Eat, Sleep, Read: Bookish Resolutions for 2025

 

I can't decide if I should keep my resolutions manageable this year, or let this be a twelvemonth that I swing for the fences. 

Maybe a mixture of the two:

1. Read 64 books

2. Continue with my new book group

3. Fiercely patronize my local bookstore Bazoo Books  

and 

devotedly haunt my newest and most favorite library, James C. Kirkpatrick Library at the University of Central Missouri

4. Keep up my reading journal -- the one where I record all of my supposedly deep thinky-thoughts about what I've read daily, weekly, etc.

5. Bigger, better bookshelf. My whole damn home library all along one wall of the living room.

6. A sofa upholstered in emerald green velvet

7. Less phone, more book

2024 Nonfiction

* = Wow

1. Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond - Henry Winkler *

2. Bonnie and Clyde: The Making of a Legend -Karen Blumenthal  (audiobook)

3. Who was Salvador Dali? - Paula Menzanero

4. Child Star - Shirley Temple Black

5. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry *

6. What is the Story of Romeo and Juliet? - Max Bisantz

7. Granny Smith is NOT an Apple - Sharon Glen Fortson

8. I Must Be Dreaming - Roz Chast *

9. Class - Stephanie Land *

10. Who is Taylor Swift? - Kirsten Anderson

11. Knife - Salman Rushdie *

12. What were the Shark Attacks of 1916? - Nico Medina

13. What was the Great Molasses Flood of 1919? - Kirsten Anderson *

14. Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Philip Gefter

15. It Ended Badly: 13 of  the Worst Breakups in History - Jennifer Wright *

16. Rx - Rachel Lindsay

17. The Road to Oz - Kathleen Krull *

18. Lost Boy: The Story of the Man who Created Peter Pan - Jane Yolen *

19. Who Gets the Drumstick? - Helen Beardsley

20. Who is Michael Phelps? - Micah Hecht 

21. Random Family - Adrian Nicole LeBlanc *

22. Mornings on Horseback - David McCullough * (audiobook)

23. Bibliophile - Jane Mount *

24. Loving Sylvia Plath - Emily van Duyne *

25. Who is Billie Jean King? - Sarah Fabiny

26. Who is Lin-Manuel Miranda? - Elijah Ray-David Matos

27. American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath - Carl Rollyson

28. Sociopath: A Memoir - Patric Gagne

29. Who is Travis Kelce? - Ellen LeBrecque

30. What is the Story of Smokey the Bear? - Steve Korte

31. World of Glass: The Art of Dale Chihuly - Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan *

32. A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960 - Jeanine Basinger *

33. The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum - Temple Grandin * (audiobook)

34. Cher: The Memoir, Part One - Cher *

35. Fire Lover - Joseph Wambaugh

36. Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin * (audiobook)

2024 Fiction

* = Favorites

  

1.  The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion - Fannie Flagg (audiobook)

2. The Witches of Worm - Zilpha Keatley Snyder

3. Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld (audiobook)

4. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

5. Lilac Girls - Martha Hall Kelly * (audiobook)

6. Akin - Emma Donoghue

7. The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff

8. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, age 83 1/4 - "Hendrik Groen" * (audiobook)

9. The Guest - Emma Cline *

10. Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan * (audiobook)

11. Emma - Jane Austen * (audiobook)

12 The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman *

13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (audiobook)

14. Come and Get It - Kiley Reid (audiobook)

15. When Christ and His Saints Slept - Sharon Kay Penman *

16. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid * (audiobook)

17. The Overstory - Richard Powers * (audiobook)

18. Miss Kopp Investigates - Amy Stewart * (audiobook)

19. Kopp Sisters on the March - Amy Stewart

20. Dear Miss Kopp - Amy Stewart

21. Dear Hanna - Zoje Stage *

22. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos (audiobook)

23. Lady Oracle - Margaret Atwood * (audiobook)

24. Time and Chance - Sharon Kay Penman *

25. A King's Ransom - Sharon Kay Penman * (audiobook)

26. Leave Her to Heaven - Ben Ames Williams

27. The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain *

Reading My Age: 2024 Stats

 Once upon a time (maybe 8 or 9 years ago?) I was struggling to figure out a reading goal for the year. I had tried for 100, and come up short and frustrated. Then I saw or heard about someone reading the same amount of books as their age, and it was such an elegant solution that I've adopted and used it ever since. Most years I exceed the goal, but this year, I barely made it, and I know why: Too much phone. Can I fix this? Can I manage my addiction? Neuroplasticity is a wonderful thing. Stay tuned.

Here are a few stats from my reading year:

Books read: 63

Fiction:27

Nonfiction: 36

Audiobooks: 18

Graphic novels: 3

Library books: 50

My books: 12

Gift: 1

First book of 2024: Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond - Henry Winkler (memoir)

Last book of 2024: Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin (nonfiction)

Longest book: The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman (novel) 936 pages

Shortest book: Granny Smith is NOT an Apple! - Sharon Glen Fortson (picture book) 32 pages

Funniest book: Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan (novel) and I Must Be Dreaming - Roz Chast (graphic novel)

Saddest book: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry (memoir)

Most helpful book: Animals Make Us Human - Temple Grandin (nonfiction)

Bridge books (started in 2024, will finish in 2025: One of Ours - Willa Cather (novel), Be Ready When the Luck Happens - Ina Garten (memoir), and A Really Good Day -Ayelet Waldman (nonfiction)

DNF I don't think I DNF'd anything this year. I wanted to, but I didn't, which brings me to the next category...

Give me back my time: Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens (novel), Sociopath - Patric Gagne (memoir), and Leave Her to Heaven - Ben Ames Williams (novel). In the case of the two novels, watch the movies instead.

Smooth Bookworm Moves: 

1. Discovering Sharon Kay Penman's books

2. Discovering Temple Grandin's works

3. Finishing the Kopp Sisters series

4. Quitting lame-o book group 

5. Finding new book group where organic discussion is prized 

6. Joining university library -- so vast and delightfully niche-y at the same time.

Next up: The fiction I read in 2024

Putting 2024 to Bed: December Reading

What about that December, eh? I have a confession: I didn't think that I would make my goal (63 books), so I sneaked in a short favorite, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. I'm  so unashamed for manipulating the results. Gasp. Next thing you know, I'll be wearing an ankle bracelet like the femme fatale in Double Indemnity.

Here's my brief December list of reads:

1. The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain. Novel. I never get tired of this book. Noir at its best. From the title to the last line, it's a delicious, dark treat.

2. Cher: The Memoir, Part One - Cher. Memoir. This first volume follows Cher from her origins up to her 30s, as she is trying to break into acting, and finding some resistance. I love her conversational style. Can't wait for Part Two!

3. Fire Lover - Joseph Wambaugh. Nonfiction. True Crime. John Orr was a brilliant and respected arson investigator in Glendale, California. But guess what? He was simultaneously a serial arsonist, committing crimes all over the state. I was interested in this book because of the stark duality of John Orr, and also because true crime is so satisfying. Law enforcement starts with merely jigsaw pieces of clues, and they slowly and methodically put the puzzle together then build their case, hoping that a jury will concur with their finding and serve up justice. All of that was present in Fire Lover, but I do not care for Wambaugh's style, which gets in the way of the story he is trying to tell. His asides are not edgy, nor incisive, nor funny. They're just static. He's most effective when he stops his verbal swaggering and merely reports the facts of a case.

4. Animals Make Us Human: Creating The Best Life for Animals - Temple Grandin. Nonfiction. Grandin, who has worked with animals in one way or another during her long career, structures this informative and entertaining book around the emotions of animals, particularly the "blue-ribbon" emotions as identified by neuroscientist Dr. Jaak Panksepp: SEEKING (throughout the book, the emotions are written in all caps, in the style of Panksepp) RAGE, FEAR, PANIC, LUST, CARE, and PLAY. Grandin focuses mainly on the first four, using examples from her own experience and research. SEEKING is a pleasurable emotion, and needs to be satisfied or animals will suffer abnormal brain development, which is exhibited by continuous repetitive behaviors usually seen in animals in captivity but not in their wildlife counterparts. Grandin is adamant that their environment can be modified to benefit their mental health. She discusses dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals. Grandin is insightful, intelligent, and caring. This was one of my favorite reads of 2024.

By now, we're a couple of days into the new year, and I'm more than ready to get nerdy with my bookworm stats in the next post.

 

I Remember November

 Since this post is a little late, it's going to have that hurried feel. Once I recall my reading adventures in November, then it'll be time to recount December's reads, then do a look back at 2024. I set my goal at 63, and I'm just barely going to make it to that number. I know exactly why, and I'll fix it in 2025.

Nonfiction November was fun, and here are the four books I read:

World of Glass: The Art of Dale Chihuly - Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. Nonfiction. One of the most enjoyable parts of my trip to Seattle in 2019 was a visit to Chihuly's museum. This book, from the juvenile shelf, traces Dale Chihuly's life and career as a glassblower. Stunning photographs and great interviews with Chihuly and his co-creators. In the picture above, my son is standing against the leg of what I think of as a big red bug.

A King's Ransom - Sharon Kay Penman. Novel.  Audiobook. The final book in Penman's Plantagenet series. This covers Richard the Lionheart's final years, from his departure from The Holy Land, to his capture and imprisonment in Germany, and his last years in France, trying to protect his vast territory from the French king, I'm reading this series all out of order. Next up is book #3, The Devil's Brood, and then I'll wrap things up with #4, Lionheart. While Penman's storytelling is riveting and unmatched, just as entertaining are the afterwards to her books, in which she scrupulously explains what she found in research and what she was compelled to invent. She writes with such rigor, like an accountant looking for a penny, or like the lawyer she once was, preparing a brief. 2024 brought me a lot of reading riches, and at the top of the list is Sharon Kay Penman.

A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960 - Jeanine Basinger. Nonfiction,  In this 1993 volume of movie history, Basinger looks at "Women's Pictures", which are films featuring a strong female character who can be good, selfless and noble or bad, selfish, and nasty. Basinger critically appraises how the films are put together and how the script always seem to have a message or moral for the female audience. For example, a successful career woman can't seem to have it all, meaning love and marriage. No, she must give up everything for love, or she's a failure. Things like that. When Basinger finds an exception to the rule, she gleefully pounces on it. I got a lot of ideas for classic movies to watch this winter.

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum - Temple Grandin. Nonfiction, Audiobook. When Temple Grandin as a very young child was diagnosed as autistic in the late 1940s, knowledge about the condition was in its infancy, and fated to go through some serious missteps, like the belief that autism is psychological, and that it was the "fault" of cold, uncaring parents, particularly mothers. In the decades since, researchers have come to realize that it's more about the brain. As technology has also advanced, Grandin, a scientist, has gamely and cheerfully taken part in several brain scans, measuring them against so-called "normal" brains. In a huge paradigm shift for the field, she cites a researcher in Quebec who challenged other researchers to not frame differences as deficits, but instead assets. Grandin ends the book by challenging parents to study their autistic child from early on to determine where their strengths lie, and prepare them for a career that fits these strengths, instead of letting them drift along defined solely by the label of autistic. Grandin is an admirable blend of idealistic and common sense. She's my new favorite author, and I'm already halfway through her book Animals Make Us Human.

In book group land:  For December, our topic is Willa Cather. I'm going to re-read Paul's Case, one of her short stories, watch the 1980 PBS version starring Eric Roberts as Paul, and read One of Ours.

October's Tiny List

The list is tiny, but two of these three were chunky tomes.

 1. What is the Story of Smokey the Bear? -Steve Korte-  Nonfiction. A laborious look at a long-lived American icon.

2. Time and Chance -Sharon Kay Penman- Novel. The second installment in the Plantagenet series covers the early days of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine's marriage as well as his bromance then fractured relationship with Thomas Becket as Becket moved from being Lord Chancellor to, at Henry's urging, Archbishop of Canterbury. The job switch backfired on Henry because instead of having a yes man in the church, Becket had a conversion and began to take his religious role seriously. Again, impeccable research combined with spellbinding storytelling. It's a huge cast of characters and Penman brings them all to life. Next up: The Devil's Brood, which covers the lives of Henry and Eleanor's children as well as Eleanor and Henry's growing disillusionment with one another.

3. Leave Her to Heaven -Ben Ames Williams- Novel. A bloated and overlong soapy novel from 1944 about a writer who marries a woman with severe issues concerning boundaries. Hollywood improved on the material a couple of years later with a movie of the same name. Watch that instead. It's a noir in Technicolor!  Gene Tierney is beautiful and icy and merciless, stealing the whole film from the rest of the cast until Vincent Price enters and steals it from Tierney, picking splinters of the scenery he's chewed from his teeth as he strides away.

In other news:

Still loving my book group. At the last meeting, we reported on historical fiction we had read. I talked up Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet series. Other books mentioned were Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips, Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, and Sipsworth by Simon van Booy. I promptly put all of them on my TBR. For the next meeting, November 15, we will be discussing nonfiction we have been reading, and thinking up new names for the book group for a fresh reset after declaring independence from the original library program.

I'm really glad that the topic is nonfiction, because I'm doing a Nonfiction November. Here's what's on my nonfiction stack:

1. A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Jeanine Basinger.

2. The Noble Hustle. Colson Whitehead.

3. The Farm. Richard Rhodes.

4. Supercomminicators. Charles Duhigg.

5. Fire Lover. Joseph Wambaugh.

And finally...

Dreaming in Literature: The Weird Philip Roth Dream: 

Philip Roth came back to life and wrote a new novel. My first reaction was anxiety, because in dream-logic, I was compelled to read his book, like it or not. After picking it up and paging through, I felt better because the protagonist was female and the book was stream-of-consciousness like Ducks, Newburyport, and the main character constantly had earworms. At that point, I honestly wanted to read Roth's novel and remember feeling very tender and indulgent towards him.