Book List Plus

As a woman with a Bachelor’s in English, who works in a library, whose next goal is to become a bestseller, who will likely get a Master’s or PhD. in a literature-related field, who hangs out with a lot of intellectuals, I obviously read a lot. The topic of what I have and have not read comes up more than daily, so I decided to create this page so that people know what’s on my list to read. Also, as I check things off of the list I will do a review of them and I will post those links in here.

Note: I consider audiobooks to be “reading” with my ears. I’ll put (audio) in quotes after the title and/or description to let y’all know. Also, the Native Americans and Africans might tell you that words are primarily aural/oral, not read/written, anyway. Food for thought.

Key:
partially read, started but not finished
reading
to be read
tried to read and failed

So, in order of my desire to read them:

  • Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James REVIEW FORTHCOMING
  • Real Sex: The Truth about Chastity by Lauren Winner
  • The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (audio and text) REVIEW FORTHCOMING
  • The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind - strangely I have picked this up again. We’ll see if I keep reading.
  • How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely
  • Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen REVIEW FORTHCOMING
  • Love Wins by Rob Bell REVIEW FORTHCOMING
  • Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
  • Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (audio) - REVIEW FORTHCOMING
  • If You Have to Cry, Go Outside by Kelly Cutrone
  • Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth (audio)
  • Anthem by Ayn Rand
  • What Was African American Literature by Kenneth Warren- I’ll finish this in grad school
  • The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
  • Collected Nikki Giovanni (poetry)
  • Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success Normally I don’t read self-helpy type books, but I’m practically obsessed with author Russell Simmons as a person. I bought this book and will read it in my spare time. Partial pre-review linked. 
  • Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros (audio). I became aware of Cisneros in Dr. Timothy Petete’s Ethnic American Literature class in Fall 2009. There’s also a really dope poem by the youth slam team that Albuquerque sent to the Brave New Voices festival titled “No Longer a Myth (La Llorona)” based on this legend. 
  • The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation (anthology with audio component) This is on my list because I hope that by reintroducing myself to the text “advised” by the inventor of slam poetry himself, Marc “So What” Smith, and by listening I will be able to actively remember that poetry is integral to my makeup and I ought to be producing it. Despite the sad places I have seen through its lens.
  • O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous (realistic future-based fiction)  Uh oh. I’ve tried twice to read this book and have twice been unsuccessful. I don’t know if it’s because I am not diligent and this is a “serious” story for “smart” people, or if this anonymous author is simply not engaging…? Maybe the third time will be a charm. Next time it checks into the library, if I’m not reading anything else, I’ll pick it up.
  • The Myth Makers
  • Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartay
  • Black No More by George Schuyler
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (audio; 10-31-11)
  • Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
  • Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
  • The Help by Kathryn Stockett (10-20-11)
  • Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career
  • Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey
  • for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf - will review when I have time to go through it again
  • A Culture of Place by bell hooks (non-fiction)
  • A Culture of Make Believe
  • Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry
  • Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora by Michelle M. Wright (non-fiction)
  • Jay-Z: Decoded (autobiography with a ghost writer)
  • How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (fiction)
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
  • Roots by Alex Haley (race relations)
  • everything by Junot Diaz
  • something by Ana Castillo
  • everything by Sherman Alexie (War Dances, Indian Killer)
  • Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  • American Indian Prose and Poetry: “The Winged Serpent” (anthology)
  • John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s by Frank Kofsky (non-fiction)
  • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (fiction)
  • Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks (non-fiction)
  • Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop by Adam Bradley (literary analysis of hip hop)
  • The Bhagavad Gita (yogic scriptures)
  • The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (classic feminist theory)
  • When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins (non-fiction, history about women)
  • 1984 by George Orwell (classic fiction)
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy by Stieg Larsson (fiction, audio) (12-27-11)
  • Reviving Ophelia by May Pipher (non-ficiton, philosophy)
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell (classic fiction)
  • Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

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In other media news, I’m about to watch the whole Harry Potter series on DVD. UPDATE: I watched the first through the seventh DVDs. When I watch the eighth film, I’ll do a review of the whole movie series.

  • For Colored Girls
  • Harry Potter Movies
  • The Help

I’m also going to review some music, and download some mixtapes.