No-Obligation Book Club

Summer cleaning is what I am currently doing to avoid the sunshine and heat outside in Seattle. Part of this cleaning and organizing process has included recycling college notes and the many years of subscriptions of magazines, along with shredding old bills and paperwork. So far I have recycled 113 pounds of paper...yes 113 pounds; I finally used my bathroom scale to actually weigh something! I couldn't believe the magnitude of paper accumulation I have moved from apartment to apartment.

One of the magazine subscriptions that I had for four years was Real Simple. My three favorite topics in the magazine are The Simple List, Food, and No-Obligation Book Club. I kept all my magazine issues mainly for the information of these topics, so I thought I would share some of this information virtually, and then I can removed them from the prime real estate that are my bookshelves and into the recycling bin. Also, I love making lists and I know some of you are also addicted to list making; so you are welcomed!

Here are some of the book recommendations from the No-Obligation Book Club pages of my magazine subscriptions. The books I have read are highlighted yellow...happy reading!

What books will you pass down to your children:

1. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
2. A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Brandford
3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
5. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

What to read this spring:

1. Bark by Lorrie Moore
2. Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun
3. Cambridge by Susanna Kaysen
4. Cementville by Paulette Livers
5. October by Zoe Wicomb
6. The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver
7. Her by Christa Parravani
8. The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy
9. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
10. Middle C by William H. Gass

What book taught you an important lesson about love:

1. Rascal by Sterling North
2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
4. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
5. The Color of Water by James McBride

What to read this summer:

1. Fractures by Lamar Herrin
2. Death of the Black-Haired Girl by Robert Stone
3. We are Water by Wally Lamb
4. A Permanent Member of the Family by Russell Banks
5. My Mistake by Daniel Menaker
6. Visitation Street by Ivy Pochoda
7. The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
8. The Night Gwen Stacy Died by Sarah Bruni
9. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
10. Gloria by Kerry Young
11. I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum
12. Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok
13. Stars Go Blue by Laura Pritchette
14. The Arsonist by Sue Miller
15. The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman

What book is unforgettably eerie:

1. Memoirs of an Invisible Man by Harry F. Saint
2. Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Mrs. Penegrine's House for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
5. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

What book is a great Valentine's Day gift:

1. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
2. The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy by Nick Bantock
3. Desire: Women Write about Wanting by Lisa Solod Warren
4. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
5. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

What is your favorite short story:

1. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
2. Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Hills Like White Elephant by Ernest Hemingway
4. Neighbour Rosicky by Willa Cather
5. The Storm by Kate Chopin

What book helped you through a tough time:

1. Blue Jelly by Debby Bull
2. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
3. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson's
4. What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
5. When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner
6. Breeding in Captivity by Stacy Bolt
7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
8. My Life in France by Julia Child
9. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
10. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

What is the most gripping true story you've ever read:

1. The Journals of Lewis and Clark
2. All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein
3. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
4. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
5. To Sleep with the Angels by David Cowan and John Kuenster
6. Lost Moon by Commander Jim Lovell Jr.
7. The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli
8. Carly's Voice by Carly Fleischmann

What is your favorite fictional mother:

1. Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter
2. Mrs. Madrigal in Tales of Two Cities
3. Ma Joad in Grapes of Wrath

What book should be on the president's nightstand:

1. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
2. Bossypants by Tina Fey
3. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
4. Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor
5. Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
6. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

What book should you read this autumn:

1. At the Bottom of Everything by Den Dolnick
2. After Her by Joyce Maynard
3. Nine Inches by Tom Perrotta
4. The Partner Track by Helen Wan
5. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
6. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
7. De Potter's Grand Tour by Joanna Scott
8. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
9. Bespotted by Linda Gray Sexton

What book reminds you of home:

1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
3. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
4. Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
5. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

What contemporary book will stand the test of time:

1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
4. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Giver by Lois Lowry

What is your favorite book to read on vacation:

1. Dave Barry's Greatest Hits
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
3. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
4. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
5. The Beach Book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ronald Dahl

Could use a laugh:

1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
2. What's Not to Love? The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer by Jonathan Ames
3. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
4. Meaty by Samantha Irby
5. The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life by Eugene Mirman

50 books that will change your life:

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2. Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips
3. The Best American Short Stories
4. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
5. The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman
6. Cookwise by Shirley O.Corriher
7. The Benchley Roundup by Robert Benchley
8. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
9. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo
10. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
11. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
12. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
13. The Education of a Gardener by Russell Page
14. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
15. Katherine by Anya Seton
16. Betsy in Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace
17. Colefax and Fowler: The Best in English Interior Decoration by Chester Jones
18. A Much Younger Man by Dianne Highbridge
19. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
20. Foster by Claire Keegan
21. Apartments for the Affluent: A Historical Survey of Buildings in New York by Andrew Alpern
22. Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker
23. Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin
24. King of the Hill by A.E. Hothner
25. I Captured the Castle by Dodie Smith
26. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
27. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
28. The Lover by Marguerite Duras
29. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
30. Being Peach by Thich Nhat Hanh
31. Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
32. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
33. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
34. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
35. Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back by Ann Vileisis
36. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
37. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
38. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
39. Without Feathrs by Woody Allen
40. The Street by Ann Petry
41. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess
42. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
43. Common Sense on Mutual Funds by John C. Bogle
44. The Gay Place by Billy Lee Brammer
45. About Alice by Calvin Trillin
46. The Second Shift by Arlie Hochschild
47. Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
48. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
49. The Last Lion by William Manchester
50. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck