Yellow Wallpaper

 I read 61 books in 2022; 44 were by women, 15 were by men, and 2 had multiple authors of multiple genders. 11 were nonfiction, 2 were poetry, and 48 were fiction. This year I also read 4 books in Spanish and 3 books that were translated in English from other languages.  Although I don't think I want to set some reading goals or take on a particular reading challenge, next year I would like to read more works in translation and more books of poetry. I'd also like to get back into reading more Mormon nonfiction books since I haven't done that as much during the last few years. In no particular order, here are my favorite books from this year: Fiction:  Seven Days in June by Tia Williams The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb Picnic in the Ruins by Todd Robert Petersen Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab Eleusis by R. de la Lanza True Biz by Sara Novic The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd Sea of Tranquility by E...

Vanishing Edge by Claire Kells I think this is the first book in a new mystery series, and I plan on reading at least the next one. I did not figure the mystery out until the very end and I had a great time reading this book. The pacing is good, the protagonist is relatable, and it almost convinced me to do more hiking and camping because of the descriptions of the setting. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee This book was a little dense and slow to read, but filled with a bunch of interesting insights that helped me see things in a new way. It connected well with other books I've read recently about history and racism. The author's arguments are compelling and well-supported by the data and I recommend giving it a read. 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard I guess that after two years of COVID pandemic it's not surprising that there will now be novels using it as a plot device. This one jumped around quite a bit betwee...

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this blog, and perhaps anyone who used to is wondering if it has finally died (like most blogs I used to read). 2021 was a momentous year that blew up my life completely and I'm still trying to put everything back together and figure out new routines and things. In the fall of 2020 I started a new position at work and the kids went back to school on a weird schedule because of the pandemic--and I thought that would be it as far as disruptions went. Then the year went on and Covid quarantines and protocols kept disrupting things. And we had a house fire in May that destroyed Little Dude's bedroom and caused enough damage that we couldn't live there for two months while they removed everything from the house, cleaned it, and moved it back in. I am enjoying the new paint on the walls, but I'm still sad that my good carpet got replaced with an inferior product. And then in the fall S-Boogie moved away to college and the other two ...

  El corazon con que vivo by Jose Maria Perez This book took me a while to read because it was a little slow and meandering. Based on the description of the plot, it sounded like there would be more action and a clearer narrative arc. This was an interesting look at the Spanish Civil War and a good way to practice my reading, but it wasn't the best book I've read this year. The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt This book was recommended by a friend, and although I was skeptical about the premise I decided to give it a chance. I worried that it would have a particular ideological slant and would be biased against university education or students. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I found myself agreeing with a lot of it and have recommended it to others multiple times since then. Their arguments about the nature of some of the problems in education and society are compelling and fit in with other things I've been reading lately. The ...

 Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum This is the book I can't stop talking to people about, even two months after reading it. It's fairly short and yet still packed with all kinds of interesting insights. It tied together threads from several books I had read last year about history, media, and race relations. I highly recommend that everyone I know reads this book. The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein Wein is so good at creating complex and unique characters that are also believable people I would love to spend to with. She also does a wonderful job creating an optimistic tone throughout the book, despite the rather awful things that were happening to everyone. This was a great book to read right now when I could use some realistic hope. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia About halfway through this book I remembered that I actually don't like horror fiction. All the positive reviews I had read of this convinced me to read it,...

 In 2020 I read 122 books; that's 12 more books than I read in 2019 ( see this post ). I set a goal to read one book of poetry a month, and the 11 I did read just about made up the difference (although I counted the March trilogy as one thing, so I guess I could say I really read 124 individual books). I read 27 books by men, 92 books by women, and 3 books with mixed authorship. There were a few more books with multiple authors, but if the authors were the same gender, I counted them with that gender.  I read 78 books of fiction, 33 nonfiction, and 11 poetry collections. The breakdown between fiction and nonfiction has remained pretty consistent for the last thirteen years that I've been keeping track of my reading. So has the breakdown between male and female authors. As I was counting up my totals, I started to feel a bit worried about the fact that I always read more fiction and always read more books by women. But why should I worry if I know what I like? I can still supp...

Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe I had read one of Monroe's pieces before this book (I believe she did expand it), and had vaguely heard of the other three stories she tells. This book reflects on why she is interested in reading about crime, and why other women might be too (and why some women commit crimes). There were a lot of interesting tidbits scattered throughout the book that lead me to reflect on both the stories we tell and the stories we consume. Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella Kinsella's books have been inconsistent for me; sometimes they are really fun and tell great stories, and sometimes they just don't work. This book had a great premise that didn't ever pan out. The main character was supposed to be cute and fun. Instead, she's pretty annoying and never changes much. The book is meant to show that both she and her love interest need to change in order to be more compatible, but it seems to favor...

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart I thought I would love this book more than I did, since it's both a mystery and historical fiction (and features two female characters as the protagonists). The plot was well-paced and I was surprised at the end, but the book was still slow-going and a little boring. The ending seemed to set up a sequel, or perhaps the start of a series, with the same characters. If that does happen, I will probably read it, but I won't be waiting anxiously for it to arrive. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center This was a nice little romance for a quiet Saturday afternoon. I don't know much about the world of firefighting and I learned a lot about it, plus I felt like both the leads were realistically drawn and fit together well. My main quibble with the book is that it uses unresolved major trauma as the underlying base for the main character's 'quirks', and that trauma is easily resolved by falling in love with the right pe...

After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America by Jessica Goudeau If you are looking for a book that will change your heart and mind, this is a good one to try. The author intersperses a history of refugee policy in the United States with the personal stories of two refugee families. The families came from very different circumstances, and those as well as the timing of their arrival in the US affected how they were received and how they have been able to adjust to life in a new country. I learned so much about the intricacies of refugee assistance, as well as the enormous difficulties faced by refugees around the world. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade I had high hopes for this book based on the number of positive reviews I had read about it. However, reading it was a bit of a let-down. First of all, I've never really read any fan fiction and don't know much about that world, so I felt like the interspersed fan fiction interludes detracted from my enjoyme...

The Last Flight by Julie Clark This is one of the few thrillers I've read that isn't about murder and gore. It also focuses on two women, both of whom are smart and capable. The suspense in the book comes from watching them figure out how to save themselves, and I spent the whole book not knowing what happened next. If you want an exciting mystery that won't creep you out too much, this is a good one. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond This book will make you both sad and angry--which is what it should do. I was vaguely aware of the problem of affordable, stable housing, but until I read this book I didn't know the great difficulties that some people face when trying to find (and keep) a decent place to live. I also learned a lot about the intersection between stability in housing and poverty, and admit that I am privileged enough to be shocked and the relatively small amounts of money that impact people's ability to successfully m...

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson It's a little weird to read a book about a time of national crisis in which the outcome was very uncertain during another time in which the future is still quite murky. Although I've read a lot about World War II, I haven't read much about Churchill and didn't know a lot about him. I also didn't know a lot about the political intrigues and complicated maneuverings that took place during the early part of the war in Britain. Larson's writing is easy to read and this book ended up being much harder to put down than I had anticipated. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson Although I've heard praise for her writing for years, I'd never gotten around to reading anything by Woodson. This book is fairly short and the writing is spare, but she packs in a lot of meaty content to each chapter and somehow creates a compelling multi-generational saga in only two-hu...