This was a book group selection, and although I started out well, I was out by the 100-page mark. There was a scene involving rats on the attack, and I could not, would not continue. Call me squeamy. I'd DNF this a thousand times if it were possible.
Above is my resolutions list for 2023. I'm afraid that I didn't make much headway, but it is fun to see the reach and the fullness and optimism that was there for me at the beginning of the year.
Wolf Hall trilogy again: No (regretfully)
Who was? Who is? Yes
Read Canadian Literature: No
Read a Bulwer-Lytton novel: No
Only read literary biographies: No
Finish "Bronte" project: No
No Self-Help: I read How to Keep House While Drowning and loved the hell out of it.
Read PKD: No
Finally get around to Heart of Darkness: No
Finish Tess of the D'Urbervilles: YES THANK GOD and F#@k Angel Clare!
Read MacBeth: No
Read We: No
Rearrange bookshelves into Dewey Decimal Order: OMG, Past Self, don't make me laugh. No, and they're worse than ever.
Read in the car before work: Yes
Read A Girl of the Limberlost: No
Reread The Bell Jar: No
Stick to wish list: Bwahahahahahaha
Buy local: Yes
Read Icelandic Lit: No
1920s Lit: No
Finish Kopp Sisters: No. (sad face)
More science: No
Popular culture: I don't remember what I thought I meant.
When did I become such a nonfiction girl? The answer starts from decades back. In second grade and part of third grade, I was an avid reader of fairy tales. Then in third grade, the girl sitting in front of me told me about Helen Keller, and I found myself in the biography section on Library Day that week. Once I was there, I saw other names I recognized Daniel Boone! Geronimo! Florence Nightingale! Amelia Earhart! and that began my second bookish obsession. The Little House series, that beautiful and problematic bonnet string tangle of fiction and fact, was still two years in my future.
As an adult, Tracy Kidder seems to have been the author that helped open the nonfiction door wide for me. Two years in graduate school led to reading that was almost exclusively nonfiction, and added polish and confidence to my reading self. (Surprisingly, I found myself swooning over tomes about linguistics. Steven Pinker. Sigh.)
Age has also helped because I've acquired a good amount of background knowledge about historical and cultural events, so everything feels connected in some way. Is schemata the word I'm looking for?
I'm convinced that 2024 will be yet another year in which nonfiction dominates my reading.
Let me also mention the Who Was...? books, because they are very much a part of my reading list. The Spawn is always finding new books in the series for me to read. (My current one is about Salvador Dali.) The series can be uneven -- a little bit like the little girl with the curl -- some are very very good (World War I) and some are horrid, (Hello, Kitty) but I'm always eager to have a new one in my hands. I wish that those books had been around for eight and nine-year-old me.
So anyway, below is list of nonfiction read in 2023. I've noted my favorites in green.
1. The Man Who Invented Christmas
2. Who was Michelangelo?
3. Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book
4. Who is Shaquille O'Neal?
5. Starring Steven Spielberg
6. Ducks
7. Spare
8. Last Rampage
9. Hey, Kiddo
10. The Year of Less
11. Who was Alex Trebek?
12. Who was Maria Tallchief?
13. The Rainbow Comes and Goes
14. Who is LeBron James?
15. What is the Story of Nancy Drew?
16. Forget the Alamo
17. Ice Cream Man
18. Library Girl
19. A Perfect Fit
20. Blast Off!
21. The Brilliant Calculator
22. What was The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921?
23. Happening
24. All You Can Ever Know
25. Shy
26. What is the Story of Anne of Green Gables?
27. What was World War I?
28. Who was Frank Sinatra?
29. Who was Jim Thorpe?
30. Scrappy Little Nobody
31. Sharp
32. Napoleon vs. The Bunnies
33. Jerry Changed the Game!
34. Who is Simone Biles?
35. Who is Nathan Chen?
36. The Wager
37. Good Books for Bad Children
38. What is the Story of the Headless Horseman?
39. Five Days at Memorial
40. Who is Harry Styles?
41. What Do We Know About the Winchester House?
42. Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
43. Who was Betty White?
44. You Could Make This Place Beautiful
45. What Do We Know About the Children's Blizzard of 1888?
46. Hollywood: The Oral History
47. Madly, Deeply
48. Abridged Classics
49. How to Keep House While Drowning
50. The Man Who Loved Books
51. Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte
52. What was The Donner Party?
Not much fiction here, but I'm happy with the list. Classics, new authors, happy discoveries, a few surprises and a little re-reading.
Favorite: City of Girls
Least Favorite: The Girl Puzzle
1. Sons - Pearl S. Buck (audiobook)
2. Molok'ai -Alan Brennart (book group book)
3. Joan is Okay - Weike Wang (book group book)
4. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
5. Anne of Green Gables: The Graphic Novel
6. Young Man with a Horn - Dorothy Baker
7. A House Divided - Pearl S. Buck (audiobook)
8. Sooley - John Grisham (book group book)
9. Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen - Sarah Bird (book group book)
10. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (audiobook)
11. At the Edge of the Orchard - Tracy Chevalier (audiobook)
12. The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. -Lee Kravetz
13. The Farewell Tour - Stephanie Clifford
14. Writers & Lovers - Lily King
15. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (audiobook)
16. City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert (audiobook)
17. The Girl Puzzle - Kate Braithwaite (book group book)
18. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
19. Haven - Emma Donoghue (audiobook)
20. The Guncle - Stephen Rowley
21. The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert (audiobook)
22. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
23. Gain - Richard Powers (audiobook)
24. Freaky Friday - Mary Rodgers (re-read)
25. Playing for Pizza - John Grisham (audiobook)
26. The Call of the Wild - Jack London (re-read, book group book)
27. Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
28. Lessons - Ian McEwan (audiobook)
29. The Lager Queen of Minnesota - J. Ryan Stradahl (re-read, book group book)
30. Happiness Falls - Angie Kim
31. Tom Lake - Ann Patchett (audiobook)
I read 83 books this year. This is my highest total since 2015. The numbers are getting bigger each year and that's encouraging. I'd like to think that I have another 100+ year in me.
fiction 31
nonfiction 52
audiobooks 21
graphic novels 2
library books 73
my books 9
borrowed/gift 1
first book of the year: Sons - Pearl S. Buck
last book of the year: Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte -Kate Williams
longest book: Hollywood: The Oral History - Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson
shortest book: The Man Who Loved Books - Jean Fritz
funniest book: Abridged Classics - John Atkinson and Napoleon vs. The Bunnies - J.F. Fox and Anna Kwan
saddest book: Five Days at Memorial - Sheri Fink
most helpful book: How To Keep House Without Drowning - KC Davis
bridge book (started in 2023, will finish in 2024): Child Star - Shirley Temple Black
reading revelations: I'm not intimidated by Richard Powers anymore! Elizabeth Gilbert is a goddess.
next post: My fiction, 2023 list
Happy Book Year!
