september: 33 & 34

september's reading!

so far gone, by jess walter (i really liked this book, the second i've read by this author.  it's got cool character development where the first part focuses on one character, we get introduced a few others and one of them becomes the focus of the second part, etc.  the story is continuous but we see it play out through different character's perspectives.  it feels au courant, with the 2016 election the backdrop for a falling out of characters that propels the plot, but it's not so mired in that as to be depressing.  i'd definitely recommend this one!)

all the way to the river, by elizabeth gilbert (i read this because a friend invited me to see her speak in pittsburgh; having read it, this is one of those books that i'm not sure who to recommend it to.  the author falls in love with her best friend who is dying of cancer.  the book is about the friend/lover's decline and death.  but it's also a really interesting take on friendship and addiction and it's beautifully written...but the whole time i thought, there's no way this book would have gotten published had the author not already been super famous.  but i read it quickly and was definitely interested...this one needs the right audience, for sure.)

august: 30, 31, & 32

now we move to august's reading!

calypso, by david sedaris (this was a re-read, but i love david sedaris's books so much that i could probably re-read all of them and be joyful.  they're amazing both as audiobooks and traditional reads!)

in the heart of the sea, by nathaniel philbrick (i tore through this audiobook about the whaleship essex's sinking at the hands (fins?) of a whale in 1820.  an incredibly well told story, great narrative nonfiction - i learned a lot and had a lot to report out to arron along the way.  highly recommend!)

a court of mist and fury, by sarah j. maas (this is the second book in the series of five...but the last one that i will be reading.  i liked but didn't love this series and the books are long and my reading list is also long and i don't think i'll derive enough joy out of continuing to read them.  glad i got a glimpse into the world of romantasy, but this book was just okay for me. hot take!)

july: 26, 27, 28 & 29

oh boy - terribly behind on logging my reading!  here we go to catch back up...in july i read:

wild dark shore, by charlotte mcconaghy (loved this book - this is the third book by this author that i've read, and while all are stand alone books with separate characters and plots and settings, they have this in common: an admiration of the natural world and a strong female protagonist.  and they're gorgeously written!  if you don't know this author you should.)

supercommunicators, by charles duhigg (i read this as a little professional development over the summer.  i folded some pages back and made some notes but ultimately this was not life changing.)

brave new worlds, by salman khan (another professional development read - this was pretty interesting in terms of talking about AI and education and so i'm glad i read it...but it was also an unabashed advertisement for khan academy and sal khan's other ventures and that got pretty distasteful by the end.  i don't think this is a necessary read in book form - these ideas are ones you can grab onto from shorter articles.)

the names, by florence knapp (i liked this book - three parallel stories of the same woman taking the same baby to record his name - and picking three different names.  does she pick the name her husband wants, she wants, or her older daughter wants?  we see her make different choices from here and the life of the new baby change based on what name he's given.  i liked the premise a lot and was eager to see how the storylines would play out.  this would be a great read to take on a vacation with you!)

june: 22, 23, 24 & 25

a tale for the time being, by ruth ozeki (this was a great premise - a diary washes ashore on the west coast of canada, written by a teenager in japan.  we go back and forth between the life of the woman who finds it and the diary entries as we try to unravel the mystery of who the author is and how the diary got across the ocean.  there's some dark undertones that emerge - suicide, bullying, sex work - and ultimately i was glad the book was over.  it's well written and was interesting to read, but it isn't one that i will be rushing out to recommend.)

the long winter, by laura ingalls wilder (book 6 in the little house series, taking us through a real winter in dakota territory when it started blizzarding in october and didn't end until april.  i was startled as an adult to realize how close the ingalls family came to starving to death, and i don't actually remember reading this one as a child.  this was a quick read, and i'm glad to be continuing through this series.  3 more books to go!)

my friends, by fredrik backman (oh, this one disappointed me.  i loved a man called ove and a few others and was eagerly anticipating this book's release.  while a lot of what i like about backman was still there, this book was sadder than the others and there is a lot of foreshadowing of bad things to come later in the book.  I DO NOT NEED THIS ANXIETY IN MY LIFE.  it didn't make me want to keep reading.  so yes, i liked the characters and i was moved by the story, but it felt emotionally manipulative and i wasn't in the mood for that right now.)

travels with charley in search of america, by john steinbeck (this had been on my to be read list for a long time and i understood (correctly) the premise that Steinbeck drives around the country in a truck with his dog and documents it.  but whomever told me that this was the premise really undersold it.  it's September 1960.  Steinbeck is 58 and he's going to die at 66 (thanks, wikipedia).  the JFK-eisenhower election is upon us, and by the time Steinbeck finishes with the trip JFK will have won.  so yes, he does travel around the country and tell us about the people he meets and the places he sees, but it's so much deeper than that.  he talks with people about the election and muses on his own beliefs about which is the better candidate.  the threat of the atomic bomb is present in many chapters - it's clear he's ruminating on that.  He goes to new orleans where ruby bridges is desegregating an elementary school and he watches her walk into school one day while people spew hate at her.  he muses on masculinity.  he muses on the soul of his dog.  it's really beautifully written and there is SO MUCH TO UNPACK.  i loved it and would highly recommend it to you.)

may: 20 & 21

the ministry of time, by kaliane bradley (i enjoyed this sci-fi-ish romance-ish book about time travelers and their "bridges" to the modern world.  it helped that i had a little obsession a few years ago with the HMS erebus and the terror expeditions to find the northwest passage in 1845 - this plays a role in the plot.  i felt like this book was doing something different with its plot and the author had the chops to fill out the whole story line.  i enjoyed this!)

margo's got money troubles, by rufi thorpe (i read this over memorial day weekend while we were camping - i don't think i ever would have picked it up on my own (the plot revolves around a single mother getting on only fans to make money while building a relationship with her former-WWE-wrestler father) but a friend gave it to me and spoke highly of it.  i really enjoyed this and sped through it!  a well written beach read - the best kind.)

april: 17, 18 & 19

in april i read:

the life cycle of the common octopus, by emma knight (this was a read with jenna book recommendation and i've already almost forgotten what this book was about.  spoiler alert: it's not about octopi.  not rushing out to recommend this one to you, though i didn't dislike it.)

the heaven & earth grocery store, by james mcbride (i read this because we were considering it as a summer reading choice for the students at our school, and i liked it much more than i expected to - deacon king kong is the only other book by this author that i've read and i didn't love it.  this one was really compelling, the interwoven stories of a jewish community and a black community outside of philadelphia in the 1920s and 30s.  we did put it on the summer reading list, and i'm also going to lead a faculty book club on it now!  definitely recommend this one.)

the frozen river, by ariel lawhon (this was a book of the month club pick that i really enjoyed - historical fiction based on the real life story of a midwife (martha ballard) in maine in the 1700s.  i wrote a paper on birthing practices in an american history class in college and knew a lot about martha ballard already - she's a big deal because she wrote daily in a diary that survived her.  loved this fictionalized retelling of parts of her life, revolving around a murder.  would recommend this one!)

march: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16

i read 8 books in january and february combined and another 8 books in march alone.  2 were short and 3 were audiobooks...and i had spring break in there, as well...but it was a productive month of reading for me!  in march i read:

by the shores of silver lake, by laura ingalls wilder (continuing the series - this is the fifth book and i actually don't have a lot of memories of reading this one as a child.  i assume i did, but it seems like one that i didn't re-read often.)

h is for hope, by elizabeth kolbert (this was a short book with one essay per letter of the alphabet, all on climate change.  beautifully illustrated and easily digestible, i'm glad i read this one.)

revenge of the tipping point, by malcolm gladwell (i continue to love gladwell's writing and i listened to this audiobook.  he revisits the tipping point 25 years after it was published, but what comes out if it is an entirely new book.  i really enjoyed this and would recommend it!)

lonesome dove, by larry mcmurtry (making my nerd dreams come true, arron and i read this book at the same time from early january through mid-march, 100 pages per week and had book club each weekend to talk about what we read.  arron put up with me googling book club questions when we were all done and we went through those, too.  i loved this book, and i loved reading and discussing it with him.  this summer we plan to do the same with travels with charley and we have designs on war and peace next winter. <3)

prairie fires: the american dreams of laura ingalls wilder, by caroline fraser (cannot say enough good things about this book.  an incredible biography or laura, her family, her daughter, and america as they lived in it - and as it changed throughout their lives.  one of the best researched but most readable books i've ever read.  listened to it on audiobook and loved this as a companion to re-reading the little house books.  highly recommend!)

everything we never had, by randy ribay (this was a decent but not exceptional YA book.  i appreciated that it introduced me to the filipino-american experience in much greater detail than i understood previously!)

james, by percival everett (this book was getting so much attention - and now has won the pulitzer prize - that i had to read it...and i had to refresh my memory of huck finn on wikipedia first, as you're meant to have an understanding of that book before reading james.  i think this book is beautifully written, has a great concept, and gives a dignity and humanity to the main character that is necessary - and i sort of can't believe hasn't been done already.  i liked but didn't love this book, but am definitely glad i read it and i've passed on my copy to a friend.)

the indifferent stars above, by daniel james brown (i listened to this one and was fascinated by the story behind the donner party expedition.  highly recommend for people interested in american history, though parts of it are really gruesome to read/listen to.  i love this author and was really moved by this story - i talked about it to anyone who would listen for a few weeks there.)

february: 6, 7 & 8

one of our kind, by nicola yoon (i had read this author's YA fiction before and really enjoyed it - this is her first adult fiction and it was creepy and interesting.  the main character is a black woman who moves into an all-black country club community with her husband and child.  and then weird stuff happens.  i would recommend it!  but her YA stuff is the tip top so you should read that first.)

all-american boys, by jason reynolds and brendan kiely (i read this as we were contemplating whether to give it as a summer reading option at school - spoiler alert, we decided not to - and i don't think i would have picked it up otherwise.  two YA authors, one black and one white, write two teenage boy characters in this novel, one black and one white.  the plot centers around police violence from a white police officer towards the black teen.  it was a pretty heavy topic and revisited the same scenes multiple times as the characters reckon with it.  i'm glad this book exists, but i'm not rushing out to recommend it.)

the wide wide sea, by hampton sides (i listened to this audiobook that the nytimes called one of the 10 best books of the year, and i was so glad that i did.  it follows captain james cook's third (and final) voyage around the world as he attempts to find the northwest passage from west to east.  this is impeccably researched narrative nonfiction at its best and i loved it.  highly recommend!)

january: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

the mighty red, by louise erdrich (this is the first louise erdrich book that i've read and it definitely made me want to read more of her books.  compelling story but with a lot of characters and i finished kind of feeling like i didn't know any of them well.  this won't be a favorite book of the year, but was a good start.)

definitely better now, by ava robinson (this was a book of the month club pick that i really enjoyed - the story of a one-year-sober woman's first relationship post-sobriety, as well as the story of her relationship with her estranged father.  very readable but hard to know who to recommend this to - don't read if you've had a parent with a serious illness.  it surprised me by making me cry at the end.  was glad i read it!)

hidden potential, by adam grant (i listened to this one and really enjoyed it, as i did grant's previous book think again.  my favorite pop sociologist right now.  is that such a thing - to be a pop sociologist?)

entitlement, by rumaan alam (i eagerly awaited this book from the library, as i loved his previous book, leave the world behind...but this one didn't hit me in quite the same way.  i'd still recommend the previous book, if you haven't read it.  this one did hit some interesting themes of race and, per the title, entitlement and i did enjoy reading it but i won't be rushing out to recommend this to anyone.)

eve, by cat bohannon (i listened to this book and loved it, the story of how different parts of human women's biology evolved.  from breast milk (was first sweated through pores and licked by early rat-like mammals) to the use of tools by female mammals in history to menopause (humans and whales are the only species to experience this), i found it super interesting and the author was able to condense a ton of research into a really readable book.  would highly recommend this for all women and all non-women interested in biology!)

2024 in books

this year i read 46 books, 7 more than last year.  13 of those books meet some sort of diversity standard (as in, the main character or author is not white).  and 36 (wow - all but 10!) of those books were from the library. 

my favorite books of 2024:

tom lake, by ann patchett 

the best minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions, by jonathan rosen

rough sleepers, by tracy kidder 

shark heart, by emily habeck

the god of the woods, by liz moore

gather, by kenneth m. cadow

brooklyn and long island, by colm toibin

december: 44, 45 & 46

i finished up the year with:

help wanted, by adelle waldman (ultimately, i didn't love this book, the story of an overnight crew at a target-like store and social dynamics between them.  i found it not terribly uplifting and the drama between the characters wasn't fun, it was sort of like being at my own job and navigating group dynamics.  i'd pass on this one, though it does have a very fun cover.)

anita de monte laughs last, by xochitl gonzalez (i started this book of the month book in the spring and kept putting it down, but i'd think about it occasionally and when i picked it back up to finish it in december it was easy to continue right where i left off.  i ended up really liking this book, even though i got stuck halfway through.  it's the story of two famous artists who are married and one dies by falling out a window...and then it flashed forward 20 years to an art history major who is rediscovering the female artist.  i found the main character very relatable and well-crafted - she came alive on the page.  there was definitely enough here to keep me interested, and i'd recommend this one!)

long island, by colm toibin (i loved this, the second book in the series.  just as much tension as the first book, and the author strings you out over a believable story that is super intriguing and keeps you wanting to find out how it will play out.  i highly recommend this, but read brooklyn first!)