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To All The Books I’ve Read Before (in 2018, specifically)

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Welcome to my Annual Year-end Book List: A Retrospective on Reading! (Okay, I’ve never called it that before, but here we are.) Usually I post a few small smatterings of book reviews along with the list, but this year I actually reviewed ALL THE BOOKS every month. (Which I very highly doubt will happen in 2019 since I’ll be pregnanting and birthing and mothering and sleeping more than reading and definitely more than blogging.) So this may be a bit more boring since it will just be a list for the most part, but scroll to the bottom for the “retrospective” part.

KEY:
WJ = read aloud/listened with James
AB = audiobook
RR = re-read
BC = book club
REC = recommended to me
NF = nonfiction
F = fiction

  1. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson: WJ, F
  2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson: AB, F
  3. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Gregory Boyle: BC, NF
  4. The Glass Eye, Jeannie Vanasco: REC, NF
  5. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, JK Rowling: F
  6. Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale: AB, REC, F
  7. Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson: WJ, AB, F
  8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot: REC, BC, NF
  9. Britt-Marie Was Here, Fredrik Backman: AB, F
  10. Edgedancer, Brandon Sanderson: WJ, F
  11. Snow & Rose, Emily Winfield Martin: REC, F
  12. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood: BC, F
  13. Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys: BC, F
  14. Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, Liesl Shurtliff: BC, F
  15. The Invention of the Kaleidoscope, Paisley Rekdal: Poetry
  16. Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher: AB, NF
  17. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks: AB, F
  18. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge: BC, NF
  19. Commonwealth, Ann Patchett: AB, F
  20. Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life, Gretchen Rubin: AB, NF
  21. Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson: WJ, some AB, F
  22. The Polygamist’s Daughter, Anna LeBaron: AB, NF
  23. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr: NF
  24. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, Fredrik Backman: AB, NF (novella)
  25. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Mary Roach: AB, REC, NF
  26. The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas: BC, F
  27. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen: BC, F
  28. The Mighty Miss Malone, Christopher Paul Curtis: BC, F
  29. Heart Berries: A Memoir, Terese Marie Mailhot: BC, NF
  30. The Code of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse: WJ, F
  31. Lab Girl: A Story of Trees, Science, and Love, Hope Jahren: AB, REC, NF
  32. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead: WJ, REC, F
  33. The Wonder, Emma Donoghue: AB, F
  34. Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover: REC, NF
  35. Honolulu, Alan Brennert: REC, F
  36. A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman: AB, F
  37. Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple: AB, F
  38. Braving the Wilderness, Brene Brown: NF
  39. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas: BC, F
  40. Watership Down, Richard Adams: AB, F
  41. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison: BC, F
  42. The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate: BC, F
  43. Code Girls, Liza Mundy: AB, REC, NF
  44. Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull: AB, REC, NF
  45. Hillbilly Elegy, JD Vance: NF
  46. Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers: AB, F
  47. The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare: BC, F/Drama
  48. The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill: RR, WJ, F
  49. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erika L. Sanchez: AB, F
  50. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver: F
  51. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain: AB, NF
  52. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver: AB, NF
  53. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein: REC, F
  54. O Pioneers, Willa Cather: AB, F
  55. Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk: REC, AB, F
  56. Bone Gap, Laura Ruby: REC, AB, F
  57. Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Patillo Beals: AB, NF, REC
  58. Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder: F, REC
  59. The One-in-a-Million Boy, Monica Wood: AB, F
  60. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce: AB, F
  61. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah: BC, REC, NF
  62. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen: BC, AB, NF
  63. Elephants Can Remember, Agatha Christie: AB, F
  64. Very Good, Jeeves!, P.G. Wodehouse:  F, WJ
  65. A Pocket Full of Rye, Agatha Christie: AB, F
  66. The Rules of Magic, Alice Hoffman: REC, AB, F
  67. Bird Box, Josh Malerman: REC, AB, F
  68. A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness: F
  69. The War that Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: REC, AB, F
  70. An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler: REC, NF
  71. Are You Sleeping, Kathleen Barber: AB, F
  72. Ink and Bone, Lisa Unger: AB, REC, F
  73. The War I Finally Won, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: AB, F
  74. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare: F
  75. Mooncop, Tom Gauld: F
  76. The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak: F
  77. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate–Discoveries from a Secret World, Peter Wohlleben:  NF
  78. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern: REC, AB, F
  79. What I Know for Sure, Oprah Winfrey: AB, NF
  80. Landline, Rainbow Rowell: AB, F
  81. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman: AB, F
  82. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, Rachel Cohn: AB, F
  83. How to Stop Time, Matt Haig: AB, F

 

And breaking it down:

24 Nonfiction
1 Poetry
1 Drama
57 Fiction
60 Female authors
23 Recommended by others
1 Re-read
8 Read with James
16 Books read for a book club
43.5 Audiobooks

 

Well, wow! The break-down was interesting this year.

In the past I’ve set a goal for a number of books to read in the year, but in 2018 my goal was to read at least 20 books from others’ recommendation. And I met that goal! I thought I was miserably low in that department, but I hadn’t realized my goal was only 20 haha =) That wasn’t so hard!

Almost half-and-half between fiction and nonfiction, which was also a surprise. I love nonfiction (clearly, since that was my Master’s emphasis), but sometimes they take more concentration/absorption than I have bandwidth for (especially in audiobooks–which is funny, since I know plenty of people who much prefer nonfiction to fiction when book-listening). Anyway, huzzah for only a smidge fewer nonfictions!

And I read more with James than I thought. Probably because the first half of the year was great, but once I got pregnant all reading was hard, but reading aloud was especially hard. It definitely put me to sleep…and sometimes out of breath. Yikes. Babies, man.

If you’re wondering how to read more books in 2019, clearly my “secret” is audiobooks. I pretty much always have at least one checked out and listen all. the. time. Driving, house cleaning stuff, errands, whatev. It really adds up. A lot of people use that time for podcasts, which I definitely do, too. I just do lots of both =) And if you’re wondering how the heck I listened to 43.5 audiobooks, well, I got tired of reading one of the huge Brandon Sandersons aloud (James won’t take turns anymore since dyslexia makes reading aloud super rough for him, especially when he’s tired, and since we aren’t lounging around in the daytime feeding each other grapes from the vine and reading to each other, evening reading = tired eyes = ramped up dyslexia = I’m the only one reading aloud). So James got it on Audible and it was the best half of an audiobook I could have asked for.

I was planning on aiming for a goal related to female authors in 2019, but look at all the ones I read without even meaning to! Over 70%! So I’ll just keep on keeping on in that department.

Next year I really would love to read more physical books, but I think I’m going to decline making any sort of goals at all since I will be a MOTHER NEXT MONTH and I have no idea what I’m doing and no idea what that means the rest of my life will look like–including reading. So we’ll just settle for the goal to simply keep reading! I had a pretty big identity crisis once pregnancy made me conk out every time I tried to read which meant a significant drop in physical books read, and that’s never been my life. My life has always been books, books, books. So I’m reeeeeally hoping I can get through the newborn no-sleeping gig and then get back to my reading self. I do not expect to keep my count as high, but you moms out there would know better than I do. Well, that’s not necessarily the case. What is the case is…only time will tell =)

Fragonard,_The_Reader

And, just for fun, here are my (probable) top 5 in fiction and nonfiction, in no particular order:

NONFICTION:

  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
  • Lab Girl
  • Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
  • Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
  • Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments
    in Everyday Life

FICTION:

  • Prodigal Summer
  • The Rules of Magic
  • The Night Circus
  • Britt-Marie was Here
  • A Man Called Ove

And that’s a wrap, 2018! See you in 2019, bookz!

To All The Books I’ve Read Before (in 2018, specifically)

My Life in November

elizabethtidwell, , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

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Happy November!

I love autumn. I love the colors and the initial crispness and layering clothes and the start of hardcore tea season.

But I’m usually pretty grumpy about the late autumn months; leaves are getting mushy, it’s windy and rainy, the pretty leaves are gone, leaving naked skeleton branches, and I have to take jackets on and off since it’s still too hot inside and too cold outside. These are clearly only a minor annoyance, but I really, really don’t like the darkness. I used to be an early riser and it didn’t super bother me, but it’s getting harder to wake up in the dark–and even harder to live in the dark earlier and earlier every evening. Sunlight really matters, people.

But this year I’m quite a bit more at peace with the changing season. Probably because I’m really REALLY looking forward to Christmas (definitely not unusual) because a few of my family members will be here! I like hosting things and I love festivities and holidays and I’m just impatient for it to get here. So autumn means it’s really on its way. And cold, wet, ugly late autumn means it’s really on its way!

Another really big reason why I’m loving the changes this year: I’ve been theming my life by the season way more fully. So in October I read and listened to a lot of Halloweeny books, we watched a lot of zombie movies, we invited friends and family over relatively often to watch said movies with us, I decorated for Halloween specifically (usually I just do pretty broad seasonal decor, so late August to mid November is just autumn in my house typically), and we had a small Halloween party for the first time. That’s a lot of Halloweeny things! It was quite fun to fully embrace the holiday for more than like a few days before trick-or-treaters come.

SO! This brigs me to November with a new sense of welcoming–and not just for the fact of time off work and more celebrations, but for the new focus and theme to so much more of my whole month’s living.

The first way to theme my life (obviously) is through reading. Since I generally read a ton, reading on a theme super heightens that particular theme. At first I was thinking it would be hard to find a lot of books or other things to theme my life with regarding Thanksgiving (and kinda boring, at that–I don’t think a monthful of Thanksgiving history or pilgrim-era tales would make this month any better, really). But then I realized I was so obviously overlooking a major lens from which to approach this month’s theme: instead of Thanksgiving, thanks giving.

This of course is the point of the season and we know this, but I could definitely immerse myself more fully. There have been a handful of Thanksgivings where we’ve gone around the table and said some things we’re grateful for before digging in, but those thanks givings have been surprisingly stiff-feeling to me. You would think sharing a handful of things you’re grateful for would be super easy, right? And it’s not really hard, it’s just that I’m out of practice! And I feel really self-conscious and pretty sad about that when it happens, but also just in general.

So I’ve made a few goals to help me really experience thanks giving:

  1. Read books that evoke gratitude

  2. Express that gratitude through thanks giving in a journal daily

  3. Extend that gratitude experience beyond myself by incorporating thanks giving at dinner time every night with my husband

  4. Meditate daily to help me refocus and pay attention to my life

These are pretty small things, but I’m excited about them. We all know that there are billions of super, super important benefits to gratitude–our lives improve by leaps and bounds mentally, emotionally, and physically. (There are lots of studies and articles about it if you’re interested in specific benefits. Pretty amazing stuff!)

I think the combination of the four will not only immerse me in thankfulness at Thanksgiving time, but will help make my life better overall. I love all of these goals, but I especially love the sharing-with-family aspect. Connecting through expressing gratitude is great for perpetuating the cultivation of gratitude within ourselves but also within our immediate environment–those closest to us. How awesome would it be to be stuffed to the gills with gratitude both inside and outside! And we’ll all get better at recognizing and practicing gratitude! Awesome. I did a guided gratitude meditation last night and one introductory thought stuck out to me:

“Gratitude is a habit.”


I’ve heard so much about how gratitude is a state of being, a mindset, a skill, a practice, etc., but I hadn’t quite heard it expressed as a habit. That makes it so much simpler to adopt. Habits can be introduced, adopted, and refined all the time. And then the mindset/state/skill parts will come! I’ve got a cute small journal dedicated to my thankfuls and I’m loving my two days so far =)

Meditation is also a habit, and also has tons and tons of benefits for our minds, bodies, and emotions. I’ve been meaning to add it back into my daily routine for quite a while, and this month seemed like a pretty good fit. I’ve used up my free trial of the Headspace app, so I’m working on the free bits of Calm. And then I’ll probably move to Oak, and then to something else, or just YouTube.

Ultimately I want to simply build the habit with these kinds of short guided meditations then work up to more of the types of meditation I learned and practiced in yoga training. I do still chant along to my favorite meditation every once in a while, and I so savor it every single time. You should try it! Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha. It is delicious.

Another thing you can help me with: I need book recommendations! This is kind of a nebulous theme, so straightforward explanation for what type of recommendations I need is quite hard. But I want to read things that evoke gratitude in me when I read them. That can mean so many things! Fiction and nonfiction, poetry, anything gratitude-provoking. I’m welcoming ANY recommendations for books you feel have helped you feel gratitude.

Some examples. If you had asked me for the same recommendation, I’d maybe throw these ones your way for a start:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The War that Saved My Life
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Prodigal Summer
Happier at Home
Lab Girl
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
The Alchemist
The Little Book of Hygge
Gratitude
A Book of Uncommon Prayer
Becoming Wise
Anything by Brene Brown
Small Wonder
The Gilead trilogy
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
The Principles of Uncertainty
Bucolics
Things That Are

So, really and truly, anything goes. I’m sure you’d read books on this list and think, “What does this have to do with gratitude?” And that would be fine. Our experiences of gratitude-provoking reads are going to be at least a bit different. It’s such a wide concept! So start tossing things my way =) I think I’ll start with The Art of Loving since I already have it on loan from the library and I anticipate good things (I mean, with a title like that? yep).

Thanks in advance! And maybe you’ll join me in a similar November challenge? If you do, tell me all about it! I’m always looking to steal your cool ideas 😉 Happy November!

 

My Life in November