Looking Back at 2016, By the Books

2016 was the first time in a long time I didn't break 100 books read. I didn't get to many of the buzziest books I heard so many good things about. I didn't read a single one of my Book of the Month books (is that some kind of new record)? I didn't finish a single one of my reading challenges.

And I'm not even a little bit mad about it. Because looking back at this year of reading, there were still some really damn good books. Why I liked them, and links to review where available, are included below:

An Invitation to Learn How to Live: Margaux Bergen's Navigating Life

This review originally ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers. Reprinted here with permission.

Margaux Bergen offers her daughter--and her readers--a collection of heartfelt life advice based on her own experiences.

The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place

Review originally published in Shelf Awareness for Readers. Reprinted here with permission.

In response to the anti-clutter movement, Jennifer McCartney encourages us all to embrace our messy lives and make peace with our stuff.

Jennifer McCartney's The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place is a satirical response to the minimalist movement--most notably, the "KonMari" method touted in 2014's bestselling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. "Break free from the bonds of tidiness," writes McCartney (Cocktails for Drinkers), "and triumph over the boring faces of uniformity and predictability. Every tidy home looks the same... but a messy home, now that's a better way to live." 

Run the World: Becky Wade's 3500-Mile Journey through Running Cultures

Review originally ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers. Reprinted here with permission.

Champion marathoner Becky Wade travels to nine countries to explore running cultures.

In 2012, NCAA All-American star and Olympic hopeful Becky Wade received a Watson Fellowship to travel around the world to explore her passion: running. "Seventy-two beds, eleven pairs of running shoes, and 3,504 training miles later," Wade has since become an elite marathoner, drawing on her experience of cultures in nine countries to perfect her sport. In Run the World, she tells about her travels--and the lessons she learned along the way--in precise detail. 

Neil Gaiman's The View from the Cheap Seats: Fiction and Imagination in the Real World

This review originally ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers. Reprinted here with permission.

Gaiman's works of nonfiction prove just as powerful as his fiction in exploring the lasting place of fiction and imagination in the real world.

Neil Gaiman is most recognized for the power of his imagination, with novels like Coraline, comics like Sandman and television credits like Doctor Who underscoring his ability to dream up impossible worlds and turn them into a reality. His nonfiction is just as compelling (and, perhaps not surprisingly, just as imaginative), as collected in The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfictions.

Looking Ahead: Books to Look for in July

I never got my act together for a "Books to Look for in June" post, so July will just have to suffice. Unfortunately, high summer temps tend to bring about a slowdown in books published, so this month and next are a wee bit light--but that just gives us all the time to catch up on reading before the fall books are upon us in September and October.

Here's what I'm most excited for this month (titles below all link to Indiebound.org):

Looking Back: The Best of June

We're practically a week into July already, so, fine, I'm a bit behind the eight ball getting this post up... but June has come and gone, and with it, a stay in Baltimore for the Baltimore 10-Miler, a trip to Connecticut for my sister-in-law's wedding, a rapid-fire trek down to DC for a two-day conference there, and then a week-long getaway to Greece. It was one of those months where everything was wonderful, but in the whirlwind of go-go-go, I very much lost track of my one little word for the year (savor). I'm hoping to reclaim some of that in July and beyond; onwards and upwards for the second half of the year, right?

With all of the running around, I didn't read nearly as much as I might have liked, but those books I did read are worth sharing (all titles below link to Indiebound.org):

June Releases

Marrow Island, by Alexis Smith: "In Marrow Island, Smith offers a complex story of one woman's life while quietly reflecting on the power of the environment to shape our lives." (More in my review in Shelf Awareness for Readers.)

Chronicle of a Last Summer, by Yasmin El Rashidi: "A nuanced story of one girl's coming of age set against decades of political ferment in Cairo, Egypt." (More in my review in Shelf Awareness for Readers.)

Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry: "Debut novelist Flynn Berry delivers a tightly paced and impressive story of psychological suspense." (More in my review in Shelf Awareness for Readers.)

Week in Reading: July 5th

Happy day-after-July 4th, all ya'll Americans here (and happy Tuesday to any non-Americans...). We had a very fun (if a bit rainy) long weekend, with friends and family and food and not too much reading. But I can at least say that my reading stack has changed since the last time I posted a Week in Reading post (two weeks ago!)...

Social Justice Book Club: The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts Link Up

It's the end of June (already?) which means we're wrapping up the second installment of the Social Justice Book Club. This month we read The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts, and hoooo boy, was it a book. An excellent one, but a heavy one, as author Laura Tillman explores the horrific murder of three young children by their parents and the long-lasting impact the crime has had on the community surrounding them.

Social Justice Book Club: Q&A with Author Laura Tillman

The Social Justice Book Club is a bi-monthly online reading group that reads books focused on social justice issues. For the month of June, we selected The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City, by journalist Laura Tillman. Below, Tillman talks about the book, what it was like to write it, and recommends some other social justice books. Thanks to all who contributed questions this round!

(And don't forget to link up to any discussion or review of the book in the June Social Justice Book Club Link Up post over here.)

In the introduction, you write about the fact that because the victims of this crime were children, and because an explanation was never reached, those impacted found themselves questioning everything they knew about their community. Do you think that is the case with all crimes against children? All crimes that cannot be, somehow, rationally explained?

That's a good question, and one that's hard for me to answer. I would imagine there is some element of disillusionment and confusion whenever a crime against children occurs - it's hard to wrap your mind around how someone could victimize a child, who is innocent and totally vulnerable. I do think that there is a difference, however, in the way a community reckons with distinct events. In the case of Brownsville, many crimes had happened, many involving children. And yet, not all left the same impression as this one. I think the building is partly responsible for the way people continued to mull this crime over, and, in so doing, how it squared with their perceptions of justice and morality.

Looking Back: The Best of May

May came and went in a flash: I volunteered at the end of a 100-mile run, ran a half marathon, went to Book Expo in Chicago, then to a wedding in Minnesota, then to a bachelorette Cape Cod, helped my Mom move out of a house and into a new (smaller) one, and somehow managed to work and sleep a little bit in between. Despite the insanity (which was worse at some times than others), it was ultimately a really good month... though one that made me come to terms with a slowdown in my overall reading. There were still some big highlights this month:

Book Expo: Standouts from Independent (& University) Presses

Though I'll continue to write (in some way) about the books I discovered at Book Expo this year, this will be my last BEA round-up post. And I'm not saying I saved the best for last, but I'm not *not* saying that, either. What follows are the new releases and forthcoming titles from independent publishers and university presses I'm most excited for... and there are some gems, here:

When I asked the staff at Graywolf Press what book they'd be most eager to recommend, they pushed Riverine (August 2016); I don't know if someone working there has ESP or what, but I'm super excited for this memoir of social justice composed of "spellbinding essays on place, young love, a life-altering crime." Other stand outs at the booth included The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood (September 2016) and Grief is the Thing With Feathers: A Novel (June 2016), which Shannon practically shoved into my hands (thanks, Shannon!).

Book Expo: Rounding Up Nonfiction

I've included a few non-fiction titles in my previous two Book Expo posts (on the buzziest books at the show, and new books from 'old' authors), but there were so many incredible-looking non-fiction books on the floor that I wanted to call special attention to a few that stood out to me.

Book Expo America: New Books from Old Authors

Last week, I wrote about the buzziest books at Book Expo America. Some of those overlap with this collection of new books from old (as in "previously published") authors I can't wait to get to.

There were only a few books I had on my absolutely-must-pick-up-at-Book-Expo list (I wasn't flying straight from Chicago home, so I limited the number of books I picked up to an extreme few and focused instead on discovering new titles to request later on down the road). One of these was the new Maria Semple book, Today Will Be Different (Little, Brown, October 2016); I was a huge fan of Where'd You Go Bernadette, so will naturally leap at the opportunity to read more of Semple's dry humor. I also adored Amor Towle's debut, Rules of Civility, so have been over here petting his new novel, A Gentleman in Moscow (Viking, September 2016); when I got my copy of this one signed by Towles, he told me he thinks this second novel is better than his first. Yes, please.

Tons of reviewers I know and trust lined up for the new George Saunders novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, January 2017). I'm only just getting to my first of Saunders' work (The Tenth of December), but based on what I've read so far, I know I'm going to want to read this new novel too. Jennifer Close also has a new novel out (The Hopefuls, Knopf, July 2016), as does Jonathan Safran Foer (Here I Am, FSG, September 2016). This marks his first novel since 2005, and first new book since 2010. I'm also squealing with delight for Colson Whitehead's newest book, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, September 2016)--not least of which because Liberty says it's "omgsogood". So there's that.

I've loved everything Mary Roach has ever written (and yes, I've read all her books), so I nearly jumped for joy when I had the chance to catch up with the lovely Norton folks about Roach's newest scientific study, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (Norton, June 2016). I'm told this is much more about how to keep humans alive and intact during war (versus all of the research that goes into how best to kill), which is just the kind of military science I'd like to know exists. Continuing the non-fiction bent, Rebecca Solnit is releasing a follow-up to her feminist work, Men Explain Things to Me, next year: Silence Is Broken (Haymarket, March 2017).

Oh hey, and ya'll knew there was a new Tearling novel out in November, right?? (The Fate of the Tearling, Harper, November 2016).

---

What much-loved authors are you most excited to see new books from this year?

---

Two more BEA round-ups to follow this week and next: a spotlight on indie & university presses, and a round-up of the incredibly varied and fascinating non-fiction on the floor. Say hello to some new reading options, Social Justice Book Club.

Week in Reading: May 23rd

I'm home! After a whirlwind few weeks (I haven't spent more than 3 nights in my own house without traveling or hosting guests since April 5th... not that I counted or anything), I have a few weeks at home to catch up on laundry, sleep, and hopefully some serious reading. I'm looking at BEA galleys and summer reads and all of my own damn books and just so excited to curl up in my nook with a book. Here's what I'll be focusing on this week:

I've had George Saunders' story collection, The Tenth of December on my shelf since the month it came out, and I am *finally* reading it! (Thanks, MLDBC and #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks.) So far, I'm loving the strange humanity of the stories. Can't wait to keep going with that. I'm also finishing up Just Mercy, which I fell woefully behind it but am absolutely loving as well--and I'll be done just in time for the next round of the Social Justice Book Club in June (come join us!).

My audio copy of Mr. Splitfoot from the library was due back and had holds, so I'm finishing that up as an ebook this week, and have switched to the very creepy, surprisingly humorous, so far excellent Haunting of Hill House, which I'm counting as a horror read for the Read Harder challenge. I've been meaning to read Shirley Jackson for some time, so am glad to be getting to this one as well.

Looking ahead to summer releases, I'm eying Running the World, a July book about running cultures around the world, and On Trails, a non-fiction book exploring how trails help us understand the world in which we live.

---

What are you reading this week?

---

Don't forget to join us for the second round of the Social Justice Book Club! We'll be reading The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts. Sign-ups here, more info to come this week...

Looking Ahead: April Books I Can't Wait to Read

Spring publishing season is sneaking up on me more quickly than I like to admit... and though the influx of shiny new titles will be even larger next month, as everyone gears up for the infamous Summer Reading Season, there's no shortage of books calling my name this month:

Looking Back: March Books

April kind of snuck up on me (what else is new), so this post is a little bit later than intended. But c'est la vie and all that. March felt like a jumble, but in reflecting on it, it was a decent month for reading--especially as it came to Reading My Own Damn Books:

Book Review: Running: A Love Story, by Jen A. Miller

I didn't realize it until halfway through the book, but the title of Running: A Love Story is a bit of a play on words. On its surface, the book is the story of Jen A. Miller's love affair with distance running: how she came to the sport; her experience running her first 10-miler, then half-marathon, then full; her struggles with body image and how running changed and defined that image. But it's also the story of Miller's love interests, her tangled relationships with men through her young adulthood and the way those relationships changed her relationship with running--for better or for worse.

Week in Reading: March 21st

Heyo, wouldja look at that, I'm still here! Mostly. Work's been busy, and I've been spending my limited free time trying to read all the things. Which has meant limited brain power and/or spare time to write any things. C'est la vie.

Luckily, there have been some goooood books keeping me occupied of late.

Week in Reading: March 7th

*fingers crossed as I type this* but I think I've finally broken my reading slump. At least a bit.

I powered through all of The First Book of Calamity Leek, a debut novel from Paula Lichtarowicz, this weekend--it's a strange, weird, confusing, wonderful story that somehow manages to combine showtunes, Readers Digest, a Garden, creation myths, "demonmales," and some disturbing ideas of the world into one compelling read. Stay tuned for a full review (but in the meantime, I will say that this was the perfect book to kick off the Weirdathon). I took a week-long break from Alexander Hamilton to devour Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, the forthcoming history book from Nathaniel Philbrick. It's been an excellent exploration of how seemingly trifling events--and/or individual personalities--can shape history.

I'm also really enjoying the last hour or so of Wild, Cheryl Strayed's memoir, on audio.

With those (mostly) behind me, I'm looking forward to picking up This Side of Providence this week (on sale in April) and focusing on some more weird picks for Weirdathon: The Vanishers, perhaps, or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

---

What are you reading this week?