2010 Reading List

I read a great article at The New York Times, about older brains and how they learn; it's less about working puzzles and more about approaching tasks and thinking in new ways. At the end of the article I saw that the author has a book coming out this year, and so with this book, I start my 2010 reading list.

Here, in no particular order, is my list for 2010. In addition, I want to keep reading one book of poetry a month. And I want to keep buying at least one book of poetry a month. If poets don't support each other, how can we expect other people to buy our books?

1. The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain by Barbara Strauch

This book joins the book from 2009 that I forgot to read:

2. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor

Other books on the 2009 list that I want to get around to:

3. New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

4. After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of Religion by Robert Wuthnow

I'm already reading the next 3 books, so let me add those to my list of theology books to read:

5. The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life by Joan Chittister

6. The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher

7. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller

I want to read 2 books of history:

8. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

9. History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism by Judith Bennett

I want to read two memoirs by writers:

10. The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble

11. Literary Life: A Second Memoir by Larry McMurtry

And let me not forget novels (and please, let me enjoy some vacation time like I had last August where I can just read novel after novel):

12. Gail Godwin, one of my old-time favorites, has just published a novel: Unfinished Desires

13. Lorrie Moore's latest book got lots of good press, so I'll give it a whirl: A Gate at the Stairs.

14. Richard Russo's book, That Old Cape Magic, will come back to the library shelves eventually; if that many people have checked it out, it must be good, right?

15. Zoe Heller is always a treat, so I'll read her latest, The Believers.

16. And last, but not least, I want to remember to read Barbara Kingsolver's latest, The Lacuna.