Happy New Year!
I set out to read forty books in 2019 and am ending the year with fifty-four. I started using the Libby app to get audio books. I learned about the app from the Reading Glasses podcast, which I still love. The app connects to your library’s audio and ebook selections. I like its cute interface. I did lots of listening this year, which helped my count.
This year’s reading included more fiction and more Young Adult books. HBO’s His Dark Materials led to my rereading the first two books. One of the last things I read this month was the second book in Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy. I schlepped this 600+ page novel from D.C. to Illinois to Texas and back because I couldn’t wait. At least I managed to pace my reading, unlike some of the fiction I devoured this year.
I finished my anthropology Master’s a few weeks ago. I completed my classes in the summer, then spent the fall mostly not writing my final project. The list below includes the dates I finished books, and it’s clear how much more reading I did when I was supposed to be writing.
I quit at least two books this year, which will remain unnamed. Next year, I hope to keep quitting books that don’t interest me. I’m also going to work on reading more of the many books crowding the apartment and finally finish Caro’s LBJ series.
Anyway, here’s the list with stars for the books I most enjoyed, as well as some random notes.
I finished Twain’s Feast on this snowy day.
1. Wit's End: What Wit Is, How it Works, and Why We Need It, James Geary, 1/6
2. **The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden, 1/9
3. Twain’s Feast, (Audible Original), narrated by Nick Offerman, 1/13
4. The Underground Railroad, Colton Whitehead, 2/5
5. **Sourdough, Robin Sloan, 2/17, (audio book)
6. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of American’s Favorite Food, Steve Striffler, 2/17
7. Ravina the Witch? Junko Mizuno, 2/21 (graphic novel)
8. Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, Thich Nhat Hanh, 2/24
9. **Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond, 3/3
10. Negroland, Margo Jefferson, 3/8 (audio)
11. China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan, 3/10
12. **The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman, 3/25 (reread)
First Guggenheim visit in April; listened to Celeste Ng on the bus.
13. The Oyster Question, Christine Keiner, 4/5
14. Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng, 4/14 (audio)
15. **Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan, 5/14 (audio)
16. Tribes on the Hill: The U.S. Congress Rituals and Realities, J. McIver Weatherford, 5/18
17. Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, Paul Greenberg, 6/1
18. Rich People Problems, Kevin Kwan, 6/5
19. The Lady from the Black Lagoon, Mallory O’Meara, 6/7
20. Lot, Bryan Washington, 6/13
21. Vibration Cooking or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, 6/21
22. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, 7/3
23. **Why Karen Carpenter Matters, Karen Tongson, 7/4 - would I have loved this book as much if I wasn’t such a Karen Tongson & Pop Rocket fan? Hard to say, but this was an emotional read that led me to revisit some of my favorite Carpenters’ songs (all the hits).
24. Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, Theodore C. Bestor, 7/14
25. **My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un) Popular Culture, Guy Barnum, 7/21 (audio) - another Pop Rocket host’s memoir. I recommend the audio book because Branum reads it and is hilarious. After I finished it, I started it again, but then my loan ended.
26. How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood, Peter Moskowitz, 7/25
27. The Farm, Joanne Ramos, 7/27
28. Tomorrow Will Be Different, Sarah McBride, 8/7 (audio)
29. Swiss Watching: Inside Europe’s Landlocked Island, Diccon Bewes, 8/11
This book fit in my back pocket, which made me like it even more.
30. Meaty, Samantha Irby, 8/15 (audio)
31. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, Helene Tursten, 8/17
32. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer, 8/25 (audio)
33. Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island, Earl Swift, 8/31
34. **What If This Were Enough, Heather Havrilesky, 9/12
35. The Nest, Kenneth Oppel, 9/13 - this is a YA book that I finished in about two hours. It was weird and scary.
36. Fleishman Is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, 9/22
37. Five Midnights, Anna Dávila Cardinal, 9/26
38. The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Anissa Gray, 9/28 (audio)
39. **Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel, 10/14 - I had to think about how long I would survive in an apocalypse. As a result, I started storing more drinking water, but that’s as far as I got in my preparations.
40. Amal Unbound, Aisha Saeed, 10/15 (audio)
41. **A Cosmology of Monsters, Shaun Hamil, 10/23 - so weird.
42. The Dutch House, Ann Patchett, 10/26
43. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City, Derek S. Hyra, 11/10
44. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman, 11/15 (reread)
45. Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship, Kayleen Schaefer, 11/20 (audio)
46. **How We Fight For Our Lives, Saeed Jones, 11/24 - there were times I had to stop reading this because it hurt.
47. Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes, 12/4 (audio)
48. Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer, Bren Smith, 12/8
49. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King, 12/15 (audio)
50. The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden, 12/17
51. We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter, Celeste Headles, 12/19
52. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman, 12/21 (reread)
53. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2), 12/27
54. Strange Planet, Nathan W. Pyle, 12/28
What were your favorite books this year? Are you setting reading goals for 2020?