Memberbenitastrnad

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Groups: 2015 ROOT Challenge - (Read Our Own Tomes), 2016 ROOT Challenge - (Read Our Own Tomes), 2017 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES), 2018 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES), 2019 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES), 2020 ROOT CHALLENGE, 2021 ROOT CHALLENGE, 2022 Category Challenge, 2022 ROOT CHALLENGE, 2024 BIG FAT BOOK CHALLENGE, 2024 ROOT Challenge, 75 Books Challenge for 2010, 75 Books Challenge for 2014, 75 Books Challenge for 2015, 75 Books Challenge for 2016, 75 Books Challenge for 2017, 75 Books Challenge for 2018, 75 Books Challenge for 2019, 75 Books Challenge for 2020, 75 Books Challenge for 2021, 75 Books Challenge for 2022, 75 Books Challenge for 2023, 75 Books Challenge for 2024, 75 Books Challenge for 2025, Atlanta Bibliophiles, Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies, Books off the Shelf Challenge, Club Read 2016, Club Read 2017, Club Read 2020, Club Read 2021, Club Read 2022, Crime, Thriller & Mystery, Historical Fiction, LT Treasure Hunts, One LibraryThing, One Book, Read it, Track it!, Reading Globally, Reading Through Time, ROOT - 2014 Read Our Own Tomes, The Green Dragon, What Are You Reading Now?
Joined: Jan 20, 2008

Real Name

benita strnad

About My Library

My library is a cumulative list of books that I have read at any point in my life. I started with books in my possession when I joined Librarything and add books from my past as I remember them. Of course, I add books to my collection, it seems daily, and these go into my list when I acquire them.

Favorite Books of 2024
Susan, Linda, Nina, & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli
Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

Favorite Books of 2023
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
Down From the Mountain: Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear by Bryce Andrews
Next Supper: The End of Restaurants As We Knew Them and What Comes After by Corey Mintz
My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar
Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Favorite Books of 2022
You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker
The End: The Defiance and Defeat of Hitler's Germany 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw
Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Space Flight by Margaret Lazarus Dean
Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos

Favorite Books of 2021
Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman
Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision by Peter Irons
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
River-Horse: Across America By Boat by William Least Heat-Moon
Boat People by Sharon Bala
Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker
To Serve Them All My Days by R. F. Delderfield
Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Favorite Books of 2020
Books by Deon Meyer
Bobiverse Trilogy by Dennis E. Taylor
Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J. L. Chestnut, Jr. by J.L. Chestnut, Jr. and Julia Cass
Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel
Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
Book Collectors by Delphine Minoui
Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto
Glass House: The Shattering of the All-American Town by Brian

Favorite Books of 2019
Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
Empire Made: My Search For An Outlaw Uncle Who Disappeared in British India by Kief Hillsbery
Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco by Cecilia Chiang
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Riding With Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books by Ted Bishop
Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray by Adam Federman
Travels With Herodotus by Ryszand Kapuscinski
Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgivness in a Chinese Christian Family by Jennifer Lin

Favorite Books of 2018
Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
An American Insurrection: Battle for Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 by William Doyle
Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 by Frederick Taylor
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen
American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow
Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William FInnegan
Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King
Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers are Probing Deep Space and Saving Earth from Interplanetary Peril by Timothy Ferris
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Favorite Books of 2017
Queen of the Tearling series by Erika Johansen
Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neill
War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard
Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson

Favorite Books of 2016
Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Goddess War - trilogy by Kendare Blake

Favorite Books of 2015
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn series by Tony Hillerman
Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Favorite Books of 2014
Rotters by Daniel Kraus
Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal
Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Liani Taylor
Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Graceling series by Kristin Cashore
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Favorite Books of 2013
The Cousins' War series by Philippa Gregory
Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant
American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg
Trudeau Vector by Juris Jurjevics
Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

Favorite Books of 2012
Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: A Memoir by Wayne Flynt
Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee
Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell
Devil's Peak & Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Favorite Books of 2011
Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire by Richard Adams Carey
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
White Rhino Hotel, Cafe on the Nile, & Devil's Oasis by Bartle Bull
Redbreast, Nemesis, Devil's Star, & Snowman by Jo Nesbo
Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
Pompeii by Robert Harris
Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Favorite Books of 2010
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor
Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Piano Tuner by Daniel Philippe Mason
Sparrow & Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

Favorite Books of 2009
Manual of Detection by Jedediah Barry
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli
$20 Per Gallon by Christopher Steiner

Favorite Books of 2008
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
My Life in France by Julia Child

About Me

I am a librarian and a book reader and cook. I am good at baking bread and pastries. At the moment, I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama but since I retired I am going to be moving back to my hometown of Munden, Kansas. Out in the boondocks of the American West. And I am excited to make this move. I will have a nice house that will be a good one to grow old in. The only problem with a house is that it almost always comes with a lawn. I will hate the lawn. Lawn mowers, walmart, car washes, and inadequate public transportation will be the ruination of this country.

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