2014 in review: Books

If only one blog entry gets written by me every year, it'll be this list! Year nine. Here it is; the books I read in 2014:

1. Hyperbole and a Half - Allie Brosh

2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

3. Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage - Rob Delaney

4. Little Brother - Cory Doctorow

5. Unmasked & Anonymous: Shimon & Lindemann Consider Portraiture - John Shimon, Julie Lindemann, Lisa Hostetler

6. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler

7.  Allegiant - Veronica Roth

8. Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder

9. Independent Study - Joelle Charbonneau

10. Thank You For Your Service - David Finkel

11. Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell

12. The Disaster Artist - Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell

13. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

14. A House in the Sky - Amanda Lindhout & Sarah Corbett

15. Selected Poems - Frank O'Hara

16. The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd

17. Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

18. Kindred - Octavia E. Butler

19. At Home: A Short History of Private Life - Bill Bryson

20. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

21. The Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkowski

22. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

23. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - Marjane Satrapi

24. Dogtripping - David Rosenfelt

25. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return - Marjane Satrapi

26. Pale Horse, Pale Rider - Katherine Anne Porter

27. Panic - Lauren Oliver

28. Better Than Fiction: True Travel Tales from Great Fiction Writers - Don George & Lonely Planet

29. After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story - Michael Hainey

30. Life, On the Line - Grant Achatz & Nick Kokonas

31. The Art of Clean Up - Ursus Wehrli

32. The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhatha Mukherjee

33. An Untamed State - Roxane Gay

34. The Taking - Kimberly Derting

35. Glitter and Glue - Kelly Corrigan

36. Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening - Carol Wall

37. Blood Will Out - Walter Kirn

38. The One - Kiera Cass

39. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes

40. Free to Fall - Lauren Miller

41. Written in My Own Heart's Blood - Diana Gabaldon

42. The Last Letter From Your Lover - JoJo Moyes

43. Pioneer Girl - Bich Minh Nguyen

44. People Who Eat Darkness - Richard Lloyd Parry

45. A Beautiful Blue Death - Charles Finch

46. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith

47. Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater

48. Mr. Mercedes - Stephen King

49. One Plus One - JoJo Moyes

50. Wild - Cheryl Strayed

51. The Thousand Dollar Tan Line - Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham

52. Dear Luke, We Need To Talk, Darth - John Moe

53. Landline - Rainbow Rowell

54. A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

55. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

56. The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

57. Attachments - Rainbow Rowell

58. The Secret Place - Tana French

59. Rooms - Lauren Oliver

60. Ship of Brides - JoJo Moyes

61. Food: A Love Story - Jim Gaffigan

62. Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater

63. Revival - Stephen King

Total books read: 63. Not as many as some previous years, but more than 2013's 44. I made more of a conscious effort to read real books last year, and I'm glad I did. In 2015 I'm going give the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge a try, because who doesn't like to cross items off lists? NOT THIS LADY. 

Previously read: 1 (2%) That's, uh, more than 2013's 0%, but not by much.

Marketed for children/teens: 12 (19%) That's fewer than 2013, as a percentage of the total. At the same time, the total seems slightly misleading. I like YA books because I can usually count on them for an enjoyable (enough) read with less mental taxation than I might expect from a non-YA book. However, you'll notice that the list above includes a decent number of books by Rainbow Rowell and JoJo Moyes. Nothing against these two authors, but, for me, their books fill the same role as many YA novels: mental popcorn, basically. Fun, uncomplicated, hard to stop once you've started, a slight lingering feeling of "blech" after you've binge-read the whole thing. The first book I read by JoJo Moyes, Me Before You, was actually a bit of an exception. I've haven't found the same emotional depth in her other books yet, but I'm happy to keep reading anyway. 

Fiction: 40 (63%)
Nonfiction: 23 (37%)
By percentages, more nonfiction than 2013. Lots of memoirs, but a pretty decent sprinkling of informational nonfiction as well. I tackled The Emperor of All Maladies while I was on sabbatical, and managed to finish in time to leave the book in our final Athens hotel. Emperor was a fascinating look at the history of what we know about cancer, and how we're treating it today. I already touched on my 2014 fiction-reading habits above. One category I might give more attention in the future is "authors previously read." Looking at my list, it seems I'm very much a loyalty-based reader of fiction. I need more recommendations for branching out.

You should definitely read: Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider. Porter is a compelling character herself, though I knew nothing about her before reading the introduction to this book of three novellas. Each is interesting in its own way, but the title tale blew me away. It's the most amazing contemporary story about World War I I've read. Much like Hearts in Atlantis is a great book about the Vietnam War that was mostly written around it rather than about it, Pale Horse, Pale Rider made life during WWI real to me in a way I'd never experienced before.

Don't bother reading: The Winner's Curse by Maria Rutkowski. Set in one of those popular YA fantasy worlds, this book was pretty unmemorable for me. Reading back through a summary, it's only vaguely familiar. What I do remember is that I didn't like it. That's probably enough, right? Judging from most of the blog reviews I found online (which are probably written by many people much younger than I am), I'm in the minority here. I'm comfortable with that.

2013 in review: Books

Year number eight! Here are the books I read in 2013:

1. Insurgent - Veronica Roth

2. Just One Day - Gayle Forman

3. Keeping Safe the Stars - Sheila O'Connor

4. The Wind Through the Keyhole - Stephen King

5. Down the Rabbit Hole - Susan Campbell Bartoletti

6. Because I Said So - Ken Jennings

7. Battleborn - Claire Vaye Watkins

8. Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

9. Decorate - Holly Becker & Joanna Copestick

10. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

11. Boundless - Cynthia Hand

12. Tenth of December - George Saunders

13. Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls - David Sedaris

14. Mom & Me & Mom - Maya Angelou

15. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

16. The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry - Walter Retan & Ole Risom

17. Blasphemy - Sherman Alexie

18. The Repeat Year - Andrea Lochen

19. The Elite - Kiera Cass

20. Madison - Zane Williams

21. Joyland - Stephen King

22. The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

23. The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau

24. Attempting Normal - Marc Maron

25. Dad is Fat - Jim Gaffigan

26. The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout

27. Astray - Emma Donoghue

28. Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfeld

29. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

30. Belle Epoque - Elizabeth Ross

31. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

32. I Wear the Black Hat - Chuck Klosterman

33. I Can Barely Take Care of Myself - Jen Kirkman

34. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith

35. The Magician King - Lev Grossman

36. Doctor Sleep - Stephen King

37. Just One Year - Gayle Forman

38. Levels of Life - Julian Barnes

39. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

40. The Circle - Dave Eggers

41. David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell

42. Hostage Three - Nick Lake

43. Paris, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down - Rosecrans Baldwin

44. One Summer: America, 1927 - Bill Bryson

Total books read: 44. That is ... less than half the number I read in 2012. Why the huge difference? I'm honestly not sure. I'd like to think that part of it, at least, was just less time spent sitting still and reading. But if I'm honest, I read a lot of magazines and such on the internet, too. I also saw a lot of movies in 2013.

Previously read: 0 (0%) Last year there was only one, and this year none of the books on my list was a repeat.

Marketed for children/teens: 10 (23%) Less than last year's 26%, but not by much. My reasoning from last year still stands: this has a lot to do with the nonexistent repeat read tally for the year. If I want read something and not think about it too hard, I'm going for something I've already read ... or a YA book. That being said, I'd recommend the two Gayle Forman books wholeheartedly, YA or not. I was so sad when I finished Just One Day and realized I had months and months to wait before Just One Year came out. On the face of it, the plots sound somewhat contrived (and somewhat reminiscent of the Before Sunrise films): girl and boy meet abroad, spend a day together, are separated, try to resume life but have a hard time letting go. But Forman makes it all seem plausible (at least while you're reading), perhaps because both Allyson and Willem are richly-drawn and complex characters.

Fiction: 29.5 (67%)

Nonfiction: 14.5 (33%)

A little more fiction-y than last year's 64%-36%. Why the half? Levels of Life, as the New York Times put it, "is part history, part meditative essay and part fictionalized biography." One of my favorite serendipitous moments this year was wandering into an exhibit of early European photography at the Detroit Institute of Arts and seeing one of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon's photos on display. I'd learned about him just weeks before in Barnes's book.

 

You should definitely read: Tenth of December by George Saunders. I enjoy short fiction collections, but it seems like the goal of many short story authors is to see who can depress me the most upon my finishing their books. (Jhumpa Lahiri and Claire Vaye Watkins, I'm looking at you.) I wouldn't call the stories in Tenth of December upbeat, by any means, but they actually contain some humor. They aren't relentlessly bleak! I suppose that in itself isn't a ringing endorsement, but George Saunders has written an imaginative collection of stories, eliciting a wealth of emotions that belie the stories' underlying darkness.

Don't bother reading: Billy Moon: A Transcendent Novel Reimagining the Life of Christopher Robin Milne by Douglas Lain. You may notice that this book doesn't show up on my list above. That's because I didn't finish it. I have to applaud the author for a cracker of an original idea here - kind of magic-realism-meets-historical-fiction - and I really tried to get into it. I wanted to love it. I can absolutely imagine some people really getting it, and most professional reviews are very positive. But somewhere around the middle of the book, my efforts to figure out what was real and what wasn't broke down when I realized I didn't actually care.

2012 in review: Books

For the seventh year, here are the books I read between last January and December. Number crunching to follow:

1. Blow Fly - Patricia Cornwell
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
3. Austenland - Shannon Hale
4. Haunted Kenosha - Candice Shatkins
5. House of Prayer No. 2 - Mark Richard
6. Blood, Bones & Butter - Gabrielle Hamilton
7. The Tiger's Wife - Téa Obreht
8. The Nerdist Way - Chris Hardwick
9. The Leftovers - Tom Perrotta
10. Life Itself - Roger Ebert
11. In Zanesville - Jo Ann Beard
12. Contents May Have Shifted - Pam Houston
13. Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses - Claire Dederer
14. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
15. Midnight in Austenland - Shannon Hale
16. The Actor and the Housewife - Shannon Hale
17. Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe
18. The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
19. Best American Science Writing 2011 - Rebecca Skloot & Floyd Skloot, Eds.
20. The Stand - Stephen King
21. Carry the One - Carol Anshaw
22. SEAL Team Six - Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin
23. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
24. Happy Accidents - Jane Lynch
25. Cool, Calm, & Contentious - Merrill Markoe
26. Maphead - Ken Jennings
27. Looking for Alaska - John Green
28. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
29. On Celestial Music - Rick Moody
30. Drowning Instinct - Ilsa J. Bick
31. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
32. Inside Scientology - Janet Reitman
33. Defending Jacob - William Landay
34. Inventory - The Writers of the A.V. Club
35. Paper Towns - John Green
36. This Is How - Augusten Burroughs
37. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
38. Menu Design in America - Steven Heller, Jim Heimann (ed.), John Mariani
39. Travels in Siberia - Ian Frazier
40. Graceling - Kristin Cashore
41. Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg
42. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green, David Levithan
43. Fire - Kristin Cashore
44. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes - Nevin Martell
45. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
46. The War for Late Night - Bill Carter
47. The Machine Gunners - Robert Westall
48. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
49. The Curfew - Jesse Ball
50. The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan
51. The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
52. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
53. Pulphead - John Jeremiah Sullivan
54. This is Not a Test - Courtney Summers
55. A Hologram for the King - Dave Eggers
56. The Red House - Mark Haddon
57. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
58. River Town - Peter Hessler
59. The Likeness - Tana French
60. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz
61. The Garden Intrigue - Lauren Willig
62. Faithful Place - Tana French
63. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
64. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea - Barbara Demick
65. Bitterblue - Kristin Cashore
66. A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
67. Trip of the Tongue - Elizabeth Little
68. My Life Next Door - Huntley Fitzpatrick
69. Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace
70. Betsy-Tacy and Tib - Maud Hart Lovelace
71. Broken Harbor - Tana French
72. The Dog Stars - Peter Heller
73. Penelope - Rebecca Harrington
74. Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep - David K. Randall
75. The Lost Prince - Selden Edwards
76. State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
77. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
78. Betsy-Tacy Companion: A Biography of Maud Hart Lovelace - Sharla Whalen
79. Out of My Mind - Sharon M. Draper
80. Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple
81. If I Stay - Gayle Forman
82. The Guardian of All Things - Michael S. Malone
83. Visiting Tom - Michael Perry
84. Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver
85. The First 20 Minutes - Gretchen Reynolds
86. In the Woods - Tana French
87. The Mansion of Happiness - Jill Lepore
88. Rebuilt - Michael Chorost
89. No Easy Day - Mark Owen
90. A Season for Tending - Cindy Woodsmall
91. The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
92. Shadows - Ilsa J. Bick
93. Sweet Tooth - Ian McEwan
94. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater
95. Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver
96. Elsewhere - Richard Russo
97. Curse of the Thirteenth Fey - Jane Yolen
98. The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

Total books read: 98. 14 more more than I read in 2011, and tantalizingly close to triple digits.

Previously read: 1 (1%) Much less than last year's 18%.

Marketed for children/teens: 26 (26%) More than last year's 17%, and I think this is directly related to the "previously read" statistic above. When I read books I've read before, my goal is usually easy entertainment. If I know a book already, I don't need to think about it too hard to enjoy it. In 2012, I realized that books written for juvenile readers can offer the same benefits even if I have not read them before. Which isn't to say they're all mindless fluff - some of those books were really awesome.

Fiction: 63 (64%)
Nonfiction: 35 (36%)
Lighter on fiction than last year's 71% - 29% split.

You should definitely read: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, and The Mansion of Happiness by Jill Lepore. Nothing to Envy tells the stories of a handful of North Korean citizens over the past fifteen years; their lives in North Korea and their lives today. The Mansion of Happiness is a collection of pieces that originally appeared in the New Yorker, all touching on some aspect of how Americans have historically viewed life and death. Both of these books taught me a startling number of things I didn't know before (a hallmark of excellent nonfiction), while still being so engaging that I had trouble putting them down (for me, much more common to fiction). And the things I learned from each book weren't just filed away for future reference. They inspired multiple animated conversations with friends, because I simply had to discuss them with people. ("Oh my god, did you know abortion wasn't even a partisan issue until 1971, when the Republican Party decided to make it one in hopes of dividing the Democratic Party!?")

Don't bother reading: The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. Okay, I know, you're probably thinking, "Well, it is called 'The Actor and the Housewife.' And you still read it." This is true. But I am a non-snobby reader; an unashamed consumer of a good, fluffy novel. That's not what I got with this book. It seemed promising for awhile, but fell completely flat in the end. The events in the story require a truckload of disbelief suspension, which isn't a deal breaker by itself. But when the characters' actions don't even make consistent sense from one chapter to the next, there's nothing to fall back on.

2011 in review: Books

For the sixth year, here's a list of books I read between last January and December. A bit of number crunching to follow:


1. The Forest People - Colin M. Turnbull
2. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland - Patton Oswalt
3. U2 At the End of the World - Bill Flanagan
4. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - Diana Gabaldon
5. Juliet - Anne Fortier
6. Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Diana Gabaldon
7. A Natural History of the Senses - Diane Ackerman
8. Skippy Dies - Paul Murray
9. Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern
10. Fall For Anything - Courtney Summers
11. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
12. Room - Emma Donoghue
13. Animals and Objects In and Out of Water - Jay Ryan
14. The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love - Kristin Kimball
15. Chocolate & Vicodin - Jennette Fulda
16. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
17. The Memory Palace - Mira Bartok
18. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
19. Let it Be - Colin Meloy
20. Bossypants - Tina Fey
21. The Gunslinger - Stephen King
22. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
23. The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King
24. The Waste Lands - Stephen King
25. Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
26. Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King
27. Song of Susannah - Stephen King
28. The Dark Tower - Stephen King
29. The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex - Kristen Schaal & Rich Blomquist
30. Veins - Drew
31. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
32. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
33. The Wilder Life - Wendy McClure
34. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
35. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin
36. A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
37. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
38. Sweet Valley Confidential - Francine Pascal
39. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
40. Swimming to Antarctica - Lynne Cox
41. Sisterhood Everlasting - Ann Brashares
42. Atonement - Ian McEwan
43. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
44. Incognito: the Secret Lives of the Brain - David Eagleman
45. The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
46. Duma Key - Stephen King
47. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
48. Janes Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever. - Caissie St. Onge
49. One Day - David Nicholls
50. The Deep End of the Ocean - Jacqueline Mitchard
51. No Time to Wave Goodbye - Jacqueline Mitchard
52. My Father’s Daughter - E.L. Konigsburg
53. The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World - E.L. Konigsburg
54. A Secret Gift - Ted Gup
55. The Unfinished Angel - Sharon Creech
56. The Castle Corona - Sharon Creech
57. Somewhere in Time - Richard Matheson
58. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood - David Benedictus
59. Wildwood - Colin Meloy
60. The Unwritten Vol. 1 - Mike Carey
61. The Unwritten Vol. 2 - Mike Carey
62. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
63. Five Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth - Matthew Inman
64. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
65. Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin
66. The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatje
67. A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard
68. Ashes - Ilsa J. Bick
69. Secret Daughter - June Cross
70. 11/22/63 - Stephen King
71. The Unwritten: Dead Man's Knock - Mike Carey
72. Snow in Summer - Jane Yolen
73. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
74. Boy's Life - Robert McCammon
75. The Apothecary - Maile Meloy
76. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
77. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
78. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
79. The Scottish Prisoner - Diana Gabaldon
80. The Disappointment Artist: Essays - Jonathan Lethem
81. The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson
82. Blue Nights - Joan Didion
83. Black Notice - Patricia Cornwell
84. The Last Precinct - Patricia Cornwell


Total books read: 84. Two more than I read in 2010.

Previously read: 15 (18%) About the same as last year's 17%.

Marketed for children/teens: 14 (17%) The same as last year's 17%.

Fiction: 60 (71%)
Nonfiction: 24 (29%)
Even more fiction-y than last year's 63% - 37%.

You should definitely read: Bossypants by Tina Fey and A Secret Gift by Ted Gup. Tina Fey is smart and awesome and hilarious and supercool and I want us to be best friends. Maybe you'd like to be Tina's best friend too. But until that happens, you can tide yourself over with her excellent memoir. "A mother's prayer for its child," among other things, is just about perfect. A Secret Gift (full title: A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression) was a book I picked up on a whim at my local library. Gup tells the story of the anonymous man who offered $10 to seventy-five Ohio families before Christmas in 1933, based on personal letters of application. The anonymous man was Ted Gup's grandfather, Sam Stone, as Ted discovered - along with all of the letters - in 2009. He tracked down living relatives of recipients to find out how the gift impacted their lives. Their stories are interwoven with the story of Sam Stone, and it becomes apparent that Sam's 1933 philanthropy was just one of his many secrets.


Don't bother reading: No Time to Wave Goodbye by Jacqueline Mitchard. I had previously read two of Mitchard's books, Cage of Stars and The Deep End of the Ocean, and enjoyed both. So when I found out that a sequel to The Deep End of the Ocean existed, I couldn't wait to read it. Well ... I should have waited. Maybe forever. I have no idea what happened between the writing of Ocean and the writing of Goodbye, but the difference between the two felt like the difference between the first books of the Baby-Sitters Club series, awesomely written by Ann M. Martin, and book #192, Claudia and the Haunted Ring Ding Wrapper (or whatever), written by some ghost writer who'd barely skimmed the previous books. In short: it is not good.

2010 in review: Books

For the fifth time, here's a list of the books I read over the past year.  Stats follow:

1. Manhood for Amateurs - Michael Chabon

2. Under the Dome - Stephen King

3. Things the Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett

4. Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run - Alton Brown

5. Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable - Bruce M. Hood

6. Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession - Julie Powell

7. You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas - Augusten Burroughs

8. 100 Posters 134 Squirrels - Jay Ryan

9. I Drink For a Reason - David Cross

10. The Crowd Sounds Happy - Nicholas Dawidoff

11. Stealing Buddha's Dinner - Bich Minh Nguyen

12. In Search of Norman Rockwell's America - Kevin Rivoli, Norman Rockwell

13. How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer

14. Somebody Else's Daughter - Elizabeth Brundage

15. Not Becoming My Mother - Ruth Reichl

16. Dead Until Dawn - Charlaine Harris

17. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris

18. Senegal in Pictures - Tom Streissguth

19. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris

20. Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

21. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Gary D. Schmidt

22. Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris

23. Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

24. All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris

25. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris

26. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

27. Committed - Elizabeth Gilbert

28. A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris

29. SuperFreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

30. Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire - Graydon Carter, Ed.

31. Everything is Wrong With Me - Jason Mulgrew

32. The Summer Before - Ann M. Martin
33. A Year in the World - Frances Mayes
34. Children Standing Before a Statue of Hercules - David Sedaris, Ed.
35. Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
36. The Poisoner's Handbook - Deborah Blum
37. Born Standing Up - Steve Martin
38. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
39. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson
40. Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
41. Every Patient Tells a Story - Lisa Sanders, M.D.
42. The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud
43. Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel
44. Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
45. The Senator's Wife - Sue Miller
46. Holy Fools - Joanne Harris
47. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
48. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
49. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
50. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
51. Timeriders - Alex Scarrow
52. Educating Esme - Esme Raji Codell
53. Both Sides of Time - Caroline B. Cooney
54. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
55. Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
56. Voyager - Diana Gabaldon
57. The Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon
58. A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon
59. An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon
60. The Impostor's Daughter - Laurie Sandell
61. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
62. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
63. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
64. Emily of New Moon - L.M. Montgomery
65. Emily Climbs - L.M. Montgomery
66. Emily's Quest - L.M. Montgomery
67. Jane of Lantern Hill - L.M. Montgomery
68. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
69. The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
70. War Dances - Sherman Alexie
71. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - David Sedaris
72. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
73. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
74. Birds of North America - Lorrie Moore
75. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
76. The Mind's Eye - Oliver Sacks
77. Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising With Character - Warren Dotz
78. Songs of Love & Death - George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Eds.
79. The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime - Mark Haddon
80. The Road to Yesterday - L.M. Montgomery
81. Empire Falls - Richard Russo
82. The Cat in the Mirror - Mary Stolz

Total books read: 82
That's six more than I read in 2009.

By male authors: 34 (41%)
By female authors: 45 (55%)
By both: 3 (4%)

Previously read: 14 (17% - down from last year's 20%, but has nothing on 2008's impressive 4%)

Marketed for children/teens: 14 (17% - down from 2009's whopping 26%, but still a presence)

Fiction: 52 (63%)
Nonfiction: 30 (37%)

2010 still leaned more heavily toward fiction than nonfiction, but I noticed an interesting breakdown in the list itself.  Aside from Under the Dome, the first fifteen books were all nonfiction.  Then, for awhile, it was about half and half.  But from book forty-five (somewhere around August) on, it's almost 100% fiction.  I think that's because I spent a lot of time rereading series in the second half of the year.  Two of those - the last three Harry Potter books and all of the Diana Gabaldons - can be blamed on my September trip to the U.K.  I was also very busy in autumn, which meant turning to my own bookshelves and those of friends over the library for quick reads.  That increased the numbers for "previously read," and certainly padded my fiction totals.

You should definitely read: The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  The Poisoner's Handbook is a fascinating account of the rise of forensic medicine around the 1920's.  There are jaw-dropping anecdotes about women who worked in watch factories painting their fingernails with lead paint, and the ways unregulated prohibition-era bootleg liquor killed so many more people than alcohol ever had before.  Cloud Atlas is a unique collection of six stories spanning ... well, space/time/worlds ... I'm not sure how to describe it.  At first each story seems to end without warning and abruptly plunge the reader in the next, leaving you wondering what just happened.  But eventually, you realize there is a method to the madness, and that it is awesome.

Don't bother reading: Cleaving by Julie Powell.  It's not a bad book, really, but my god, Julie Powell is whiny and self-indulgent.  She's honest, which I suppose is admirable (though really, do we have any real clue how honest she is?), but the enthusiastically detailed accounts of her infidelity made me want to punch something.  Possibly Julie Powell.  I felt like I was reading someone's LiveJournal.

Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories: an introduction

At a recent estate sale, I found myself perusing a box of old books down a dusty basement.  The books in question were all cookbooks, and they were artfully displayed - as recommended by Elle Decor - on a sagging bed near the washing machine.  


One slim volume caught my eye.  Perhaps better described as a pamphlet than a book, I noticed it because it didn't seem to contain any recipes.  The cover read Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories (Sixth Series).  A quick glance at the first pages and translation of Roman numerals told me it had been published in 1930.  Though it would become clear that the stories originated in England, this edition was printed in the U.S.A. by The Review and Herald Publishing Association in Takoma Park, Washington, D.C.  The inside cover boasted a promisingly splendid and rather inexplicable illustration, "Jesus in the Carpenter's Shop at Nazareth."  At ten cents, clearly I had to buy it for more detailed perusal...

2009 in review: Books

Last entry I reviewed my 2009 in travel. This time (for the fourth year), books. Here's a list of the books I read in 2009, followed by some stats:

1. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling

2. Once Removed - Neil Finn & Mark Smith

3. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
4. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
5. Stuart Little - E.B. White

6. Sad American Mythology - Ryan Adams

7. The Little Book - Selden Edwards

8. Feathers - Jacqueline Woodson

9. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins - Emma Donoghue

10. Stalking Irish Madness - Patrick Tracey

11. Scattershot - David Lovelace

12. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo

13. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

14. Voluntary Madness - Norah Vincent

15. The Trumpet of the Swan - E.B. White

16. R.E.M.: Hello - David Belisle & Michael Stipe

17. The World in Six Songs - Daniel J. Levitin

18. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

19. Long Way Down - Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman

20. Three Willows - Ann Brashares

21. When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson

22. King Dork - Frank Portman

23. Coop - Michael Perry

24. A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic - Hilda Van Stockum

25. That Lass o' Lowrie's - Frances Hodgson Burnett

26. The View From Mount Joy - Lorna Landvik

27. The Americans - Robert Frank

28. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

29. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

30. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

31. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

32. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

33. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

34. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

35. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom - Qanta A. Ahmed, MD

36. Hands of My Father - Myron Uhlberg

37. Snark - David Denby

38. The Girl Who Could Fly - Victoria Forester

39. And Both Were Young - Madeleine L'Engle

40. An Acceptable Time - Madeleine L'Engle

41. Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck

42. Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? - NewScientist

43. The Small Rain - Madeleine L'Engle

44. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine L'Engle

45. Hiding in the Spotlight - Greg Dawson

46. The Crow Road - Iain Banks

47. Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas

48. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

49. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

50. The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb

51. The Host - Stephenie Meyer

52. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

53. A Corner of the Universe - Ann M. Martin

54. Angels & Insects - A.S. Byatt

55. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet - Neil DeGrasse Tyson

56. An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon

57. Agnes Cecelia - Maria Gripe

58. A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

59. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

60. Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon

61. Voyager - Diana Gabaldon

62. Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabaldon

63. Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon

64. A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon

65. A Widow for One Year - John Irving

66. Nothing But Ghosts - Beth Kephart

67. Everything Beautiful in the World - Lisa Levchuk

68. The Mistress's Daughter - A.M. Homes

69. The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman

70. The Birthing House - Christopher Ransom

71. Twilight Children - Torey Hayden

72. Joys of Love - Madeleine L'Engle

73. American on Purpose - Craig Ferguson

74. Julie and Julia - Julie Powell

75. Moon Palace - Paul Auster

76. A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore

Total books read: 76. 

I read one fewer book in 2009 than I did in 2008.

By male authors: 30 (40%) 

By female authors: 45 (59%) 

By both: 1 (0.1%)

Previously read: 15 (20% - up from 2008's 4%)
Marketed for children/teens: 20 (26% - yow!)
Fiction: 55 (72%) Nonfiction: 21 (28%)
In 2009, unlike 2008, fiction ruled.  


Looking at these statistics, it's clear: for much of 2009 I was in the mood for light, simple, familiar, made-up stories.  Interesting.  (Of course, I didn't count all the New Yorkers I read.)  Maybe the busier I am with other things, the less I want to think deeply about what I'm reading.  Or, my patience is growing shorter as I get older?  I'm going to try to challenge myself a little more in 2010.  

You should definitely read: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and Coop by Michael Perry.  I was a bit late getting to The Poisonwood Bible, and I'm sorry I waited so long to read this enthralling book.  It is fiction, but not light or simple.  Coop is an excellent memoir; the latest in a line of excellent memoirs by Michael Perry.   He's one of the folks who make me glad to be a Wisconsinite, even if my hometown an hour's drive from Chicago bears little resemblance to his. 

Don't bother reading: The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  I mean, unless you have a sneaking suspicion you might enjoy it.  Then go ahead, but be warned that they're like crack.  If crack included some awesomely horrible dialogue.  Also, prepare to spend a good week or two afterward supremely frustrated because Meyer has no current plans to finish her draft of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward's perspective.  Arg!