I’m attempting to read fifty books and watch fifty movies in 2012. Check out fiftyfifty.me for the lowdown! For more details on specific books and movies, click on the months below.
- The Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens by Paul David Tripp (4.5/5 stars)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (5/5 stars)
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (4/5 stars)
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (4.5/5 stars)
- Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis (5/5 stars)
- The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (4/5 stars)
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (4.5/5 stars)
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffennegger (4/5 stars)
- The Traitor’s Wife by Susan Higginbotham (3.75/5 stars)
- The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (4/5 stars)
- Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (4/5 stars)
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (4.5/5 stars)
- An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (5/5 stars)
- Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (4/5 stars)
- Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes (4/5 stars)
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (3.75/5 stars)
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (3.5/5 stars)
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt (3.75/5 stars)
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (4/5 stars)
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman (4.5/5 stars)
- Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney (4.5/5 stars)
- The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco (4.25/5 stars)
- The Serpent’s Tale by Ariana Franklin (3.75/5 stars)
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (4.25/5 stars)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (4/5 stars)
- Dragon’s Lair by Sharon Kay Penman (4/5 stars)
- Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer (4/5 stars)
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (3.75/5 stars)
- Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent (4/5 stars)
- out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper (4/5 stars)
- One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (3.75/5 stars)
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (4.5/5 stars)
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (4/5 stars)
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (4.25/ stars)
- The Children’s Story by James Clavell (4/5 stars)
- The Life of Pi by Yan Martel (4/5 stars)
- The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (3.75/5 stars)
- The Peachkeeper by Sara Addison Allen (3.75/5 stars)
- 1001 Things Every Teen Should Know before They Leave Home by Harry H. Harrison Jr. (3.5/5 stars)
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (4.5/5 stars)
- Memoirs of a Geisha by Aurthur Golden (4.5/5 stars)
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (4.5/5 stars)
- The Giver by Lois Lowry (4/5 stars)
- The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While by Catherynne M. Valente (4/5 stars)
- The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (3.75/5 stars)
- The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers (4/5 stars)
- Gatherieng Blue by Lois Lowry (4.25/5 stars)
- Messenger by Lois Lowry (4.25/5 stars)
- Son by Lois Lowry (4.25/5 stars)
- The Bible (5/5 stars)
- Easy A (2010) – Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, and Lisa Kudrow (3.5/5 stars)
- Double Indemnity (1944) – Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck (4/5 stars)
- The Book of Eli (2010) – Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals (4/5 stars)
- The Blob (1958) – Steve McQueen (1.5/5 stars)
- Wuthering Heights (2009) – the Masterpiece Theater version with Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Andrew Lincoln, and Kevin R. McNally (4/5 stars)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) (5/5 stars)
- Contagion (2011) – Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburn, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Ehle, Marion Cotillard (almost 4/5 stars)
- All About Eve (1950) – Bette Davis, Anne Baxter (4/5 stars)
- Brigadoon (1954) – Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Van Johnson (2/5 stars)
- Shutter Island (2010) – Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow (4/5 stars)
- Hugo (2011) – voices of Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen (5/5 stars)
- Dr. Suess’ The Lorax (2012) – voices of Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White (4/5 stars)
- North By Northwest (1959) – Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason (4/5 stars)
- Trollhunter (2010) – foreign film, Norwegian (3.5/5 stars)
- Johnny English Reborn (2011) – Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson (3/5 stars)
- Modern Times (1936) – Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard (4.5/5 stars)
- Wives and Daughters(1999) – 4 part BBC Mini-series (4/5 stars)
- Dial M for Murder (1954) – Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings (4/5 stars)
- Cowboys and Aliens (2011) – Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde (2.5/5 stars)
- The Adventures of Tintin (2011) – voices of Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis (4/5 stars)
- We Bought a Zoo (2011) – Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Elle Fanning (3.5 stars)
- Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) – Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwenyth Paltrow (4.5/5 stars)
- John Carter (2012) – Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Ciarán Hinds (2.75/5 stars)
- Men in Black III (2012) – Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Emma Thompson (3.75/5 stars)
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans (4 stars)
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) – Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Rachel McAdams (3.75/5 stars)
- Jane Eyre (1944) – Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine (3/5 stars)
- Brave (2012) – voices of Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane (5/5 stars)
- Witness for the Prosecution (1957) – Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton (4/5 stars)
- Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) – Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning (2.75/5 stars)
- The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan (3.75/5 stars)
- North and South (2004) starring Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage (5/5 stars)
- Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi and Helen Chandler (2.5/5 stars)
- Rear Window (1954) starring Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr (4.5/5 stars)
- Dark Shadows(2012) starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bomham Carter, Eva Green (2/5 stars)
- Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) starring Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth (3.75/5 stars)
- Mad Love (1935) starring Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive (3/5 stars)
- Moonrise Kingdom (2012) starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, and Edward Norton (5/5 stars)
- The Woman in Black (2012) starring Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarán Hinds (4.25/5 stars)
- Holiday Affair (1949) starring Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, and Wendell Corey (3.5/5 stars)
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945) starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and Sydney Greenstreet (3.5/5 stars)
- The Andromeda Strain (1971) starring James Olson, Arthur Hill, and David Wayne (3/5 stars)
- Office Space (1999) starring Ron Livingston, Jennifer Anniston, and David Herman (3.5/5 stars)
- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) starring Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien (4.25/5 stars)
- Life of Pi (2012) starring Suraj Sharma amd Irrfan Khan (4/5 stars)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, and Richard Armitage (4.5/stars)
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947) starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and Natalie Wood (4.5/5 stars)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) starring Dorothy Mcguire, Joan Blondell, and James Dunn (4/5 stars)
- Scrooged (1988) starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, and Bobcat Goldthwait (3.75/5 stars)
- Wreck-It Ralph (2012) starring by John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, and Jane Lynch (3.75/5 stars)
Whimsey Pie 
I just finished The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. Great Book. Full of strong women and very intense. Which Iove. Takes liberties with history but I have noproblem with that. It’s fiction. Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite writers.
Just watched Moneyball.(2011) Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill
What did you think? Could the boys watch it? I’d heard good things about the movie so I put it on my to-watch list.
Great movie. Love Jonah Hill! Jay would really like it. I think Mark and Aaron would too but it’s not all about baseball. It definately has more to it than that. Some swearing. Not alot but definately the f-bomb once or twice.
Courageous (2011)
Book- Sugar Rush by Donna Kauffman. Complete fluff with some mild(very) smuttiness. Don’t judge.
I would like to read A Tree Grows in Brookly. Is that on your reader or is it old school?
No judging here. I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn old school.
That is easily one of my all time favorite books. I haven’t read it in some time but I’ve probably read it 8-10 times. Love it.
Book-Sister by Rosumund Lipton. Excellant. Read it in 2 days.
Hi Stephany, my owner Bee tried to read 60 books in 2012, but didn’t make it. She read 50 which is great too (I think). This year she will again aim for 60 and has already read 15. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and for her :o) I love crazy challenges. Love, Angus
I love to read but 50 books is about all I can manage in a year. 60 books is quite impressive. You’re adorable, Angus. Thanks for stopping by!