Have you read any good books this year?
My book list has gotten increasingly pathetic (meaning, I haven’t been reading much), so I’ve lumped the last two years together.
- My Dyslexia, by Philip Schultz. Memoir of a dyslexic writer — has some interesting concepts.
- The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, by Louanne Brizendine. Some valuable ideas but I got the impression that the author was not comfortable in her own skin. She made it seem that all women were upgrading from a place of weakness, and I don’t think that’s true. Perhaps too much power is being given to the concept of upgrading. Couldn’t it just be “growth”?
- The Power of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment (the abbreviated version), by Eckhart Tolle. It didn’t make my skirt fly up but maybe that was because I read the short version.
- Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, A Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth, by Megan Nix. I cruised through this one. If you’re pregnant, or thinking of getting pregnant, or a medical provider, read this. Five stars.
- Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, by Sara Miles. Surprisingly good, and the jacket photo made me ridiculously happy. Some main themes included Nicaragua, food, restaurants, and faith.
- Plain: A Memoir of Mennonite Girlhood, by Mary Alice Hostetter. I didn’t think I’d like it, but it was actually well-written and interesting. Bonus: it included some cheesemaking!
- Finding Me: A Memoir, by Viola Davis. Choppy.
- Feast: True Love In and Out of the Kitchen, by Hannah Howard. Devoured it. (Don’t read this one if you’re struggling with an eating disorder.)
- Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, by Martha Beck. Well-written, but theatrical. Nugget: the purpose of life is what happens between people.
- Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry. Perry did not take pains to paint himself as a likeable character. Also: addiction is boring and tedious; I ended up skimming a bunch of the book.
- The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. Fantastic! Comedic, and well-written. Reminiscent of A Man Called Ove. I read it out loud to my husband in just a few days.
- The Bang-Bang Club, by Greg Marinovich. Intense, dark, gory, interesting.
- The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism, by Olivia Fox Cabane. Weirdly enough, this is one of the most humanizing books on forgiveness, compassion, and relationships that I have read in a long time.
- The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change With Purpose, Power, and Facts, by Mary Claire Haver. Invaluable. Every woman needs to read this. (I wrote more about it here.)
- I Write What I Like: Selected Writings, by Steve Biko. A dense book about a difficult situation and a unique person.
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain. Good writing, okay book.
- Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, by Ina Garten. Too many exclamation marks! Some good ideas, but the over all story felt shallow.
- My Traitor’s Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience, by Rian Malan. Well-written, thoughtful, complex, dense, excellent.
This same time, years previous: the quotidian (12.11.23), the quotidian (12.12.22), the fourth child, just what we needed, turkey broth jello, in praise of the local arts, Italian wedding soup.
8 Comments
Nancy
Hi-Glad you enjoyed the Feast book. Not reading as much as I used to-don’t know why-getting older (71)? Anyway, lately one I’ve read twice is Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Read it, kept thinking about it and read it again-dang I liked that book.
KC
… also it includes a mildly-sentient, carnivorous sourdough starter (who is chill with being subdivided for bread dough as long as he gets fed well). It’s an… atypical… book. (…or if it isn’t, please tell me about any other books like it!)
KC
It is most likely wildly unfair to many other good books this year due to recency bias (October), but: The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon’s “not fluffy kid lit” psuedonym, although tbh, while this book does start with finding a dead body, this is still very much… made less brutal? … than an adult book with the same run-through would have been?) Anyway, it acknowledges a number of things that I am not accustomed to kids’ books acknowledging, and also with a level of nuance, especially by the end of the book, that I am also not used to seeing, while still clearly indicating that Some [but not all] People Are Trying Hard To Make Things Better, Okay? Including personal sacrifice sometimes? Even if there are limited chances of it succeeding? which is a theme I just plain want to see, over and over, everywhere, right now.
Also it was just plain delightful.
Jennifer Jo
Well, NOW I’m intrigued.
HATTIE
I’ve been on an Irish author spree because they are such good storytellers. Here are some of my favorites:
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
This is Happiness by Niall Williams
Small Things Like This by Claire Keegan
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Looking forward to Sally Rooney’s new book Intermezzo, although I did not enjoy Normal People.
Katrina Sensenig
Like Melanie, I also had a good reading here – here’s a few I enjoyed-
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
The Sun does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
The Good Life by Rober Waldinger
How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key
Forty Autumns by Nina Willner
Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patty Callahan Henry
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin
Strange Sally Dimond by Liz Nugent
Fish in a Tree (think this one came from one of your older reading lists?)
The Kingdom the power and the glory by Tim Alberta
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
DB Stewart
I’ve truly enjoyed several books this year and will be blogging about them soon…but here’s my latest read (in my top two this year): The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
melodiemillerdavis
I’ve had a good reading year. Here are books I mostly enjoyed.
2024
The Chairman – Harry Lee Krause – disabled husband hangs on to dear wife
My Dear Dietrich – Amanda Barratt – WW 2 story about Dietrich Bonhoffer
The Girls in the Picture – Melanie Benjamin – about the beginnings of the film industry, circa my parent’s era. WW 1
Rise and Shine – Anna Quindlen
Annie across the States – L. M. Elliot about the civil war
Let’s Roll – wife of Todd Beamer
The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman – journalism – funny
Overcome – Chris Fabry – about a young runner – very Christian book
The Alphabet Sisters – Monica McInerney – 3 sisters learn to value each other
A Common Life: The Wedding Story (2001) – by Jan Karon — such a fun and funny book, loved it.
The Outside Man – Richard Patterson – too much bad cursing, but interesting story — read mostly while in Spain.
The Weird Sisters – Eleanor Brown – with me having two sisters with whom we all got. Very different from book above, The Alphabet Sisters. (– and then having three daughters of my own–this is a really fun book._