#69 "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling

I loved this essay collection. I'm not a huge fan of the end of the Office and I've never even bothered to watch the Mindy Project, but Mindy Kaling wrote an incredible book here. Most definitely the slightly more self obsessed, and significantly younger counterpart to Tina Fey`s Bossy Pants. So good!

#68 "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

It takes me forever to read this series, but at some point in the last two hundred pages they inevitably grab my attention and then I can't put them down. I'm too invested in Danny and Sansa to stop now.

#67 "Saturday Night Widows" by Becky Aikman

This memoir was entertaining enough for an audio book in the background of backpacking preparations, but it made me feel really old and out of place. Note: 20 somethings should not read memoirs about groups of widows.

#66 "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" by Rachel Cohn

The book was better than the movie. That's all that needs to be said.

#65 "Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams

The last of the Hitchiker's series was insane. I'm fairly certain that Adams must just not have a grip on earthly reality given the complexity of the universes he's created for these books. And poor Arthur Dent, his fate was inevitable I suppose.

The twisted fate of the Vogons was worth reading the whole series.

#64 "The People of Sparks" by Jeanne DuPrau

For a  book with such a promising first chapter, this sequal was as slow moving as the first. But now that I'm two books in, I suppose I should finish the series.

#63 "A Deadly Grind" by Victoria Hamilton

I'm not one for murder mysteries, but I needed an available audio book for my training. Hamilton's kitchen series isn't half bad, focusing more on the relationships than the murder.

#62 "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card

Within the first 20 minutes of attempting to read this novel, I was told that the author was a homophobic a** and the book wasn't worth my time. But since it was already packed in my carry on and I had grown weary of the movie options, I pressed through. (It was particularly fun to read this on the plane, while the man across the isle and up a few rows was watching the movie version. I kept trying to figure out where he was in comparison to myself)

The book was like a YA attempt at creating a space-age "Lord of the Flies" rewrite. And it didn't achieve any of those goals. The plot was pretty much predictable, and the unnerving tone of LOTF was lost between characters' points of view. If the novel was supposed to have a message, it didn't come across well enough for a YA reader or a university level English class. I definitely won't be reading the next dozen in the series.

#61 "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein

This book was recommended to me on a plane ride, which must have been 10 years ago now; so it's only fitting that I finally read the thing on my flight back to Germany.

The book was wonderful for any dog lover, even if you have no interest in auto racing. By the end I was trying very hard to not obviously cry right before we landed.

Worth every minute of the five hours it'll take you to read!