2010: My Year, In Books (And Other Remembrances)

“Five hundred twenty five thousand

six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand

moments so dear

Five hundred twenty five thousand

six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year”

First, I’ll start with the other remembrances, and then I will get to the books.

2010 was a year for many things:

The year of Methotrexate:

I chronicled my on again, off again love affair with the drug, in the posts:

- “The Sacrifices We Make To The Medication Gods”

- “A ‘Sick’ Day Or A ‘Typical’ Day?”

- “Running Out”

The year of Repeat Cellulitis:

- “Patient Knows Best”

The year of the Guest Blogger:

I was happy to host Sara Gorman, author of “Despite Lupus”, and Toni Bernhard, author of “How To Be Sick”:

- “Guest Blogger: Sara Gorman”

- “Guest Blogger: Toni Bernhard”

The year of the death of Support Groups:

Virtual support seems to be the beacon, as in-person support groups fizzled out:

- “Hello, Lupie!”

- “Two Years And Counting: The Insight That Comes From Illness”

- “Does Misery Really Love Company?”

The year of annoying and incompetent hospital staff and other “professionals”, and other mishaps:

  - “A Good Nurse Knows A Prick When She Sees One (And Some Nurses Are Just Pricks)”

- “Same Stuff, Different Day: Unfortunate Lessons In Disclosure”

- “Patient Relations To The Rescue! (Definitely Something To Be Thankful For)”

The year of Volunteerism:

- “Give And Let Give”

The year of My Second Hospitalization:

- “Worse Date Night Ever (And It’s All My Fault)”

And most importantly…

The year of the Boyfriend, the year of the boyfriend, and oh yeah, did I mention, the year of the boyfriend?

We’ve been dating for nearly a year now, and I couldn’t be happier! I’ve blogged a lot where he’s concerned from disclosing to living to talking about babies and everything in between:

- “Breaking My Own Rules: The Doctor Is In The House”

- “When Your Body Calls, Who Responds?”

- ‘Le Talk’

- ‘I Love You, Don’t Touch Me’

He’s briefly mentioned in passing in many posts, so I’ll leave it to you to find them all.

*****

And now on to the books…

One of my goals for 2010 was to either read all of the books on my shelves that I haven’t read, or get rid of them. Maybe that sounds stupid. But part of my more abstract goals was to get rid of excess baggage, to get rid of the things that are holding me back and/or down.

I did not end up reading all the books on my shelf, but I did set a goal to read at least 50 books, and I surpassed that.

This list includes only books that I read in the entirety. This does not include the countless articles and book chapters that I read for my research. 

Reading all these books made me realize that I need to get on writing my own, because some of the stuff out there is just plain crap.

Maybe 2011 will be the year that I write a book!

Anyway, I think the books a person reads says a lot about them. And since I do truly spend so much of my time reading, here goes. You will notice that I do tend to get on author kicks. Hopefully from my list, you'll find something worth reading in the year to come:

1. “Lip Service” by Susan Mallery (F)

2. “Straight From the Hip” by Susan Mallery (F)

3. “Hot on her Heels” by Susan Mallery (F)

4. “The Pursuit of Perfection” by Sheila M. Rothman and David J. Rothman (NF)**

5. “Mistaken Identity” by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen, and Whitney Cerak with Mark Tabb (NF)

6. “As Nature Made Him” by John Colapinto (NF)

7. “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks (F)

8. “90 Minutes in Heaven” by Don Piper (NF)

9. “Despite Lupus” by Sara Gorman (NF)*

10. “How to Write a Lot” by Paul Silvia (NF)**

11. “The Art of Being a Healing Presence” by James E. Miller and Susan C. Cutshall (NF)*

12. “Time Management from the Inside Out” by Julie Morgenstern (NF)

13. “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom (F)

14. “For One More Day” by Mitch Albom (F)

15. “Have a Little Faith” by Mitch Albom (NF)

16. “Cancer Is a Bitch” by Gail Konop Baker (NF)*

17. “Messenger” by Jeni Stepanek (NF)*

18. “The 9th Judgment” by James Patterson (F)

19. “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor (NF)*

20. “Better” by Atul Gawande (NF)*

21. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot (NF)* **

22. “Lift” by Kelly Corrigan (NF)

23. “The Short Book” by Zachary Kanin (NF)**

24. “In An Instant” by Lee & Bob Woodruff (NF)*

25. “The Middle Place” by Kelly Corrigan (NF)*

26. “Hornet Flight” by Ken Follett (F)

27. “Complications” by Atul Gawande (NF)*

28. “Private” by James Patterson (F)

29. “The Council of Dads” by Bruce Feiler (NF)*

30. “Short” by John Schwartz (NF)**

31. “Lupus Q & A” by Robert G. Lahita and Robert H. Phillips (NF)*

32. “As I Live and Breathe” by Jamie Weisman (NF)*

33. “The Woods” by Harlan Coben (F)

34. “The Postcard Killers” by James Patterson and Liza Marklund (F)

35. “The Innocent” by Harlan Coben (F)

36. “Julie's Story, My Life With Lupus” by Julie Miller (NF)*

37. “My (So-Called) Normal Life” by Erin Zammett (NF)*

38. “Love Story” by Erich Segal (F)

39. “The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer” by Maren Klawiter (NF)**

40. “Train Go Sorry” by Leah Hager Cohen (NF)**

41. “Deaf in America” by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries (NF)**

42. “Impure Science” by Steven Epstein (NF)**

43. ‘So What Are You Going To Do With That?’ by Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius (NF)**

44. “Courtney’s Legacy” by George Cantor (NF; link not available)

45. “Better Than Well” by Carl Elliott (NF)**

46. “How to be Sick” by Toni Bernhard (NF)*

47. “Disarmed” by Kristin A. Goss (NF)**

48. “Flammable” by Javier Auyero and Débora Alexjandra Swistun (NF)**

49. “The Case Against Perfection” by Michael J. Sandel (NF)**

50. “Promise Me” by Nancy G. Brinker (NF)*

51. “Complete Your Dissertation or Thesis in Two Semesters or Less” by Evelyn Hunt Ogden (NF)**

52. “Normal At Any Cost” by Susan Cohen and Christine Cosgrove (NF)**

53. “Unstoppable in Stilettos” by Lauren Ruotolo (NF)

54. “Footprints of Courage” by Jan Jenkins (NF)

55. “Hoda” by Hoda Kotb (NF)*

56. “Someone Like You” by Susan Mallery (F)

57. “Falling for Gracie” by Susan Mallery (F)

58. “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer (NF)

(F) – Fiction
(NF) – Non-fiction

* Books specifically of interest to chronically ill readers
** Academic books/books for my research

*****

Wishing all of my readers a very Happy New Year!

Be sure to check out my new blog/business venture: Creating Everlasting Memories (And More!).

And, of course, look for new posts in 2011!