A Year of Books

All year long, just for an experiment, I wrote down each book I read and finished. I wanted to see, by the end of the year, what I had read, how well I remembered it, and things like that! :) So here is my list, and I'll rate the books in it on the five-star scale! :) Ready? (Oh, and the ones with smileys beside them mean that I recommended that book to at least Daniel, Matthew, and Mama! :)

"The Little Boy Down The Road" - Douglas W. Phillips **** (four stars- I consider five stars a gripping book you simply cannot put down- this was a great, relaxing read though!)
"Let's Roll" - Lisa Beamer ***** ( 5 stars-This book was about the wife of Todd Beamer who was a major part of spoiling the hijackers' plans in the Penn. flight)
"Glory, Duty, and The Gold Dome" - T. Nathanial Darnell **** ( 4 stars; very satisfying read, especially as it included lots of politics :)
"To Have And To Hold" :) -Mary Johnston ***** This was an amazing book, and one that I couldn't put down, so it gets at least five stars! :)
"Rob Roy"- Sir Walter Scott **** (Four stars- the Scottish brogue, however much I love it, was a bit hard to get through at times, also, the plot dragged a bit, but still a great book!)
"I Will Repay" :) -Baroness Emmuska Orczy ***** (5 stars!!! A book in the Scarlet Pimpernel series cannot get less! ;)
"Eldorado" :) - Baroness Emmuska Oczy ***** (5 stars, but truly this ought to get at least 10 for the amount of excitement and can't-put-it-downedness it contained! I almost literally worked myself into a fever over parts of it! :)
"Sir Percy Hits Back" :) -Baroness Emmuska Orczy ***** (5 stars- those three were my fluff books for the year! ;)
"Laddie" - Evelyn Whittaker *** (3 stars- very simple, short, story)
"Mildred At Roselands" - Martha Finley **** (Better than the Elsie books, still has plot dragging problems)
"Ivanhoe" :) - Sir Walter Scott ***** (Flowery language, but WAY worth it to read this classic! :)
"The Name" :) -Franklin Graham *********** (Can we give enough stars to a person who writes a whole book about the power of Jesus's holy name? I don't think so!)
"Rose In Bloom" :) - Louisa May Alcott ***** (Very satisfying end to this Eight Cousins sequel :)
"Great Expectations" - Charles Dickens *** (3 stars...one of the stranger, darker Dickens books)
"1776" :) - David McCullough **** (4 stars- amazing history, but feels lacking at times since McCullough doesn't come from a Biblical world-view)
"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" - Anne Bronte **** (4 stars...uncomfortably accurate peeks into the life of an alcoholic's wife...she didn't know he was one when she married him. Very sad, but very poignant, and worth the read for an older young man or woman who can divulge the great lessons in it :)
"Wives and Daughters" -Elizabeth Gaskell ***** (five stars- Great literature, but it has a horridly tantalizing ending- poor Ms. Gaskell died in the midst of writing the last chapter, so we never do find out what happens! :[ )
"North and South" - Elizabeth Gaskell ***** (five stars, great book)
"Preparing to be a Helpmeet" - Debi Pearl ***** (Five stars- she packs the punches and hits young women in the exact places so many of us struggle- great book, but take her "relating to young men" advice (at times) with a grain of salt. She doesn't always literally mean what she suggests! :)
"Lorna Doone":) - R. D. Blackmore ***** (five stars, GREAT book! :)
"Daddy-Long-Legs" - Jean Webster *** (Okay book...fluffy...not much in it...cute storyline though)
"Nicholas Nickleby" :) -Charles Dickens ***** (5 stars, as usual, his books are long, but so worth it! :)
"The Princess and Curdie" -George MacDonald *** (3 stars- good book, but this is a sequel, and I'd never read the first book, so it was lacking, for me)
"The Maiden's Bequest" - George MacDonald **** (4 stars, a very good book)
"Ogdan Nash- The Life-work of America's Laureate of Light Verse" -Douglas M. Parker *** (a very interesting book, but since Mr. Nash was not a Christian, his life was rather...plebeian at times)
"Bleak House" :)- Charles Dickens ***** (5 stars- amazing book, loved every moment of it, found Esther Summerson to be an amazing roll-model, but you've heard that all! :)
"Passion and Purity" -Elisabeth Elliot ***** (5 stars, timely advice for older young women)
"The Witch of Blackbird Pond" -Elizabeth George Speare **** (4 stars, but first let me assure you that this is not about a witch at all. These suspicious Puritans assume this girl is a witch because she grew up on a plantation in Barbados, and can swim, and does things differently than they. :)
"Let me be a Woman" - Elisabeth Elliot **** (Four stars, the format felt kind of exclusive, since she wrote it as a letter to her daughter, but it's still super good! :)
"The Adventures of Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ***** (5 stars, and a perfect read it you don't mind feeling rather dumb yourself in the light of Mr. Holmes' cleverness!)
"The Maker's Diet" - Jordan Rubin ***** (Very good book)
"Miserly Moms" - Jonni McCoy **** (Good book)
"Revision and Self-Editing" -James Scott Bell **** (four stars, very good, practical advice)
"The Cricket on The Hearth" -Charles Dickens **** (four stars, cute story, but short)
"Barnaby Rudge" -Charles Dickens *** (When he wrote this book, Dickens hadn't found his beloved style yet, so it's rather a boring book till the half-way point, and after that, a bit confusing still)

There you go! My year in reading! 35 (or 36?) books! That's approximately 14, 239 pages of text for you! :) And I really felt like I didn't read much this year! :) ~Rachel