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top titles of 2022

top titles of 2022

it’s that time of year when i share the best books i’ve read this year. i’m currently ensconced in harry potter after a 6-year break, so that’s got me completely entranced and i almost forgot about getting my top books of the year up. i have a few books published this year on my to-be-read list that may have made it this year if i hadn’t taken it upon myself to read all the HP books (though they are a quick read).

bear and nightingale trilogy – katherine arden

my mom gave this trilogy by katherine arden a couple years ago, and i let it sit on my shelf for too long. when i was younger, i was a vociferous fantasy reader, but lately i have been letting that slide for more post-apocalyptic and contemporary fiction, so i wasn’t entirely excited about picking this up. then i was sorting through my stack of books and decided to finally pick it up.

arden’s writing is lyrical and light as she weaves the dark stories of russian fairy tales from the 1500s, combining the fantastical with historical moments. we follow vasilisa, who has magic in her blood, from her time as a girl to saving her country and people, befriending (or not) the russian stuff of myths along the way.

fairy tale – stephen king

well what would a best books list be without a stephen king book on it? how apropos that it was one of his fairy tales, entitled fairy tale. our hero is charlie, starting in contemporary times where charlie is a helpful high school student. he helps then befriends a reclusive neighbor who leaves him all his property when he dies. of course the neighbor has a secret, and charlie travels to another land where evil has spread and peace needs to be restored so the evil doesn’t spread into our world.

this is a thick book, but king’s stories are always a quick, interesting read for me. it’s another foray into the fantastical with a bit more of an edge and more concrete writing than the bear and nightingale books.

upgrade – blake crouch

everything i’ve read by blake crouch has been a four or five stars. his books keep you on the edge of your seat and involve plots that seem more than plausible in our world alongside some extreme science or math that i don’t want nor care to check if correct. it fits seamlessly into the story and adds to the plausibility of “oh boy, could this happen?” you think about when reading his stories.

upgrade is about enhancing the human genome for an upgrade – everything’s just a bit better. better concentration, intelligence, thinking ahead, physical strength, multitasking, reaction time, etc. logan is one of the first to receive the upgrade and we watch as he learns what’s happening and then figure out why it happened. then he learns about a bigger, more sinister plan, and then we see what he does to stop it

the emerald mile – kevin fedarko

usually when i read non-fiction, i stick to memoirs. i generally shy away from books that are heavy on geology or history that’s more generalized than personalized. but when i got this recommendation from my aunt rae, i thought i’d give it a try.

first, this book is DENSE. it’s 432 pages, but the type is a bit small and squished in there for ya. so i was a bit intimidated. no fear – fedarko manages to weave a great story of the fasted boat ride ever down the grand canyon in 1983. you’d think that this would be an easy tale to tell, but his setup is key. he tells us history and geology, telling us how the grand canyon used to be, how glen canyon used to be even better, the dams that were built to power and hydrate the southwest, and WHY the southwest. we hear about john wesley powell who documented his journey into the grand canyon pre-dam. we learn about different types of boats you can take on excursions in the canyon, why each works the way it does, and then the weather patterns and choices of the dam operators that led to and illegal boat run down the grand canyon. it was pretty fascinating seeing the confluence of events.

falling – tj newman

do you want to read a short fiction book? one that has short chapters that leave you hanging on every word? leading up to shocking sets of events so much that you gasp out loud? this is the beach read for you!

falling is a thriller by a flight attendant who had always wondered about the premise of what would happen if pilots’ families were held hostage – then needed to make a choice between their families and their flight. well, we get the fictional tale of that plight, and boy is it a doozy and entertaining!

in the weeds – tom vitale

this book about anthony bourdain’s life while giving snark and hope while eating with people around the world was written by one of the show’s producer/directors, tom vitale

i’ve read a few books about tony since his death, and none has come close to how enjoyable and emotional this book was. we get a behind the scenes look at tony’s life, and tom’s, as the show changed networks and traveled around the world. there are happy times, not happy times, dangerous times, easy times, hard times, and the hardest times. anyone who has watched any of tony bourdain’s shows should know what to expect in this book – just multiply it times 10 and you’ll have a good idea. this made me miss him even more.

top b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ titles for 2021

top b̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ titles for 2021

i wish there were a t-word for books so my title could – WAIT. alliteration complete.

every year i set a reading challenge for myself on goodreads and this year’s was 55 books read. completed! and still going, actually. but i don’t think i’ll read a top book in the next week, so here are my top books i read this past year.

american dirt by jeanine cummins. i wrote about this book while i was reading it in january, so i will copy/paste what i wrote then: american dirt got a lot of mixed reviews last january when it was published. it was a big brouhaha because the author, while she does have some puerto rican descent and is married to an undocumented immigrant, got a lot of flack about writing about the mexican migrant experience when there are many mexican authors more qualified to do so.

so i avoided it when it came out, but then it got book of the year on goodreads, so has she been redeemed? i don’t know where we’re at with the drama, but i grabbed it from the library and am devouring it. this is a quick read and it’s from the viewpoint of the mexican migrant experience, which i think a lot of us could realize is no picnic.

world of wonders by aimee nezhukumatathil. i’m not a fan of reading poetry, and for some reason i like to think that don’t like reading a collection of short stories or essays. which is weird because there are two such books on my top 2021 list. i may have to assess my brain and tell it to pick up a collection more often.

anyway, aimee is a poet who wrote this collection of essays that connect her memoirs with the natural, especially obscure creatures, trees, not-obscure creatures. she grew up in the 80s, so i found that relatable, but from a first-gen, non-white family point of view. her writing is lyrical and lovely. this book is short and it’s illustrated. if you want a book that you can fall into and a get away for a bit, this might be it.

neither wolf nor dog by kent nerburn. i picked up this book after a recommendation from melissa, and what an excellent read. i learned more about native american indian life from this book than i ever learned in school, all 19 years of it.

kent is a white man, but like most things that are different to white people, the story needs to be told from a white person’s perspective so we can relate, and then relate. and then learn. he tells the story of the time he spent with a native elder who wanted his story told. turns out he needed kent’s story told.

thanks to this book, i read two other books this year focused on native lives, including the followup to this one.

quit like a woman by holly whitaker. this is my NUMBER ONE BOOK OF 2021!! i LOVED this book, even though it did not make me quit drinking. what she outlines can be applied to so many different aspects of women’s lives.

it was the only book i actually reviewed on goodreads this year. here’s what i wrote:

this book is required reading for ANY woman, whether you’re trying to quit alcohol, drugs, or anything else you’re addicted to. or, if you’re not trying to quit anything. her conversational (PG-13 rated) style of writing moves right along while she lays out why, as women, we need to start feeding ourselves and loving ourselves instead of losing our egos during any recovery process.

i have recommended this book to so many people.

the anthropocene reviewed by john green. ugh, john. you just make me feel.

i started watching vlogbrothers in the mid-2000s, and then started reading john’s fiction books. then hank’s fiction books. and continued to watch their 4-minute twice-weekly videos that cover the gamut of everything. and john’s videos are sometimes introspective and illuminating and hit you right in the heart.

so when he mentioned his new book release on vlogbrothers and his podcast of the same title, i downloaded a few episodes to check it out. he rates the current earth age on a five-star scale, from pennies to dr. pepper to scratch n sniff stickers to art and auld lang syne. his podcast (and subsequent essay in this book) on the capacity for wonder and sunsets just did it. he’d been holding hostage to a perfect rating, then this.

And so I try to turn toward that scattered light, belly out, and I tell myself: This doesn’t look like a picture. And it doesn’t look like a God. It is a sunset, and it is wildly beautiful, and this whole thing you’ve been doing where almost nothing gets five stars because almost nothing is perfect? That’s b.s. So much is perfect. Starting with this.

I give sunsets five stars.

billy summers by stephen king. what would a best-book list be without stephen king in it? and for those who say “dang i don’t like scary books,” you should read some stephen king because his books aren’t all scary. this one is more thriller/crime than any sort of scary. (tommyknockers this is NOT. yikes. that book scared me.)

king always keeps me engaged in his writing, especially his more recent stuff. this book is about a hitman for hire and his last job gone wrong. if you’re a king fan, you’ve likely already read it. if you enjoy thrillers but haven’t ever read king, this might be a good place to start.

malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid.

i hesitated to put this on my best of 2021 list. the story coalesces along a day’s worth of events and the backstory to fill them in. while the stories of the day and the frictions among them move the plot along, what i really liked about this book was the relationships that reid described and the closeness of the rivas siblings.

the writing is fantastic. i loved “daisy jones and the six” that she wrote, and that was the reason i picked this one up. the way she weaves a story is excellent.

 

*******

there you go! my top books of 2021. let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you think!

2 different books, 2 positive reviews

2 different books, 2 positive reviews

i just finished a book of essays called “world of wonders” by aimee nezhukumatathil, where she connects memories of her life with natural elements like obscure creatures or trees or no-so-obscure creatures. her childhood was a quiet one in the 80s, so her experiences she shared were relatable, but from a different lens of a first-generation non-white child. but what this book really shines in is the lyricism of the writing. she’s firstly a poet, is my understanding, and you can tell that by the way she weaves her prose. her writing reminds me of michael perry’s, in its leaving you wanting for a time that’s gone by.

the book is short and a quick read, and several essays are illustrated by the natural world she makes connections with. i have a hard cover copy that i will gladly lend to anyone.

******

speaking of the 80s, i read the book “we ride upon sticks”, which was a recommendation from another blogger, and it was the opposite of the collection of essays, but equally reminiscent of the 80s. the pages were dense, with text crowding the page in a small size and one paragraph taking up a page a times. but after i got into it, i definitely got engrossed with this book. it features a field hockey team in the late 80s in a town outside of salem, and they make a weird pact through emilio estevez and witchcraft, though, actual witchcraft, or just the knowledge that they were in this together? either way, i was constantly reminded of things that happened in the 80s that i had decided didn’t need to take up space in my brain anymore. specifically, gitano jeans, which produced such a rush of nostalgia, i couldn’t help but gasp when i read it in the book.

this book is not necessarily short, and not a quick read. there are no illustrations, but i think if you want a rush of 80s nostalgia and a plotline that is nothing like anything i’ve ever seen before, then pick up this book. i think the last page and a half are worth the entire read, and i was smiling hard as i finished it up.

books of 2020

books of 2020

every year i do the goodreads challenge, where you set a reading goal for yourself. you’d think that with a pandemic and all, it’d be easy to knock out a boatload of books this year, but i didn’t even make my challenge number, which was weeny since i set it before the pandemic (if pandemic had set in when i made my challenge, i might’ve failed hugely).

i set a goal of 55 books for the year and managed to get through 51 (a couple were rereads). but before i get all bent out of shape, i like to note that i’m a believer in the page count rather than book count. i read a lot of long books. sure, there are usually a couple shorties, but geez, a stephen king book is almost always more than 600 pages. so let’s take a look at that data first!

i really knocked it out of the park in 2016. i chalk it up to listening to audiobooks on my drives from southern mn to central mn during the four months of turbulence. oh, i also read a lot of stephen king that year.

so, what were my top books of 2020?

i have two favorites i read this year.

  1. where the crawdads sing by delia owens was my number one book this year. i inhaled this book. it was a mystery, an ode to the natural world, and just lovely. there are some dark sections (i’m ok with that). and one section that was so patronizing to couples who don’t have children (not really ok with that).  i hesitated reading this because for some reason i’m a book snob  (smut for one) and this book seemed to be super hyped up and put on every book club list. but there was a reason!
  2. the wanderers by chuck wendig was my number two book this year. totally different from crawdads, this is about preserving the human race from its annihilation in the event of a pandemic (wow, how apropos. i read this in early february!). don’t worry – this is different from “the stand”, which i also read again this year. why not read about pandemics that are SO MUCH worse when you’re amidst one? anyway, if you like some action/post-apocalyptic novel action, this book is wort the 782 (!) pages. (much shorter than the stand.)

those are my favorites this year. here’s the runners-up list.

  1. big summer by jennifer weiner. a nice beach thriller mystery read! i love her books and have read them all.
  2. book of two ways by jodi piccoult. see above about jennifer weiner – i have read all her books! this was a good book with lots of information about egyptian mythology with a weird twisty middle that made me laugh at her genius.
  3. the dead zone by stephen king. this book has entered my top five SK books! i thought it was great. it’s about a guy who gets a TBI and can see a person’s future just by touching them.
  4. leave it as it is by david gessner. gessner intertwines some biographical info about teddy roosevelt’s mission to create and bolster the national park system and his conservationist (almost) ways with his trip across the west in TR’s footsteps to several national parks. he also focuses on bears ears national park and really focuses on american indian perspective.
  5. the midnight library by matt haig. while this started off a little depressing, it turned into a lovely book of redemption with a really interesting premise of experiencing other lives you could have had.
  6. the four agreements by miguel ruiz. i picked this up because lesley fightmaster quoted 🙁 a lot from it. it’s short and small and gives guidance on how to live an authentic life. i underlined a lot in it, and i’m sure i’ll pick it up again and again.

books i expected a lot from that didn’t live up to the hype? (hmm… see i’ve just got to read hype-y books, i think.)

  1. the starless sea
  2. the ballad of songbirds and snakes (trying to give a more human background to cornelius snow just makes me hate him more)
  3. the bookish life of nina hill

i think if i want to read more books in 2021, i just need to start reading more fiction. i like to learn things, but nothing really prompts me to pick up a book like the storyline of a good piece of fiction. we’ll see how that pans out.

books i want to read in 2021?

  1. american dirt (this got a lot of good press then a lot of bad press, and now i think we’re back to good press. i’m going to borrow it from the library so i don’t give money to the author if it is back in bad press territory.)
  2. a promised land by barack obama. memoirs are as insatiable to me as fiction.
  3. we ride upon sticks – this is on my list because of a rave review of a blogger i’ve followed for 15 years.
  4. this books is anti-racist. i know this is not fiction and will probably make me learn, but it goes hand in hand with my “resolution” to do more antri-racist things
  5. in the same vein of nonfiction, i want to read something by wallace stegner.

is this the year i reread harry potter?

and when is the year i read all of stephen king in a row? (that is a huge commitment.)

book review: unspeakable things

book review: unspeakable things

the author jess lourey is an instructor at my school, so the library has all the books she’s written. she just came out with a new book inspired by the jacob wetterling kidnapping; she grew up in paynesville, and if you’ve listened to the “in the dark” podcast, you know that was a hotbed of unsavory behavior in the 80s and 90s.

so i was at the school library the other day and swiped it off the shelf; it’s #54 in amazon’s most-purchased books today, which she is super excited about (and for good reason!). i picked it up friday night and finished it this morning.

the book is told from the viewpoint of a 12/13-year-old girl who lives in rural, small-town stearns county; it’s always so weird to be reading a book and see references to places i know – i’m sure people run into this all the time, which means i need to up my minnesota author game. the parallels between her fiction narrative and the actual crimes that happened here were unsettling at times – the music teacher who lives with his parents; mother of the abducted/murdered child with the name mrs. wellstone; the syllables in jacob wetterling’s name equals the syllables in the fictionalized child’s name.

and add in all the other creepy things that were going on in the narrator’s life, which were very adult, very ick-inducing for that age – swingers parties, drug dealing, pedophilia themes, an abusive father – and it painted a very disgusting portrait of central minnesota residents. but what is very apparent in her writing is the shimmer of truth surrounding some of the themes. paynesville boys were abused in the 80s and 90s, and someone was doing it – someone who was a resident of this area.

despite the ick-factor themes of the books, i loved the narration by our 13-year-old heroine, cassie. the book is written such that it’s the looking-back narration by the present-day woman narrator. i loved the description of the band room at her school, sucking on a clarinet reed while assembling it, calling out “i seen it” or “can you borrow me that” as minnesota-isms, the clique-y-ness of lunchtime and trying to fit in.

i know this book is not for everyone. but i even liked that it made me uncomfortable at times, which i’m sure was the author’s intent. people don’t get through childhood unscathed, and some more scathed than others. multiple times it was highlighted how adults just don’t believe the kids, how it’s just boys messing around for attention. it’s even called out that what finally forced big action was that the kid who was abducted was middle class. the other victims had been from “the wrong side of the tracks” (so to speak). by making readers uncomfortable, maybe it will nudge some to start believing kids and encouraging them to speak out about assaults and prevent future assaults.

all the birds in the sky: a book review

all the birds in the sky: a book review

i just finished up “all the birds in the sky.” have you ever read a book where every time you set it down, you think, man that’s a weird little book. and then you continue to pick it back up because you want to see what on earth happens in this weird little book? that’s how i felt with “all the birds in the sky.”

it’s a melding of two genres and somehow, it works. it’s got the old-school fairy tale vibe going on with the female character in the natural world and witchy powers, and then it’s got a techy/futuristic vibe with the male character holding fast to his intelligent AI he’s built and a 2-second time machine on his wrist. somehow, the two end up falling in love in a world that’s creeping closer and closer climate disaster (oh yeah, it’s also borderline environmental apocalyptic genre too!), but when disaster strikes, the way they deal puts them at odds.

i wouldn’t give this five stars. i think i’d be hard pressed to give it four stars. it’s an entertaining read and fascinating how the different genres come together, but the story didn’t compel me like other stories have. i’d recommend it for how it messes with your preconceived notions of how storytelling genres work and to get your mind to wrap around how storytelling can shift between them and still work.

book review: “the library book”

book review: “the library book”

i just finished up “the library book” which was excellent. it’s about the LA library fire in the 80s and just info on the library in general. i learned a lot about how it came to be, the building, the head librarians (a couple early ones were women!), and the investigation into the guy who was accused of arson.

her description of the fire itself was fantastic: how it started, its movement, the way it was a perfect fire and burned so hot that it had no color. she started the book with the fire, so this was real hook into reading the rest of the book.

it was also really encouraging to read about how the LA library system is evolving as it grows. because it had to basically start over in the early 90s, it was one of the first libraries to go electronic. and now they’re trying to figure out how to help the homeless population and the patrons who want to utilize the library for more than just books. i love how libraries have always been about more than just books, too. the first head librarian wanted to add tennis racquets to the loan list.

 

interesting fact: the fire happened on the same day as chernobyl, so the media coverage of it was almost nil. i had never heard that the LA library had a major fire (neither had the author; it’s why she wrote the book).

so, highly recommend reading the book to learn more about the LA library fire, the investigation, and libraries in general.

book review – invisible women: data bias in a world designed for men

book review – invisible women: data bias in a world designed for men

unpaid work.

sex.

gender.

does it seem like i’m going to start a feminist rant? no. i’m going to talk about what we women have known forever.

i just finished up “invisible women: data bias in a world designed for men” and boy howdy am i annoyed. despite being the majority of people who inhabit the earth, we get the short stick when it comes to, well, just about everything.

caroline criado perez does a nice job of making statistics and data points palatable in her book, which tend to make me set aside a book if it becomes too boring. instead, she weaves in stories and examples with her data, using recent, actual events to back up what she’s talking about. (and if you’re worried about “citation needed”, about 30% of the book is footnotes and annotations.)

she talks about three major parts of women’s lives that are ignored in our world: sex, gender, and unpaid work. each of them is infuriating in themselves to think about discrepancies, but the most irritating for me was the medical section (dealing with the sex portion of this). think about all those medical studies and drug studies and all those medications you’re taking. now think about how the majority of test subjects and even mice are male. now think about how different the female body is with hormones and different muscle mass and metabolism, even. and the data they do get after these studies? they don’t disaggregate them by sex! so there could be a great drug out there for women that didn’t do squat out there for men, but do we know? no. science grants have generally dismissed research into childbirth and menstruation due to them being “not pressing” even though one happens every 28 days for most women and the other happens 360,000 times a day! if that’s not pressing, i’m not sure what is. and then let’s not talk about how doctors dismiss women’s pain as “all in their head”. did you know that a lot women are given antidepressants instead of painkillers? and the men in the same situation are given painkillers?

WHAT. ON. EARTH.

now, let’s touch briefly on the fact that when you include any vehicular crash tests that include dummies that are the size and stature of women (but not anatomically, so the chestal area is flat [think about where a seat belt goes]), the safety ratings PLUMMET. and they don’t even do crash tests with these smaller dummies in the drivers seats, because, you know, women don’t drive ever, amirite?

and let’s not even get started on phone size and the pocketriarchy. yes, she talked about both those things. i wish she had used the term pocketriarchy though. i’d probably’ve written her a love letter.

*EYE ROLL SO HARD*

and that’s just one. unpaid work is another huge portion. one of the scandinavian countries decided to do their snow removal backwards (start with the sidewalks and side roads and move outward) and the number of injuries massively reduced. why? because all the women who travel to various places for different errands and to take care of people are more likely to walk and use side roads. the men who don’t do all this unpaid work just use a main road to get to their jobs and go home. women are also more likely to combine various trips into one: i go to work, but on the way home, i stop at target, i stop at the grocery store, i stop to pick something else up. husbands generally don’t do this because their wives do.

throw in childcare, eldercare, taking care of infirm relatives, housework, etc.: what do you think it would add to the GDP? she posits that it would more than double what the GDP is worth in its paid work. considering the average woman’s leisure time versus a man’s, this wouldn’t surprise me one bit. consider emotional labor.

ok, phew. i’m getting all riled up here.

for the last one, gender, which is inculcated in us from day one, i think what’s most telling is how the workworld is designed for men and women are told “hey, just be more bold. be more insistent. be more” when talking about the pay gap. didn’t get a raise? well, you obviously didn’t sell yourself as well as jeeves did over in the corner office. so we’re going to have a workshop on how to teach women to show their worth in the workworld. instead of this, can’t we just acknowledge that women aren’t as aggressive as men in the workworld and are just as, if not more, worthy? can that just be… the NORM? instead of telling women they need to be more aggressive in the workplace? and when they are, well then they’re just shrill. they’re too much. they’re HILLARY CLINTON. (such an odd insult.)

*EYE ROLL AGAIN*

bottom line in ALL of these is that when standards are set or buildings are designed or drug tests are commenced, maybe a few women at the table would help. heck: if the table were half women, that would be at least egalitarian. because chances are that they will think of something that men don’t think about because they don’t experience it. that’s why it’s good to have diverse backgrounds at the table as well.

so. read this book. women, prepare to want to scratch your eyeballs out in frustration (only because you know it happens all around you all the time). men, prepare to have your eyeballs opened a bit. at least i hope that’s what happens and i hope you think about it next time you’re making decisions for the whole in a room full of men.

kudos, caroline. keep fighting the good fight.

all hail the book nerd

all hail the book nerd

i did a cool thing today! the local libraries exchange was on campus to record 5-minute book reviews for their podcast, and i did TWO books! (unfortunately, i was the only one who signed up, so i guess it was a good thing i brought a second book!)

i had listened to a few of their podcasts before i headed into this foray, and i was worried about being able to spend enough time talking about my books. well, after i rambled on and on about the first book (“the dreamers”), the interviewer said that it was almost exactly 5 minutes. i was worried i wouldn’t be able to talk about it enough!

then i talked about “a walk in the woods” which one of the interviewers had also read (and loved the author), so we almost tag-teamed on the interview, and that one was really fun. hey, if you haven’t read that one and you enjoy memoirs and humor, this is the book for you.

THEN they invited me to come to their space over the summer sometime when they’re recording podcasts about specific genres of books! OMG. i asked if harry potter was considered a genre, and then we got excited about a podcast talking about HP.

book nerds are great.

s. king’s latest

s. king’s latest

when i saw there was an additional book from stephen king out, i thought oh boy! he’s really on a roll now. i mean, we all know he writes monster books (heh could be a double meaning) and quite often. earlier this year i’d purchased “the outsider” and was amazed that a second one was already published.

i stopped at BN in the moa to pick it up and…

it’s so little!! of course i still picked it up. it’s fewer than 200 pages with large type, more of a novella than a novel. i finished it over the course of two days; it would have been one, but i started reading at 10:30 p.m. and had to go to sleep.

like all king books, it’s got a little weird element to it, but it’s an uplifting story (heh – again) with a lesson for readers.

i know i’ve said this before, but i’ll say it again. if you’re afraid to pick up one of his books because it’s attached to horror, just push that aside and dive in. most likely you’ve already watched a movie adaptation of one if his: shawshank, stand by me, green mile, etc. what i like about his writing is that he ties a lot of the stories together, a lot of times to the man in black.

if you are looking for a decent one to start with, pick up 11/22/63, my favorite. it’s got the right mix of weird (there’s always something weird in his books), sentimental, and thriller-esque.

do NOT pick up the tommyknockers. only book of his i was literally scared.

(or IT. read that one after you’ve read a few of his and start wondering what the heck is going on in derry, maine, and you’re fully acquainted with the king-style weird.)