Passions: Travel and Books

We are between trips at the moment, and I've been reading furiously, racing past my goal of 75 books read in 2014.  I'm now at 83 and counting.  Next year the goal will be 100.  I know I'm addicted.

So in addition to travel blogs, I am now following a blog written by a New Brunswick high school teacher who has a page called "The Reader's Table" listing 20 of the books she'd like to share with other readers…..and this changes as she reads further.  

Here's my "Reader's Table" for December 2014-not quite 20 books, but growing.  Most of the books were read in the last 2 years, though others are from the distant and not so distant past.

1.  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I must have read this book 10 times when I was 8-10 years old.
2.  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  My kids loved this book, and I came to feel the same way about it.
3.  Castle by David Macaulay.  Written in the 1980's, just in time for our son (and me) to love this book and recreate castles in LEGO.
4.  Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  I loved this book, mostly because I'm smitten with all things Medieval.  The detail is incredible.
5.  The Orchardist by Amanda Caplin.  Wonderfully developed characters wrapped in a good story.
6.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  One of my all-time favourites for its interesting narration, and format, to say nothing of the characters and story, set during WW 2.
7.  The Book of Negros by Lawrence Hill.  Another all-time favourite about the lesser-known connection between US slavery and Nova Scotia.  I learned lots in this book about indigo-dying and the slave trade, while simultaneously enjoying the fascinating story.
8.  Away by Jane Urquhart.  I've read all of Jane's books.  This seemed to me to be the most poetic.
9.  In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner.  A story set in Khmer Rouge Cambodia in 1975-79 telling of tragedy, horror, and the power of hope.  A startling book.
10.  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by J-P Sendker.  A woman goes in search of her father's past in Burma in the 1950's.  A beautiful love story.
11.  The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway.  One of the top fiction books of 2008, I finally read this book in 2013.  A story of how "regular" people held onto their humanity during the siege of the city in 1990.  A must read book.
12.  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  Goodreads members picked this as the top fiction book of 2014, and the prize is well-deserved.  Doerr manages to bring the WW II atmosphere to light with interesting characters involved with war-time fear and courage.
13.  Sweetland by Michael Crummey.  You can't beat Crummey's characterization of Moses Sweetland, a tough out-port Newfoundlander with enough determination and courage to make hard decisions and stick by them.  At the same time, Crummey's story illustrates how we need a community of family and friends around us to survive.  This has got to be a prize-winner.