{"id":4116,"date":"2005-12-31T09:28:19","date_gmt":"2005-12-31T14:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2024-10-27T18:21:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T22:21:58","slug":"2005-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4116","title":{"rendered":"2005 Books Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the complete list of books I read in 2005.<\/p>\n

Underworld: A Novel<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Don DeLillo – which I had started in the fall of 2004- before I went to Ireland – and it took me FOREVER <\/a>to finish it. The damn thing is so LONG though that I didn’t feel like i could stop reading, even though I eventually found it so boring. I had put in so much time that I had to finish it. So no – the whole book wasn’t worth it. But the opening 100 pages<\/a>? Cannot be touched. The rest of the book doesn’t live up to it … but that opening. I still pick it up and read it on occasion.<\/p>\n

Okay – I won’t comment on every book but on that one I had to.<\/p>\n

George Washington, A Life<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Willard Sterne Randall<\/p>\n

The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – this is probably my 5th time reading it all the way through<\/p>\n

East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – John Steinbeck (a re-read. I love this book. I’ve read it about 4 times)<\/p>\n

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Joseph Ellis (this is one of the best books I’ve ever read on Thomas Jefferson)<\/p>\n

Darkness at Noon<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Arthur Koestler – it far surpassed my expectations. Chilling – couldn’t get the book out of my mind<\/p>\n

The Prince<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Machiavelli (this is a re-read. I have periodically gone back and re-read all the stuff I was forced to read in high school.)<\/p>\n

The Great Terror: A Reassessment<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Robert Conquest (huge post about it here<\/a>) One cannot fully understand the events of the 20th century without having read this book.<\/p>\n

102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn<\/p>\n

Crowds and Power<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Elias Canetti. (Woah. That’s all I have to say)<\/p>\n

Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Andrew Meier (yawn. Not that the Chechnya situation is a yawn – but Meier somehow made it all about HIM. Blech. If a Robert Kaplan or a Rebecca West traveled through the region – I wouldn’t have been so annoyed – because even though they are characters in their own travelogues – they do not come across as annoying or … too pleased with themselves. Meier’s book, to me, read like: “whoo-hoo! Look at me! Risking my life! I’m like Robert Kaplan now!” Uh, no. You’re not.)<\/p>\n

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How A Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (some fun excerpts here<\/a>, here <\/a>, and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The Aran Islands<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by John Millington Synge. Ahhhh. Love this book. (Here’s a huge post I wrote about Synge<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Charming Billy: A Novel<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Alice McDermott. Wonderful novel.<\/p>\n

A Secret History of the IRA<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Ed Moloney. The jury’s still out on this one. <\/p>\n

Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Margaret Atwood<\/p>\n

Middlemarch<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by George Eliot. Wow!!! I blithered about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by EM Forster<\/p>\n

On Writing<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Stephen King (phenomenal)<\/p>\n

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Brenda Ueland (writers out there: do yourself a favor and pick up this book. Dumb title. Great great book.)<\/p>\n

Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Garson Kanin. So good I never wanted it to end.<\/p>\n

Great Expectations<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Charles Dickens.<\/p>\n

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Bernard Lewis<\/p>\n

Miracle At Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May – September 1787<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Catherine Drinker Bowen. This book was literally like injesting crack. Even though I’ve never injested crack. I am a drug addict though. A Second Constitutional Congress drug addict.<\/p>\n

Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Christopher Hitchens. hahahaha<\/p>\n

Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford World’s Classics)<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Edmund Burke. Another re-read. Even better than the second time. Is it wrong to have a crush on him? Don’t worry, Anne <\/a>– I won’t steal your dead boyfriend. I already have my own<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by David Halberstam – a wonderful book about Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr (here’s one of my favorite stories <\/a>from that book)<\/p>\n

Cary Grant: A Biography<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Marc Elliot. Good and interesting on the development of Grant’s extraordinary career.<\/p>\n

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King (a re-read. So much fun. Again. Like crack.)<\/p>\n

A Room with a View<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by EM Forster<\/p>\n

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – JK Rowling – I had read it before. But then lost track of the series. I am a latecomer to the mania. So this year I decided to read the entire series, get caught up. So glad I did.<\/p>\n

The 9\/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. To go from Harry Potter to that… Welcome to my world.<\/p>\n

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – JK Rowling<\/p>\n

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – JK Rowling<\/p>\n

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – JK Rowling<\/p>\n

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – JK Rowling<\/p>\n

The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Jayna Davis (I guess I like my Harry Potter experience to be bookended by the war on terror.)<\/p>\n

Hard News: Twenty-one Brutal Months at The New York Times and How They Changed the American Media<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Seth Mnookin – really really enjoyed this book. Fascinating.<\/p>\n

Rose Madder<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Stephen King. Not wacky about it. Had to force myself to finish it<\/p>\n

The Pigman<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Paul Zindel (one of my favorite books – this is a re-read)<\/p>\n

The Pigman’s Legacy<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Paul Zindel (see above comment<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Pardon Me, You’re Stepping On My Eyeball<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Paul Zindel (LOVE this book – another re-read – I think it’s one of his best.)<\/p>\n

The Children of the Arbat<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Anatoli Naumovich Rybakov<\/p>\n

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by JK Rowling<\/p>\n

Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Steven Hassan – written by an ex-Moonie who is now one of the world’s leading “exit counselors”. He prefers that term to “deprogramming”. Terrifying book about brainwashing – very very good.<\/p>\n

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by William Butler Yeats<\/p>\n

The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, Vol. 5: 1935-1942<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by L. M. Montgomery<\/p>\n

The Year of Magical Thinking<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Joan Didion – just finished it. A devastating book written in the aftermath of the death of her husband of 40 years. It’s up there with CS Lewis’ book on grief. It should become a classic in the genre.<\/p>\n

I suppose I should also count all of the plays I re-read this year – especially the entire work of Tennessee Williams.<\/p>\n

Looking back over this list makes me think that I really want to read more fiction in 2006. More than I did in 2005, anyway. And so I will!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the complete list of books I read in 2005. Underworld: A Novel, by Don DeLillo – which I had started in the fall of 2004- before I went to Ireland – and it took me FOREVER to finish … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1623,641,604,870,2010,953,476,1620,964,183,876,1673,1615,1032,1005,224,1914],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4116"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154086,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions\/154086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}