The List

A-Z
Letter	Author/Book	Notes
A	Ellis Avery The Teahouse Fire	waaaty too long. I was waiting for something to happen and it never did.
B	Chico Buarque Budapest	Entertaining. Weird though.
C	John Casey Spartina	Cool story of a Rhode Island fisherman.
D	Sean Dixon The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal	Malfunctioning robot, pre op tranny, a bunch of self deprecating women, and an old Iraqi story. It works. One of my all time favs.
E	John Ehle The Road	Great historical fiction story of a man who managed a road project over the North Carolina Mt range. Prison laborers, food shortages, a love story, a rogue doctor, mountain folk and railmen.
F	Paradise Travel Jorge Franco	Story of a Columbian immigrant who loses his g/f shortly after getting to NY.
G	A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines	Instant top 5 all time. Wow, this was a great book. Very well written. Sad and powerful. Very moving. Everyone should read this.
H	The Killing Fields Christopher Hudson	Wow, so powerful and sad, I just don't understand how Humans can be reduced to the level that killing and torturing other Humans is ok. I am going to volunteer with Red Cross now.
I	SnakePit Moses Isegawa	Heavy read of corruption, greed and power struggles in Uganda. I hope it was mostly fiction, but the author is from Uganda, so I suspect it was based on real life events. Sad.
J	Mick Jackson Five Boys	It started out strong, I was really bonding with Bobby, the main character in the beginning who leaves his family in London to escape the bombings during WWII. He has a great journey to the countryside, meets the townfolk and of course the 5 boys, then he disappears. He went home i guess, the rest of the story reads like a collection of short stories all themed in the small English town. It was ok, but I was a bit disappointed by the sudden shift in storyline.
K	Rose in a Storm Jon Katz.	It was well written, kept my attention, made me happy and sad, but frankly a bit to poppy and mainstream for my liking. I don't read best sellers much and this is why. Just like mainstream movies, all fluff, little substance.
L	Utterly Monkey Nick Laird	Good book, but ended rather abruptly. I kept looking at how many pages were left, wondering when something was gonna happen. I liked the book, but the ending seemed rushed.
M	If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor	Awesome! What a great find! Jon takes ordinary life and spins it into something beautiful and artistic. His writing style is like nothing I have ever read. I have to read this again, I know i could read this several more times and get something out of it each time. A true masterpiece.
N	Meriweather David Nevin	good book, a bit long in the beginning and end. The actual journey part of the story was very interesting. I only wish I had a map to visually follow them on their journey
O	Stewart O'Nan Last Night at the Lobster	I heard about this book somewhere.. not sure where. Anyway, my first e book. I downloaded from Seattle Public Library.
P	Shipping News Anne Proulx	Highly recommended book. However, having spent a lot of time in small fishing towns, this story seemed rather normal. Well, aside from a few oddities that made the book quirky. I guess I didn't really capture the pain Quoyle had over his ex wife. It reminded me of my D book, Last Days of Lacuna Cabal. Are all Canadians quirky?
Q	Ishmael Daniel Quinn	Good read. A talking Gorilla who teaches lucky students on the theories of human existence and how man and earth relate. Damn, that is one smart Gorilla!
R	Adam Ross Mr Peanut	very interesting book
S	Carl Sagan Contact	Love the movie, loved the book. Interesting how a science fiction book can make you think about God.
T	Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev	Written in 1862, this book is about the cultural shift in Russia in the late 1800's. The two sons are "Nihilists". My only other reference to Nihilists is from "The BIg Lebowski". It was a quick read thanks to a great translation. The sons visit each of thier parents and learn how differnt they are after being away at school for years. But, as usual, one thing never changes and that is love. Both fall in love, but have vastly different experiences.
U	Rabbit Run John Updike	I really like his writing style. That guy could make anything sound interesting. The way he portrays scenes is brilliant. I wish I saw like Updike, it must have been a pretty awesome world he lived in. The story was good. Rabbit, the main character, reminded me of myself in my 20's. He really does not know what he is doing from one moment to the next, and sadly his choices are self serving. yep, sounds like a 20something! I will probably read the rest of the series, especially since it didn't really end!
V	Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. Vida Vendela	This is one of my top books in the list! I loved it! The story is about a woman who loses her father and learns some family secrets when he passes. The secret takes her to Lapland, Northern Finland. What a great story, told by a great writer. I was mesmerized.
W	Libby Prison Breakout Joseph Wheelan	This was an educational book on the atrocities committed during the Civil war. It was sad to read about what countrymen did to each other over politics.
X	Xu Xi Habit of a Foreign Sky	Wow, getting hard to find books.. Well, this one started out pretty good, a Chinese businesswomen dealing with the death of her child and mother. But then it turned into a romance novel... It was pretty sappy towards the end, and speaking of ending... what happened?  Did she take the job, which guy did she choose? What about her money and her brothers loan?  Too many questions left unanswered.
Y	Cries in the Drizzle Yu Hua	ugh, almost painful. The story of a poor chinese boy who is sent away when he is 6. 6? so these are his memories from 1-6? ok.  The problem with it  is that each memory starts early and goes on for some time, and the stories intersect each other so sometimes in one story you read something from a previous story. It's like, "hey, I read this already". but you didn't really,  you just read that memory which apparently as a lot of stories.
Z	Paul Zweig Departures	DONE!  it was a short story. I didn't realize it. Thank god cause it was sad and depressing. I'd like to read one of his Novels some day. This was about his cancer treatment.

Craig Reads is born!

I have a blog about eating out, which I rarely do. I have a blog about Hiking, which I do even less of.  I read every day.

 I started getting into literature a few years ago. Now I am hooked. I started out with Non Fiction, but now read mostly Fiction.

My top 5 favorites so far, not in order.

1. The War of the End of the World.  Mario Vargas Llosa
2. The Poisonwood Bible. Barbara Kingsolver
3. Bright Shiny Morning. James Frey
4. Beside  A Burning Sea. John Shors
5. The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal. Sean Dixon

 I usually have no idea what book I will read. All the above I just grabbed off the shelf. I decided to create a reading goal. Starting with A, read an A author I have never read before. Work my way through the alphabet A-Z.

What I realized is that, I need to plan my list better. I hit E today and I really have been meaning to read something by fellow classmate Jon Evison.  He is author of All About Lulu and West of Here. 

I tried the libraries first. No go. Bainbridge has a bunch of holds on his books. Both checked out at the downtown Seattle Library.
I tried Eagle Harbor Books. Nothing
I tried two used book stores in Seattle. Nothing.

So, its 'The Road'  by John Ehle. It's about building road and trains across the West. Historical Fiction.