Books

The past few years I have embarked on a "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" to read 52 books in 52 weeks. The cool thing about big goals like that is that you can succeed even if you don't hit the target!

Why did I do it? Before I started this project I was reading maybe 5 books a year. I felt like my attention span was shorter than ever. A big part of that was because of social media and 140 character conversations but I was allowing that to cross over into other parts of my life from having deep and focused conversations to being able to read for extended periods of time. By challenging myself to a book a week, I realize now I was challenging myself to be present long enough to dive in and absorb new information for significant chunks of time.

Below are the books I read, some reviews can be found by searching the hashtag I created on Instagram #52books52weeks.

Editor's Note. I chose all of the books below, some based on my long-standing bucket list of things I wanted to read, some as recommendations from friends and family. I have tried increasingly over the years to diversify my book list to include more nonfiction and more political biographies. Where I have written a book review or included a book in a roundup there is a link to that blog post.

2014 Work In Progress

46. The Operators by Michael Hastings
47. Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
48. Discover Kaua’i by Lonely Planet
49. Grain Brain by David Perlmutter
50. Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy
51. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
52. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
53. America’s Hidden Corners by National Geographic Society
54. The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein
55. Field Work: Poems by Seamus Heaney
56. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
57. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
58. The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers, and Everyone in Between Peter Berley
59. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations by Anthony de Mello
60. Do Grow: Start with 10 simple vegetables by Alice Holden
61. On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz
62. The Best Recipe by Editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine
63. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
64. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
65. Barnheart: The Incurable Longing For a Farm of One’s Own by Jenna Woginrich
66. Sailing Alone Around The Room by Billy Collins
67. Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn
68. Dogs by Lewis Blackwell and Tim Flach
69. Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes From My Two Villages by Mario Batali
70. The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
71. When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner
72. A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee
73. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
74. The Official SXSW Interactive Cookbook
75. Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook by Martha Stewart
76. The Obamas by Jodi Kantor
77. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
78. Divergent by Veronica Roth
79. Mercury In Retrograde: A Novel by Paula Froelich
80. How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain De Botton
81. The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girls Meets Oil by Christine Bader
82. The Trumpet Swan by E.B. White
83. Stuart Little by E.B. White
84. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
85. Love Rehab: A Novel in Twelve Steps by Jo Piazza
86. Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
87. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
88. Otherhood: Modern Women Finding A New Kind of Happiness by Melanie Notkin
89. How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley
90. Murder In Passy by Cara Black
91. The Goldfinch by Donna Platt

2013

52. Houses of the Presidents: Childhood Homes, Family Dwellings, Private Escapes, and Grand Estates by Hugh Howard
53. The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
54. The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things edited by Anna Holmes
55. Rework by Jason Fried & David Hansson
56. Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
57. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
58. The Tao of Bow Wow: Understanding and Training Your Dog the Taoist Way by Deborah Wood
59. This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
60. The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo
61. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
62. With or Without You by Domenica Ruta
63. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
64. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
65. The Bolter by Frances Osborne
66. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
67. My Name Is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry
68. Personal History by Katharine Graham
69. Venice (Step By Step) by Lisa Gerard-Sharp
70. The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
71. Shoemaker of Dreams by Salvatore Ferragamo
72. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
73. Fodor's Essential Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice & the Top Spots in Between by Fodor's
74. Rome (Select) by Erica Firpo
75. The Richest Woman In America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach
76. Room by Emma Donoghue
77. Strength Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
78. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
79. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
80. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
81. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
82. Quiet by Susan Cain
83. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
84. The Cocktail Party by T.S. Eliot
85. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
86. A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
87. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
88. Learning To Love You More by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July
89. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
90. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
91. The Berlin Wall Story: Biography of a Monument by Hans-Hermann Hertle
92. Australia Exposed by Jason Kimberley
93. My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss
94. Walking Paris: Thirty Original Walks In and Around Paris by Gilles Desmons
95. Clotilde's Edible Adventures In Paris by Clotilde Dusoulier
96. Top 10 Paris (Eyewitness Guide) by Mike Gerrard et al.
97. Knopf MapGuide: Paris by Knopf Guides
98. Fox In Socks By Dr. Deuss
99. The Satorialist: Closer by Scott Schuman
100. V is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone by Seth Godin
101. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
102. United States of Pie by Adrienne Kane
103. Poke The Box by Seth Godin

2012

1. The Black City by Elizabeth Richards
2. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
4. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
5. New York’s Unique and Unexpected Places by Judith Stonehill
6. The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep it Off Forever by Pierre Dukan
7. An Awesome Book! by Dallas Clayton
8. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
9. The Tiger’s Wife: A Novel by Tea Ohbret
10. Committed: A Love Story by Elizabeth Gilbert
11. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
12. Little Bee: A Novel by Chris Cleave
13. The Guernsey Society and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer
14. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
15. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
16. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
17. Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner
18. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Bossypants by Tina Fey
21. The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor In an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
22. Smiley’s People: A George Smiley Novel by John le Carré
23. My Story by Marilyn Monroe
24. Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder To Your World by Gary Vaynerchuk
25. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
26. The Blue Orchard: A Novel by Jackson Taylor
27. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
28. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
29. This is Where I Leave You: A Novel by Jonathan Trooper
30. The Berlin Wall Story: Biography of a Monument by Hans-Hermann Hertle

2011

1. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make A Living, Do What You Love and Create a New Future By Chris Guillebeau
2. Heal Your Skin: The Breakthrough Plan For Renewal by Ava Shamban
3. Saavy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers, And All Women Who Love Kids by Melanie Notkin
4. Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare To Dream by Whitney Johnson
5. By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop by Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson
6. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obrecht
7. Clean, by Alejandro Junger

2010

1. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
3. Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson
4. Naked by David Sedaris

2009

1. The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery Of The World’s Most Expensive Bottle Of Wine by Benjamin Wallace
2. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
3. The Lake House by James Patterson
4. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
6. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
7. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
8. Creating A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammed Yunus
9. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
10. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
11. The Perfect Storm: A True Story About Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
12. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
13. Crisis by Robin Cook
14. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
15. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
16. Icon by Frederick Forsyth
17. A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
18. When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
19. South America On A Shoestring by Danny Palmerlee
20. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School At A Time by Greg Mortenson
21. Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
22. The Late Bloomer’s Revolution by Amy Cohen
23. The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
24. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
25. Triple by Ken Follett
26. The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth
27. Absolute Friends by John le Carré