Book List - Unemployed Edition

So since I decided I'd leave a job I liked and a city I liked and an apartment I liked (...until I realized it was also home to Jaq and Gus) and moved to the Confederacy North Carolina, I have nothing but free time.  Nothing.  Which meannnnnnnnnnnns books.  Bring me all the books in the land!  Well, let's say maybe ten or fifteen.  I need time to hike and to people-watch, but I'm going to take advantage of my temporary period of unemployment and relaxation to read.  I've got a never-ending book list so it seems like a good opportunity.

HERE GOES:

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  Ha.  No, just kidding.  A little dark humor for you.

Here goes.  For real:

1. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.  I read In the Heart of the Sea by Philbrick a few years ago and loved it.  The writing was just as good as the story.  And I always love me a little northeastern history.

2. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.  I started this a few months ago and enjoyed it, but it became one of those books that you start, put down, read three other books, read another few chapters, put it down, read five other books, and then finish.  Whatever, don’t judge me.  It’s on the list now.  It will be finished.  God willing.

3. Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.  This is half for fun, half for learning.  Not that fun and learning can’t be synonymous… but yes.  This book.  On the summer list.

4. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder. 

5. Exile by Richard North Patterson.  One of my favorite people I work with recommended this book.  She’s a hilarious, wild, super smart 81 year old lady and I’ll read whatever she tells me to.  Earlier in the year we swapped The Hunger Games books.  What a woman.  For real.

6. Red China Blues by Jan Wong.  This is a book about a westerner in Maoist China.  ‘nuff said, am I right?

7. Plugged by Eoin Colfer.  A mystery written with humor?  Yes, please.  And thank you.  Unless it turns out to be bad.  Then the “you may also like” receipts at Barnes and Noble can fuck off.

8. At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks.  Hey, everyone loves a little junk reading now and then.  Since every Nicholas Sparks love story is the same I already know what happens.  But I’ll enjoy reading it all the same.

9. Top Secret America by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin.  We read excerpts from this bad boy in one of my classes and it was so revolting that I have a desire to read the whole damn thing.  By the way, if you’re not pissed at the things our government does here and abroad, you should be. 

10. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.  With a title like that, who wouldn’t want to read it?

11. The Rise of Islamic Capitalism by Vali Nasr.  This one is going to take me a while.  As in I’ll start it, read all the others on my list, and then maybe finish it.  That happens to me a lot with smart nonfiction books.  Whatever.

12. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  It’s time.

13. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.  Honestly, the cover looks really good.  And while I won’t NOT read a book based on its cover, ya damn straight I will read a book just because I like the cover.  It’s worked out pretty nicely so far.

14. Everything Happens Today by Jesse Browner.  This shit was awesome.  I started reading it and loved it.  Thing is, it’s super slow paced.  But I need to get over that and read the damn thing because I remember doing a lot of nodding and “amen, brother!” while reading it.

15. As It Was in the Beginning: The Coming Democratization of the Catholic Church by Robert McClory. Because I find Catholicism, which I actually love being a part of, really confusing and often frustrating.  Answer, this may be?