july: 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20

the song of achilles, by madeline miller (this author is so good at what she does in these books - retell myths from a different perspective - and i don't know a ton about greek mythology so i learned a lot in this book and found it really compelling.  i liked circe slightly bettter, but would recommend this!)

the girl who fell from the sky, by heidi w. durrow (i had bought this on sale a long time ago and finally read it, and i'm glad i did.  the main character survives a fall off a roof that kills her siblings and (white) mother; her (black) father is MIA, but she goes to live with her father's mother in a totally different community in a different part of the country.  i was intrigued by this book and liked the view into different cultures and geographies, but ultimately wasn't rushing home to read this book.  good but not super remarkable.)

the nickel boys, by colson whitehead (beautiful and devastating story - what an amazing writer.  learned a lot about this aspect of US history - 20th century reform schools that perpetuated racism and covered up the deaths of teenagers.  would definitely recommend this one!)

where'd you go, bernadette, by maria semple (my book club read this a few years ago and i passed on reading it that month, but kept it on my list.  when embarking on a road trip in july i got the audiobook on CD (ha) from the library and thought this was a great chance to read it.  and...i...hated? is that too strong a word?...this book.  i thought all the characters were horrible.  i couldn't tell if parts of it were satire, but i ended up deciding that they weren't satire-y enough to save the book.  the audiobook narrator annoyed the shit out of me.  i don't know - how was this book so popular?!?!  save yourself and read something else.)

no one is talking about this, by patricia lockwood (david sedaris recommended this book to the audience when i saw him live in pittsburgh this spring.  it is fiction and the first half is sort of a commentary on social media in a way that interested me but was also kind of hard to follow or get into...and then in the second half evolves out of that and takes a real turn (involving the main character's sister and a complication with her pregnancy) and the second half was incredible and it sneakily was so startlingly moving.  i wept through not just the last page, but literally the last 20 minutes of the book.  wet pillowcase, three kleenex used and thrown on the floor beside my bed, woke up the next morning with a headache.  this book is incredible AND i am not sure it is for everyone.  but wow.  i see why the NYTimes put this on their list of best books of the year.)

june: 14 & 15

two more good reads:

priestdaddy, by patricia lockwood (i found this on a list of the best memoirs of the last 20 years and was intrigued by the idea of a married man (lockwood's father) becoming a catholic priest.  this memoir is about that and not about that, and i liked her writing style a lot - it's what makes the story so intriguing and the memoir so enjoyable to read.  if you're into memoirs (like i am) or if this topic interests you, i'd definitely recommend this, but if memoirs aren't your favorite genre, this is one you can skip.)

happy-go-lucky, by david sedaris (i was lucky to see david sedaris in person in pittsburgh this spring and was eager to pick up his next book (this one) and was able to get it from the library as an audiobook.  about half the stories on the audiobook are live recordings and i liked getting the audience reaction.  this book, like all is books, was a great read!  he's so good at telling a story.)

may: 11, 12 & 13

in may i read three FANTASTIC books and now i am so spoiled because any book i read has to live up to this precedent.  after parable of the sower i seriously started and then immediately stopped three books in a row that couldn't live up to the fantastic writing of the three previous books.

pachinko, by min jin lee (i had owned this for a while and been afraid (here is my bias showing!) that a book with korea characters would have names that were hard to keep straight and i would get confused.  couldn't have been further from the truth.  i learned a TON about the experience of koreans living under japanese occupation leading up to world war two, something i knew nothing about, and was so moved by the characters that lee created and how eloquently she wrote their stories.  if you like a sweeping, multi-generational story, you MUST put this on your list!)

cloud cuckoo land, by anthony doerr (brilliant.  i loved his previous book all the light you cannot see, and was eager to pick this up.  the first third was hard for me - it's five narrators in three VERY different story lines, and i knew they had to come together but wasn't sure how it would happen.  the way it does is brilliant, and i was totally enraptured by the story lines.  highly recommend!)

parable of the sower, by octavia e. butler (this is a slower burn than the previous two, but i was super interested in this post-apocalyptic story that is science fiction-y...or is it fantasy...or is it afrofuturism...or is it all of these things.  it's a book that is unsettling because the world she creates is scary, and at the same time is a future that i could see coming to be.  i recommend this, but not as strongly as the previous two reads.)

april: 10

only read one book in april:

last night at the telegraph club, by malinda lo (our school librarian (who is awesome) got this author to speak with our students via zoom and she bought copies for teachers who were interested.  this is fiction, but based on the experiences of lesbians and chinese-americans in san francisco in the 1950s.  it's YA, but if you are into YA i would highly recommend it!  it's got some sexy parts, so probably not for the youngest YA crowd.)

march: 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9

as always, some incredibly belated book recaps!  in march i read:

the fifth season, by n.k. jemisin (i really liked this one, which is out of my normal comfort zone in reading - science fiction/fantasy - but i was really drawn in by the different female characters and story lines and would recommend it, definitely!)

think again, by adam grant (i read this book because it was featured at a conference i went to (virtually) in february and the author spoke (again, virtually).  i'm glad to have had that push to read it, because it was fantastic - about the wrong assumptions we carry, rethinking, overconfidence and what to do about it, and motivational interviewing.  would definitely recommend!)

the house in the cerulean sea, by t.j. klune (this was fine but didn't change my world...not rushing out to read anything else by this author, but i recommended it to my mom and she enjoyed it!)

invisible child, by andrea elliott (i was really moved by this book, the nonfiction story of a homeless family in new york city, relentlessly researched and detailed and told over several years.  this seems to me a hugely important book for us as a society, and i would HIGHLY recommend it.  some of the best narrative nonfiction i've read!  though, in fact, i listened to the audiobook...)

the unsinkable greta james, by jennifer e. smith (enjoyable, easy to read book from book of the month club that i was eager to read and have recommended to others!)

february: 2, 3 & 4

razorblade tears, by s.a. cosby (this was a book of the month club pick, and one that i enjoyed - a thriller/mystery of two men trying to solve their sons' murders.  it was just different enough from the typical book in this genre to hold my attention and though it won't be my favorite book this year, i did enjoy it!)

two rainbow rowell short stories on kindle: the prince and the troll, and if the fates allow (i love rainbow rowell and she's put out a few short stories on kindle that i've gotten for cheap/free.  these are both very sweet and quick reads.  now i need a new novel from her, stat!)

a carnival of snackery, by david sedaris (i listened to this on audiobook and am so excited to be seeing him when he comes to pittsburgh in a few weeks!  this is the second book full of his journal entries, which entertained me.  he's a much better journal-er than i am!  not as polished as his books, but a great read if you're a fan already.)

january: 1

really?  i only read one book in january?  lord.  i mean, sounds right if i'm being honest...

the last thing he told me, by laura dave (this was my book club pick, and while we haven't gotten together to discuss it - and perhaps my mind will be changed! - for now this is a great beach read and that's about it.  would recommend if you are going on vacation and want something light and quick; didn't change my life.)

2021 in books

this year i read 40 books (a lot, certainly, but fewer than in recent years!).  10 of those books meet some sort of diversity standard (as in, the main character or author is not white).  i also set a goal this year to read some unread books that have been sitting on my bookshelf, and hoped to read one a month; i fell a little short with a total of 9.  still need to chip away at my bookshelves of unread books this year!

my favorite books of 2021:

hamnet, by maggie o'farrell  

hidden valley road, by robert kolker

smoketown, by mark whitaker

the book of longings, by sue monk kidd

migrations, by charlotte mcconaghy

shuggie bain, by douglas stuart

december: 38, 39 & 40

to finish out 2021, i read:

shuggie bain, by douglas stuart (loved this book and am going to hear the author talk (virtually) in a few weeks, which is how it got added to my list.  beautiful writing, heartbreaking, funny, sad - the semi-autobiographical story of a boy's relationship with his alcoholic mother in 1980s glasgow.  would highly recommend, but know that it's not an uplifting book!)

ariadne, by jennifer saint (this was fine, but not as good as circe, even though i was hoping it would be.  it's the greek myth of the minotaur, told from his sister's point of view - and goes far beyond his death.  i was intrigued and found it an accessible way to get into greek mythology, but i wasn't running home to read it.  a fine but not exceptional book.)

somebody's daughter, by ashley c. ford (i loved this memoir, which i read over three days around new year's eve.  i love getting to read in big chunks like that, during the day, between meals and games and hot tub time and hikes - it helps me really get into a story in a much different way than just reading for 10 or 15 minutes each night before bed.  this book is a page turner, the story of the author's relationship with her mother and her imprisoned father.  highly recommend!)

november: 37

only read one book in november, but it was a long one (does that redeem me somewhat?):

the lincoln highway, by amor towles (i really enjoyed this book, by the author of a gentleman in moscow.  the story of some boys on an adventure on the lincoln highway...if you read it, i really want to talk about the ending with someone, and i've passed it on to my mom, so perhaps she will be that person.  this won't be my favorite book of the year, but it was an enjoyable read.)

october: 35 & 36

my reading slowed down at the end of the year.  in october i read:

a darker shade of magic, by v.e. schwab (this was my suggestion for the book club i'm in, and it kind of disappointed.  it was 450-ish pages long, but if the story had been told in 250 pages, i think i would have liked it a lot more.  it just...it dragged for me.  and i don't really love magic, so not sure why i thought i would love this book?  anyway.  this book definitely has a following, and if magic is your thing, go for it.  i won't be reading any more from the author.)

migrations, by charlotte mcconaghy (from my bookshelf - this is one that mom bought me for christmas last year, and i finally read it and LOVED it.  the story of a woman in a future year where many animals have gone extinct, and she is following the last batch of arctic terns on their migration from greenland to antarctica.  there is biology and such, but it's mostly the story of the people she encounters and her own reckoning with her past.  beautifully written, i highly recommend it.)

september: 31, 32, 33 & 34

catching up on posting about my reading this fall!  september's books were:

caste: the origin of our discontents, by isabel wilkerson (i listened to the audiobook of this one, which was fantastic - this author is a beautiful writer and her research is fascinating and important.  put this on your list!)

the book of longings, by sue monk kidd (i kind of can't stop talking about this book, the author's imagining of the life of jesus, told from the perspective of his wife.  i found so appealing her vision of jesus without the miracles but with the incredible moral code that draws me to some of the things he taught.  highly recommend this one.)

the bomber mafia, by malcolm gladwell (another audiobook - five or six hours long, so totally manageable, and with excellent audio clips from the 1940s in it.  if you like gladwell, this will not disappoint.  i recommend listening to it.)

a fire in the night, by christopher swann (the third book by a former coworker of mine from atlanta. it's not as good as his first book, but i loved that it was set in the mountains of north carolina, and i did find the plot compelling.  don't rush out and buy this, but if you happen upon it it's worth a read.)

august: 28, 29 & 30

behold the dreamers, by imbolo mbue (this had been on my list for a long time and then my book club picked it; i really enjoyed this book for a look into a world different from my own.  this is the fictional story of a cameroonian family who are in the US illegally - what their lives are like, what the next generation's lives are like, and what the husband and wife's perspectives are about what they should do when the husband's immigration status becomes public.  it's beautifully written, the story line is well constructed, and the look at privileged white america through the main characters' eyes is fascinating.  definitely recommend!)

spying on the south, by tony horwitz (from my bookshelf, but i ended up listening to the audiobook.  this nonfiction book is the author's tale of following the path of frederick law olmsted through the south when he traveled and wrote about it for the new york times in the 1950s.  the author does it in 2016 - down the ohio and the mississippi, then through louisiana and texas, all as the 2016 primaries are in full force.  i really enjoy a travelogue (not as much as a memoir, but close!) and i would highly recommend this, particularly to anyone who lives in the areas he travels through.)

real life, by brandon taylor (from my bookshelf.  my friend nora lent this to me, and after i read it i texted her "okay, i read real life and...i don't know what to think.  the violent sex and how shitty miller treated wallace got to me.  he is never going to be your boyfriend!  you are only going to be hurt by letting him in!  it was like watching a depressed friend get walked all over.  ugh!  but man did i have a reaction to it, so that's something, right?"  nora wholeheartedly agreed with my hot take ("THIS IS MY REACTION TOO") so...this book was not for me, but it might be for you?)

july: 25, 26 & 27

this must be the place, by maggie o'farrell (i thoroughly enjoyed this book, as i did hamnet which i read a few months ago.  highly recommend her as an author with funny and gorgeous writing who weaves together multiple story lines with ease!)

we are the brennans, by tracey lange (you can go ahead and skip this one, a book of the month club selection that was fine but not life changing.  i'll amend that: if you need a book to read on an airplane, in a waiting room, or on a beach, this is a perfectly great pick, but i was not moved or inspired or changed by it.)

the gifts of imperfection, by brene brown (love me some brene brown, and i read this while listening to a six part podcast on it that she did with her sisters.  highly recommend you read a brene brown book (or consume her greatness in some way) if you haven't already!)

june: 21, 22, 23 & 24

in june i read:

how lucky, by will leitch (this was a book of the month club pick and i really liked it - the story of a disabled man who witnesses a crime and then works to solve it.  sweet, great plot, great voice for the narrator, loved the character development, and really appreciated learning more about this particular kind of disability.  i'd highly recommend it!)

the one, by john marrs (you can go right ahead and skip this one or read it only if you are literally on a beach in the sun.  it's fine and i definitely finished it and all, but not super memorable - the premise is a world where the "love" gene has been found in our DNA and people can take a DNA test to find the other person in the world who is their perfect match.)

broken horses, by brandi carlile (i listened to this audiobook of my favorite artist and it was really interesting and better written than i had feared it might be.  the audiobook version includes a ton of recordings of brandi singing songs after explaining the story of how they were written.  listen to the audiobook!  read by the author!  if you're a fan, definitely read this.)

the last policeman, by ben h. winters (another book you can go ahead and skip though i didn't totally dislike it...the story of a policeman trying to solve a homicide as the earth gets closer to the date much of humanity will be destroyed by an asteroid.  didn't hate it, didn't love it.  premise is almost better than the book...is that too harsh?)

may: 20

it's been a while*, but i think i only read one book in may:

detransition, baby, by torrey peters (from my bookshelf - my friend nora sent me this one, and i loved it.  a fictional story of a trans woman who detransitions back to living as a man.  he gets a cis woman pregnant, and then has to confront fatherhood.  i wouldn't recommend this to a teenage reader (there is some pretty explicit sex-y stuff), but i'd highly recommend this to others - it was a situation that happens but that i hadn't conceived of, and the complexities of it were super interesting and nuanced.  the story is so well written, too, and the author is trans herself.)

*both since may ended and since i only read one book in a month

april: 17, 18 & 19

catching up on my posting!  in april i read: 

gods of howl mountain, by taylor brown (from my bookshelf - i liked the setting (mountains of north carolina during prohibition - we follow a bootlegger), but this didn't blow my mind nor have i thought about it a lot since i read it.  i liked it but didn't love it!)

smoketown, by mark whitaker (ooh, i loved this one, a story of black pittsburgh in the first half or two-thirds of the 20th century - the pittsburgh courier newspaper, sports, music, how black pittsburghers lived in the city.  i have been talking about and recommending this a lot since i finished it, and if you have any interest in the subject area, i would HIGHLY recommend it.  i listened to the audiobook, which was well-narrated.)

dear edward, by ann napolitano (this was fine.  it had gotten a fair amount of hype when it came out but it didn't blow my mind.  a decent beach read, i'd imagine, but nothing special!)

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

somehow i read a ton in march (spring break helped, i guess!), including two books from my bookshelf.  the challenge to read some books i already own has been helpful to guide me.  as i write this, most of my books have been moved to the new house, so i'll probably be relying on my kindle as we transition into our new space.

in march i read:

the mother of all questions, by rebecca solnit (from my bookshelf - this is a collection of feminist essays it was good but not great.  i liked her first collection, men explain things to me, to be better - or maybe i'd just gotten her point from the first book and didn't need this one?)

outlawed, by anna north (this was a book of the month club pick and it was pretty good - i won't be shouting its name from the hilltops, but it was an entertaining story of barren women becoming outlaws, and maybe we're supposed to think the sundance kid (of butch cassidy fame) could have been a woman and a lesbian?  colorful characters, beautifully described scenes, entertaining plot.  i give this one a B+.)

all things bright and beautiful, by james herriot (this is a book i've been reading in little snippets for a while and finally finished.  i love reading these books as an adult and seeing the interpersonal relationships more than the stories of animals.  i'm excited to watch the PBS series, which i haven't tried yet.  i will definitely continue reading these books, and i got the third one out of a free little library in my neighborhood.)

klara and the sun, by kazuo ishiguro (i really enjoy ishiguro's writing and this one didn't disappoint.  highly recommend!  intriguing, ethical questions, bizarro universe.  enough said.)

notes on "camp," by susan sontag (from my bookshelf - this is a tiny book that just contained two essays, but i loved reading sontag describe what "camp" is (as in, that movie was so campy) and thinking about pop culture, what's in style and what's not and what becomes in style because it purposefully rebelled against past styles.  this is not necessarily my genre or wheelhouse, but i really liked this.  definitely worth reading.)

a ladder to the sky, by john boyne (thank god john boyne redeemed himself from that last book of his that i read.  this is wonderful, the story of one man told mostly through the lives of those he affected (spoiler alert: negatively) over the course of his life.  really great writing, really interesting story, and it all comes together at the end in a satisfying way.  recommend!)

the midnight library, by matt haig (oh boy, did this one disappoint.  i guess when a book is super popular sometimes that's because it's not really very high brow?  this one felt like a beach read to me, and it seemed like a total rip off of a lot of elements of it's a wonderful life and i was annoyed by that.  i guess i don't recommend this?  i mean, i don't.  i suggested it for my book club and we haven't discussed it yet, so i will have to see if others saw redeeming qualities in this book that i didn't.)

february: 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9

this month it snowed a lot and there was nothing to do because: pandemic, and i read:

the office of historical corrections, by danielle evans (i heard about this from the book of the month club but didn't end up buying it - i got it from the library on kindle, which, honestly, is my preferred medium.  i don't tend to love short stories, but i really liked these - the author is a black woman and the stories touch on race in different ways.  the book ends with a novella that i liked the least of any of the stories, but i'd definitely recommend this book even if, like me, short stories aren't your thing.)

a traveler at the gates of wisdom, by john boyne (i have REALLY enjoyed the two john boyne books i've read before now and i heard about this one and my library didn't own it, which was surprising to me.  i requested it and they bought it, and you know what: there is a reason they didn't already have a copy.  you can go ahead and pass on this book.  it's long.  it has a shtick: each chapter continues the story that is begun in the first chapter, but in a different culture and different time in world history. AND THEN IT DOES NOT EVER TELL YOU WHY IT IS DOING THAT.  they never come together.  at like two places in the book there is some acknowledgement that it is happening.  and that is it.  so this is a book with a shtick instead of a book that is doing anything profound.  i'm not even sure it was published in print (i got it on kindle) in the US.) 

bone, by yrsa daley-ward (this is a re-read of a book of poetry.  i thought about giving it away after reading it now for the second time, but i can't.  some of the lines i need to have in my home to go back to.  highly recommend!)

on earth we're briefly gorgeous, by ocean vuong (this author is "coming" to pittsburgh in a few weeks as part of a lecture series (presumably he'll be at home and the lecture will be pre-recorded, like others in the series this year), so i wanted to read it in advance of the lecture.  i didn't hate it (my friend Q didn't even finish it), and there were some really interesting relationship in it: narrator with his grandmother, narrator with his mother (to whom the book is addressed, like a letter, but like many epistlary books i found myself being like "you would never put that in a letter to your mother - you are telling us this because the audience needs to know, not your mother"), narrator with his first lover.  there were some pretty graphic sexual parts, which i wasn't necessarily expecting (again: see "letter to mother problem," above).  i'll be interested in seeing what the lecture is like.  this is getting a lot of critical acclaim.)

what doesn't kill you makes you blacker, by damon young (i heard the author interview ta-nehisi coates in the same lecture series i referenced above; he is a pittsburgher and i decided to listen to the audiobook of his memoir.  it was really funny and also quite poignant and i always like listening to books read by the author.  he grew up in the part of pittsburgh where we live, but when it was a primarily black neighborhood.  it was really interesting to hear his take on east liberty and shadyside today (spoiler alert: "portlandia with pierogies"), and this was altogether a book i really enjoyed and would definitely recommend if you like memoir.)

january: 1, 2, 3 & 4

one thing i'm going to try to commit to this year is reading one book each month that i already own and that sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read.  i have...a lot of these.  20 or 25 books, maybe?  so i'm trying to chip away at that.  i'll indicate which books fit that category throughout the year!

everyone brave is forgiven, by chris cleave (from my bookshelf.  there are so many WWII in britain books that if i'm going to read a new one it needs to be really good.  this one was fine.  and had some excessive use of the n-word that seems unacceptable by a white author but maybe you could get away with five years ago when this book was written?  it really turned me off, though.  i read a blog post by the author where he talked about wanting his readers to understand that ordinary white brits at the time were racist and by using that word he was able to make his point.  okay...and that presupposes that you have to make that point to a white audience, and thus that all your readers are white.  what about the nonwhite readers, for whom seeing this word all over your pages is going to cause a lot of pain, and not, from my opinion, for your art because i think your art could have survived without the word.  i don't know.  not highly recommending this one, i guess, though i have liked chris cleave books in the past.)

the snow queen, by michael cunningham (from my bookshelf.  besides the fact that i don't think this is the right title for this book (i'd love to know if he picked this title or had it thrust upon him by the publisher), i really liked this book.  it didn't follow any overused tropes - it really felt unique in its plot and in how the characters developed.  new york city, friends, life and death, apartments that feel like another character in the book.  i'd recommend this one!)

hamnet, by maggie o'farrell (this one started off slow for me but i really came to enjoy it.  it's more the (fictionalized) story of shakespeare's wife than his son, hamnet, which is how it was advertised.  but a really interesting look into 16th century england, families, the plague, gender...and i like books that go back and forth in time to tell us some of the past to help us understand the plot in the present.  you don't have to care about shakespeare to like this book!)

hidden valley road, by robert kolker (i was captivated by this from the get go - the story of a family with 12 children, born between 1945 and 1965, of which 6 have schizophrenia.  it's both a story of the family and also the research around the disease and the debate about nature vs. nurture.  it's the very best kind of narrative nonfiction and i would highly recommend it!  i listened to the audiobook, with a great narrator.)