Books read in 2005
1. Truth Be Told by Victoria Christopher Murray (bookclub - Jan 2005) Not really a fan of christian-based fic because often it can be a little heavy-handed. But I did enjoy the story that the author told. She didn't shy away from sex either, which is sometimes a factor in the christian-based fic that I've read. They lead you right up that point and then sort of fade to black. She wasn't graphic or anything, but she didn't leave you to your own imagination. I sound like a perv I'm sure, but I enjoy a good sex scene.
2. A Journey To Here by Margaret Johnson-Hodge (bookclub - Feb 2005) Good story. Wanted to dropkick the main character's daughter a couple of times though.
3. The Broker by John Grisham (personal - March 2005) Made me want to learn Italian. And move to Italy. One of my favorite books so far that he's written.
4. Threesome by Brenda L. Thomas (recommended by a friend - March 2005) My bookclub was going to host a party for the author and one of the other members wanted me to read her other books before she came. I mentioned loving a good sex scene and this book had some hot moments, but I don't like the author's writing style. Plus she's a bit raunchy and that can take me right out of story sometimes. I thought the story was a bit far-fetched and I didn't like that she misspelled Cristal twice in the first few chapters. If you're going to try to convey that your characters are rich and living it up, get the details right!!
5. Four Play by Brenda L. Thomas (read for the same reason as the book above - April 2005) Didn't misspell Cristal anymore, but the same things apply. Same characters from Threesome. Plot still unbelievable. Raunchy x-rated action almost made up for most of the problems I had with this story, but I think she overdoes it sometimes.
6. The Velvet Rope by Brenda L. Thomas (bookclub - April 2005) Read only because we were hosting a reception for the author. Kind of took place in the same universe as Threesome and Four Play, but with different characters. So basically, the same unbelievability in plot but raunchy sex. The author again went a little overboard with some of the sexual encounters and managed to take me out of the story a few times.
7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (bookclub - May 2005) I enjoyed this story a lot. It was slow at times, but I didn't mind it. It made me laugh at times and made me want to cry at others.
8. The King of Torts by John Grisham (personal - May 2005) I am a JG fan and I'm trying to catch up on all the books I've missed over the years. I love his lawyer stories even though they all sort of run into each other. This story was a bit different in that you couldn't really predict the outcome. At least you couldn't right away. I was thinking it would end differently so I guess he wasn't too predictable.
9. The Last Juror by John Grisham (personal - June 2005) Loved it, loved it, loved it. It takes place in the same place as A Time to Kill which is another one of my favorite JG novel's, but they're not related even though he used some of the same characters. This book was enjoyable and I loved trying to figure out what was going to happen in the end. It was funny and sad and I cried a little at the end.
10. A Little Piece of Sky by Nicole Bailey Williams (bookclub - June 2005) This book was less than 200 pages and I finished it in about 3 hours. Even though it was a short read, it was very good. Every chapter was short but sweet, packing so much into a few words.
11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (personal - July 2005)
This book was up for selection by the bookclub, but everytime it was picked or I mentioned it, it was vetoed. Many were apprehensive because they heard it was sad and didn't want to get into it. So I just read it on my own. After reading it, I didn't think it was as sad as I was led to believe. I enjoyed it and I did get emotionally involved with the characters, but the tears I was expecting didn't come. And I like to think that I'm a sensitive person. I think it helped that the main focus of the book was also the narrator and there was some humor to go along with the sorrow of the whole thing. This is one of the favorites that I've read so far.
12. Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin. (bookclub - July 2005)
This book was about 300 pages and all the whole thing takes place on one day. It focuses on 4 people with a lot of flashbacks that tell how they came to be where they are when the book starts. James Baldwin writes beautifully and all, but when you just want to get to the point, the details of what the air was like or what the park looks like or what it smells like, just aren't that important to me. I think because I was trying to read it in a short amount of time, I didn't have patience for it and I skimmed some of the more descriptive passages if I saw that it wasn't telling me anything about the character. I really wanted to read his book, Giovanni's Room more than this one, so I wasn't giving this book my full attention. Most of the girls in the club couldn't get into it either.
13. Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Stefans (straight up personal selection - July 2005) I feel bad saying it, but this was the most fun book to read. I read it in like a 24 hour period. I couldn't put it down. I love gossip and she gave good gossip. Sure she was pretty much a whore, but I actually felt a little bad for her at times. There was a section on P-Diddy and Xzibit that made me laugh till I cried and made me see that the rumors about Diddy's sexuality are probably not so farfetched. I love Xzibit more than ever, even if he did sleep with her. At least he wasn't married like some of the others.
14. The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan (bookclub - Aug 2005) The title fits this book so well. The book started off slow. So slow that while reading the first chapter, I got so bored that I started daydreaming. I didn't pick it back up for another week, mainly because I had to read it before we had our meeting. I ended up liking it a lot. There were so many things happening to Marilyn (the main character) all at once, it was making ME tired. I didn't like the way it ended though. And they introduced a character in a way that made you think he would be a pivotal to the story, but he didn't contribute anything. Or, I guess I should say that he wasn't brought into the story to do what I (or my bookclub) thought he would do.
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (personal - Aug 2005) Someone in one of the communities I read mentioned the book and I thought it sounded interesting. It is probably one of the best books I've read all year. I loved it. I was almost finished with it before I remembered that it was fiction.
16. Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold. (personal - Aug 2005) After reading The Lovely Bones I wanted to read more by Alice Sebold. Lucky starts off by describing Alice's brutal rape while she was in college. By page 18, I was crying. It feels weird to say that I enjoyed the book because of the subject matter, but it became more than just the story of the girl that got raped. It was about how she changed after the rape and how the people around her changed and how she survived it all. The parts I really liked are spoilerish, so I'll just stop here.
17. Kindred by Octavia Butler (online bookclub - Aug 2005) I'm part of an online discussion group, which isn't working out that well, but I kept hearing about this author and this book, so I decided to read it when it was selected. I enjoyed it a lot. It may well be my favorite book I've read so far this year. Octavia Butler is a science fiction writer and all of her other books seem to be more about that than this one was. I couldn't put this one down and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about reading it.
18. A Change is Gonna Come by Jacqueline Thomas. (bookclub -Aug 2005) It was okay. It was another Christian-based book. Which I don't really like reading, mainly because I feel that they can be a bit heavy handed at times. I thought the author's writing style was a little "see spot run" for me. Its books like this that make me think I could write a book one day if this person got a book published.
19. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. (personal - Sept 2005) LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT. This one is now my favorite of the year. I've been wanting to read this for a few years and just never got to it until now. I was a little discouraged when I first started reading it because it couldn't hold my attention right away. I put it down for a bout a week and a half before I started reading again. After that, it was a breeze. I loved trying to visualize the surroudings and trying to pronouce the Japanese words. This was another book that I thought about when I wasn't reading it. I had a dream about it one night right about the time I was like a chapter away from the end. I don't think I've ever had a dream about a book I was reading before. I can't wait to see the movie.
20. The Between by Tananarive Due (personal - Sept 2005) Had some interesting parts, but I found myself skipping over the dream sequences a lot. They just went on too long and I found them to be a bit boring. Skipping those was a bit of a mistake because near the end, they would reference what happened in the dreams and I didn't really know what they were talking about. However, it didn't really take away from the premise of the book. I didn't like the way it ended at all, but I wasn't surprised.
21. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due (personal - Oct 2005) I LOVED this book. This was another book that stayed on my mind when I wasn't reading it and I cancelled plans one day because I was almost done with it and I didn't want to stop reading. I wish it had ended differently, though. It left a lot of things open, like the author may have had continuing the story at a later date. I did learn not to automatically assume that just because it says that someone is "immortal" it means they're a vampire. I kept waiting for someone to vamp out or retreat from the sunlight.
22. Second Sunday by Michelle Andrea Brown (bookclub - Nov 2005) Sequel to Churckfolk, which my bookclub read last year. There were some parts that had me laughing a lot, but overall, I didn't like this book as much as I liked Churchfolk. Actually, I'm not a fan of this author's writing, but growing up in a black church, I could relate to the story. A little.
23. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner (personal - Nov 2005) After reading and loving Good In Bed and In Her Shoes, I've become a fan of Jennifer Weiner. I think its the lesser book of the other two, but still enjoyable. I will be reading her latest book Goodnight Nobody. Someday.
24. Partners to History by Donzaleigh Abernathy (personal - Nov 2005) Someone mentioned reading Ralph Abernathy's autobiography and I'd ended up reserving this one from the library as well. The story and the pictures were so moving, and I got emotional over all of it. I've read so much about Martin Luther King Jr over the years and had never heard much about Ralph Abernathy and I'm really enjoying learning about him and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
25. Dress Your Family in Courdoroy by David Sedaris (personal - Dec 2005) Well, after reading about how funny David Sedaris is and how funny his books are, I decided to see what the library had. I have learned not to trust other opinions because while there were some very funny chapters in the book, it wasn't the laugh riot I expected. Still, I enjoyed his writing and I enjoyed the book, so I decided to read the others, in order, because some of this stuff was so inside, I'm sure it was explained in an earlier book.
26. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (personal - Dec 2005-technically I finished 1/1/06, but that was the last chapter, so whatever) A little funnier than the first one I read, and I was right about missing some stuff because I read them out of order. I liked this one better that Cordoroy. I think I'll read some of his other books because I liked the format of each chapter being a story picked from his life. I could put the book down and start reading something else and not worry about missing anything.
2. A Journey To Here by Margaret Johnson-Hodge (bookclub - Feb 2005) Good story. Wanted to dropkick the main character's daughter a couple of times though.
3. The Broker by John Grisham (personal - March 2005) Made me want to learn Italian. And move to Italy. One of my favorite books so far that he's written.
4. Threesome by Brenda L. Thomas (recommended by a friend - March 2005) My bookclub was going to host a party for the author and one of the other members wanted me to read her other books before she came. I mentioned loving a good sex scene and this book had some hot moments, but I don't like the author's writing style. Plus she's a bit raunchy and that can take me right out of story sometimes. I thought the story was a bit far-fetched and I didn't like that she misspelled Cristal twice in the first few chapters. If you're going to try to convey that your characters are rich and living it up, get the details right!!
5. Four Play by Brenda L. Thomas (read for the same reason as the book above - April 2005) Didn't misspell Cristal anymore, but the same things apply. Same characters from Threesome. Plot still unbelievable. Raunchy x-rated action almost made up for most of the problems I had with this story, but I think she overdoes it sometimes.
6. The Velvet Rope by Brenda L. Thomas (bookclub - April 2005) Read only because we were hosting a reception for the author. Kind of took place in the same universe as Threesome and Four Play, but with different characters. So basically, the same unbelievability in plot but raunchy sex. The author again went a little overboard with some of the sexual encounters and managed to take me out of the story a few times.
7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (bookclub - May 2005) I enjoyed this story a lot. It was slow at times, but I didn't mind it. It made me laugh at times and made me want to cry at others.
8. The King of Torts by John Grisham (personal - May 2005) I am a JG fan and I'm trying to catch up on all the books I've missed over the years. I love his lawyer stories even though they all sort of run into each other. This story was a bit different in that you couldn't really predict the outcome. At least you couldn't right away. I was thinking it would end differently so I guess he wasn't too predictable.
9. The Last Juror by John Grisham (personal - June 2005) Loved it, loved it, loved it. It takes place in the same place as A Time to Kill which is another one of my favorite JG novel's, but they're not related even though he used some of the same characters. This book was enjoyable and I loved trying to figure out what was going to happen in the end. It was funny and sad and I cried a little at the end.
10. A Little Piece of Sky by Nicole Bailey Williams (bookclub - June 2005) This book was less than 200 pages and I finished it in about 3 hours. Even though it was a short read, it was very good. Every chapter was short but sweet, packing so much into a few words.
11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (personal - July 2005)
This book was up for selection by the bookclub, but everytime it was picked or I mentioned it, it was vetoed. Many were apprehensive because they heard it was sad and didn't want to get into it. So I just read it on my own. After reading it, I didn't think it was as sad as I was led to believe. I enjoyed it and I did get emotionally involved with the characters, but the tears I was expecting didn't come. And I like to think that I'm a sensitive person. I think it helped that the main focus of the book was also the narrator and there was some humor to go along with the sorrow of the whole thing. This is one of the favorites that I've read so far.
12. Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin. (bookclub - July 2005)
This book was about 300 pages and all the whole thing takes place on one day. It focuses on 4 people with a lot of flashbacks that tell how they came to be where they are when the book starts. James Baldwin writes beautifully and all, but when you just want to get to the point, the details of what the air was like or what the park looks like or what it smells like, just aren't that important to me. I think because I was trying to read it in a short amount of time, I didn't have patience for it and I skimmed some of the more descriptive passages if I saw that it wasn't telling me anything about the character. I really wanted to read his book, Giovanni's Room more than this one, so I wasn't giving this book my full attention. Most of the girls in the club couldn't get into it either.
13. Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Stefans (straight up personal selection - July 2005) I feel bad saying it, but this was the most fun book to read. I read it in like a 24 hour period. I couldn't put it down. I love gossip and she gave good gossip. Sure she was pretty much a whore, but I actually felt a little bad for her at times. There was a section on P-Diddy and Xzibit that made me laugh till I cried and made me see that the rumors about Diddy's sexuality are probably not so farfetched. I love Xzibit more than ever, even if he did sleep with her. At least he wasn't married like some of the others.
14. The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan (bookclub - Aug 2005) The title fits this book so well. The book started off slow. So slow that while reading the first chapter, I got so bored that I started daydreaming. I didn't pick it back up for another week, mainly because I had to read it before we had our meeting. I ended up liking it a lot. There were so many things happening to Marilyn (the main character) all at once, it was making ME tired. I didn't like the way it ended though. And they introduced a character in a way that made you think he would be a pivotal to the story, but he didn't contribute anything. Or, I guess I should say that he wasn't brought into the story to do what I (or my bookclub) thought he would do.
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (personal - Aug 2005) Someone in one of the communities I read mentioned the book and I thought it sounded interesting. It is probably one of the best books I've read all year. I loved it. I was almost finished with it before I remembered that it was fiction.
16. Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold. (personal - Aug 2005) After reading The Lovely Bones I wanted to read more by Alice Sebold. Lucky starts off by describing Alice's brutal rape while she was in college. By page 18, I was crying. It feels weird to say that I enjoyed the book because of the subject matter, but it became more than just the story of the girl that got raped. It was about how she changed after the rape and how the people around her changed and how she survived it all. The parts I really liked are spoilerish, so I'll just stop here.
17. Kindred by Octavia Butler (online bookclub - Aug 2005) I'm part of an online discussion group, which isn't working out that well, but I kept hearing about this author and this book, so I decided to read it when it was selected. I enjoyed it a lot. It may well be my favorite book I've read so far this year. Octavia Butler is a science fiction writer and all of her other books seem to be more about that than this one was. I couldn't put this one down and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about reading it.
18. A Change is Gonna Come by Jacqueline Thomas. (bookclub -Aug 2005) It was okay. It was another Christian-based book. Which I don't really like reading, mainly because I feel that they can be a bit heavy handed at times. I thought the author's writing style was a little "see spot run" for me. Its books like this that make me think I could write a book one day if this person got a book published.
19. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. (personal - Sept 2005) LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT. This one is now my favorite of the year. I've been wanting to read this for a few years and just never got to it until now. I was a little discouraged when I first started reading it because it couldn't hold my attention right away. I put it down for a bout a week and a half before I started reading again. After that, it was a breeze. I loved trying to visualize the surroudings and trying to pronouce the Japanese words. This was another book that I thought about when I wasn't reading it. I had a dream about it one night right about the time I was like a chapter away from the end. I don't think I've ever had a dream about a book I was reading before. I can't wait to see the movie.
20. The Between by Tananarive Due (personal - Sept 2005) Had some interesting parts, but I found myself skipping over the dream sequences a lot. They just went on too long and I found them to be a bit boring. Skipping those was a bit of a mistake because near the end, they would reference what happened in the dreams and I didn't really know what they were talking about. However, it didn't really take away from the premise of the book. I didn't like the way it ended at all, but I wasn't surprised.
21. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due (personal - Oct 2005) I LOVED this book. This was another book that stayed on my mind when I wasn't reading it and I cancelled plans one day because I was almost done with it and I didn't want to stop reading. I wish it had ended differently, though. It left a lot of things open, like the author may have had continuing the story at a later date. I did learn not to automatically assume that just because it says that someone is "immortal" it means they're a vampire. I kept waiting for someone to vamp out or retreat from the sunlight.
22. Second Sunday by Michelle Andrea Brown (bookclub - Nov 2005) Sequel to Churckfolk, which my bookclub read last year. There were some parts that had me laughing a lot, but overall, I didn't like this book as much as I liked Churchfolk. Actually, I'm not a fan of this author's writing, but growing up in a black church, I could relate to the story. A little.
23. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner (personal - Nov 2005) After reading and loving Good In Bed and In Her Shoes, I've become a fan of Jennifer Weiner. I think its the lesser book of the other two, but still enjoyable. I will be reading her latest book Goodnight Nobody. Someday.
24. Partners to History by Donzaleigh Abernathy (personal - Nov 2005) Someone mentioned reading Ralph Abernathy's autobiography and I'd ended up reserving this one from the library as well. The story and the pictures were so moving, and I got emotional over all of it. I've read so much about Martin Luther King Jr over the years and had never heard much about Ralph Abernathy and I'm really enjoying learning about him and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
25. Dress Your Family in Courdoroy by David Sedaris (personal - Dec 2005) Well, after reading about how funny David Sedaris is and how funny his books are, I decided to see what the library had. I have learned not to trust other opinions because while there were some very funny chapters in the book, it wasn't the laugh riot I expected. Still, I enjoyed his writing and I enjoyed the book, so I decided to read the others, in order, because some of this stuff was so inside, I'm sure it was explained in an earlier book.
26. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (personal - Dec 2005-technically I finished 1/1/06, but that was the last chapter, so whatever) A little funnier than the first one I read, and I was right about missing some stuff because I read them out of order. I liked this one better that Cordoroy. I think I'll read some of his other books because I liked the format of each chapter being a story picked from his life. I could put the book down and start reading something else and not worry about missing anything.