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.

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!

Book Review: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this.

Annie and Buster, or Child A and Child B, as they were referred to in their parents' performance art projects, grew up and moved away from home. They were tired of being a part of the performances that caused chaos and disruption as a form of art. But then, after their lives fall apart, thanks to some very bad decisions involving topless photos, a magazine reporter, beer and a potato gun, they both move back home, hoping to find at last a normal sense of family, but fearing the worst. When the worst does happen, Annie and Buster struggle to discover what is real and what is art, how they should react, and what it will take to find a normal life when they finally figure it all out.

Annie and Buster are engaging, messed-up characters who know exactly why they are messed up and are doing the best they can with what they have. I wanted them to find their way to happiness, even as I wanted to see how low they could go. Wilson writes with sly humor and a sensitivity toward his characters, as he takes a set of familiar themes - growing up, leaving home, figuring out where you fit with your parents - and blows them out of all proportion, then brings them back to earth.

View all my reviews

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.

Stuff I Like: Web comics

Yup, web comics. Growing up, I read the comics (or the funnies, as my dad always calls them) every day, from two separate papers, and comic books. My dad collected comic books for a long time, and got them in trade for doing computer work at a comic book store. Some times I got to pick out my own. I will admit that they were not usually of high quality - Muppet Babies, Popples, probably something Disney - but they were fun. My dad also had books that were collections of comics and even some Disney movies (as a matter of fact, I remember reading the comic of Cinderella with my dad far more fondly than I do the movie itself - no singing, more funny mice!). As an adult, I have had no problem with the idea of graphic novels, and a good number of the 140+ books I will have read this year have been graphic novels, or collections of comics (there is actually a difference, but for my purposes today, all that matters is that both comics and graphic novels use pictures to help tell the stories).

So it really should be no surprise that I read a lot of web comics. Of the set of bookmarks that I go through on a regular basis (I use Google bookmarks to keep them all sorted and in categories and Google reader for the ones I read through RSS), and at least 45 of those are web comics. Yes, 45. Not all of them update every day, but still, that strikes me as a large number. Anyway, the artwork, tone, humor, and subjects are all over the map. Some lean towards the science fiction side of the genre spectrum, while others are steampunk, or steampunk fantasy, or biographical. A few are pretty close to syndicated newspaper cartoons (there are a couple of those too - I just don't read them in the paper any more).

The neat thing about the web is that it is really easy to find new stuff to read, and to sit down and read the entire archives - some going back 10 years. Also, the art can be anything the author/artist wants. Black and white? OK. Color? Cool. Computer rendered (or some other form of animation - I have no idea how they do it, really). Nifty. Like stories about (snarky) talking animals? That's easy to do. 20 somethings trying to figure out life in NYC or Amherst? A kid billionaire, his grandfather and a talking duck? Gotcha covered. Librarians and computer programmers? Totally there for you. Mash-up of funny dialogue and old-time woodcut pictures? Yup.

So, go out and find a web comic. If you want suggestions, I can give you more. Those links are only 20 of the 45, so I am sure I can find something you like!

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.

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.

Book Report: The Reading Promise

Since I promised to write every day this month, it seems appropriate to start the month off with a book about a promise: The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma. You may have heard of this book when it came out earlier this year - Alice and her father started reading together when she was in elementary school, and continued, every day, until she left for college. This book is about The Streak, as they called it, but it is also about the importance of reading and books and family.

Overall, I give the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5. I love the topic and the idea of a reading streak. Both my parents read to me while I was growing up, but not every single night for years, and at some point, I started reading aloud to my mother while she was driving me to and from my music lessons and orchestra rehearsals and on road trips. Then I started reading to Benjamin while we were dating, and we still read together. So, obviously I approve. I enjoyed the way Alice Ozma (yes, both names from books, yes, bother actually her names - the middle ones. And she said she liked them together, so I will go ahead and refer to her that way) used the days of The Streak as markers for important events in her life. But...I sort of wished she said more about the books themselves, about what they were reading, about how she felt about those books. She admits that they didn't even really keep track of everything that they read (augh! How could you not do that?!) That isn't what this book is, but that is sort of what I hoped for from the subtitle. More my problem than the books though.

One problem I had, apart from that, was the dialog. I simply couldn't find it believable at times that a child would speak the way Alice Ozma records herself as speaking, and I can't believe that she remembered conversations that clearly. I know that recreating conversations is not unusual in memoirs, so my problem isn't with that, exactly; it is more that the 10 year old Alice Ozma at the beginning of the book sounds an awful lot like the 20 year old Alice Ozma at the end of the book, or like dialog written by an adult who doesn't know any children. Yes, she read a lot and had a big vocabulary. So did I, and I certainly don't think I ever sounded like that. It is just a bit too precocious and precious.

Overall though, I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read, and it is a great testament to reading aloud together. I think teachers, librarians, and parents would enjoy it. If you are interested in more information about the book or Alice Ozma and the Reading Promise that is in the back of the book, you can visit her website: Make a Reading Promise.

Now That Harry is Done, Read Something Else

OK people - I like Harry Potter, as I think I demonstrated yesterday, but I am getting a little tired of all the stories on the radio and interwebs about how this is the end of childhood, the end of an era, oh noes whatever will we do?! The books aren't going to suddenly disappear from the earth, neither are the movies (I mean, it isn't like they are the instructions for how to get to the moon, which NASA got rid of at some point - true story, heard it from a college astronomy professor who had worked for NASA). Ypu can go back and re-read and re-watch them. Use them as your madeleine to remember childhood, instead of mourning its passing. And move on, find something else to read and love. Need some help in that department? Good thing I am a voracious, omnivorous bibliovore, and a librarian to boot. I have suggestions aplenty.

• The Abhorson Trilogy (maybe one day to be more) by Garth Nix: It has magic (more clearly thought out and explained than the magic of HP), a couple of great female protagonists - both of whom have to grow into their roles as saviors much like HP, a talking magic cat (who is way more than he seems) and a talking magic dog (also way more than she seems), conflicts between good and evil with several very nasty big bads, and the juxtaposition of a a world where magic exists and one where it does not. One of my all-time favorite series. 
• The Keys to the Kingdom series, also by Garth Nix: Written for a somewhat younger audience than the Abhorson Trilogy - Arthur in this series is 12, while Sabriel is 17 or 18 when Sabriel starts - the Keys to the Kingdom involve a sort of neo-Victorian alternate realm where certain kinds of magic work, but where things are falling apart and the decay is starting to affect Earth, or the Secondary Realm as it is called, and only Arthur can put things right. The problem? The more he manages to fix, the less human he will become.
• The Pellinore Series by Alison Croggon: Magic is done by Bards who use their gifts to help the people and lands, but Bards are being attacked by the Nameless One. The main protagonist, Maerad, a slave at the beginning of the first book, is rescue by Cadvan, learns she is a Bard and finds that she must solve the riddle of the Tree-Song in order to save the world. Hilarity ensues (well, tribulations and adventures anyway). Another series with a well-thought out magic system, a complete backstory and  history, and an invented language. In some ways, a female version of the Lord of the Rings, but if you don't like Tolkein, don't let that keep you from this series.
• The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson: I have only read the first book in this series so far, but it was excellent. Benjamin has read everything by Sanderson (apart from the Wheel of Time books that he is finishing as Robert Jordan's appointed successor) and says that the rest of this series is awesome, especially if you like kick-ass women protagonists with magic powers. 

Had enough? Need more ideas? Sign up for Goodreads and take a look at my various bookshelves. I have 179 books on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy shelf alone that you might enjoy. I haven't even mentioned any of the steampunk series I love by Gail Carriger and Cherie Priest (her Southern Gothic series is pretty darn good too, as is her Cheshire Red Reports), or Shanna Swendson's Enchanted Inc series.

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.

The Problem with Reading...

Is that I often have to stop doing it to go on with normal life. Today, for example, I have been stuck near the end of two separate books all day, but I am also stuck at work, so I can't really finish them with the single-minded determination I would if I were home. And one of those two is on my iPod, the battery of which died right after I got to work, so I can't even listen to the book on my way home.  Once I get home, I will have to play with Miikka and make dinner with Benjamin, and do domestic things. I might be able to finish the book before I go to bed, but since I have to get up at 5 tomorrow to go to the gym, I can't stay up too late. Why won't the world just let me read?!

In the meantime, my head is too full of the two books to focus properly. So, sorry if I mess up the answer to your reference question...

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.