What was happening last year about this time? Here's a refresher:

• Sam was turning 30 - read more here
• Birds were waking us up at 4:30 in the morning (and a squirrel posed for a picture) - original story here
• Emilie and I announced that our new baby would be a boy on July 30 - original post here

While all these exciting stories that included the number 30 were happening, I was also setting a goal to read 30 books within the next year. I finally achieved that goal today. In a house full of kids and chaos I'm not sure how it happened, but miraculously it did.

Some of the books were outstanding and some were stinkers. There will be a clear bias apparent in the books I chose to read. I'm always willing to take suggestions, but I'll state that I'm not a big fan of fiction. Soooo, for those dying to know what sort of trash Brad reads, here's the final list:

• Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell
• Deliver Us from Evil : Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism by Sean Hannity
• The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage by Laura Schlessinger
• Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes by Gordon Bitner Hinckley
• An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck
• The Power of the Word by Ed J. Pinegar
• If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans: Ann Coulter at Her Best, Funniest, and Most Outrageous by Ann Coulter
• A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
• Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
• Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
• The Naked Capitalist: a Review and Commentary on Dr. Carroll Quigley's Book Tragedy and Hope - a History of the World in Our Time by W. Cleon Skousen
• In the Gravest Extreme The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection by Massad F. Ayoob
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Emil Frankl
• Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
• Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter
• Sacred Intimacy by Brenton G. Yorgason
• A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media by Bernard Goldberg
• A Witness and a Warning: A Modern-Day Prophet Testifies of the Book of Mormon by Ezra Taft Benson
• Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins edited by Noel B. Reynolds
• How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter by Ann Coulter
• The Forgotten Man - A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
• Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton by Jonah Goldberg
• Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Holy Temple, Illustrated Edition by Boyd K. Packer
• Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio by Brian Jennings
• The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
• Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Evolution of Thomas Paine's Revolution by Glenn Beck

You can always see what I'm currently reading over at Shelfari.