The Best of January

At last, January is coming to an end. My least favourite month of the year, and probably most other people's also. Christmas is over, it's dull and dark. Dreary, cold and wet. 

No more sparkly lights, nights out or continuous opportunities to drink Prosecco.

Somehow though, we still managed to make the most of it!

My month in review is a simple concept but it's a nice way of stepping into a new month with a bit of positivity. I'm gonna do this in bullet points cause otherwise I'll write an essay and no one wants that. 

• We went to see our favourite painting (and if I'm being a knob I'll say "our wedding painting" also) The Meeting On The Turret Stairs in the National Gallery's Burton exhibition, which was wonderful.
• We finally got to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I still haven't clarified in my own mind how I feel about that film as it's so multi-layered but I definitely can recommend it.
• I read some brilliant books and got my years goal of reading 70 off to a great start. I read 6 books this month with favourites including; Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman), Little Deaths (Emma Flint) and The Mother of All Questions (Rebecca Solnit).
• Mostly we stayed indoors to hibernate and watched the feck out of Netflix. The Crown season 2 was enjoyed with a healthy dose of anti-colonialism and we've also been binge watching Elementary, which is surprisingly entertaining.

• I made my triumphant return to my pilates class, which may or may not have crippled me but we'll worry about that in February. 
• Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas) was spent with family in The Westin eating tiny sandwiches and sipping prosecco, which was a lovey treat (I lied about the lack of prosecco opportunities in January).
• We booked our Copenhagen/Mälmo/Stockholm trip for May. You should know by now that I had nothing to do with that- it was all Himself (I did buy a swimsuit for our trip to the Amalfi Coast though so that's kind of the same thing as holiday planning, if you think about it)
• We helped christen our beautiful nephew and godson, Tom. 
• We finally got to try Hang Dai for Himself's birthday; a fancy and very cool Chinese restaurant that had been high on our list of Dublin spots to go for food. We will be back.
• Beauty wise, I loved trying the new SOS Primers from Clarins and the MAC Lunar New Year lipsticks, which Himself has described as looking like tampons. Thanks, Himself. 
• Lastly and most excitingly, Leo Varadkar has announced that a referendum to repeal the 8th amendment will go ahead this year and in May, no less. Got to get the old campaigning boots back on and also possibly organise a flight home for a day to vote from the previously mentioned trip to Sweden! 

Phew! That feels better! I think I demonise January a bit too much, lots of good things happened! How was your month? What lovely things did you do to make the start of the year a bit more bearable?

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Audiovisual Favourites 2017

This is my chance to reflect on all things film, TV, and podcast that I loved from the last year.
Books and beauty will get their own posts, fear not!

Podcasts:

This was the year I properly got into podcasts, having previously loved Serial in 2016. During the Summer I happened upon My Favourite Murder and quickly caught up on all the previous episodes I had missed. 

I love this because it combines an interest in True Crime with witty and fun female presenters that are endlessly listenable to. At times, it can be a bit bleak and yes, I have shed a tear but Karen and Georgia have also made me chuckle warmheartedly, not something you can usually say about that genre. They have a huge fanbase, doing live shows, one of which is coming to Dublin this year (I missed out on tickets, like a fool). There's also a cat called Elvis who pops up at the end of each episode, meowing for cookies. It's heartwarming really.

I also tuned in to My Dad Wrote A Porno for a while but after starting the second series, it got a bit samey and I tired of it. It's still fun though, if you're looking to both laugh and cringe on your commute to work. General premise is one guy's dad wrote a terrible porno and him and his two friends decided to read it out loud and laugh at the ridiculousness, which is great for the rest of us.

A few of my favourite youtube/bloggers started podcasts this year too, including Estee Lalonde doing The Heart Of It With Estee Lalonde where she discusses a whole host of topics, including tattoos, feminism, travel and strength, amongst others. She always has a special guest per episode that is an expert in that topic, which makes it even more interesting. Looking forward to season 2!

I also enjoyed At Home With... by Lily Pebbles and Anna Newton, two of my favourite beauty bloggers. They go to a different person's home each episode and discuss everything from their home decor to their wardrobe, work life etc. Depending on the interviewee it's interesting and the two presenters are really pleasant to listen to.

I've also enjoyed tuning in to the Banging Book Club, presented by three book Youtubers, they take a different book about sex or where the storyline involves sex in some way and review it. There's a big variety of books but unfortunately they haven't posted in a while so I stopped listening around June.

Films

I actually kept a list of all the films we watched this year so I could keep track and make this post a bit easier! I won't go into too much detail cause you can really easily look these up but these are my top 17 films of 2017. I narrowed it down to 17 like a champ except that I had a leftover space in my grid, so I made it 18...cause I'm adaptable like that! Some of these came out in 2016 (like Rogue One) but I only got around to seeing them this year. 

Moonlight (beautifully made, touching and unique), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (a late contender), La La Land (the perfect antidote to the January blues), Thor Ragnarok (extremely good fun. Plus Jeff Goldblume), Logan (not your average comic book movie), John Wick 2 (Not as good as the first but still brilliant fight scenes. Plus Keanu Reeves), Girls Trip (absolutely hilarious, I watched on the flight to LA and laughed so hard that I then put it on again for the flight home and made Himself watch my favourite scene with me), Trainspotting 2 (nostalgic, funny and sharp), Get Out (very clever and very terrifying), Hidden Figures (inspiring, emotional and infuriating), It (everything I wanted it to be- true to the book, scary, funny, smart. LOVED IT), Atomic Blonde (it's here for several reasons- Charlize, the 80's Berlin setting, the soundtrack, the clothes and THAT fight scene. G'wan Charlize, you ledge), The Invitation (a tense, slow-building, unexpectedly shocking horror), Baby Driver (fast paced, great soundtrack, adrenaline filled car-chases and Jon Hamm. The storyline goes off the rails somewhat but it's still enjoyable), Dunkirk (I spent the entire thing on the literal edge of my seat. Every scene is beautifully shot and you become completely invested in the characters. Plus, Cillian Murphy), Manchester By The Sea (leaving aside the terrible human that is Casey Affleck, this is an absolute punch to the gut of a film. Brilliantly made but very bleak),  Spiderman Homecoming (a reboot that's actually worth watching. It's fun, self-aware and has a decent Spiderman), Rogue One (a Star Wars story so not part of the official series but it does some explaining along the way and it left me extremely emotional. Sob). 

TV shows

There was lots of good TV this year, mostly via Netflix to be fair!

Westworld (a truly brilliant sci-fi. A must-watch), The Handmaid's Tale (nauseating, true to the book, terrifying, excellent drama/dystopia), It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (it's on series 11 or something ridiculous but we somehow only got into it this year. All of the characters are terrible so you feel no pity for them when it all goes wrong. So funny), The Crown (I think we all watched this one this year! True story period drama with excellent actors and fascinating storylines), Stranger Things 2 (I preferred this to the first series actually, it's as creepy, funny and entertaining as the first series but a bit less upsetting. Poor Barb), Mindhunter (more true crime- this is the story of how the FBI's behavioural analysis unit was set up. Also true stories and I read the book after watching it cause it was so intriguing), Master of None (DEV, COME BAAAACK!!! Perfect television, we had to hold ourselves back from binge-watching the entire thing), Riverdale (pure trash teen drama that makes no sense a lot of the time but has a cool vintage comic vibe thanks to its origins. The murder storyline is nicely creepy and Luke Perry is playing someone's Da, so basically he's only slightly older than he was in Beverly Hills 90210), The Keepers (a traumatising documentary about the evil and depravity of some members of the Catholic Church. It's deeply upsetting and infuriating but an important watch), The Good Place (hilarious and unique- this is like no other TV show around. The storyline flips every so often, totally unexpectedly), This Is Us (we only dipped in and out of this one but we both liked it so will restart it again soon. Great cast of characters with two different timelines to keep things interesting), Game of Thrones series 7 (DRAGONS!!!!), Rick and Morty (I avoided it for a while cause it can be seriously gross sometimes but it also has full-on belly laugh moments), Peaky Blinders (I feel a fool, a fool I tell you for not watching this 'til now! We're just about to start series 3 and we are obsessed!!! Brilliant TV!), The Sinner (very creepy, sinister mystery that we spent a week binge watching, trying to look away from but desperate to know what the resolution was), Big Little Lies (a really refreshing book adaptation focusing on female friendships, domestic violence and that perfect Big Sur coastline), The Defenders (a combination of all the other Marvel superhero Netflix shows- Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage and the Iron Fist. Snooze on the last one, the rest are great), Catastrophe series 3 (as hilarious as ever and featuring the amazing Carrie Fisher in her last episodes. Sob). 

Special shout-outs to the Youtube videos of one of my fave authors, Marian Keyes, John Oliver and his extremely sarcastic and satirical late night political show which I catch up on when I can, and ASMR, a calming series of soothing sounds, whispers, etc to help you relax and sleep. 

What did I miss?!
Let me know what your favourite TV, film and podcasts of the year were!
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Netflix Shows You May Have Overlooked

Like a lot of people these days, we tend to forego TV for a bit of Netflix of an evening because we have the weird sort of addictive personalities that need to watch a whole series in one go. We do that a lot. Of course, there's some really obvious options on Netflix, like Orange is the New Black, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and House of Cards and some old classics like Buffy that I may watch slightly too regularly (ahem) but we've discovered a few gems recently that are well worth checking out if you think you're running out of shows to watch.

Fringe

For shame on us that we're only discovering Fringe now but my God, is it a great show. Borrowing more than just a little bit from the X-Files legacy (I was a huge fan back in the day), this deals with all the really weird stuff out there with a team lead by FBI agent Olivia, who is amazing in every possible way. I spend most of my time watching this going "G'wan Olivia!", cause she's just great. She gave a whole speech to her boss in an episode the other day where she was all "you say that I'm too emotional to do my job, which by the way is something men always say to women to question their ability but I am emotional, I use it to be a better agent and help get into the minds of victims". PREACH. 

She's intelligent, capable, quick-thinking, empathetic, basically just everything you want in a good female protagonist.

And yeah, you're eyes aren't deceiving you, that's good old Pacey Witter up there, looking all hot and stubbly. Joshua Jackson (as he's normally known), plays a highly intelligent MIT drop out who's there to interpret the ramblings of his mentally unstable but brilliant scientist father, who although eccentric, has his finger on the pulse of the paranormal. Together they work their way through all the crazy cases that come their way. Like the X-Files, there's a constant undercurrent of there being other forces at work; the "powers that be" are somehow involved in all of these instances and there are running themes like the "bald man" who pops up in different episodes for you to spot; letting you know there's something bigger going on. Basically, it's just a really excellent watch but not for the squeamish. Netflix has four seasons of it but I think there's another two out there.

Episodes

We actually stumbled across this one on TV but it was on about series three and as we liked it so much we said we'd go back to the start. Low and behold; the first two seasons are on Netflix (there's a third and I think they're making a fourth). I can highly recommend this understated but very sharp comedy. The basic premise is that British sitcom writers (and married couple) Sean and Beverley have a really successful career at home, having just won a BAFTA for their TV show. On the back of that, they're offered the chance to make the same show for a US audience so with some trepidation they move to LA. That's where it all starts going wrong as the TV network insists on casting Matt Le Blanc (playing a hilarious fictionalised version of himself) in the main role, which he's completely unsuited for, thereby meaning they have to change the entire premise of the show. From there it just gets funnier but there's also something really comforting about it; the characters build friendships along the way and there's lots of little in-jokes that are carried throughout. Matt Le Blanc is amazing in this too; you get the feeling he really loves playing this charming but arrogant version of himself with perfect comic timing. 

Trailer Park Boys

Another comedy, except this one is not new to me. There's about seven seasons (all on Netflix) that I'd actually seen all of way back when I was in college and loved but himself had only seen a couple of episodes so we said we'd watch the whole lot. Trailer Park Boys is a faux documentary based in a Canadian trailer park, focusing primarily on the main characters Ricky, Julian, Bubbles, Mr Lahey and Randy. Ricky and Julian are petty criminals, constantly trying to make money from really stupid schemes they come up with while their friend Bubbles (in the middle) looks on in exasperation, although he sometimes helps out of loyalty to them. Mr Lahey is the trailer park supervisor, while Randy is his assistant and they both have it in for the lads. Obviously, each episode is completely predictable because nothing ever works out for them but the characters are all hilarious, as are their interactions with the other residents of the trailer park and there are so many running jokes, it's brilliant. There are parts of it that have had me struggling to breathe from laughing; it really is that good. 

Archer

We only started watching this one a couple of weeks ago but we're already hooked. This is an animated comedy series about a secret service intelligence agency based in New York. Archer is an extremely egotistical agent, considered to be one of the best there is but everything he does is done to benefit himself in some way, much to the annoyance of his mother (head of the secret service and voiced by Lucille from Arrested Development!) and ex girlfriend Lana, also a brilliant agent. Each episode sees some new challenges for the agents where the most random and ridiculous things occur- it's totally over the top and makes fun out of the likes of James Bond that thrive on sexism and stereotypes. It's laugh out loud funny due to its complete weirdness. 

Have you seen any of these?

Any other unusual ones on Netflix we should be watching?

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Female Action Heroes Part 2

Part 1 looked at Alice from Resident Evil, Ripley from Alien, The Bride from Kill Bill, Trinity from the Matrix and Sarah Connor from Terminator. Now for the rest of my top ten female action heroes!

Hit girl from Kick Ass is a young but seriously skillful vigilante with an impressive ability to use any weapon and hand-to-hand combat to beat her opponents. She's notably brutal and remorseless when fighting and is easily the strongest and most powerful character in the comic series/film. She's a joy to watch.

I love the Hunger games trilogy so was really hoping they'd do a daycent version of the first film, which thankfully they did. Jennifer Lawrence is pretty amazing as Katniss, a teenager form the poorest district in Panem (the ruins of America), who volunteers as a tribute to replace her little sister in The Hunger Games- a battle to the death between 12 children. Being incredibly skilled at archery and hunting, she survives to the end and eventually becomes a symbol of the revolution for the twelve districts against the oppressive leadership of the Capitol. She's strong, brave and a fighter and I personally am glad that the young'uns have someone cooler than yer wan from Twilight to look up to when it comes to Young Adult literature. 

Ah, Scarlett. It feels like a bit of a cop out putting Black Widow in, cause lets face it, one of her most prominent features is how hot she is but equally she's a skilled warrior and the fact that she has no superpowers but still kicks ass AND wins is incredibly cool. She's an expert martial artist, marksman, weapons specialist and has extensive spy training. She also seems smarter than most of the male characters (except for Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, I think they're all on a par, really) and is one of the most capable and uncompromising female characters that's been in anything in a long time. 

Having read the books and found them disturbing, I was reluctant to watch the first film in the Millenium trilogy but I gave in as I really liked the character of Lisbeth Salander, a skilled computer hacker with an eidetic memory and the ability to change her identity at the drop of a hat, in order to get up to all sorts of mischief. Having had a terrible childhood, she's antisocial at best and potentially has Aspergers. She's not your classic hero, more of an antihero really, which is what I like about her. The part in the first book and film, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where she takes her incredibly graphic revenge on her attacker is, although obviously unpleasant viewing, also a real moment of victory for such an abused and downtrodden character. She rocks.

Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. I recently had to stop watching Game of Thrones because of the amount of really disturbing sexual and general violence in it but I tune in pretty much only for the scenes with Daenerys in it, who considers herself the rightful queen of the seven kingdoms and is all set to claim the Iron Throne as her own. She's super clever and commands an army of warriors through her strength and by being a really good leader. I generally want to punch the air whenever she's on screen cause her scenes are just extremely cool and also, you know, DRAGONS. 

I could easily have included Scully from the X Files, or Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs in here too but if I did we'd be here forever.

Let me know in the comments if I've left anyone really important out of the list!

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March Favourites

Behold!-My latest favourites from the world of entertainment, beauty and eh..walks around Dublin.

TV

Game of Thrones, the third series has just started up and I'm loving it. If you haven't seen any of this epic show, you need to get watching- the characters (especially some of the female characters) are amazing, the story lines are completely convoluted yet so exciting and the scenery and settings are just incredible. Plus, DRAGONS!

The Mindy Project

I mentioned this in my Recently Read Part 2 post, I started watching this show after reading Mindy Kaling's book and also loving her work on the US Office. This sitcom about Obstetrician Mindy follows her disastrous love life from one hilariously awful date to the next. Lots of great characters in this too and it's just very funny. You'll like it if you already like....

New Girl! Ah, Zooey, I love you so. New Girl has been around for a while too, this is the second series that's currently being shown and it's just been confirmed that there'll be a third. If you haven't seen it yet, it's about Jessica Day- a very cute and quirky school teacher who moves in with three equally weird male housemates and the general hilarious consequences of that. This show is just so great. There's something I find really comforting about it- whenever I'm not feeling too brilliant Hubster pops on an episode for me, makes me a cup of tea and suddenly things are a bit better..the power of harmless comedy :)

The Walking Dead

Not so harmless is this show about the (undoubtedly unavoidable) zombie apocalypse and a particular group of survivors. This is based on the comic books of the same name and is also in it's third series. It's been hugely successful since it started and it's easy to see why- it's just very well made and has it's viewers constantly on the edge of their collective seats. This is also another great one for strong female characters and if zombies are your thing (if not then they should be!) then you definitely need to check this out.

Books

I've been reading loads lately and have come across some excellent books, which you can read more of in my Recently read posts HERE and HERE but I haven't had a chance to review this little treasure yet- I'll go into it properly in my next book round up but if you're looking for a good read between now and then, please check out 'Me Before you' by JoJo Moyes..this is just so great, I had been avoiding it because I thought it was chick-lit and I generally have to be in the right frame of mind for that but this was completly not what I expected and I could not put it down. Excellent stuff.

Walks in the sunshine- the park and the beach

I've really been enjoying the recent sunshine and have been making the most of it with walks in the park and at the sea. Ireland really is a beautiful country when we get the right weather :)

Cath Kidston Strawberries iPhone Case

My phone is pretty much always adorned with Cath Kidston's cute and kitsch designs so I had to get this new Spring/Summer case when I saw it online- it's such a cheery pattern, I love it.

Camomile Tea

I picked this tea up this week to try and encourage more restful sleep, so far I'm loving the taste and I do find it quite relaxing to sip this while reading my kindle every night. Also- check out the prettiness of the packaging..good old M & S.

Beauty stuffs

Clarins Lip Perfector Gloss

My new favourite lip product, which is saying something for me. I wrote a full review of this HERE.

Kiehl's Creme de Corps

I mentioned this in my Post Hospital Recovery Kit post and will be doing a full review on it soon, this is a really, really great body moisturiser. Pricey but so worth it.

Dainty Doll Blush in My Girl

I did a full review of this super bargainous blush HERE..I adore this, such a pretty colour, so pigmented and beautiful on. I've since picked up a couple of other shades to try and another of these for my friend's upcoming birthday present.
Topshop Polish in Celestial
As I've previously mentioned about a million times, I love pastel blue polishes and I also love Topshop nail varnishes so this is a match made in heaven really. I got this as part of a birthday present last year and I love it- it's the perfect Spring shade, blue with a good whack of lilac in it, so very pretty.

And that's my lot! Let me know in the comments if you agree with any of my picks and what your own current favourites are!

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Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge!

What does one do with ones self for entertainment when in a hospital ward with no television and a desperate need for distraction? That's a good, if somewhat random hypothetical question you might say. And you would be correct but the answer is of course download *legally, cough* every series of The Gilmore Girls and let the obsession begin. What a great show. It aired from 2000-2007 and I avoided watching it that whole time because I mistakenly thought it was a 7th Heaven type of programme- cheesy wholesome American sitcom/drama. I could not have been more wrong. It's laugh out loud (I refuse to type LOL) funny, with so many great pop culture references and overall is just really enjoyable. It's been ideal for helping me forget how unpleasant it is being a patient so for that alone, aside from all the other reasons I've mentioned, I love it.

Rory Gilmore is the daughter of Lorelai, both of whom are super smart, funny and generally lovely characters. Rory is bound for an Ivy League college and continually has about 4 different books on the go. Someone somewhere actually went to the trouble (several years ago, I'm very late to the party. I don't know who originally created the list but I found mine on THIS lovely blog) of making a list of all the books that are mentioned that Rory has read, is reading during the show or that she makes reference to throughout all 7 seasons- there's 250 of them. In my wisdom I've decided to make an attempt at reading them myself, they're listed alphabetically below and I've highlighted the ones in blue that I've read already. As I go along I'll tick off what I've read by highlighting the title in red. If you've read any of these yourself or have any recommendations for what I should tackle first or what I shouldn't bother with at all, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!  

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (currently reading)
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire 
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen 
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR) 
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR)
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce (currently reading)
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susan
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Hmm, that is indeed quite the challenge :)
I've also just joined GoodReads, where I'll be keeping track of what I read and posting reviews, if you want to check that out, here's the link:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17998352-chloe?shelf=currently-reading