book megan

Read read books books doodoodoodoodooooo.

One of the many things I’m not used to that pops up frequently in the Peace Corps is … down time. Long rides in matatus, waiting for meetings to start, or passing time on a “Rain Day” (like a Snow Day, but sticky and humid), I like to keep my brain occupied. So I read. In addition to a stack of manuals about four feet tall and about a dozen books about development work, I read for pleasure, too. Below are two running lists – things I’m reading currently and things I’ve finished.

Looking for a suggestion of what next to read yourself? Here you go. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Have a suggestion for what I should read next? Let me know!


Currently Engrossed In:

Next Up:

  • Delta of Venus [by Anais Nin]
  • Lone Wolf [by Jodi Picoult]
  • Grace and Grit: My Fight For Equal Pay, at Goodyear and Beyond [by Lilly Ledbetter]
  • The Tombs of Atuan [by Ursula LeGuin]
  • The Alchemist [by Paul Coelho]


[Completed]

Fiction Non-Fiction
  • The Seventh Ritual [by Clint Adams]
  • The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [by Arthur Conan Doyle]
  • Ender’s Game [by Orson Scott Card]
  • Speaker for the Dead [by Orson Scott Card]
  • Xenocide [by Orson Scott Card]
  • Children of the Mind [by Orson Scott Card]
  • Catching Fire [by Suzanne Collins]
  • Mockingjay [by Suzanne Collins]
  • The Constant Gardener [by John le Carre]
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [by John le Carre]
  • American Gods [by Neil Gaiman]
  • Pride & Prejudice [by Jane Austen]
  • Mercy [by Jodi Picoult]
  • What is the What [by Dave Eggers]
  • The Red Queen [by Phillipa Gregory]
  • War of the Worlds [by H.G. Wells]
  • Fearless Fourteen [by Janet Evanovich]
  • Squirrel Seeks Chimpunk [by David Sedaris]
  • The Cobra Event [by Richard Preston]
  • Cage of Stars [by Jacquelyn Mitchard]
  • Fifteen [by Janet Evanovich]
  • Plum Love [by Janet Evanovich]
  • The Picture of Dorian Grey [by Oscar Wilde]
  • Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [by Seth Grahame-Smith]
  • Full Dark, No Stars [by Stephen King]
  • Ape House [by Sarah Gruen]
  • The Fountainhead [by Ayn Rand]
  • Alas, Babylon [by Pat Frank]
  • World War Z: Oral History of the Zombie Uprising [by Max Brooks]
  • Push [by Sapphire] Aka “Precious,” the novel from whence the film derives its plot
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [by Steig Larsson]
  • The Girl Who Played with Fire [by Steig Larsson]
  • The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest [by Steig Larsson]
  • Swamplandia! [by Karen Russell]
  • Room: A Novel [by Emma Donoghue]
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear [by Jean M. Auel]
  • Ender’s Shadow [by Orson Scott Card]
  • The Story of Mary Slesser [by A.J. Bultman]
  • My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Fairy Tales Re-Imagined [ed. by Kate Bernheimer]
  • Rose Madder [by Stephen King]
  • Valley of the Horses [by Jean M. Auel]
  • The Thorn Birds [by Colleen McCullough]
  • Eleven Over Top [by Janet Evanovich]
  • The Dirty Parts of the Bible [by Sam Torode]
  • Sizzling Sixteen [by Janet Evanovich]
  • The Leftovers [by Tom Perrotta]
  • Flesh Which Is Not Flesh [by Jessica Verday]
  • Soulless [by Gail Carriger]
  • Zone One [by Colson Whitehead]
  • Dune [by Frank Herbert]
  • The Sweet Relief of Missing Children [by Sarah Braunstein]
  • 11/22/63 [by Stephen King]
  • The Seventh Son (Alvin Maker, Book 1) [by Orson Scott Card]
  • You Deserve Nothing: A Novel [by Alexander Maksik]
  • Red Prophet (Alvin Maker, Book 2) [by Orson Scott Card]
  • The Graveyard Book [by Neil Gaiman]
  • House Rules [by Jodi Picoult]
  • A Storm of Swords [by George R R Martin]
  • A Feast for Crows [by George R. R. Martin]
  • A Dance of Dragons [by George R. R. Martin]
  • Coraline [by Neil Gaiman]

  • Sing You Home [by Jodi Picoult]
  • The Autobiography of Henry VIII [by Margaret George]
  • American Gods: Tenth Anniversary Edition [by Neil Gaiman]

  • Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit [by Jeanette Winterson]
  • The Marketplace [by Laura Antoniou]
  • The End of Poverty [by Jeffrey Sachs]
  • Africa United [by Steve Bloomfield]

  • Skipping Towards Gomorrah [by Dan Savage]
  • Deep Survival [by Laurence Gonzales]
  • Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of
    the Captives [by Thomas French]

  • Chronicles of a Plague Revisited [by Allen Hollerman]
  • No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam [by Reza Aslan]
  • God is Not Great [by Christopher Hitchens]
  • The Israel Lobby [by John Mearshemier and Stephen Walt]
  • Eat Pray Love [by Elizabeth Gilbert]
  • In a Sunburned Country [by Bill Bryson]
  • My Lie: True Story of a False Memory [by Meredith Maran]
  • Demon in the Freezer: The Smallpox Threat [by Richard Preston]
  • At Home: A Short History of Private Life [by Bill Bryson]
  • Panic at Level 4 [by Richard Preston]
  • Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void [by Mary Roach]
  • A History of God [by Karen Armstrong]
  • Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea [by Chelsea Handler]
  • Don’t Go There [by Peter Greenberg]
  • The Zombie Survival Handbook [by Max Brooks]
  • Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Beliefs [by V.S. Naipul]
  • The Grand Design [by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow]
  • It Sucked and Then I Cried [by Heather Armstrong]
  • Rockabye: From Wild to Child [by Rebecca Woolfe]
  • Changing Shoes [by Tina Sloan]
  • Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime [by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin]
  • Innocents Abroad [by Mark Twain]
  • I Am Nujood, Age Ten And Divorced [by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui]
  • Sex at Dawn: Examining Prehistoric Origins of Modern Human Sexuality [by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha]
  • Octomon and the Politics of Babies [by Mark Greif]
  • Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion [by Isabella St. James]
  • When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and the Law in the United States 1860-1973 [by Leslie J. Reagan]
  • Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived [by Rob Bell]
  • You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News [by Nathan Birch, et al.]
  • Unbearable Lightness [by Portia de Rossi]
  • Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin [by Ron Rosenbaum]
  • Diana [by Sarah Bradford]
  • Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality [by Rob Bell]
  • The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Journey to Understand his Extraordinary Son [by Ian Brown]
  • Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Radicals, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia [by Robert Lacey]
  • Blind Allegiance: A Memoir of Tumultuous Years [by Frank Bailey]
  • Into Thin Air [by Jon Krakauer]
  • Guns, Germs, and Steel [by Jared Diamond]
  • The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon [by David Grann]
  • Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest [by Lincoln Hall]
  • Rum Jungle [by Alan Moorhead]
  • Stolen Life: A Memoir [by Jaycee Dugard]
  • American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare – The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee [by Karen Abbott]
  • Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide [by Rebecca Hamilton]
  • Lucky [by Alice Sebold]
  • The Kid [by Dan Savage]
  • The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed [by Judy Shepherd]
  • Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices [by Noah Feldman]
  • Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife [by Mary Roach]
  • Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea [by Barbara Demick]
  • Informant: The FBI, the Klu Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo [by Gary May]
  • The Origins of AIDS [by Jacques Pepin]
  • In Defense of Food [by Michael Pollan]
  • Bossypants [by Tina Fey]
  • Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman [by Jon Krakaeur]
  • Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of an Empire [by David Anderson]
  • It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower [Michela Wrong]
  • She’s Not The Man I Married: Life With a Transgendered Husband [by Helen Boyd]
  • The Killer of Little Shepherds [by Douglas Starr]
  • Saving Gracie: One Dog’s Escape from the Shadowy World of American Puppy Mills [by Carol Bradley]

  • Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion [by Jean H. Baker]
  • Show Dog: The Charmed Life and Trying Times of a Near-Perfect Purebred [by Joshua Dean]
  • Moby Duck [by Donovan Hohn]

  • Dear Daughter [by Heather Armstrong]
  • Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang [by Chelsea Handler]
  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A 127-hour Survival Story [by Aron Ralston]
  • The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love [by Bishop John Shelby Spong]
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [by Rebecca Skloot]
  • Mark of the Grizzly: Bear Attacks and Hard Lessons Learned [by Scott McMillion]
  • Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal [by Jeannette Winters]
  • Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of Spiritual Life [by James Martin]
  • Apollo’s Angels: A Brief History of Ballet [by Jennifer Homans]