june: 16, 17, 18 & 19

a big month of reading - finally, the time and space that summer provides!

black cake, by charmaine wilkerson (i got this through the book of the month club, and enjoyed it more than i expected to - this is a theme for me when authors or main characters have very different experiences from my own - i assume this story about two black caribbean girls won't resonate with me.  perhaps someday i will really change my assumptions (sigh), but for now, i love being pleasantly surprised and sucked in by this book.  i read about half of it on a camping trip, which was lovely - long stretches of reading during the day - heaven!  highly recommend this.)

camp zero, by michelle min sterling (this was a read with jenna book club pick, and it was fine - but not revolutionary.  post apocalyptic canada, feminist, three converging story lines.  i liked but didn't love it.)

memorial drive, by natasha trethewey (i listened to this audiobook - at some point i read a list of the 20 best memoirs or some such and this book was on it.  it's incredible - beautifully written - and horrific - the story of the events that lead up to the author's mother's murder.  it's also about family and how we construct it and about interracial relationships and lives in the south in the 1960s/70s/80s.  it's an incredible book, but a tough read.)

the culture code, by daniel coyne (i'm trying to read three professional books this summer, and this was the first - and i found so much to like and to apply to my job and to try to incorporate into my professional life.  i read much of this in the hammock in our backyard.  the premise is that three things are needed to build a strong culture within a group: build safety, share vulnerability, and establish purpose. tons of great stuff here about things like "magical feedback," the vulnerability loop, patterns found in highly successful groups.  i underlined!  i took notes!  i recommend it to you.)

may: 15

i only read one book this month - a chunky one at 550 pages!

demon copperhead, by barbara kingsolver (loved this book, incredible writing, such compelling characters, beautiful and heart breaking description of a specific place and time.  it deserves all the accolades it gets!  highly recommend.)

april: 12, 13 & 14

hellhound on his trail: the stalking of martin luther king jr. and the international hunt for his assassin, by hampton sides (i listened to this audiobook, and was fascinated by it - the year leading up to (and then the year after) king's assassination - you follow both king and james earl ray and watch their lives collide.  this book is some excellent narrative nonfiction and it's a story that goes so far beyond what i had learn even as a college american history major.  highly recommend!)

1984, by george orwell (i read this, maybe for the first time, with a class of juniors and seniors at the school where i work.  i found it fascinating to read and discuss with teenagers and a great teacher to guide us - i got so much out of the discussions.  i'm really glad i read it!)

jack, by marilynne robinson (this is the fourth book in the gilead series, one of my favorite books of all time.  i think you need to read at least one of the previous books to appreciate jack (both the character and the book), and this made me want to go back and reread some of the previous books.  she's an incredible writer, and to get more about the most illusive and confusing character in the gilead series was a real gift.  parts of this were a bit hard to follow - the timeline in particular, maybe - but i'm really glad i read it and visited this world again.)

march: 9, 10 & 11

the paris apartment, by lucy foley (this was a great beach read in the thriller/mystery genre - not normally one i gravitate towards, but this book got a lot of press and was quite popular, so i gave it a try.  if you like this genre, i'd definitely recommend it!  and it got swooped up quickly when i put it out in my little free library after finishing it.  but this didn't change my life and wasn't a book that i was rushing home to read.)

the people we keep, by allison larkin (i finished this two months ago and am struggling to remember what it was about, so that tells you what you need to know: i liked this book, but it was pretty forgettable.  or maybe the title is all wrong?  a google search has reminded me of the main plot points, and i'm remembering now that i enjoyed this book but got frustrated with some of the main character's choices.  don't repeat the same mistakes again, character!  this was a decent book that i definitely read and enjoyed, but i won't be rushing out to recommend it to you.)

i have some questions for you, by rebecca makkai (okay, i really liked this book, which i read a large portion of when on vacation - my favorite way to read (my least favorite, and more typical way to read is in 10 minute spurts before i fall asleep).  this is set on a boarding school campus both in the past (main character is a student and one of her classmates dies mysteriously) and in the present (main character has come back to teach at the school and is revisiting the murder).  with one exception, the author really nailed what it's like to be on a private school campus, which is hard to do without hitting cliches.  i found out after finishing the book that her husband teaches at a private boarding school and she lives on the campus, so that makes sense.  i really enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it to you - flipping between past and present really worked to build suspense and the plot line was interesting and the characters believable.  i liked her previous book, the great believers, and think this more recent one is even better!)

february: 6, 7 & 8

this month i read...

less is lost, by andrew sean greer (i really liked the first book in what is now a series - less - and this is a follow up, though it's not necessary for you to have read the first book.  we follow our main character on a jaunt around the country as he contemplates his relationship with his father and with his partner.  i enjoyed but wasn't particularly moved by this one - it might have fallen victim to the 10-pages-a-night-before-you-fall-asleep curse, where one can't realllllly get into a book when reading in those chunks.  liked but didn't love.)

lessons in chemistry, by bonnie garmus (this was a book club pick and i know it's HOT right now but i was able to get a copy of the book from the library, and i really enjoyed it.  quirky characters, well written, no other books out there exactly like it.  the cover design makes me think it's being pitched as a beach read, but it was so much better than that!  recommend.)

the best of me, by david sedaris (i listened to this audiobook, a collection of his stories from across the span of his career.  some i'd heard before, others i hadn't, but i just love david sedaris's writing and thoroughly enjoyed this listen!)

january: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

this month i read:

the circus train, by amita parikh (i actually finished this in late december, but forgot to add it to the list, so i'm rolling it over!  this was a book of the month club pick about circuses (interesting), disability issues (interesting - and not something i know a lot about), and set in the lead up to WWII (i enjoy historical fiction) - this was a great combination and i liked this book, but didn't love it - it wasn't one where i was rushing home to read or thinking about it a lot when i wasn't reading.  so i'd recommend it, but it won't make my favorite books list for this year!)

once there were wolves, by charlotte mcconaghy (i really liked this book, a gift from my mom, who also introduced me to migrations by the same author which i read last year.  i really like her strong, flawed female protagonists and her stories about the ways that people and animals are intertwined.  she isn't an author that i hear a ton of buzz about, but i really really like her writing and would highly recommend this!)

wishin' and hopin', by wally lamb (this was a cute holiday story by an author i really enjoy.  i listened to the audiobook, narrated well by the author.  this is kind of a throw away book for me - i can see myself in a few years trying to remember if i've read it or not - but it was nice to read a book by wally lamb that i hadn't read yet.)

beloved, by toni morrison (i read this along with an english class at the school where i work, and i was bowled over by it.  toni morrison deserves all the accolades she has won, and the way this story was put together was incredible - she did things with writing that most authors can't do.  i loved talking about this with the students and being led through some of the more challenging parts by the teacher.  i told the students i was joining class because it seems like all well read people should have read beloved, and i hadn't.  i stand by that - if you haven't read this, get ready for a book that kidnaps you from the first chapter and expects a lot of its reader.  thank goodness i had the class discussions to make sure i was up for the task.  a brilliant book!)

we are all completely beside ourselves, by karen joy fowler (i had heard that if you read this book, you shouldn't read any reviews - you should go in totally blind.  that intrigued me - and i LOVED booth by the same author - so i did it: went in blind.  and i'm glad i did, because the twist happens about 1/3 of the way into the book and was worth being in the dark about.  this was not as good as booth, in my opinion, but i did think about it a lot while i was reading it and am glad i finished it!)

2022 in books

this year my reading productivity fell off a little: i read 36 books - 3 a month, on average, which is a great feat!, but down from my highs in the 50s from a few years ago.  11 of those books meet some sort of diversity standard (as in, the main character or author is not white).  and 23 of those books were from my public library.

my favorite books of 2022:

invisible child, by andrea elliott

cloud cuckoo land, by anthony doerr

no one is talking about this, by patricia lockwood

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, by gabrielle zevin

booth, by karen joy fowler

how the word is passed, by clint smith

pachinko, by min jin lee

here's to another year of great reading!, with gratitude to the universe for the time to read, the public libraries for all they provide to our society, and the gift of sight.

december: 33, 34, 35 & 36

we are the light, by matthew quick (a book of the month club pick, which i found really interesting, and told in a way that allowed the story to spill out bit by bit in a way that was really intriguing.  it's an epistolary novel told in letters from a man whose wife died in a mass shooting.  so it's not light, but the character arcs are lovely and the story is really interesting.  i recommend it, but it is not winning my favorite book of the year.)

rogues: true stories of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks, by patrick radden keefe (i listened to this audiobook, which is a collection of long form magazine articles that were, almost across the board, fascinating.  if you like good narrative nonfiction, i'd highly recommend it!  the audiobook is well-narrated, too.)

where the world ends, by geraldine mccaughrean (this is another printz award winner, based on a true story of a group of teens who end up marooned on a skellig [new vocab word for me!] off the coast of ireland.  there's a great dramatic tension in the novel when they will get rescued and why they haven't gotten rescued yet that i found really compelling, and to find out (after finishing it) more details about the true story it was based on was a great touch.  this book didn't make a HUGE impact on me, what it was worth reading.)

haven, by emma donoghue (guys, how did i pick a second book IN A ROW about people who are stuck on a skellig WHEN THIS WAS NOT EVEN A WORD I KNEW BEFORE MID-DECEMBER.  but i did, guys, i did, and two in a row was too much.  this book is fine and i'm glad i read it, and the stories of building a religious haven on a skellig were really interesting, but if you're going to read one skellig book, make it where the world ends.  sorry, emma donoghue.)

november: 30, 31 & 32

the ghosts of heaven, by marcus sedgwick (after slogging through swing time i was determined to read some shorter books that i would like more.  i went back to an old favorite, the printz award winners list (for young adult fiction).  young adult books will not bore me, and the best ones are quite well written.  i found the ghosts of heaven on that list, and had read two other marcus sedgwick books so was excited to try this one.  i really liked it - four separate stories with a theme (spirals) that connects them.  the author says at the beginning that you can read them in any order, which really intrigued me.  i really liked this book, and if you're into YA fiction i would highly recommend it!)

we are okay, by nina lacour (another one from the printz award list (gotta cleanse that palate), this one the story of a college freshman who has cut off ties with her bff because of some family tragedies...and the bff reappears around the holiday season to try to make amends.  i liked it very much and i can see why it was recognized by the printz committee, but i preferred the ghosts of heaven.)

how the word is passed, by clint smith (i listened to the audiobook of this over the past few months and finally finished it.  EXCELLENT narrative non-fiction, and i'm actually now running a book club at school with faculty who are reading the book.  the author visits sites around the US that are important to the history of slavery and tells the stories, meets people, and reckons with the fine line between history and nostalgia.  highly recommend!)

october: 27, 28 & 29

jitney, by august wilson (i read this along with a class of seniors at the school where i work, and really enjoyed this exposure to a new (to me) august wilson play, with the benefit of a teacher guiding us through the reading and rather astute kids offering their take.  i was glad to have read it!)

wolfpack, by abby wambach (i listened to this audiobook after hearing the author on an old episode of brene brown's podcast.  parts were a bit cheesy, written as a leadership guide for a younger audience (brene says she buys this for every girl she knows when they graduate from high school), but then all of a sudden i was crying while listening?  so clearly it moved 39 year old me, too.  i'm glad i read it!  the audiobook is only about an hour long (bonus!).)

swing time, by zadie smith (i heard the author speak like 10 years ago, and bought the book as part of that event...and then never read it.  when i finally did, i wasn't blown away or rushing home to read more.  i think there are better zadie smith books out there - i enjoyed white teeth much more than this one.)

september: 24, 25 & 26

the measure, by nikki erlick (i loved the concept of this book - that one morning, every adult in the world gets a box on their doorstep with a string inside.  the length of the string corresponds to how long you will live.  do you look in the box or not?  short string support groups pop up.  short stringers are suddenly not eligible for certain jobs.  super interesting, and made me think about whether i would look or not [i don't think i would...].  but this was meant to be a short story or a novella, and i tired of some of the plot lines by the time the book was over.  glad i read it, but i'm not running out to recommend it.)

a spot of bother, by mark haddon (this was a re-read, and i remember loving it when i first read it 10 or so years ago - thinking it was laugh out loud funny at parts.  i liked it on the re-read, but definitely didn't love it.  stick with the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.)

booth, by karen joy fowler (this one i did love!  and actually don't remember what month i finished it but whatever - i'm sticking it here with september.  this is historical fiction, and the story of john wilkes booth's family, from his parents moving to the us past booth's assassination of lincoln and then death.  karen joy fowler is a beautiful writer, and i loved how she brought this family to life.  i did a ton of googling after the fact [never during the book!  keep the mystery alive!], and there is a lot of documentation to support parts of her plot lines...while others are really fabricated.  but i loved the way she took us back to a specific place and time in history and explained how booth could have gotten to a place where he killed lincoln.  highly recommend, especially if you are interested in history!  i talked about this one a TON while i read it - always a good sign.)

august: 21, 22 & 23

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, by gabrielle zevin (i loved this book, and then was super validated when my book club liked it AND it won the "book of the month club" book of the year [as voted on by members]!  really rich and human and sympathetic characters, compelling story line...and while it centers on playing and creating video games, you don't need to be a video game person to enjoy this.  highly recommend!)

remarkably bright creatures, by shelby van pelt (this was cute...an octopus, a woman who cleans the octopus tanks, a young man who needs a job and finds one subbing in as octopus tank cleaner...a murder mystery solved?  yes, this sounds ridiculous and my book club did NOT bite on this one, but i read it anyway and enjoyed it!  would be a great book to read on a trip when you have lots of time to read but don't want something super dense.  i recommend it!)

dawn, by selahattin demirtas (this is a set of short stories written by a pro-democracy turkish politician who is now in prison.  sarah jessica parker was making book recommendations for a little while and she recommended this one - it was good but not life changing...i'd recommend it mostly to get a glimpse into the (fictional, but highly realistic) lives of the turkish characters he writes.  it was hard to find a copy, and there's probably a reason - this isn't making the best seller list any time soon.)

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