Sixth Grade and Books I Read in 2012

My sixth grade yearbook is full of profound sentiments, such as "You're cool!" and "Have a great summer!" By far my favorite inscription, however, is this:

It's true; I do love to read. And I love that this kid felt a need to bring it to my attention. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the very same year, my friend Zac and I were chosen as the class bookworms. Goodness. While other kids were being chosen for best hair, most friendly, and most likely to succeed, they marched us down to the school library and made us take a super cheesy picture with the resident set of encyclopedias to demonstrate just how much we loved to read. Want to see it? I thought so.

Yeah. Me too. But, I have to admit that I would much rather be immortalized this way than by wearing really awful mid-90s fashion and chosen as best dressed.

About this same time, a friendly neighborhood dad, who also loved to read, started asking me if I kept track of the books that I read. I didn't, and I didn't want to. He did, and he thought I should. Well. Fast forward fifteen years and I suddenly realized how awesome it is to track what I read. I've been doing it for six years now, and I love it. I just keep a list in the back of my journal and I jot down the titles as I finish them. Super super easy and Excel is nowhere to be found.

At the end of the year, it's always interesting to look back and see how many books I ended up reading---it's always about the same, give or take a little, which surprises me since there is no rhyme or reason to what I do in the reading department and some years are much busier than others. There have been times when I used my list to respond to essay prompts for job and scholarship applications. Sometimes my list helps me give people better recommendations for good books to read. What I really love, though, is that it's a little glimpse into what was going on inside my head each year: what I learned, what I was interested in, and what I was thinking about. Just a little snippet of history to add to my journals and jog my own memory.

So, this time around I thought I'd share my final reading list for 2012, just in case you're looking for ideas. I read a few that were not even worth listing here, but this is pretty much it. No comprehensive reviews or ratings or explanations because hello, that's why I never do Goodreads. But I'll tell you which ones I liked the best and since I have impeccable taste, that counts for something. Bonus pic at the end.

Fiction

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith (Amazing! Why did I wait so long?)
• Day after Night, by Anita Diamant (Loved this one! If you like Jewish history, you must read this.)
• Criss-Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins (YA lit; really liked this one)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar & Other Stories, by Roald Dahl (Loved these!)
• Loser, by Jerry Spinelli (children's lit; very good)
• Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel (super interesting but wouldn't recommend it)
• Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine (children's lit; much better than the movie)

Nonfiction

• Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (Really really wonderful! Loved this!)
• The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin (Wonderful! Highly recommend this.)
• Beyond Timeout: From Chaos to Calm, by Beth A. Grosshans (Fabulous! Changed my life as a mom.)
• Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois (Awesome ideas; need to try.)
• Teaching Kids to Work (Should have written down author's name; got it at Provo library and author is LDS--very helpful ideas but a little beyond what I need right now.)
• The Barber's Song, by K. Douglas Bassett (About a boy with CF--good but heavy; I skimmed some.)
• Belinda Carlisle: Lips Unsealed, by Belinda Carlisle (This was an incredibly interesting look at the music industry in the early 1980s--very well written and surprisingly compelling.)
• American Idol: The Untold Story, by Richard Rushfield (Goodness. This spontaneous pick from the shelf was really interesting too. I learned a ton about the television and music industry.)
• Below Stairs, by Margaret Powell (About the life of a cook in the Downton Abbey era--really interesting stuff, although the writing style drove me a little crazy at times.)
• The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes (If you like Downton Abbey, this book is actually really good! It's less behind-the-scenes than I was expecting, which was actually cool because I learned SO much about the history of that era that was both interesting and helped me understand the show better.)
• The Jamestown Project, by Karen Kupperman (Inspired by my trip to Virginia; very interesting if you want to learn more about how America was colonized.)

Fiction Series

Why did I wait so long to read everything under the sun by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?? I loved it all and really couldn't get enough. Sherlock is just so fabulous and brilliant. Really, if you haven't read them and you like detective stories at all, you simply must go to your library now and get them all. Dave and I actually read these around the same time, and it was fun to discuss it all together. Apparently we have 1890s taste in names because there are many Violets in these stories.

• The Adventures & Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Final Bow/Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle

If you like YA literature and dystopic novels, I can't recommend this series by Ally Condie enough. She is a brilliant writer and has such an amazing ability to write from different points of view. I had read the first two books before, but read them again when the third one came out this year so I could have the full experience with it. I couldn't stop feeling for the characters and thinking about the books for days. I also highly recommend the fiction she has published for the LDS market through Deseret Book. Did I mention that you should REALLY read these books if you like YA literature?

• Matched, by Ally Condie
• Crossed, by Ally Condie
• Reached, by Ally Condie

Did you read The Giver long ago? Did you like it? If so, PLEASE read it again and then read these three books! They are all companion books and they are simply fabulous. So thought provoking. And I really do think it's best if you read them all at once, so you can catch all of the overlapping details.

• Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry
• The Messenger, by Lois Lowry
• Son, by Lois Lowry

Maybe it was the year of the detective for us? Not sure. All I know is that I read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency several years ago and really liked it, but for some reason didn't feel compelled to read more in the series. Well, I read it again and I fell in love with the characters this time. I'm not sure what was different, but I read the whole series and simply loved the books. They are engaging, sometimes very funny, and actually so wise about life. Plus it was so interesting to learn about the culture of Botswana. Dave also read most of them recently, and we find a surprising number of occasions to refer to Mma Ramotswe and life in Botswana.

• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Tears of a Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Morality for Beautiful Girls, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Kalahari Typing School for Men, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Full Cupboard of Life, by Alexander McCall Smith
• In the Company of Good Women, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Blue Shoes and Happiness, by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, by Alexander McCall Smith
• Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Double Comfort Safari Club, by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith

Madeline as Ladybug Girl, one of her favorite literary characters from 2012.

P.S. Would love to hear about any stand-out books that you read last year!