Books of 2016

It's been a hot minute since I talked about the things I've read (last post was for 2013!!), but I have been keeping track. I finished 19 books last year. Not spectacular, but hey, at least I'm reading!

First, the list:

1. Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White, finished 2/9/16 - meh. Didn't really connect with the characters.
2. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, finished 2/20/2016 - (reread for book club) hilarious (for the second time) because, duh, it's The Bloggess. Also discussion at church book club made me realize there are fewer mentally ill people than I thought?? At least, I feel like I know a higher than average number of people fighting mental illness. And also it's possible the Bloggess appeals mostly to those battling mental illness and she is not quite as hilarious/accessible to those without such issues.
3. Spooning by Darri Stephens & Megan DeSales, finished 3/5/2016 - Spent most of the book being frustrated with Charlotte for her inability to accept that a guy is not into her, and regardless he's incapable of acting like a decent human being in his interactions, so she should ditch him. And also maybe be a little less shallow/more accepting of the state of her human body. I don't really need to read hundreds of pages of inner monologue of an insecure woman's hate for her own body, I get enough of that sort of message from media and advertising.
4. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, finished 3/5/2016 - Wouldn't call it absorbing, but it was very interesting. And well-written, because I found myself sympathizing with the majority of the characters who, if I'd met them in real life, I'd probably dislike. The most weird thing was the narration in third-person omniscient voice. Maybe it's because I'm so used to a limited voice in novels, but it gets rather confusing to constantly know the internal states of almost every character in a scene. Still, overall, a good book.
5. The Tiara Club by Beverly Brandt, finished 3/28/2016 - A fun read! Categorized as "Chick Lit", meaning it's focused on female characters who have romantic interests in the story, because we all know guys would never want to read something where women are the subjects of the narrative, making their own decisions about love and life. (Yes, heavy sarcasm in that sentence!) Had some mystery elements thrown in, and the big reveal at the end was definitely a surprise. I could complain that it came out of nowhere, but honestly life is like that sometimes, so it seems reasonable enough.
6. Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber, finished 4/21/16 - Pretty good. Lots of talk about food, and love and relationships. Kind of makes me want to visit the Middle East (slash I feel like I almost have been there). Nice to read a love story that focuses on middle aged people, as well. And romance novels have their time, but it was good to read a love story with literary depth.
7. He's Got To Go by Sheila O'Flanagan, finished 4/23/2016 - Cute! Managed to capture a realistic dynamic between three grown sisters. A fun read.
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, finished 4/27/2016 - Amazing, obviously! And totally counts, even if it is a reread.
9. Second Nature by Alice Hoffman, finished 5/8/2016 - Fine. Sort of an interesting cross between a romance and mystery novel, although the "mystery" wasn't really developed until the very last bit of the book. And also it was super easy to figure out. I guess it just felt too predictable, although the writing was very good. And I did learn there are actually mountains in Michigan, so there's that.
10. What is the What by Dave Eggers, finished 7/1/16 - Good. Intense, as you might expect a novel/autobiography of a Lost Boy of Sudan to be. Something about the narration, though, made it feel kind of… distant? Dissociated? I dunno, just not very vivid. Still a really great book.
11. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, finished 7/2/16 - So good! Very sweet, very romantic, and also very sobering re: what people do in the name of patriotism. It really highlights the tension that can arise in relationships across social boundaries. And definitely brings up some knotty questions about privilege and what those with privilege (of any kind) can/should do to aid those with less privilege. Seems especially fitting to have read this story in days when the news is full of people calling for the ghettoization (if not internment) of fellow citizens who happen to follow a different faith, and crying for the exclusion of refugees in the name of "national security," as though keeping out one particular Other will really solve all our problems.
12. Stupid Cupid by Arabella Weir, finished 8/3/16 - Meh. Not really captivating. Or surprising. Or relatable. Supposedly it's "laugh-out-loud funny" but maybe you have to be British to find the humor in it…
13. Shaken and Stirred by Colette Caddle, finished 8/30/16 - pretty good. Light, but fun!
14. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, finished 9/25/16 - (for book club) So good! Beautifully written, and also a fascinating look at identity and assimilation. The dialogue really brought the story to life.
15. The Bread of Angels by Stephanie Saldaña, finished 10/23/16 - (for book club) really good! Made me want to learn Arabic, and also do a month-long retreat of silence in order to figure out what to do with my life.
16. The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, finished 10/27/16 - Awesome! But so many mysteries and questions to be answered…
17. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, finished 11/24/16 - (reread for book club) Probably my favorite Discworld novel :-)
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, finished 12/2/2016 - bleh. Generally I enjoy magic realism, and possibly it was the translation that made this novel drag on so, but I just could not get into this book! Which feels weird to me, because GGM is widely acknowledged as the "father" and quintessential author in the genre.
19. The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen, finished 12/3/2016 - fun and quick! An intriguing mystery, but not too creepy. And quaintly British. If I came across other books in the series and read them, I wouldn't be mad about it!

Ultimately, I'd recommend 5 of these books to just about anybody - Furiously Happy (Lawson), Crescent (Abu-Jaber), Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Ford), Americanah (Adichie), and Hogfather (Pratchett). Of course I'd recommend the whole Harry Potter series to everyone, and for people who know they like long, involved fantasy stories The Name of The Wind (Rothfuss) is an A+ choice, even if the final book in the trilogy hasn't yet been published.

Only a month late!

Dear Self,

That was real great when you made those resolutions... Except you didn't really keep them!

Alright, you got an apartment. And you read 29 books, which is pretty decent even if it's not 35.

Let's admit that the crafting just didn't happen and move on. (There was plenty of baking, though, so good job on that and let's keep that up!)

And hey, you went to both D.C. and Boston, so major props on the travel front. (Also Harry Potter Camp, which I can't believe you didn't write about yet! Falling down on the blogging front, there.)

I was going to say that resolutions clearly don't work for us, but in hindsight 2013 was a pretty amazing year. Didn't complete the stuff we originally intended, but some really awesome things happened. So I think it's justified to try and make some new goals for 2014:

• Travel: get back to Camp 9 3/4; going to DC is a given; and it would be nice to visit family in Buffalo this summer.
• Read: let's be a little less ambitious and set a goal of 30 books this year. Also, get a new library card, since apparently that old one we haven't used in about 7 years is no longer good.
• Blog: I really don't think one post a month is asking too much!
• Learn: take some classes! Could be online, or through the city's Parks Department, or even a community college course.

Okay, that's quite a bit. We don't want to feel overwhelmed by our own ambitions! I am cautiously optimistic about this list, though, so we'll see how it went when 2015 rolls around.

Love,

Me

Books of 2013

I've been keeping track of the books I finish in a given year for a couple years now. Here are the books I read in 2013:

1. Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson
2. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (translated by Ralph Manheim)
3. M or F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. In the Stone Circle by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
6. Five Little Peppers Midway by Margaret Sidney
7. Selected Poems by Robert Browning, ed. William C. DeVane
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
9. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
10. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
11. The Book of Animal Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
12. Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons by Bill Waterson
13. North to Thule by John & Harriet Frye
14. Friendship Cake by Lynne Hinton
15. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
16. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
17. Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
18. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
19. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
20. To Be or Not to Be: A Choosable Path Adventure by Ryan North and William Shakespeare
21. Poor Yorick by Ryan North
22. Changes by Danielle Steel
23. An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor
24. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
25. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
26. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
27. Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
28. Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs
29. The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel

Honestly, I had hoped to read a few more… (I did get partway through Middlemarch by George Eliot, but about 200 or 300 pages in, I just wasn't invested enough in the characters to continue. I looked up the plot summary because I was interested in how things worked out, but I just couldn't stomach wading through another 400 pages to get to those resolutions!) I've been hoping for a while that I might manage to get to 50 books in one year, but I seem to be stuck right around 29 or 30. I think if I'm not getting distracted by work or other obligations, I'm distracted by the internet. It's possible it would help to only read one book at a time, instead of constantly being in the middle of 3 or 4 books at once, ha.

General reviews:

Favorites were, I think (excluding Harry Potter because that's not even fair), The Secret Life of Bees, and the Calvin & Hobbes collection. The Lovely Bones was really good, although incredibly creepy and unsettling. Oh, and of course the choose-your-own-Hamlet was amazing. (Not that I'm biased because I helped fund its publication or anything…)

I did not like the Danielle Steel novel at all, which I was a little surprised by. Not that I'm huge into romance novels, but I like a trashy novel every once in a while, and I assumed I couldn't really go wrong with something by someone so successful. Big mistake. I might as well have picked up Twilight. The characters started out relatable enough, but as the plot progressed it just lost me. And then I got to the scene where the father character slapped his oldest son across the face. And I was just done. I don't care that the book was written in the 80's or whatever, that's not really acceptable to me. And to have the female protagonist not say a word about it… Ugh. Just… over it. (There might also be a scene where the same guy hits the female protagonist? Again, not okay. It just made me want to throw the book across the room.) This was definitely a book I finished by dint of sheer stubbornness. I was also kind of disappointed with the conclusion of Black and Blue, but I guess things can't always end happily if you're trying to write "realistic" novels.

Growing-up 2: Escape from Suburbia

Boring things you have to do when you move out of your parents' house (again):

• Go grocery shopping

• Do all your own dishes

• Do your own laundry

• Pay your own bills

• Be in school Nevermind, that's done! (Thank goodness!!)

• Cook meals for yourself, or else you really will be taking PB&J sandwiches to work every day

Basically, there are a few perks to living at home. Especially when your parents are really awesome and actually save leftovers for you to take to work. But… there are also

Awesome things you can do when you live alone:

• Pee with the door open
• Leave dirty dishes in the sink because the only one getting mad at you will be… you
• Procrastinate from doing the dishes by writing blog entries

• Clean at 1 am

• Cook at 1 am
• Make crafts at 1 am

• Have dance parties at 1 am

• Basically, do whatever you want at whatever time you want

• Fill the fridge and pantry with only your own food
• Get dressed in the living room while watching TV (you can't judge me because a: it's the warmest room and it's still winter and b: I do what I want!)

What's that you say? Have I already completed one of my New Year's Resolutions? Yes, in fact, I have!

Technically, I'm doing okay on the second resolution, as well, since in February I decided I wanted to try and cut high fructose corn syrup out of my diet as much as possible. My goal for March is to actually get legitimately unpacked, I think. I moved into my apartment over a month ago, and I still have boxes of stuff sitting around. It's a problem! Also, I need to improve my organization, which will help with getting unpacked. Two birds, one stone. That's how I do.