10 books I am supposed to be reading (6)

Are you on goodreads? If so, lets be friends :D You can find me here. 

If you are wondering why I am asking its because this is where I have a list of all the books I am currently reading or want to be reading. I have to confess that for every book I read I do start one that is as of now in progress. The majority tend to be non-fiction books that have suitable places to stop and pick up again but on occasion I have a fiction book that I just am not compelled to finish but still want to try to. One of my failings is not reading enough. I blame the fact that I can read relatively swiftly (4hrs per novel) and that in itself means the story has been and gone before I am invested. The very best books tend to lead me on a merry chase of reading books similar to it, set in the same environment, written with the same themes and if there is a film version, yes, you guessed it, I will watch it. Below is a list of books I am reading and that I want to read....and please please recommend your favourite books!

1. An Autobiography by Agatha Christie (Non-fiction)
I downloaded this to my kindle which I have a habit of forgetting to charge. However, I really do want to read some more of this as I am about a chapter in. Heres a description:

Over the three decades since her death on 12 January 1976, many of Agatha Christie’s readers and reviewers have maintained that her most compelling book is probably still her least well-known. Her candid Autobiography, written mainly in the 1960s, modestly ignores the fact that Agatha had become the best-selling novelist in history and concentrates on her fascinating private life. From early childhood at the end of the 19th century, through two marriages and two World Wars, and her experiences both as a writer and on archaeological expeditions with her second husband, Max Mallowan, Agatha shares the details of her varied and sometimes complex life with real passion and openness.

2. Awakening the Buddha within by Lama Surya Das (Non-fiction)
This is a book that I found whilst perusing a charity shop. I am very interested in spirituality and faith as a whole. Buddhism is very much something that I can relate to and this book is a good read. I am about half way through, and have stopped and started, but it is easy to do so. The writing style is very much that of a friend talking to you quite informally about their life and its this combination of biography and fact that I enjoy. Everyone has a story.

Lama Surya Das, the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the definitive book on Western Buddhism for the modern-day spiritual seeker.
The radical and compelling message of Buddhism tells us that each of us has the wisdom, awareness, love, and power of the Buddha within; yet most of us are too often like sleeping Buddhas.  In Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life.

3. The secret history of wonder woman (Non-fiction)
I started reading this because I like super heroes and I love wonder woman and also I am a woman who believes in equality for all. I am only a couple of chapters into this book (again its on the blasted kindle) and its interesting to say the least. It definitely is making me think as I read which is not a bad thing at all.

A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story—and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism
Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted as long or commanded so vast and wildly passionate a following. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she has also has a secret history.

4. The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood (Fiction)
I was drawn to this book by its title and the fact that I am interested in knitting. I wish there was a knitting circle near me or a cross stitch one. Anyway, its on my kindle (aagh!) and I am about 3 chapters in. It is ok, I can't say much as its only the beginning but its ok....as far as I remember!

Come on in and join the knitting circle – it might just save your life…
Spinning yarns, weaving tales, mending lives…
Every Wednesday a group of women gathers at Alice's Sit and Knit. Little do they know that they will learn so much more than patterns…
Grieving Mary needs to fill the empty days after the death of her only child.
Glamorous Scarlet is the life and soul of any party. But beneath her trademark red hair and beaming smile lurks heartache.
Sculptor Lulu seems too cool to live in the suburbs. Why has she fled New York's bright lights?
Model housewife Beth never has a hair out of place. But her perfect world is about to fall apart….
Irish-born Ellen wears the weight of the world on her shoulders but not her heart on her sleeve. What is she hiding?
As the weeks go by, under mysterious Alice's watchful eye, an unlikely friendship forms. Secrets are revealed and pacts made. Then tragedy strikes, and each woman must learn to face her own past in order to move on…

5. A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court by Mark Twain (Fiction)
I decided along with a friend, back in February, to try to read some books from a reading challenge and so my to read list is full of random books selected purely because they fit a category. This book is one of them. I used to watch a TV show back in the late 80s, early 90s? called Never the Twain, it was too old guys bickering basically (as I recall) but I liked it and I like Huckleberry Finn so why not try this. Have you read it? What did you think?

This novel tells the story of Hank Morgan, the quintessential self-reliant New Englander who brings to King Arthur’s Age of Chivalry the “great and beneficent” miracles of nineteenth-century engineering and American ingenuity. Through the collision of past and present, Twain exposes the insubstantiality of both utopias, destroying the myth of the romantic ideal as well as his own era’s faith in scientific and social progress.

6. The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Fiction)
I have been meaning to read this book ever since its release, and I can't tell  you why I havent because I have no excuse, as it appeals to me. I like to watch those bleak Scandinavian crime dramas and as someone who loves to read crime thrillers I thought this would be good. Then whilst I was still meant to be reading it, the next book came out and the film was released, and I have yet to see the film.

Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch—and there's always a catch—is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo

7. Blankets by Craig Thompson (Fiction, Graphic Novel)
About three years ago, I stumbled upon another reading challenge and it was related to Graphic Novels, something that had long appealed to me yet I hadnt read were graphic novels. The first one I picked up was 'The Walking Dead' and maybe it was more than three years ago because it was about 6 months before the TV show came out that I began to read them. I won't go on about them now but a post may be needed at a later date. But on the list of recommended graphic novels is this one called Blankets.

Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith.

8. Me talk pretty one day by David Sedaris (Non-fictionish)
A comedic look at life and a move from NYC to Paris, whats not to appeal about that? I have visited Paris and I loved it. I really cannot explain why, maybe it was that it was overwhelmingly french or that I felt like I was in a movie, I don't know exactly but I want to go back. I met a young woman there who was from Sweden but had left to go to France for three months to learn french. Just like that. I was impressed by her carefree attitude about something that I would consider a huge thing. She had literally just gone to Paris and was looking for lodgings! Anyway, as someone who loves languages but fears speaking to a native of that language (even with the basics that I have learnt) this appealed to me along with it being a book of short stories.

David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that "every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section". 

His family is another inspiration. You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails. 

 9. Ariel by Sylvia Plath (Poetry)
Can you believe that I have never read Sylvia Plath EVER! Hence this is on the list.

"In these poems...Sylvia Plath becomes herself, becomes something imaginary, newly, wildly and subtly created." -- From the Introduction by Robert Lowell

10.  This slot is empty because of the 80 books I "apparently" want to read, only 9 are calling out to me....so help me add something here by recommending your favourite novel or the last novel you read.

Thanks :D