A Place Like This

The Book Reading List

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by

Valarie Budayr
in

~ Each woman walked into the library with an arm full of books, and/or a list of "the must reads" in her life. For me it is one of the greatest times of year when we whittle down the list to just 9 choices of some of our favorites.

Here is what we decided on this year. Let me know if you've read any of these and if you liked them or not.

September: The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede

October: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

November: Still Life by Louise Penny

December: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

January: Honolulu by Alan Brennert

February: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

March: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

April: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

May: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Comments

11 responses to “The Book Reading List”

  1. Linda Avatar
    Linda

    Hi Valarie
    It’s so good to be back and visiting your lovely blog! Thank you so much for the book list:) I think some of these will have to go on my wish list.
    xo
    Linda

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  2. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    I have read almost all of these books. My daughter was assigned “the book thief” for her summer read. I read right along and the two of us had wonderful conversations about it. What a wonderful book.

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  3. Valarie Budayr Avatar
    Valarie Budayr

    It’s so good to see you again Linda. Happy Spring to you.

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  4. Valarie Budayr Avatar
    Valarie Budayr

    Hi Sarah,
    I have to tell you that the Book Thief was my recommendation. Isn’t it fantastic? Love your blog and plan to be back often. Be Well!

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  5. Courtney Avatar
    Courtney

    I’m so excited to see this list! I loved The Help and The Book Thief … I have Henrietta Lacks on my to-read shelf … and I added a few of the others to my Amazon cart! I’ll look forward to hearing your opinions as you work through this list 🙂

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  6. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Valarie, putting up the book covers is a brilliant idea. The beauty and variety of the cover art would entice any reader. You have added a new dimension to book club!

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  7. Down Comforter Avatar
    Down Comforter

    I remember reading the book thief a few summers back, it was such a wonderful book

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  8. The Hausfrau Avatar
    The Hausfrau

    I’ve been wanting to read The Glass Castle for a few years–I’ve heard such good things about it. I’ve read The Book Thief and The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Each is lovely and heartbreaking in its own way. I’ve become a Muriel Barbery fan–I just read another of her translated books; they seem to be translated into English very nicely.

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  9. Ren Avatar
    Ren

    Two of these are on my list-
    The Help I reviewed on my blog-
    and The Power of One is one of my all time favorite books- I have that written on the wall of my older monkeys room-
    such a great book-
    Have you read Pillars of the earth? One of my other favorites
    Thanks for sharing your list!

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  10. Gypsy Forest Avatar
    Gypsy Forest

    My 9th grade boy is trying to talk his English teach into using The Book Thief as their next class book. One great thing about high school so far has been that every day the boy comes home and shares all the “stuff” he is learning….. he’s always been the type that needs to talk about what he learns to remember it…. I certainly appreciate the sharing…. and honors literature classes are very fun to discuss while prepping dinner 😉

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  11. Lovely World Avatar
    Lovely World

    I have read The Glass Castle, The Book Thief, and The Help. I liked them all. I have tried to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, but couldn’t get going with it. Perhaps the translation is not quite right? Our book group is meeting this week (I’m hosting!) to put together our list for the year. I’m going to suggest Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Happy reading.

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