2017 Reading Log

I've been noting my reading habits for the past two years on Livejournal. Since LJ is pretty much defunct, but I still wanted to have a record of my book log, I decided to migrate the list to this site.

My 2017 Book List:

Quarter 1 (Jan-Mar)
1.The Magicians; Lev Grossman-- Because we started to watch the Syfy series that was on Netflix. I like the book better, and apparently it's a trilogy (and also Syfy picked up season 2)!

2. Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music; Blair Tindall-- Again, because we were watching a series (this time on Amazon Prime). Aren't we fortunate to have friends with these subscriptions who will let us poach off them? We do spot them some cash every month or so to help pay, of course!

3. Room: a novel; Emma Donoghue-- Ooh man, this one got me in the feels. And apparently, it's been made into a movie that I will most definitely not be able to watch!

4.One hundred years of solitude; Gabriel Garcia Marquez-- Good, confusing at times, but I can see how it's become a classic 20th century novel.

5. The Dead Lands; Benjamin Percy-- listened to audiobook on the trip to Manassas. Good, post-apocalyptic post-nuclear world meltdown which included a wall being built around St Louis to keep out "others". Sounds a lot like our current direction, which is depressing

6. The underground railroad; Colson Whitehead-- Did you know that there was an ACTUAL TRAIN which moved fugitive slaves along the underground railroad? So fantastic.

7. How to grow up: A memoir; Michelle Tea-- recommended on a book list. It was all right, but I prefer her fiction writings

8. Of thee I sing: A letter to my daughters; Barak Obama-- Read this one to the boys in February and cried.

9. The cyberkinetic tea shop; Meredith Katz-- e-book, a fast read; robot-human homosexual romance... didn't even know that genre existed!

10. Woman on the edge of time; Marge Piercy-- written in the 1960s with a new foreword in 2014. Clairvoyant, really. Similar to A Handmaid's Tale in how awful and wretched the situation is, but this time for psychiatric patients. I'm 90% done with this one (e-book), should finish by Friday.

11. City of dark magic; Magnus Flyte (which is a pseudonym)-- audiobook I've been listening to during my commute, but I'm on section 11/12, so should be done with this one by Friday as well.

Quarter 2 (Apr-Jun):
12. Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe. "The contemporary African writer's classic novel depicting the destruction of traditional tribal life by the white man". It was good, and a type/style of writing and perspective that I need to seek out more often!

13. The evidence of things not seen -- James Baldwin. This was on a recommended reading list, and I can see why it was. It's a very direct and uncompromising look at a racially charged criminal case. But it read more like a conversation and was difficult to start and stop in the evenings. Good to read, and good to push and challenge myself, but not my style of writing.

14. The midwife: A memoir of birth, joy, and hard times -- Jennifer Worth. Because I'm watching the PBS show that has all the seasons on Netflix.

15. The glitter and the gold: The American duchess- in her own words -- Conseulo Vanderbilt Balsan. Written by someone who came of age during the Gilded Era, a recollection of her life and her arranged marriage.

16. The trip to Echo Spring: on writers and drinking -- Olivia Laing. Absolutely loved this dissection of the alcoholism of some of America's great writers (Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc)!

17. Homegoing -- Yaa Gyasi Fantastic novel exploring two different families separated by the slave trade

18. Go Set a Watchman-- Harper Lee. Audiobook listened to on the way back from Disney. I didn't get the whole "he's a racist!" thing as people were shouting about when the book was first published. Yes, is the father a more nuanced character here? Yes, but he's also being viewed by his adult daughter, not a hero-worshiping 8-year old. Is he doing some things that I found to be out-of-character with how he was depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird? Yes, but that's also part of the 50-year gap in between the books.

19. The American Heiress-- Daisy Goodwin. Another audiobook (which led me to read the Conseulo Balsan memoir above). Goodwin actually stole, quite blatantly(!), scenes from Balsan's memoir and plopped them into her trite story of a wealthy American girl buying into the English aristocracy. Bleh.

20. Lyddie -- Katherine Paterson. Audiobook. A young adult novel about a Vermont girl who goes to work in the New England factories at the turn of the century. I've read this before, several times, as a teenager, so this was a nice trip down memory lane!

21. The Taming of the Queen -- Philippa Gregory. Smutty historical romance audiobook about the last wife of Henry VIII. To be honest, I was sympathizing with her and concerned that she was going to be killed like the others, so I snooped around on Wikipedia to make sure that yes, she did outlive the king. Once I started reading that biography, I became more interested in the actual woman, not the fictional one from the novel. Will try to find something more on her.

22. The Song of Hartgrove Hall -- Natasha Solomons. LOVED this one! Audiobook about saving an old British manor house by a pianist composer who discovers he has a musical prodigy grandson. Switched back and forth between his love story in the 1950s to the "present day" 2000s with the grandson learning to use his talents  on the piano. It was great.

23. The Book Jumper-- Mechthild Glaser. E-book, pretty good imagining of "what if we could actually ENTER the books we're reading?"

24. The Cake Therapist-- Judith Fertig. E-book that wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be after I got started, but wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be when I selected it.

25. Matchless, Gregory Maguire-- A re-imagining of The Little Match Girl fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. Technically read in July, but I won't remember it unless I write it down now!

Quarter 3 (Jul-Sept):
26. The Drunken Botanist by Amy Steward. My Christmas present from my brother (two years running he's gotten me books from my wish list!). Pretty good, botany-based overview of all the different products that are used to create or flavor liquors.

27. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. The boys and I read this aloud for their summer reading program. About a robot who bucks the conditioning and lives wild and free with the animals on an island. My impression of an older female goose is spot on.

28. Hunter by Mercedes Lackey. Audiobook listened to during commute since the academic year has begun again. Pretty good, still kind of YA, but ok to listen to. I'm assuming it's in a series, but haven't done any research to determine what the next book is.

28. Benediction by Kent Haruf. Ouch. A dying man in small town Colorado. Turns out there's lots of shady stuff in his past. Audiobook, technically not finished but I have 1 hour left, so it will be next week.

29. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian patriarchy movement by Kathryn Joyce. Hard to read, to learn just how far apart my views on personhood and being a woman and what contribution(s) I as a female am allowed to/should make and what the Christian right feels... And what they're teaching their daughters (and sons!) is so darned toxic.

30. Katherine the queen: the remarkable life of Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VII by Linda Porter. I listened to an audiobook from the perspective of Katherine Parr, but reading about the actual historical details of her life was interesting.

31. Fortunately, the milk by Neil Gaiman. Another book read aloud to the boys for summer reading program, but Neil Gaiman is amazing and I should read American Gods again!

32. The life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. At the end of the summer, Jake and I flirted with the idea of moving to another home just up the street from where we are now. I was simultaneously upset with how cluttered and unorganized our house seemed to be all the time (why, yes we were home every day all summer), so I got this book to help on the first step of getting rid of our junk! It helped, to a point. She writes for someone who probably lives on their own and can make do with much less. Not that I can't make do with much less, but some of the overwhelming part of my life is picking up after my children... Note to self: Have the kids pare down their toys and books.
Still, after reading this book I made some progress on my linen closet and table linens. Both of those cabinets are now organized and only the things that are still functional and not stained or worn to threads are left. I was hanging onto stained, filthy tablecloths because Jake's grandmother had them (stained and shoved in the back of a cabinet). I had towels from when Jake was in college (and they were used when he got them). I would hazard that 10 bags of linens, clothing, and other household items have left since August and there's a box of electronic recycling I need to take to the village dump.
Spoiler: We didn't get the farm. We couldn't afford what they were asking, so put in a low offer and they said "Absolutely not"

33. Waking up white: and finding myself in the story of race by Debby Irving. Another good, insightful read that was necessary for me to work through in my path toward becoming a better advocate and person in general. I didn't like her tone, however. It's not about what she's was writing (that I reflected on and allowed myself to accept that yes, I've benefitted in a crazy amount from being white), but the way she presented herself and her journey. It was slightly jarring and I slogged through it.

34. Love warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton. She's working through infidelity in her marriage and decides to keep trying.

35. Into the water by Paula Hawkins. A fast, summer-beach read from the woman who wrote The Girl on the Train. It was good, easy, mindless reading.

Quarter 4 (Oct-Dec 27): I finished my e-book last night and it's doubtful that I'll finish another one before the start of 2018, so here's my final tally.
36: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief -- Rick Riordan; Read aloud to the boys

37. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Sea of Monsters -- Rick Riordan; Same deal. We'll probably start book 3 tonight

38. The Bear and the Nightingale -- Katherine Arden; audiobook, Russian folklore about the Winter Prince and spirits that help maintain home and livestock.

39. We Should All be Feminists -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; audiobook, very fast to listen to, more of a speech than a novel. Very, very good and thought-provoking.

40. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns -- Julie C. Dao; a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale, set in China and I'm pretty sure (this is the first in a series) that the protagonist turns into the Evil Queen

41. The Wish Granter -- C.J. Redwine; another fairy tale re-imagining, this time of Rumplestilskin. Another audiobook listened to during my commute to/from work.

42. Talon -- Julie Kagawa. E-book. Dragons shape-shift into human form to prevent being murdered by the Order of St. George. Except, this teenage dragon falls in love with a teenage soldier of St. George, and it's all predictably trite.

43. A Colony in a Nation --Chris Hayes. Again, required reading for anyone white and wondering how we got into this mess of 2017. More must be done, and my learning as much as I can about the systemic problems and inequalities is the first step toward helping.

44. The gate to Women's Country -- Sheri S. Tepper; Loved this one, it was a recommendation from a co-worker. There's been a breakdown in society and all the men patrol outside city walls as soldiers protecting the women who are kept safe inside. There are various cities all vying for control over their various lands. HOWEVER, the women are keeping a secret inside their walls and the men are trying to determine what it is.

45. Doomsday book -- Connie Wills; Again, excellent recommendation. There's the ability to time travel, and a graduate student jumps back to the Middle Ages to see what life there was really like. There's a glitch in the calculations, though, and she ends up right in the middle of the Bubonic Plague outbreak.

46. Stuff: compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things -- Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee; Apparently, I'm thinking a lot about my belongings and my patterns of consumption.

47. A discovery of witches-- Deborah Harkness; first in a trilogy about an academic (written by a history professor) who also happens to be a witch and fall in love with a vampire. But there's rules against inter-racial romances, so they're on the run until they can prove it's ok to love each other!

48. Shadow of night -- Deborah Harkness; book two

49. The book of life: a novel -- Deborah Harkness; book three and the ending was just a little to neat for my tastes.

50. Children of Earth and Sky -- Guy Gavriel Kay; e-book. I really liked this one. There are definite parallels between current geo-political-religious conflicts, but it's set in a fantasy land.

51. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children -- Ransom Riggs; e-book. I think I meant to then rent the movie that's been released with the actress from Penny Dreadful but after reading I thought it might be too scary for the children

52. The Heart Goes Last -- Margaret Atwood; e-book. She is brilliant and prescient and I really think what happens in this novel (as with The Handmaid's Tale) could absolutely come to pass!

53. The Witch of Painted Sorrows -- M.J. Rose; e-book about a witch who possesses her descendants through paintings in order to fix her previous love issues.

54. The Freemason's Daughter -- Shelley Sackier; e-book. Thought it would be a better historical romance than it was. Oh well. They can't all be great.

55. Gracelin O'Malley -- Ann Moore; e-book and I'm all but 20 pages finished, but then my loan expired and I'm waiting for someone else to be done. Still, I'll count it because it would take only one more day to finish. An Irish woman during the Famine Years struggling to survive with her family.

Fifty-five books in one year (including audio- and e-books) is a record for me! In 2016, we didn't travel as much and I didn't count any audiobooks toward my total. I also didn't read the boys any novels aloud, so that adds 4 to my 2017 tally. Still, I think that's pretty impressive and I hope to be able to read/listen to as much in 2018!