It’s the time of year when many reflect on their activities of the past 12 months, and this almost always includes favorite books. Most of 2020 has pretty much stunk and I know reading habits were disrupted for many, myself included. There was a stretch where I didn’t feel like reading at all, and I dropped my original goal of 75 books to 50 (which I hit the other day).
How has your reading been this year? Any standouts? Stinkers? Amazing audiobooks? Share your best (and worst) in the comments!
Looking at the list of books I've read this year, it's hard to choose a single favorite. However, for pure enjoyment I'm going to go with the Murderbot series by Martha Wells, which consists of four novellas and a full novel. Start with this one:
Confession: I'm not a Big Reader. I blame it on 30 years of reading newspaper copy full-time. But I still like reading, and I like it a lot more now that I work in a library.
It's baby steps though, and my 12-month reading total is a single-digit number.
I started the year with "Greetings from Bury Park," in which we learn how the English-born son of a Pakistani immigrant finds the meaning of life through the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. I've been a fan of The Boss for 40-some years and I, too, have found meaning and guidance in his lyrics. It was enlightening to see a more universal appeal to an American rock icon than I thought possible. "Greetings" was a more nuanced and intricate story than the resulting 2018 movie, "Blinded by the Light." There was a lot more going on between author Sarfraz Mansoor and his father than the movie revealed. Book vs. Movie: I give the nod to the book, but there were a lot of scenes in the movie that made me dig out "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and play it over and over again.
After interviewing Garth Stein in 2019 for our podcast and sobbing through the final chapter of "The Art of Racing in the Rain," I tried Garth's "How Evan Broke His Head." Main character fights demons. Who will win? He drives a Saab, so I keep reading to learn more about his struggles and it keeps me interested to the end. It's formulaic in that Boy Gets Girl and Solves His Problems, but it worked for me (as a recovering Saab owner).
"Blue Highways" had been on my reading list for, hmmm, 35-plus years as one of those "See the America you dream of driving when you're fresh out of college without a care in the world." Oof. What a self-absorbed travelogue of nothingness. I complained to my wife. "You're still reading that?" she asked. "Why?" Out of spite, I guess.
On our COVID summer road trip, my wife checked out Nick Offerman's "Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Principles to Delicious Living." Man, who knew that straight-laced, government-hating, libertarian bureaucrat Ron Swanson could be such a cutup and given to a good cry? We certainly needed the laughs as we dodged viral hotspots.
"First Woman: A Woman First," the autobiography of America's first female president, Selina Meyer, was uproarious. "But we haven't had a female president!" you say. Well, we had one on HBO for a few years, and that's good enough for me. Yes, this is the mock autobiography of the mock vice president on the mockumentary "Veep." I laughed. I cried. I nearly drove into a bridge abutment.
I read and really loved "A Man Called Ove." I related to his plight, his fights, his inner demons, his struggles. Especially once I figured out Ove is roughly my age. It's sad and funny and ironic. Ove made me cheer for him as he fought the idiots and bullies and self-entitled morons. Book vs. Movie: I give the nod to the book, but I loved seeing Ove's evolution of Saab ownership.
(You may have seen a pattern emerge.)
I'm wrapping up the year with Garth Stein's graphic novel, "The Cloven." It's dark. It's tight. It keeps me moving ahead and I want to know what's gonna happen to Our Hero and the Bad Guy.
Ooooh! I've gotta grab me a copy of Selina Meyer's book! I LOVED Veep! So so much! I recently watched a livestream of the cast reading through the episode “Mother” which centered around a vote recount, lol! They were so much fun to see again and it helped support the upcoming Georgia runoff vote. 💙💙💙
I forgot I also read "The One-Lane Bridge" by Cathie Pelletier. Quirky, goofy, kept me going. Somewhere I read or heard a review of "The Funeral Makers" that sounded really compelling, but we don't have it, so "One-Lane Bridge" became a worthy substitute.
Of the 30 books I've read this year (an all time low for me. sigh.) 25 of them were nonfiction. I've seem to have given up on fiction. These eight were my favorites of the year, with the Tennessee Williams book becoming a lifetime favorite.
Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog by James Grissom
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant
The Hour or Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time by Stephen Rebello
Vic Lee's Corona Diary 2020 by Vic Lee
The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon by Colin Fletcher
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Allison Arngrim
Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd
I LOVED Confessions of a Prairie Bitch! I like the occasional memoir, and that was a good one. LHOTP was such a big part of my life as a child, both the books and television show. *brb, going to go change my FB profile pic..."
‘Ello‘Ello! So glad you asked because I wanted to share my list and also I have been sans social medi(a)ocrity so I need to virtue signal about this somewhere! Brb! 🖤🦆🦆
I've had the exact opposite experience as regards the reading I've done since the pandemic. My goal was to read 75 books, but I've moved the goalpost multiple times throughout the year and now I have read 156 of my (latest) goal of 150 books.
Let's start with a stinker. I read and enjoyed Stuart Turton's tale of a body-surfing cop trying to get the bottom of a murder in The 7-1/2 Deaths of Eveyln Hardcastle, so I was looking forward to his second novel, The Devil and the Dark Water. It is set on a ship in 1634. There is a great detective on board, but he's a prisoner. There is a strong female character who is bucking social norms. Okay, this could be good. Except it wasn't. It was excruciating to slog through dialog that sounds like it was taken from a 20-something's Instagram feed, and the strong female character? One second she was pathetically meek (even for her day), the next she was saying or doing things Wonder Woman might have balked at. I know it's fiction, but I need some level of authenticity.
I discovered far more stellar reads than stinkers, though. Here are some of my standout reads of 2020:
Northern Spy by Flynn Berry - Two sisters, one Irish family, and the IRA.
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood - Rosy the Riveter meets Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin. Good mystery, great characters, first in new series.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emiliy M. Danforth - Boarding school, liaisons, mysterious deaths, Hollywood, and wasps. Twisty, and witty.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - A hired henchwoman is injured on the job. Through data and spreadsheets, she quantifies the human cost of heroes. Witty, cinematic, and thought-provoking.
Devolution by Max Brooks - Members of a small self-sustainable community find themselves stranded in the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Rainier. The creatures of the forest grow hungry.
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell - Did you know an American woman (an amputee, no less) was one of England's most amazing spies in WWII? Me neither.
The Lost Man by Jane Harper - An experienced rancher dies under the hot Australian sun. His brother aims to find out what happened. Enjoy on audio for the Aussie accent.
I could go on (and on), but I'm going to stop now. I'm looking forward to seeing what others recommend!
I just finished Devolution. You're underselling this book. The adrenaline rush was intense. The audiobook has a stellar cast including two NPR personalities and Jeff Daniels.
I’ve read about 20 this year, I think. The only one I was not super in love with was ‘Neuromancer’but that was good enough. I hit up PK Dicks catalog, ‘VALIS’ being the best of the lot. Although Blade Runner would of been better with the Electric Sheep in it.
I reread Stephen King a bit, ‘Talisman’ being the best of that. ‘Stealing Fire’ was awesome. ‘Norse Mythology’ by Neil Gaiman and the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ were the best ancient history I read. The one I’d recommend to all involved though is Tyson Yunkaporta’s ‘Sand Talk’. If I were in charge and we are glad I’m not; all Gideon Bibles would be replaced with Tysons Bible.
I also revisited Myths, Fables and Tall Tales of our youths. The old old old ones. Also recommended.... thanks Anne! Miss you all!
Also ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ is a good primer for a complete internal middle life crisis revolving around faith and a social pandemic. If that’s what ones into.
Looking at the list of books I've read this year, it's hard to choose a single favorite. However, for pure enjoyment I'm going to go with the Murderbot series by Martha Wells, which consists of four novellas and a full novel. Start with this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32758901-all-systems-red
What isn't there to love about a rogue security android who would rather watch its favorite shows than do its job?
Confession: I'm not a Big Reader. I blame it on 30 years of reading newspaper copy full-time. But I still like reading, and I like it a lot more now that I work in a library.
It's baby steps though, and my 12-month reading total is a single-digit number.
I started the year with "Greetings from Bury Park," in which we learn how the English-born son of a Pakistani immigrant finds the meaning of life through the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. I've been a fan of The Boss for 40-some years and I, too, have found meaning and guidance in his lyrics. It was enlightening to see a more universal appeal to an American rock icon than I thought possible. "Greetings" was a more nuanced and intricate story than the resulting 2018 movie, "Blinded by the Light." There was a lot more going on between author Sarfraz Mansoor and his father than the movie revealed. Book vs. Movie: I give the nod to the book, but there were a lot of scenes in the movie that made me dig out "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and play it over and over again.
After interviewing Garth Stein in 2019 for our podcast and sobbing through the final chapter of "The Art of Racing in the Rain," I tried Garth's "How Evan Broke His Head." Main character fights demons. Who will win? He drives a Saab, so I keep reading to learn more about his struggles and it keeps me interested to the end. It's formulaic in that Boy Gets Girl and Solves His Problems, but it worked for me (as a recovering Saab owner).
"Blue Highways" had been on my reading list for, hmmm, 35-plus years as one of those "See the America you dream of driving when you're fresh out of college without a care in the world." Oof. What a self-absorbed travelogue of nothingness. I complained to my wife. "You're still reading that?" she asked. "Why?" Out of spite, I guess.
On our COVID summer road trip, my wife checked out Nick Offerman's "Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Principles to Delicious Living." Man, who knew that straight-laced, government-hating, libertarian bureaucrat Ron Swanson could be such a cutup and given to a good cry? We certainly needed the laughs as we dodged viral hotspots.
"First Woman: A Woman First," the autobiography of America's first female president, Selina Meyer, was uproarious. "But we haven't had a female president!" you say. Well, we had one on HBO for a few years, and that's good enough for me. Yes, this is the mock autobiography of the mock vice president on the mockumentary "Veep." I laughed. I cried. I nearly drove into a bridge abutment.
I read and really loved "A Man Called Ove." I related to his plight, his fights, his inner demons, his struggles. Especially once I figured out Ove is roughly my age. It's sad and funny and ironic. Ove made me cheer for him as he fought the idiots and bullies and self-entitled morons. Book vs. Movie: I give the nod to the book, but I loved seeing Ove's evolution of Saab ownership.
(You may have seen a pattern emerge.)
I'm wrapping up the year with Garth Stein's graphic novel, "The Cloven." It's dark. It's tight. It keeps me moving ahead and I want to know what's gonna happen to Our Hero and the Bad Guy.
I think any reading is good. I definitely go through phases when I read more. I should do more audiobooks, so I can listen while I'm doing art!
I read "Blue Highways" years ago. So long ago I don't remember what year it was. I liked it, but I wonder if it would age well. I suspect not.
Ooooh! I've gotta grab me a copy of Selina Meyer's book! I LOVED Veep! So so much! I recently watched a livestream of the cast reading through the episode “Mother” which centered around a vote recount, lol! They were so much fun to see again and it helped support the upcoming Georgia runoff vote. 💙💙💙
We watched the “Veep” table read too!!! Get the audiobook version so you can hear Gary impersonate Selina.
Haha! I will!
I forgot I also read "The One-Lane Bridge" by Cathie Pelletier. Quirky, goofy, kept me going. Somewhere I read or heard a review of "The Funeral Makers" that sounded really compelling, but we don't have it, so "One-Lane Bridge" became a worthy substitute.
Of the 30 books I've read this year (an all time low for me. sigh.) 25 of them were nonfiction. I've seem to have given up on fiction. These eight were my favorites of the year, with the Tennessee Williams book becoming a lifetime favorite.
Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog by James Grissom
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant
The Hour or Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time by Stephen Rebello
Vic Lee's Corona Diary 2020 by Vic Lee
The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon by Colin Fletcher
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Allison Arngrim
Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd
I LOVED Confessions of a Prairie Bitch! I like the occasional memoir, and that was a good one. LHOTP was such a big part of my life as a child, both the books and television show. *brb, going to go change my FB profile pic..."
Your FB profile pic is Prairie-riffic! Awesome Oleson! 😀
Heh heh heh
‘Ello‘Ello! So glad you asked because I wanted to share my list and also I have been sans social medi(a)ocrity so I need to virtue signal about this somewhere! Brb! 🖤🦆🦆
I eagerly await your return!
Annnnnnnnnne. Make it stop
🦆🦆
I've had the exact opposite experience as regards the reading I've done since the pandemic. My goal was to read 75 books, but I've moved the goalpost multiple times throughout the year and now I have read 156 of my (latest) goal of 150 books.
Let's start with a stinker. I read and enjoyed Stuart Turton's tale of a body-surfing cop trying to get the bottom of a murder in The 7-1/2 Deaths of Eveyln Hardcastle, so I was looking forward to his second novel, The Devil and the Dark Water. It is set on a ship in 1634. There is a great detective on board, but he's a prisoner. There is a strong female character who is bucking social norms. Okay, this could be good. Except it wasn't. It was excruciating to slog through dialog that sounds like it was taken from a 20-something's Instagram feed, and the strong female character? One second she was pathetically meek (even for her day), the next she was saying or doing things Wonder Woman might have balked at. I know it's fiction, but I need some level of authenticity.
I discovered far more stellar reads than stinkers, though. Here are some of my standout reads of 2020:
Northern Spy by Flynn Berry - Two sisters, one Irish family, and the IRA.
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood - Rosy the Riveter meets Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin. Good mystery, great characters, first in new series.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emiliy M. Danforth - Boarding school, liaisons, mysterious deaths, Hollywood, and wasps. Twisty, and witty.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - A hired henchwoman is injured on the job. Through data and spreadsheets, she quantifies the human cost of heroes. Witty, cinematic, and thought-provoking.
Devolution by Max Brooks - Members of a small self-sustainable community find themselves stranded in the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Rainier. The creatures of the forest grow hungry.
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell - Did you know an American woman (an amputee, no less) was one of England's most amazing spies in WWII? Me neither.
The Lost Man by Jane Harper - An experienced rancher dies under the hot Australian sun. His brother aims to find out what happened. Enjoy on audio for the Aussie accent.
I could go on (and on), but I'm going to stop now. I'm looking forward to seeing what others recommend!
Marie, you're an animal!
Ha! I read every day, but this year was an exceptional year due to pandemic time and some truly compelling books.
I just downloaded the Kindle version of Devolution. It had been sitting in my wishlist for a while!
YOU WILL LOVE IT
I just finished Devolution. You're underselling this book. The adrenaline rush was intense. The audiobook has a stellar cast including two NPR personalities and Jeff Daniels.
Seriously! That book is pretty high on my list for the year. It was INTENSE.
There was much gnashing of teeth - and chewing.
It's the bone splintering and head stomping>exploding that I can't get out of my mind.
Devolution was, indeed, excellent!
Ok so I had to look, for the best which is tough; I’d say ‘The Immortality Key’ by https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250207142
Brian Muraresku is my fave.
I’ve read about 20 this year, I think. The only one I was not super in love with was ‘Neuromancer’but that was good enough. I hit up PK Dicks catalog, ‘VALIS’ being the best of the lot. Although Blade Runner would of been better with the Electric Sheep in it.
I reread Stephen King a bit, ‘Talisman’ being the best of that. ‘Stealing Fire’ was awesome. ‘Norse Mythology’ by Neil Gaiman and the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ were the best ancient history I read. The one I’d recommend to all involved though is Tyson Yunkaporta’s ‘Sand Talk’. If I were in charge and we are glad I’m not; all Gideon Bibles would be replaced with Tysons Bible.
I also revisited Myths, Fables and Tall Tales of our youths. The old old old ones. Also recommended.... thanks Anne! Miss you all!
Also ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ is a good primer for a complete internal middle life crisis revolving around faith and a social pandemic. If that’s what ones into.