For what did I know?

1. May 7: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
2. May 7: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
3. April 22 - May 14: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
4. March 19 - May 12: The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation by Nabíl
5. May 13 - 28: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
6. May 28 - 30: Miss Peregrine’s House of Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

1. March 19 - April 6: Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
2. March 2 - April 18: Empire of Silver by Conn Iggulden
3. April 8 - April 18: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

1. February 6 - March 2: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
2. January 17 - March 14: To Move the World: Louis G. Gregory and the Advancement of Racial Unity in America by Gayle Morrison

1. December 27 - January 17: Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden

1. November 22 - December 7: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
2. December 15 - 22: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
3. December 7 - 23: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
4. December 23 - 27: Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden

January
1. December 24 – January 1: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson
2. January 1 – 24: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
3. January 13 – 16: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
4. January 16 – 17: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
5. January 17 - 25: The Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis
6. January 18 – 27: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
7. January 21 - 22: The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
8. January 27 – 28: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
9. January 28 – 30: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

February
10. January 30 – February 1: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
11. February 1 – 7: Bone Worship by Elizabeth Eslami
12. February 7 – 10: Buddha by Deepak Chopra
13. February 8 – 12: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
14. February 10 – 22: Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
15. February 20 – 21: Plainsong for Caitlin by Elizabeth M. Rees

March
16. February 23 – March 3: From Copper to Gold by Dorothy Freeman Gilstrap
17. March 5 – 10: The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann
18. March 14 - 16: True Notebooks by Mark Salzman
19. March 16 - 20: If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
20. March 19 - 21: The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde

April
21. March 23 - April 4: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
22. April 4 - 9: They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers by Roméo Dallaire
23. April 9 - 11: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
24. April 11 - 13: Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men by Souad
25. April 23: Invisible by Hugues de Montalembert

May
26. April 14 - May 10: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
27. May 10 - 12: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
28. May 14: Various Positions by Martha Schabas
29. May 17 - 18: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
30. May 18 - 20: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
31. May 20: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
32. May 21 - 23: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
33. May 23 - 29: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

June
34. May 29 - June 6: The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vaillant
35. June 6 - 10: The Quiet Room: A Journey out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller
36. June 10 - 14: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
37. June 10 - 19: Quarantine by Rahul Mehta
38. June 14 - 19: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
39. June 19 - 25: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
40. June 19 - 26: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen

July
41. June 26 - July 1: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
42. June 26 - July 2: Not Quite What I was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure compiled by Smith Magazine
43. July 2 - 10: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
44. July 11 - 15: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
45. July 15 - 21: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

August
46. July 22 - August 8: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
47. July 27 - August 8: They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein
48. August 9 - 12: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
49. August 13 - 18: Room by Emma Donoghue
50. August 17 - 19: Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien
51. August 20 - 24: Maze Runner by James Dashner
52. August 23 - 29: The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
53. August 24 - 30: Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl by Anonymous

September
54. August 30 - September 3: Franny and Zooey: A Novel by J.D. Salinger

October
55. September 3 - October 3: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
56. September 26 - October 11: Portals to Freedom by Howard Colby Ives

November
57. October 11 - November 3: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

December
58. November 22 - December 7: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
59. December 15 - 22: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
60. December 7 - 23: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
61. December 23 - 27: Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden

I went home for the holidays, and assuming I would be receiving books for Christmas didn’t pack more than the two I was reading. Well, I finished both of those on my first day home and there were still three days until Christmas. I was scrounging around looking for a new book that would be quick to read because I didn’t want to have to bring it back with me, and fell upon this one. My parents had been talking about this and Iggulden’s other Emperor series for quite some time, so I decided to give it a try despite the fact that at almost 600 pages, it didn’t look like a quick read. Let me tell you, I devoured this book. It was so good

Wolf of the Plains is the first book in Iggulden’s Conqueror series detailing the childhood, rise, and fall of Genghis Khan. I’m no historian, so I can’t comment on the historical accuracy of the novel, but as far as entertainment goes it was excellent. It was interesting to see into the boyhood of someone who would eventually become a great conqueror and a major historical figure, whether or not the story was true. There were many times when I felt great sympathy for Temujin, the boy Genghis, only to remember that he would later become a ruthless killer.

If you love history, or even if you don’t, this book is an excellent and very quick read. I’ve already started the second in this series and am excited to finish it and begin his next.

This is a novel that I have picked up and started many times, but never actually finished. Again, I’m not sure why. I think there are times in our lives when we are not ready to read and fully comprehend books. Maybe I was never ready to read Nineteen Eighty-Four until now, who knows.

I really enjoyed reading this novel, and I’m glad that I was finally able to complete it. It raised a lot of questions for me. It touched on issues of our relationships with other people and with our search for the truth; where our loyalties lie, and how steadfast we are in them. It’s really depressing to think that our thoughts can be so easily manipulated if we are not constantly searching for the truth. If we take everything that is told to us by the powers that be as true, we will lose ourselves. It is terrifying to think that our belief systems, our values and morals, can be changed through manipulation by the state. We are so susceptible to this, and we don’t even know it. I truly believe that it is the duty of every member of society to constantly question everything; to challenge those things that run counter to what he believes is right.

Nineteen Eighty-Four really cemented my beliefs in place. Obviously, it wasn’t the deciding factor. I’m pretty staunch in what I believe in, and not much can change it. It just made it that much clearer to me that these things are important, and that we can’t waver in our convictions even for a moment.

This was my first foray into Dicken’s, and I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it. I have been discouraged from reading him ever since I picked up a copy of Great Expectations and the guy selling it to me basically shot the book down so hard. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why I let his opinion dissuade me for so long. That’s unusual.

To be honest, I don’t think that this book even needs to be reviewed. Everyone knows the story, I don’t even know why it took me so long to read it.