The year in reading, 2017

How did it get to be February already? It seems like we just finished the holidays! Since the year is already getting away from me, I am a little late with my reading roundup for 2017. Oh well, better late than never. Here goes:

In 2017 I had a goal to read 75 books (not counting the picture books and so on read to Malcolm) - I read 80 (a couple of those were chapter books read to Malcolm, but since they were actual books, I let them count). I am pleased with my total, especially since I started working a month into the year and my free time declined precipitously. I didn't keep track, but I suspect the number went up from 2016 because I have been listening to more audio books during my commute every day. I can read faster than I can listen, but I can't read while driving, so audio books are a great solution. I didn't break the books out into categories, but I definitely read mostly science fiction and fantasy this year. Probably because the news is so dreary and dreadful most of the time that I need something to take my mind somewhere else entirely, even if that world is even more wrecked than our own.

For the last two years I have had goals to increase the diversity of the perspectives I encounter by reading more books by women, minorities, and non-US/British authors, as well as more poetry. In 2016, about 60% of my books were written by women; 2017 was about the same, with 63%. I am actually a little surprised about that - at times it felt like I went weeks without reading any male authors. But I am pretty happy with 63% and aim to keep the ratio about the same for this year.

In 2016 I read only eight books by minorities - six of which were by two authors - and I made a very concerted effort to increase that number in 2017. I was pretty successful - I increased the total to 21 books by minorities, one quarter of the total books. There was some duplication of authors, but not much. In 2018, I want to keep seeking out diverse authors and hope to get closer to 1/3 of my books.

Foreign authors is still a hard category for me and needs improvement. I only read five books by non-American/British authors - one Cuban, one Japanese, two South African, and one Nigerian. One of the American women I read is also Nigerian, but since she was born in the US and lives and works here, I didn't count her in the foreign category.

Poetry: I only read two full books of poetry this year, but I did read all the poetry every month in Literary Mama, and occasionally dipped into favorite books of poetry for short snacks. I don't think this category is every going to be a big one for me - poetry just isn't something that I connect with regularly, even though I do enjoy it from time to time.

Favorite books of 2017 in order read throughout the year:
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Binti (and its sequels) by Nnedi Okorafor
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
The Heist (and the other four books in the Fox and O'Hare series) by Janet Evanovich
Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
The Stone Sky (The conclusion of the Broken Earth trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin
Provenance by Ann Leckie
Artemis by Andy Weir

There were a lot of pretty good ones that I didn't put on this list too. You can find my complete list of books read in 2017 on my Goodreads page.

2016 in reading

Last year I set a goal of reading 70 books, which I barely managed to meet, squeaking in at 71 - once again not counting the hundreds read to Malcolm. I also set a goal to read more books by women and minorities, more foreign fiction and more poetry. How did I do? Let's break it down, shall we?

1) More books by women: This was a success. Without even trying to select books by women, 43 of my 71 books were by women - this includes fiction and non-fiction - for 60.5%. By far and away my most successful goal.

2) Minorities: Only eight of the books I read were by identifiable minorities (nine if you count someone with a physical disability). Not as successful, but not a complete failure. I am actually kind of ashamed of how few minority authors I read, because of those eight, six of them were from two authors. I haven't tallied up the children's books I've read with Malcolm, but I have been making an effort to find and include minority authors there too.

3) Foreign fiction: Apart from one Italian novel and two Finnish children's books, I read a few books by Australians and some British authors. Not very good. Not good at all. I am rather sad about this, because I have many foreign works on my to read shelf on Goodreads - I guess I need to make more of an effort to search them out at the library.

4) Poetry: Well, abject failure is one way to put it. I did read some poetry now and then, but I didn't finish any books, and apart from the poetry on Literary Mama, nothing new.

Going forward into 2017 I have the same set of goals. More women, more minorities, more foreign, more poetry. So far, I have finished three books - two fiction and one anthology of essays. Of those, the two fiction are both by women, and the essay was edited by a woman and includes some minority authors. So, yay me - off to a good start! And of the two books I am currently reading, one is by a woman and one is by an African American.

The best books I read in 2016? Absolutely no contest - The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. She is my new favorite author, hands down. If you are into audio books, I highly recommend the Audible versions, both narrated by the excellent Robin Miles.

Books and brownies

Whoops. So much for my unannounced resolution of writing more blogs this year. Guess I can start that now?

Following on the heels of my previous post, I have come up with an aspirational plan for my reading this year: To make as many as possible of the books I read this year be by authors who are not white males. I want to read more books by women, more foreign fiction and poetry, more works by people of color - more that make me see outside my normal bubble. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with reading books by western white males - I certainly have my eyes on several upcoming books by favorite authors of that ilk - but I don't want to get stuck in a rut. I think I do a fair job of this normally, but I want it to be intentional, I want to notice that I am doing it. It shouldn't be too hard - just by cruising through my Goodreads to read list for a few minutes, I can easily come up with a year's worth of books to keep me reading. I will try to post some of what I read here - remind me if I don't!

And I promised brownies, didn't I? If you have been with me for any length of time, you know I love baking. I like trying new things, but there are days when I want something easy, something quick, and something I know everyone in the house will eat. Today was one of those days. I needed to bake something, since there was a serious lack of proper dessert items in the house, but couldn't muster the mental energy to find and try something new. When I asked Malcolm what to make, he wanted brownies. I used to dread trying to make brownies, since it seemed to require big chunks of baking chocolate and lots of stirring and mixing. I am not sure what recipe I was looking at, but I remember brownies being too much work. Then I found my current recipe from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook; it is almost as easy as making brownies from a box mix, and much better tasting. I thought I would share, in case you too are in need of a quick, easy brownie recipe.

Cocoa Brownies
Prep: 10 minutes (perhaps more, if baking with small children)  Bake: 25 minutes

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (You can also substitute coconut oil 1:1 for butter. I used half and half this time and it made the brownies just a little nutty, in a good way)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts (4 ounces) coarsely chopped (optional - I never add them, since we are in the "no nuts in brownies" camp, but I am sure they would be good, if you like that sort of thing)
Sprinkles (Malcolm's addition to the recipe, also optional. They do make regular brownies festive)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan (this always seems too large, but always seems to be just right in the end. I bet you could try an 8-inch pan too). In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
2. In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended; add vanilla. Stir in walnuts, if using. Top with sprinkles, if using.
3. Bake until toothpick inserted 2 inches from center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. (It has always been exactly 25 minutes in my oven). Cool pan completely on wire rack; don't cut them yet. Just don't do it.
4. When cool, cut into as many pieces as you want. (The recipe suggests 16, I usually go for 20, but then I am trying to keep a three year old and a brownie obsessed grandmother from eating too large of pieces).

Favorite Books of 2015

It is the new year, and I guess that means it is time for lists and reviews of the year just past. For me, the first and most important list is the one of all the books I have read. Officially, on Goodreads, I managed 70 books. That is about half of my pre-parenthood high year, and feels low, but unofficially, I read hundreds of books to Malcolm. That is not an exaggeration - I am keeping a list of all the books we read together, and it is over 600 books! One of these days I will get them all on my list of books too. Benjamin laughs at my attempts to quantify my life, but I can't help it.

But I digress. What I really wanted to do was share some of my favorite books of the past year with you, because they are all so good you should read them too! I am specifically using "favorite" and not "best," because this is a completely subjective list, and apart from the first one, I am not ranking any of them.

Favorite overall: Ancillary Justice (and the sequels Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy) by Ann Leckie. I cannot adequately express how much I love this series. The world is at once familiar and completely foreign - there is an empire that spans thousands of years and wide swathes of space, the people are human, but gender is not really a thing, the default pronoun is "she" or "her," and the antagonist is thousands of clones of the same person. I know it is challenging - I suggested it for my book group, and the one other woman who reads everything gave up on it - but it is also amazingly good and fun and engrossing.

Other favorite fiction:
Lock In by John Scalzi - set in the near future after a flu/polio type virus has swept the world and millions of people are trapped in their own bodies. There is a mystery, possibly a conspiracy, and robots! It isn't at all dystopian or dreary or bleak - Scalzi is great at writing realistic characters who have a sense of humor and make their way through without getting too mopey or obnoxious. I listened to the Audible version of this, both the Wil Wheaton version and the Amber Benson version, and I highly recommend either narrator. Oh yeah, the gender of the main character is never mentioned, so they can be read as male or female without any difficulty.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - another book set in the near future where a virus has ravaged the earth. This time, things are somewhat dystopian, since 99% of the population died, but it really isn't as bleak as that sounds. The book switches back and forth between pre-collapse views of a famous actor and his associates, and the post-collapse life lived by a troupe of traveling actors and musicians. It is about survival, and hope and the ways humans learn to cope and thrive even in darkness.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - Uh, set in a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa... I promise I read good books that were not set after apocalypses, but these really are the most interesting ones. This one has a chosen one, who is a girl who wants to learn magic and become all the things she is not supposed to, according to her society. There is friendship, love, magic, heartbreak, redemption. Good stuff.

Embassytown by China Mieville - Hey, not set in a post-apocalyptic world! Just set on a strange planet where the humans are definitely not the dominant species and language holds all sorts of power. I am at a loss to explain this one, as I am with most Mieville, because it is so strange and so wonderful. It made an interesting pairing with another book I was reading at the same time, The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. In fact, the best description I can give is that it is Mieville doing his version of a Le Guin novel.

The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton - yes, this is a picture book, but it is so good! I bought it for myself, and honestly never considered that it was a kids book until I got it in the car and Malcolm demanded to look at it on the way home. Now, everyone in the house loves it and enjoys reading it at bedtime. Princess Pinecone is a warrior who wants a real warrior's horse for her birthday. Her parents try, but they don't get it quite right.

Favorite Non-Fiction: I didn't read as much non-fiction this year as I have in some other years, but I did read some that was worth passing on.
It's What I Do: A photographer's life of love and war by Lynsey Addario - a memoir of her career as a photojournalist.

On the Move by Oliver Sacks - I finished reading this the day before he died. His memoir of his career, from the outside, as it were, instead of through his case studies.

Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan - One of the best baking cookbooks I have ever seen and used. Greenspan is endlessly supportive and practical and her recipes are all fantastic. I don't mean that they all taste good, although they do; no, I mean they are all detailed, well-tested, and easy to follow, even when you are making something tricky or difficult. It is a model for how all cookbooks should be written. I am working my way through all the recipes, such an onerous chore (ha!).

There are, of course, more books I could recommend, but I don't want to try your patience. Let me know what your favorites were, so I can add them to my never-ending to-read pile on Goodreads! I promise to move them to the top of the virtual pile!

Fall is definitely here

The weather has taken a cold turn - actually a bit colder than normal for this time of year, not that I am complaining - and the leaves are falling. Oh, the leaves. Oak trees hold a lot of leaves, and as you may recall from previous years' complaints, we have a lot of oak trees around our house. When my dad visited in October, he cleaned up all the leaves currently on the ground (some of which we had raked into piles in July, since they fell early due to drought), and a day or two later, the lawn was covered again. This past weekend I got out the mower and rake and cleaned up the front lawn. Thanks to the incoming cold front and the wind driving it, by mid-afternoon the lawn looked untouched. The only way you could tell I had done anything was that the grass under the leaves (what there is of it) was now tidy. The back yard is a solid carpet of leaves, and is likely to stay that way for a while, since neither of us has much time to do anything about it. Well, I have time during the day, since I am here all the time, but I can't exactly mow with Malcolm strapped to my chest, and raking with him puts a lot of strain on my back.

I have been reading a bit more lately. I found a new series at the library - the Samuel Johnson and Boswell series by John Connolly, about a boy and his dog who find themselves going up against demons from Hell who want to take over the world using a portal created by the Large Hadron Collider (it's funny, really!). I accidentally read the second book, The Infernals, first, which is something I usually would never do, but since I had already started it and didn't seem to be missing that much I kept on. Now Benjamin and I are reading the first book, The Gates, together and enjoying it. There are only two so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if it continues eventually.

Last night the UPS man delivered not one but two new books I have been waiting for - Soulless: the Manga Volume 2 by Gail Carriger, a manga version of her Parasol Protectorate series; and The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest, the newest book in her Clockwork Century series. I read the manga last night in one go, after Malcolm was in bed, and I will be starting the other today.

And, since this blog seems to be turning into an all-Malcolm blog, here is a recent picture:

Look Mama - I can grab my pants now!

Today I love ...

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. They are an ongoing adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, through Lizzie Bennet's video diaries on YouTube. Here is the first one - go watch them all!

2011 Reading Challenges Update

At the beginning of the year, I signed up for two reading challenges - one on Goodreads and one at the Roof Beam Reader. To date, I am done with one, and almost done with the other.

The Goodreads challenge was strictly a challenge of number of books. My initial goal was 110, but I blew past that in August or September, so I updated it to 140. As of today, I have completed that challenge. The 140th book? A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks. Nearly a quarter of the 140 were graphic novels, a category I really dug into this year. My favorite book of the year? Hmm... I don't know. There were a lot of good ones, quite a few I barely remember, and some I really disliked. Good ones: The Night Circus, When She Woke, Little Brother, Full Catastrophe Living, The City and the City. Cherie Priest became my favorite writer during the year. I cleared quite a few books from my To Read shelves - both the virtual Goodreads one, and the physical one in my living room. But of course, I added far more than I read. Sigh.

The second challenge, the TBR challenge at Roof Beam Reader, is 11/12ths of the way done. That challenge, you may recall, was to pick 12 books from my to be read list, and read them all within the year. A Princess of Landover was my 11th book in the challenge; only Madam Bovary remains, and I am in the middle of listening to it. I restricted myself to books I actually owned, in an attempt to clear off the aforementioned living room shelf, and get myself to read books I had been, for one reason or another, avoiding.

So, am I going to stop reading for the rest of 2011, once I finish Madam Bovary? What do you think? Of course not! If for no other reason, I have a trip to Seattle and back, and flying without a book is just impossible. I don't know if I will sign up for any challenges next year though. I set the bar so high this year, at 140, that I am not sure I would be able to match it. And although it was fun to have a goal to read certain books throughout the year, I don't really need it to keep me reading and clearing off my shelf. If I do decide on either challenge though, you can be sure I will blog about it.

What I will do for books

If you have been reading me for any length of time, you know I am a book nerd, or book geek, or whatever you preferred designation. At the start of the year, I set a goal of reading 110 books this year; I blew past that in September or October. My to-read shelf at Goodreads has almost 600 books on it (I keep reading books on it, but then I find a like a particular author, and have to add everything else they wrote, or the author mentions an author that was influential for them, and I have to go and add that author...). I read author blogs, follow authors on Twitter, read Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal (those two are ostensibly for work purposes, but really, they just feed my habit). All of this is to say, yes, I am a wee bit obsessed with books.

So it should come as no surprise that I drove 3 hours each direction to Memphis this past Saturday, just to hear Cherie Priest talk for an hour at a book store to promote her most recent book, Ganymede. She is definitely one of my favorite authors right now, and while I read her blog and twitter feeds (and feel a little like a stalker whenever I reply to something), I had never seen her in person.* My dad saw her at a book event in Seattle and told me that she reminded him of me (by which I think basically, he meant that she is a smart, snarky female, but hey, whatever). Since book tours are pretty rare these days for any author who is not also a great personage, I jumped at the chance to see her, even though it did mean 6 hours in the car.

Not that driving 6 hours just for book-related activities is unheard of in my family. One summer, when Benjamin and I were living with my parents, Mom, Dad and I (Benjamin refused to be crammed in a car for 6 hours with all three of us, just for a bookstore run - probably wise), drove the three hours from Seattle to Portland, just to go to Powells Bookstore. That's it. We did nothing else except each lunch while were there. If you know Powells though, you know that it was totally worth it.

Anyway, the talk was fun - I got a couple of books signed (she probably would have signed everything I have, if I had lugged it in, but two is fine), and got to say hello. I confessed to being an, um, ardent, fan, and she even recognized my name from comments on FB and Twitter. (I have been assured by another author that I have interacted with in Twitter that simply chatting is not at all like stalking, but I can't quite shake the feeling that I am probably annoying them somehow.) Actually, I was having a hard time not acting like a manic fan girl before the reading, when she came into the cafe where we were eating lunch. I am usually so not a fan girl type - too beneath whatever dignity I pretend to posses, but I was almost bouncing up and down and giggling. Benjamin was, I think, mildly amused at my silliness.

If you ever get the chance to see a favorite author, you should. Go, listen, chat if they offer that opportunity, and buy a book - even if you already have all of them. They need our support in this world that is increasingly hostile to endeavors that don't make tons of money. And you might just have a good time!

*I take that back. I did see her a couple of years ago at ALA when she was on a Scifi/fantasy panel, and I got a free copy of Boneshaker. I had tried to read it a few months before and couldn't get into it, but after hearing her talk about it, and having a free copy, I tried again and really liked it. (Benjamin makes fun of me for disliking it, and then doing a 180). Enough that I then read everything else. But still, that was a panel, and I didn't know anything about her then.

Judgment Day by Penelope Lively

Judgment Day by Penelope Lively
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Penelope Lively's books, and I always find it so hard to describe why. They are generally quiet, without the bluster or bombast of so many novels, yet they are not cloying or claustrophobic. They are observational, but not overly full of description. Generally, I have to like a character in a book to like the book, but I don't feel that need with Lively's books. Certainly, there are characters I empathize with, and others that I dislike immensely, but I don't latch on to any one person.

Judgment Day is very much a Lively novel, in all of those senses. Set in a small English village, it is centered around an ancient church and its neighbors, and the events that happen one spring and summer when they plan a church fundraiser. The fundraiser is to be a play based on several violent moments in the history of the village and church. Throughout the story, there is an undercurrent of tension, or possible violence, like a tiger waiting to spring, and you don't know until the end how or if it will strike. Several of the main characters ponder faith and fate and existence, as many people do, and come away changed, and yet the same, as most people do. Lives are changed forever, and not changed, as is so often the case in real life. A picture of a village, and a picture of the wider world.

Note: This was one of my TBR challenge books for this year.

Book Review: Ganymede by Cherie Priest

Ganymede by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cherie Priest is one of my favorite authors right now, and Ganymede is a good example of why. You start with a hefty helping of adventure, some humor, a little social commentary, mix it all up, and you get a novel that compels you to keep reading (even when you should be cleaning house or something else "productive").

This time, the action is mostly centered in New Orleans, where Josephine Early is trying to get a purloined Confederate submarine out of Lake Pontchartrain and out to the Gulf, where it will be given over to the Union. Problem? The sub has killed just about everyone who has tried to sail it, including its inventor. As a last resort, she sends to Seattle for her old friend (and lover) Andan Cly, airship pirate (last seen in Boneshaker, the first Clockwork Century book), on the chance that an airship pilot will have better luck than the sailors who have tried in the past. Cly sets out from Seattle with a new love interest on his mind, and a couple of new crew members. Throw in occupying Texians, zombis, and the tension from a long ago love affair, and you have another great story.

My only quibble is that a few bits of plot don't seem to lead anywhere, exactly, like the Texian who has basically taken up residence at Josephine's "boarding house." He plays a small part in learning about the zombis, or at least I assume he does, since the last we see of him, he is heading off to talk to a Texas Ranger in his hat and underwear, but there were so many hints that he was something more that I felt like he got lost somewhere. There were also hints that Kirby Troost, Cly's newest crewmember, may not be all that he seems - but no revelation.  But these are really only minor quibbles in a book that kept me turning pages and holding my breath more than once.

View all my reviews

Banned Books Week

Did you know that we are smack in the middle of Banned Books Week? Well, we are. As a librarian/avid reader/liberal, I am very much anti-book banning, so I like Banned Books Week. There are plenty of arguments out there about why banning books (and movies and TV shows and video games and music) is just plain wrong (and stupid), and I am going to trust that you are internet-savvy enough to find them, if you so desire. Instead of adding my voice to that, and rambling on for days - which I am perfectly capable of doing - I will give you my brush with book banning:

When I was in 8th or 9th grade, a parent at my school tried to get a book banned from a class reading list, The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, because it had naked ladies (actually, culturally-correct pearl divers) and a couple of teenagers tempted to have sex. My mom was on the curriculum committee at the time, and asked me to read the book and give her my opinion. I like to think that was because I was (a) very well-read, with good opinions about books, even back then, and (b) I had extremely well-developed common-sense for someone of my age group. (Mom, don't say anything that will disabuse me of this notion. I like the rosy-tinted view of my precocious self.) Anyway, I read the book, and although I don't really remember all that much about it (I can't remember most of the plot described in the Wikipedia summary), I do remember that it was not in any way worth banning. It didn't get banned, in the end (probably not because of my opinion, alas), which is as it should be.

The whole incident struck me then, as it does now, as incredibly ridiculous. The innocent child who could have been asked to read such filth was in junior high at the time, and the book was for a junior or senior level class. How did having such a book on a list harm that kid? No idea. (Besides, in high school, anything assigned in class is less likely to be read simply because it was assigned i.e. boring and homework, therefore, often skipped. A book you pick up on your own and read in private is one you want to read, and far more likely to be "dangerous").  Also, the book was in an elective class, not a required one. If the parent still had her panties in a bunch over the book by the time the student got to that point, in 4 or 5 years, she could have just not allowed the child to take that class. That is how people should react to something they don't approve of - by not reading it, not by trying to force other people to stop reading it. (Of course, I also think we should expose ourselves to things we don't generally approve of before we make the choice to continue with our dislike, but that is another point for another day). Not to mention that the mother couldn't protect/shield/pamper/mess up her kid for ever.

There are plenty of books and TV shows that I don't approve of for whatever reason, but unless they are primarily hate-speech and require some sort of active response, I don't read them, I don't watch them; it is my choice to make. I don't think books should be banned, because suppressing an idea or opposing viewpoint doesn't allow for discussion, for debate, for exposure of alternatives. It provides a false sense that everyone believes the same thing, that we all ought to live in lock-step with one another. We don't. We shouldn't. In a country that prides itself on being the country of "liberty and justice for all," the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints is a vital necessity. Even for junior high students. So, go read something that has been banned, and flaunt it!

2011 Reading Challenges Update

Whoops. Looks like I forgot to post anything yesterday. Sorry ('cause I know you are all heartbroken.)


Today, after finishing the marvelous Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, I added it to my "books read in 2011" list on Goodreads, and discovered that it was the 111th book I have finished this year. That was my original goal for the entire year, back in January. I will clearly blow past it by the end of the year - I mean, I still have 3 1/2 months of reading to go - so I revised my goal up to 140. If I meet it, it would be the most I have ever read (at least since I have been keeping track, which means probably ever). Benjamin is a little skeptical, since I have read a lot of graphic novels and manga this year - he says I should remove them from the total. But I don't want to do that - I read them, didn't I? And they are published as books - they have ISBN numbers and everything. So they stay. It is my own challenge, so I can set the arbitrary rules.

The other challenge I joined this year was to read 12 books that had been sitting on my "to read" shelf for over a year (here's my original post about the challenge). So far, I have read 7 of the 12, and I am currently in the middle of the 8th. I managed the two longest a while ago, and 3 of the 4 I haven't started yet are not long. But one of the ones left is Madame Bovary, and it isn't exactly short. I think I am going to listen to that one on my iPod, since I found an unabridged addition on Audible.

If I do manage to read 140 books, I am most likely setting an almost impossible bar for myself. I doubt I will be reading quite so many graphic novels and manga all at one time again, for one thing. Ah well. The important thing is that I will have a challenge for the future.

Cherie Priest - go read her books

One of my favorite authors right now is Cherie Priest. I am in the middle of two of her books (one I'm reading with Benjamin and one on my own) and there is another one due out at the end of the month or beginning of next month. Since she writes in a lot of different genres, I can't really describe her as having one style. But she writes really good female characters and snappy dialog, and plain, old, really good stories.  The most famous series is the Clockwork Century - Boneshaker, Clementine, Dreadnought, and coming soon, Ganymede. They are set in an alternate history where the Civil War is still being fought in the 1880s, and Seattle is infested with zombies.

This cover is from the one that just came out on Tuesday, a sequel to Bloodshot. It is also set in Seattle (at least partially), and has vampires (who definitely don't sparkle), a ex-Navy SEAL drag queen, and lots of action.

Anyway, you should go read something of hers. You will thank me.

2011 TBR Pile Challenge update

5 months into the year, and I have finished 5 books from my To Be Read Pile Challenge List. The one that I thought might derail me, PrairyErth, has now been finished - it took me almost exactly 3 months (622 pages of fairly dense natural history etc.), and I have started listening to another long one, A Distant Mirror, as an audiobook in the car. Now the one that will be a challenge is Madam Bovary. But I am sure I can manage it...

Here is a link to my "review" of PrairyErth on Goodreads.

As an incidental note, I am also 47 books into my Goodreads challenge to read 110 books in 2011. That number will be climbing steeply in a couple of weeks, because I have a slew of graphic novels on hold at the library. Yes, I count them as books. They have pages, I read them, I get them at the library.

The only problem with these challenges is that they are supposed to help me whittle away at all my "to read" lists, but those lists are not getting any smaller. For every book I read, I probably add 2 or 3 to the list. So many books, so little time...

Some of my top books of 2010

Hey, it is the end of the year, time for making lists. Since I don't have any pictures to share yet (they are off the camera, but not off the external hard drive...), I am going to give you some book recommendations.  These are ten of the books I really enjoyed this year, in no particular order. They may or may not have been published in 2010, some are fiction, some are not.

• Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff - I am not quite done with this, but I will be by Friday, so it counts. Anyway, I am learning a lot, like the fact that all the accounts we have of Cleopatra were written by her enemies, mostly misogynist Roman men. Instead of being a witch, or just a seductress, she was a highly capable, incredibly intelligent leader of a vast and wealthy kingdom in a very turbulent era. 
• The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow - I picked up a signed copy from the author at ALA. I was a little hesitant about it, since it seemed like it belonged on Oprah's book list, and I tend to avoid such things, but I really enjoyed it. There are lots of themes and ideas in it that make it perfect for a book club.
• Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson - a dog book that can tug at your heartstrings without having to resort to a dead dog. A lovely look at what goes into training a search and rescue dog and handler, I read this in less than 24 hours. And I have been pushing on anyone who comes into our library looking for something to read, no matter what they are there for.
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - I listened to this on CD in my car during my commute. Again, another of those books I wasn't sure I would like, but which I fell in love with. Major Pettigrew is a very upright, proper British gentleman, embattled by a selfish son, a difficult sister-in-law, and a modernizing world that doesn't seem to have any manners. He starts a friendship with a widowed Pakistani shopkeeper, which turns everything in his life upside down.
• Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires - One of the most adorable children's books I have read in a long time. 
• Out on a Limb by Louise Baker - a memoir from the 1940s by a woman who lost a leg in an accident as a child, but didn't let it slow her down. I stumbled upon it during some inventory work here at the library. 
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson - I loved this trilogy, and picked up a copy of the third book in Amsterdam, before it came out here. I read it in one gulp, without stopping, on the plane flight home.
• Soulless by Gail Carriger - Book One of the Parasol Protectorate series, all of which are delightful. A felicitous discovery that has become one of my favorite steampunk/SF/mystery series. Alexia Tarabotti is not a young woman to be trifled with!
• The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley - I think I picked this up in wake of the National Parks series on PBS, and it took me a while to read, since it is long and dense, but I really enjoyed it. Theodore Roosevelt is pretty high up on my list of favorite presidents. He had his faults, but he sure did a lot of good for this country. 
• The Case for God by Karen Armstrong - Another dense book that took me a while to read. A refreshing book that kept me saying "Aha."

I haven't included everything that I liked, so if you want to see what else I have been reading in 2010, I encourage you to get an account on Goodreads. Then you can look at all my various lists, and create some of your own.

Library Addicts Anonymous

Is there such a group? If not, there should be. I would join. No matter how much I tell myself that I am just stopping at a library to return a book, or because Benjamin needs something to read, I always come home with a book, or more often, several books. I have a physical bookshelf in my bedroom that is overflowing with books I want to read, and my GoodReads to-read bookshelf is closing in on 200 books (some of those books are the same, but not the majority of them). On Saturday, we went to the Central Arkansas Library System spring book sale. I bought more books, none of which were on my to read shelves.

I work in a library, and just walking from my desk to the break room can be a journey fraught with peril. I currently have 11 books on my desk: three to review for our new blog: ASL Ref Dogs, two that I picked up spontaneously because they looked interesting, one that I picked up to look at before passing on to someone else, two that I am actually reading, one I keep trying to start, and one I checked out last week, but haven't had a chance to start yet.

Must...try...for...moderation...Must finish at least one book before starting another....

Favorite 2008 Books, Part 2

I read quite a few interesting non-fiction books in 2008, but not all of them are worthy of inclusion on a best of the year list. Here are 8 that made my (totally subjective) list:

• Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks - A look at the brain and music, how they interact, what happens when the brain has some sort of short circuit or injury, and so forth. With interesting case studies and personal observations. As an avid music listener and amateur musician, I found this fascinating.

• China Road by Rob Gifford - Gifford was NPR's China reporter for many years, and before he left for a new position in London, he took a trip through China on their really big freeway. I appreciate books that make me look at other countries from a new perspective, and uncover stories that don't make the NYT. Gifford has a good narrative voice and a good sense of humor.

• The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner - another NPR reporter, this time writing about the impact that geography has on national and personal happiness. Again, I like this because it gave me a look into other cultures. And the conclusions Weiner makes about happiness are interesting as well.

• The Devil We Know by Robert Baer - A look at Iran, and its military/power ambitions, as well as how American leaders should deal with Iran. Baer was a CIA operative in the Middle East for many years, and had what seemed to me a good perspective on a troubling area of the world. It made me really want to visit Iran too, but that is another story. One of the books I hope President-elect Obama at least skims.

• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - Vowell is a frequent commentator on NPR, and writes with a dry, cynical wit that I enjoy. This time, she writes about all of the American presidents (except Kennedy) who have been assassinated, and the background to the assassins and the assassinations.
  

• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely - I am glad to know I am not the only one making irrational decisions about purchases and behaving irrationally in other situations. Ariely has some interesting research and conclusions about our irrational economic actions - as opposed to the rational models usually used by economists.

• In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson - Bryson takes on Australia. Do I really need to say more? Another of those books I like for the view it gives me of another place and people. And because it is by Bill Bryson, there are plenty of moments of humor and self-deprication.
• Flat, Hot and Crowded by Thomas Friedman - another of the books I really hope Obama reads, or at least skims. The US and the world cannot continue on the same path it has been on, and Friedman gives some good examples of why not, and what we can do to change. It is going to take a complete 180 throughout the culture. I hope we can do it.
  

Those are my top picks of the year. Sorry I didn't provide links to these, but you can easily look them up for yourself. I am sure there are plenty of other books I could recommend, if you need something to read. And now, on to reading for 2009!

Favorite Books of 2008, Part 1

Since this is the time of year when the news media in all its various forms publishes top 10 lists of everything from best music to worst new TV shows to best pajama designs (OK, I made that last one up), I thought I would jump in with my own list. The one thing I can speak definitively about is books, so I am going to give you two lists: my top fiction finds, and my top non-fiction finds. Neither one adds up to 10, exactly, but I am sure you can get over that. They are listed in no particular order - I hate actually ranking things that way. Too messy. To start, here is my list of fiction:

Fiction

• The Pellinor Series by Alison Croggon- The Naming, The Riddle, The Crow, and The Singing. I discovered the first book in the series at the Brockport library and devoured it and the two following. Then, I had to wait for the final book to be published (I had to order it from England, because it isn' coming out in the US until March), and while I was waiting, I cajoled Benjamin into letting me read the series to him. We gave the first two books to Benjamin's teenage step-sisters for Christmas. It is a fanstasy series in the same sort of vein as The Lord of the Rings, but with a female heroine, and no hobbits or dwarves.

• The Magic, Inc. Series by Shanna Swendson- Magic, Inc., Once Upon Stilettos, Damsel Under Stress, and Don't Hex With Texas. Another fantasy series with a great female heroine. This one, however, is sort of a cross between Harry Potter and Sex in the City. It is strictly chick lit, bordering on romance novel territory, but it sure is fun. I gave the first book in the series to Annie for her birthday.
  

• Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - What would the Greek gods and goddesses do with themselves if they were still around and living in London? What could possibly go wrong if two mortals got mixed up with them?

• Palace of Illusions by Chitra Divakaruni - a retelling of parts of ancient Indian legends, from a woman's perspective.

• The Weaver and the Factory Maid and the other books in the Haunted Ballads Series by Deborah Grabien - A Scottish folk musician and his theatre actress/director girlfriend have to solve centuries old mysteries to stop dangerous hauntings. Sounds a little hokey, and I know they aren't to everyone's taste, but they are quite well written.
  

• An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear - this is the most recent of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series. Set during and after WW I, featuring a perceptive, courageous, and damaged heroine/detective. All the books in this series are amazingly good.

• Time Stops for No Mouse by Michael Hoeye - a YA novel, quite clever with its satire of society and with its little adventure. A shy watchmaker mouse falls in love and sets out to rescue the she-mouse he adores. There are others in the series, but I have yet to get a hold of them at my library.

• Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah - Another YA novel, about a Australian-Muslim teenager and her decision to start wearing the hijab. The book focuses on what it means to her, why she chooses it, and how it does and doesn't change her life.