Reading! Catching Up With My Books
Hello All!
It’s been an absolutely crazy few months, with little time to think beyond a crazy family and work schedule. In fact, I’m contemplating the next steps in my life with an eye towards making life more manageable and enjoyable for all of us becaues I quite frankly don’t know if things are sustainable as they have been.
At any rate, as always I have continued to read, and I want to share my list of books with you.
A few notes first:
1. For a very long while now I’ve had trouble falling asleep when I try to read at night - which is crazy because my bedtime reading is a lifelong habit so much a part of who I am that I almost don’t know how to live without it. Nevertheless, one or two pages in I’m seriously fighting to stay awake. This has seriously cut into my reading time (I’m losing 1-2 hours/evening.), and is annoying the tar out of me.
2. In a development that’s so very unlike me, I started and didn’t finish probably 6-8 books from January through the end of March. This is just weird, and I have no explanation beyond a short attention span and exhaustion because of the aforementioned crazy schedule. Problem identified, I’m going to work to fix it. You'll also see at the bottom of this post a list of books that I moved to the Unfinished shelf for a variety of reasons. I may or may not try them again at another time.
3. Despite this, I still managed to finish a healthy number of books. Prior to going back to work a year ago, I was reading 10/month, and I have averaged half of that so far in 2018. Not bad at all.
January and February:
Nonfiction:
1. Braving the Wilderness, Brene Brown - I adore Brown, and this is a must read. In fact, I think I need to get a print of her ‘strong back, soft front, wild heart’ saying to hang on the wall in my office. It was needed.
2. Mindful Running, Mackenzie L. Harvey - I heard an interview with Harvey on one of my podcasts, and was really intrigued. Mindfulness and meditation are concepts which the universe seems to want me to learn. (Seriously...they keep coming up over and over lately.). I am delighted to say that this is an amazing book - very grounded with excellent practical advice and enough stories to make it interesting. I’ve since incorporated a few of the practices suggested, and have found them all very helpful. I’ll be returning to them again and again.
3. Runners World Complete Book of Running, 4. Runners World Big Book of Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Training - Hilariously enough, I read a lot of these books while on a hotel tradmill. I had checked a bunch of running books out of the library, and these are the two that I felt had the best practical advice. I’m actually using a training schedule right now adapted from both.
Fiction:
5. Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire - Another Wayward Children novella, and again...please read these books, they are amazing. McGuire is one of my favorites now for a reason. Her books range from silly page turners to deeply lyrical, all with a solid fantasy/fairy tale base.
6. Binti, 7. Binti: Home, 8. Binti: the Night Masquarade, Nnedi Okorafor - Typically I'm not much of a SciFi fan, but when it's written by Okorafor I am all in.
9. The Grace Keepers, Kristy Logan - This was an NPR 2017 Book Concierge find, and it was achingly beautiful.
March:
Nonfiction:
10. Half the Sky (audio), Nicholas D> KRistof and Sheryl WuDonn - I started this book on International Women's Day, which was perfect timing. Honestly, I think it's a must-read for women everywhere.
11. Being Mortal (audio), Atul Gawande (unfinished) - I started this after hearing an interview with Gawande. It is a fascinating look at the end of life and what we hold important. I did enjoy the half or so that I listened to, but ultimately didn't feel that there was enough content beyond what I had heard in the interview to finish. Still glad I read it. It's given me much to think about.
Fiction:
12. Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories, Kelly Barnhoff - An eagerly awaited pre-order that didn't dissapoint. True, not every story was a 10...but there were a few that were so amazing that they lifted the entire book.
13. A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L’Engle - I went to see the movie with my daughter, and came home and immediately reread the book to get the stupid movie out of my brain. OK, that wasn't entirely fair. I think it's an impossible book to adapt to film, and I understand the decisions that were made. I think it was a decent attempt, and I adore the casting (except for Oprah, who I just didn't care for in this role.)
14. Strange the Dreamer, Laini T - Wow. It's gorgeous. And fun. And different. And now I have to wait for book two?! Thank you once again, NPR Book Concierge! (Yeah, it only happens once/year, but it's become a favorite source for new and different.)
15. Borne, Jeff Vandermeer - I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I might.
16. Tricks for Free, Seanan McGuire - If you have to do 4 hours on a treadmill, I highly recommend having just the right book to keep you from going insane....and this one did the trick nicely. McGuire's InCryptid novels are her popcorn novels - they hold the attention well, but aren't at all deep and don't concern themselves overly much with fancy language. I made it through 3/4 the book during my loooooooooooooooooooooong run, and I wasn't bored, so that's saying something! (As a side note, I very much admire McGuire's amazing output. The fact that she's got multiple series that she publishes in each year, and that they are all so different from each other...kudos.)
Unfinished:
-. Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys - I found this book on the NPR book concierege, and let me say up front that it's beautifully written and the characters are divine. My problelm with it was that it had an exceedingly slow pace, and so I struggled to stay with it after a certain point. Also, I'm so not into Lovecraft....so the new take on it was not that much of an interest to me. I was reading it as a first intro, which is perhaps why I needed more action and less atmosphere. This is a book that I fully plan on going back to at some point - when life is perhaps not as crazy and I have more energy to devote to slower books like this. There is a sequel coming out. I may preorder it and pick this up again when it arrives.
-. The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin - I know, I know, this is one of the most decorated trilogys in recent history. Everyone loves these books. They are great. They are different and unique and well written....and good grief, I find it a slog to get through them. Book one had an amazing pay-out at the end, and was so very worth it. Book two was tough to get through, but I also felt that it was worth it. Book three....seriously coulndn't get past the first 50 pages or so. Kept picking it back up, reading a page, and then setting it back down for weeks at a time.
The Philosopher Kings and Necessity, Jo Walton - This pains me, but it was time to give up for a while and set these aside. The first book in this trilogy - The Just City - truly was an interesting thought experiment which I enjoyed. I do have a minor in the Classic Greek Language, and anything to do with the Classics generally gives me a bit of a thrill still. The problem with thought experiments, though, is that they can be a little bit cold. I found that I just wasn't connected with any of the characters (except perhaps one who dies right away in book 2) and so I just didn't care. This is another I will hopefully return to at some point in the future.
It’s been an absolutely crazy few months, with little time to think beyond a crazy family and work schedule. In fact, I’m contemplating the next steps in my life with an eye towards making life more manageable and enjoyable for all of us becaues I quite frankly don’t know if things are sustainable as they have been.
At any rate, as always I have continued to read, and I want to share my list of books with you.
A few notes first:
1. For a very long while now I’ve had trouble falling asleep when I try to read at night - which is crazy because my bedtime reading is a lifelong habit so much a part of who I am that I almost don’t know how to live without it. Nevertheless, one or two pages in I’m seriously fighting to stay awake. This has seriously cut into my reading time (I’m losing 1-2 hours/evening.), and is annoying the tar out of me.
2. In a development that’s so very unlike me, I started and didn’t finish probably 6-8 books from January through the end of March. This is just weird, and I have no explanation beyond a short attention span and exhaustion because of the aforementioned crazy schedule. Problem identified, I’m going to work to fix it. You'll also see at the bottom of this post a list of books that I moved to the Unfinished shelf for a variety of reasons. I may or may not try them again at another time.
3. Despite this, I still managed to finish a healthy number of books. Prior to going back to work a year ago, I was reading 10/month, and I have averaged half of that so far in 2018. Not bad at all.
January and February:
Nonfiction:
1. Braving the Wilderness, Brene Brown - I adore Brown, and this is a must read. In fact, I think I need to get a print of her ‘strong back, soft front, wild heart’ saying to hang on the wall in my office. It was needed.
2. Mindful Running, Mackenzie L. Harvey - I heard an interview with Harvey on one of my podcasts, and was really intrigued. Mindfulness and meditation are concepts which the universe seems to want me to learn. (Seriously...they keep coming up over and over lately.). I am delighted to say that this is an amazing book - very grounded with excellent practical advice and enough stories to make it interesting. I’ve since incorporated a few of the practices suggested, and have found them all very helpful. I’ll be returning to them again and again.
3. Runners World Complete Book of Running, 4. Runners World Big Book of Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Training - Hilariously enough, I read a lot of these books while on a hotel tradmill. I had checked a bunch of running books out of the library, and these are the two that I felt had the best practical advice. I’m actually using a training schedule right now adapted from both.
Fiction:
5. Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire - Another Wayward Children novella, and again...please read these books, they are amazing. McGuire is one of my favorites now for a reason. Her books range from silly page turners to deeply lyrical, all with a solid fantasy/fairy tale base.
6. Binti, 7. Binti: Home, 8. Binti: the Night Masquarade, Nnedi Okorafor - Typically I'm not much of a SciFi fan, but when it's written by Okorafor I am all in.
9. The Grace Keepers, Kristy Logan - This was an NPR 2017 Book Concierge find, and it was achingly beautiful.
March:
Nonfiction:
10. Half the Sky (audio), Nicholas D> KRistof and Sheryl WuDonn - I started this book on International Women's Day, which was perfect timing. Honestly, I think it's a must-read for women everywhere.
11. Being Mortal (audio), Atul Gawande (unfinished) - I started this after hearing an interview with Gawande. It is a fascinating look at the end of life and what we hold important. I did enjoy the half or so that I listened to, but ultimately didn't feel that there was enough content beyond what I had heard in the interview to finish. Still glad I read it. It's given me much to think about.
Fiction:
12. Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories, Kelly Barnhoff - An eagerly awaited pre-order that didn't dissapoint. True, not every story was a 10...but there were a few that were so amazing that they lifted the entire book.
13. A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L’Engle - I went to see the movie with my daughter, and came home and immediately reread the book to get the stupid movie out of my brain. OK, that wasn't entirely fair. I think it's an impossible book to adapt to film, and I understand the decisions that were made. I think it was a decent attempt, and I adore the casting (except for Oprah, who I just didn't care for in this role.)
14. Strange the Dreamer, Laini T - Wow. It's gorgeous. And fun. And different. And now I have to wait for book two?! Thank you once again, NPR Book Concierge! (Yeah, it only happens once/year, but it's become a favorite source for new and different.)
15. Borne, Jeff Vandermeer - I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I might.
16. Tricks for Free, Seanan McGuire - If you have to do 4 hours on a treadmill, I highly recommend having just the right book to keep you from going insane....and this one did the trick nicely. McGuire's InCryptid novels are her popcorn novels - they hold the attention well, but aren't at all deep and don't concern themselves overly much with fancy language. I made it through 3/4 the book during my loooooooooooooooooooooong run, and I wasn't bored, so that's saying something! (As a side note, I very much admire McGuire's amazing output. The fact that she's got multiple series that she publishes in each year, and that they are all so different from each other...kudos.)
Unfinished:
-. Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys - I found this book on the NPR book concierege, and let me say up front that it's beautifully written and the characters are divine. My problelm with it was that it had an exceedingly slow pace, and so I struggled to stay with it after a certain point. Also, I'm so not into Lovecraft....so the new take on it was not that much of an interest to me. I was reading it as a first intro, which is perhaps why I needed more action and less atmosphere. This is a book that I fully plan on going back to at some point - when life is perhaps not as crazy and I have more energy to devote to slower books like this. There is a sequel coming out. I may preorder it and pick this up again when it arrives.
-. The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin - I know, I know, this is one of the most decorated trilogys in recent history. Everyone loves these books. They are great. They are different and unique and well written....and good grief, I find it a slog to get through them. Book one had an amazing pay-out at the end, and was so very worth it. Book two was tough to get through, but I also felt that it was worth it. Book three....seriously coulndn't get past the first 50 pages or so. Kept picking it back up, reading a page, and then setting it back down for weeks at a time.
The Philosopher Kings and Necessity, Jo Walton - This pains me, but it was time to give up for a while and set these aside. The first book in this trilogy - The Just City - truly was an interesting thought experiment which I enjoyed. I do have a minor in the Classic Greek Language, and anything to do with the Classics generally gives me a bit of a thrill still. The problem with thought experiments, though, is that they can be a little bit cold. I found that I just wasn't connected with any of the characters (except perhaps one who dies right away in book 2) and so I just didn't care. This is another I will hopefully return to at some point in the future.
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