Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is coming to my area!  I love his series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency — I’m currently on the sixth book.  What’s funny is that I didn’t know about the event until I picked up my audio of In the Company of Cheerful Ladies at my library.  The checkout girl didn’t even say anything to me about it — I just happened to walk by the display!  I’m considering paying the $35 to have tea with him before the event opens up to the general public.  I can always count on Precious and company to cheer up my day.  This series is great to read for the read-a-thon, too, which brings me to…

Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon is April 18th.  I’ve participated in every readathon so far, and I’ll be reading for this one, too!  The McCall Smith Event is the day before the read-a-thon, so what do you think I’ll be listening to and/or reading?! I’m sooooooo excited!  His books are PERFECT for the read-a-thon. I’ll probably try to read at least 2 books from his series, and at least 2 from Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.

The Fill in the Gaps Project.  I need another project like I need another hole in my head, but I think this will be a fun one, and it’s long term — 5 years.  The person who was the inspiration for the project is none other than Andromeda Romano-Lax, author of The Spanish Bow.  Basically we just set up a list of 100 books that we plan on reading in the next 5 years.  The project is considered successful if we read 75% of our list.  Can you guess one of the titles I put on my list?  The Spanish Bow, of course!

(39 titles below also correspond with my 101 in 1001 Project)
My list is below, but I’ll be keeping track of it HERE.

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1001)
2. War and Peace by Tolstoy (1001)
3. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (1001)
4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1001)
5. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (1001)
6. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (1001)
7. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1001)
8. Unless by Carol Shields (1001)
9. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1001)
10. Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden (1001)
11. What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (1001)
12. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera (1001)
13. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (1001)
14. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (1001)
15. Kafka on the Shore by Murakami (1001)
16. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami (1001)
17. Cry, the Beloved Country by Paton (1001)
18. Labrynthes by Borges (1001)
19. Ficciones by Borges (1001)
20. The Hobbit by Tolkien (1001)
21. Out of Africa by Denison (1001)
22. Brave New World by Huxley (1001)
23. Summer by Edith Wharton (1001)
24. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1001)
25. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1001)
26. Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler (Pulitzer)
27. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley (Pulitzer)
28. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Pulitzer)
29. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Pulitzer)
30. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer)
31. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Pulitzer)
32. A Confederacy of Dunces by Toole (Pulitzer)
33. The Good Earth by Buck (Pulitzer)
34. So Big by Ferber (Pulitzer)
35. Gone with the Wind by Mitchell (Pulitzer)
36. Lonesome Dove by McMurtry (Pulitzer)
37. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Pulitzer)
38. Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Pulitzer)
39. one title from 2009-2013 Pulitzers
40. second title from 2009-2013 Pulitzers
41. one title from 2009-2013 Bookers
42. second title from 2009-2013 Bookers
43. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (Booker)
44. Remains of the Day by Ishiguro (Booker)
45. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Booker)
46. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally (Booker)
47. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (Booker)
48. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (Booker)
49. Possession by A.S. Byatt (Booker)
50. On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Orange)
51. Small Island, by Andrea Levy (Orange)
52. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Orange)
53. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (Orange)
54. Larry’s Party by Carol Shields (Orange)
55. The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Orange)
56. Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset (Nobel laureate)
57. Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak (Nobel laureate)
58. Blindness by Saramago (Nobel laureate)
59. The Piano Teacher by Jelinek (Nobel laureate)
60. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof (Nobel laureate)
61. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing (Nobel laureate)
62. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (Nobel laureate)
63. Home by Marilynne Robinson (NYT)
64. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (NYT)
65. Intuition by Allegra Goodman (NYT)
66. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (NYT)
67. Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis (NYT)
68. The Inhabited World by David Long (NYT)
69. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin (NYT)
70. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Chabon (NYT)
71. Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 2 (classic)
72. Anne of Windy Poplars by Montgomery (classic)
73. Anne’s House of Dreams by Montgomery (classic)
74. Anne of Ingleside by Montgomery (classic)
75. Rainbow Valley by Montgomery (classic)
76. Rilla of Ingleside by Montgomery (classic)
77. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (sci-fi classic)
78. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (sci-fi classic)
79. Our Horses in Egypt by Belben (James Tait Black Prize)
80. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (PEN/Hemingway)
81. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (Hugo)
82. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Nebula)
83. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Commonwealth Writers’ Prize)
84. Outlander by Gil Adamson (Books in Canada First Novel Award)
85. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (Books in Canada First Novel Award)
86. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (Norwegian in translation)
87. Periodic Table by Primo Levi (Italian in translation)
88. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (French in translation)
89. The Character of Rain by Nothomb (French in translation)
90. Sulphuric Acid by Nothomb (French in translation)
91. The Oxford Murders by Martinez (Spanish in translation)
92. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
93. The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy
94. History of Love by Krauss
95. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer & Barrows
96. In the Woods by Tana French
97. Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
98. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
99. The Thing Around Your Neck by Adichie
100. The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax