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The Big Read 2015

Diversification is the theme of the Big Read 2015, as I will be trying to read more works by authors of various origins around the world instead of being Anglo-centric. Will my French reading list be as meagre as last year’s? I hope not. I really hope not. Without further ado, here’s my attempt to read 20 English and 10 French books.

En français
01 | La liste de mes envies – Grégoire Delacourt
02 | La petite bijou – Patrick Mondiano
03 | Le confident – Hélène Grémillon
04 | Un avion sans elle – Michel Bussi
05 | Katiba – Jean-Christophe Rufin
06 | Un roman français – Frédéric Beigbeder
07 | Chien blanc – Romain Gary
08 | La petite marchande de souvenirs – François Lelord
09 | Le voleur d’ombres – Marc Levy
10 | Ulysse from Bagdad – Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
11 | D’Autres vies que la mienne – Emmanuel Carrère
12 | Les sirènes de Bagdad – Yasmina Khadra

In English
01 | Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me – William Alexander
02 | Thousand Cranes – Yasunari Kawabata
03 | Snow Country – Yasunari Kawabata
04 | Fortunately, the Milk – Neil Gaiman
05 | In the House of the Interpreter – Ngugi wa Thiong’o
06 | Adultery – Paulo Coelho
07 | A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal – Åsne Seierstad
08 | What Do You Care What Other People Think? – Richard Feynman
09 | La Vie en Rosé – Jamie Ivey
10 | What I Know for Sure – Oprah Winfrey
11 | On Rue Tatin – Susan Herrmann Loomis
12 | Yes Please – Amy Poehler
13 | The Impossible Knife of Memory – Laurie Halse Anderson
14 | Sold as a Slave – Olaudah Equiano
15 | So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson
16 | The Turtle of Oman – Naomi Shihab Nye
17 | H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald
18 | The Noodle Maker – Ma Jian
19 | The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears – Dinaw Mengestu
20 | Russian Tattoo – Elena Gorokhova
21 | One Fine Day – Teresa F Morgan
22 | Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, Then and Now – Dick Davis
23 | The Year of Living Danishly – Helen Russell
24 | A Curious Mind – Brian Grazer
25 | The Wish List – Jane Costello
26 | Hermit in Paris – Italo Calvino
27 | A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder – Shamini Flint
28 | The Pedant in the Kitchen – Julian Barnes
29 | The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson
30 | The Hungry Ghost – Shyam Selvadurai
31 | The Calculus Diaries – Jennifer Ouellette
32 | A Tiger in the Kitchen – Cheryl Tan
33 | The Jewel Trader of Pegu – Jeffrey Hantover
34 | Things Can Only Get Feta – Marjory McGinn
35 | Packing for Mars – Mary Roach
36 | Getting Things Done – David Allen
37 | Paint Your Wife – Lloyd Jones
38 | The Pleasures Trilogy – Eloisa James
39 | The Checklist Manifesto – Atul Gawande
40 | Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science – Atul Gawande
41 | Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance – Atul Gawande
42 | Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg
43 | The Girl who Fell to Earth – Sophia Al-Maria
44 | Journey by Moonlight – Antal Szerb
45 | A Story Like the Wind – Laurens van Der Post
46 | Typhoon – Qaisra Shahraz
47 | The Holy Woman – Qaisra Shahraz
48 | ‘Twas the Night After Christmas – Sabrina Jeffries
49 | Paris Red – Maureen Gibbon
50 | The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
51 | The Ingredients of Love – Nicolas Barreau
52 | The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
53 | If Today Be Sweet – Thrity Umrigar
54 | Along the River – Adeline Yen Mah
55 | The Prize – Julie Garwood
56 | Lion’s Lady – Julie Garwood
57 | Guardian Angel – Julie Garwood
58 | The Gift – Julie Garwood
59 | Castles – Julie Garwood
60 | Not That Kind of Girl – Lena Dunham
61 | Hungry for Paris – Alexander Lobrano
62 | The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Olivier Sacks
63 | Paris, My Sweet – Amy Thomas
64 | Hiding in Plain Sight – Nuruddin Farah
65 | Nudge – Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler
66 | Madame Picasso – Anne Girard
67 | The Seventh Day – Yu Hua
68 | Enchantment – Guy Kawasaki
69 | Us – David Nicholls
70 | Ten Trees and a Truffle Dog – Jamie Ivey
71 | Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits – Laila Lalami
72 | No god but God – Reza Aslan
73 | Lemon Tart – Josi S Kilpack
74 | The Beloved Daughter – Alana Terry
75 | The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
76 | Quiet – Susan Cain
77 | Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
78 | Diary of an Accidential Wallflower – Jennifer McQuiston
79 | Neanderthal Seeks Human – Penny Reid
80 | The Happiness of Pursuit – Chris Guillebeau
81 | The Fixer – Bernard Malamud
82 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
83 | Grimm’s Fairy Tales – Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
84 | Snow – Orhan Pamuk

26 May 2015: Just shy of a full five month into the year, somehow, mission accomplished (and then some). This has got to be the fastest yet I’ve completed my annual reading challenge. In past years, the final week of December often seemed to be binge-reading week so I can nudge past the finishing line. Crazy, huh? ;)

31 December 2015: Somehow, the final tally ends up being 96 – way more than I thought I would have time to read in a year. Several long distance flights (many for work) definitely help nudge the number up!

2 scribbles & notes

  1. You’re doing really well!
    I have a target of ten French books, I’ve 5 read so far so I am on target! :) Was Chien Blanc good? My nephew-in-law has to read La promesse de l’Aube for school and I’m tempted to read some Romain Gary.

    • Lil says:

      I prefer La promesse de l’aube, which I read last year, which touches upon his own life and the rather dysfunctional relationship with his mother whom he adored nonetheless. Chien blanc is more of an analysis of politics and racism in 1960s, both in the States and in France, that somehow just didn’t flow quite as well as La promesse de l’aube.

      It could be me missing some points that he made because my understanding in French would be a bit more literal than metaphorical…

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