francis (Ian Kron)

The Wheel of Darkness (Pendergast #8) (Preston & Child)

The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast #3) (Preston & Child)

June 2013

Still Life With Crows (Pendergast #4) (Preston & Child)

The Pearl (John Steinbeck)

Two Graves (Pendergast #12) (Preston & Child)

Ninth Ward (Jewell Parker Rhoads)

Cold Vengeance (Pendergast #11) (Preston & Child)

Fever Dream (Pendergast #10) (Preston & Child)

Anne of Ingleside (Anne #6) (LMMontgomery)

May 2013

Anne’s House of Dreams (Anne #5) (LMMontgomery)

Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne #4) (LMMontgomery)

Anne of the Island (Anne #3) (LMMontgomery)

A Wanted Man (Reacher#17) (Lee Child)

April 2013

Anne of Avonlea (Anne #2) (LMMontgomery)

Anne of Green Gables (Anne #1) (LMMontgomery)

Mister God, This Is Anna (Fynn)

Washed And Waiting (Wesley Hill)

March 2013

The Shack (William Paul Young)

February 2013

The Cure (Lynch, McNicol, Thrall)

Christ Life (A. B. Simpson)

How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

The Harbinger (Jonathan Cahn)

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters (Jan Meeker)

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)

January 2013

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

The Giver (Lois Lowry)

2012 review

The post following this lists the books I read in 2012. Here is my review of the highlights:

I enjoyed very much reading Edward Tulane to my daughter, and Winn-Dixie to my daughter and my wife. I liked Edward Tulane enough to read several others of Kate DiCamillo's books, and I'll read them again.

Second, the cop-thriller books (Karin Slaughter, some of the single authors) were okay, but did not satisfy as much as last year and the year before when I blazed through Lee Child's and Lincoln Child and Doug Preston's books.

I enjoyed my little foray into the Civil War and Lincoln, and I both recommend Bill O'Reilly's book (provided it's accompanied by some other Lincoln stuff) and do NOT recommend the Foreigner's Quest, which seemed like it had too much of an axe to grind. Killer Angels was a re-read, and I would like to read some of the other books in the Shaara / Civil War series.

Girl Meets God was fabulous. Following the church calendar (Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost) Lauren shares her own journey as a young adult from nominally Jewish to Orthodox Jew to Episcopalian.

The Deacon books (Joseph Lallo) are a fantasy trilogy, not available in print, only electronically, I believe (I read it on my nook). Magic, swords, dragons, other creatures, coming-of-age, good-vs-evil. Satisfying, and worth a re-read.

I thought "Why Men Hate Going to Church" offered an insightful and important diagnosis of the gender divide that exists (and has long existed) in The Church. I recommend it for men, women, and people involved in church leadership.

"The Cross in the Closet" is also a recommended read for men, women, and people involved in church leadership. A self-described "evangelical Christian" undertakes a journey of the heart, examining his assumptions about homosexuality and Christianity by living as a gay man for a year.

It has been suggested that I next read Francis Chan's "Erasing Hell" as another approach to the subject of Rob Bell's "Love Wins". I found that Bell asked compelling questions, and then answered them with other compelling questions, and subtly built a foundation on the second-and-third generation of questions. I liked where he started, I'm not sure I'm with him when he ends. I am also 'tempering' my Bell with some Adam Hamilton, who approaches things less amorphously.

2012 readings

26-ish books listed for 2012 ("ish" because I read all 7 books of the Chronicles of Narnia...)

December 2012

Love Wins (Rob Bell)

Because of Winn-Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)

The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo)

The Magician’s Elephant (Kate DiCamillo)

November 2012

Killing Lincoln (Bill O’Reilly)

October 2012

The Cross in the Closet (Timothy Kurek)

Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest (Jan Morris)

Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith (Frederick Owen)

September 2012

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kate DiCamillo)

August 2012

Undone (Karin Slaughter)

Sixkill (Robert Parker)

Girl Meets God: A Memoir (Lauren Winner)

Broken (Karin Slaughter)

July 2012

The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)

Fallen (Karin Slaughter)

June 2012

The Battle of Verril (Joseph Lallo)

The Great Convergence (Joseph Lallo)

The Book of Deacon (Joseph Lallo)

May 2012

Bloodwork (Michael Connelly)

Lost Memory of Skin (Russell Banks)

The Gates (John Connolly)

March 2012

The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)

February 2012

The Midnight Special: A Novel About Leadbelly (Edmund Addeo)

Heaven Is For Real (Todd Burpo)

January 2012

Why Men Hate Going to Church (David Murrow)

Collision (Jeff Abbott)

For One More Day

For One More Day

by Mitch Albom

This book was recommended by a friend. I've read a few other Mitch Albom books (Five People, Have A Little Faith, Tuesdays) and have found them enjoyable... light and deep at the same time, and this was similar. I think Albom has a way of doing that, gently speaking to a hole in your soul that you didn't know was there, and filling it with comfort food. You can read it once and years later remember how it touched you, even if much of the content is forgettable. That's a good thing.