The 2023 Book Review

2023 was kind of an average year of reading - as in, a lot of average, just-okay books. The year itself felt very long, in reading terms, in that I forgot about books I had read earlier in the year, and was surprised to remember I had read them only in this past calendar year. Unlike 2022, I didn't re-read too many books, nor did I listen to many audiobooks (which, in 2022 was the format of most of my re-reads). 2022 was a year of comfort re-reads, and 2023 was instead a year of many a new book, but a lot of very average, 3-star reads. I read a lot, but there weren't as many stand-out reads as some years. C'est la vie, I guess.

Without much further ado, let's jump in (if I don't capitalize on this burst of motivation to write this post, I never will, and poor 2023 will be lumped in with next year's review!). 

Disliked

First of all, it is noteworthy that when I arrive at this first category, nothing springs to mind. That doesn't mean there weren't any stinkers, just not so many strong ones like some years (don't get me started on It Ends With Us or The Ladies of the Secret Circus again - the fact that these two books immediately spring to mind years after reading them conveys just how truly awful they were!).

I didn't have any books that I disliked that much. Perhaps a first in the thirteen years or so of these book reviews!

Resounding Meh

Okay, several resounding Mehs come to mind, however! What's a "Resounding Meh" book, and how does it differ from Disliked? Well, it was fine...just fine. Likely overhyped, and therefore, I either read it with too high of expectations or, I read it with too critical an eye. Or...it just wasn't that good. Sometimes a book can just be not that good, despite the hype.

Fourth Wing and Iron Wing by Rebecca Yarros *ducks as projectiles fly at my head across the internet*

Look, these books were fine. They were entertaining, they were page-turning at times, but given all the hype...they were fine. I like fantasy, I like new spins on worlds with dragons. I don't like gratuitous violence (of which there was...a lot in these books). But the gushing! Oh the gushing! on podcasts and social media about these books - it was a *bit* much.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

I could not stop reading this book - and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it - until about the last third of the book. And then I started laughing because it was ridiculous and no longer believable. Imagine the worst things that could happen to a young, orphaned boy - the w o r s t - and then double it - no, triple - no quadruple it! and you have A Little Life. It got to the point where I couldn't see the point any more. It's compulsively readable, but it felt merely voyeuristic. I read a review that Yanagihara is really hard on her LGBTQ+ characters (as in, she puts them through extremely difficult situations to an unnecessary amount), and that is very, very true of A Little Life. I think there's value in the story, but I think she needed to scale back the torture of her main character just a bit to actually get the point across. It was a compulsively readable book that left me feeling a bit empty when I was done.

Favorites of 2023 (in no particular order)

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay

This was a sweet book about female friendship. It's an epistolary novel, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love this format. The main characters, a younger and an older woman, strike up a friendship in letters in the 1960s via the column that one of the women writes in a magazine. They exchange recipe and spices, and slowly start to share about their lives. It's a quiet book, and for me, it was the right book at the right time. 

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

I can't quite explain why this book was one of my favorites of the year. I think it reminded me of books written in the Gilded Age à la Edith Wharton, or even a little older, like George Eliot. The main character is not entirely likable, and yet you find yourself routing for her nonetheless. She is a young woman trying to make her way in New York in the 1990s (or, as my students would say "The late nineteen hundreds" *shudder*), the daughter of Korean immigrants who want only the best for their daughters. It's a very wise book in a way I wish I could articulate better. Casey makes a lot of mistakes, but keeps trying to better herself. I think I liked it because it combined the quaint wisdom and charm of books a hundred years older, with the struggles of being an immigrant in America. I liked this much better than Pachinko - also good. Free Food is not as devastatingly heartbreaking as Pachinko.

The Course of Love by Allan de Botton

Is it a novel? Is it a self-help book? Is it it a psychology book? This little work combines all three. It follows the main characters as they meet, fall in love, marry, have children, have an affair, and stay married. It's all about falling in love, and choosing to stay with one's partner once the initial glitter and newness of romance fades. I plan on gifting this book to newly married couples. I don't agree with everything in it, as it's written from a secular point of view, but I think it has a lot of wisdom to offer people in committed romantic relationships.

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

This book is a retelling of Antigone, set in 2015 at the height of ISIS. You don't have to be familiar with Antigone to read it. It's an extremely thought-provoking book, as can be expected by any work that tackles the themes of Antigone through the context of Islamic extremism. 

The Secret Life of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

The main character, Hazel, lost her young sister, Flora, years ago during World War 2 when they were staying in Oxford during the Blitz. Her sister was presumed drowned in the river, and her body was never recovered. Years later, Hazel discovers a book that tells the stories she told her her sister as a child, leading her to wonder if Flora is still alive. 

I probably would not have picked up this book on my own, but I read it with my book club. It was really a beautiful story. I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

For some reason I've never picked up anything by Enger, and I now know I was missing out. This is the story of a family trying to escape horrible tormentors in their small town, which leads to the arrest of the oldest brother. It's a story about faith, family, and miracles. I can't really remember the exact details as I write this, as it was one of my first reads of 2023, but the feeling of hope, wonder, and miracle has stayed with me. Fans of Wendell Berry, Marilyn Robinson, and Kent Haruf would probably enjoy this (and have probably already read it as it's not a new book).

Honorable Mentions

In 2022, I read a ton of re-reads for comfort or for kickstarting reading slumps, but 2023 was the year of the mystery or legal thriller for combating reading slumps. None of these books were my favorite books of the year, but I've enjoyed the sum of the whole of these series:

Aaron Falk series, by Jane Harper - start with The Dry

Aaron Falk is a Federal Police Investigator who returns to his hometown for a funeral, haunted by a terrible loss many years earlier. He gets caught up in an investigation of the death of his friend, which leads, of course, to many answers about the previous tragedy.

Rockton series, by Kelley Armstrong - start with City of the Lost

Casey Duncan and her friend find refuge in an off-the-grid town deep in the Yukon for people who need to get away from their past for a time. Casey becomes the town detective, and is immediately tasked with solving a horrific murder. These books aren't particularly well-written but the stories are pretty good. The "locked room" aspect of the residents of the town being the most logical suspects because there is no one else (or is there?) makes it particularly engrossing. Everyone - everyone - has secrets, and Casey has to unravel as many as she can to solve the murder.

Looking ahead to 2024, I want to read more non-fiction, more backlist, more works-in-translation, and more authors of color. Of course, if I'm being honest, I always want to read more non-fiction, more backlist, more works-in-translation, and more authors of color, and I usually don't read as much in these categories as I would like. But, better to have the desire to do so, and actively seek out diversifying my reading and not quite meet my goals, than not attempt it all! Of the 7 books I have read so far, only one of them fits those categories (backlist) - so I have some work to do. 

2024 is going to be another year of big transitions. 2022 - a big transition year - was all comfort re-reads, so I might be in for another round of re-reading Lord of the Rings and the Miles Vorkosigan series and James Herriot. And if so...that's okay! 

What was your best read or reads of 2023? What are you looking forward to reading in 2024!

Happy reading, friends!

The 2022 Book Review

2022 was something of a strange reading year for me. By the numbers, I read more books than I have in a year (at least since I started keeping track). But it doesn’t feel that way because many of the books were re-reads – this was the year of the re-read audiobook (re-reading my 2021 book review, I declared 2021 the year of the re-read). 

At the beginning of the year, but noticeable by March, I hit quite a reading slump. Unable to focus on reading with my eyes, I turned to audiobooks, and unable to focus on audiobooks I haven’t read before, I turned to audiobooks of books I’ve already read before. (This wasn’t just a reading slump thing; I generally find audiobooks of new books hard to focus on, but I can listen to a re-read with more focus and attention. I suspect it's because when my mind inevitably does wander, I still know what’s happening.) I reread a lot of familiar favorites – all of the Lord of the Rings plus The Hobbit, a few Miles Vorkosigan books, a few in the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Hunger Games series, and more. I also re-read a few favorites with my eyes (in my book club we call this “eye-reading” and listening to audiobooks “ear-reading) but not as many as I listened to. 

Minus the audiobooks re-reads, it was still a decent reading year. I kind of made up for the 3-4 month reading slump, and when I couldn’t focus on reading as I was leaving Hangzhou, it was reading I turned to for comfort and familiarity during my first few months in Accra.

Let’s get started! 

Disliked 

It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover 

We read this in book club, and it just did not work for me. I could write a whole blog post about how terrible Colleen Hoover’s writing is…but there’s already plenty of those out there. I will say this – she’s getting people to read, and I can only hope it acts as a kind of “gateway drug” to better books. It was the first Colleen Hoover book I’ve ever read and the last. 

Resounding “Meh” & The Over-hyped 

Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner 

Everyone was talking about this book for a few months. Every book blog, every podcast, every book magazine article. She was even on the NPR game show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (obviously the pinnacle of nerdy cool – she probably even got a free tote bag!). In some aspects, I think this was just not the right book at the right time for me. But I also think the book was just okay in terms of the writing and structure. I think, if I had read it without the hype, I would have said: “Okay, that was fine,” and moved on. But since everyone told me it was amazing, I was a little too critical. It’s hard to judge memoir, sometimes, because, well, it’s a person’s life and experiences. But, we can judge their writing and structural choices! I think I also had a hard time relating to Zauner and her relationship with her mother – it was just very different from my own, and while I like to put myself in other people’s shoes and walk around in them, these shoes were uncomfortable for most of the book. 

Food-For-Thought Despite Not Really Liking It 

More Than I Love My Life, David Grossman 

This was such a challenging read, in part because of content, in part because of the writing style. I would not recommend this book to most people, but I’m still thinking about it, months after reading. It tells the story of a woman who survived tremendous torture in a gulag in Croatia. It’s a challenging book that raises challenging questions about motherhood, sacrifice, honor and reputation, and love. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Balkans, the themes listed above, and anyone who enjoyed Sophie’s Choice. (No, I’m not kidding about the last part.)

(You might be wondering why I read it? Book Club! - funnily enough, it was one of the few book club books I finished in 2022. I've gone back and finished a few more, but I really, really struggled to finish book club books this year - the lack of focus just made it really hard to read something not of my own choosing.)

Best Re-Read 

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang This was probably the third time I’ve read this book. I read it years and years ago in high school, and it was one of the books that sparked my interest in China. It’s an incredible story of China during the Cultural Revolution. The story does focus on years before the Cultural Revolution and after, but the main part of the book focuses most on this time. If you have any interest in China, or simply man’s inhumanity to man, read this book. I think anyone who lives or has lived in China should read it because it. But I also think people who have no interest in China should read it, because it is a very human story, not just a Chinese cultural story. 

Favorites of 2022 (in reading order) 

As I thought about my favorite books of the year, the books that appear here are the books that stuck with me, and will probably continue to stick with me. They weren’t necessarily my favorites in that I loved the content. But they did get under my skin, challenge me, make me think, make me wonder, make me question. Ultimately, they were books that showed me a little more about what it means to be human. 

In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden 

This is a very human story about a woman who becomes a choir nun in a Benedictine monastery. It is not dull and boring, as one might expect from both the content and the cover. It’s a realistic and loving portrait of the nuns and sisters in convent, their struggles with each other, their faith. It’s a little hard to get into the writing style but keep trying – after the first chapter it gets easier. The deep and authentic faith of the nuns left an impact on me, and I found myself thinking about this book throughout the year, even as I reflected upon my own imperfect faith. They were imperfect and so human – but loved God and sought to know him more. They didn’t take orders because they were particularly holy, but rather sought God despite their imperfections. 

Women Talking, Miriam Toews 

Based on a true story, a community of Mennonite women from a colony in South America get together to discuss whether or not they are going to leave their community or stay because of terrible acts against them by several men in their community. Over several months, even years, in the night, women were being raped by men in their community – they were drugged with cow tranquilizers, and then were told by the spiritual leaders they were under spiritual demonic attack. 

This is not an easy book to read but it was a really incredible story. The story is “told” by the only man in the community they can trust, mostly because he is something of an outsider and not part of the conspiracy. The women are asking him to write down their conversation, because they cannot read and write. 

I know I’m not doing justice to this story – it’s hard to describe! I think it’s a really compelling and challenging look at religion and faith, a challenge to closed spiritual communities that rule by the letter of the law, rather than the spirit; when there’s no room for grace and mistakes, mistakes and sins get covered up, and fester and cause even more horrific sins. These events really took place, which is all the more disturbing. 

Here’s a link to a National Geographic article about the Mennonite colonies in South America: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/mennonites-bolivia-busque 

And an article about the true events of this novel: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48265703 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zavin 

Winner of the 2022 Worth-the-Hype Award! (Awarded by me)

The friendship story of two video game designers, friends from childhood, their rise to fame and all the accompanying struggles. This book was truly a beautiful book. The initial description of the book did not grab me but ultimately, this book is about friendship and storytelling, and everything in between. It’s literary fiction, but accessible (often literary fiction isn’t accessible but this doesn’t try too hard). This might be my favorite book of 2022. 

The Marvellers, Dhonielle Clayton 

My sister recommended this book to me, comparing it to Harry Potter and Ruby Bridges – an unusual pairing. The main character is an elevent year old Conjuror who has been invited to study at the Marvellers' training institute. She is the first Conjuror to study there, and therefore faces tremendous prejudice and discrimination – they do not want Conjurors at their school (hence the Ruby Bridges connection). This is middle grade fiction, and handles the heavier themes well; you don’t feel like it’s homework, but you learn through the story and experience of the main character. It contains the delight and marvel of Harry Potter. Remember that first time reading The Sorcerer’s Stone and all the wonder and delight of discovery of that book? The Marvellers has that spark of wonder and amazement, that creative world-building delightfulness but with more serious themes than Harry Potter. 

A Few Runners-Up

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives, Dashka Slater 

The story of an alleged hate crime, The 57 Bus follows the story of two teenagers, one a non-binary teenager, the other a young Black man from the “wrong” side of town. This book explores both sides of the story, explores both young person’s experience, motivations. It is not an easy read but I think it’s an important one. It challenges…many assumptions (on both sides) and offers a raw but balanced account of what happened that day. It’s also, at its core, a story of forgiveness and redemption. 

Once again, it stuck with me; I’m still thinking about it. It wasn’t my favorite in terms of content (because hate crime isn’t exactly something I want to read about every day), but I was significantly impacted by it. I think we are living in a world where this kind of incident may happen more and more as the divide between values and beliefs gets wider and wider in society. I don’t think this book offers definitive answers, but it shows two humans (in fact many humans – their parents and friends and communities) wrestling with what it means to be belong, what it means to interact with people who may or may not agree or believe in your lifestyle and worldview. 

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives of North Koreans, Barbara Demick 

A nonfiction work that follows the lives of four or five North Koreans. I knew little to nothing about North Korea, and found this book fascinating and heartbreaking. All of the subjects of the book had defected to South Korea, and the book explores their lives in North Korea, as well as a little about what the transition from North Korea to South Korea was like. 

Human Acts, Han Kang 

One of my students recommended this book to me. It’s about the Gwangju Massacre in South Korea in the 1980s. It’s not an easy read (I seem to be saying that a lot in this review) in part because of content, and in part because of style. It plays around with narrative point of view that some might find a bit challenging and annoying (but I thought it was kind of brilliant). The book follows the stories of different people effected by the massacre, all connected by a boy they all knew, who was killed in the massacre. 

The Unquiet Dead, Ausma Zehenat Khan 

The first in a detective series, The Unquiet Dead follows the investigation of what seems to be a straightforward death or murder, but of course, is not. Esa Khattack is the head of Community Policing in Toronto, focusing primarily on the Muslim community. It becomes evident, throughout the investigation, that the dead man was connected to the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995. Once again…this is not an easy read, but it taught me about an horrific event that I was aware of but not really.

I guess Man’s Inhumanity to Man was a common thread across my reading this year; I'm not sure why (I actually read even more books this year that dealt with this theme). The story took me by surprise, because I wasn’t expecting the Bosnia connection, and I found it hard to put down. It’s not quite in my favorites list, in part because I think there were some flaws in the plotting and character development (being the first in a series, it was trying to establish some things about the main characters that didn’t quite gel with the main plot). 

Just For Fun (Not necessarily great literature or a favorite, but a fun read nevertheless) 

So many of my books this year have been heavy, heavy, heavy. So here are a few lighter reads that I enjoyed. 

Tokyo Ever After, Emiko Jean 

The main character discovers she is the daughter of the crown prince of Japan. This book has both Princess Diary and Crazy Rich Asians vibes. It was a lot of fun – silly, but fun. 

Thank You For Listening, Julia Whelan 

A romance novel about audiobook narrators who fall in love written by an audiobook narrator, so you definitely get the inside-scoop on what it’s like to be an audiobook narrator. I liked this book for the banter – I love good banter in any novel, but especially romance novels. (After all, Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite Shakespearean comedy!) A few open-door moments – easily skipped. The funny thing is that I “eye-read” this book, although it’s read on audio by the author, Julia Whelan who is a well-known audiobook narrator. True confessions: I do not like Julia Whelan as an audiobook narrator! I know, I know – that puts me in a 1% minority. But, I enjoyed her writing. 

Book Lovers, Emily Henry

Another romance novel – Emily Henry seems to be publishing a good romance novel a year. The main characters both work in the book world – one a book agent, one a publisher. Again – lots and lots of banter. Also a few open-door moments easily skipped. I enjoyed Beach Read, but Book Lovers might be my favorite of her three most recent novels. 

The Perveen Mistry series 

The first book in this mystery series set in 1920s Bombay is called The Widows of Malabar Hill. Perveen Mistry is Bombay’s first female lawyer, and is asked to handle the case of three widows whose husband has been murdered. Because Perveen is a woman, and the widows observe purdah, she is the only lawyer who can truly speak with them face to face. I really enjoyed these books. Perveen is a Parsi, a people group I don’t know much about, and it was interesting reading about the Parsi culture, and how they navigate through the dominant cultures of Hindus and Muslims in India. Perveen, as a woman lawyer, faces a lot of scorn and derision, and must overcome the challenges of being a working professional in a time when women were not expected to work. My favorite of the series was book two, The Satapur Moonstone, in which Perveen is asked to go handle the affairs of a dead Maharajah and his widows. Palace intrigue ensues – it was so good! I can’t wait for book four to be published. 

What were your favorite reads this year? Any recommendations? What are you looking forward to reading 2023? 

= = =

Want even more book recommendations? Here are my past book recommendations.

2021

2020

2019

2017

2013-2014

2012

2011 - post 1, post 2, post 3 (good grief!)

Apart from friends and book clubs, I get most of my recommendations from Anne Bogel's podcast, What Should I Read Next? She's got a great format for her show, and I always come away with 2-3 books for my To-Read list. I also enjoy following Annie B. Jones on Instagram and her book recommendations (although she's moving to a paid format). She also has a podcast called From the Front Porch in which she recommends books. I recently started listening to a podcast on occasion called Literally Reading which I enjoy - two friends talking about what they are currently reading. It's a simple format, but it works. 

The 2021 Book Review

Hello Reading Friends!

It's time once again for my annual book review - I know you have been eagerly anticipating it. 

Oh, you forgot that it existed? 

You forgot we were even Facebook friends? 

That's okay! 

2021 was a good reading year. I had a hard time narrowing down my favorites - expect a lot of honorable mentions! 

Here's some of my good - and bad - reads of 2021:

Let's start with the bad and the meh.

Absolutely abhorred: 

The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers

I hated this book. Why did I read it? Well, it was a book club pick - which we pick in a very democratic fashion. Usually, if I don't like a book club book, I just don't read it. This book started out okay - and then took a terrible turn for the worse so much so that reading it made me feel so righteously angry that I reveled in the hatred and needed to keep reading it so I could talk about how much I hated it. It involves demonic circuses and celebrating, well, demons. Not my cup of tea. Guys, come on - you know me: this shouldn't come as a surprise. And if you don't, let me just say: demonic circuses and romantic demons...are not for me. Also, it was SO POORLY WRITTEN. I'm not just saying that because I disliked the story. This was bad bad bad. I have ninth graders that can write better than that. 

Don't read it.

Disliked:

The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The President Snow tell-all I didn't need to read.

Basically, imagine reading a YA novel about how Hitler became Hitler (and making you feel a little sorry for him) and you have The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. 

Does a villain deserve a whole book to himself?

I'm not talking a Wicked-esque retelling of The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins made the risky choice to humanize President Snow, and for me, it didn't work. Okay, okay, even bad guys have backstories and origin stories. But I didn't need to read it.

The Over-hyped Books: 

(This category always reminds me of this Farside cartoon, which is funny because...I've never even seen Dances With Wolves! Maybe I should get around to that.)

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris 

The initial premise sounded really fascinating but the execution just didn't work for me. I'm not sure what this book wanted to be: a woke treatise on the Black experience of working in corporate America? Or a thriller? It tried too hard to be both. I'm fine with one or the other - but at least for this author, the both/and of social justice and Stepford-wives-esque thriller just didn't get lift off. 

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

This book was everywhere when it came out - the author was even interviewed on NPR (the pinnacle of respectability!). But it...wasn't that good (sorry, Terry Gross!). I'm not sure why it was so, so celebrated. It was fine. But amazing? Inventive? Twisty? Unpredictable? Nope. It was fine. A decent read, but not ground-breaking. If it hadn't been so hyped up, I probably would have liked it better. If you like a bit of a thriller and a twist - read The Plot. Just don't expect the most inventive plot ever (the premise of the book).

Food for Thought - A book that stuck with me even if I didn't love or like it:

Educated by Tara Westover

First of all, I realize I'm late to the party - everyone everywhere has read Educated. It's a good book, but I did not find it redemptive. Does every book need redemption? Nope. But given that it's a real person's life, and talks about very real people who are still living that life, I felt hopeless at the end of reading it. I felt like - I still feel - that there seems very little that can be done for people raised in that environment. Westover is clearly exceptional, and her own intelligence and stubbornness helped her to pull out that environment. But think of all the young women - and young men - who are not as bright and exceptional as Tara Westover. I think of them, when I read this book - who will help them get out? Do they even know they are living an oppressive life? I don't know - it left me feeling like there wasn't much hope. I've thought a lot about Educated since reading it, and will continue to think about it. But I didn't like it. 

Favorite Reads of 2021 - in order of reading (does not include re-reads - I'll get to those in a moment)

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

I don't know why I only got around to reading this book this year - I think it's the kind of book I assumed I had read because it's so well-known. I'm sure we had three or four dusty* copies on our bookshelves when I was growing up! 

It was absolutely unexpectedly lovely - I laughed, I cried. About...calving cows and infected sows and hurt puppies and sick chickens. It was so good. I picked it up for my "bedtime" reading - a book I can read slowly, before bed, and not feel compelled to keep reading. I ended up reading it in four days. I then went on to read the next two books in the series, almost immediately after the first book. The first book is the best, but the others were lovely, as well. It was just an unexpected balm in turbulent times.

*Every book on our bookshelves were dusty in Mali...

Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

This book captured real people - it's funny, quirky, bittersweet. The main character is a middle-aged woman trying to figure out her life, her musical ensemble, her adult children. It's uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny without being cloyingly sweet. It was a book that just felt right and real.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

The premise of this book is so unusual - a Korean immigrant family in Virginia running a hyperbaric chamber company has a terrible accident with the hyperbaric chamber, and the implications of the accident on all the people involved. It's a book about the immigrant experience, about autism, about the families of children with autism, about family. It's a book that, on paper, I would not think successful given all these disparate topics - but it works so well. It's a book I've thought about long past the reading.

Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson

This was my favorite book of the year, if a book that is so troubling and heartbreaking can be a favorite. I read this on a trip this summer, and found myself weeping while reading it on the plane - I had to stop because I didn't want the person sitting next to me to be concerned. I think every American should read this book, but really, every human, even if you aren't American. It is the story of heartbreak and injustice - but also grace and hope and mercy and redemption and a call to action. I can't stop thinking about it. 

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Almost my favorite book of the year - this is, in a way, a quiet book but personally, tremendously powerful. It's the story of two white boys (their race is important) who are placed in an Indian boarding school in Minnesota. When something terrible happens, they escape down the river with a little girl and one of their classmates, an Indian boy. This story is part The Odyssey, part Grapes of Wrath, part Huckleberry Finn. I resisted reading this book for a while - I'm not sure why - but I'm glad I gave it a chance. (Krueger's Cork O'Connor's series is also really good, by the way.)

Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler

I know that I really liked this book in large part because I live in China - there is so much I don't know about this place and culture and so much I wish to know but constrained by language (completely my fault). Hessler has the gift of getting people to talk to him - not just because he speaks fluent Mandarin. This book is hard to describe - it's different than Country Driving, which was three distinct parts. It's tied together by discussing the history of and discovery of the Oracle Bones of the Shang Dynasty, and somehow he weaves the stories of ordinary Chinese people together into one compelling story. I don't know if it would be as compelling if you don't live here but for me, it felt like a gift of insight into Chinese culture and people. If you want to understand China - and I think everyone should probably try to because I think China is going to continue to be a prominent entity in the world - Hessler's books show the people so well.

Honorable Mentions

Old Man's War by John Scalzi - old people are recruited to fight in an interstellar war. Kind of like Ender's Game....but with eighty-year olds. Lots of unexpected fun.

Followers by Megan Angelo - The main character lives in a Truman-show type of world (except she's aware of the watchers). It's a really compelling commentary on social media and the influence of phones and technology in our lives - without being preachy.

Small Admissions by Amy Poeppel - a fun book about the intricacies of the New York prep school scene.

Writers and Lovers by Lily King - beautiful, evocative, sad story about grief and finding yourself and growing up long past time to grow up.

Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman - a grandmother and granddaughter story. Quirky and fun and bittersweet.

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny - a funny, found family story. 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - a middle school science teacher saves humanity.

The Poet X and Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo - two books in verse, each about young women navigating secrets and family and culture.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - a book about police brutality that shows the impact on the family and community. Unlike The Other Black Girl it didn't feel...like homework. It was a good story, well told that helps the reader empathize with these families and these communities.

Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy - just some twisty suspenseful fun. Fans of Misery will appreciate it.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson - a slow - but good book about the aftermath of a family tragedy. Fans of Marilynn Robinson and William Kent Krueger will like it, I think.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner - A couple comes to visit their dying friend, and reflects on the impact that that they've had on each other's lives. A story of friendship.

What was the best book you read in 2021? 

Happy Reading, dear friends!

BUT WAIT - There's more!

Re-reads: For some reason, this was the year of re-reads for me - I re-read twelve books, some of them hefty tomes. And a few were also some of my a favorite reads but I didn't think I should include them in my main list. So here is a short list of best-and-or-notable-re-reads!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - I share this only to tell a funny story. I re-read this book...without realizing I re-read it...until I went to enter it into Goodreads. I READ THE WHOLE BOOK WITHOUT REALIZING I HAD READ IT. So...either I'm approaching early onset dementia (entirely possible) or it wasn't terribly memorable. I did read it thinking "Geez, this assassin premise is used in YA lit a lot" but that still didn't tip me off that I had read it already....

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - I read this in high school, and a few times since. It is one of the most thought-provoking stories I've ever read. I will read it again - and again. It's not an easy read, but explores Christian faith in a way I have not encountered before. Caution - there is some sexual brutality that may be hard for some to read.

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak - If you haven't read The Book Thief well, I don't know where you've been the past fifteen years. It's an amazing, poetic, beautiful heart-wrenching book. I taught it this past year, and it was one of my favorite books I've taught, and at this point, I've taught a lot of books. I'm actually quite sad that I don't get to teach it this year, because I'm not teaching 8th grade this year.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - it's been 12 years since the 2nd book came out, but even unfinished, this is still one of the best fantasy series of all time (in my humble opinion). Book 2 is not as strong (I also re-read that one) but Name of the Wind...so good.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - this book has a (big) piece of my heart. I can't believe I taught it for 5 years - it's so long! But I love it, and treasured the discussions and conversations that came out of it. I'll probably never teach it again, but I love it . Revisiting it felt like picking up with an old friend that I haven't seen for a long time but resuming a conversation like we never stopped talking.

Past Years' book reviews - in case this wasn't long enough already!

2020

2019

2017

2013-2014

2012

2011 - post 1, post 2, post 3 (good grief!)

Goodness! I've been sort of-ish doing these book reviews for 10 years! (What happened to 2015, 2016, and 2018?...I have no idea.)

The 2020 Book Review

Let's just get it out of the way - the obligatory "2020 was a rough year" comments. It was rough - but for me, it was good for reading - I read 81 books (I usually average about 50)! Reading was my port in the storm - or insert whatever cliched metaphor here that you would like. Reading sustained me. I've always been a big reader, but this year it was all that I wanted to do. It was an escape - but it was also a place of calm, where I could still my mind and take a break. We were on lockdown in China long before everyone else in the world was - and in a surreal twist that no one saw coming - we resumed a semblance of normal soon after. At the time we did not know it was "soon" (12 weeks of online learning seemed interminable - little did we know our peers in the rest of the world would be seeing whole semesters, possibly even a whole school year online). But despite the return to "normal" - nothing was normal. So reading continued to be a safe, solid place to find comfort in a truly crazy, heartbreaking, maddening year.

I hope 2021 is a calmer year, but I hope it still brings good reading - to me and to you!

On tracking my reading:

I have tracked my reading on Goodreads for exactly 10 years - in fact, on December 31, 2020 I read my 500th book - 500 books in 10 years.* (Yes, I did push to read just one more book to get to that number, of course - please note the time on the screen shot!). 

There have been some lean reading years and some fat reading years, so that's an average of 50 books a year, which is respectable. The 500 doesn't count all the books I read repeatedly for school, although I do record them the first time I read/teach them, even if I have read them before. It also includes re-reads, some of which I re-read during these past 10 years.

I also started tracking my reading in a physical notebook this year. I don't know why I haven't physically written down the books I've read before. It's been good because I see the books I have started but haven't finished, which is a little harder to see on Goodreads (I don't use the "currently reading" function by choice). I really like Goodreads, but I like having my private reading journal. Because of this I was able to finish 5-6 books before the end of the year that I had started but had set aside for one reason or another - books I liked but just got distracted by other, shiner books. 

Here are some of my notable (good and bad) reads of 2020.

Disliked

Normal People by Sally Rooney

I think it's a mark of a "good reading year" if you have to stop and think about the book you disliked because you can't remember intensely disliking one particular book, enough to write about. I did dislike books, but the good outweighed the bad. I had a lot of "2-star" reads (19 out of 81). My system for star-ratings is completely and utterly subjective. Sometimes it's because I just didn't like the book. Sometimes it's because it's poorly written. Sometimes both. I rarely give 1-stars, and I didn't have any, this year.

My least favorite book was Normal People by Sally Rooney. It was the 2nd book I read this year, and I don't really remember much about it. I remember the feeling of the book, which was "ick." It made me feel really, really, really sad. I feel really sad just writing about it, remembering it. This book was critically acclaimed and rightly so - it was well-written, and the characters were well-developed. It just showed a side of life that I really, really don't connect with.


Just Didn't Meet the Hype aka Unpopular Opinion Time

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwabb

I have a real problem. Hype up a book and I will not really like it. I won't necessarily dislike it, but chances are, I won't really like it. My critical, English-teacher brain will find what's wrong with it. I'm so sorry (to all my friends and book friends who loved it...), but Addie LaRue was one of those books. I'd been hearing about it since...Spring? On book blogs and podcasts from advance readers. Everyone - everyone! - loved Addie LaRue. 

It was fine. 

But I wasn't amazed by it. I think I wanted to be, and that was part of the problem. 

Addie LaRue is the story of a young French girl in 1700-something who makes a deal with the Devil or a god to live forever - the twist is that she is forgotten by everyone she meets. Immediately - if someone turns around they forget her. The premise is really clever. I found the book itself to be, well, fine. A bit too long, and I wasn't rooting for the main character. I wasn't not rooting for her. I just wasn't...cheering her on. 

I would recommend Addie LaRue but as a decent read (not an earthshattering, knock-your-socks off one). I think I would have liked it more if I hadn't been told how much I would have liked it. But that's my problem - not yours!

Food for Thought

The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is not a book I would recommend to most. It's really, really, really graphic (like even more than Game of Thrones in parts) but really, really, really thought-provoking. In the world of this book, women develop a power - an electrical current that they can zap people with. Slowly over the course of the book, the power dynamics between men and women flip - women become dominant, men become submissive. The thesis of the book is quite simple: it's not about gender, it's about who has the power. If women were able to be physically dominant over men, they would be as aggressive, as dominant as men. I would not read this book if you are sensitive (or even not sensitive) to sexual violence. This book is something I will think about for a long, long time, however.

Favorite Reads (in order of reading)

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Reid Jenkins

Okay, okay - this is a book that was tremendously hyped-up (at least in my book circles) and, surprisingly, I thought it lived up to the hype. It's an "oral" history of a (fictional) 1970s band. It could be gimmicky but I think Jenkins pulled it off. The writing - the craft of words and sentences - was excellent (particularly for a book written in transcript-style). It's a book about the nature of true love, the sacrifices that people make for one another, and the people that carry us through the hardest times of our lives. This makes it sound maudlin - it's not. It's one of the...truest books I think I've read. As in, it contains a tremendous amount of truth. 

Country Driving by Peter Hessler

Hessler was a US Peace Corps volunteer in China in the nineties, and stayed on as a journalist in the aughts. He speaks Mandarin fluently and is really good at getting (Chinese) people to open up to him. This book is really three books in one - it's quite long, and took me probably about six months to read because I read it here and there, not in one fell swoop like I read many books. In part 1, he rents a car and attempts to travel the length of the Great Wall. He write about the people he meets along the way. In part 2, he writes about a small village outside of Beijing where he rents a house for a writing retreat. He befriends a local businessman and writes about their friendship and the changes that come to the village with the paving of the road. In part 3, he goes to Wenzhou in Zhejiang province (my province!) and spends time in a factory that makes bra o-rings (the little plastic coated rings that hold brassieres together). This book showed me a lot about the under-the-surface aspects of China I knew I did not know, but do not have the language or relationships (in part due to language) to access. I would recommend it to anyone who lives in China, but also to those who don't. I think China is going to be the dominant world power a lot sooner than we Westerners realize, and reading this book helps to humanize the people here. By this I mean so often China is presented as this cultural and ideological monolith and I think the individual 1.4 billion people are forgotten by most Westerners - but there are 1.4 billion individuals living here and the sum of them is more than their government and leadership policies that seem to threaten the Western way of life and ideology.

Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee

This slim volume is all about the craft of writing. If you have any interest in writing, read it. John McPhee is a writer for The New Yorker, Time magazine, and many others and he is a professor of writing a Princeton. Despite this fine writing pedigree, this book is quiet, realistic, and unassuming.

The Last Policeman series, Ben H. Winters

There are three books in The Last Policeman series. The main character, Henry, is a police detective in Concord, MA. In six months, the earth will be struck by a species-ending asteroid. Despite this, he is still committed to solving cases. The first book deals with a relatively ordinary murder, but the second and third, while still mysteries, are more about the effects of the impending asteroid on human society. I read these books spaced apart, because I typically do not "binge read" series (I find I get a little burnt out on the books if I read so many books of the same author all at once). I think these books should be read together, however. They are quite short, and the stories pick up one after the other, and they take place in the six months before the asteroid strikes. They are quiet, contemplative reflections on human nature in the face of impending disaster. 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet

The story of two twin sisters, one who choses to pass for white and who consequently cuts all ties with her Black family. This is a complicated story, and a well-told one - incidentally Brit Bennet is young (she published her first novel at 26) and writes so well. In a year where race was dragged (rightly so) to the forefront, I found fiction to be the best place to seek understanding of what has - or hasn't - been done and what needs to change. I read non-fiction about the Black experience and struggle this year, but it was in fiction that I found the best understanding and empathy. I don't exactly know why that is, but I think stories act as bridges to reality. I also read Brit Bennet's first work, The Mothers this year, which I also really liked and recommend. 

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Yes - this is the same Ben H. Winters as The Last Policeman. This is a world of alternative history - what if the South won the American Civil War, and the southern states never abolished slavery? It takes place in contemporary America, but one in which slavery - a more polished, "humane" slavery - still exists. The main character, a Black man, is a bounty hunter for the Northern US government to apprehend runaway slaves and/or agents in the "underground airline." This book was incredibly thought-provoking, perhaps in large part because he creates a startlingly believable world - a world that is not that much different from the world we live in today. I think everyone should read it. It is not an easy read but important.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

I don't read middle grade very often (I think this one is in that on-the-fence spot between middle grade and YA) but I picked this up after the name kept coming up in various places. The story takes place during the Vietnam war. The main character is Presbyterian, and in his small New England town, every Wednesday afternoon the Catholic kids and the Jewish kids go to religious studies classes, but being Presbyterian (no religious studies classes offered), he stays back at school. His teacher is not happy about having to mind one student for the afternoon and at first is quite negative but eventually the boy wins her over. They start studying Shakespeare together which sets off a whole series of events; hilarity - and tenderness - ensues. It's a book that's hard to describe - but it's laugh-out-loud funny in parts. It's sweet and wonderful. 

The Searcher by Tana French

Tana French can write atmosphere like no one living today. She is maybe - maybe - matched by Edgar Allan Poe - but I think she could even give Poe a run for his money. When I read French's books I'm always left with a feeling, one I can't really describe - the feeling of when a mood in a room shifts but you don't know when the moment slipped from light to dark, the feeling of the sun setting on a cloudy day, the feeling of not knowing what's going on, but knowing you don't know. She writes about...the gloaming so well. This book is a stand-alone outside of her Dublin murder mystery series, nor connected to The Witch Elm (which I h a t e d). The main character is an American ex-police detective who moves to Ireland and buys a fixer-upper farmhouse in a small Irish farming community. He is approached by a young boy to help him find the boy's missing older brother. This is not a fast book. It's slow and criticized for being slow but I didn't notice that it was slow. She does pacing so, so well. You don't even notice you are holding your breath until you're gasping for air.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I'm quite late to the All the Light We Cannot See party (it won the Pulitzer in 2016, I think) but I'm so, so glad I got there. I thought this book was beautiful. It's long - 500+ pages - but doesn't feel long. It follows the duel stories of Marie-Laure, a blind girl living during the German occupation of France in World War 2, and Werner, a German boy with a knack for radios who is fighting on the German side in the war. The writing is remarkably well-crafted. Incidentally, I never think I like World War II stories, and the funny thing is, I think I've liked every WW2 book I've read, from reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the fifth grade onward. This is a book I look forward to reading again. 

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

I am not an audiobook person, but we are reading this book for our January book club and I decided to try the audiobook as I wanted to get some crocheting done over my Christmas break. I think I would have liked this book as much if I had read it on paper, but I really loved the audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson (I liked her so much I'm listening to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell also read by Stevenson). This book has so many of the things I love. I'm an Anglophile through and through, and I love books about somewhat eccentric English characters. Miss Benson is a 46-year old single woman teaching domestic sciences at a girls school in London and hates it. She quits her job suddenly one day and sets off on an expedition to find a rare beetle in New Caledonia. It's quirky, upbeat, heartwarming. It's not Great Literature, perhaps, but it was a really lovely read to finish out the year.

Honorable Mentions:

The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers - A fun, creative sci-fi series: Book 1 - Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Book 2 - A Closed and Common Orbit, Book 3 - Record of a Spaceborn Few

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (middle grade fiction) (p.s. This is Dev's (a former student) favorite book - and if you know Dev you know that's pretty impressive [he hates reading] - and it's why I read it. I'd have to say, if you only like one book, this is a good one to like). 

Kim Jijyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradel

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

Obviously I read a lot of good books this year. May this list inspire you for some good reads in 2021. I hope that 2021 is nothing like 2020 - but if it is (and it might be, friends, it might be) - I hope you find solace in books (and friends, and good food, and family, of course!)

What was the best book you read in 2020? 

Happy Reading!

*Incidentally, I have been writing these book reviews for 9 years now which coincides with when I started tracking my books on Goodreads (the first time I ever really kept track of my reading) - my first blog book review was about my 2011 reads. My favorite book of 2011 was The Help by Kathyrn Stockett - which I still wholeheartedly recommend.