Good Reads

Despite Burkina Faso's laid-back culture and relaxed lifestyle, I find myself being very, very busy most the time.  However, that doesn't stop me from indulging in a few good books every now and then (and having the goal of reading at least 100 books during my service -- i.e. about one book a week).  Plus, noon-3pm is "repose" time here, and so no one does anything between those few hours...except for eat, sleep, and drink tea. So, to help pass the time and occassionally escape from village life, here's what I've been reading:

  1. Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende
  2. Sex, Murder, & A Double Latte - Kyra Davis
  3. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gifford
  4. How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill
  5. The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
  6. Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister - Gregory Maguire
  7. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters – Mark Dunn
  8. Run – Ann Patchett
  9. The Wives of Henry Oades – Johanna Moran
  10. The Laws of Harmony – Judith Ryan Hendricks
  11. Love Walked In – Marisa de los Santos
  12. Salt: A World History – Mark Kurlansky
  13. The Radetzky March – Joseph Roth
  14. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex – Nathaniel Philbrick
  15. The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk
  16. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  17. The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood – Helene Cooper
  18. On Chesil Beach – In McEwan
  19. Engines of the Broken World – Jason Vanhee
  20. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls – Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
  21. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village – Sarah Erdman
  22. Guitar: An American Life – Tim Brookes
  23. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
  24. First Comes Loves, Them Comes Malaria – Eve Brown-Waite
  25. Mother Teresa’s Lessons of Love and Secrets of Sanctity – Susan Conroy
  26. The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
  27. Ahab’s Wife: Or, the Star-Gazer – Sena Jester Nastund
  28. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons – Lorna Landvik
  29. The Plague of Doves – Louise Erdrich
  30. Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
  31. Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
  32. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
  33. Love – Toni Morrison
  34. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – Gregory Maguire
  35. The Painted Drum – Louise Erdrich
  36. Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
  37. Little Bee (aka, “The Other Hand) – chris cleave
  38. The Ghost Map – Steven Johnson
  39. Brave Story – Miyuki Miyabe
  40. Getting Rid of Bradley – Jennifer Cruise
  41. Solar – Ian McEwan
  42. Confessions of a Pagan Nun – Kate Horsley
  43. The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver
  44. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught (Book 5) – Neta Jackson
  45. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
  46. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
  47. Nearlyweds – Beth Kendrick
  48. South of the Border, West of the Sun – Haruki Murakami
  49. A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence – Patricia Hersch
  50. The Gates – John Connolly
  51. A Reliable Wife – Robert Goolrick
  52. West with the Night – Beryl Markham
  53. The Shakespeare Secret – J.L. Carrell
  54. The Russian Concubine – Kate Furnivall
  55. Dry.  A memoir. – Augusten Burroughs
  56. Away – Amy Bloom
  57. The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
  58. A Match Made on Madison – Dee Davis
  59. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
  60. The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman
  61. The Wrong Mother – Sophie Hannah
  62. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins (Book 2 of The Hunger Games)
  63. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins (Book 3 of The Hunger Games)
  64. The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan (Book 1 of Percy Jackson & The Olympians)